Oil heir Andrew Getty found dead in Los Angeles mansion with ‘traumatic rectal injury’

ANDREW Getty, the grandson of oil tycoon J Paul Getty, has been found dead in the bathroom of his mansion in Hollywood Hills.

Los Angeles Police Department were called to the home of 47-year-old Getty around 2pm after receiving a call from one of his former girlfriends, sources told TMZ.

Getty was reportedly found naked from the waist down with “a traumatic injury to the rectal area” with a lot of blood in the bathroom.

“The tentative information that we do have is that he was not feeling good for the last couple months,” said Ed Winter, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County coroner’s office, “and he supposedly had an appointment tomorrow with a personal physician.”

Prescription medication was removed from the mansion and Getty had not been feeling well in recent months, Winter said. A physician’s appointment was scheduled for Wednesday.

Getty’s former girlfriend has been detained as a person of interest because the death is “undetermined,” CBS Los Angeles reported.

Getty’s parent’s Ann and Gordon Getty confirmed his death late Tuesday night in a statement issued through a family spokesman.

“The family has requested that members of the media and the public respect its privacy during this extremely difficult time,” the family spokesman said in the statement.

LAPD Commander Andrew Smith, a department spokesman, cautioned it was still “very, very early in the investigation” but said that based on initial observations, “this does not appear immediately to be a criminal act.”

Coroner’s staff and investigators remained on scene late Tuesday, waiting for a search warrant that would allow detectives to enter the home and look for any evidence.

Andrew Getty, whose father is said to be one of the richest men in the US with Forbes estimating the family worth $5 billion, reportedly took out a restraining order against his former girlfriend a fortnight ago.

It is also reported Getty and the former girlfriend have a history of domestic violence.

The LAPD have reportedly been called to the home more than 30 times in the past, mostly for domestic disturbances.

 

Sick? The LA County Coroner's office says Getty had not been feeling well for months and had a doctor's appointment scheduled for the following day. Pictured above in a photo posted to Facebook, taken in 1991

Former girlfriend detained ... A Los Angeles County Coroner van arrives at the mansion of oil heir Andrew Getty. Picture: AP / Ringo H.W. Chiu Source: AP

Getty’s former girlfriend was placed under psychiatric hold for attacking a police officer on one of the calls, and has reportedly broken into his home several times.

Getty’s grandfather J. Paul Getty was an industrialist who founded the Getty Oil Co. and was at one point named the richest living American by Fortune magazine. He had five sons from five marriages and died in 1976 at age 82.

J. Paul Getty was an avid collector of art and antiquities, and the Getty name is best known in the Los Angeles area for the museum that houses much of it, along with many other high-priced artworks bought since his death.

Another Getty grandson, J. Paul Getty III, died in 2011 at age 54 after losing an ear in a grisly kidnapping in Rome when he was a teenager. The family reportedly stalled on paying a ransom, and the kidnappers cut off part of his ear, sending the severed organ to a newspaper to prove they had taken him captive.

The oil heir, then 16, was freed after five months in captivity and a payment of $2.7 million.

Rich family ... Gordon Getty with his son Andrew after the memorial services for J. Paul Getty in Los Angeles on June 10, 1976. Picture: AP Source: AP

In 1986, Gordon Getty (Andrew’s father), sold the family company to US oil retailer Texaco for $10 billion.

Andrew Getty is the second of four sons 81-year-old Gordon Getty had with wife Ann Gilbert. Fifteen years ago, Gordon Getty made headlines when it was revealed he had been keeping a secret family with girlfriend Cynthia Beck, fathering three daughters now aged 23, 25 and 29.

Found in bathroom ... Andrew Getty's $3.8 million mansion in the Hollywood Hills. Picture: Google Earth Source: News Corp Australia

Andrew purchased his 70-year-old home in the Hollywood Hills in 1996 following the death of previous owner Miklos Rozsa, a three-time Academy Award-winning film composer known for his work on Ben Hur.

The home is worth an estimated $3.8 million.