Sonja Blue's DNA Part 4

The last major 'donors' to the creative DNA that resulted in Sonja Blue are millionaire socialite & kidnapping victims Patty Hearst and John Paul Getty III. The stories of these two scions of America's super-class--only slightly older than myself--who were snatched off the street and subjected to torture, rape and mutilation, before being returned to their families forever changed--had a deep impact on me at the time (1973-1974). The fact Getty's family refused to negotiate for his release until the kidnappers sent them his ear was particularly shocking, as it was the first time I realized that some families place more value on their money than their children. Even more disgusting/shocking was how the boy's grandfather, billionaire J. Paul Getty, shunned him following his release and blamed him for what happened. Its not too hard to see the paralells between the real-life Hearst famiily & Getty clan, and Denise Thorne's family in Sunglasses After Dark.

 While Patty Hearst has seemed to be able to put the horror of what was done to her by the Symbionese Liberation Army behind her, Getty III was swallowed alive by his own version of The Other, spending the rest of his life as an alcoholic junkie. He was paralyzed and partially blinded by a stroke in 1981 after ingesting a cocktail of drugs.He died in 2011 at the age of 54.

Patty Hearst circa 1974

                              John Paul Getty III circa 1973    

Patty Hearst circa 2008                                         John Paul Getty III prior to his death in 2011