October 21

If you are thinking about a career path that involves working in a mailroom you’ll do well to consider the following. On July 10, 1973, John Paul Getty III, scion of the Getty family was kidnapped and held for ransom. Getty’s father balked at paying the $17 million dollar ransom that was demanded. On the 21st of October, the kidnappers cut off young Getty’s ear and mailed it to a Rome newspaper with a note indicating that were the ransom not paid within ten days, the scamp would be returned to his family in pieces. The package containing the ear did not arrive at the paper’s mailroom until November 8. I wonder what the yuck factor was for the lucky person who opened that package. Ultimately, Getty’s dad got the kidnapper down to $2 million and his son was recovered alive. I guess that puts the value of an ear at roughly $15 million, so think about that the next time you get a free ear piercing folks.