Greek billionaire Aristotle Onassis. How the family ship sank

Onassis and Others In March 1970, the Parisian newspaper Le Monde published a correspondence from Athens with a rather catchy headline: "Onassis has won the battle of the billionaires." As it turned out later, the battle was between Aristotle Onassis and his competitor, also a Greek shipowner,

Maria Callas and Aristotle Onassis He broke her heart, and he calmly and happily continued to live on. He was not tormented by conscience when she was dying all alone. He is the Greek billionaire Aristotle Onassis, and she is the greatest opera singer Maria Anna Sophia

Aristotle Onassis was born in 1906 in the Turkish city of Izmir (according to legend, the great Homer was born in it) in the family of a businessman Socratos Onassis. Mother died early, and father married a second time. The stepson hated his stepmother, but endured. However, Ari (as his relatives called him) squandered his “ardor” in numerous love affairs. At the age of 12, he was seduced by a French teacher. As a student, he turned out to be capable and after a few lessons he himself could give lessons in “French love”. - What a disgrace, Ari! What are you doing here?! - the menacing cry of the stepmother, who suddenly descended into the basement of their house, pulled the teenager out of the arms of a young washerwoman. In the evening, Aristotle also inherited from his father, but he was more concerned about the choice of a partner by his son: "Never get involved with those who can ruin your reputation." But the son did not immediately heed the advice. In 1914, Greek pogroms began in Turkey, Sokratos was imprisoned. The son, with the help of bribes and the "necessary" people, rescued him from imprisonment. The young man dreamed of getting rich, but this could only be done overseas. But in order to leave for the States, one had to stand in line for a visa for several years. Aristotle turned 16, he had no time to wait, and he went to South America. In September, Ari set foot on the noisy and cheerful coast of Buenos Aires. In his hands, the prudent young man held a small suitcase with excellent Turkish tobacco. But Onassis did not have to do business right away. At first, I had to be content with a modest job as a clerk at the telephone exchange of the English company British United River. At work, he was busy in the evenings and at night, the next day he slept before dinner, and in the afternoon he joined the art of commerce. Who knows how long this process of “initiation” would have lasted if the future billionaire had not at his disposal such a hot commodity ... as other people's secrets. Their enterprising Ari fished out, or rather, listened to while on duty at the switchboard. Apparently, he found good buyers, because very soon he had at his disposal a hefty capital of several thousand dollars. Once he managed to be useful to Senor Juan Gaon, the head of the largest tobacco company. He gave him a recommendation, and the first small order followed. This is where the suitcase comes in handy. In Argentina, they were not familiar with oriental varieties of tobacco, and the goods from Turkey came to their taste ... Since then, everything went like clockwork - on Caple Viamonte Street, 332, in one of the central districts of the capital, a sign appeared: "Importer of Oriental Tobacco". But just in case, in order to insure against the vicissitudes of fate, Ari did not leave his place in the telephone company for quite a long time, continuing to alternately trade in tobacco and other people's secrets. In 1924, he met Costa Gratsos, who remained his faithful friend for life, sometimes, however, stunned watching the outrages perpetrated by the “upstart Ari”, who was guided by the principle: only what “benefits me” matters. Gratsos was the offspring of an old Greek family, and therefore graduated from the London School of Economics. Friendship with him brought Onassis many useful acquaintances. Aristotle began to use only other people's money in transactions. And thanks to perseverance, determination and inheritance, by 1932 Aristotle Onassis already had 600 thousand dollars. In 1934 he met Ingeborg Dedichen, the beautiful, intelligent daughter of the late owner of a Norwegian shipping company. And then Onassis used his old trick: he hypnotized her until she drove her swim coach away and allowed Ari to teach her. Passionate started love story, and Onassis opened the door to the world of international shipping companies. Inga Dedichen Onassis called "mamita". She nicknamed him "Mommy". After the breakup, she willingly told everyone about her sexual experience with him. “None of my husbands had skin that was as much fun to stroke as his. We were drowning in our desires." Ari, she reminisced happily, liked her legs, which he found soft and tender, like a baby's bottom. He liked kissing and found funny jokes that adults usually tell children. Inga mostly lived in Paris, where she once tried what kind of skin a Dutch conductor had. Onassis, having learned about this, was indignant, although he himself never led a puritanical lifestyle. This relationship, quite long, did not lead to marriage. When Ari beat her for the first time, she still admired his professional blows that did not leave a single bruise on her body. But soon it became a habit for him, and the blows became less professional. Once he gave Inga such a bruise under his eye that the doctor suggested that the woman bring her husband to justice. At that time, Onassis hastened to cure his girlfriend. Violence gave him sexual pleasure, he confessed to Inge, noting that the Greeks had it in their blood. “He who hits well,” he used to say, “loves well.” In 1946, Onassis married in New York a Greek woman, Atina Livanos, whom everyone called simply Tina. Marrying Tina was for Onassis a brilliant chess move. She was intelligent, educated, well-bred, comes from a noble Greek family, young and knew the world. Ari, before asking her father for her hand, first of all attracted his daughter to his side. However, he was still not allowed to marry a 16-year-old girl, citing the fact that her older sister, Evgenia, had not yet married. But a year later, the persistent Onassis achieved his goal. Even before Onassis began to beat Tina, before going to bed with her, young girl gave the 46-year-old fiancé a cold and realistic assessment: "A real savage who just got a decent look." But she, too, was deeply in love with him. “Eros, the god of love, participated in this game,” she later said. Tina was captured by his charm and passion ... Second World War brought good luck to Onassis, but his pride suffered from the fact that he was only engaged in the transportation of oil, but not in its extraction. Business took too much of his time, and soon Tina almost stopped seeing her husband. Of course, the young woman took a lover, especially since she was sure that Aristotle was unfaithful to her, and it was only a stretch to call their family life, although they had a son, Alexander, and a daughter, Christina.
Since 1954, the life of the Onassis has moved to the luxurious yacht Christina. Curiously, the stools at the bar were covered in whale foreskin: "Madame, you're just sitting on the world's largest penis." Of course, there was also a swimming pool on the yacht, which, after draining the water, was used as a dance floor. Actor Richard Burton once said, "I don't think there's a single man or woman on earth who hasn't succumbed to the temptation of the shameless narcissism this ship radiates." To which Onassis replied: "I made sure that this is how it was." ... In early June 1959, the Onassis couple went to Venice for the annual ball given by Countess Costelbarco. Tina Onassis, dressed in a stunning dress with a cascade of diamonds, rubies and emeralds, was admired by everyone. But Aristotle did not take his eyes off the guest of honor - the opera star Maria Callas. He did not want to miss the booty and invited Callas and her husband Giovanni Menegini on a Mediterranean cruise on the Christina. ...Aristotle Onassis bent over Maria Callas. She looked at him and laughed, while her husband bit his lips. Threesome love? Not at all. Just an ordinary boat trip in the Mediterranean. And yet Battisto Menegnini, the husband of the great singer Callas, a millionaire from Verona, seemed to himself an incredible fool. When he fell in love with a portly, ambitious Greek woman (she then weighed 105 kg), he abandoned all factories, married her and devoted himself entirely to the career of a young wife. Marriage benefited the singer. Maria was transformed into a charming creature weighing 55 kilograms. When the singer experienced one disappointment after another at the beginning of her career, he believed in her, loved her, helped her and led all her contracts. However, he was a miser, who was reproached for the fact that, before releasing Maria on stage, he counted her fee in the dressing room. Tina Levanos and Maria Callas. During a reception on a yacht, Tina Onassis was seriously worried. Aristotle busied himself only around Callas, although Winston Churchill himself was among his guests.
“He never talked about the others, but he keeps talking about her all the time,” Tina remarked nervously. For the first time, Onassis met Callas in September 1957 in Venice at a ball in honor of the birthday of journalist Elsa Maxwell. But their love broke out only in the spring of 1959 at the second ball in Venice. They danced for a long time, hugging each other, and Tina Onassis could not believe her ears when her husband announced that he would go to London to the Callas concert. It was after this concert that he invited her and her husband to his yacht.
The Christina anchored at Mount Athos. The next day, Patriarch Atenagoras visited her. Mary and Aristotle knelt before him on the deck. The patriarch blessed them. Menegnini had the uneasy feeling that he was present at a marriage ceremony. In the following days, Callas returned to her cabin only at dawn. Menegnini still hoped that everything would fall into place in Milan. The couple once again went to Sirmione to their house on Lake Garda, where the singer told her husband that she no longer wanted to live with him. In early September, all the secret became clear. The press made a sensation out of this, but Aristotle tried to muffle it. “We are just friends,” he told reporters in Venice. By phone, he conjured Tina to come with the children to him from New York and not start divorce proceedings. At the same time, he continued to date Callas. At the end of November 1959, Tina filed for divorce in the United States. A year and a half later, she married an English lord. Meanwhile, Callas and Onassis were already openly appearing in society. She planned her performances in accordance with his business schedule, watched her weight, followed a strict diet, got a new hairstyle. But Callas and Onassis quarreled almost constantly. He tore off his mood on her and treated her so badly that even his friends were ashamed of it. “Shut up, you nightclub singer,” he told her. Maria endured everything, because she lost her head from love, dreamed of a normal family life. In 1964 they spent a wonderful summer on Scorpio Island. But a year earlier, Jackie Kennedy and her sister Lee Radziwill, whom Ari became interested in, were invited to the Christina yacht. Jackie received expensive gifts from Onassis and left for the White House. Lee Radziwill was offended by the fact that Jackie Onassis gave more expensive gifts than her. In 1965, during a summer vacation, Aristotle began to treat Callas worse than ever. There was no question of any marriage. In 1968, Maria Callas learned from the newspapers that Aristotle Onassis had married the widow of US President Jacqueline Kennedy. This happened after the assassination of John F. Kennedy's brother, Robert Kennedy. Jacqueline Kennedy felt extremely alone and unprotected in this world. She constantly feared for the children. One day she got hysterical. Jackie screamed that she hated this country of murderers, that she wanted to take her children away from here. After Robert Kennedy's funeral, Jacqueline called Aristotle Onassis and invited him and her daughter for a weekend with her mother's family. He arrived, but Jacqueline's mother, Mrs. Auchincloss, received him very unkindly. However, Onassis soon sent Jackie and her mother a letter of gratitude, and then all summer he visited the president's widow in Hyannis Port, made friends with the children and met the Kennedy family.
Aristotle visited Jackie more and more often in New York at her apartment, sometimes they dined together in restaurants. The press did not pay attention to this, since Onassis liked to be in the company of celebrities. But Jackie felt safe with this man, who had great vitality. She liked that he was attentive to her, she was struck by his unusual generosity. With Onassis, she spoke openly about her failed family life, about the death of a child, and about the horror she experienced during the murder of her husband. She was worried about the fate of the children, for her son, who grew up without a father. Aristotle Onassis listened to her with sympathy, he understood how lonely she was, how she wanted to get married again. Convinced that only Onassis could give her the happiness and peace that she and her children needed, Jacqueline decided to marry him as soon as possible. She often invited a Greek to her family. for the kids to get used to it. But Onassis had problems with his own children. Christina and Alexander adored their mother and did not want to see another woman next to their father. In addition, the entire Kennedy family was opposed to the marriage of Jacqueline and Onassis. Jacqueline hastened the wedding. The message about the second marriage of the widow of John F. Kennedy appeared in the pages of newspapers around the world. “John Kennedy died a second time” is one of the headlines. Few Americans understood Jackie and forgave her act. The wedding took place on October 20, 1968 in a small chapel of Our Lady on the Greek island of Scorpio. Holding the hand of her 10-year-old daughter, Jackie entered the chapel wearing a long-sleeved beige dress. Braided and styled, her long brown hair was tied with a beige ribbon. Although she was wearing beige low-heeled shoes, Jackie still towered over her 62-year-old stocky fiancé, dressed in a blue baggy suit with a double-breasted jacket and a white shirt with a red tie. Only twenty-two guests were invited to the wedding ceremony - the closest relatives and business partners. Numerous armed guards held back the crowd of journalists and photographers. Photographers were allowed to take some pictures after the wedding ceremony, which went around the world. A smiling bride holds her fiance by the arm, whose children are so sad, as if they were attending a funeral. However, the children of Jackie and the murdered president also sadly lowered their heads. The gala dinner was held on the yacht "Christina", the contents of which exceeded one million dollars a year. Despite the fact that Jackie's mother was stunned by the luxury of the yacht, whose owner had a fortune of $ 500 million, Mrs. Auchincloss was unhappy with her daughter's choice. When Jackie showed up at the dinner, everyone noticed that the finger that had worn John F. Kennedy's engagement ring throughout her widowhood was now wearing a ruby ​​ring the size of a hen's egg, studded with diamonds. Her earrings also glowed with heart-shaped rubies, framed by diamonds.
Touching toasts were uttered at the table, the eyes of the guests were constantly wet. Aristotle and Jackie were happy, holding hands and smiling enigmatically. The next day, the guests, gifted with magnificent gifts, left the Christina. Onassis flew off for business negotiations, Jackie's children returned to the States. Jacqueline Onassis took care of her future home, calling the best designer Bill Baldwin from the USA, who was horrified by the bad taste that reigned on the famous yacht.
Newspapers continued to write about the wedding of two celebrities. People who had admired the president's widow for five years turned away from her in an instant because she married a man of a different faith and culture. By becoming the wife of an international pirate who had completed only six years of high school, she destroyed the myth about herself. The emphasis was on Onassis's money and Jackie's love for them.
The press directly stated that out of vanity, a rich Greek bought himself the most famous woman in the world.
Indeed, Jacqueline no longer thought about money. The bills were sent directly to Onassis's office, where they were paid by the magnate himself, who was happy to please his wife. He organized her holidays - travels and cruises around the world in cabins, where there was always enough champagne, fruits and flowers. He invited crowds of celebrities to entertain her. Jacqueline rode in Rolls-Royces, she was guarded by bodyguards, she had private jets. However, she could not protect herself from fate. Having married Jacqueline Kennedy, Aristotle did not forget Maria Callas. In May 1970, he visited the singer in Paris and, sitting next to her, put his hand on her thigh. “How nice to feel Maria's fat thigh again! - he said. “Jackie is just skin and bones.” And he continued to meet regularly with opera diva, at first only in the intimate setting of her Parisian apartment, and later in restaurants and nightclubs. Kallas was smart, insightful and sexy, besides she was Greek. Secretive by nature, Onassis trusted few people, but Maria proved to him that she could be trusted. Unlike Jackie, she was interested in his affairs, admired his grandiose success in business. Jacqueline now and then made flights from Europe to America and back. On holidays, she brought children to Greece, then returned with them to New York, while Onassis was engaged in strengthening his empire. So they lived throughout the marriage, which was quite acceptable for Jackie. She had fun, wore expensive jewelry, afforded skinny jeans, T-shirts without a bra and frivolous hats. Her wardrobe, however, was filled with dresses from Valentino, furs from Maximilian and jewelry from Zolotas. She was the most refined lady in the world, while Aristotle's appearance and style were only laughed at. Onassis rushed between Jackie and Maria, nowhere finding enough warmth and understanding. The grown children began to surprise him. Spoiled, brought up in luxury, they were surrounded by celebrities. Money rained down on them, but they were more likely to suffer from wealth than to be happy. Aristotle Onassis never had enough time for children. At twenty, Christina secretly married a 48-year-old Jewish real estate salesman, Bolker, who already had four adult children. Onassis was furious, disinherited his daughter and forced his son-in-law to start divorce proceedings a year later. Son Alexander also brought grief to his father by having an affair with a woman twice his age, a divorced baroness with two children, Fiona Thyssen. However, Aristotle Onassis became close to his son when he began to discuss business matters with him. It was to Alexander that he confessed that he considered marriage to Jackie pointless and was going to divorce her. But it was at this moment, when the son and father began to find mutual language Alexander died in a plane crash. Onassis blamed himself for the death of his son. From that moment on, he became obsessed with his grief and began to quickly fail. Jackie continued to have fun. Aristotle was comforted by Maria Callas. Having lost his son, Aristotle Onassis involuntarily began to introduce his daughter Christina into business management. But she was in a deep depression after the death of her brother, and then her mother also died. Christina with her husband and little Athena. Onassis did not even attend the funeral of his ex-wife, the mother of his children. He felt like a tired, old man and began to think about death. He no longer tried to pretend that his family life was going well, and almost did not appear with Jackie in public. She lived her life in a New York apartment on Fifth Avenue; he lived in the Pierre Hotel in Paris. Secretly from his wife, Onassis was preparing for a divorce. He hired a private detective to keep an eye on Jackie, hoping to save on divorce costs if he could convict his wife of infidelity. In addition, he tried to win over the press, complaining to journalists about his wife's extravagance. Jackie Onassis was having fun in New York when her husband came down with severe stomach pains. Arriving in Greece, Jackie supported the doctors who advised to hospitalize Aristotle Onassis. He was placed in an American hospital near Paris. Five weeks Onassis was in a semi-conscious state. He had an operation. His sisters and daughter kept watch over him, depriving his wife of her sacred duty. Jackie did not insist: she spent time with friends, walked around Paris, bought clothes, visited hairdressers. When Onassis got better, Jackie flew to New York for the weekend. But, after calling the hospital on Monday and learning that her husband's condition was not deteriorating, she stayed in the US for the whole week. Onassis was given a fatal diagnosis - an immune disease, due to which he had to attach his eyelids to his forehead with tape. And then the Greek government made a firm decision to take what was left of Olimpic Airways. This blow, inflicted on his pride, was the last. On March 15, 1975, at the age of 69, Aristotle Onassis died. He left behind a huge fortune - according to various estimates, it totaled from 3 to 5 billion dollars. In recent years, Onassis was earning over $200,000 a day. Jackie did not cry at the funeral and did not even sigh for her husband. Two years later, Maria Callas died, who had recently lived alone and closed, refusing all invitations. Eighteen months after the death of her husband, the widow of Aristotle Onassis, the former widow of John F. Kennedy, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, received $ 26 million from her stepdaughter Christina, provided she completely cut all ties with the Onassis family. In November 1988, Christina Onassis died under mysterious circumstances at her friend's villa near Buenos Aires. And her very young daughter Athena became the heiress of a fabulous fortune. 21 years ago, on November 19, 1988, the last of the Onassis family, Athena Roussel, the granddaughter of Aristotle, inherited her grandfather's entire empire. Since then, the best grooms in the world dreamed of only one thing: that the girl turned 18 as soon as possible and she came into possession of 14 billion dollars. ... Athena from the first days of her life got used to luxury. Her dolls were dressed in Christian Dior dresses, Christmas gifts for the young lady looked like exhibits from the Kremlin's Diamond Fund. For example, a rocking horse, decorated with rubies, diamonds and emeralds, once presented to a baby, cost 700 thousand dollars. The girl does not go anywhere without a guard armed to the teeth. And for good reason: the young billionaire was assassinated at least seven times. The father took his daughter to live in Switzerland. Since then, she has been living in his new family with her stepmother and three half-siblings. Onassis's granddaughter admitted that when she gets her grandfather's billions, she will immediately donate them to charity, and leave herself a mere trifle - forty millions, so as not to depend on anyone, and go somewhere in the rural wilderness to breed horses. Maybe in this earthly occupation she will find her happiness?

Aristotle Onassis... Courage was the key to success for him, but he did not find the keys to happiness either on his cherished island or on his yacht.

One beautiful evening in 1924 in Rio de Janeiro in the restaurant "Las Tres Palabras" there was a scene that gave considerable pleasure to journalists and regulars of this institution.

The world-famous king of Argentine tango Carlos Gardel, after a dinner with abundant libations that indulged his womb and softened his soul, suddenly came up with a fantasy to sing a chansonette. If we remember the extraordinary popularity of this man, it is not difficult to imagine how, after a moment of stupefaction, all those present crowded around to listen to him. And several journalists who found themselves here immediately realized that the news of this event, and it was really a whole event, was destined to fly around the world. When the song ended and the applause ceased, a reverent silence reigned in the hall and stifled sobs began to be heard. They came from somewhere behind the bar and were so clearly distinguishable that everyone paid attention to them, and Carlos Gardel himself even got up and went to see what was happening there.

The frightened garçon hesitated at first, but then, calling on all his abilities to help, he began not only to sing, but also to dance to his native music. He sang and danced simply superbly, and the enchanted Gardel brought him to his table to get to know each other better. It was at this moment that the young emigrant, who saw nothing but poverty, made a seemingly insignificant gesture, not himself realizing that, thanks to him, in a few years he would become one of the richest people in the world. He offered his new friend a cigar.

Onassis deals with tobacco

"Karamba!" exclaimed the artist, "I've never tasted such a fragrant cigar! Where do you get such a charm? Now I don't want to smoke anything else." Surprised by the effect that a cigar can have on an Argentine tango dancer, Aristotle Onassis (that was the name of the young man) replied that "this beauty" was brought from Athens in the simplest way, where his father makes it. "If you like," he offered readily, "I can deliver you as many as you like." The deal was immediately concluded, and Aristotle ran first to the post office to give an urgent telegram home, and then to the bank for a loan to start his first business.
A few months later, Melange Gardel became the most popular cigar in South America. Full of hope, Aristotle left the restaurant. In front of him, thanks to the indefatigable passion of the king of tango for cigars, the gates of good luck opened wide.

Greek grandmother who spoke only Turkish

It was the first smile given by Fortune to this young man. Until that blessed day, life had not spoiled him at all.

He was born in 1906 in the Turkish city of Smyrna (Izmir) and spent his childhood in an unhealthy crowded ghetto where Greeks were kept by Muslim authorities, who cared little for human rights. When he was very young, his mother died, and his grandmother raised him & tdash; a loving and kind, but completely uneducated and oriental woman who did not know a word of Greek. Since Greek children in city schools were oppressed in every possible way by their Muslim comrades, she herself had to take care of the education of her grandchildren. At the very least, she taught them to read and write and instilled, albeit with the help of the Turkish language, a love for their homeland, Greece. Aristotle kept this love to his last breath.

outcome after outcome

The situation of the family deteriorated sharply when, in 1922, Mustafa Kemal brought nationalist troops into Smyrna and handed over the colony of unfortunate Greeks to plunder. During these bloody days, the Onassis family, known for its hostility to the Ottoman authorities, was subjected to all kinds of persecution. Aristotle's father, accused of conspiring against the Turkish government, ended up in prison and only miraculously did not share the fate of his three uncles, who were hanged on the balconies of their own houses.

As soon as the storm subsided, Mr. Onassis Sr. decided to leave his native city and return to the bosom of the fatherland. Almost the day after the amnesty, he boarded the very first steamer bound for Piraeus, along with his wife, four children, seven nephews, and three inconsolable widows. This most respectable family could hardly facilitate his assimilation into Athenian society, which always looked at immigrants from Asia Minor as strangers, no matter how impeccable their origins.

He bravely took up his business there too, making cigars, but soon realized that he would never be able to feed the whole crowd with this simple craft, and in contrite heart he decided, breaking the custom of the Greeks, to send his eldest son to the New World with an order to get rich as soon as possible and to come back home.

Rio will belong to the two of us

So, barely seventeen years old, the young Aristotle one day went down to the shore of Rio Bay with sixty dollars in his pocket and the address of one of his cousins, Nikos Andreopoulos. This Nikos had already managed to go bankrupt trying to get rich, and now he promised to take the young man into his service so that he would take advantage of his experience.

All this was not at all like the brilliant prospects that Aristotle imagined while sailing across the ocean. Many in his place, just seeing the kennel of the notorious American cousin, would have fallen into despair. Nor was it at all inspiring to think that the only available activity was washing dishes in the kitchen of some restaurant.
But the young man had an unshakable will. He vowed to take revenge on life itself for all the humiliation that he suffered from the barbarians - the Turks, and the contempt of his compatriots and came to Argentina to get rich. While he did not yet know where to start, he was sure that he would take possession of Fortune, wherever she hid.

cigar war

Although Melange Gardel cigars were a success, and tango performers literally tore them out of their hands, nevertheless, local manufacturers occupied most of the market. This greatly interfered with the small business of Aristotle. If he wanted to expand, which was his very cherished desire, it was necessary by any means to eliminate everyone who interfered with him.

Being a real Greek, brought up on the tales of Homer, he resorted to the most insidious deception, as his compatriot Ulysses would have done in such a case. Workers from competing factories were bribed. For a few pesos, they agreed in their warehouses to inject the substance given to them into cigars with the help of syringes. The whole scandalous undertaking was crowned with complete success. The rivals' cigars were tainted with a fetid odor, and customers, forgetting their old habits, pounced on the Melange Gardel, which turned out to be excellent. Since then no one has smoked anything else. It is hardly possible to extract a moral from this story, but the scam was a success.

in the sweat of your face

Although it was this scam (let's call a spade a spade) that laid the foundation for Onassis's wealth, it was not the only reason for his success.

To build his gigantic financial empire, the little Greek needed titanic efforts and miracles of ingenuity, both in commerce and in diplomacy. Realizing that in order to succeed even high-flying scammers have to work, Aristotle was torn into a thousand pieces and even resorted to absolutely honest methods to achieve his goals. His tireless labors were rewarded with a brilliant victory - just five years after arriving in the New World, he was able to sprinkle his first million dollars in champagne and be appointed Greek consul in Buenos Aires. This has already been recognized on both sides of the Atlantic.

Secrets of the gods

Thanks to the new position, Aristotle found himself among those initiated into many secrets of the gods of politics and could already confidently push Fortune in the direction he needed.
For example, having learned in time through the consular service about the decision of the Greek government to establish export duties, he managed to prevent the introduction of this measure for Argentina, which would have turned his entire tobacco empire into smoke. Thanks to diplomatic affairs, he learned to swim in dangerous political waters and further developed his absolutely exceptional ability not only to anticipate a change in the wind and upheavals in the economy, but also to throw absolutely crazy numbers under the nose of the whole world, which, however, were almost always crowned with complete success.

Good Year: 1929

Paradoxically, however, in 1929, when so many financial empires fell apart like a house of cards, Aristotle finally took his place among the Olympians of Fortune. Like all Greeks, he loved ships with some kind of animal adoration, and even a year before the famous "Black Thursday", feeling that the moment was approaching when it would be necessary to change the record, he acquired one old vessel that sailed along the Atlantic coast.

This ship was for him as if a revelation from above. It awakened in him that ferryman on the waters, which, as they say, has been dormant since ancient times in the heart of every Greek. And from the day he became the owner of this floating box, the only one, however, completely unsurprising for his compatriots, settled in his head - the dream of becoming a ship owner. The general catastrophe in the economy of the free world provided him with the opportunity to carry it out on a scale that exceeded all the wildest hopes.

Empire at a Bargain Price

After the crash on Wall Street, the Canadian government, by court order, put up for auction six large bulk carriers that belonged to a bankrupt company. But the market was in a fever all the time, and there was not a single buyer for them. The officials involved in this case became nervous. Here Onassis, sensing prey, decided on the most daring scam in his life. With a completely serious look, he offered for all the ships a ridiculous amount - one hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars, that is, a hundredth of their real value! At first, the bailiffs only shrugged their shoulders: "Mr. Onassis, we don't have time to joke!" But when after a while it became clear that no one was going to break the silence reigning around the auction, they had to, amazed at themselves, accept the offer of the Greek. So Aristotle Onassis, having paid some small change, suddenly became the owner of a real shipping company.

Onassis's fleet sails to conquer the seas

The crews for these ships were also inexpensive for the beginning nabob. In those years of crisis, all the ports of the world were overflowing with unemployed sailors who were hungry for any job for any pay. Not inclined to philanthropy, Aristotle paid the very minimum, although he sent his fleet to conquer the whole world. Flags with proud letters O. S. A. (Onassis Socrates Aristoteles) fluttered from the masts, which soon became famous in all seas.

All for the sake of everything

Since that time, the great career of the little Greek began. Like the fleet he owned, his wealth grew ever larger, becoming as gigantic as his supertankers. At the heart of all this was a special business philosophy developed by Onassis - always take such a risk that competitors are afraid of, and put everything at stake in order to win everything. This philosophy of the financial stuntman he expressed in one phrase, quite suitable for his motto; "Even a complete idiot can get rich if he is ready to lose everything."

Lucky gambler, unhappy in love

But the legend preferred the image of an eternally successful player to a completely different, much less happy Onassis in his personal life. Biographies and newspaper articles prefer to talk more about the love adventures and endless family troubles of this person. Its colossal wealth, known to the whole world, is needed only to create a backdrop of exotic islands and yachts, on which petty family dramas and real tragedies unfold, shaking this Olympus, where everything seemed to be created for unshakable and cloudless happiness.

Affairs of love

Bearing the names of Socrates and Aristotle, Onassis was by no means Plato, therefore, in women, he valued not only intelligence and sincerity. After several love affairs with film actresses, from which he had only unpleasant memories and to draconian protective measures, Aristotle finally found a woman who became whole era in his life. It began with the fact that both, not yet knowing each other, sailed on a luxurious packet boat from South America to Italy. Ingeborg Dedischen, the subject of his passion, by an extraordinary coincidence, was distinguished not only by her beauty, intelligence and cheerful disposition, but was also the daughter of the richest Scandinavian shipowner, and from her mother, nee De Klerk, she inherited such a pedigree that Onassis could not even.
At the first glance at this rare pearl, Aristotle fell madly in love, and since he was no less assertive with women than in business relations, he led the offensive with such passion and energy, as if it were a question of buying a new steamer. He achieved complete success, and Aristotle's ardent love for the beautiful Scandinavian continued for twelve happy years and was not overshadowed by anything but rare and random betrayals. The fear of some love "complications" that had already happened to him became a mania for him, and if it did not make him a model of fidelity, then at least taught him to be careful.
Ingeborg was an impeccably secular woman. She gave Onassis that gloss of education that he desperately lacked, and in many ways helped his exaltation, teaching both the art and the manner of behaving in dangerous waters. big business.

The second woman of his life

second and truly real woman Onassis met his life in 1946. A young girl named Tina (a diminutive of Athena) possessed, it must be said, everything to attract a forty-year-old faun with the character that Aristotle had. In a young Greek woman, brilliant beauty combined with the freshness of seventeen years, and to all this, her father, Stavros Livanos, was the richest shipowner in all of Greece. No wonder this southern man immediately forgot about the pasteurized Swedish delights of Ingeborg. The meeting between Onassis and Tina took place at a poker game at Livanos in the company of Stavros Niarchos, a young man no less ambitious than Onassis himself, who remained his most dangerous competitor until the end of his life.

On that day, both young wolves, although they hated each other with all their hearts, nevertheless managed to agree. Knowing the passion for cards that consumed the heart of Livanos, they decided to lose as much money as possible in order to please the old man, since they both hoped to win the hand of his daughter. Livanos, who did not understand anything in their machinations and innocently rejoiced at unexpected luck, had two unmarried daughters - Tina and Eugenia, which could arrange the whole thing in the most natural way. But unfortunately, both fortune hunters set their sights on one of them, namely the younger Tina. The eldest, in their opinion, was fit only to sit and weave a carpet, like Penelope.

This was the beginning of this duel between two young sharks, which lasted a lifetime. Each looked after the young heiress in his own way: one - with all seriousness, the other pretended to be a clown. And the clown - Aristoteles won the girl with his jokes. Humiliated and desperate, Stavros had to be content with Eugenia and wait for the hour of retribution.

Both weddings were celebrated with great pomp on the same day. Newspapers wrote about the purity and innocence of brides and discussed their incredible dowry on a whole page.

Even richer and... happier

In the Onassis family, whose life is twelve years remained more or less happy, two beautiful children were born - Christina and Alexander. Now, enriched by his wife's dowry - thousands of small ships, rooted, thanks to the prestige of his father-in-law, in the world of business, and spurred on by the competition of his brother-in-law, Aristotle could continue to expand the empire he had created.

Onassis was not enough, like the modern Poseidon, to reign on the seas, he wanted to extend his possessions to the skies and to the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. To conquer the air element, he created an aviation company called Olympic, like his cigars. As for the coast, Aristotle first chose Monaco and, together with his brother-in-law, acquired the prestigious "Society of Sea Bathing", intending to turn it into a Trojan horse to capture the entire Principality. But he immediately did not get along with Prince Rainier, who found the Greek too pushy and politely asked him to move somewhere else with a yacht, brother-in-law and petrodollars.
This is how our billionaire came to realize the dream, secretly cherished by every Greek since the time of Homer, to become the sole owner of an island in the Mediterranean.

happy island

Of course, Onassis found the island of his dreams in Greece. It was called Skorpios and immediately became his favorite home port. To navigate the wide ocean between your little kingdom and that vast world, which did not yet belong to him, Aristotle built a yacht that dazzlingly sparkled with chrome. This ship, called the Christina, had a crew of thirty, was no less than a hundred meters long, and carried in its vast belly two sets of ultra-high-speed engines that could propel it with fantastic speed.

Having become the legendary billionaire of the seas, Onassis now got the opportunity to spend his time either in the blue expanses, or on an island lost among "countless waters", while maintaining at the same time both day and night a telephone connection with that vast empire that he liked to talk about. where the sun never sets.

false note

Aristotle, Tina and their two children lived happily on their yacht, as befits the Immortal Gods, until one fine day in 1958, a certain siren named Maria Callas appeared to delight their ears with her bel canto. But since our billionaire did not follow the example of Ulysses, prudently tying himself to the mast, the singer easily lured him into her networks.

At the sight of this rival, Tina felt that the sky itself fell on her head. No less jealous than Hera, she fell into a terrible rage that shook the whole of Olympus, and furiously sought a means that would make her unfaithful husband pay dearly for her humiliation.

Revenge for revenge and half more revenge

She immediately demanded a divorce, immediately received it and immediately, as if in mockery, married a very well-born Englishman, close relative Winston Churchill himself. The only merit of this man was that he brought her the title of Marchioness of Blandford, and her ex-husband, because of this alone, could die of jealousy!

Meanwhile, Aristotle was already somewhat fed up with the charms of the opera diva with her endless tantrums and realized that he was still very attached to Tina, who was not only the mother of his children, but in general the only woman who meant a lot in his life. From this, the annoyance and resentment only increased, and he always came up with some kind of revenge more effective in order to wash away the insult inflicted on him.

It doesn't get any easier from time to time

The news of his marriage to Jackie Kennedy, the wife of the assassinated American president, should have, in turn, smitten Tina. From impotent rage, she broke several plates, after which she put up the Marquis of Blandford, who was no longer needed by her, and mobilized all the resources of her mind to again take over Aristotle. The case, if not luck, helped her - under rather suspicious circumstances, her sister Eugenia died, and Stavros Niarchos, although in vain, was still suspected of being involved in this. The ensuing scandal splattered the whole family with mud. The press inflated the case, one of the minor judicial officials in Piraeus had already seen in reality the famous billionaire in his hands. Fashionable society anathematized the very name of Niarchos.

Attack on Onassis

Tina decided to take advantage of this tragic situation to inflict a fatal blow on her ex-husband, which actually ended him. Just a year after her sister died, in 1971, she became the wife of Stavros Niarchos - a rival, enemy, the most dangerous competitor, whom Onassis could only once in his whole life force to eat land: on that already so distant day when Tina chose it was him... The humiliation was too cruel. The revenge of Niarchos crushed Onassis. Inflamed with jealousy, he again, like a schoolboy, felt the trembling of his heart and timid tenderness. But a heart attack took him down.

Evil fate

This by no means exhausted the misfortunes that befell the magnificent Onassis. Having given him all the glory that a mortal can only dream of, the cruel Parks wove for him an ending worthy of an ancient tragedy. As if breaking free from the chain, death hit the people dearest to him blow by blow.
In 1973, she overtook his son and heir, Alexander, who died in a plane crash.

He was the CEO of Olympic Airways, a company created by Onassis to conquer the skies. With him, all his father's hopes of becoming the founder of a dynasty collapsed.

A year later, in 1974, Tina's turn came. After the death of her son, only a shadow remained of her. She was found lifeless in her Parisian palace on the Rue Chanaleille. It was pulmonary edema.

In addition to grief, the fickle gods planted suspicions in the souls of Aristotle and Christina. They could not believe that these deaths were not violent. After all, true Greeks are extremely devoted to everything tragic. The father suspected the CIA of sabotage on board the plane. He had an old enmity with Uncle Sam, and the Americans could repay him for that. And the daughter accused Niarchos' mother of "murder". As for the public, amazed and even, as it were, offended that such rich people could be unhappy, it, of course, immediately believed their unfounded suspicions.

Socrates Aristotle Onassis, the magnificent Olympian of Fortune, died in the American hospital in Neuilly on March 15, 1975. He left behind a fortune "immense as the sea" and the only heiress, Christina, who, like Penelope, never lacked applicants for your hand. Never knowing happiness, she followed her father in 1988.

Aristotle Onassis is a Greek multimillionaire, shipowner, shipbuilder and financial businessman. The first creator of a fleet of supertankers and cargo ships large sizes. After his death, he left his granddaughter an inheritance of $ 1.7 billion, as well as the island of Skorpios in the Aegean Sea.

Greek from Turkey

It was the end of September 1923. A hurricane was raging over the Atlantic Ocean. An old Italian cargo steamer with a displacement of 12 thousand tons "Tomaso di Savoia" was bursting at the seams. And in the hold of the ship, on a pile of wooden chocks and rusting iron pipes, crouching with fear and seasickness, sat a thousand Italians and Greek emigrants. There were sentries at the exit from the hold, so that the emigrants would not climb onto the deck and disturb the peace of the inhabitants of several decent cabins equipped on this cargo ship for passengers. At the very height of the hurricane, when people in the hold were falling on top of each other, and the weak were choking from the indescribable stench, some guy of about 17 years old in appearance approached the sentry at the exit and handed him two pieces of paper for 20 dollars. The sailor silently took the money and let the squat black-haired teenager on deck.

The boy's name was Aristotle Onassis. So, for a bribe, he got out of the stinking hold upstairs, onto the deck. When the storm subsided a little, the young man turned to another sailor, who was guarding the pump on the tank with fresh water. I also gave him $10 to wash off the bilge mud a little.

The boy still had "whole" $ 60. This was all the money that the young Aristotle Onassis managed to shove into his pockets when he entered the land of Argentina in Buenos Aires.

Aristotle Onassis was born on January 20, 1906 in Smyrna (Turkey) - the richest city (before the Turkish pogrom) on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea (currently - the city of Izmir). His father - Socrates Onassis, a merchant and banker, belonged to the Greek elite of the city. Although the Greeks of Smyrna were a subjugated race dominated by the conquering Turks, it was the Greeks who connected Turkey to the West and therefore were graciously allowed to flourish. In 1906, there were 165,000 Greeks in Smyrna and only 80,000 Turks.

Socrates Onassis was born in 1878 deep inside Asia Minor in the Cappadocia region, in the village of Mutalaski. Socrates was one of 11 children in his father's family and they occupied four separate estates in Mutalaski. Young people dreamed of going for good luck, dreamed of getting rich. They moved to Smyrna. While Socrates worked in Smyrna with his brother Homer, brother Alexander conducted business inland, selling goods sent to him from Smyrna and - in turn - taking raisins and olive oil to her. By 1904, having provided for himself, Socrates went to his native village for his bride (he was 26 years old). Penelope Dologlu was already 18 years old, but she still retained modesty. The wedding was played in Smyrna.

The first daughter of the Onassis was named Artemis. After 2 years, Aristotle appeared, whom everyone simply called "Aristo". And then, as happens in life - tragically and suddenly - Penelope died during a kidney operation. After 18 months, Socrates brought his second wife, Elena, to the house, but Onassis did not accept his stepmother. Therefore, Aristo was raised mainly by Socrates' mother - Gethsemane, who came from Mutalaska to help her son immediately after the death of his wife - and she remained so.

Aristotle turned out to be a difficult character, with which it was not easy to get even a mediocre education. But the parent knew what to do, and when the guy was expelled from one school, he simply arranged him for another. If we talk about Ari's first steps to the heights of knowledge, then his education began in September 1913 from an elementary school, which was located next to the local church. Aristo often showed off his absence from school, being a phenomenal truant. However, little Onassis already had an outstanding memory, which helped him out all his life in the most difficult situations. He also acted as the ringleader of children's games in the school yard. The most scandalous prank was the case when the prankster Ari pinched an attractive English teacher on the ass.

Everyone who knew Aristotle at this time paints the same picture of a very strong and rebellious personality, a quick-thinking boy with a brilliant memory, who is respected by his peers. His company consisted of the same truants-losers, like himself. Instead of being bored in the classroom, they often climbed into the office of old Socrates and chatted there incessantly, smoking like steam locomotives.

The young man's favorite and far from safe entertainment was to quietly swim up to the pier at the moment when the boat with passengers was already ready to sail and suddenly jump out onto its stern, which was intended for serious Turkish ladies, thickly draped with a veil. No (even Turkish) man had the right to insult them there even just by his presence - not to mention the "infidels". Having caused a terrible squeal with his unexpected appearance (and at such a moment, of course, he was practically naked and scattered clouds of spray around him), Aristo, shuddering with laughter, fell back into the sea from the departing boat. A special piquancy to this entertainment was given by the fact that the boy could literally be torn to pieces by the Turkish crew of the boat if he fell into her paws.

In addition to swimming, he was also madly in love with rowing, often making the boat all the way from Smyrna to the nearest town of Caratassi and back, trying, if possible, to always sail past the house of the local pasha, who (like every pasha) had his own harem. On hot days, its charming inhabitants spent their time in warm sea water. As soon as the eunuchs saw Aristo rowing, they immediately began to drive the women back to the palace - much to the delight of the young man.

Interest in the intimate side of life in the boy also woke up quite early. They say that he made his first attempt to become a man at the age of 11 - by attacking a laundress who was washing in their house. The frustrated woman easily fought off the inept prankster. However, the young man did not despair: now the intelligentsia was in his field of vision. A handsome 12-year-old boy began to pinch his young teachers right on the buttocks. It cost him another exclusion from school again, but his innate intuition did not disappoint. Onassis Jr. nevertheless achieved his goal by seducing a 25-year-old French teacher at the age of 15. After a successful first experience, the score went to hundreds, I emphasize - to hundreds, not tens. Only at the age of 18, working as a telephone company fitter in Buenos Aires (Argentina), he seduced two hundred female operators. After that, hundreds only increased, especially when millions and billions of dollars appeared.

Business debut

There was 1900, when a racially heated political strife broke out between the Greeks and Turks, and in 1909 hostilities flared up even more. In 1919, Greek troops, supported by the Allies, landed in Smyrna. However, on August 25, 1927, Kemal's troops invaded and conquered the region without much difficulty.

The women of the family were deported to Greece, the old father was thrown into a concentration camp ... The 16-year-old nimble handsome Aristo had a choice: go to prison, run away or stay in his own house, where the Turkish officer settled, and share a bed with him. "What will I do for a family in prison or on the run?" thought Ari and became the colonel's obedient toy. (Recall the analogy with Andrew Carnegie and the widower Scott.) The entire Greek community despised him for this, but it was thanks to his dubious act that Aristo was able to grow his father and leave for Greece, and then, in search of better share— to South America.

On September 21, 1923, Onassis went ashore in noisy and cheerful Buenos Aires with $250 in his pocket to try his luck in Argentina.

As soon as he stepped on the land of Buenos Aires, Onassis suddenly saw a man in front of him who offered him an apple, and after a brief conversation, a bunk at home and work. The man was Yenny Katapodis, a small fruit merchant from Greece. Ari spent the night with him, and then moved to his distant relative, who lived in the area of ​​the docks of La Boca. He soon took a liking to a nicer apartment on the third floor of Avenue de Coorienta, not far from the central market of Buenos Aires.

Fruit peddling with Katapodis was far from his ideal. Ari took care of everything. At one time he had to work as a rower. He tried his hand at building, bringing bricks and mortar to a construction site, then washing dirty glasses and dishes at a popular bar-restaurant. And again and again he changed his place of residence with depressing frequency. Already almost desperate to find a suitable job, Onassis met a Scot who promised to take the young man to his ship Socrates of the English company Lamport and Holt. Aristotle, jumping for joy, was already walking home, when he suddenly heard a conversation between two guys chatting in Greek. Onassis approached and introduced himself. As it turned out, the guys had permanent jobs in a reputable company, rebuilding old telephone exchanges for a new automated system.

Be sure to say that you are from Solonik, they taught, and add a few years to your age for solidity.

On March 12, 1924, Onassis, who turned 18 two months ago, applied for a job at the British Telephone Company (he received new ones from the local authorities). In the spring of 1924, he was already hard at work on Avenida, in one of the districts of Beenos Aires, assembling bundles of wires into a single bundle for a new automated console. During the conversion, the old system with manual switching continued to work, which was done by 200 (two hundred!) young female operators. Aristo missed none of them. He didn't have any responses. Switching to the night shift (from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.) and having time to sleep for three or four hours, during the day he peddled men's ties on the streets or offered children to look for a hidden trinket at the bottom of a wheelbarrow with sand for a few coins. His girls did not translate ...

... At the request of Onassis, his father sent him several samples the best tobacco with a delicate smell, growing in the Peloponnese in Nafplio. When the ship with the samples arrived, Aristo immediately rushed to bypass the tobacco factories of Buenos Aires.

Leave the tobacco for the sample, and then we will contact you - these were the results.

Days passed, and no one thought to contact Onassis. Then the desperate Ari himself chose the manager of one of the largest firms - Juan Gaon, as a target, and every day silently stood either at the door of his office or near the house, looking intently and somewhat reproachfully at the manufacturer. After a couple of weeks, Juan started to get nervous and asked the secretary who this guy was and what the hell he wanted.

Ah, this is a Greek boy named Onassis. For some reason he wants to talk to you.

The Gaon invited Aristotle inside and heard that the "boy" would like to sell his firm first-class tobacco. Feeling understandably relieved, Juan directed him to the firm's purchasing point. The buyers immediately placed an order for $10,000. When he demanded the usual 5% commission from his father, and the $ 500 received became the foundation of his fortune. The second order was for 50,000 dollars ... In anticipation of payment for a loan from regular customers, Onassis never took loans from the bank for more than 3,000 dollars and always quickly paid off.

After working for a telephone company for nearly a year, Aristo quit his job in May 1925. He rented a squalid shop in Viamonte Lane and put up a sign: “Aristotle Onassis - Importer of Oriental Tobacco. He was assisted in this undertaking by two cousins, Nikos and Costa Konianides. Onassis invested $25,000 of his own savings in the business and borrowed another $25,000. He purchased the appropriate equipment at a minimal price, hired several Greek immigrants who were ready to work for pennies, and began to produce two varieties of cigarettes - Osman and Primeros. Ari introduced innovations - pink or gold tips, colorful wrapping, newfangled aluminum foil and crispy cellophane packaging. With competitors, Onassis fought with the dirtiest methods - forgery, falsification, blackmail, theft, forgery of documents and much, much more. But then the money arrived by leaps and bounds.

How to philosophize with a hammer

The conscience that torments a person and often even leads him to death has never bothered Ari. The concept of sin did not exist for him. Life, from his peculiar point of view, had only two sides - strength and weakness.

Righteous and unrighteous ways? He was unaware of such a difference. Good and evil? Trifles invented by the priests for their own gain. Morality and immorality? Sheer nonsense. Strength and weakness are another matter. Life is a dark, unsolved mystery, but be that as it may, its components are strength and weakness. Strength wins, weakness fails. Life at best is a cruel, inhuman, cold and ruthless struggle, and only the strongest survive here.

What is morality and justice in this world? Are there supposedly binding principles for everyone, or do people just think so? But more you see only exceptions to these rules. Of course, it is commendable, prudent and moral to observe virtue, according to the rules of the generally accepted code of morality, but what real results in life do moral people achieve? No money, no connections, no position.

Quickness and courage of the mind, a happy accident - this is what helped other people to compensate for their family and social failures; others, because of their stupidity, incongruity, poverty or lack of personal charm, were doomed to a hopeless vegetative existence. And yet it is absolutely clear that evidence of this is found at every step, that all difficulties can be resolved only by strength - mental and physical. After all, industrial and financial magnates can act - and act - in this life as they please!

Onassis has been convinced of this more than once. Moreover, all these miserable guardians of the so-called law and morality - the press, the church, the police and, above all, voluntary moralists, who furiously denounce vice when they discover it in the lower classes, but cowardly fall silent, as soon as the matter touches those in power and did not dare to utter a word. as long as the person remained in power. However, as soon as he stumbled, they, no longer afraid of anything, attacked him. Oh, what a noise then! Ringing all the bells "" Here, here, good people! Look, and you will see with your own eyes what punishment befalls vice even in the highest strata of society! Ari smiled as he thought about it. What hypocrisy! What hypocrisy! The one who is strong can say “This is mine” and takes it, but the one who is weak and pitiful, hypocrites and hypocrites, not having the strength to act firmly. But that's the way the world works and it's not for him to fix it. The path is on its way!

The hypocritical guise that all institutions of civil society wear for show should show that they are supposedly products of morality. For example: marriage, work, profession, fatherland, family, order, law. But since all of them, without exception, are created for the average class of people, in order to protect the latter against exceptions and exceptional needs, it is not surprising that in this case we see such a mass of lies.

“Good people are all weak: they are good because they are not strong enough to be bad,” said the leader of the Latuka-Comorro tribe to Backer.

A virtuous person is already the lowest kind of person because he does not represent a “personality”, but receives his value due to the fact that he corresponds to the well-known scheme of a person that has been worked out once and for all. It has no value initially: it can be compared and there are equals to it.

List the qualities of a good person. Why are they good for us? Because we do not need to fight with him, because he does not arouse in us neither distrust, nor caution, nor restraint, nor severity. Our laziness, good nature, frivolity feel good at the same time. Our well-being is what we project outward from ourselves and count to a good person as his property, as his value.

Diligence, modesty, benevolence, moderation - all these are obstacles to the sovereign structure of the soul, developed ingenuity, setting heroic goals, being aristocratic for oneself.

That lambs have a grudge against large birds of prey does not seem strange. But from here one should not at all reproach large birds of prey that they grab small lambs. And if the lambs say among themselves: “These birds of prey are evil. And the one who is least of all a bird of prey, who, on the contrary, is their opposite, a lamb - shouldn't he be kind? Then there is nothing to object to such an exaltation of the ideal, except that the birds of prey themselves look at this with a slightly mocking look and say to themselves, perhaps: “We do not bear any malice towards them, these good lambs, we even love them: what can be tastier than a tender lamb ." To demand from strength that it not manifest itself as strength, that it not be a desire for possession, a desire for pacification, a desire for dominance, a thirst for enemies, resistance and triumphs, is just as senseless as to demand from weakness that it manifest itself as strength. So thought Onassis.

When the Christian crusaders in the East came upon the invincible Order of the Assiassins (Order of Free Minds), whose lower members lived in an obedience that no monastic order has ever equaled, they somehow got a hint of both that symbol and that memorable word, which was kept only for the highest ranks as their highest secret:? "Nothing is true, everything is allowed..."

A great man is one who, for the sake of his cause, throws compassion away from himself and knows how to break his yielding heart. He demands from himself and decides to sacrifice many and many things in order to be successful himself ... The weak say: "I must"; the strong say: "should." This requires strength. And a quick mind. Ari has both.

“My desires come first” was the motto of Aristotle Onassis. He could boldly inscribe it on the shield with which he went into battle for a place among the chosen ones of fortune.

Big ship - big voyage

By the start of the Great Depression, in 1929, Ari had become a millionaire according to his official bank account. At 26, he was already a very rich man. He wore beautiful suits with a corner of an immaculate handkerchief peeking out of the top pocket of his jacket, snow-white shirts with a black bow tie and breathtaking boots.

In 1932, having collected 600,000 dollars - all his savings, Onassis arrived in London. The sale of ships then went for nothing, "at the price of Rolls-Royces" and Ari grabbed everything he could. As a result, six Canadian dry cargo ships with an initial cost of $ 2 million each became the property of Onassis not for $ 12 million, but for $ 120,000 (100 times cheaper!). He personally hired teams, bargaining for every penny. True, in those years he did not yet master the subtle technique, which he later borrowed from his father-in-law, the multimillionaire Livanos. He, climbing aboard the ships belonging to him, first of all shook hands with all the crew members. When someone allowed himself to be touched by such a clear manifestation of democracy, the shipowner coldly explained that in this way he was checking the degree of callosity of the hands, and, consequently, the diligence of the sailors.

In the mid-thirties, Onassis takes a step that had decisive consequences for his entire future career: he orders his first Ariston tanker with a displacement of 15,000 tons from Swedish shipyards. After heated bidding, they agreed on 160,000 pounds sterling, 25% of which he undertook to pay during construction, and the rest within 10 years at 4.5% per annum. In 1938, Onassis' first tanker sets off on his "wedding voyage" from San Francisco to Yokohama. In his holds is oil for Japan, which is at war with China. Soon the Ariston was joined by two more tankers of the same tonnage (15,000 tons each), launched from the stocks in Gothenburg.

At this time, it literally rushes around the world: New York, London, Paris, Buenos Aires, Stockholm became regular stops on its endless routes. And on one of the finest days in the capital of Swedish shipbuilding, Gothenburg, a new modest shipyard appears: “A.S. Onassis, Gothenburg Ltd. To create their own shipbuilding base, an affair with a young Norwegian Ingeborg Dediken, the daughter of the owner of a flotilla of whaling ships and a lady with connections, turned out to be very useful. Her late father, Ingevald Bride, was one of the largest Norwegian shipowners. “Mamiko,” Ingeborg said, “wherever he was, he always met only those people who were or could be useful to him in business, whether in Paris, Sweden or Norway.” Once Dediken, visibly nervous, introduced Onassis to her mother. But she had nothing to fear.

Mamma! Oh mama!! yelled a delighted Aristo as soon as she entered the living room. There were genuine tears of joy in his eyes...

... In the 40s, his friend Costa Gratsos was the Greek consul in San Francisco and together they began to explore the possibilities of Hollywood. Asterisks, half-stars, already held stars, and without end, and without edge. The name of Onassis was connected with many celebrities, including Paulette Goddard, Simone Simon, Veronica Lake and others. The number of "200" - that's how many female operators in the "British Telephone Company" (Buenos Aires) was significantly surpassed. He did not receive refusals, not missing a single skirt.

On April 3, 1940, the Germans invaded Denmark and Norway. A shower of bombs fell on the cities of Scandinavia. The total frozen tonnage of Aristotle's ships approached 50,000 tons. Now that his tanker fleet in Europe was laid up, Onassis was forced to turn his attention to the ships that sail under his Panamanian flag but are based in the United States. And in June 1940, he crossed overcrowded with German submarines Atlantic Ocean rushing to New York. In New York, Ari first occupied a five-room apartment on the 38th floor of the Ritz Towers Hotel, but then moved to the 19th floor, where he was located just a few doors from the apartment of movie star Greta Garbo ...

... On April 17, 1943, Onassis met 14-year-old Tina Livanos, the youngest daughter of a multimillionaire Greek shipowner. And in 1946 they got engaged. Tina was 17, and Onassis was 40 years old. In Greece, the name Livanos meant belonging to the highest circle of society. The name also carried weight in Lloyd's Maritime Register. Ari, as it were, ascended to the Olympic height, bypassing many, many steps. And his business operations were on an unprecedented scale. In 1946, Father Livanos had something like one billion dollars. As a wedding offering, he gave Ari a donation for two Liberty ships, which at the time was worth more than a million dollars. In his hands, Onassis received only 446 thousand dollars - for the purchase of apartments in New York.

It was a cozy house in Catton Square 16. Ari had to throw away the same amount of money to rebuild and furnish it. It had 5 floors that towered over the East River and were surrounded by its own garden (a rarity even for this area of ​​the super-rich). The remaining money of the Tina Realty Corporation was not available to Onassis, but outside the family circle, it was enough for everyone to know about the fact that Onassis was related to the mighty Livans. It was a guarantee of special commercial respectability, which in our world is often worth more than tens of millions.

On April 30, 1948, a son was born to Aristotle and Tina in New York, who was baptized by Alexander in honor of Alexander the Great and Onassis' uncle.

Alexander grew up quickly. By adulthood, he could, like his father, speak almost flawlessly in English, German, French, Greek and Spanish.

At the age of 15, his tutor Kostas Kuchuvelis began to take the boy to taverns and cabarets to teach him how to deal with girls. Once, Alexander and his two older friends, Kafarakis and Nicholas, met in Monte Carlo in front of the Hermitage Hotel and decided to look into a night restaurant in Cannes. Having chosen a table, the guys looked after attractive companions.

Somewhere around four in the morning, breaking up into three couples, they decided to retire, agreeing to meet in an hour in their car. At about five o'clock Nicholas and Kafarakis were already in the car, but Alexander was nowhere to be seen. Fifteen minutes passed, then half an hour, and he was still gone. Finally, the guardians began to frantically run back and forth through the streets of Cannes, fearful of being kidnapped for ransom.

Two hours later, completely exhausted, the guardians stopped their idiotic searches, deciding to return to the car, when they suddenly saw Alexander walking serenely, who (hands in his pockets) whistled something carelessly.

Where the hell were you?! the men yelled.

Cool down, guys, - said Alexander. “I did exactly what you did—but six times!”

And these were the pitiful remnants of the super-powerful sexual potential of Aristotle Onassis himself.

Soon Onassis announced to his wife that he was moving the base of his business activity to Europe, so they needed a new home.

After that, in addition to the New York mansion and the house in Montevideo, the couple also acquired other real estate: permanent apartments in the Plaza Hotel in Buenos Aires, a villa in Athens on the sea coast, apartments on Avenue Foch in Paris and, since this was still little, Ari rented the castle of Croix (France).

This shimmering white palace with private beaches, 25 acres pine forest, tennis courts, a swimming pool and even an art studio that opened towards the sun, before Onassis gave a roof over his head to King Leopold of Belgium, King Umberto of Italy, the Duke of Windsor and other similar “modest guests”. To make it all work, it required: a housekeeper, two cooks, two headwaiters, three girls, a dishwasher, a cook, two drivers, a groom, a servant, a girl for various lady services, a dozen gardeners, and later also two governesses for children.

On December 11, 1950, Tina gave birth to her second child, a girl, Christina. Ari, who was quickly becoming a real shark of international business, was now with his family from time to time.

Onassis formula: "Buy a whole fleet and not pay a cent!"

After the war, most of the European shipyards became ruins, while in America there were also shipyards and ships. The US government decided to sell 100 hastily stamped Liberty ships on the cheap, but Onassis, as a "foreign Greek", did not get a single ship! I had to enter into direct negotiations with the Commission of the US Maritime Department and come up with a proposal to buy 15 ships for cash and at full cost. Permission, of course, was granted almost immediately. After that, Ari began to look for money. His fortune was estimated at 30 million dollars, but it would be better to lay out 8 million at once from someone else's wallet.

Onassis paid special attention to National City Bank. The process dragged on for months of exhausting negotiations, which were, moreover, in parallel with meetings, consultations and negotiations with government officials, engineers, lawyers, bank employees ... until, finally, the deal became a reality, although, of course, far from on those terms. , which were first put forward by Ari. Instead of ten years, the loan was granted for a period of only 6 to 12 months, secured by contracts that these ships were supposed to fulfill, transporting mainly coal to Germany, South America and France. In addition, the bank agreed to pay not the entire amount, but at most 50% of the cost of the ships.

Onassis's famous "reducing operating costs" scheme would look something like this. An American shipping company (whose real owner is Onassis, who manages it through relatives or nominees) leases another ship to a Panamanian company, which also belongs to Onassis. Further, this same "Panamanian" company enters into a freight deal with John Rockefeller's Standard Oil or Paul Getty's Tidewater Oil for the transportation of his goods.

But why did Onassis build his tankers in the USA? After all, in Europe and Japan it would cost two to three times cheaper (depending on the situation). However, in this case, Ari would lose the extremely favorable lending conditions that allow his ships to be born "from nothing", or rather "From other people's money."

The empire of Aristotle Socrates Onassis was built on a cunning model (which, due to its proven effectiveness, deserves the closest study), suggesting maximum anonymity for the one who really controls the whole thing.

While laying the first stones in its construction, Ari decided to follow the old rule: firstly, not to create large shipping companies, and secondly, to appear as little as possible in official papers under his own name. For this decision, in addition to false modesty, there were other, much more compelling reasons. Each new series of dry cargo ships or tankers gave life to a new company: Olympic Maritime (France), Overseas Bulk Carriers (Liberia), Ftafalgar Steamship Company (UK) and so on - a total of 85 companies containing from one to twelve ships in each.

Such fragmentation made it possible to “attribute” this or that company to a certain country and the best way use the specifics of local conditions and dynamically changing market conditions.

A year later, after a lucrative deal with the Liberty ships, starting building new tankers, Ari decided to secure a long-term loan for his projects. And not for half the price, as was the case with National City Bank when buying the Liberty ships, but for the entire amount of the transaction. From the epic with Liberty, he retained a contract with a major financier from the giant insurance company Metropolitan Life Insurance, Harry Haggerty. The latter promised to support Aristotle's request for a loan at the Board of Directors, subject, of course, to a serious guarantee.

Now it was about building a tanker fleet, the need for which before the war was clear only to the brilliant mind of Aristotle Onassis. Ari felt in a better position: he lived in America, was married to an American citizen and was going to build his tankers in New York. For money (6.5 million dollars), he turned to Harry Haggerty, but the result was not achieved.

Realizing that he was banging his head against a stone wall, Ahri decided to change tactics and go from the other side. Onassis transferred the fire to the oil company Sokoni Oil, a huge oil concern controlled by the family of John Rockefeller. After setting the stage (by invitations to his lavish receptions) at various levels of leadership, Ari offered a long-term contract to carry their oil on his defunct tankers. The exact price per ton of transported oil was agreed in advance for the entire period of the contract. In various clauses of the contract, guarantees were fixed that the shipowner gave to the oil magnates in case of all sorts of surprises. The cost of repairing all damages requiring 3-4 months or less to be repaired is covered as usual by the insurance company.

The need for ships is so great, - continued Onassis, - that your company can enter into a charter contract providing for guaranteed payments of such and such amounts per ton per month for a period of 60 months without deducting downtime!

That was the essence of the proposal: Ari was willing to provide the company with double free services. That is, in the case when a downtime of three months accumulated over the entire term of the charter contract, he not only assumed the costs associated with this, but also pledged - in essence - to work for free for three whole months (downtime over three months was in any case covered insurance company). This proposal was the only obvious solution to the whole funding problem. Onassis illustrated his proposal with a simple example: let's take a ship with a displacement of 30,000 tons with a payment of $ 4 per ton of cargo per month (a typical case of a charter contract for a while), which will be $ 120,000 per month.

With a 5-year contract, this gives (60 months at $120,000) only $7,200,000 minus downtime. Onassis suggested that the company give firm contractual obligations to pay the specified amount monthly without deducting random downtime in exchange for these services. This was beneficial for both the oil company and Ari, who, thanks to this item, could overcome the skepticism of banks and get loans!

So in January 1947, the first Sokoni Oil agreement was concluded with Onassis for the operation of a tanker with a displacement of 28 thousand tons for a period of five years. Soon a similar agreement was reached with the Texaco Oil Corporation. With these contracts in his pocket, Ari went to the Metropolitan Life Insurance, where Harry Haggerty, having in his hands the firm obligation of the oil company to pay for the hire of the vessel in all cases, immediately gave his blessing to Heim.

However, the sum of these two contracts greatly exceeded the norm to provide guarantees for the loan. Onassis immediately rushed to Wall Street in New York, resumed negotiations with Metropolitan Life Insurance, and now easily came to an agreement on a loan. But not 6.5 million dollars (at which negotiations with G. Haggerty stopped), but 40 million dollars for the construction of six tankers with a displacement of 28 thousand tons. The creation of giant tankers was provided to the steel corporation of the John Pierpont Morgan family, Bethlehem Steel.

So Onassis "patented" his formula for success: he began to launch his tankers like ducklings without spending a single dollar of his. It was all other people's money. The discovery of a new "formula" pushed him into the highest circles of big business. He was now a welcome guest on Wall Street, and his generous creditors, following Metropolitan Life Insurance and Fest National City Bank, were Rockefeller's Chase Manhattan Bank and Chemical Bank.

His ships are now registered, except for Panama, in Argentina, Uruguay and other countries - wherever the conditions for their operation are most favorable, but he controls everything. Ari does not like to fiddle with papers and correspondence, although he carefully reads all the documents and contracts that he signs. His eyesight is so sharp that he doesn't need glasses to read even the smallest print. He carries with him bound in leather notebook, in which he enters the main characteristics of transactions that interest him and writes down the secret telephone numbers of the people with whom he does business, the addresses of friends.

The image of the house for Onassis was anything: cafes, restaurants, clubs - any place with a telephone where he could unpack his suitcase. Any night club in different countries of the world becomes an office, and the favorite working time for telephone conversations is two in the morning. Ari loves to move from one brothel that closes at dawn to another, knows how to work until the morning and get up at dawn in a state of full working capacity.

He does not like to travel with a large retinue and entrusts a significant part of the routine and secondary work (as most Greek businessmen do) to relatives and close friends. In Buenos Aires, his son-in-law Nicholas Conialides supervises the course of affairs; Niko Kanialides accompanied him on business trains; Costa Konialides represented the host in Montevideo; Nicolas Kokkinis, cousin of his friend Andre Embrikos, was in charge of the American Onassis agency, acting as executive director in New York.

Do people live...

In 1950, Aristotle Onassis bought the former Canadian 2,200-ton frigate Stormont for just $50,000, and then invested over $4 million in it to turn it into the most luxurious yacht in the world. For this, the oligarch did not stint on the fee of the outstanding German professor of architecture Caesar Pinnau, who sketched elegant sketches of a beautiful white ship, the graceful and bold lines of which ran back from a tall, slender bushpipe.

At the Gowaldt shipyard in Kiel, the Germans were happy to build such a miracle, but they were confused by the extravagant desires of the rich man. Onassis wanted a deck that could hold two airplanes, several speedboats, a hydrofoil, a sailboat, a swimming pool, a dance floor, and of course the usual set of lifeboats!

As for electronics and various technical devices, Ahri wanted to have them all on his ship. As a result, it was impossible to spit on the "Kristina" so as not to fall into some miracle of technology. A huge air conditioner was crammed between two decks; a complex and reliable alarm system worked both from a sharp increase in temperature and from holes in the ship's hull; a special device maintained the temperature of the water in the deck swimming pool several degrees below the air temperature, so that, diving into it, Onassis's guests could refresh themselves pleasantly.

For the latest radar system and a telephone network for 40 numbers, continuous operation of 4 diesel generators was required. Even providing soundproofing for these diesel engines required a special specialist to be sent from Berlin.

Detailed attention was paid to the interior of the yacht. Ari ordered the cabins and quarters to be furnished with flagrant luxury: a large open fireplace in the smoking room was lined with precious lapis - azure at a price of $ 4 per square inch.

Both doors leading to the Main Deck were made from antique Japanese wood, varnished. To decorate the nine double cabins on the second deck for guests, each of which was named after one of the Greek islands, marble and mosaics were abundantly used.

Onassis had his own apartment, consisting of an office, a bedroom with a semicircular bath, equipped with the famous silver and gold taps and connected to the bedroom through a mirrored door through which one could see what was happening in it, but not vice versa!

The study housed a small but exquisite collection of cold and firearms, hung on the walls and standing in front of the wall of an antique desk that once belonged to the French king. It had two electric lamps with beautiful handmade lampshades, and right in front of it, on the wall, hung the famous masterpiece of El Greco.

The yacht had a large, well-chosen library with a huge portrait of Christina, Onassis's daughter, occupying the entire central part of the wall, sitting carelessly on the grass. This library had a fireplace heated by real wood.

The ship's swimming pool was also a real miracle of technology, the bottom of which, skillfully decorated with an artistic mosaic depicting the Minos bull, could drain and rise to the deck level, turning into a dance floor!

The ship had 60 sailors, officers and servants, whose salaries started at $100 a month - a minimum wage that far exceeded the average salary in Greece in those years.

At that time, the yacht was truly just a miracle of technology. So (an unheard of thing!) Her galleys were fully electrified, the cellars were equipped with powerful refrigerators and freezers that could hold several tons of food. The cabins of both the guests and the team had excellent air conditioning.

At the same time, for two weeks (the standard period of one cruise), an incredible amount of food was consumed on the yacht. For one week alone, 10 fried calf carcasses, 10 suckling pigs, 10 lambs, 6 fried beef carcasses and about 200 chickens were imported. It was the custom on the Christina to eat chicken on Sundays. As for fish, they consumed no less than 250 kg per week, not counting, of course, 50 omas and gourmet eels. This was eaten in 7 days by family members and from 20 to 80 guests (40 on average). The team members knew that on Monday they would have fish at the table, on Tuesday - sausages, etc. In addition, the team's galley was divided in two by a large cream-colored partition: Greeks ate in one section, non-Greeks ate in the other ... The maintenance of the Christina yacht cost the magnate 500 thousand dollars annually. By the way, his rival billionaire Stavros Niarchos spent a little less on the maintenance of his luxurious Creole yacht.

... Onassis had other oddities. For example, he gave his shirts to be washed only in a single laundry, which was located in Athens. This also created some inconvenience, because Ari changed shirts 5-6 times a day and it was possible to take them to the wash only on a coat hanger, but by no means in the usual wrinkled form! At the same time, the billionaire would never agree to part with his shirt (secretly considering it “happy”) until it wore out at all.

At the same time, Onassis could not be called a fashionista. His very modest wardrobe consisted of only a dozen or so club jackets and about 50 suits. All are dark blue or dark gray. True, Ari preferred to wear the same suit day after day, requiring only that it be ironed by morning each time. In fact, at the same time, the oligarch spent $12 million annually on "tolerable" living in various parts of the world.

Resting in Greece, on his island or yacht, Onassis usually dressed in short shorts that reached his knees and in simple T-shirts - t-shirts, so shabby that he was not even afraid that they might be stolen!

The safety of the crew and passengers on the yacht was also given hypertrophied attention. The hydroplane must always be refueled and be in full readiness to take off at any moment. The ship had six lifeboats and four powerful speedboats.

In 1951, Ari, after a little consideration, finally decided to move his headquarters to Monaco: all sorts of tax breaks looked very tempting. Through nominees on the Paris Stock Exchange, he bought 550,000 (52%) shares of the Society of Sea Bathing and became the owner of most of the wealth of Monaco. It was given control of the casinos, five hotels, golf courses, bowling alleys, sports clubs, the entire entertainment industry controlled by this misleadingly named society.

The Science of Winning

Onassis, like most other "people of fate", was not only internally religious, but also quite superstitious, although he carefully concealed this. Astrology enjoyed the exclusive confidence of the tanker king. Therefore, for the most important (and, if possible, all other) cases, Ari tried to choose the astrologically most favorable time. In this difficult matter, much depends on the competence and experience of an expert - an astrologer. After several trial and error, Onassis found "his" astrologer in the person of the famous monk and hermit father Aristotle, his namesake, who, like the ancient sages, lived on the scarlet island of Sporades in the Aegean Sea in a remarkable old tower. The predictions of the wise monk, which he makes with the help of an old German spyglass (brought from Germany), every night watching the sky and making calculations according to the rules known to him alone, regularly come true and are famous for their accuracy.

On his island, which turned into a small world for him, Father Aristotle has been living since the second half of the 40s, at the age of 26 he followed the call from above and became a voluntary hermit. He does not have a telephone or a TV for a simple reason - there is no electricity on the island!

Among the visitors of the monk, one could notice almost all world celebrities: these are the world's leading industrialists from America, Japan and Australia, prominent political figures, show business stars, scientists and cultural figures ... They all come to the Greek monk, who nevertheless avoids any advertising and hype around his person, although among his famous "clients" are the most powerful people in the modern world. For example, former Greek President Andrias Papandopoulos and former French President Georges Pompidou!

Onassis, having come to the sage and talked with him, made it a rule to visit him at least once a year in order to draw up his horoscope and listen to general predictions for the near future. Almost everything that the stars predicted for him came true. True, Ari himself tried his best, and as you know, God first of all helps those who help themselves. Yes, and he was lucky almost all his life so frankly that competitors like billionaire Stavros Niarchos (who married the eldest daughter of the multimillionaire Livanos - Evgenia Livanos, Tina's sister and bought mansions, castles, villas are always next to Onassis) just gnashed their teeth. And yet Onassis clearly felt the influence of the stars on the course of his affairs. And therefore, he never skimped on the generous fees that Father Aristotle then usually distributed to the peasants who lived with him on the island so that they could buy some equipment, machinery and appliances they needed on the farm.

A wise hermit a year before the Chernobyl nuclear disaster will predict it in detail, with an accuracy of a week, indicate the date of the assassination attempt on ex-US President Ronald Reagan, and much, much more ...

Speaking of the incredible luck and amazing luck of Onassis, one cannot fail to mention one of the special episodes of childhood. Once every two weeks, his grandmother Gethsemane rolled up a pair of vests and pantaloons of her grandson and took them to the Temple, where the deacons who were friends with her laid them under ... the altar! When, after 14 days, they could be considered sufficiently consecrated, she took them home in triumph, leaving another pair to replace them. At home, Gethsemane put her grandson in a tub of water and scrubbed him (“as if I were the deck of a ship,” Aristotle recalled) as if she wanted to skin him alive until he “became very, very clean.” Then she made him put on the consecrated clothes and recited a little pious admonition:

Now I am sure that your sins of the past two weeks will be forgiven and you will be a very good boy.

And add a huge natural mind, innate business sense, a wonderful memory and excellent intuition (like Andrew Carnegie) to luck and luck ...

... According to American statistics, in the overwhelming majority of cases, US millionaires, regardless of superstitions and prejudices, do not use astrology in their activities.

Each war brought Ari money, a lot of money, a lot. For Onassis, who has mastered the art of getting rich in wars, the words “Anglo-French-Israeli war against Egypt” (1956), “US presence in Indochina”, “Vietnam war” (since 1964), “Israel’s war with Arab countries” (June 1967) sounded like music. After all, for example, in just two months (October-November 1956) of the Suez crisis, he added 70 million dollars to his fortune.

From a wealthy shipowner, Ari gradually transformed into a real ruler of the financial and industrial empire. The basis of his wealth and power was, of course, the fleet, which eventually included more than 100 ships with a displacement of about 4.5 million tons. It was the world's largest private merchant fleet, comparable to that of a major maritime power. Moreover, he is the owner of the airlines "Olympic Airways" and "Olympic Cruises", which coincides with the concept of "the entire civil air fleet of Greece." He owns shipyards in Sweden and England, the Omega oil company, oil refineries, vast tracts of land in Europe and South America, a chain of luxury hotels in Greece, Paris, London. In 1968, he even acquired a solid Swiss bank, intending to turn it into the financial center of his empire.

The empire's headquarters is in Monte Carlo (Principality of Monaco), branch offices are in New York (USA), Geneva (Switzerland), Athens (Greece) ... In total, Onassis's fortune in the early 70s of the XX century will be be determined at $1 billion according to the most modest and conservative calculations based on insurance amounts. The real value of his assets is undoubtedly many, many times greater (somewhere around 8-10 billion dollars). Every day brings him an average income of 230 thousand dollars. Ari, moreover, deftly knows how to strengthen the economic power of his capital by secular connections, the significance of which he understands better than most of his competitors.

Onassis carefully builds his empire based on huge personal money, business and political connections, an entrepreneurial spirit and a new business philosophy. It is, of course, not comparable in scale to the global conglomerates of Rockefellers, Morgans or Du Ponts built on equity capital. The assets of these consortiums amount to tens of billions of dollars. But Onassis, unlike them, is a lone entrepreneur, who, however, surpassed even Rockefeller in terms of the size of his personal fortune. Therefore, it is more logical to compare him with the same billionaires who did not join monopolistic associations. Such, for example, were the oil kings of America, Paul Getty and Haroldson Hunt. Lonely artists, their own masters, they single-handedly manage their capital without any Boards of Directors or Boards of Shareholders.

In each of the 85 companies, Onassis owned a controlling stake, all or most of the capital. His close or distant relatives sat in the presidential or director's chairs, and where they were lacking - trusted representatives, whose reliability and professional merits have been tested over the years.

How the family ship sank

At the end of the 50s, the facade of Onassis's once prosperous marriage began to clearly crumble. The marriage was clearly sprawling at all seams, although the process did not go quickly. A special role in this, according to Ari, was played not so much by his business absences and constant employment, as by the bright lights of publicity, which did not miss anything from the personal life of the spouses. His occasional visit to a nightclub with some beauty when Tina is not around, her skiing in the company of a handsome young man in the absence of her husband - all these things mean little in people's lives if they do not immediately get on the front pages of newspapers around the world. Otherwise, mutual suspicions follow, explanations that are unconvincing for the other side, fueled by the emotions of a showdown, gradually undermining even the most successful marriages ...

... In the early summer of 1959, Onassis' luxury yacht anchored at the mouth of the Grand Canal of Venice, preparing to take part in social entertainment. And the very next day after arrival, Pri received an invitation from the Countess of Castelbarco, whose annual ball in her luxurious palace was rightfully considered the peak of the social season in Italy. At this ball, Onassis began a rather long romance with singer Maria Callas ( real name- Kalogeropoulos), which, in terms of intensity and brightness of feelings, became one of the deepest experiences of Aristotle Onassis.

They immediately began living together in Ari's apartment on rue Foch in Paris. Onassis was her deepest passion. Their life together with Ari lasted more than 9 years, interspersed with quarrels, partings and new reconciliations, but during all this time they never quarreled in front of the servants. Therefore, Maria even developed a special tactic. When she felt the approach of a storm, she immediately tried to go to where there were more servants. In such cases, Ari never followed her, but after a while, when he cooled off a little, he sent for Madam or called her himself.

Sometimes Onassis himself also retired, but in such cases he preferred some fashionable Parisian restaurant, where he could vent his fury in breaking expensive dishes - for a few hundred extra dollars.

In June 1960, Tina quietly went to the state of Alabama (USA) and, after 13 years of marriage, received a “quick” divorce there due to “mental cruelty” on the part of her husband. Alexander at that time was 12, and Kristina was 9 years old. They agreed that the children would continue to live with their mother, but Onassis could visit them whenever he wanted. Alimony Tina did not demand. The children received 25% of the shares of the entire fleet of Onassis. Her jewelry was worth at least $4 million. The mansion on Catton Square in New York and all the property that cost no less than the house passed to her.

A little over a year passed and Tina got married a second time. The chosen one is the 35-year-old handsome Marquis de Blandford, relatives of Winston Churchill, a frequent guest on Onassis's Christina yacht. The second marriage lasted about 10 years. October 22, 1971 in Paris, Tina Livanos - Onassis - Blandford secretly married Onassis's worst rival - Stavros Niarchos, previously married to her own sister Eugenia.

Jacqueline Kennedy - Onassis, née Bouvier

Onassis and Jacqueline had an old friendship. It was to him that she went on the yacht "Christina" in the summer of 1963 to survive the terrible shock that followed the death of her son Patrick, who lived only 39 hours ...

Oddly enough, the initial contact between Aristotle and Jackie was made by her sister Lee. Prince and Princess Radziwill met Onassis shortly after the collapse of her marriage to Tina. When Lee and Stas Radziwill dined with Ari in Athens in the summer of 1963, the lady casually mentioned that the recent death of Jackie's third child, Patrick, plunged her sister into a deep depression. Onassis suggested that a cruise in the Aegean on the Christina could have an undoubted therapeutic effect for her ...

... During his union with Jackie Onassis, he gave her $ 5 million worth of jewelry.

On October 10, the tanker magnate put on Jackie's finger instead of the traditional engagement ring a ring with a huge ruby ​​surrounded by 1 carat diamonds! Only this splendor cost 1.2 million dollars. They somehow agreed on everything at once, and on October 20, 1968, on the island of Skorpios, Onassis (62 years old) and Jackie (39 years old) were already legally married.

... In New York, the marriage was officially proclaimed on October 17 at 15:00. 15 minutes. And at 6 p.m., a laughing Jackie, hugging both children (Carolina, 10 years old and Jrn-John, 7 years old), was already making her way through the crowd near the house number 1040 on 5th Avenue in New York, heading to the limousine waiting for her.

At the airport. J. Kennedy was joined by relatives. Ninety passengers had to lose their tickets on this flight to Athens to make room for the bride and her retinue. From Athens they went to the island of Skorpios. Ari bought Skorpios, which looks like a large blot from the air, like a cuttlefish spread across the sea, in full ownership back in 1962 (for only 100 thousand dollars) and, as usual, turned it into a garden of Eden. He laid 10 kilometers of roads on the island, built a palace, two elegant country residences, planted trees that his tankers brought from all over the world ...

Now Madame Onassis could completely surrender to her two addictions, which tormented her more and more with age: the love of shopping and the passion for decorating her nest. Her obsession knew no bounds. Ari, still unaware of what he was facing, at first even encouraged his wife by handing her a whole stack of credit cards. However, indiscriminately buying "Jackie O." Even this was not enough, and when she didn’t have time to sign checks in a fever, she simply threw to the stunned sellers:

Send this bill to my husband's office! He will pay.

How did Jacqueline Onassis (and Imelda Marcos) become the owner of 2,000 dresses, of which she did not even wear a tenth of what she bought?

For example, two minutes was enough for her to spend one hundred thousand dollars in just one store! She took entire collections of clothes from top-class French tailors, and antique furniture, bought dozens of shoes - her eyes ran wide. Jackie did not disdain even old pendulums, so as not to leave a random shop empty-handed. To be sold is to be sold, and although she had 150 thousand francs a month for pocket expenses, this small amount, as you understand, Jacqueline Bouvier - Kennedy - Onassis was not enough for anything.

The American journalist Elista Fred Sparks wrote in Parimatch magazine:

The Greek shipping magnate and former First Lady of America leads a lifestyle that the Sun King himself (Louis XIV) would envy. They don't have the Palace of Versailles. But there are luxurious residences where the staff is always ready to receive them at any time: a villa in Monte Carlo, an apartment in Paris, a villa in Glyfada near Athens, a hacienda in Montevideo, Jackie's apartment on Fifth Avenue in New York, the private island of Scorpios. Finally, the couple also has permanent rooms at the Pierre Hotel in New York and the Claridge Hotel in London. In each of these apartments, Onassis has a complete wardrobe at his disposal. So he rarely has to pack his suitcases.

The same goes for Jackie. In a 15-room New York apartment on Fifth Avenue, all her clothes are carefully sorted: daytime toilets are separated from evening ones. Various types of dresses, suits, raincoats, capes, coats are grouped by color and length, shoes - depending on the style and color. There are a lot of shoes, a lot - several hundred pairs. And on the island of Skorpios, a special room was even built for her innumerable toilets.

The Last Voyage of the Tanker King

Over time, Onassis's empire became, as he wanted, a powerful modern financial and industrial structure that brought together the most diverse enterprises: shipping and shipbuilding companies, airlines, banks, casinos in Monte Carlo, oil refineries and even the production of olives (85 companies). The personal fleet included 117 tankers, costing an average of $7 million. Ari's net profits in the first 9 months of 1973 left $100 million.

In the 70s, Aristotle Onassis reaches the pinnacle of his financial and political power, exerting an invisible, but often decisive influence on key events in the world of economics and finance. Most often he conducts his business from New York, Monte Carlo or Paris, where in his vast apartments on the Rue Foch he likes to sit at a low, elongated coffee table, placing on it his miniature note, bound in leather, chased in gold A book that Ari always keeps at hand. There is also usually a small, slightly worn brown case, stuffed with business papers.

In the corner above the elegant secretary that once adorned the study of Louis XV, hangs a colorful portrait of the owner, painted by a very good artist, representing Ari in the early 50s, when he was just entering the really big ring of business. Nearby hang photographs of children taken several years ago: Christina and Alexander. Everything is very elegant and homely, in everything you can feel the personal taste of the owner, his luxury in the atmosphere of a private office and headquarters.

In particularly difficult situations, Ari usually sat on the deck of the Christina, looking out at the silent expanse of the sea before him. He liked this night loneliness, when everything around calms down and he is left alone with his thoughts for long hours, which he sends with sensitive tentacles with an impulse of will beyond the horizon, across the ocean to where unresolved problems are swarming, so that they bring him new, unexpected for solution competitors. During these hours, Ari liked to model in his mind, as fighters often do in the ring or tatami, various options for the development of the situation, choosing favorable ones and making notes on how to get around dangerous, "mine" places and positions. This usually gave a solution... But now...

On January 21, 1973, his son Alexander crashed while taking off from the Athens airport strip on a Piaggio plane. For Onassis, this loss was fatal.

In August 1974, Tina Niarchos visited her daughter Christina in London in a hospital for drug addicts. After that, she could not come to her senses for a long time. Despite everything, her death remains a mystery.

On the morning of September 10, 1974, in the Parisian residence of Stavros Niarchos - the Hotel De Chanalei, the visiting doctor stated the death of Athena Livanos - Onassis - Niarchos from a lung tumor.

... Onassis's health worsened. At the end of October, Ari even had to be placed under the name of Phyllis in one of the best New York hospitals for the purpose of treatment with cortisone. For Onassis, it was clear that after his death it would not be possible to maintain control of his empire in the form of anonymous companies over which he himself exercised effective control. Therefore, he creates two companies by his order: one, in which all his assets are concentrated, he transfers to the main heiress Christina and the other, which has a share in the first company. But Onassis does not leave Christina a controlling stake in the second company, which he bequeathed to the Alexander Onassis Foundation!

In February 1975, Greek doctors in Athens informed Ari that he had pneumonia, which had started as a result of cortisone treatment for other illnesses. Onassis suffered a severe attack of renal colic (he had stones), suffered from jaundice, and had difficulty breathing. He was admitted to the Neiqi American Clinic in Paris, where Ari's gallbladder was removed on February 10. He spent the next 5 weeks in a semi-conscious state. Jacqueline, who had flown in from New York, after some signs of Onassis's health improving, flew back. On March 15, 1975, she was still in New York when Ari had already died, having only Christina among her relatives. Aristotle Onassis was buried in the courtyard of a small chapel on the island of Skorpios. His daughter Christina, passing from one hospital for drug addicts to another, soon died too. The surviving granddaughter Athena - who inherited a huge capital - lives in Buenos Aires.

On January 30, 2003, Onassis' granddaughter Athena turned 18 and entered into inheritance rights, becoming the richest girl in the world. Now she can manage her huge fortune herself: deposits in banks in the amount of about $ 2 billion, the island of Skorpios in the Aegean Sea, 11 tankers, investments in 90 large corporations located in 12 countries of the world, unique collections of works of art and jewelry.

Aristotle Socrates Onassis(English) Aristotelis Socrates Onassis, more precisely Onassis, Greek Αριστοτέλης Ωνάσης ; January 15 (according to other sources 20) January - March 15) - Greek shipowner, billionaire.

The only son of Onassis, Alexander, died on January 21, 1973 in a plane crash at the age of 25.

His luxurious yacht Christina, named after his daughter, heiress to 2/3 of his estate, was called by some the "floating palace" and served for several years as his permanent residence. Christina herself was married four times (including marriage to Sergei Kauzov, a citizen of the USSR and an employee of Sovfrakht. The marriage was concluded in the summer of 1978 in Moscow and lasted 16 months). She died on November 19, 1988 in Buenos Aires at the age of 37 under unclear circumstances. After the death of Christina, the Onassis empire passed to her daughter Athena Roussel (born in the last, fourth marriage of Christina Onassis, concluded in 1983 with the Frenchman Thierry Roussel). According to the European Association of Myasthenya gravis, Aristotle Onassis is one of the most famous people in the world with myasthenia gravis.

This fact is very, very important for a huge number of patients with this disease around the world. Since this demonstrates the ability of a person, even with such a serious neurological disease, to lead an active lifestyle, engage in effective entrepreneurial activity have a rich personal life.

According to Onassis' will, he left 55% of the inheritance to his daughter Christina Onassis, and transferred 45% to the establishment of the Alexander Onassis Foundation.

Notes

Links

• Onassis, Aristotle at Rodovod. Tree of ancestors and descendants
• The Life of Aristotle Onassis
• Golubitsky, S. M. Telis, Ari, Papic O (Russian) . Archived from the original on August 16, 2011. Retrieved August 16, 2011.

see also

Categories:

• Personalities in alphabetical order
• January 15
• Born in 1906
• Born in Izmir
• Deceased March 15
• Deceased in 1975
• Deceased in Neuilly-sur-Seine
• Entrepreneurs in Greece
• Billionaires

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