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Getty Family Has Murky Ties to Gun-Filled Mansion

It took law enforcement 12 hours to pull all the guns out of the home
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted May 10, 2019 7:54 AM CDT
Getty Family Has Murky Ties to Gun-Filled Mansion
This photo shows gun parts and ammunition, part of a large cache of weapons seized at a home in the affluent Holmby Hills area of Los Angeles on Wednesday.   (Los Angeles Police Department via AP)

An estate located near the Playboy Mansion remains the focal point for a Southern California mystery, complete with a posh address, a chaotic interior, and a link to the Getty family. It was also what authorities are calling a "hoarder's paradise." The home that authorities raided Wednesday in Holmby Hills turned up more than 1,000 firearms of various types, including pistols, shotguns, assault weapons, and even Civil War-era rifles—so many that it took 30 or so law enforcement workers more than 12 hours to pull them all out, per the Los Angeles Times. "I had never seen so many weapons in my career of 31 years," LAPD Lieutenant Chris Ramirez tells Heavy.com. "It's astounding." The focus is now on Girard Saenz, the 57-year-old man arrested in the case for allegedly violating the state's assault-weapons law.

First there's his link to Carolyn Beck, the ex-mistress of billionaire Gordon Getty (they have three daughters together) and owner of the Bel Air home, per public records. Authorities aren't yet sure if Beck lives at the $7 million mansion, with the Times noting she owns multiple homes with Saenz through the LA area and San Francisco. Saenz and Beck have been IDed as both longtime companions and "extremely private business partners," per Heavy. Though Beck had a legal tussle in 2001 with neighbors over property issues, current neighbors say the home has long seemed quiet. "I walk up and down here all the time," one neighbor tells the Times. "I never see anyone come in or out." A joint ATF-LAPD probe continues, per CBS News. (More Getty stories.)

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