26 Facts About Alexander Onassis

Alexander Socrates Onassis was an American-born Greek businessman.

Alexander Onassis was the son of the Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis and his first wife Tina Livanos.

Alexander Onassis was later appointed the head of Olympic Aviation, a Greek regional airline owned by his father.

Alexander Onassis died in hospital as a result of injuries sustained in an air crash at Hellinikon International Airport at the age of 24.

Alexander Socrates Onassis was born at the Columbia University Medical Center in New York City.

Alexander Onassis was the elder child of the Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis and his first wife, Athina Livanos, herself a daughter of the Greek shipping magnate Stavros G Livanos.

Alexander Onassis was named after his father's uncle, who was hanged by a Turkish military tribunal during their sacking of Smyrna in September 1922.

Alexander Onassis had no formal schooling, but had been provided with a personal tutor and his own apartment from a young age.

Alexander Onassis failed his exams at a Paris lycee at age 16, and began working for his father at his Monaco headquarters in 1965.

Alexander Onassis earned a salary of $12,000 working for his father despite his father's great wealth.

Rodin was the widow of the Dominican playboy and diplomat Porfirio Rubirosa, and Rodin and Alexander Onassis lived together in Monaco.

In October 1968, Aristotle Onassis married Jacqueline Kennedy, the widow of John F Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States.

Aristotle Onassis's friend, John W Meyer, credited Alexander with persuading his father to stop publicly accusing his business rival and former brother-in-law, Stavros Niarchos, of involvement in the death of Niarchos's former wife, Alexander's aunt Eugenia Livano-Niarchos.

Alexander Onassis disapproved of Alexander's secret relationship with Fiona von Thyssen, a British fashion model some 16 years his senior and the former wife of industrialist Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza.

Alexander Onassis had first met Thyssen when he was 12, and as an 18-year-old had surprised his mother by inviting her to a dinner party, as she was one of his mother's friends.

Alexander Onassis wanted to have a committed relationship with Thyssen from their first meeting, which she initially resisted, but the deep relationship which eventually developed between the pair was resisted by Alexander Onassis's mother, who constantly sought to sabotage it.

Alexander Onassis had taken his first flying lesson in 1967 and had accrued 1,500 flying hours by the time of his death.

Alexander Onassis was instructing a potential new pilot of the plane, Donald McCusker, at the time of the crash, in his role as President of Olympic Aviation.

Alexander Onassis's mother arrived from Switzerland with her husband, Stavros Niarchos.

Aristotle had flown the English neurosurgeon Alan Richardson from London to Athens, but Richardson later told Onassis that Alexander had no chance of surviving his injuries.

Aristotle Alexander Onassis considered having his son's body cryogenically frozen with the Life Extension Society, but was persuaded against it, and he was embalmed by Desmond Henley.

Alexander Onassis was buried next to the chapel on his father's private Ionian island of Skorpios.

In December 1974, in a paid advertisement, Aristotle Alexander Onassis announced his offering of a $1,000,000 reward for proof that his son's death had been as a result of "deliberate action" as opposed to the cause of negligence, the conclusion reached by the official inquiry.

Alexander Onassis had refused to believe that his son's death was an accident, believing it was due to the machinations of the United States Central Intelligence Agency and the leader of the Greek military junta, Georgios Papadopoulos.

Alexander Onassis's death had a profound effect on his father, who never fully recovered from the loss of his son.

Aristotle Alexander Onassis sought to sell Olympic Airways after his son's death, and died two years later in March 1975.