40 Facts About Aristotle Onassis

Aristotle Socrates Onassis was a Greek and Argentine business magnate.

Aristotle Onassis amassed the world's largest privately-owned shipping fleet and was one of the world's richest and most famous men.

Aristotle Onassis was married to Athina Mary Livanos, had a long-standing affair with opera singer Maria Callas and was married to American former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy.

Aristotle Onassis moved to Argentina in 1923 and established himself as a tobacco trader and later a shipping owner during the Second World War.

Aristotle Onassis was greatly affected by the death of his son, Alexander, in 1973 and died two years later.

Aristotle Socrates Onassis was born in 1906 in Karatas, a suburb of the Ottoman port city of Smyrna in Anatolia to Greek parents Socrates Onassis and Penelope Dologlou.

Aristotle Onassis had one sister, Artemis, and two half-sisters, Kalliroi and Merope, by his father's second marriage following Penelope's death.

Socrates Aristotle Onassis became a successful shipping entrepreneur and sent his children to prestigious schools.

Aristotle Onassis's father was imprisoned and his business was transferred to Turkish ownership.

In 1923, Aristotle Onassis returned to Istanbul with $250 in his pocket.

Aristotle Onassis later became an entrepreneur, creating an Argentine import-export company, going into business for himself and making a fortune importing English-Turkish tobacco to Argentina.

Aristotle Onassis reportedly told Maria Callas that he made his fortune in Buenos Aires by forming a shipping company used for trafficking heroin.

Aristotle Onassis built up a fleet of freighters and tankers that eventually exceeded seventy vessels.

Aristotle Onassis made large profits when the Big Oil companies like Mobil, Socony, and Texaco signed long-term contracts known as time charters at fixed prices before the stock market fell.

The high profitability of the Aristotle Onassis fleet has been attributed in large part to his disregard for standards that normally govern international shipping.

Aristotle Onassis arrived in the Mediterranean principality of Monaco in 1953 and began to purchase the shares of Monaco's Societe des bains de mer de Monaco via the use of front companies in the tax haven of Panama, and took control of the organisation in the summer of that year.

Aristotle Onassis moved his headquarters into the Old Sporting Club on Monaco's Avenue d'Ostende shortly after taking control of the SBM.

Aristotle Onassis wished the country to remain a resort for an exclusive clientele, but Rainier wished to build hotels and attract a greater number of tourists.

Monaco had become less attractive as a tax haven in the wake of France's actions, and Rainier urged Aristotle Onassis to invest in the construction of hotels.

Aristotle Onassis was reluctant to invest in hotels without a guarantee from Rainier that no other competing hotel development would be permitted, but promised to build two hotels and an apartment block.

Aristotle Onassis was charged with violating the citizenship provision of the shipping laws which require that all ships displaying the US flag be owned by US citizens.

Between 1950 and 1956, Aristotle Onassis had success whaling off the west coast of South America.

In 1954 the government of Peru claimed the Aristotle Onassis fleet were whaling within 320 kilometres of the coast of Peru without permission and sent naval vessels to intercept them.

The Greek government decided to give this and other companies to the private sector, and, on 30 July 1956, Aristotle Onassis signed a contract granting him the operational rights to the Greek air transport industry.

The agreement lasted until 10 December 1974, when a number of factors led Aristotle Onassis to terminate his contract.

Aristotle Onassis was married to the sea, but Olympic was his mistress.

Aristotle Onassis was renowned for his attention to service quality, which led him to buy gold-plated utensils and candles for the dining service of the first-class section.

Aristotle Onassis was involved in the privatization of the Greek national airline and founded the privatized Olympic Airways in 1957.

Aristotle Onassis owned additional shares that secured his control of 95 multinational businesses in five continents.

Aristotle Onassis owned gold-processing plants in Argentina and Uruguay and a large share in an airline in Latin America and $4 million worth of investments in Brazil.

In October 1968, amidst the Greek military junta and shortly after his marriage to Jacqueline Kennedy, Aristotle Onassis announced the launch of Project Omega, a $400 million investment program that aimed to build considerable industrial infrastructure in Greece including an oil refinery and aluminum smelter.

Aristotle Onassis had cultivated Greek junta dictator Georgios Papadopoulos, for his assistance with the scheme, loaning Papadopoulos the use of his villa and buying dresses for his wife.

The failure was due partly to opposition from influential people within the military junta, such as Ioannis-Orlandos Rodinos, Deputy Minister of Economic Coordination, who opposed Aristotle Onassis's offers in preference to Niarchos.

Aristotle Onassis and Livanos had two children, both born in New York City: a son, Alexander, and a daughter, Christina.

Aristotle Onassis named his legendary super-yacht, Christina O, after his daughter.

Aristotle Onassis felt that the marriage dealt a blow to his father-in-law and the old-money Greek traditionalists who held Onassis in very low esteem.

Aristotle Onassis died at age 69 on 15 March 1975 at the American Hospital of Paris in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, of respiratory failure, a complication of the myasthenia gravis from which he had suffered the last years of his life.

Aristotle Onassis was buried on his island of Skorpios in Greece, alongside his son, Alexander, and his sister, Artemis.

Jacqueline Aristotle Onassis received her share of the estate, settling for a reported $10 million, which was negotiated by her brother-in-law Ted Kennedy.

The Boeing 727, which transported Aristotle Onassis's remains, was later purchased for US $100,000 by an American electrical engineer and turned into an unconventional private residence in Hillsboro, Oregon.