The Tragic Astor Heir Who Scandalized America and Went Down With Titanic

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The Tragic Astor Heir Who Scandalized America and Went Down With Titanic

In April twenty twenty-four, a gold pocket watch sold at auction for over one million British pounds. The initials engraved on its case were simple. J.J.A. Three letters that once belonged to the richest man aboard the most famous shipwreck in history.
That watch stopped ticking in the early hours of April fifteenth, nineteen twelve. Its owner had just placed his pregnant teenage bride into a lifeboat. He asked if he could join her. The answer was no.
John Jacob Astor the Fourth possessed a fortune estimated at eighty-seven million dollars. In today's currency, that approaches three billion. He could have purchased the entire White Star Line and still had money left over. He owned hotels that defined luxury. He had invented machines and written novels about the future. His mother had dictated the terms of American high society for nearly forty years.

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