user: OIL BARONS' KIN ON A SLIPPERY SLOPE

Thursday, February 1th 1996, 1:95AM

F. SCOTT FITZGERALD once said: "The very rich are different from you and me."

He was very right. They are different.

But maybe that's because they get treated very differently from you and me. This seems especially and bizarrely true when it comes to petro-chemical rich people, and their petro-chemically altered psycho-killer progeny.

Take the latest wealthy wacko, John du Pont, an heir to the giant chemical company. He allegedly shot and killed an Olympic gold medal wrestler, which was certainly different enough from anything you or I would do. And God knows, it was certainly a departure from anything the Dalai Lama (du Pont's alter ego) would normally do.

Du Pont had never been arrested or committed, though he kept unlicensed guns at home, thought he was the Dalai Lama, allegedly beat his ex-wife and threatened people with guns, drove an armored vehicle, assaulted wrestlers, built a wrestling pit in his backyard and believed he was under the spell of geese. Maybe the cops who didn't arrest him before someone died were under the spell of geese, too.

Du Pont is hardly the first very rich petro-chem heir who's gone very batty.

Take the oil-saturated, not to mention oily, Gettys please. There was Jean Paul, the first. He was nuts and fathered many little nuts. There was his son Jean Paul 2d, a tight-fisted heroin addict.

There is the grandson Jean Paul Getty 3d, who had a breakdown after kidnapers sliced off his ear when he was 16. He drank, took drugs and had wild fits of temper. Prescription drugs made him a blind quadriplegic.

Not that the kid didn't have good reason to have problems. Grandfather Jean Paul Getty Sr. refused to pay his grandson's ransom, even after they cut off his ear. He finally relented and paid $2.2 million the portion that was tax-deductible. He loaned his son, JPG 2d, a million more to pay his portion of the ransom. It took them five months and one severed ear to come up with the $3.2 mil down from the original $17.4 million demand. And you wonder how the guy got so rich?

After Jean Paul 3d became disabled, his father refused to pay his medical costs until a judge ordered it.

You'll be happy to know that JPG 2d's friends persuaded him to give up heroin and give a lot of money to charity and cricket. For his good deeds the Queen of England knighted him. Just like you and me.

My favorite petro psycho family are the heirs of the guy who invented plastic Leo Baekland. His son, Brooks, was a handsome devil (literally), with an ability to squander his money and corrupt everyone he touched. Brooks hated his father and despised his own son, Tony.

Tony was a homosexual who fell in love with a woman. She was the only woman (besides his mother) he'd ever had sex with. Brooks decided that was good enough for him and stole his son's girl.

Tony, who was never cooking on all four burners, retaliated by succumbing to the advances of his own mother, and the two allegedly became lovers before he killed her.

Because Tony Baekland's family was rich and influential and had invented plastic, he got an early release from Britain's Broadmoor Special Hospital (looney bin prison). He came to America, tried to kill his grandmother and then suffocated himself with yes a plastic bag.

What makes the heirs of the polluting petro rich go into psycho-sexual killing frenzies? Maybe it's all those aromatic hydrocarbon emissions.

I asked someone who should know Dr. Judy Kuriansky, a psychiatrist and host of the syndicated radio show "Love Phones."

"For one thing, there is a genetic pre-disposition for aggression," she said. Their grandfathers, among the most aggressive humans ever, were in total control of everyone. The heirs, in turn, are aggressive but in control of nothing.

"They are omnipotent and powerless at the same time," Kuriansky said. "They are indulged and spoiled, and the laws and rules that apply to everyone else don't apply to them. There are no consequences to their actions, therefore they never learn normal reality testing. The are always protected."

JUST LIKE YOU and me. Stay tuned. Chances are that du Pont will, er, try to invent something that will get him off, too.

Summary: F. SCOTT FITZGERALD once said: "The very rich are different from you and me."He was very right. They are different. But maybe that's because they get treated very differently from you and me. This seems especially and bizarrely true when it comes to petro-chemical rich people, and their petro-chemically altered psycho-killer progeny. Take the latest wealthy wacko, John du Pont, an heir to the giant chemical company. He allegedly shot and


Russia invites US to compete in shooting match . . . using tanks

Putting a twist on an Olympic sport, Russia is holding a biathlon – with tanks – and wants the U.S. to enter the competition.

The first-time event taking place this week has competitors from Russia, Armenia, Belarus and Kazakhstan racing T-72 tanks around a 13-mile track and shooting at five targets. Tanks that miss the targets must take a 1,600-foot penalty lap, The Telegraph reports.

Russian Lt. Gen. Ivan Buvaltsev likened the event to a spectator sport.

"Spectators who come to visit us can watch not just a show, but a competition between real men on real tanks," he said, according to Stuff.co.nz.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told RIA Novosti Saturday that U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel accepted an invite to compete in next year’s tank biathlon after a meeting in Washington on Friday with Secretary of State John Kerry and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. But the Department of Defense has not commented on the invite yet.

Click here to watch video of the event.

Summary:

assistant: Putting a twist on an Olympic sport, Russia is holding a biathlon – with tanks – and wants the U.S. to enter the competition.