The father
The fortune begins with him. The open questions do too.
Last updated July 31, 2026
Othmar John Hitz was a Swiss businessman who built a coffee and real estate fortune in mid-century Venezuela. He was the father of Anna Maria Hitz, the only child and sole heir named in the public story of 1965.
The record says Othmar John Hitz. Not only the contested will, which was long treated as having got his name wrong, but the official Swiss estate notice as well. The Rechnungsruf of the Kreisamt Seewis, published in the Schweizerisches Handelsamtsblatt of 29 and 30 January 1960, reads "Othmar John Hitz, geb. 20. April 1899 in Chur". The family understood him as Othmar Jakob. Because the Swiss estate notice and the will agree, John is very likely his documented civil name rather than an error on the will, and the 1966 Caracas argument that the name proved the will a forgery loses its footing. The Chur birth register settles it. Until it does, the honest statement is that two independent documents say John, the family said Jakob, and the question is open. Note also that he was born in Chur; Seewis im Prättigau is the Heimatort.
He died on July 4, 1958. The official cause was kidney failure. His former wife said poison. Per the family, a later court-ordered look at the grave found it empty. The death certificate, per the family file, was never completed cleanly.
He had placed assets in other people's names, chiefly his lawyer's. A will registered in Caracas in the mid-1950s later did not remain a clean public object for the family. In 1966 Caracas papers covered seizures of jewels and securities. See empty grave · the lawyer · unclaimed fortune.
Act I of the public teaser is the fortune and the lawyer. Act II is the grave. Those are his acts. Series map: /series/.