Inside Armie Hammer's Shady Family History

Content Warning: This article contains mentions of sexual abuse, cannibalism, and otherwise disturbing violence that could be triggering to readers.

In recent months, Armie Hammer has been mired in a seemingly endless list of scandals that include accusations of him cheating on his ex-wife while they were married, being physically and emotionally abusive, having cannibalistic tendencies, and being into some arguably unconventional sex stuff.

And while the rumors seemed unbelievable at first, they begin to make sense when put in the context of Armie Hammer’s insane family history.

A book written by Casey Hammer, Armie’s aunt, recently resurfaced, and its detailed accounts of the many disturbing habits of the men in the Hammer family put a lot of Armie’s alleged behaviors in perspective. 

So, what are the dark secrets of the Hammer family? Keep reading.

Armie Hammer is the great-grandson of famed industrialist and oil tycoon Armand Hammer, after whom all the Hammer men are named. Armand’s family moved to the United States from Russia, and he was raised in a leftist household. 

While many rumors imply that Armand was named after the Arm & Hammer brand of baking soda (a company he happened to become a majority shareholder of in his later years), Armand was actually named after the “arm and hammer” symbol of the Socialist Labor Party of America. 

Armand started his career in his father’s drug store business and found massive success when he figured out a way to legally manufacture a ginger extract with high levels of alcohol during the prohibition era. He also made a living selling art and breeding cattle, but his real fortune came when he was 58 and moved to California, planning to retire.

Before retiring, Armand bought two oil wells owned by Occidental Petroleum and, as luck would have it, those two wells struck oil — making Armand an extremely wealthy man. He later took hold of a majority stake in Occidental and turned the company international. 

Around the time of his death in 1982, Armand was reported to have a net worth of $200 million.

However, despite his accumulated wealth and social capital, Armand had a reputation for being a bit of a grifter. 

In Dossier: The Secret History of Armand Hammer, author Edward Jay Epstein details bribery schemes, art deals involving inflated prices or forged pieces, and a legacy of lawsuits against Occidental Petroleum, as well as against the Hammer Family Charitable Foundation.

As it turns out, successive generations of the Hammer family became even more problematic than this shifty oil tycoon. 

The recent resurfacing of Armie’s paternal aunt Casey Hammer’s book, Surviving My Birthright, goes into great detail about the family and the abuse she received at the hands of her father, Julian Armand (Armie’s grandfather), and brother, Michael Armand (Armie’s father).

According to Casey, Julian was a meth addict who savagely beat his wife so much that she would drive around in the middle of the night just to avoid him. 

Julian was also known for hosting drug-fueled parties at his home and at one of these soirées, he had Casey hold a phone book as a target that he tried to shoot at. Another time, Casey was chased around the house by a knife-wielding meth addict dressed as a ghost.

Casey also heartbreakingly recalls finding a photograph of her father watching as a woman performed sexual favors on another man, which unlocked her own repressed memories of being abused by her older brother, Michael. 

Casey additionally implies that Michael was involved in the death of her grandfather Armand, and that Michael manipulated the will in order to be left with everything, while she ended up with nothing. 

She describes Michael as "the kind of person that you enjoyed being around but could never trust," and also recalls a time when her father told her about the fact that Michael had been connected to a death at his college, which had to be covered up.

Since she started receiving so much support online, Casey has been much more vocal about the family's history. She recently was on the Juicy Scoop podcast where she said that while it was a sad situation, she wasn’t surprised that Armie was in the position he was in now because everyone in the family was raised to be “perfect on the outside and twisted on the inside.”