An extremely rare photograph of Michael Jackson’s half-sister, the lovely Joh’ Vonnie Jackson, sixteen when this picture was taken in February 1991. Ms Jackson hopes to follow in the footsteps of her famous half-brothers and –sisters, and become an entertainer. (J. Randy Taraborrelli Collection)
In 1977, the Jackson daughters hoped to start their own singing group. However, since LaToya and Rebbie couldn’t see eye-to-eye on the group’s direction, and Janet wanted to be an actress, the act never got off the ground. Left to right: LaToya, twenty-one; Janet, eleven; and Rebbie, twenty-seven. (© 1977 Soul magazine. All Rights Reserved.)
Michael in October 1978 as the scarecrow in The Wiz, a huge box-office disaster. (J. Randy Taraborrelli Collection)
Jermaine Jackson with author J. Randy Taraborrelli, 1980. Jackson was ambivalent about his decision to stay with Motown when his borthers signed with CBS Records. He told Taraborrelli, ‘I don’t feel I left them. I feel they left me… here at Motown.’ (Mike Jones)
In July 1980, Joe Jackson celebrated his fifty-first birthday. Left to right: Joe’s mother, Chrystal; Gina Sprague, nineteen; Marlon, twenty-three; Janet, fourteen; and Randy, seventeen. Michael did not show up. Katherine, who suspected that Gina and Joe were having an affair, was seated at a nearby table when this picture was taken. (J. Randy Taraborrelli Collection)
By the time this photo was taken, 7 February 1984, Michael Jackson was sitting on top of the world, thanks to his Thriller album. ‘You get one frame,’ Michael told photographer David McGough, who waited five hours to take this picture. ‘That’s it. If I close my eyes, too bad.’ McGough took his ‘one frame’, and this was the result. Michael is wearing a hat because his scalp was burned less than two weeks earlier while taping an ad for Pepsi. (David McGough/DMI)
On 7 February 1984, Michael was inducted into the Guiness Book of World Records for recording the most successful album in music industry history, Thriller. Right, Michael with his manager, Frank Dileo. (David McGough/DMI)
Michael Jackson set a new music industry record on 28 February 1984, when he walked off with an unprecedented eight Grammy Awards, the most won by an artist in one year. Michael gives the thumbs up to photographers as he drops off his date, Brooke Shields, at her Los Angeles hotel following the awards after-party. (John Paschal/DMI)
On 30 November 1983, a press conference was held at Tavern on the Green in New York to announce that the Jackson brothers would be reuniting for a tour. Left to right: Marlon, twenty-six; Michael’s friend, Emmanuel Lewis, twelve; Michael, twenty-five; Randy, twenty-one; Tito, thirty; Jackie, thirty-two; and Jermaine, twenty-nine. Promoter, Don King, with the ‘interesting’ hairdo, is posed flashing the peace sign. (David McGough/DMI)
Michael’s bizarre hyperbaric chamber hoax made worldwide headline news. To this day, many people believe that Michael slept in such a contraption, when actually the whole thing was a publicity stunt concocted by Michael. (Transworld Feature, Synd.)
Twenty-nine-year-old Michael on stage in March 1988 during the Bad tour. (David McGough/DMI)
Michael receives the BMI Michael Jackson Award on 8 May 1990, in Beverly Hills. (Kevin Winter/DMI)
Michael and his friend Jordie Chandler (far right) and Jordie’s mother, Lily, in 1993 at the World Music Awards in Monaco. It was during this trip, Jordie alleged, that the sexual misconduct began between him and Michael. (Rex)
On 22 December 1993, Michael gave a speech from his Neverland ranch about the allegations. ‘I ask all of you to wait and hear the truth before you condemn me,’ he said, holding back tears. ‘Don’t treat me like a criminal.’ (Corbis)
Was he telling the truth? Though Michael denied that anything sexual happened between him and Jordie, pictured here in 1993, he ended the ordeal with a huge cash settlement to the youngster and his family. ‘I had to go on with my life,’ Michael explained to the author of this book. ‘Too many people had already been hurt.’ (Rex)
On 26 May 1994, after the Jordie Chandler scandal, Michael went on to marry Lisa Marie Presley. At the time, most observers viewed the union as a public relations manoeuvre. However, as it happens, the truth is stranger than fiction: he and Lisa had a strong sexual chemistry; it was the first time Michael had ever felt so intensely about another person. (Corbis)
On 13 November 1996, Michael married Debbie Rowe. And it was Debbie who gave Michael his longed-for children. (Corbis)
Michael with his daughter, Paris (left), and son, Prince Michael I, on a public outing, in 2002. He covered their faces, he said, in order to avoid kidnapping attempts. (Corbis)
This is the photo that caused a huge sensation in November 2002, when Michael dangled his nine-month-old son, Prince Michael II, from a balcony in Germany. He apologized for it, but he was never able to live it down. (Corbis)
This is a rarely seen photo of Michael and Diana Ross. Michael so loved and respected Diana he stipulated in his will that, in the event of his death, she care for his three children if his mother, Katherine, was unable to do so. (J. Randy Taraborrelli Collection)
Michael’s children have always been a source of fascination. Jackson’s second wife, Debbie Rowe, is the mother of Prince Michael I (left) and Paris (in the middle). Prince Michael II’s mother is unknown. (National Photo Group/Valdez)
The memorial service for Michael Jackson, held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on July 7, 2009, was a deeply touching event, with the most moving tribute of all given by Jackson’s 11-year-old daughter, Paris Katherine Michael. Here she is surrounded by members of the family: siblings Janet, LaToya and Jermaine, and Jackson’s older son, Prince Michael I. (GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/Getty Images)
There were many rumors of Michael’s declining health in the months prior to his death, but he certainly looked fit in this photo taken on June 23, just two days before his death. Michael was in rehearsals for his comeback show in London, which were to have begun in July. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/AEG via Getty Images)
Personal Acknowledgements
I owe a debt of gratitude to so many people who saw my work and research regarding Michael Jackson through its many incarnations over the years. It would be impossible to acknowledge them all – I started writing about Michael for the Black American newspaper in New York back in the 1970s!- – but I would like to at least try to recognize a few.
I would like to thank my publisher, Jamie Raab at Grand Central Publishing, and all of the terrific people there who worked so hard to pull together this updated edition of my Michael Jackson biography under such a pressing deadline. This book has not been available in America in almost fifteen years. It’s so wonderful to see it back in print, and now fully updated.
I would also like to thank my domestic agent, Mitch Douglas, for his dedication to me and to this work. Also my European agent, Dorie Simmonds, was instrumental in assisting us with this project, and I thank her for years of great representation.
I would like to thank Thomas Mesereau, the attorney who represented Michael Jackson during his 2005 molestation trial and won Jackson an acquittal on all counts. I would also like to thank Brian Oxmon, the Jacksons’ family lawyer. I most certainly must also acknowledge John Branca, Michael’s trusted attorney for many years of his life. I think lawyers have a bad rap sometimes, but these three gentlemen always had Michael’s best interests at heart, and I have the greatest respect for them. I thank them for their support of what I have tried to do over the years in reporting Michael’s story.
In 2005 I covered the Michael Jackson molestation trial in Santa Maria, California, for CBS News and Court TV. I returned to CBS News in 2009 to cover Michael’s death for the network. I’ve met so many amazing people during my time with CBS – media colleagues, many of whom I now count as good friends of mine and who were so supportive of me in my efforts to do my best job. I would like to acknowledge just a few of them here: my very good friends Bruce Rheins and Dawn Westlake, Jennie Josephson, Manuel Gallegos, Vince Gonzalez, Jennifer Sieben, Soshea Lebowitz, Sherri Sylvester, Ben M
cShane, Susan Filan, Anne Bremner; Jim Moret, Maureen Orth, Michelle Caruso, Leslie Miller, Miguel Marquez, Quintin Cushner, Peter Bowes, Peter Shaplin, Lisa Strum Sweetingham, Pat Ketchum, Diane Dimond, Jim Meitus, Pat Ketchum, Savannah Guthrie, Dawn Hobbs, Stacy Brown, Andrew Cohen, Trent Copeland, Hal Eisner, Aphrodite Jones, Jane Velez-Mitchell, Roger Friedman, Jim Thomas, Dan Whitcomb and Mike Taibbi. I apologize to any whose name is not on this list. You are definitely in my heart, if not on the tip of my tongue at this moment. Thanks as well to Raymone K. Bain for her work, and also for being Michael’s spokeswoman during our time in Santa Maria.
I must thank, of course, the Jackson family. Sometimes over the last thirty years of my reporting about them, I have been in their favor. Often not. It’s unfortunate, but that’s the way it goes when it comes to the media and celebrities. However, I have the greatest respect for the Jacksons, and I hope they know it. I consider many of them to be my good friends. I have so many memories of my experiences with them over the years at the Hayvenhurst estate in Encino when I was first starting my career. I have interviewed them all so many times and have done my best to be fair and empathetic. I am so very sorry for their loss of Michael. Their grief is, I know, incalculable. I send them all my love: Joseph and Katherine, Rebbie, Jackie, LaToya, Tito, Randy Marlon and Jermaine. This book is dedicated to the memory of their son, their brother...their loved one, forever.
Special thanks to Mike Lawler for his advice and support on all-things-Jackson. He has helped me in so many ways over the years where Michael is concerned, and I am very grateful to him.
Hillel Black was the editor of the original edition of this work back in 1990. Michael Jackson: The Magic and the Madness was our second collaboration; Mr Black also edited Call Her Miss Ross. No author could ever have hoped for a better, more patient person to shepherd a book.
Paula Agronick Reuben was invaluable to me in so many ways for many years early in my career. I was fortunate to have been able to work with her on the original edition of this book Michael Jackson: The Magic and the Madness. She is a consummate professional and a close friend.
Private investigator and researcher Cathy Griffin was a vital contributor to this project. I am especially indebted to her for locating sources who had seemingly disappeared from the face of the earth. Ms Griffin also conducted scores of interviews for this work, and I am extremely grateful to her for that as well.
Special thanks to Stephen Gregory, not only for so many years of friendship but also for all of his invaluable input into this book. He is always there for me, without fail.
I must thank Jonathan Hahn, a fellow journalist, my publicist, and also my good friend. A fellow couldn’t ask for a better sounding board than Jonathan. Thanks also to Alysia Garrison for being so vital and important to Jonathan, and also to me.
I must thank Cloe Basiline for all of her work on transcriptions of interviews for the new edition of this work. She spent many hours working under the tightest deadline imaginable to accurately put down every word. I would also like to thank Stewart Payne, who conducted important interviews for me for this updated book. James Burrell also conducted interviews for me in Gary, Indiana. Thanks to him we were able to track down people who worked with Michael and his brothers in the early days, people who have never before been interviewed. I must also thank Thomas DeWitt for all of his research work in the United Kingdom on what he calls ‘The Jackson Case’. Three other researchers whose kindnesses should not go unacknowledged are Maxwell Taylor, Irene Roberts and Geri Thomas. These researchers typed many of the notes and other minutiae that were unearthed during library research, saving me and others involved with this book so much time and energy. I am indebted to them.
Researcher Julio Vera spent many hours in the Los Angeles Superior Courthouse locating court records so valuable to my research. I thank him for his patience and perseverance. John Redman also conducted interviews for this book, and I much appreciate his assistance.
I would like to acknowledge my roots at Soul Magazine, the publication I used to read as a little kid and helped edit as an adult. Thank you, Regina Jones, for encouraging me in the early days of my career. And thanks to my buddies Steve Ivory, Leonard Pitts and Reggie Wilson. All these years later – thirty, at least – and we’re still friends. I so value all of my time and history with Soul, and between the three of us fellows it would be impossible to count the words in print we devoted to Michael and the Jackson family. I like to think our interviews and stories about the family are an important part of the historic record and go a long way toward explaining them for generations to come.
Special thanks to these individuals for their support in tangible and intangible ways on the original edition of this book, including Cindy Adams, Larry Anderson, Kristopher Antekeier, Sherman Armstrong, Stewart Armstrong, Gil Askey, Virginia August, Vern Austin, Billy Barnes, Glenn Bascome, Jeffrey Beasley, Louis Becker, Gary Berwin, Cindy Birdsong, Stanley Blits, Judith Blum, Wayne Brasler, Len Brimhall, Robert Brimmer, Ralph Brine, Robert Brown, Kenneth and Dolores Bruner and family, Maryann Bryant, the late and so-memorable Walter Burrell, Mark Butler, Tim Burton, Lee Campbell, Geron Canidate, Luis Cansesco, Eddie Carroll, Gordon Carter, Lee Casto, Tony Castro, Kenneth Choi, Herman Cohen, Rob Cohen, Paul Coleman, Michele Connolly, Marvin Corwin, Richard Crane, Ted Culver, Barbara Dalton, Hal Davis, Etterlene DeBarge, David Delsey, David Doolittle, Lamont Dozier, Stewart Drew, David Duarte, Beverly Ecker, Carl Feuerbacher, Mickey Free, Rosetta Frye, Rudy Garza, Rick Gianotos, Louise Gilmore, Sylvester Goodnough, Theresa Gonsalves, Martha Gonsalves, Berry Gordy and the entire Gordy family, the late and wonderful Vivian Greene, Susaye Greene, Michael Gutierrez, Scott Haeffs, Sharlette Hambrick, Virginia Harris, Max Hart, Mickey Herskowitz,Jerome Howard, Mary Ellen Howe, Steve Howell, Willie Hutch, Monty Iceman, A. D. Ingram, Terry Ireland, Johnny Jackson, Sarah Jackson, Susie Jackson, Walter Jackson, Etta James, Joyce Jillson, Edward Jimenez, Val Johns, Gregorio Jove, Patty Kellar, Curtis Kelly, Mark Kelly, David Kelsey, Randall King, Ken Kingsley, Mark Kotler, Dr Robert Kotler, George Lakes, Lance and John (The Hollywood Kids), Randy Lane, Harry Langdon, Joseph Layton, Edward Lewis, Jack Lewis, Michael Lewis, Yolanda Lewis, Dr Carole Lieberman, Harold Long, Leonides Lopez, Peter Lounds, Gregory Matthias, Joyce McCrae, Maryann McCullough, James McField, Phillip Meadows, Charles Montgomery, Byran Moore, Clarence Moore, Lee Moore, Mark Mussari, Susan Myerson, Kenneth Nagle, David Nuell, Bernard Pancheco, Ross Pendergraft, the late and so-very-missed Derrick Perrault, James Perry, Marcus Phillips, Rhonda Phillips, Stewart Phillips, Andre Pittmon, Jonathan Ptak, John Reitano, Rich Reitano, Deke Richards, Jack Richardson, Lionel Richie, Seth Riggs, David Ritz, Grace Rivera, the late Danny Romo, Stanley Ross, the late Raymond St Jacques, Ramone Sandoval, Stan Sherman, Joseph Simon, Liz Smith, James Spada, Reed Sparling, Judy Spiegelman, Gina Sprague, Steven Sprocket, Rick Starr, Nancy Stauffer, Robert Waldron, Vince Waldron, Marjorie Walker, Dan Weaver, Harry Weber, Tim Whitehead, Susan Williams, Edward Willis, Douglas Wilson, Jeffrey Wilson, Rob Yaren and John Whyman.
I would also like to acknowledge the late but never forgotten former wives of Jackie and Tito Jackson, Enid Jackson and Dee Dee Jackson. They were so helpful to me in the past. Both were wonderful, giving women who left us much too early. They are so missed by their friends and families.
I would also like to acknowledge those who played such a big part in Michael’s success and whom I have also interviewed in the past: Diana Ross, Suzanne dePasse, Bobby Taylor, Tony Jones, Chris Clark, Nancy Leiviska, Gladys Knight and the late (great) Bob Jones.
I could never do alone what I do with my books, and if I forgot any single person who contributed in any way to the research of this book – particularly those who are employed by my researchers – I am truly sorry. It does take a team of professionals, not just a single author, to tackle a project such as Michael Jackson: The Magic, The Madness, The Whole Story, and I am eternally grateful to all of the players.
As I have often stated, without a loyal te
am of representatives, an author usually finds himself sitting at home writing books no one reads. Therefore I thank all of those from USA Team JRT who somehow mastermind the chaos in my office: attorneys Joel Loquvam, James M. Leonard and James Jimenez; C.P.A Michael Horowitz, of Horowitz, McMahon and Zarem in Southern California; and Felinda DeYoung, also of Horowitz, et. al.
I also want to thank Jeff Hare at Warner Bros. for being such a good and trusted friend and for always understanding and appreciating the work that I do.
Thanks, also, to Brian Newman for his assistance in so many ways.
Some other good friends I must acknowledge are Andy Steinlen, George Solomon, Frank Bruno, Andy Hirsch, Richard Tyler Jordan, Jeff Cook, Andy Skurow, Hazel and Rob Kragulac, Scott Allen, Freda Payne and Greg Abbott, Scherrie Payne, Brandon Schmook, Lisa Reiner, Felipe Echerri, Steve Ridgeway, Billy Barnes, Barbara Ormsby, Rick Starr, John Passantino, Linda DiStefano, Mr and Mrs Joseph Tumolo, Daniel Tumolo, Charles Casillo, Mark Mussari, Peter Spotswood Dillard, John Carlino, Wayne Brasler, Jackie Percher, Tony and Marilyn Caruselle, David Spiro, Mr and Mrs Adolph Steinlen, David and Frances Snyder, Abby and Maddy Snyder, Maribeth and Don Rothell, Mary Alvarez, Mark Bringelson, Hope Levy, Tom Lavagnino, Eric Underwood, Ersan Jon Capan, John Townsend, David McCormack, Steven Kay, Jesus Rodriguez, Walter Tabayoyong, Nick LaRocco, Roman D’Angelo, Susan Kaya, Marlene Morris, Kac Young, Aaron Lawrence, Erik Rodriguez, Nolan Blackford, Daniel Feser, Martha Vamos, Jared Murphy and William (Wm) Rodriguez. I know I have forgotten some people and that when this is published I’ll be kicking myself. Whoever you are, if I have forgotten to mention you here, know that I owe you a big dinner to make it up to you.
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