The Covert War Against Rock

by Alex Constantine

  The financial ties to the Calabrian Mafia raise the specter of Michael Hutchence’s close friend, Gianni Versacé, the celebrated fashion designer gunned down on the front steps of Casa Casuarina, his palatial South Beach home, by a serial killer on July 15, 1997, only five months before the INXS vocalist was found dead. Versacé, in fact, was raised in the south of Italy, a locale dominated by the Calabrian Mafia. The Telegraph reports that Versacé “would become inflamed with rage at suggestions that he had links with the Mafia.”16 But another Telegraph story notes, “There have long been reports that Versacé, whose family comes from Calabria in southern Italy, had been financially involved with the Mafia” (and so was Hutchence, without his knowledge. “It had been rumoured that he borrowed mob money to expand his business, and had been paying ‘protection money.’”17

  In Europe, the press ran rampant with allegations of Versacé’s Mafia connections. Newspapers in Italy and Ireland offered stories on the designer and the Mob. The Russian Information Agency ran a feature on the topic.

  Then there was the dead mourning dove found lying beside Versacé’s body. The dove was rumored to be a “hit man’s calling card,” but police denied there was any connection to the Mafia. Seems one of the .40 caliber bullets that struck Hutchence’s friend in the head ricocheted off the front gate of his house, a police spokesman explained, sending a lead fragment hurtling skyward. The fragment struck a dove sailing overhead in the eye, killing it instantly The dove (the reincarnation of John Connally?) plummeted to the gutter, bounced and dropped beside Versacés dead body.19

  But the conclusion of a private detective formerly employed by the fashion designer was sharply at odds with the official verdict. Frank Monté, an Australian P.I.—and former recruiter of mercenaries for the African campaigns of the 1960s—told radio shock jock Howard Stern and other interviewers that he was convinced “both Versacé and Cunanan were murdered by the Mob.” He said that he’d been hired by the designer to investigate the killing of a friend’s lover, and was recruited again to follow up on reports that employees of his own company had been laundering mob money. The private eye held that Versacé was gunned down because he intended to turn evidence of the laundering operation over to Italian police. Andrew Cunanan, Monté insisted, was a patsy kidnapped and “suicided” to provide the cover story. The investigator was so confident of the Mafia connection that he publicly advised Cunanan, after Versacé’s murder, to turn himself in or he would be next.

  Ten days after the slaying of Versacé, Monté told reporters: “Nothing that has happened since then has changed my mind.”

  He could not shake off certain unresolved discrepancies. Cunanon is reported to have stolen a .40 caliber pistol and used it to shoot Versacé twice in the head and subsequently turned it on himself. Cunanon was so badly disfigured by one blast that police were unable to identify him at first—but the same gun left two small, pristine holes in Versacé’s skull. The private investigator was skeptical that the stolen gun could have produced drastically dissimilar wounds, and complained that FBI ballistic tests had been “fudged.”13

  The funeral of Gianni Versacé in Milan Cathedral was attended by Diana Spencer, the Princess of Wales, a month before her own death in a Parisian tunnel. As it happened, another social butterfly and friend of Michael Hutchence with organized crime connections was Dodi Fayed. Dodi’s uncle was arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi of Iran-Contra fame. Mohamed al-Fayed, Dodi’s father, is “one of the richest men in Britain,” notes the St. Louis Tribune. “The source of al-Fayed’s wealth always has been somewhat murky. Born poor in Alexandria, Egypt, he acquired a university education and married Samira Kashoggi, sister of the fabulously wealthy Saudi Arabian arms dealer. His brother-in-law gave al-Fayed his start in business by putting him in charge of his furniture-importing interests in Saudi Arabia.”20 He is said to have sicced Donna Rice on Gary Hart to sabotage his bid for the Oval Office. Dodi and his uncle introduced Marla Maples to Donald Trump. Denise Brown, a gadfly in organized crime circles with a black book of mobbed up boyfriends, dated Dodi. Al Fayed and Adnan Khashoggi were closely associated with the Sultan of Brunei, who has been accused by an American beauty queen of presiding over a white slaver’s harem.

  Dodi Fayed and Diana Spencer were killed in a car crash on August 31, 1997, four months before Michael Hutchence died.

  Intelligence officials withhold files on the accident and have steadfastly refused to declassify them. In November, 1998, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the proprietors of the APBNews website, the National Security Agency confirmed that it had on file “39 NSA-originated and NSA-controlled documents” concerning the crash, but “refused to release them.” The NSA insisted that the files were “top secret,” and their release, it seems, could bring about “exceptionally grave damage to the national security.” Press accounts of the secret files moved Al Fayed to undertake a series of lawsuits in Baltimore and Washington district courts for their release. His demand included any intelligence that might be cabbaged away in CIA, DIA and NSA files. Each agency was sued separately in February 1999, and to date Fayed and the media have been denied any classified files pertaining to deaths of his son and the estranged princess.21

  The Deep Politics of Pop Music

  Roger Bunn, director of the Music Industry Human Rights Association (MIHRA) in the UK, lives in the eye of the corporate music beast, and had his own perspective on the death of the core member of INXS. These letters from Bunn were circulated to rock musicians, journalists and researchers in late November, 1997.22

  MIHRA

  Talking Sense about Hutchence, News Reports

  The Really Really Spoilt? The flight is over?

  Paula Yates threw champagne over a Thai airport official who was asking her to reboard the plane. Paula, out of her box on champers and prescription drugs and in company with her lawyer and child was smuggled out of her hotel to view the body of the recently deceased. There is to be an airline report on the incident.

  Pride of the Welsh, Tom Jones, has suggested that the band will “be devastated” and Michael Hutchence “was a nice guy”.

  So that’s it, huh? Death due to hanging?

  Sorta unusual that . . . even for the music industry. Those wonderful featured artists. Really light up the sky every now and then. Maybe we should consider making the poor darlings an endangered species?

  Think about this the next time you buy your next conglomerate primitive/folk music. Every time you buy, every time you watch a movie using well known material, you add strength to the cartel monopolies because nobody else is allowed (by their governments’ I ack of legislation and their ineffective inquiries and “monopolies boards.” And that, now he had “reached his peak,” MH is probably worth far more to his conglomerate dead than alive.

  I spoke to a close friend tonight. He suggested that Paula was so outta her head that Sir Bob had every legitimate right to keep an eye on his kids. My friend was not a fan of “herself.” In fact in the past he had always avoided an introduction.

  However, apart from being a less than mediocre music journalist employed by the Cartel and lousy singer (for the Boomtown Rats), Sir Bob is still being condemned by the industry’s creative “cognicenti” of using the kudos and money he obtained by reinventing and promoting himself with “LIVE AID” to gain his title.

  He blamed Paula for just about everything to do with the situation that lead to the strange death of a man who was probably one of the “sub-normal featured artists” used by the industry to maintain it’s monopoly over 95 percent of the western world market.

  MIHRA first came into contact with Micheal after he had contacted Central TV’s, (now Carlton TV) John Pilger and David Munro in relation to “Death of a Nation,” their doc about the genocide in East Timor. He was after all ashamed of his nation’s appeasement policies on Indonesia. But like the rest of these elite musical figures, Michael was isolated and uncontactable in person and so the proposed “INXS benefit c
oncert for ET” never took place.

  Then MH became a waste of MIHRA ’s and British Coalition for East Timor’s time. In fact, to do such a concert would have laid the band open to a court case by a well known UK promoter who was looking to sue INXS as soon as they performed, as they had reneged upon a previous contract to appear in London.

  “The sexiest man alive,” Michael was brash and brutal. He punched the paparazzi who had locked on to the affair he was having with Paula Yates, herself well used to controversy during her long (for showbiz) marriage to “Bob” the TV tycoon.

  The police are now seeking a man in his forties with a weird haircut and beard, a taste for kudos and titles.

  Pop saint Sir Robert Geldof of “LIVE AID” (or something even more patronizing) should call his lawyer immediately, just in case.

  “And where were you between the hours of . . . Sir Robert?” Are INXS fans now thinking of building another long living $ Shrine to yet another isolated god of the paparazzi?

  MH was 37 years old and although INXS was not selling conglomerate product as much as over their previous five year span, they had gone back to Austalia to plan yet another tour.

  Featured artists are sometimes Very Strange, sometimes very unprofessional “creators” indeed. The Stones are a much iconed and imperfect example of the “kick back at society” role model syndrome that now exists, not to enlighten society but simply to make even more money. Similar to the overpowering ethic of the six conglomerates.

  The Music Publisher’s Association rules the world of music and the six conglomerate recording companies with their old friends MTV and Rupert Murdoch in close association, they really really don’t care a damn about governments or legislation because the industry turns over $120-billion a year. They can afford to be and are very generous to both sides of any argument or national election.

  Music is the third richest industry on the planet. To do this they have to seek “talent” and provide the public with a marketing false god syndrome so that it can consistently buy its products. But unlike sport (if one gets the right invitations), the talent of an athlete will stand a chance of reaching the commercial surface. Whereas this may be a difficult struggle for some athletes, in the music industry there is no such thing as true competition.

  Who judges what is good an what it not, the audience? The Artist and Recording Manager from the record company down for a fleeting visit to catch the band playing live? This person is probably readying himself to fly for the weekend to Mex with a couple of groupies and a few ounces of coke on one of his clients’ accounts.

  “Double indemnity” is a very tough clause indeed. Into this world comes children on the make and the genuinely talented.

  When an artist’s “usefulness” to a conglomerate is over, things can get a little “sticky.” Lawyers tend to proliferate and costs rise. Michael Hutchence may have been “trouble” to deal with.

  In recent years artists have begun and won more battles in the courts than over the whole of the previous four decades. Artists, that are said to be “difficult to work with,” are winning and are becoming “the norm.” Sometimes, if I were a tycoon with a problem, maybe I would think to myself, “I wish that little faker were dead, then I could become his career”.

  Was Michael more trouble than he was worth? Tom Jones doesn’t think so. Tom says that “Michael was a sensible guy.”

  BIG and influential Bob Geldof

  Bob Geldof . . . journalist (ha!), he worked for “Melody Maker,” one of the papers OWNED by the six member Cartel. . . .

  Bob and Midge Ure (a nice guy and ex-neighbour of ours) who played in Ultravox started LIVE AID the concert that went around the world and raised, millions and KUDOS and MONEY for the Third World and the conglomerates as the guys got tons and tons of news exposure when their careers were seriously faltering. Suddenly Brave Bob was on every TV in the land, day after day.

  So the Show/Music biz doyens got together and did the first big Wembley Concert, they did not consider putting something together like MIHRA outta this massive bundle of cash, they were the EXCLUSIVE FEATURED ARTISTS and were the “untouchables.” The promoter of LIVE AID, Harvey Goldsmith, also arranged the Concert (some say on behalf of the UK and US Govts) for the Kurds after Desert Storm.

  Kids in a Serious Playground . . .

  So Midge and Bob got back into the world headlines saying, “I want to stay in the background, outta the headlines” huh? Of course Amnesty and the NGOs were very pleased with LIVE AID, and the chaps all went off on a happy tour around Africa showing their “solidarity” with all the natives. So AFTER all the dosh had been made and the limos paid for and the HARVEY GOLDSMITH (recently honored) Promotion Agency got their good works publicized, the money started to get dispersed.

  Some LIVE AID money bought a ship full of SPOILT GRAIN from an Indian businessman to go to SOMALIA or somewhere. As the docks were on strike, the grain ship stayed in dock, the ship eventually left dock when strike finish, the ship arrived, Lo and Behold the grain was discovered to be SPOILT, inedible, it cost LIVE AID millions, that’s just one example, there may be others, we do not know them, maybe one could begin to ask more loudly?

  But where did it ALL go? Certainly some of the KURDISH GROUPS wanted it to buy arms to stop Saddam H from exterminating their right to live where they choose and do the work that George Bush and John Major, without the support of the 29 member coalition, couldn’t, or refused to do.

  Which was to take out Saddam H. To the displeasure of Paul Simon and some of the other artists appearing, the UK/US Govt bought bread for the Kurds instead of bullets. So under John Major, Sir Bob became a TV TYCOON. Sir Bob owns the production company that does the BIG BREAKFAST SHOW for young people 5 days a week. “Big Bob” they call him at the office. And it seems like TV power is now his most favourite “toy”. . . .

  Again under PM Major Sir Bob gained his title, Sir Bob of something as one of the showbiz awards from the “Krown.” Sir Bob doesn’t bother too much with being a “singer” anymore. Midge is now living in Cal ... He probably can be contacted through his Cartel (RCA) contract but we would rather not.

  Right now Geldof now lives at his mansion in Kent and his house at 129. We have the address on file somewhere because when we started MIHRA we wrote to the TOP HUNDRED PRS EARNERS IN THE UK. One of the hundred we wrote to was Sir Bob. Only one responded. Bob Geldof, the man of “vision” was Not that singular person.

  In fact the person who did write, really didn’t write at all. And so that’s why MIHRA returned the tiny cheque from Mark Knopfler to his manager ED BICKNELL. Head of AURA, the organization that represents the UK Featured Artists in their indecently hasty chase for the multi-millions of Euro royalties about to hit the UK after Brussels started ruling on the lack of econ-system in the UK music industry and the “policies” of the UK Musician’s Union.

  But you are not going to hear us saying that the death of Michael Hutchence on the 21st November 1997 was a hit by the mob. . . .

  Buddy Holly would only be the first.

  MIHRA’s sources also says that Cath, ex-girlfriend of Jimi Hendrix, has exhausted herself trying to reopen an inquiry into his death and as she is married to his doctor, has now given up. As it was through this contact that Jimi became a star in the UK and later the world, I suggest we take this as “gospel.”

  NOTES

  1. Mike Gee, The Final Days of Michael Hutchence, London: Omnibus, 1998, p. 152.

  2. “INXS fury at photos of bondage,” South China Morning Post, December 11 1997.

  3. Gil Kaufman, “Police Say INXS Singer Left No Suicide Note,” Music News of the World, December 5, 1997.

  4. Ibid.

  5. Geoffrey Lee Martin, “Hutchence seemed so happy, say friends,” London Telegraph, Issue 914, November 24, 1997.

  6. Gee, p. 150.

  7. Ibid.

  8. David Fricke, “The Devil Inside,” Rolling Stone, January 22, 1998, p. 17.

  9. Derek W. Hand, Inquest
into the Death of Michael Kelland Hutchence, February 6, 1998.

  10. “Yates in Legal Move to Fight Suicide Verdict,” London Telegraph, March 30, 1998.

  11. Diamond interview transcribed by Leah Sungenis, as INXS newsletter, July 1998. In May 1998, six weeks after the suit was filed by Hutchence’s family against Diamond and co-executor Andrew Morrison Paul, the Australian attorney told the Queensland Supreme Court that he wanted to be released from any legal responsibility for administering the estate.

  The diversion of Hutchence’s income makes hash of Diamond’s boasts of a bosom relationship with the late singer, and in fact the Morning Herald reported on May 29, 1998 that Colin Diamond, “who has been described as one of Hutchence’s closest friends, did not attend the funeral or the scattering of his ashes.”

  12. Paul Whittaker and Rory Callinan, “Mafia Tie To Rock Star’s Lost Riches,” The Courier-Mail, February 13, 1999.

  13. Mark Chipperfield, “Hutchence family fights for ‘missing’ fortune,” Sunday Telegraph, April 19, 1998.

  14. Ian Verrender, “Fight begins for control of Hutchence assets,” Sydney Morning Herald, March, 8, 1998.

  15. Leigh Reinhold, “Angry Kim—I didn’t kill Michael—A year later, Kym Wilson is still haunted by Michael Hutchence’s death,” New Idea Magazine, Always INSX website.

  16. Caroline Davies, “Boy Raised Among the Brothels Who Became a Fashion Star,” London Telegraph, July 16, 1997.