LaToya in Madrid
It was in the winter of 1993 that perhaps the most damaging blow of all to Michael Jackson’s image was struck, and it came from a family member: his own sister, LaToya. Though she had not seen or talked to him in a number of years, LaToya claimed to have exclusive information about Michael. As it happened, like many of Michael’s household employees who had sold stories to the tabloid press, LaToya and her husband, Jack, had their own sliding scale of scandal: for a fee of $50,000 she would come forth with certain secrets about familial abuse that she had not yet revealed in her many interviews about the subject. However, for twice that, she would open up twice as much – and for a half-million she would throw caution to the wind and just come out and admit that Michael was a paedophile, and that she had proof to support her allegation.
The bidding war began with the British
News of the World
tabloid, who ponied up a substantial amount of money, only to be topped by the American
National Enquirer
and
Star
. However, during the course of the week, as editors pushed for details of LaToya’s revelations, negotiations collapsed. It became clear that she didn’t have much to offer, after all. Left without his planned windfall, Jack then arranged for LaToya to hold a press conference in Tel Aviv, Israel, where she was on tour.
‘Michael is my brother and I love him very much,’ she said, reading from a prepared statement, ‘but I cannot and will not be a silent collaborator in his crimes against young children. If I remain silent, then that means I feel the guilt and humiliation that these children are feeling, and I think it is very wrong. Forget about the superstar, forget about the icon. If he was any other thirty-five-year-old man who was sleeping with little boys, you wouldn’t like this guy.’
She also said that she had seen cancelled cheques made out to several boys for large sums of money, shown to her she said by her mother, Katherine, suggesting that Michael had bought their silence. She said that she sympathized with the children, ‘becauseI am a victim myself. When parents abuse their children, the children go on to be abusers themselves,’ she said. ‘Do you know how many children are going to psychiatrists because of Michael? So many, many children.’
The Jackson family, understandably upset by LaToya’s position, then hosted a press conference at their Encino estate. Distraught, Katherine said, ‘LaToya’s lying. I’ll tell her to her face she’s lying. I can’t believeI have a daughter out there saying these things to sell her brother down the river. She’s been brainwashed by her money-grabbing mongrel of a husband.’
For weeks to come, LaToya’s charges made big news, while she finally started making big money. That she is Michael’s sister gave her point of view special credibility; her stories did more damage to Michael than anything that had ever been charged by any housekeeper in his employ. From country to country, LaToya and Jack ventured forth, pitting television producers and newspaper editors against one another in bidding wars for her anecdotes about Michael. Meanwhile, family members continued to vilify LaToya. ‘But Michael supports the entire Jackson family, financially,’ LaToya said. ‘They have to support him.’
In December 1993 I was asked by the producers of a Spanish television show in Madrid called
La Máquina De Mentira
(
The Lying Machine
), to appear with LaToya and discuss with her the allegations she had made against Michael. As it was explained to me, LaToya would be hooked up to a lie detector machine. Then, I was to ask her questions about why she believed Michael was a paedophile. The television audience would be able to judge, by virtue of how LaToya fared on the test, the veracity of her observations.
Coincidentally, 22 December, the day we were in the studio and waiting to go on the air, was the same day Michael gave a four-minute speech from Neverland, first carried live by CNN and then rebroadcast all over the world.
‘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, becauseI am innocent.’
Dressed in a red shirt with red lipstick, false eyelashes and long strands of hair framing his heavily made-up face, Michael had harsh words for the media which, he charged, ‘has dissected and manipulated these allegations to reach their own conclusions.’ He grew more emotional when describing the examination and subsequent photo session of his body: ‘I have been forced to submit to a dehumanizing and humiliating examination by the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department and the Los Angeles Police Department earlier this week. They served a search warrant on me which allowed them to view and photograph my body, including my penis, my buttocks, my lower torso, thighs and any other areas they wanted. They were supposedly looking for any discoloration, spotting blotches or other evidence of a skin colour disorder called Vitiligo, which I have previously spoken about.
‘It was the most humiliating ordeal of my life, one that no person should ever have to suffer. And even after experiencing the indignity of this search, the parties involved were still not satisfied and wanted to take even more pictures. It was a nightmare, a horrifying nightmare. But if this is what I have to endure to prove my innocence, my complete innocence, so be it.’
‘Don’t treat me like a criminal,’ Michael insisted, ‘becauseI am innocent.’
As LaToya stared at the TV screen, tears sprung from her large, expressive eyes. She seemed lost in thought until Jack Gordon burst into the room and laid waste to her reverie. ‘The show is off,’ he said. ‘I’m not allowing LaToya to be hooked up to any damn lie detector.’
‘Why?’ LaToya wanted to know.
‘We agreed on fifty thousand dollars,’ Jack explained. ‘But with Michael crying his eyes out on TV, I’m doubling her fee to a hundred thousand. I just told the producers, and they said to go to hell. So, we’re out of here. The hell with
them
.’
Jack grabbed LaToya by the arm.
‘I’m sorry you came all the way to Spain for nothing,’ she told me, looking victimized. ‘What a waste of time for you. You must think I’m a terrible person, now. But, really, I’m not.’ She was then hustled from the room by her husband. ‘Tell Michael I’m sorry,’ she said, while being whisked away.
Years later, LaToya would insist that the allegations she’d made against Michael were all Jack’s fabrications, which she was made to repeat against her will. Though it would take a few years, by 2003 she and Michael had cleared the air between them and were, again, close. LaToya also apologized to the rest of her family members; they then all accepted her back into the fold.