The Daily Mail, MSNBC----
La Toya Jackson: Michael was murdered... I felt it from the start
(Foul Play is suspected in Jackson's death.)
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
The grieving sister of superstar Michael Jackson last night blamed ‘a shadowy entourage’ of manipulative hangers-on for effectively ‘murdering’ the King of Pop.
In a moving and revealing interview, La Toya Jackson, who was closer to her vulnerable brother than anyone else and was asked to sign his death certificate, portrayed Michael as a lonely and isolated figure at the mercy of a money-motivated clique.
She accused them of cutting him off from his family and friends and forcing him, largely against his will, to sign up for the gruelling commitment of 50 concerts at London’s O2 arena.
She believes her brother was fed addictive drugs by handlers who wanted to control his moods. She says they regarded him as a ‘cash cow’ and exploited him at every turn. It was this, she believes, that led directly to his death.
Last week, Los Angeles police chief William Bratton confirmed that investigators had not ruled out homicide. Under Californian law, murder also covers killings that were not premeditated, which would be classed as manslaughter under the British legal system.
Though the formal state autopsy’s results will not be known for two weeks, La Toya has had a private autopsy conducted.
She received the results on Friday and although she won’t comment on the details until the police conclude their investigations, she did reveal that four fresh needle marks were found on Michael’s neck.
Fighting back tears, La Toya, 53, said: ‘I believe Michael was murdered, I felt that from the start. Not just one person was involved, rather it was a conspiracy of people.
He was surrounded by a bad circle. Michael was a very meek, quiet, loving person. People took advantage of that. People fought to be close to him, people who weren’t always on his side.
‘Less than a month ago, I said I thought Michael was going to die before the London shows because he was surrounded by people who didn’t have his best interests at heart.
‘Michael was worth more than a billion dollars. When anyone is worth that much money, there are always greedy people around them. I said to my family a month ago,
“He’s never going to make it to London.” He was worth more dead than alive.’
La Toya revealed Michael himself ‘never believed he would live to be an old man’ and feared he would die in his fifties.
She says: ‘By the end, Michael was isolated from his family. He had no real friends. He was the loneliest man in the world. I knew something terrible was going to happen.’
While there has been much speculation in the two weeks since Jackson’s death, less than 12 hours after he completed a punishing rehearsal, La Toya says she is speaking out now to ‘put the truth out there’.
She reveals specific details of the scene inside her brother’s rented £60,000-a-month Beverly Hills mansion. He was not found in bed, as has been widely reported, but instead was inside the nearby bedroom of his personal physician Dr Conrad Murray, a man who ‘disappeared’ from the hospital when La Toya began grilling him.
She tells how an intravenous drip stand was beside the bed and oxygen canisters lined the walls.
And La Toya tells in heartbreaking detail how she accompanied Michael’s children, Prince Michael, 12, Paris, 11, and seven-year-old Blanket, to see their father’s body and then, last Monday night, stood with Paris over an open casket as the child gently placed an inexpensive necklace around Jackson’s wrist and tenderly garlanded his body with coloured play stones.
In person, La Toya bears a disarming likeness to her more famous sibling. She speaks in the same breathy high-pitch tone. A diminutive 5ft, she, like her brother, is clearly no stranger to the plastic surgeon’s scalpel.
But La Toya makes a compelling witness. Two years ago, she took part in a TV reality show Armed And Famous, in which she was given basic training to be a police officer, and continues to volunteer as a deputy.
And although she famously fell out with the Jackson clan in the Eighties over a book in which she described Michael as a paedophile and denounced her father Joe for bullying them as children, for the past 15 years, she has helped keep the family together.
La Toya, who had a messy divorce from her controlling former manager, Jack Gordon, 12 years ago, remained childless and became close again to Michael and his growing family, regularly seeing them at her mother’s house on Hayvenhurst Avenue in Encino.
She last saw her brother three weeks before he died. The family held a large dinner to celebrate Katherine and Joe’s 60th wedding anniversary at Michael’s favourite Indian restaurant, Chakra, in Beverly Hills.
Michael was already at the party with his children when she arrived: ‘He was standing by the door and said, “Oh La Toya, you look fabulous.” He was thin but he ate that night. Michael loves his curries. He enjoyed every minute of it. At the end, he embraced me and said, “We have to do this again.” Then he went to the door, looked back and gave me a wave goodbye. That was the last time I saw my baby brother.’
La Toya has clearly endured an extraordinary two weeks, which began with the news of her brother’s death and ended with his poignant memorial service last week.
Now she wants to set the record straight. Frequently welling up with tears while insisting ‘I am trying to be strong’, La Toya says: ‘I was at home when I received the news that Michael had been rushed to the hospital.
‘I live about three minutes away from Michael in Beverly Hills. I was talking to a friend about the fact that Farrah Fawcett had just passed away.
Her death came just after Ed McMahon [famous in America as the sidekick of talk-show host Johnny Carson] died. I said, “There’s going to be another one because they always go in threes.”
‘About an hour-and-a-half later, my father called me from Las Vegas and said, “Get to the hospital right away. Michael’s been rushed to hospital.”’
La Toya immediately rang her mother’s personal assistant to be told her brother was being treated at UCLA Medical Centre in Westwood, a ten-minute drive from her home.
‘I jumped into my car and kept calling my mother’s assistant saying, “How is he? How is he?”’ she recalls. ‘But he wouldn’t tell me.
‘Finally, I heard Mother in the background asking, “Who is that?” When she learned it was me, she screamed, “Why don’t you just tell her?” and she grabbed the phone and just screamed as loud as she could, “He’s dead!”
‘I nearly crashed my car. My legs went weak. I couldn’t press down on the gas pedal. I got to the wrong entrance at the hospital and was begging the security guys to help me and take my car because I was so weak and faint. They took me up to the area where Michael had been taken. Mother was crying and Michael’s kids were crying.
‘I screamed, “Is it true?” and she said, “Yes, he gone.” I couldn’t stop crying. I’m screaming and the kids are screaming. My mother was sitting there with all three of them on her lap, just crying.’
She says Paris demanded to see her father ‘one last time’. After a nurse told La Toya it would help the children grasp the reality that their father was dead, she held Paris’s hand as all three children, together with Michael’s brother Randy, went into the small ante-room off the emergency room where Michael lay, still warm to the touch.
She says: ‘There was a towel over his face and I lifted it and the kids saw him and Paris said, “Oh Daddy, I love you.”
‘We hugged and kissed him and the children lifted up his hands. He didn’t look like he was gone. His eyes were half open and he looked like he was sleeping. He wasn’t cold.
‘The kids had been screaming and crying but once they were in that room and saw Michael they stopped and became calm. We said prayers over him. I asked them, “What do you want to say to Daddy?” and they said private things to him.
Paris was holding his hand. We were all sitting around the bed. His chest was very red from the attempts to revive him. I lifted the covers to see his legs. Everything looked fine.’
She said reports Michael was bald and looked terrible without make-up were ‘plainly false’. ‘He had no make-up on but he looked fine. He just looked like Michael.’
Then, in true Hollywood fashion, Paris Hilton’s mother Kathy turned up. She had gone to school with Michael and La Toya and spent time in the room with the family, saying goodbye.
After the 30-minute farewell, La Toya signed the death certificate as the ‘informant’ who provided the information about her brother.
‘My mother and brothers chose me because I had a special bond with Michael,’ she said.
La Toya says her brother will never be buried at Neverland, his sprawling 2,400-acre former home in Central California: ‘Michael hated that place. After the second [child abuse] trial, he said to me, “I will never come back to this place again. I hate it. This place helped destroy me.”’
La Toya says the behaviour of Michael’s £100,000-a-month personal doctor, Conrad Murray, at the hospital left her deeply troubled. Dr Murray, who is not certified as a
cardiologist, did not identify himself to the family, even though La Toya says she was demanding to see Michael’s doctor ‘to find out what the hell happened’.
It was Paris who pointed out the figure dressed in white, telling La Toya: ‘There’s Dr Murray. He’s the best cardiologist in the world. How could this happen to Daddy?’
Dr Murray’s lawyers have denied any wrongdoing and say he has cooperated fully with investigators.
But La Toya says she approached the doctor, saying, ‘I want to talk to you. I want to know what happened to my brother.’ But, she says: ‘He mumbled a bunch of nothing.
He said something like, “Michael didn’t make it, I’m sorry.” It wasn’t right. It felt weird.’In all the confusion, she says, the doctor later ‘disappeared’. It is at this point, La Toya says, that her concerns were heightened. She was told by a different doctor that
Michael had fresh needle marks on his body.
According to reports, Jackson used intravenous anesthetics to help
him sleep, including Demerol and
Diprivan, a drug never normally used outside the operating theater.
Police also removed two bagfuls of prescription drugs issued to various aliases from pharmacies in different US states. They have subpoenaed the star’s medical records from a series of doctors. La Toya says: ‘It will all come out. You will be shocked.’
The official coroner’s report is due soon along with the results of a second autopsy, which La Toya arranged, She says: ‘We want to sit down and compare the two reports before anything is made public. I have a strong idea of what the outcome will be but I cannot say anything at this stage.
‘He had needle marks on his neck and on his arms and more about those will emerge in the next few weeks. I cannot discuss that any further as I may jeopardise the investigation. I can, however, say that I have not changed my mind about my feeling that Michael was murdered.’
After returning from the hospital with the children and her mother to Katherine’s home, they received a troubling call from the Jackson mansion. It was Michael’s long-term assistant Michael Amin, a devout Muslim known as Brother Michael.
He told La Toya that her brother’s Lebanese-born, self-appointed business manager Dr Tohme Tohme had fired all the staff at the Beverly Hills property and at a second rented home in Las Vegas.
‘I want to know how Michael died, and then, at 11pm on the day he dies, all the staff are fired?’ she asks rhetorically. ‘That raised my suspicions.’
When she arrived at the house with her manager and close friend Jeffre Phillips, new security guards were in place.
She says: ‘I could smell and sense my brother everywhere. I could smell his favourite cologne, Black Orchid by Tom Ford. I went into his bedroom. There was a shirt discarded on the floor.’
She says Michael was taken to hospital from Dr Murray’s bedroom, across a large hall from his own. ‘Michael walked from his room to Dr Murray’s room. What happened in there we don’t know. He ended up alone in the room with the doctor.’
Shortly after midday, the doctor ran downstairs and screamed at bodyguard Alberto Alvarez to call the emergency services.
La Toya says: ‘No one was allowed upstairs apart from Dr Murray and the children. Paris has since told me that even they were not allowed in that room when Dr Murray was giving Michael his “oxygen”.
Murray, said La Toya, initially gave the star CPR on the soft surface of the bed before moving him to the ground, on the instruction of the 911 emergency operator who told him the procedure needed to be conducted on a hard surface.
She says: ‘Why, if this man was a cardiologist, was my brother on the bed? Michael was dead in that room. I was told the doctor kept telling everyone he was alive, but
Brother Michael saw him and said it was obvious he was dead. There were oxygen tanks along the wall next to the dresser. There was a metal stand with a cord hanging down. The police had already been in the house and had removed all the drugs and whatever bag was hanging there.’
Diprivan, when administered in hospital, is always given with oxygen. La Toya admits her brother had a prescription drug problem which the family believes began after he damaged his back in an on-stage accident during the Jacksons’ 1984 Victory tour.
But she insists she believes he was ‘clean’ in preparation for the O2 shows. ‘He had just been to England on a cleanse and he was drinking juices and being pure. He had cleaned everything out of his system ready to do the concerts in London.
But Michael never wanted to do 50 shows. He agreed to do ten and then the promoters and those around him added more and more shows because they were selling out.
‘It’s impossible even for a healthy person to do that many shows. Michael was fragile.
He always wanted to believe the best of people. But he was meek. In the last few months, he became isolated. I believe the staff were given strict instructions that if any of the family called, not to tell him. And if any of the family came by, not to let them in.
Those people around him didn’t care about Michael the man. They were interested in Michael the cash cow.
‘Michael didn’t keep a close eye on his finances. A lot of people made a lot of money out of Michael. The house he was renting at the end is a classic example. It would cost £15,000 a month to rent but he was charged £60,000 a month because he was Michael Jackson.’
‘As a family, we tried to get involved. We wanted to stage an intervention. But we couldn’t get near Michael. I knew something terrible was going to happen.
‘I believe he was cut off from the real world and the drugs were a way [for his hangers-on] to get in there. They got him hooked on drugs. He was pure and clean and then drugs came back into his system. I think it shocked his system so much it killed him.’
She says the family will file a civil lawsuit against anyone they believe responsible, as well as pushing for police to serve criminal charges:
‘I am going to get down to the bottom of this. I am not going to stop until I find out who is responsible. Why did they keep the family away? It’s not about money. I want justice for Michael. I won’t rest until I find out what – and who – killed my brother.’
Trawling through Michael’s personal possessions at his house, La Toya was shocked when she saw his work schedule: ‘They worked him so hard. There was no breathing room.
Every hour was packed with costume fittings, vocal lessons, rehearsals. Even Paris noticed. She told me, “They worked Daddy too hard. They worked him so hard.”
‘When someone is fragile you can’t keep them going like that. A lot of people are responsible for this, directly or indirectly. They told him, “The shows are booked, the tickets are sold.”
And Michael being Michael, he didn’t want to let down his fans.
‘His kids made him so happy but he didn’t have any real friends. His problem was he didn’t trust people. In the end, he died a lonely man surrounded by this shadowy entourage.’
While Michael regularly kept up to £1million in cash inside his home, La Toya says none was found. Nor was any of his vast collection of jewellery: ‘Someone went in there and did a good job. So many people were in the house before I got there.’
In the hours after Michael died, his sister Janet was so worried, she put her own security team in place inside the house. The sisters plan to move all of Michael’s possessions into storage to safeguard them for his children.
La Toya says the children are coping well. They are with Katherine and nanny Grace Rwaramba who turned up for a day ‘and has been there ever since.’ La Toya says, however, she is ‘highly suspicious’ of the nanny’s motives.
‘The family has mixed feelings about her,’ she says. ‘Mother says she wants to be with the kids but I warned her to be careful. It’s not like the children like or dislike her. They like everyone. Mother is gullible and feels sorry for her.’
She says reports that Grace was Michael’s girlfriend are false. ‘I heard Grace liked Michael but he didn’t like her. He let her go last Christmas. I have a lot of questions about Grace. She was instrumental in keeping the family away. All of a sudden she is back, listening and watching the family. I think her behaviour is odd.’
La Toya says her focus is now on the children. All three are said to be well-behaved but innocent of the wider world. They don’t watch television. They are tutored at home and are only allowed to watch Disney movies. The family have hired a grief counsellor for them.
She added: ‘Michael always said he was a single parent. But he was a very good parent. It was funny seeing him changing nappies, because you never imagine him that way. But Michael was a hands-on dad. He was quite an expert. They are happy children, despite what has happened.
‘Paris wants to be an entertainer. Prince Michael, the oldest, is assertive. I see such sadness there. He cried at the hospital but hasn’t cried since. He has become the little man of the family. Blanket is the baby. He is very funny, a real prankster like his father.’
Although the memorial was watched by millions on TV, the most poignant farewell came last Monday night at Forest Lawn Cemetery, where the family had an open coffin viewing.
She says Paris bought a cheap ‘mood’ necklace – a metal heart which changes colour when it touches the skin. ‘The heart is in two pieces. Paris told me, “I want one half to go to Daddy and I will wear the other half for ever.”
‘She carefully wrapped it around his wrist. She said; “Daddy this is for you.” Then she placed it on him and said, “On Daddy, it will be blue because he is cold. On me, it’s purple.”
‘She got some coloured stones and she decorated his body. She said, “He’s so cold, he is so cold.” His lips were slightly swollen from the autopsy. She asked, “Who did that to Daddy?” I told her it was because he had passed.
‘I put one of his sequined gloves in there. And a pair of his favourite sunglasses.’
Michael Bush, Michael’s long-time costumier, made an elaborate cream jacket decorated with pearls and beads. He was dressed in black trousers with a large gold belt with two cherubs on either side of the buckle. Karen Faye, his make-up artist, applied cosmetics to his face.
La Toya says: ‘I am so proud of Paris for speaking at the memorial service. When Stevie Wonder was performing she whispered to me, “Auntie La Toya, I want to go up there and say something about Daddy.”
I couldn’t just walk her up on stage but at the end, when we were singing We Are The World, she said, “I’m too shy now” but then changed her mind and said those words about loving her Daddy that everyone saw.
‘The boys didn’t want to come to the viewing, but Paris was insistent. She wears Michael T-shirts every day and the walls of her room are covered with posters and pictures of her daddy. She still writes him letters every day, sweet lovely letters about how much she loves him.
‘Her letters are brilliant. When you read them you cry. She loves the light on stage. She is always singing Daddy’s songs and she is special. She has it – the X factor.’
La Toya says she was shocked by the emergence of a 2002 will stating Diana Ross should be a back-up to Jackson matriarch Katherine as the children’s guardian.
She says: ‘Michael always told us that he wanted his eldest sister Rebbie Jackson to look after the children. Rebbie had a nice family, which Michael loved. He told many family members that she was his choice. We believe there is another will which will emerge. He updated his wills almost every five years, so we expect one to come out from 2007.
As the question of the children’s future remains unresolved, Debbie Rowe, the birth mother of the two eldest, is expected to begin her fight for custody of the children in the Los Angeles courts next week.
La Toya dismisses her: ‘These are not Debbie’s kids. They don’t even know she’s their mother. Like everyone else in his life, she was motivated by money. She has always said she’s not their mother.
‘My understanding is that she will now go after the kids. I know a few things about Debbie and I will prevent that from happening.
‘Debbie has only seen the children a handful of times. Michael never introduced her as their mother.’
She confirmed that Blanket, the youngest, was created from a donor egg and donated sperm: ‘Michael didn’t want to know who the biological parents were.
‘They took eggs from a donor and I believe the sperm came from one of five donors picked from a book. Michael didn’t know who the mother and father were. I don’t know who carried the child and if the surrogate knew whose child she was carrying.
‘Those children were his greatest joy. He was a superstar but the only people who loved him unconditionally were the children.’
She fears for her mother, Katherine now 79: ‘She’s the rock of the family, but I’m the glue that holds it all together. Everyone is hurting. I’ve hardly slept since this started. I am frightened the stress will hurt Mother.
‘Michael knew he was never going to be a grey-haired old man. He
didn’t want to grow old. He told me he thought he would die in his 50s. He said he would get married at 45 and die around 50. He had a gut feeling.’
Despite the intense pressures, La Toya is convinced Michael had much to look forward to. He was trying to buy a £40million house in Las Vegas from the Sultan of Brunei, which was to have been his base after the O2 shows ended.
He was reading books on directing movies. ‘The first one was to be a
horror film called Thriller,’ she said. ‘He had already designed the poster. He was going to retire from music. This Is It really was the end. He didn’t want to perform any more.’
Ironically, the extended Jackson family, which has been badly fractured throughout the years, now appear to be united in their grief and determination to seek the truth about Michael’s death.
As La Toya puts it: ‘I’m doing what I can to find out how he died. If he died of a drug overdose, then I want to find who supplied him the drugs and who first introduced him to them. We’ve still not had a chance to speak to Dr Murray about Michael’s final days. I need to know what he may have seen or heard.
‘Michael didn’t have to die. We are all mourning his loss, more than anyone can ever know. But we are also determined to get to the bottom of what happened to him.’
View Larger Map
Sources: The Daily Mail, Huffington Post, MSNBC, Contact Music, CDN, LIFE, Mirror.co.uk, Google Maps
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment