Michael Jackson (32 page)

‘What I'm saying,’ Michael told him, his voice crisp and cool, ‘is that I don't want you representing Randy, Jackie, Tito
or anyone else with the last name Jackson, ever. If you do, then we'll be finished, you and I.’

‘You got it,’ John agreed.

‘Oh, and another thing,’ Michael added. ‘I don't want Randy to know that this is my decision,’ Michael added. ‘I want you
to make it look like it's yours.’

‘Cool,’ John said. The two shook hands. They were developing trust in one another, and nothing could come of such faith but
the very best that the record business had to offer – for both of them.

Many people today think of Michael Jackson as an enigma. It's ironic that, twenty-some years ago, his father, Joseph, was
thought of in exactly the same way – if not by the public, most certainly by his family and friends. ‘Sometimes, I think he
leads a double life,’ Michael said of his father back then. ‘He is a very mysterious person.’ Of course, Joseph's other life
involved the women with whom he had assignations outside of his marriage. But was there more? In 1980, office employees at
Joseph Jackson Productions began to suspect that their boss was trying to hide more than just infidelity.

By early 1980, a nineteen-year-old employee named Gina Sprague had become particularly close to Joseph. Gina is of Mexican-English-Irish
descent. At five feet five, one hundred pounds, with shoulder-length brown hair, she was vivacious, intelligent and gorgeous.
Joseph was taken by her. However, she insists that she and Joseph were not having an affair, though many Jackson intimates
do not believe her. They were, she says, just close friends. ‘He needed a friend,’ she said. ‘He was so estranged from his
family. Sometimes, he would need to talk. I was there for him. I knew he had a reputation of being a womanizer, but that is
not what our relationship was about.

‘If he believed in you, he gave you enough strength and courage to try and attain your goal, even if you didn't think you
could do it. Once I knew him, I could understand why the family had become superstars. I had to remind Joseph that he should
be proud. I used to tell him, “Sure, Michael and the rest get all of the attention, but look at where they came from.”

‘“The kid hates my guts,” he said of Michael. I said, “Joseph, that's not true.” He said, “You haven't seen the way he looks
at me.” There were tears in his eyes. “The kid hates me, Gina. Hates my guts. They all do.”

‘One thing that struck me very strange is that Michael and his brothers and sisters called him Joseph,’ she recalled. ‘The
first time Janet came into my office she was about thirteen. She walked in and, in a very flip manner, said, “Hello. Where's
Joseph?” Or Michael would call. “Hello, Gina, this is Michael. Is Joseph there?” And I would say, “Your
father
is in a meeting at the moment.”’

One day Gina, concerned about Joseph's recent mercurial behaviour and mysterious disappearances, asked him what was going
on in his life. ‘I'm not gonna tell you,’ he said with some hesitation. ‘Instead, I'll show you.’

Joseph then drove Gina to a building in a suburban Los Angeles neighbourhood where he introduced Gina to Cheryl Terrell. Then,
a small African-American child of about six years of age came bounding into the living room. ‘Daddy! Daddy!’ she exclaimed.

‘There she is,’ Joseph said with a big smile. ‘My little girl.’ He scooped the child up in his arms and hugged her tightly.

As he later explained it, Joe and Cheryl Terrell had an affair in 1973. The result of that relationship was a daughter, Joh'Vonnie,
born in Los Angeles on 30 August 1974, the day after Michael's sixteenth birthday. Joseph Walter Jackson's name appears on
the birth certificate. His occupation is listed as ‘entertainment manager’. His age was recorded as forty-six at the time
of the baby's birth; the mother's age, twenty-six.

Joseph kept the secret for many years but by 1980 he had decided to tell his family about his daughter. He wanted to become
more involved in her upbringing and wanted her to be recognized as a member of the family.

After breaking the ice with Gina, Joseph gathered his sons together in a dressing room after a performance to tell them that
they had a half-sister. One can only wonder what he thought their reaction to such news might be – and why he decided to tell
them the news
before
telling Katherine? Of course, they were all upset. The sons then told the daughters, who were also hurt and angry. The children
then wrestled with the question of how to tell Katherine, or, if they even
should
tell her. What a burden it was for them to have this information. In the end, according to LaToya, one of the brothers – it's
not known which one – told Katherine. Of course, she was overcome with understandable emotions.

After she and Joseph had it out, there was nothing to do but deal with the situation as it existed. As a practical woman committed
to family values, Katherine put her feelings aside and agreed that Joseph had a responsibility to Joh'Vonnie and to her mother.
As a way of providing for them, she and Joseph purchased a three-bedroom home in Van Nuys, a suburb of Los Angeles, for $169,000.
As a trustee of his daughter's estate, Joseph then signed the property over to Joh'Vonnie. She and her mother then moved into
the home. Katherine could do no more than that. Her nephew, Tim Whitehead (Tim's mother was Katherine's sister, Hattie, and
his father is Joseph's stepbrother, Vernon), said, ‘Joseph wanted the child to be accepted into the family, but there was
no way that was going to happen, I'm afraid. It was too painful for my aunt, and for the children. This was difficult, heartbreaking.’

According to Jerome Howard, Joseph's and Katherine's former finances manager, ‘Katherine told me she went into the grocery
store one day and saw Joseph's girlfriend and the daughter. She said she just stood there, frozen. “Jerome, the girl looks
exactly
like Joseph,” she said.’

Though Katherine seemed to be acting in a logical and sensible manner, she was not as unfazed by the news of Joh'Vonnie's
existence as she may have wanted people to believe. Michael would indicate later that it was at this time that he sensed an
emotional transformation in his mother. She rarely smiled during these days. Her temper would flare over unimportant matters.
She ever swore from time to time, which was unusual, and had called Joh'Vonnie a ‘bastard’. When Michael protested, she suggested
that if he looked up the word in the dictionary, he would find that she was using it properly. Apparently, Joseph's indiscretions
had worn her down, chipped away at her self-esteem, her pride. She now sometimes seemed bitter and angry.

Even though Katherine was going through an ordeal, and the family was being torn apart by the recent turn of events, the Jacksons
had no choice but to continue to express a strong sense of unity to the media. Public relations was an important consideration.
The family had been turning away from reality and toward image-making ever since they arrived in Los Angeles from Gary. However,
for Michael, nothing would ever be the same. Joseph's actions had resulted in the ultimate betrayal of his mother, indeed
his entire family, and Michael would have a difficult time dealing with his father on any level, for many years. Despite what
people may have thought, Michael somehow expected more from his father.

Though Katherine was clearly angry, and had good reason to be, she was a religious woman who desperately wanted to be a forgiving
Jehovah's Witness. She would not confide in anyone about her fury, would not discuss her hurt over what had happened with
Cheryl Terrell and Joh'Vonnie. It was just a matter of time before her suppressed rage would erupt, especially when she heard
rumours in the summer of 1980 that Joseph was having an affair with Gina Sprague, the woman in whom he had first confided
about Joh'Vonnie. Some of her friends felt that Katherine Jackson was much like a time bomb, ticking, ticking, ticking… about
to explode.

As time passed, Gina Sprague began to ‘cover’ for Joseph Jackson whenever he wanted to visit his daughter. ‘Even though the
family knew about her, he didn't want to flaunt her,’ says Gina. ‘Sometimes, they would call and ask for him and, even though
I knew he was with Joh'Vonnie and maybe even Cheryl, I would lie and say he was in a meeting, or otherwise unavailable. This
went on for months.’

Because Joseph and Gina seemed to share so many secrets, the word was out in his production company that they were having
an affair. According to Gina, someone in the office began feeding misinformation to Katherine, who was already suspicious
of all of Joseph's female friends and still reeling from the shock of Cheryl and Joh'Vonnie.

One day, the phone rang. Gina picked it up. ‘Good afternoon, Joseph Jackson Productions.’

‘I want you to quit your job,’ said a female voice. ‘Do you hear me? Quit, or we're coming to get you.’

‘What? Who is this?’ Gina asked, panicked.

The caller hung up.

Gina was upset. She went straight to Joseph and told him about the mysterious call.

‘Oh, that's just nonsense,’ Joseph told her, barely glancing up from his paperwork. ‘No one is coming after you, Gina,’ said.
‘I promise you. You'll be fine.’

The next day, 16 October 1980, at three o'clock in the afternoon, Gina was behind her desk in the reception area of Joseph
Jackson Productions, 6255 Sunset Boulevard, Suite 1001 (the same building in which Motown Records was housed), when Randy
Jackson, then eighteen, entered. He asked two other employees to leave the office so that he and Gina could be alone. The
two employees did as they were told. Randy then also left for a moment, and returned with Janet, fourteen, and with Katherine.
A bitter argument about Gina's relationship with Joseph ensued.

Then, according to what Gina told police, matters got out of control and Katherine, Randy and Janet pulled her into a stairwell
and assaulted her. When Jim Krieg, an office security guard, heard screams, he ran to investigate and later said he observed
Randy holding Gina against the wall while Katherine pummelled her with her purse. Upon seeing the guard, Janet hissed at him,
‘Leave, mister. This is a family affair.’ He left, as instructed by the fourteen-year-old. Katherine grabbed a gold medallion
from Gina's neck. ‘This belongs to me,’ she said. ‘Not you.’ When one of Diana Ross's brothers happened by, he asked ‘Mother,
what are you doing?’ [Many of her friends called Katherine ‘Mother’.] ‘Go about your business, this is a family matter,’ she
told him, according to what he later recalled. He ran off, stunned. The rest of the police report is graphic in its account
of the violence Gina says took place that afternoon.

Joseph was in a meeting with his door closed. When Gina came stumbling back into the office suite, she was crying. He ran
out of his private office. ‘My God, what happened to you?’ he asked her.

Too upset to speak, Gina collapsed on to the floor. Police officers and an ambulance, summoned by Jim Krieg, arrived on the
scene. When medics lifted Gina to put her on a stretcher, she let out a piercing scream. Joseph leaned over and whispered
urgently in Gina's ear, ‘Tell me, who did this to you? Was it some crazy fan?’

‘It was Katherine,’ Gina said through her tears, her voice lowered so as not to be heard by anyone by Joseph.

Joseph's eyes widened. ‘But that can't be true,’ he whispered.

‘It is true, Joseph,’ Gina insisted.

Gina Sprague was taken to Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, where she was treated for multiple cuts, bruises, and a minor
head injury. Joseph did not visit her there. She was released the next day. Exhausted, she went to bed as soon as she got
home. Just as she was about to doze off, she heard loud voices, as her friend refused to allow Joseph into the house. Gina
got up and went to the door. ‘You can let him in,’ she said.

Joseph looked worn out from lack of sleep, sapped of his usual vitality. With some hesitation, Gina's friend left them alone.

‘Why, Joseph?’ Gina asked him, according to her memory.