Michael Jackson (86 page)

It was true that Larry Feldman had encouraged the critical press to be sceptical of Michael’s motives in cancelling the tour,
particularly because it happened just prior to its Puerto Rico date. It
was
suspicious. Puerto Rico is a United States territory. Michael could have been arrested there under United States law. All
of this was occurring against a backdrop of persistent news reports that Jordie Chandler had described Michael’s genitals
in detail, and the authorities were serious about having Michael stripped and photographed so that they could inspect hidden
evidence. ‘You’ve got to be kidding,’ exclaimed Howard Weitzman when asked about it at a press conference.

Meanwhile, Michael got his first taste of much-needed counselling.

Rehabilitation is never easy, but it’s even more challenging for people who have lived privileged lives. During his first
night there, he roamed the halls asking other patients if they knew ‘a secret way to get out of here’. He didn’t want to listen
to the authorities. No one told him what to do in his private world, and he expected that it would be the same at Charter.
It wasn’t. Soon, he found himself mopping floors, which he hadn’t done since he lived in Gary.

In the days to come, group therapy also proved to be difficult. Michael had never been in any type of therapy programme. How
could he now be expected to sit in a room full of strangers and be candid about his personal life?

Led by well-known therapist Beechy Colclough, Michael’s private sessions were more intense and productive than the group ones,
during which he hardly spoke for fear that someone there might go to the tabloids. It was during private sessions, according
to someone still close to Michael, that he began to finally deal with the root of so many of his problems: his anger at Joseph.
It was a fine line, though, between blaming his father for everything that had ever happened in his life and taking responsibility
for some of it, himself. In the past, Michael had never been one to own up to his actions, always intent on blaming family
members, the press and even his fans for actions that have caused him unhappiness.

‘In therapy, he began to see that he was his own worst enemy,’ said his associate. ‘It was slow-going, though. He was not
eager to accept that he could change his life if he would just change his mind about it. Old habits die hard. He was determined
to dwell on his lost childhood, on how mean Joseph had been to him, how cruel Evan had been to him. He practically equated
them as one and the same.’

After many hours of therapy at Charter, it seemed as if Michael had a sudden rush of clarity. ‘It’s me,’ he told his associate.
‘It’s not Joseph. It’s me. Not Evan. I’m the one who blew it, and I need to start over again. I want another chance.’

‘You can have it, Michael,’ said his associate.

‘I deserve it,’ Michael said, crying. ‘Do you still believe I am innocent?’

‘I do.’

Michael didn’t say anything for a few moments. Then, finally: ‘When I get out of here, I’m starting over. Let’s end this thing
with Evan. I want my life back.’ He always referred to the molestation business as a matter having to do with Evan Chandler
because, in his mind, Jordie could never have truly been behind what he viewed as a nefarious plot against him.

*

Back in the States on 23 November, Bert Fields made what some thought was another serious blunder when, while standing in
front of a judge and arguing the motion to have Michael’s civil case delayed to the year 2000 – the year the criminal statute
of limitations would expire – he indicated that a Grand Jury was about to convene in Santa Barbara, and that a criminal indictment
against Michael was imminent. Though Bert claimed that he got his information from Howard Weitzman, it was news to everyone
in Jackson’s camp that an indictment was ‘imminent’. Bert’s reason for making the statement, as he later explained, was that
he felt the civil suit should be delayed so that any impending criminal case could be tried first. He wanted to prevent information
obtained for the criminal case from being used against Jackson in the civil suit. He was being a good lawyer. However, the
strategy did serve to make Michael look as if he was trying to evade responsibility, at least in the eyes of the suspicious
public and cynical media.

Immediately afterwards, Howard Weitzman attempted to deflect Bert Fields’ comments. With a chagrined-looking Bert standing
next to him, Howard said that Bert had ‘misspoke himself’. No Grand Jury was convening at that moment; no indictment was ‘imminent’.
Who knows what kind of behind-the-scenes battles the two attorneys were having, but there was obviously a communication problem
between them, one that served to make Michael look like he was trying to weasel out of the civil trial.

‘I don’t want to start more trouble,’ John Branca told Michael, according to his memory. ‘But you know that people here think
you’re trying to delay the trial for six years?’

‘Six years? What are you talking about, Branca?’ Michael wanted to know. ‘I don’t want to delay the trial, not even a day.’

John explained to Michael what happened in Los Angeles between the other two attorneys. ‘No way, Branca,’ Michael said of
Bert’s strategy. ‘That’s not what I want. I’m not guilty. I want this over with.’ He was angry. ‘What’s Bert doing? No wonder
everyone thinks I’m running scared.’

Later that same day, Michael came up with a pretty good line when talking to another associate on the telephone: ‘I got a
ship of fools representing me, and we’re all going down.’

The issue of postponing Jackson’s trial, as it happened, would be a moot one. The judge denied Bert Fields’ petition, setting
a trial date for 21 March.

Then, in a few weeks, a Santa Barbara Grand Jury
did
begin hearing witnesses, so Bert Fields hadn’t been completely wrong. Furious with Howard Weitzman for making him look foolish,
Bert resigned from the case, later calling the change of events ‘an outrage. It was a nightmare and I wanted to get the hell
out of it as soon as possible.’

At the same time, Anthony Pellicano, who had tired of the flak he had received for his aggressive tactics, resigned.

When Michael heard about all of the upheaval on his team, he telephoned Elizabeth Taylor to tell her that he was ‘surrounded
by people who don’t know what the hell they’re doing.’ He had lost all hope, he said, according to what Elizabeth later recalled
to one of Jackson’s attorneys. ‘He’s threatening to kill himself,’ she said, dramatically. ‘And if he does, his blood will
be on all of our hands.’

‘Well, we’re doing all we can do,’ said one of Michael’s advisers. ‘What else can we do?’

‘We can pray,’ answered Elizabeth Taylor. ‘At this point, I think that’s about it.’

It was soon suggested that Michael Jackson wasn’t being treated like the other patients at Charter when, after just a few
days, he was granted permission to move his rehabilitation to the bucolic home of Elton John’s manager, John Reid. Shortly
thereafter, he was seen at Manor Farm, the estate of seventy-year-old British banking mogul Jack Dellal, a friend of Beechy
Colclough. Hopefully, he was still getting his fifty thousand dollars a week’s worth of mental health assistance. To a lot
of people, including Elizabeth Taylor – who has had hardcore rehabilitation in her lifetime – it appeared that Michael was having
some kind of ‘quick fix’. Surely, it would take more than a few days, even a few months, for Michael to deal with so many
years of dysfunction. All his friends could do was hope that he was on his way to being able to at least partially understand
himself and his choices.

However, the fact that Michael was still doing business during this time was disconcerting. In fact, a big deal was struck
while he was supposed to be in rehabilitation. He consulted with John Branca on the biggest music publishing agreement in
history: one hundred and fifty million dollars with EMI to administer his ATV catalogue. John faxed the agreement to him at
John Reid’s. Upon signing it, seventy million dollars was deposited into Michael’s bank account. ‘The deal was already negotiated,’
John later explained. ‘A couple of phone calls to Michael for some fine-tuning. It wasn’t much of a distraction, believe me,
or I wouldn’t have even called him. He was okay with it. It was good for him to know that things were going forward, that
his life was far from over.’

Indeed, despite the turmoil in his life, Michael was still making money, and a great deal of it.
Dangerous
had thus far sold twenty million copies worldwide. In the UK, the record had debuted at the number one position. Propelled
by a hit single, ‘Black and White’, and an accompanying controversial video (where Michael takes out his anger on an automobile,
seems to pleasure himself with his own gyrating dancing, and then transforms into a panther), it was the fastest-selling number
one album of all time in the UK, and remained on the charts for ninety-six weeks, a performance only exceeded in America.
‘His past royalties were huge, especially for
Thriller
, and his residuals from The Beatles’ catalogue, his stocks and other investments,’ noted one advisor. ‘The kid had plenty
of money, millions.’ One point was clear, however: he was determined not to give any of his money to Evan Chandler, despite
whatever strategy his legal team had been considering with Johnnie Cochran, and despite his own determination that the matter
be settled. An associate who was with him at Dellal’s home recalled having asked him about a possible settlement the morning
after the ATV deal was final. ‘I said, “Mike, you can give up twenty million dollars of the new ATV money,”’ he remembered.
‘“It’s found money, anyway. For twenty million dollars, the whole Chandler thing can go away.”

‘“No way,” he told me. “I want it settled, yeah, but with apologies all around, some kind of press release, whatever. I don’t
care. All I know is I’m not giving anyone a single dollar. I’m not pissing away my money on this lie. Forget it.”

‘His eyes were blazing. He insisted that he didn’t do anything wrong, and he wasn’t going to pay money to settle it. “I never
touched that kid,” he told me, “and that’s the end of it. Believe what you want. See if I care.”

‘I said, “Mike, I believe you, of course.” He looked at me angrily and said, “Yeah, right. Sure you do.”’

On 10 December 1993, Michael Jackson returned to the United States after having been discharged from Charter clinic. Of course,
he didn’t simply hop on a commercial airline to cross the ocean. Rather, he flew back to the States in a private 727 owned
by the Sultan of Brunei, said to be the wealthiest man in the world and an admirer of Michael’s.

When Michael disembarked in Santa Barbara, he looked healthier than he had in recent months while wearing a red hat and matching
silk shirt, black slacks and… surgical mask. He also had two youngsters with him, Eddie and Frank Cascio, from New Jersey,
who had been travelling with him on his tour. Eddie was about ten; Frank fourteen.

Michael had befriended the Cascios about ten years earlier; their father, Dominic was the manager of New York’s Helmsley Palace
Hotel. Michael asked to meet the boys after seeing a picture of them on the wall of Dominic’s office; they were just babies
at the time.

Dominic accompanied his children on their 1993 travels with Michael; Michael was not alone with them. However, such chaperoning
was not the impression given the media since Dominic was nowhere in sight when Michael made well-publicized appearances with
the boys. They had even gone to Elizabeth Taylor’s Swiss chalet in Gstaad (in September) and been photographed all over the
small village, looking for toy stores, all three wearing large sunglasses, Michael in a big hat with surgical mask.

Eddie and Frank are in their twenties today, and are still good friends of Michael’s. In court papers connected to one of
the many suits filed against Michael in recent years, one by a business manager, Myung Ho Lee, states that Michael once loaned
Dominic Cascio $600,000 to start a restaurant in New Jersey. However, the restaurant was never opened. Today, Frank Cascio
goes by the name Frank Tyson, and is one of Michael’s most trusted assistants.

Some in his camp had serious reservations about Michael continuing to be seen in the company of children at such a critical
time in his life. Was he still so out of touch he didn’t realize how inappropriate, not to mention dangerous, such behaviour
was? Or, as one adviser put it, ‘I guess the therapy thing didn’t take, did it?’

Michael could not be swayed from continuing his friendships with children publicly. In fact, after being in therapy at Charter,
Michael was more emboldened to live his life on his own terms, rather than consider any restrictions.

‘Look, I almost died,’ he told one associate. ‘Do you know how close I was? Now that I am past it, no way am I not going to
do what I want to do, when I want to do it and how. It’s plain and simple,’ Michael concluded, ‘and anyone who doesn’t like
it can just go to hell.’