Michael Jackson (63 page)

A favourite story among those in Michael's inner circle also appeared in the
Enquirer.
It claimed that Prince had used ESP to drive Bubbles the chimp crazy. ‘Prince has gone too far this time,’ a furious Michael
was quoted as saying in the article. ‘What kind of sicko would mess with a monkey? This is the final straw. Poor, poor Bubbles.’

Actually, Michael liked that one. John Branca and Frank Dileo had never seen him laugh so much.

In March 1988, while he was still on the road, Michael Jackson finalized the purchase of his new home, a twenty-seven-hundred-acre
estate in the Santa Ynez Valley then called Sycamore Ranch. He had become enchanted by the ranch when he stayed there during
the time he and Paul McCartney filmed the ‘Say, Say, Say’ video in Santa Ynez; Paul had leased the home for the duration of
his and his wife Linda's stay.

At Sycamore Ranch, there would be plenty of room for Michael's menagerie, an important consideration, and the location was
far enough from Encino to guarantee space between Michael and his pesky family members. The property was owned by developer
William Bone, who had spent many years and a fortune building it to his specifications; the main house is thirteen thousand
square feet. The asking price was $35 million furnished, or $32.5 million unfurnished. Michael toured the estate by horse-drawn
carriage provided by Bone.

John Branca had advised Michael that, from a business standpoint, the ranch was not a good investment. Michael intended offering
50% of the asking price, but even so the re-sale opportunities would be limited: there are not many buyers for a twenty-seven-
hundred-acre ranch that costs seventeen million dollars. John wrote Michael a letter and told him that if he really wanted
to buy the ranch, he shouldn't do so with any ‘future profit motive’. He felt it would be a more sensible idea to purchase
the property that was once used as the estate on
The Beverly Hillbillies
television show. He also suggested that Michael buy the surrounding property, demolish the houses that were there, and then
he could have five acres of property to do with what he pleased.

Michael couldn't understand why he should settle for only five acres when he could have almost three thousand. When he used
to visit Paul McCartney, he was always impressed with Paul's sumptuous acres and acres of verdant property. ‘My guests expect
something grand,’ Michael told John. ‘It's gotta look like I've made it big, because I have.’

A difficult and lengthy negotiation with William Bone ensued because John was determined to secure the best possible deal
possible for Michael. However, Michael was impatient; he called John three times a day, prodding him on. Finally, Michael
decided that John really did not want him to have the property, that his stalling could lose the deal altogether. He became
angry. He wanted that estate, and that's all he wanted. He went right off the deep end over it, and reportedly asked another
of the attorneys at John's law firm to break into John's office and steal the file on Sycamore Ranch… and then get to work
on closing the deal. Of course, the lawyer didn't do it and, in fact, informed John, who was astonished. He telephoned Michael
and asked how he could think to do something so terrible.

‘Because I think you don't want me to spend too much money,’ Michael said in his own defence. ‘You don't want me to have the
ranch.’

John told him he was right, he didn't think Michael should make the purchase. However, he intended to follow Michael's wishes,
anyway. He hoped that Michael would never again pull a stunt like that one. John was genuinely hurt by it, but it also showed
him how irrational Michael can be at times – not that he needed further proof of this fact.

At the last minute, William Bone began having second thoughts about selling the ranch to Michael. He said that he didn't want
to lose his emotional connection to the property; he treasured it that much. More than likely, he realized that he was losing
a lot of money and was getting ‘cold feet’ about it. John submitted an offer of fifteen million dollars, which was not accepted.
After a series of counteroffers, Michael's final offer of seventeen million dollars was accepted, certainly a let-down for
Bone, considering his thirty-five-million-dollar asking price. Why William Bone took such a loss is still an open question,
except that he may have just wanted out of Sycamore Ranch. Michael also got all of the furnishings and eighteenth- and nineteenth-century
antiques as part of the purchase. A fully stocked wine cellar went along with the deal. Because Bone started causing a fuss – and
John knew that if he lost this deal, Michael would become a real liability in his life – he came up with a clause in the sales
agreement that allowed Bone to spend one week out of every year at the ranch for the next three years, subject to Michael's
schedule. Therefore, Bone wouldn't feel that he was losing the property entirely. The sale was concluded, successfully. The
press reported that Michael paid twenty-eight million dollars for the estate, which was fine with Michael, for obvious reasons.

The first thing Michael did was change the name of the ranch to ‘Neverland Valley’, though it is usually called, simply, Neverland.
When Michael had to conduct business in Los Angeles, he would stay in a condominium he leased in Westwood, which he called
his ‘hide-out’. Otherwise, he would stay at Neverland, and never again at Hayvenhurst.

Leaving his parents' home was obviously a big deal for Michael. He was sad to leave his mother, but eager to view Joseph as
someone to whom he no longer had any responsibility. Still, he couldn't actually face them with the news. In fact, he didn't
tell them anything about his negotiation for Neverland Valley, nor did he tell them when it was purchased. Katherine and Joseph
found out that Michael was leaving Hayvenhurst while watching the American television programme
Entertainment Tonight.
Panicked, Katherine telephoned Marlon to ask him if he knew anything about it. Marlon then called Michael. Michael said it
wasn't true.

Apparently, Michael didn't want anyone to know what he was up to, lest they all gang up on him to talk him out of it – which
they definitely would have done. The next day, Michael instructed certain employees of his to go to the Encino home and take
from it the possessions he now wanted at Neverland. ‘I was waiting for Michael to come to us and say something,’ Joseph said,
sadly. ‘But he never did.’

A few weeks later, Michael hosted a housewarming party for his relatives, but he did not invite Joseph or Katherine. ‘That
hurt us both,’ Joseph recalled. ‘We'd seen a lot from that boy, but this was really something we couldn't figure out. I don't
know why he would be so hurtful to us, and especially to Kate. I couldn't understand it,’ he said.

As it happened, Michael's name was not on the original purchase agreement for the estate. Rather, the agreement was signed
by his lawyer, John Branca, and his accountant, Marshall Gelfand, all at Michael's instruction. He had told them that he didn't
want anyone to be able to check public records of property ownership and figure out where he lived. Marshall suggested that
a trust be set up with himself and John as trustees. Michael owned the trust and could fire both men at any time. The two
could do nothing with the property without his permission. To Michael, it was a good idea… but only for a couple of days.
He's too insecure, and maybe too paranoid, to allow such a situation to exist very long. It was Bill Bray who had a talk with
Michael about the property, stoking the fires. ‘Man, you don't own this place, they do,’ said Bill, being completely unreasonable
and naive. ‘You need to check this out, Michael. What's gonna happen if they decide to kick your ass out. What'chu gonna do
then, Michael? Huh?’

The next day, Michael called Marshall and demanded to know why he didn't own his own property.

‘But you
do
own it,’ Marshall explained. ‘It's set up as a trust, Michael. It's what you asked for.’

‘Well, I don't like it,’ Michael said, curtly. ‘I think it sounds fishy. Change it. I didn't spend all of this time working
on this negotiation to now not own the place. It's
my
house.’

‘Fine, we'll terminate the trust,’ Gelfand responded. ‘It's done. Terminated.’

On 11 April 1988, John Branca and Marshall Gelfand signed individual grant deeds turning over the property to Michael Jackson,
thereby dissolving the trust.

Michael hoped for a serene lifestyle in his new, palatial estate. He said he needed space, a place to think, time off after
the Bad tour. However, his family now felt that he'd distanced himself from them geographically, as well as emotionally. As
much as they missed him, they were also worried about their futures without him. What could the Jacksons do without Michael?
Not much. Joseph, Katherine and the brothers were thinking about another reunion tour, and it would only be a matter of time
before they approached Michael with the idea. As it would happen, the Victory tour fiasco of 1984 would pale in comparison
to what they now had in mind. However, this time Michael would not be quite as accommodating.

In the spring of 1988, Jerome Howard, the thirty-five-year-old president of business affairs for Joseph and Katherine Jackson's
many entertainment corporations, received a telephone call from someone named Kenneth Choi, a Korean businessman who desperately
wanted to arrange a meeting with Joseph. Kenneth, who had already been booted out of Michael Jackson's office – as well as the
offices of his accountant, Marshall Gelfand, and attorney, John Branca – told Jerome that he was from a wealthy family interested
in spending millions to organize and promote a Jackson family concert tour in Korea. Realizing, of course, that just such
a reunion was always on Joseph's and Katherine's minds, Jerome arranged a meeting between Kenneth and Joseph.

‘Millions of dollars were offered at that meeting,’ Jerome remembered. ‘The guy was talking ten to fifteen million. Whatever
it would take to get the Jackson brothers to come together for these concerts, that's what he and his family wanted to spend.
Joseph was excited. Choi invited us to go to Korea to check things out. We didn't know what was happening; all we knew was
that the guy had a lot of money – and he wanted to give it to us.’

Joseph, Katherine, Jerome and Kenneth took a four-day trip to Korea, paid for by Kenneth. They were wined and dined and introduced
to several wealthy and influential business people, celebrities and politicians. They also met a gentleman who could not speak
English, named ‘Mr Lee', who was introduced as Choi's brother. They were told that Lee, who owned a shipping company, would
be the primary backer of the proposed Jacksons concerts, along with the
Segye Times,
a Korean newspaper. Through his interpreter-secretary, Mr Lee said that if the concerts were successfully organized, he would
also invest two million dollars in a record company for Joseph. Of course, Joseph was intrigued and eager to move forward
with the deal.

‘These people knew the strengths and weaknesses of the Jackson family,’ Jerome Howard recalled. ‘They knew that Joseph was
interested in getting money for his company, and for himself. They understood that Katherine's interest was for her family.
She wanted to make money for her children. They seemed to know everything about the Jacksons, and they knew how to play all
the angles.’

In the course of meetings, Jerome soon discovered that the
Segye Times
is owned by the Reverend Sun Myung Moon and the Unification Church. The so-called Moonies, as it turned out, were actually
to be the ones primarily backing the tour.

Although many people have joked over the years about being hassled for small change by young Moonies in airports, Moon's followers
have actually raised a lot of money, which Moon has invested in a number of diversified enterprises, including banks, restaurants,
fisheries and the media. However, the Unification Church has been a lightning rod for controversy: Christian fundamentalist
groups have charged that the Church is not Christian; liberal groups have accused them of being too right-wing; parents have
hired deprogrammers to kidnap their children who are living in Moonie compounds. Although membership has rapidly declined,
the Unification Church is still wealthy.

What Moon craved most for his church was respectability. If he could align himself with Michael Jackson (the biggest-selling
and most clean-cut pop artist of all time) and the Jackson family (still perceived by many as being one of the most wholesome
families in the United States), Moon would benefit, greatly. The price would be high, but the prestige would be well worth
the cost.

When Jerome told Joseph and Katherine that the Reverend Sun Myung Moon was involved in the proposed Jackson deal, Joseph was
fascinated; he had heard that Moon was wealthy. However, Katherine was upset. ‘I don't want to have anything to do with anything
religious,’ she said. ‘Business is business, but I don't even want to know anything about the religious ties.’ Katherine did
not tell Jerome to stop the negotiations. She just didn't want to know the details.