Michael Jackson (64 page)

From the beginning, Jerome was suspicious of the people working on Moon's behalf. ‘They always spoke Korean behind your back,’
he said. ‘They'd say something in English and then turn to someone and say something in Korean, and who knows what they were
saying? I worried that we were missing out on important information. It would be my job to protect the Jacksons as best I
could in these sorts of circumstances.’

It was a job Jerome often performed admirably. At about this time, Katherine and Joseph purchased a six-bedroom house in Las
Vegas, Nevada, where they eventually plan to retire. The house was being offered for $570,000. The Jacksons brought Jerome
Howard to Las Vegas with them to negotiate a deal. Before they went to meet the sellers, Jerome told Katherine and Joseph
to strip off all their jewellery – probably a quarter of a million dollars' worth – and put it in the glove compartment of the
car. Then, Jerome brought them into the home to meet the owners. Katherine and Joseph acted like ‘everyday folks’, never mentioned
their famous history, and must have done a fairly convincing job of acting because, in the end, they bought the house for
only $292,000.

Of the cost of the home, $200,000 came from money that Michael had given Katherine. She then mortgaged the balance.

A month after their first visit to Korea, Joseph, Katherine, Rebbie and Jerome returned for more meetings. They attended a
meeting with a Reverend Dr Chung Hwan Kwak, president of the
Segye Times.
A large, framed picture of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon hung in his office; Katherine tried to ignore it. Kwak told Jerome
to put together a proposal, ‘“and whatever my son wants to do, we'll do it.” He kept saying “my son” throughout the whole
meeting, and we were under the impression that Choi was his son [he wasn't],’ Howard recalled. Kwak may of course have meant
the reference in a spiritual, rather than strictly familial, way.

Katherine and Joseph then met privately with Reverend Kwak in their suite. They had a sumptuous breakfast and exchanged gifts;
Katherine gave him autographed pictures of her family members. After that meeting, Katherine and Joseph went shopping in Etaewon
with a tour guide, all to keep them busy while Jerome started talking ‘real business’.

Working with Kwak's special assistant David Hose, Jerome Howard began structuring a deal at the Ambassador Hotel. Joseph,
Katherine and Jerome agreed that the way to structure it was to make the Moonies the sponsors of the show and Katherine and
Joseph the promoters. Katherine and Joseph would establish a company for this purpose, which they would call Jackson Family
Concerts International. Reverend Kwak's representatives then took what Jerome had outlined, left the hotel, and brought the
papers to their lawyers. They returned three and a half hours later.

‘They came back with a contract that was so wild I couldn't believe it,’ Jerome said. ‘They wanted Michael to begin the show
by singing the Korean national anthem and then perform three Korean numbers in Korean costumes. I looked at that contract
and thought, Oh, man, this is ridiculous. Michael is not going to learn any Korean songs, and he is certainly not about to
wear any Korean wardrobe onstage! When I showed the deal to Joseph and Katherine, they busted up laughing and were almost
rolling on the floor. “I want to see Michael sing in Korean,” Joseph said. “Now, that is too much! It's gonna be hard enough
to convince him to go along with this, but wait'll we tell him he has to learn Korean.”’

Jerome negotiated an outstanding deal. The Jacksons would perform for four nights, one two-hour show each night, at the Olympic
Stadium in Seoul, for which they would be paid $7.5 million. There would also be a $1.5 million production budget; whatever
was not spent of that budget would go to the Jacksons. One hundred per cent of the profits from broadcasting rights outside
of Korea and 50 per cent of the merchandising profits would also belong to the family. However, the Moonies would hold broadcasting
and video rights in Korea, as well as 100 per cent of the ticket sales. The clauses about the Korean songs and costumes were
deleted from the contract. There was further talk that the Moonies hoped to send Michael and his brothers to Russia and China,
and would offer them up to thirty million dollars in advance for those tours. Joseph, Jerome and Kwak signed the contract.
Katherine didn't sign; she doesn't sign anything, which is why she is the one with good credit, and not Joseph.

‘The Jackson – Moonie Project,’ which is what it became known as among the family members, had become a major, multimillion-dollar
proposition for the family. As it happened, most of them needed the money.

Janet and LaToya were not approached because the Koreans only wanted the brothers, plus Janet was immersed in the recording
of a new album for A&M and would never have toured with the family at this stage of her life. Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon
and Randy would not be a problem, or at least that's what Joseph and Katherine speculated. Rebbie had consented to appear
but, again, this tour was only for the brothers. Of course, the entire deal was contingent upon getting Michael, who was in
Europe on the Bad tour at the time, to agree to it.

‘How will we get Michael to do this?’ Jerome asked Joseph.

Joseph turned to Katherine with a smile. ‘The question,’ he said, ‘is how will
she
get Michael to do this?’

In September 1988, Michael telephoned Katherine and Joseph from Liverpool. He was lonely, and missed his family. His tone
was weary. ‘I need a break. I've been thinking about all of us. The family is falling apart, do you know that?’

Katherine told Michael she agreed with him. ‘What can I do, Michael?’ she asked.

Michael let out a long sigh. ‘I'll talk to you and Joseph when I get back,’ he offered.

He asked to speak to Joseph. Michael then apologized to his father for some of the material written in his autobiography,
Moonwalk,
which had eventually been published by Doubleday. He explained that he hadn't written the book himself, and that the critical
portions were written by ‘someone else’. Whenever Michael is publicly critical of Joseph, he feels badly.

Joseph wanted to know if Michael was planning to rejoin his brothers after the Bad tour. Why, one might wonder, would he try
to push that sensitive issue when Michael was clearly reaching out to him? Michael was firm about it; he told him he didn't
want to rejoin the brothers, ‘and please don't push me about it.’ Joseph then told Michael that anything he had ever heard
about him wanting to exploit him or profit from his success was simply not true. ‘I don't want to be involved in your business,
Michael,’ Joseph said, according to Katherine's memory. ‘I have money problems, yeah. But all I want is for us to be a family
again. Don't you want that?’

‘I do want that,’ Michael said. ‘I really do, Joseph.’

The conversation ended on a hopeful note. Katherine and Joseph felt optimistic that they would soon have their son back. For
Joseph, the timing couldn't have been better. He was in serious financial trouble after having lost $700,000 in bad oil well
investments, and over $250,000 in his JoCola beverage company. Plus, a judgement had been entered against him. Three years
earlier he had entered into an agreement with real estate developer and entrepreneur Gary Berwin to purchase the Berwin Entertainment
Center complex in Hollywood for $7.1 million. ‘Joseph indicated that money was not a problem,’ said Gary. ‘I had no reason
to doubt him. Michael had just bought The Beatles' catalogue for forty-seven million dollars, so I believed that the family
had access to money. In fact, Joseph laughed when I brought up the question of finances. “With the kind of family I've got,
money's no object,” he said.’

Gary and Joseph entered into a deal by which Gary would own 15 per cent of the real estate, Joseph the other 85 per cent.
The two would be equal partners in a recording studio, nightclub and private club in the building. Joseph shamelessly bandied
about the notion that Michael would somehow be involved. ‘He told me that Michael would come and visit the club often, and
that his presence alone would make the place a success,’ Gary said. ‘He said that Michael could come in through the guard
gates, take the private elevator, and no one would know when he was coming or going, which Michael would like. He said that
access to the recording studio would be secretive, which was also good for Michael.’

‘What makes you so sure that Michael is going to want to be involved in this?’ Gary asked.

‘Look, if I'm involved, then it's a known fact Michael Jackson will be involved,’ Joe answered, confidentially. ‘You can bank
on it. If I'm here and Katherine's here, Michael's here.’

Joseph decided to pay for the building in cash, rather than attempt to secure a mortgage with his poor credit. He wrote a
cheque for the full $7.1 million and gave it to Gary, telling him not to deposit it ‘until Friday’. On Friday, he called and
told him to ‘wait until Monday’. On Monday, he called and said ‘wait until Friday’. This went on for a few weeks until, finally,
Gary deposited the cheque – which was promptly returned for lack of funds.

A year later, the matter was resolved in court; it was ruled that Joseph had to either buy the property or be responsible
for damages incurred by his having stalled the sale to another buyer. He could not afford to buy it. Gary said, ‘We finally
got Michael served to find out if and how he had led his father into thinking he would help out. He was in a limousine at
the time, and somebody walked up to him and handed him a paper. He went to sign it, thinking the person wanted an autograph.
It was a summons.’ One can only imagine Michael's annoyance, to be served a summons in a bad business deal involving his father.
It certainly wasn't the first time, nor was it the last. He ignored the demand to appear for a deposition.

In October 1988, damages to Gary Berwin had been assessed at three million dollars. Since Joseph did not have the money, Gary
obtained a judgement against him. To this day, he has not collected on it. ‘It was a debacle,’ he said, ‘and all because I
got myself into this Jackson family mess. It was the sorriest thing I'd ever done in my life.

‘I couldn't imagine that Michael Jackson, who earns all of these millions, could not give his father the money. I couldn't
believe that he would let his father go down like that. This building would have put Joseph on his feet once and for all,
and independently of the family. He would never have had to deal with the kids any more, professionally. I tried to appeal
not only to Michael but also to the other kids, all of whom are isolated by hard-nosed lawyers. Not one of them cared about
Joseph's security. As much as I grew to dislike Joseph, I also felt sorry for him.’

In fact, Michael never misled his father into thinking he would assist him in the investment. Joseph had telephoned Michael
before he attempted to buy the complex to ask for assistance. Michael made it clear to him that he wanted nothing to do with
it and warned Joseph not to get involved in it. Still, Joseph wrote the cheque out… and then hoped to find a way to cover
it. When he couldn't, he called Michael, again. ‘It's only a few million bucks,’ Joseph said. ‘Help me out, Michael.’

Michael said no, absolutely not. He was not going to bail his father out, and he could not be convinced to do so, even by
Katherine. ‘He has to learn,’ Michael told one of his associates. ‘If I give him the money, he'll be back for more, and more,
and more. Damn it, I'm just not going to do it.
I'm not doing it.
’

Joseph also asked some of his other children for help, including Janet, all of whom told him they could not, or would not,
assist him. Perhaps they didn't think the investment was a good one, considering Joseph's track record. Larry Anderson, a
friend of Joseph's for fifteen years, explained, ‘Joseph loves his kids. He hoped they would help out. It seems like a lot
of money, but really it isn't when you think of all that was made in that family.’

By December 1988, the proposed Jackson reunion shows in Korea had to come to pass, or Joseph Jackson would forever have the
large Berwin judgement hanging over his head. ‘I met with Jerome Howard,’ Gary Berwin said. ‘We started comparing notes on
how this wacky family was being run. In the final analysis, it didn't look good for either one of us.’

At this time, Michael was in Japan on his Bad tour. Joseph thought if he could obtain his brothers' cooperation, he may have
some leverage with which to obtain Michael's. Therefore, a Jackson family meeting was set up at Hayvenhurst, in the family's
movie theatre.

First, Joseph and Katherine spoke to Jackie, Tito, Marlon, Randy, Jermaine and Jermaine's fiancée, Margaret Maldonado. (Jermaine
and Hazel divorced in July 1988. He and Margaret would eventually have a second child.) The brothers had to be approached
carefully, on the chance they might not agree to go to Korea. For Joseph, it was as if he was going into the lion's den, that's
how suspicious the brothers were of him and of anyone who would have anything to do with him – like Jerome Howard. After about
two hours, a relieved Joseph came out of the theatre. He was sweating, as if he'd just run a triathlon.