Michael Jackson (77 page)

For instance, there was the evening the family was together watching television with Michael when Michael seemed unable to
take his eyes off Jordie. When Evan asked Michael if something was wrong, Michael said, ‘No, I’m just looking at things.’
However, when Jordie rose to go into the kitchen to fetch a snack, Michael followed. When Jordie went outside to speak to
a visiting friend, Michael followed. Finally, when Jordie got up to go to the bathroom and Michael also rose, Jordie said,
‘Michael, I’m just going to the bathroom. You can stay here.’ Embarrassed, Michael laughed and said, ‘Oh, okay. That’s fine.’

Evan understood that teenagers have all manner of relationships with non-family members and that those with peers can sometimes
have a greater influence on their values and behaviour. However, was Michael a peer? Not really. Also, his influence on Jordie
was troubling because there were so many unanswered questions about it. Why did Michael and Jordie have so many inside jokes
between them, as if sharing their own language? Why were they always whispering to one another? Why would they speak softly
to one another and then, as soon as they would hear one of Jordie’s parents enter the room, clam up? Why was Jordie beginning
to dress like Michael, with black hats and mirrored sunglasses? Most importantly, why were they sleeping in the same room?

Over the next few weeks, Evan continued to press Michael about the nature of his relationship with Jordie, so much so that
Michael began to distance himself from Evan rather than have to undergo any further interrogation. Michael seemed to not understand
why Evan was confused about what was going on between him and Jordie. Hadn’t he already explained that he was Jordie’s true,
loyal friend? Didn’t they have an agreement to forge ahead with Michael as an accepted part of the family? Again, as Michael
had earlier told June, Evan either trusted him or he didn’t. The problem was that Michael was unprepared for what might occur
if Evan did not trust him. Would he abandon his friendship with Jordie because the boy’s father did not trust him? No.

When Michael was unhappy with a person, that person was usually ousted from his world. Many important people had shown up
in his life and then been banished from it over the years. Some of them, like John Branca, had considered themselves long-time
friends of Michael’s, but such status did not save them from being terminated. If Michael could let go of John after more
than ten years, where then did Evan Chandler stand after just a few weeks? Michael stopped returning Evan’s telephone calls
when Evan became a problem in his life. If he could have fired him, or had someone else do the job, he would have done it.

However, Michael had seriously underestimated Evan. He wasn’t an employee who could be easily dismissed. Rather, he was the
father of the boy upon whom Michael had fixated, for whatever reason. He wasn’t about to allow Michael to cut him out of his
life, and out of his friendship with Jordie, especially since he wasn’t sure he even trusted him. There was something not
right about Michael’s friendship with Jordie, he decided, and he was going to set it straight if, for no other reason, than
to prove to Michael Jackson that he couldn’t get away with it.

In June 1993, Jordie Chandler was scheduled to graduate from junior high school’s seventh grade. For months, he had anticipated
the students’ party that would commemorate the milestone for them. Though Jordie had always been a popular student and had
many friends, lately he seemed not to be in communication with many of them. He had become so antisocial since meeting Michael
Jackson, his parents were concerned. However, the fact that he was still enthusiastic about going to the end-of-the-year dance
did suggest to Evan and June that their son was still a normal teenager.

However, when Jordie walked into his mother’s bedroom to announce that he had decided not to attend the school function and
wanted, instead, to spend the evening with Michael Jackson, she was worried. He had more fun with Michael than he did with
his school chums, he told June, and if he could have it his way he would just as soon be with Michael. June, according to
her later recollection, tried to convince Jordie that he should not abandon friends his own age for Michael. It was possible,
she told him, to cultivate relationships with his school friends as well as with Michael. ‘You don’t have to choose one over
the other,’ she said. However, Jordie didn’t see it that way; as far as he was concerned, his fellow students didn’t understand
him the way Michael did and, worse, he said, they were unkind to others because they had been ‘conditioned’ to hate, just
like adults. June was at a loss. Hearing her son parrot Michael’s philosophy was disconcerting. ‘You’d better talk to your
dad about it,’ she suggested.

Evan Chandler’s position about Jordie’s decision was absolute. ‘Over my dead body,’ he told him, angrily. ‘You can not spend
all of your time with Michael Jackson. I won’t allow it. Enough is enough.’

‘Well, you can’t stop me,’ Jordie said, defiantly. ‘I’ll do what I want to do.’

Evan, as he would later recall it, had begun to think that Michael was gay and that perhaps Jordie might be, as well. There
was no other explanation, he thought, to such obsession. Whatever was going on, though, he felt that he needed to reconnect
with his son. If the two could better communicate, he might then be able to figure out the problem. ‘I’m sick about all of
this,’ he told Jordie. ‘We love you so much. Why have you turned your back on us? You can have Michael in your life,’ he concluded,
‘but you can also have us, and everyone else.’

When Evan went to embrace his son, Jordie was stiff and unaffectionate. Jordie didn’t want to hear what Evan had to say and
didn’t want to engage with him on any level. Evan would later say that he felt then that he was losing his son to another
man, and that he became more determined than ever to stop that from happening. He had no recourse but to lay down the law:
‘You’re going to that damn dance, Jordie. You are not spending the night with Michael Jackson.’

‘No, I’m not,’ said the youngster. ‘You never liked Michael,’ he said, as he stormed off. ‘You
acted
like you did. Michael told me that’s what was going on, and he was right.’

In the end, Jordie did not attend the school dance. He spent the night with Michael.

Though Michael Jackson may not have intended to do so, his presence in Jordie’s life had caused a terrible turmoil for the
youngster, as well as for his parents, Evan and June, and even his stepfather, Dave Schwartz. The emergence of Michael into
their lives had thrown everything into wild disarray, pitting the three adults against one another, and then Jordie against
all of them, resulting in distrust and frustration for all. Without effective communication, it was inevitable that there
would continue to be serious problems at home for Jordie.

Was Michael aware of his part in what was happening to Jordie’s family? One of his advisers recalls a conversation with him
about Jordie, which took place while the two were sitting in a golf cart on the Neverland acreage, star-gazing. ‘You know,
maybe you should just leave Jordie alone,’ suggested Michael’s adviser.

‘Nope,’ Michael said succinctly, recalled his adviser.

‘Why?’

‘What can I say?’ Michael asked. His expression was serene as he stared into the infinite space.

‘But look at all of the chaos your friendship with him is causing Jordie,’ observed the adviser. ‘Don’t you think you should
back off?’ the adviser asked, still pushing.

Michael became angry; he could go from calm to fury in seconds. ‘Look, I’m not the one causing problems,’ he said. ‘It’s Jordie’s
parents. They can’t accept that my relationship with him is innocent. They have dirty minds. There is nothing sexual going
on. Why can’t people just get that?’

‘But, Mike…’

Michael rose and walked away before the conversation could be finished.

If what those who know him best say is true, that Michael is a child at heart, there’s definitely a flip side to such immaturity:
he acts like a spoiled little kid when he can’t have his way. He is often unable to see any point of view other than his own.

On 7 July 1993 Evan Chandler struck a damaging blow to Michael’s friendship with Jordie and also, as it would happen, to his
own relationship with his ex-wife, June, when he filed for a modification of her custody agreement. The documents petitioned
the courts to forbid Jordie from going anywhere near Michael, and from visiting him at any of his homes, or anywhere else.
Evan requested that Jordie receive psychiatric help to determine the full extent of Michael’s influence on him. He also accused
June of ‘nurturing’ the relationship between Jordie and Michael, which he viewed as unhealthy, ‘because, according to what
I know, she [June] receives expensive gifts, cash and vacations from Jackson’.

In the affidavit, Evan declared that he had discovered that Michael ‘routinely spent the night with my son and they slept
in the same bed. I then asked him directly if he was having sex with my son. Jackson refused to give me a straight answer.
He rather told me that he would continue sleeping with my son and that he thought it was “cosmic” and that he and Jordie were
made to be together.’

Michael was hurt and, of course, angry. He was also still unwilling to consider the option of sacrificing his own wants and
needs in order to allow Jordie some space to reconnect with his parents. Rather, he viewed the adults in Jordie’s life as
validation of his personal philosophy that grown-ups cannot be trusted, are certain to act in irrational ways and can be counted
on to sink to the lowest, most base behaviour. If Evan had Jordie’s best interest at heart, Michael reasoned, surely he would
allow such a loving friendship to continue without questioning it and assuming the worst about it. Plus, the heart wants what
it wants – and Michael Jackson wanted to be with Jordie Chandler.

Now that Evan Chandler had filed such damaging court papers against June, there was no way she could trust him. June’s estranged
husband, Dave, agreed with her that Evan was a threat. Would he take his claims against June further by claiming that she
had been an unfit parent by allowing Jordie’s relationship with Michael to continue? Would he try to obtain complete custody
of Jordie?

On 2 July 1993, Evan and Dave met at Rent-A-Wreck to discuss what was going on in the family. During the meeting, Evan made
it clear that he wanted Michael’s reign over Jordie’s life to come to an end, and that he was about to start taking action
to see to it that it happened. He asked for Dave’s assistance. However, Dave made it clear that he did not agree with Evan
and did not wish to interfere with Jordie’s relationship with Michael. June had been monitoring the situation, he said, and
he wasn’t going to second-guess her. If he did so, he argued, he would risk a deeper wedge in his marriage to her, and he
would probably alienate Jordie, as well.

Over the next week, Evan continued to be a problem. Michael, June and Jordie did not trust him and wanted as little to do
with him as possible. They had not returned his telephone calls; it had been almost a month since Evan spoke to Jordie. Now,
Evan was pushing for a meeting with the three of them. He knew that June and Jordie intended to accompany Michael on his upcoming
tour, and that they would be gone for five months. He didn’t want them to go, felt it was unsafe for Jordie. He called June
and left a message on her answering machine during which he insisted that she, Jordie and Michael meet with him on 9 July.

Dave called Evan to ask him what it was he hoped to accomplish by demanding such a meeting. ‘You’re not going to get anywhere
that way,’ he told him.

‘Listen, you dumb ass,’ Evan told him. ‘I’m worried about my kid. I want him with me, now. I don’t know what’s going on with
you people and Michael Jackson, but I don’t like it.’

The two men then argued for about an hour, hurling insults at one another.

Perhaps in order to learn what Evan had in mind, Dave decided to secretly tape-record a telephone conversation with him. An
hour after their argument, he called Evan, again.