Remember the Time: Protecting Michael Jackson in His Final Days

REMEMBER THE TIME

Copyright © 2014 by Bill Whitfield and Javon Beard

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of the Publisher. For information address Weinstein Books, 250 West 57th Street, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10107.

Cataloging-in-Publication Data for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

ISBN
978-1-60286-251-7 (e-book)

Published by Weinstein Books

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www.weinsteinbooks.com

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[email protected]
.

FIRST EDITION

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I dedicate this book to Prince, Paris, and Blanket. Their father guided and prepared them for a world that he knew would be challenging for them. Through his spirit he will continue to guide them and, when called upon, I will be there for them as well.

—Bill

I dedicate this book to my twin, Jovon. I wish you were here to share this moment with me. Rest in peace. Gone but never forgotten. Love you always! I also dedicate this book to Michael Jackson. Thank you for believing in me and giving me the opportunity of a life time. And to Prince, Paris, and Blanket. It was a pleasure serving you. You guys were one of the highlights of coming to work every day. I’m always here if you need me.

—Javon

INTRODUCTION

PROLOGUE

PART ONE

Can We Go Back to Neverland?

PART TWO

Why Don’t They Just Leave Me Alone?

PART THREE

This Is It

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

INDEX

INTRODUCTION

You would not be reading this if Michael Jackson was still alive.

For over two and a half years, from December 2006 until his death in June 2009, we were employed as the personal security team for Michael Jackson, the most famous and most successful entertainer in history. For a significant part of that time, we were the only gatekeepers between his family and the outside world, and we have a story to tell.

The world of personal security is not something that most people are familiar with. People see us on TV, and they probably think we’re just a bunch of thick-necked bruisers in black suits standing by the door. That’s not who we are. We’re not bouncers. Many of us are former law-enforcement, sometimes ex-military, people who have studied and trained in the art of private security. In today’s celebrity-obsessed culture, the lives of movie stars and professional athletes are valuable currency. Their privacy is under constant assault. Executive protection is a serious business. We’re entrusted with the welfare of spouses, children, and classified documents. We run countersurveillance in hotels, restaurants, and hospital rooms. We set up false identities to move people around the globe in secret. And when we leave, if we’ve done our jobs right, it’s like we were never there. But we’re always there—standing in the background, listening, and observing. We know the things the tabloids pretend to know. We know the things you
wish
you knew.

In private security, getting hired is not just based on experience and skill. Someone has to vouch for you. You don’t bring someone into this business unless you know they can be trusted. People who tell stories out of school, they don’t stick around. That’s how it works. You see everything. You hear everything. You know nothing. If you’re asked, you don’t recall. If you’re subpoenaed, you make yourself scarce. That’s how it works in this profession, and that is how we handle the affairs of our clients today.

Michael Jackson was not a typical client. We were the sworn keepers of his secrets in life, but his death has forced us into a position we’ve never been entirely comfortable with. The questions surrounding his death—who had access to him at what times and for what purpose—put a glaring spotlight on our role as his first line of defense. We’ve tried to keep our profile as low as possible. We’ve turned down repeated cash offers from tabloids trying to get us to spill secrets about the more controversial aspects of Mr. Jackson’s life. Compelled to testify in the murder trial of Dr. Conrad Murray and deposed in the civil litigation between the Jackson estate and AEG Live, the promoters for Mr. Jackson’s never-performed comeback show,
This Is It
, we answered the questions put to us, truthfully and to the best of our knowledge, but provided no more information beyond what was legally required of us. We had no desire to be dragged into that circus.

We have spoken publicly only twice before, in brief televised interviews with
Nightline
and
Good Morning America
, which aired in March 2010. Our purpose in doing so was simple: to tell the truth about the Michael Jackson we knew. We wanted the world to see a glimpse of the good man and wonderful father that we had the privilege of serving. Mr. Jackson’s fans, whom he deeply appreciated and loved, deserve to see that part of him. Our purpose has not changed. We decided that a book written by us—a direct account unfiltered by reporters and commentators—would be the most effective means to set the record straight.

We have tried our best to strike a balance between the need for honesty and our obligation to secrecy. The individuals that you will see named in this book—Mr. Jackson’s famous siblings; Raymone Bain, his manager; Grace Rwaramba, his children’s nanny—are all public figures well known to anyone who has followed Michael Jackson’s story in the past. Therefore we feel there is little breach of confidentiality in identifying them here. They have been included because it would be impossible to tell the story without doing so. Otherwise, we have done our best to leave the names of private individuals out of our account. Besides, more than enough has been written about the hordes of lawyers, managers, and hangers-on who populated the fringes of Mr. Jackson’s life. Our focus is on the only person in this story that readers really care about.

In many ways, this is a story that only we can tell. While hundreds of people came in and out of Michael Jackson’s life at various points, in his final years, before
This Is It
, there was almost no one else around. Days and weeks went by when it was just us, Mr. Jackson, and his three children, Prince, Paris, and Blanket. Mr. Jackson has been robbed of the chance to tell the story himself. His children were too young to remember or fully grasp everything that transpired, and they deserve to have these events recorded and remembered as they actually happened. So that leaves us.

Just as there are those who seek to drag Mr. Jackson’s name through the mud, there are those who insist that he was a saint, an angelic figure to be put on a pedestal. He was neither. Michael Jackson was, like all of us, a complicated human being. A deeply religious man who gave millions to charity and brightened our lives with his talent, he also struggled with personal pain in a way that few can really understand. This book celebrates the good times and great achievements of his life, but it does not shy away from the more difficult and troubling moments that he endured. Our aim is simply to present the whole story in an honest, sympathetic light in order to give a well-rounded view of the events that we witnessed.

Lastly, given the unseemly behavior that has surrounded the handling of Michael Jackson’s tremendous fortune, we would like to make one thing clear: we are not writing this book for financial reward. As we mentioned, we have already turned down substantial cash offers to tell our story. When Mr. Jackson died, we had two years left on our contract with his management company. Though we were legally within our rights to pursue what was owed to us, we had no desire to join the stampede of creditors rushing in to get their pound of flesh. When Mr. Jackson passed away, we considered any outstanding debts to be wiped clean. Unlike many others, we have pursued no claims against his estate.

So far, we haven’t even been paid for this book. While some close to Mr. Jackson raced to get six-figure paydays for tell-all memoirs in the wake of his death, we have chosen a different route. When we signed the contract for
Remember the Time
, we personally received no money at all. The modest, up-front advance that our publisher paid did not go to us. It was used to cover the expenses of producing the book: traveling to meet with editors, hiring a professional writer to help us craft our story, etc. Beyond that, the time and energy required to see this project to completion came out of our own pocket. It has not been an easy journey. In preparing this book for publication, we have endured and overcome many obstacles that were put in front of us. As with everything involving Mr. Jackson, we encountered the ugliness of his world in trying to do right by him.

We want our reward to come from you, the fans, and only if you decide that we have earned it. Michael Jackson still has a vast legion of dedicated followers worldwide. You deserve an honest and thoughtful testimony of his life. You deserve to know who he really was. We believe that this book will finally give that to you. If you agree, if you put your hard-earned cash on the counter to buy it, that will let us know our efforts were worthwhile. Either way, we will still sleep easy knowing that we have been true to Mr. Jackson’s
legacy while remaining true to our own principles. Protecting Michael Jackson was an experience like no other. It brought us a deeper and more profound understanding of the man and his music, and it changed the way we look at the world forever. We are sharing our story with you now in the hope that you will be changed by it as well.

PROLOGUE

December 22, 2006

McCarran International Airport

Las Vegas, NV

Bill:
It was three days before Christmas, around ten o’clock at night, and I was sitting in a motorcade of four black Cadillac Escalades out on the tarmac. I’d been hired for a security detail. A client was flying into Las Vegas on a private jet from outside the country; I was there to escort him from the airport to a gated house in the Summerlin neighborhood, over on the northwest side of town. I was in the passenger seat of the lead SUV. The vehicle designated as the mother car—meaning the one that would transport the client—was just behind me. I was scanning the air above us, looking for the plane.