Remember the Time: Protecting Michael Jackson in His Final Days (14 page)

He didn’t say much, but you talk about mischievous? We called him “the Little Rebel.” Feisty little guy. Mr. Jackson would always say, “Bill, keep an eye out for Blanket. He likes to run off.” And he did. If we were in public, Prince and Paris followed the protocol; they held hands and stayed close. Blanket would try and slip out of sight, run off and do his own thing.

Javon:
Any time we closed down a bookstore to go shopping, Mr. Jackson wanted everyone to go through the store together, section by section, so that they wouldn’t get separated. They’d do the History section, then the Science Fiction section, and so on. Blanket? He’d take off for the Kids section immediately. You’d have to go chasing him through the store, and he’d catch a little attitude when you went and brought him back to the rest of the family.

Bill:
One time we were driving past the New York–New York casino, where they have this big amusement park and all these rides out front. Blanket looked over at it and said, “My daddy’s roller coaster is better than that one.”

That was Blanket right there. There was this other time, I remember, he got in the car and he sat right behind me, where Mr. Jackson normally sat. I said, “Blanket, you need to move over. That’s where your daddy sits.”

He said, “I know!”

He didn’t sit in that seat by accident; he did it on purpose. He was little, but he didn’t see himself that way. “I’m gonna sit where my daddy sits!” Like that was going to be his seat one day.

Most of the time, driving with them, we kept the curtain between us closed. Being security, your job is to be as unobtrusive
as possible to the client. It’s very much a speak-when-spoken-to type of relationship. But more and more, the kids started to engage us. Mr. Jackson did too, from time to time. They got familiar and comfortable with us, and there was a lot more driving with the curtain open. One time, we were driving and Blanket started to say something, and Mr. Jackson kinda shushed him. The kids kept giggling and Mr. Jackson kept going, “Shhh! No, I didn’t! No, I didn’t!”

Blanket said, “Yes, you did, Daddy. You said that Bill looked like—”

“
Shhh!
”

So now I was curious. I said, “Bill looks like what?”

I looked in the rearview mirror. Blanket and Mr. Jackson were both staring at each other like, Who’s gonna tell him?

Blanket looked at me and said, “Bill, Daddy says you look like the Thing!”

“The Thing? What’s the Thing?”

“You know,” Blanket said, “the guy from the Fantastic Four! Daddy said you look like the Thing from the Fantastic Four.” And I was like,
Wow
. Okay. The brother’s got jokes. Then Blanket said, “And Javon looks like Frozone from
The Incredibles
!”

We all had a good laugh about it. So I was the Thing now. Cool. Gradually, we started developing a rapport with them, seeing their sense of humor, understanding them better.

Javon:
Mr. Jackson was always concerned that we were taking good care of ourselves. He’d always say to us, “Do you guys work out? Do you guys eat right? Don’t eat a lot of junk food; it’s not good for you.” For the most part, he and the kids were very healthy eaters. He’d let them go to McDonald’s sometimes, go get hot wings, ice cream, pizza, or whatever, but that was only as a treat.

In their cooped-up little world, just going to a fast food restaurant and ordering from the drive-through counted as an
adventure. We’d pull up to the speaker box, and all three of them would climb over each other in the backseat, trying to be the one to get up to the window and place the order. “You ordered last time!” “No, you did! It’s my turn!” Just to keep the peace, Mr. Jackson would let each kid place their own order themselves.

One time, after the boss, Prince, and Paris had all ordered, it was Blanket’s turn. He had to stand up on the seat to be able to reach the speaker box. He got up there and said, “Can I please have two Krispy Kreme donuts with sprinkles?” We were at McDonald’s.

Bill:
Blanket loved Krispy Kreme. We were always looking for ways to let the children get out and see new things, so I made arrangements with the manager at one of the local Krispy Kremes to bring Mr. Jackson and Blanket in the back to see how the doughnuts are made. About two-thirty in the morning, we went in there and watched them. Workers showed him everything. Stayed there a couple hours, just walking around, learning how all the machines operated. We took home about five boxes of doughnuts.

They took their little excitements where they could get them. There were times we’d be driving somewhere and Mr. Jackson would say, “Bill, the kids are hungry. Can we just find a McDonald’s?” We’d go to the McDonald’s, grab some food, pull over in a parking lot somewhere, and me and Javon would get out of the car, let him and the kids sit inside and eat. He didn’t tell us to get out of the car. We just did it. So he could have that moment with his kids. We knew how little privacy he had, so we gave him as much as we could.

The biggest indulgences for the kids were their birthday parties. For those, Mr. Jackson went all out. He’d come to us with a big list of everything he wanted. He’d say, “I want you guys to find a clown. A magician. A popcorn machine. A cotton candy machine. An inflatable jumper.” He’d be real specific about it, too. “Make sure you find a clown that can make balloons into
different animals.” One time, the only clown we could find that did balloon animals wasn’t available; she was booked. Mr. Jackson said, “Just do whatever you can to get her here.” We ended up paying her more than triple. Her rate was $75 an hour and we paid her $250 an hour.

We’d arrange to have everything delivered—the jumper, decorations, big-ass cakes. We’d hire the clowns and the magicians, put them all through security checks and have them sign non-disclosure contracts. The paparazzi always knew when it was birthday time. Low-flying helicopters would hover over the house in the hopes of getting a photo of Mr. Jackson or the birthday kid. So we’d have to work around that too.

Javon:
Whoever’s birthday it was, we’d follow the same routine. We’d arrange to have FAO Schwarz closed down so they could shop undisturbed. Then we took them out to a special birthday lunch. Chinese food most of the time. The Wing Lei restaurant at the Wynn hotel, that was one of their favorites; there was a private room in the back they’d reserve for Mr. Jackson whenever he came. After lunch, he’d rent out a movie theater so the kids could go see a movie. And while they were out at the toy store and the movies, the house was being decorated. They’d come back and: “
Surprise!
” We’d have the magician, the clown with the balloons, the cotton candy. The whole place would be decked out for a party.

Bill:
And there’d be nobody there. There were no other guests, no other children. It was just the clowns, Mr. Jackson, me and Javon, sometimes the teacher or the nanny. The kids didn’t have any friends.

Javon:
The only person who was ever there was Marlon Brando’s son Miko; they were friendly because Mr. Jackson and Marlon Brando were tight. A couple times, Miko and his kids came by to celebrate, but it was usually just us.

Bill:
It was hard to witness, hard to accept: nobody coming around, ringing the bell, and bringing gifts. No famous aunts and uncles calling to say happy birthday. Didn’t matter if it was the kids’ birthdays, his birthday, Thanksgiving, Fourth of July—there was nothing, nobody. It was just us. You kind of got used to it.

I remember we drove past a school once. Mr. Jackson and the kids were in the backseat. We were stopped at a red light. It was recess, and the schoolkids were out playing in the yard. We were sitting there, and Mr. Jackson whispered, “Bill, look.”

I looked in the backseat. Paris and the two boys, their faces were
glued
to the windows. They were staring at these other kids, eyes wide open, this look on their faces like, Can you imagine what life is like out there? It was just a bunch of kids at recess, most normal thing in the world, but to them, it was like this whole other universe they weren’t privy to.

Javon:
That sort of thing happened a few times. It got to the point where I’d be driving along and I’d see a school with a bunch of kids playing outside and I’d feel bad. I’d purposely make a turn and drive around the playground, so Paris and the boys wouldn’t see it.

Sometimes you’d feel sad about how they were so isolated, but they were always so happy just being together. When Mr. Jackson had to leave the kids behind at the house for a business meeting, they would always come to the door as a group to see him off. They’d follow him right to the car and they’d each say, “I love you, Daddy.” And he’d say, “I love you more.” That was their little ritual every time he left the house. And when he got home, didn’t matter if he was gone for two hours or twenty minutes, they’d run to meet him, screaming, “Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!”

Bill:
They were like this little unit, just the four of them. All they had was each other. There was roof access from inside his bedroom. There was a spiral staircase in there that went up to this private
roof deck, where you could see the entire city and the desert around it, the mountains, the lights from the Strip. The times that we went up there, we’d see little candy wrappers and soda cans and cups, so we could tell they were spending time there. That was one of their favorite things to do as a family, to go up and watch the sunset or see the lights. Paris even mentioned it in this one interview she did not too long after he passed. They asked her what her fondest memories were and she said, “Going to the rooftop at the house in Vegas.”

One Friday night, I was on post in the security trailer, monitoring the grounds on the surveillance cameras. All of a sudden, I heard a loud banging in the garage and a voice yelling, “
Open this door! Open this door!
” I thought somebody was trying to break into the house. I ran to the garage, turned the corner, and saw Mr. Jackson standing there in a blue shower cap and blue-and-white-striped flannel pajamas. He was banging on the door to the house with his shoe.

I said, “Sir, is everything okay?”

With this big grin, he said, “Oh, I’m fine. We’re just playing hide and seek and they locked me out.”

“Yes, sir.”

That’s how they were.

Javon:
The Las Vegas Mini Gran Prix is this outdoor amusement park with go-karts, games, rides, and such. I had a cousin who was an assistant manager there. It was a couple miles north of the house. We’d pass it all the time, and Mr. Jackson would always say, “Man, I would sure love to go there one day with the kids. They’d love it.”

Whenever he said that, I’d make a mental note of it, and finally I called my cousin and asked if we could come by the place after hours and just let Mr. Jackson and his kids play there. She called her district manager, and he called me back and we set it up.

Bill:
We went back to Mr. Jackson and told him, “Sir, we made arrangements for you and the kids to go up to the amusement park one evening.” When we told him that? He lit up like a kid on Christmas morning. He was like, “Really?! Oh my God! Great, great, great!”

The park closed at midnight. We got there around twelve-thirty. I got out of the car, went inside, walked around to make sure everyone was gone, and let the park attendants know I was with the people that were coming in. Then I went back to the car and brought the family in.

Soon as we got inside, Mr. Jackson and the little ones started running around like four crazy kids. First they went to the game room, raced from one machine to the other, playing against each other. Played pinball and won some prizes. Prince won a few things. Paris got a little upset. She didn’t win anything. She started crying. I went over to the machine and tried to win something for her. Couldn’t do it. Finally the manager came over, opened up the machine, and took something out for her. She was happy after that, running around with her little stuffed animal.

Javon:
They rode the go-karts for a little while. At first it was just Mr. Jackson, Paris, and Prince out on the track. We stayed back and watched Blanket because he wasn’t tall enough to drive. He was all upset because he wanted to get out there and race his brother and sister. Since no one else was there, the staff let him get in one of the cars and push the pedals a bit. He only drove about ten feet and ran into the side of the barricade, but that ten feet he got to drive just about made his little day.

Bill:
There was also this giant slide, about a ninety-foot drop, that you’d ride down in burlap potato sacks. That was the last thing they did before they left. Blanket was so small that Mr. Jackson held him in his arms on his lap and he slid down, and Paris and
Prince each slid down by themselves. They all raced each other down to the bottom.

They had a ball. It was good to see. It was just different to see the excitement in them, because they didn’t get out with this kind of freedom—they really didn’t. Up to that point, it had really been all business with him. Lawyers, managers, meetings. We’d taken the kids to Circus Circus a few times but always without him. Being able to enjoy these moments with his kids, you could see that it didn’t happen for him on the regular. So to see the excitement in his face, being free to do what he wanted to do with his kids at the park—he was just happy as hell. It was priceless.

Javon:
The minute we got in the car, all of the kids fell asleep. They were knocked out. We drove them home all slumped over in the backseat and carried the three of them up to their rooms and put them to bed.