It could be argued that everyone has a black sheep in the family.
If you don't think yours does, then it's probably you.
And this is still the case,
even if you're the most famous family dynasty in the world of popular music
for a time period at least, if one name was uttered to any member
of the Jackson family family, the words what now?
Would evidently follow that name being La Toya.
La Toya Jackson's life by the early 1990s
couldn't have been more different than just a few years earlier.
From feeling entrapped living at home
firmly under the thumb of her domineering father to fleeing to New York City
with the promise of a new life under the guidance of her new manager, Jack Gordon.
However, it wasn't long until the same patterns began to re emerge once again.
Manipulation, abuse and acute desperation
seemingly followed La Toya, no matter what circumstances she found herself in.
This time, however,
La Toya fell into a self imposed isolation away from her superstar family.
But if she felt like the outcast, things were about to get a whole lot worse.
When her relationship with Michael, an ally she always felt understood.
Her methods and internal struggle wasn't
just about to be fractured, but completely shattered entirely.
Here's the detail history repeated
at the beginning of 1993 the disparity between the lives of La Toya and her
brother Michael couldn't have been further apart.
The King of Pop had just returned
from the first leg of his Dangerous World tour, and he would soon be preparing
to headline at the Super Bowl halftime show, a performance that would become
a groundbreaking moment in American entertainment.
Meanwhile, La Toya began the year grappling a serious lawsuit with the Las Vegas show
Bare Essence, a production she was scheduled to perform at.
Due to receive a fee of $26000 a week.
La Toya once again gave notice and walked out of the show, causing the production
company to sue her for failing to complete her contract with family.
Tensions at an alltime high, and despite having not seen several
members of the Jackson clan for years, at this point La Toya was eager to meet up
with her sister Janet when they crossed paths in Minneapolis.
The middle sister was in town filming
for her exotic club tour video and during a break in recording, traveled to Janet,
who was in the studio preparing for her next LP.
However, a scuffle broke out between the two sisters and in the press.
The reason for the altercation was at first quite vague.
La Toya said something Janet took exception to.
Janet struck La Toya.
They both yelled for their bodyguards.
However, the truth, according to La Toya,
seems to be centered around a grave misunderstanding.
She claims that after her microphone pack
was disconnected after filming, she then rushed to the studio to see her
sister while still wearing the microphone itself.
Upon seeing the microphone, Janet told La Toya to get away from her,
accusing her of recording their conversation. A justifiable assumption as
in recent years, La Toya had become a reliable source
for salacious stories relating to her family, triggered by the allegations
and revelations she presented in her tell all autobiography.
So Janet's reaction may have been prompted
by fear that her older sister, likely organized by Jack Gordon was
in fact secretly recording her in order to catch her off guard.
This would be the last occasion
in which the two sisters would communicate for some time resulting in another sour
end to what was previously a strong family's high.
Just as La Toya's connection with key members of her family seemed to fall
apart, so did the intensity of physical and mental abuse she experienced
at the hands of Jack Gordon, the man who La Toya once trusted and found
her emancipation from her father, Joseph With was now becoming an even worse
dictator that ruled over her life in every aspect imaginable.
Its severity was truly felt when La Toya
almost lost her life to the hands of Jack's violent tendencies.
At their home in New York,
Gordon repeatedly beat the starlet with a brass dining chair,
leaving La Toya knocked out cold with black eyes, a swollen lip and chin,
various bruises across her body and cuts that would require stitches.
As a result, Jack was duly arrested and for a brief moment,
La Toya could have finally broken away from her legal husband turned manager.
But unfortunately for her,
Jack was eventually released, citing he reacted in selfdefense.
LaToya would even go on to publicly defend Gordon, stating that she forgave him
for his violent actions, blaming the incident on drugs he was
taking as part of his radiation treatment for cancer.
With La Toya firmly at his defense,
Jack Gordon was as brazen as ever concerning his violent behavior towards
his wife and client. Essentially admitting on Howard Stern that he had been
physically abusive to La Toya live on radio. Resulting in an aghast
and awkward reaction from Howard Stern and others.
She just said he gets physical.
You're telling us that he has pushed you
around or hit you on a number of occasions?
Jack, you better cut that out.
What is wrong with you?
That is totally not true, wait a minute.
But he has beaten you on numerous occasions?
Oh boy, Jack.
Not true.
He has?
You two have a difference of opinion here.
Jack, you better stop getting physical with La Toya.
Or I'll have to kick your ass.
With La Toya now firmly under Jack Gordon's control and her professional career at his
mercy, Gordon kept the starlet working no matter what.
Despite dwindling opportunities in show
business, La Toya therefore found herself involved in increasingly seedy and low-brow
projects in order to cash in on her family ties and bizarre sexpot public image.
However, no matter what deaths Jack was willing to take La Toya's career
an incoming bombshell was about to detonate across the entire Jackson
family with the epicenter being focused on their golden goose,
Michael.
Will you be there?
In late August 1993, news broke that Michael Jackson had been
accused by a 13 year old boy of sexual molestation.
As this revelation spread across news outlets around the globe,
several members of the Jackson family swiftly spoke out against the allegations
and stood as a solid wall of defense for the superstar.
Not one not to pass comment on scandals
relating to her family, La Toya appeared in the press in early
September, seemingly in support of her brother, stating, quote,
if you really think about it, he's been convicted before a trial.
However, within the same article, she also made comments that come across as
a lot more ambiguous, particularly regarding whether she
suspected Michael had committed the crimes he was being accused of.
Quote, I honestly don't think he'd do anything like that, but we don't know.
Regardless of having received a cold
shoulder from the majority of her family, La Toya was still holding out for her once
best friend, despite outside pressures for her to change her tune.
With 1993 drawing to a close,
the speculation surrounding Michael Jackson wasn't going anywhere.
In fact, it was increasing at an alarming
rate. After his dangerous tour was brought to an early conclusion,
Michael himself was completely depleted, physically and mentally entering rehab
for treatment for a dependency on painkiller medication.
With the investigation heating up
and a potential court date looming, speculation was rife in the press.
Many came out publicly to share their experiences with the superstar,
with tabloids paying huge ransoms for increasingly incriminating
and salacious gossip relating to Michael's sexual exploits.
Despite this, the Jackson family continued to fiercely back Michael's corner.
However, there was one cog in the machine that was about to break loose,
and for Michael, perhaps not the one he would have expected.
Anything for money.
Sensing an opportunity to make money off
this intensifying scandal, Jack Gordon moved fast.
Stating that La Toya would offer up revelatory details on both Michael's
conduct as well as further family secrets in exchange for large sums of money.
$50,000, that'll buy you secrets on family abuse she and others suffered as children.
$100,000, you'll get double the amount of detail.
And for the paltry sum of $500,000,
she would provide proof to support the allegations and her own statement
that she now believed her brother Michael was a pedophile.
Whilst initially a bidding war escalated between US and UK based tabloids,
no financial deal ever came to fruition as the bidders sensed that there wasn't much
substance beyond La Toya's promises of information.
Ultimately leading Jack orchestrating
a Tel Aviv press conference as a last resort.
On December 8th, 1993,
La Toya stood before cameras and delivered a statement that was a complete u-turn
from what she previously said a few months earlier.
The middle sister now proclaimed that she could, quote, not be a silent collaborator
of his crimes against small, innocent children.
Her statement continued to deliver blow after blow against her younger brother.
Forget about the superstar, forget about the icon.
If he was any other man who was sleeping
with little boys, you wouldn't like this guy.
With such a close member of his family standing up publicly against Michael,
this was all many needed to believe the alleged claims that have been made.
Naturally, other members of the Jackson family actively spoke out against Latoya's
new stance and scathing statement. With brother Jermaine stating that,
quote there is no validity to what she is saying.
She knows that she is Michael Jackson's sister and that people will listen.
Other members of the Jackson clan weren't
off the hook either, with LaToya stating that her mother
Katherine, quote had frequently complained that Michael was homosexual and had shown
her checks made out to his alleged victim's parents.
Katherine, incensed by these comments, rebutted her daughter's damaging claims.
Quote I can't believe I have a daughter
out there saying these things to sell her brother down the river.
One of Michael's legal defense, controversial lawyer Johnnie Cochran said
of La Toya, quote this appears to be a member of the Jackson family who has
decided to use that relationship to make consistently outrageous and false
statements in order to generate some notoriety for herself.
In some ways, comments like this were a vicious circle for La Toya.
She'd gone from residing in the shadows
of her more successful siblings to now weaponizing them for her own gain,
becoming what would be branded by Michael Jackson himself a 'tabloid junkie'.
Jack Gordon also couldn't help but throw his two cent into the mix,
adding that Michael had, quote, threatened to kill her and tried to kidnap
her twice to keep her from revealing his secrets.
This statement would turn out to be bitterly ironic, as it was Gordon's own
threats and aggressive outbursts that directly forced La Toya into giving
this incriminating statement in the first place.
Several years later,
La Toya would claim that Jack had not only threatened her as he was doing
on an alarmingly regular basis, but also the lives of her siblings.
Quote if you don't do this, I'm going to kill your brother Michael
and I'm going to kill your sister Janet, she recounted.
Having been embroiled in a world of fear cultivated by Jack for the past few years,
La Toya soon felt she had little choice but to agree in fear now not only of her
own life, but also her estranged siblings were now at stake too.
With increased press attention and offers
from media outlets all over the world, La Toya was due to repeat her claims under
a lie detector test for a Spanish program, The Truth Machine.
Also present at this recording would be Michael's biographer, J.
Randy Taraborrelli,
who would be discussing the allegations with La Toya before a television audience,
who would be left to judge whether La Toya's claims as truth or lies.
However, on the day of recording,
Michael would give his own statement from his home at the Neverland Ranch.
In an emotional four minutes
he maintained his innocence, whilst also deriding the media for their manipulation
of events, as well as reflecting on the humiliating ordeal he experienced
during a fullbody examination and photographing of his body.
As La Toya watched this statement mere
hours before taping of the Truth Machine was due to begin, it seems something was
triggered within her that the public facade she had to create due
to Jack Gordon's ongoing threats had uncontrollably broken.
Taraborrelli recounting that, quote tears sprung from her large, expressive eyes.
She seemed lost in thought until Jack Gordon burst into the room.
Reportedly after Michael's statement,
Jack wanted La Toya's fee for appearing on the show doubled from $50,000 to $100,000. After
the producers had told him to essentially go to hell.
In a fit of rage, Jack grabbed La Toya and stormed out.
Her appearance on the show was now
completely off the table, giving some insight into how Gordon
conducted business and why La Toya was in such legal hot water with former
clients. As she was accosted by her husband,
Taraborrelli recalls that in desperation, the Jackson said to him,
quote you must think I'm a terrible person now, but really I'm not.
Tell Michael I'm sorry.
Despite La Toya's inner turmoil,
she was reportedly forced into making large sums of money from the developing
scandal. Sharing details in newspaper interviews as well as on television
and radio, La Toya's level of exposure was at an all-time high.
For anyone in the entertainment business, this normally is a sign of success.
However, LaToya once again found the content of her appearances centered
around Michael, however, this time on the alleged accusations.
Scandal after scandal, revelation after revelation,
teasing the public with some new piece of proof or a bizarrely coded statement
making regular appearances in the media, industry insiders and the general public
were starting to treat Latoya's words less and less seriously, becoming more like one
big joke leeching off her sibling success or scandal to further her own profile.
Little did many know that Jack Gordon was
the puppet master pulling La Toya's strings.
But after living a life marred by abuse, both physical and mental, La Toya
by this point seemingly had little fight left within her.
The determined woman desperate to break
free from her family trappings in Los Angeles was now a distant memory.
La Toya once again found herself trapped,
unable to break free and at the complete command of her husband,
whose violence and demands were escalating on a near daily basis.
Something had to give.
And for the next chapter,
La Toya would utilize her celebrity to switch focus from her family and show
the public just what kind of man Jack Gordon really was.
Keep an eye for part five as we explore the aftermath of the 1993 allegations
and the consequences La Toya would face from her family, as her toxic relationship
with Jack Gordon would continue to torment her.
What action would it take for LaToya to finally flee her abuser?
Thanks for watching the detail. We'll see you next time.