Joseph and Guns

  Joseph and Guns

“Growing Up In The Jackson Family,” LaToya autobio, February 7th 1991
An avid gun collector, Joseph kept a cache of loaded weapons under his bed and in his closets. Mother objected strongly, especially since he’d once accidentally shot out his brother in law’s eye during a hunting trip. “Joseph,” she used to say, “aren’t you tired of those guns? Haven’t you had enough?” He ignored her, taking perverse pleasure in aiming at one of us and squeezing the trigger. Click. What if he’d forgotten to empty the chamber?
“Joseph,” Mother would scold, “suppose something’s in it?”
“Katie, I checked; nothing’s in it,” he’d reply, then laugh out loud.
“Magic and Madness,” Taraborrelli, May 1991
“Joe has a whole stash of guns in his house,” said his former business manager Jerome Howard. “Under his bed, he’s got machine guns.”
Steve Howell, “I tried to explain that Michael had cleared it for me to be there but [Joe] got upset and told me to stay away or, he said, “I’ll make sure you stay away.” So I left. On my way out I talked it over with one of the guards. “You’d better do what he says,” the guard told me. “You know he has an Uzi he keeps.”
“Jackson Family Values” biography by Margaret Maldonado (Jermaine’s ex-girlfriend and mother to two of his children), November 1995
Away from work, life at Hayvenhurst had turned into a nasty TV soap opera, with much of the hostility directed at Joseph during his then infrequent visits to California. Despite his age and deteriorating physical condition, his children still lived in fear of their father because of his explosive temper and the collection of guns he kept upstairs underneath his bed and in his closet.
When Joseph got angry, his eyes would start to glaze over and his forehead would wrinkle. The transition was immediate and so identifiable that everyone who was able would run for cover. He would charge up the stairs, and we never knew when he might be bringing down a loaded gun and start firing. It never seemed to matter how the argument started. It only mattered to Joseph that he won.
One afternoon Jackie and Joseph got into a shoving match. They fought quite a bit over women since Jackie, as the handsomest brother, always had his pick of the lot and Joseph found that hard to deal with. Joseph wanted to have sex with everyone else’s girlfriend or wife. This was hardly something new. Katherine told me she thought Joseph had slept with the wife of one of his brothers. Katherine’s personal assistant, Amelia Paterson, physically stepped in between father and son to keep them from hurting each other. She knew better than anyone that a fight between Joseph and Jackie could easily turn deadly, just as it had for Marvin Gaye and his father. Amelia was a long time friend of Katherine’s and they loved each other like sisters. Because of that, she tolerated more from Joseph than any woman should ever have.
Amelia’s office was in the back of the house, and frequently Jermaine, Jackie an Randy would also use it to conduct business. One day it became the site of yet another family melodrama. Jackie and Randy were in a heated discussion with Jermaine over the way he was conducting family business. In the Jackson household, nothing stays quiet for long and, true to form, this discussion escalated into a fight at warp speed.
Hearing the argument, Joseph joined in, shouting his own insults. Then he got that familiar glazed look on his face and turned to leave. Amelia jumped up to her feet to try and stop him, asking him where he was doing. “I’m gonna get my tear gas gun and gas those boys outta here,” the old man yelled. It was only because of Amelia’s patience and abilities as a negotiator that Joseph didn’t carry out his plan.
[...]
When Randy discovered that Eliza was at the front gate with their daughter Stevanna, he confronted Joseph and the two of them got into a scuffle. Then Joseph headed toward his bedroom. Fearing Joseph was going for his guns, Randy grabbed onto his father’s shirt, ripping the material and pulling the elder Jackson down a flight of stairs.
By the time I arrived on the scene, a security guard was pointing a gun at Randy, attempting to follow Joseph’s instructions to throw him off the property. What I hadn’t realized was that Joseph had told the security guard that Randy was drunk as an excuse to give him the boot.

Negativity Is Killing

We may have different backgrounds, nations, languages, colors, cultures, likes, dislikes, habits, and manners in every way of life. Each difference makes us, a people of variety. It is this difference, this variety, that gives life its wonderful mystery and challenge.

For when times get hard we all need to buckle down and help each other. We need courage to make it through hard times, but we need each other to carry us for some days we all need someone to go in search for us. Yes our lives may be different, but what makes us similar is our determination to live life fully....we need each other because we have a similar bond. We need each other to get through all the high's and low's that life hands out to us all.

Our differences should make us reach out to one another. They should bring us closer together in order to learn from and about each other. The ultimate joy would be experienced as soon as we realized that each of us is a piece of a puzzle and, that without each other, we would make the picture incomplete. The joy of differences will be experienced by our fellowship with one another.

Unless we realize that we as a people are regardless of backgrounds, nations, languages, colors, cultures, likes, dislikes, habits, and manners, we are all on the same team in this life together. It will be extremely difficult if not impossible to experience the joy of differences and the richness of diversity.

Let us always keep in mind that we truly do complement each other. That we share the commonality called humanity. Though our cultures may be different, our needs remain similar. All of us need to be wanted, loved, appreciated, and to be needed...we want and need to know that we matter.

I have to admit that in the times when I am hurting and my insides are churning, my eyes are full from the tears, which are burning with the thoughts and emotions that causes my heart such struggles. I know that I am in need of someone to help get me through with kindness and understanding. We all have those days when we find ourselves down, hurting, disappointed, disillusioned, alone, lonely with feelings of unloved, unwanted, unneeded that we sit quietly asking God to just send someone to reach out and care what we are going through...for in this life we all
are going through something , just many of us have a better way of covering it up. For we all are connected by a system of our cultured roots. We grow up in families that nurture and guide us. We learn early to make friends who support us in different ways. We are not meant to survive long without others. And we do best when we hold onto one another and help each other to keep standing through life's storms. We need others to hold us up, encourage us and to stand with us. It helps to remember how much we really are. It might be time to let someone else help hold you up for awhile, or perhaps someone needs to hang on to you. We all need each other to guide us on our way, so let's promise each other that we will always try to respect be strong, and encourage each other.

But what is even more important is people's attitudes, people's minds, and people's hearts. People's hearts can create barriers, because they don't understand each other. For to care about others, it takes a two-way communication. In order to create a truly barrier-free society we as people have to truly be willing to openly communicate with each other. Let us stand together as one and celebrate one another. Let us reset our focus and experience the joy of differences. For everything that we do in our lives is to become closer to God in your own way, which doubtless communicates that unique vision to all the rest.....for we are responsible for each other’s spiritual growth for we all need each other to become complete!

We need each other in times of private pain, of fear and stress.
We need each other to share our joys, our times of happiness.
We need each other to hold on to and to be strong, and encourage when things are going wrong.
We need each other to keep the faith and love, and to remind each other of all the things we're dreaming of, for the bottom lines is that we need each other, now and always for what greater thing is there for human souls than to feel that they are joined together to strengthen each other in all that matters, to minister to each other in all the sorrow, and to share with each other in all gladness, to be one with each others in the silent of unspoken memories!
May we always need one another, not so much to fill our emptiness as to help each other to know our fullness.

Always remember and never forget that YOU are not alone in whatever you may be going through in your life.
We need you all and from our heart we truly appreciate you for who your are!

From our Hearts 2 Yours
Looking4truth77

How The Abuse Affected The Others: Siblings Involvement In Domestic Violence

How The Abuse Affected The Others: Siblings Involvement In Domestic Violence

Jackie Jackson
Montreal Gazette, 10 Jan 1986
Enid filed for divorce, charging her husband struck her once and threatened her with violence on other occasions.
Enid Jackson won a court order Wednesday barring Jackson, 34, from their home. She said he hit her Nov 25th bruising her.
Montreal Gazette, May 1986
The estranged wife of Jackie Jackson says the singer – Michael Jackson’s oldest brother – spent money from the family’s corporate funds on girlfriends and extravagant trips. Enid Jackson has filed court papers saying Jackson spent $16,000 on a car for a woman who is a cheerleader for the LA Lakers and another $10,000 on trips to the Super Bowl and the NBA all star game. Spokesmen and attorneys for the singer could not be reached for comment. Mrs Jackson filed for divorce in January and won a court order throwing the singer out of their Encino home because he allegedly beat her.
Randy Jackson

Randy Jackson getting shot by Tina Turner because of his abusive relationship with Bernadette Swann, from the book “The Real T: My 22 years with Tina Turner” written by assistant Eddy Hampton Armani
‘I’ve been dating Michael Jackson’s brother Randy,” Bernadette said.
Tina cut her off by saying, ‘Bernadette, why do you keep messing with Randy Jackson? And why didn’t you phone me and tell me all this stuff before?’
“I haven’t called you because Randy is insanely jealous. I mean crazy.
Because you and me are so close, he kept accusing me of having an affair with you and said he’d kill me if he found out I saw or spoke to you. I told him you and me are like family and that his accusations were totally untrue. I dunno, he just has thing in his head.”
Bernadette sipped some water and continued, “As long as he was still living with his girlfriend things were fine, but as soon as his girlfriend left him and moved out, Randy became more possessive than ever. Once we started being together on a full-time basis, I saw the other side of him. He started grabbing me by the arm and shaking me.”
“He never beat me, but I sensed it might happen soon and he really scared me. Anyway, we got into a big argument today and he went all wild-eyed. He walked towards me, looking like he was going to kill me. I got shit scared and ran for my life. And… uhm… here I am.”
Bernadette’s eyes were now red from crying, and she asked Tina if she could use the phone.
Tina replied, “Don’t call him! Don’t! You poor girl. All I see is me. This is the way I used to be. Why do you want the phone, to ring Randy?”
”Nooo. I won’t call him.” She fidgeted for a moment and asked,”Tina,can I go to the kitchen and get something to eat?”
”Sure, Bernadette, you know where everything is. Make yourself at home.”
As soon as Bernadette stepped out of the room, Tina whispered to Lejeune and me, ”She’s not getting anything from the kitchen, she’s going to phone Randy. Mark my words. I know… I know because I used to do the same thing with Ike.”
”Just watch the phone, you’ll see. The light will go on.” We all stared at the phone and five seconds later, the button illuminated. Tina slapped her thigh, exclaiming ”What did I tell you? I knew she’d phone him. I knew it. Poor girl, I used to do the same thing with Ike.”
When the light went off, we scampered back to what we were doing so Bernadette wouldn’t know we were any the wiser. She walked into the bedroom and everyone started talking, with Tina proudly telling Lejeune and Bernadette about Craig’s Naval graduation ceremony the day before. Bernadette, who was still very fond of Craig, held on to Tina’s every word of the event.
Finally, a little shamedfaced, Bernadette looked down at her slim fingers and admitted, ”I… I phoned Randy when I went to the kitchen.”
None of us said a word and her eyes darted at each one of us before she continued, ”Randy’s got a lot of emotional problems. His family is crumbling fast. They’re all at each others throats since Michael split from the family.”
“And there’s some things about Randy that are weird. He’s uhm, a little sick… sexually.”‘ I fled out of the bathroom with a towel under some dripping strands of hair and Lejeune froze mid-braid while Tina’s eyes widened.
Bernadette had our undivided attention as she told us of her sex life with Randy. When she told us what he made her do, sexually, we all paled. I actually had to sit down for a moment because the details made me feel ill. I could practically see Tina’s skin crawling. Her voice hoarse with distress, she said to Bernadette, ”Why? Girl, why do you do it?” Tina took a few moments to recompose herself but she still sounded a little shocked as she added, ”Bernadette, you have to get rid of that man. You’ve just got to.”
We were all snapped out of our state of shock by the ringing of the
phone.
I answered the call to find Randy Jackson on the line and Tina flipped. ”Damn it, Bernadette,why did you give that sick bastard my phone number?” Bernadette ran to the kitchen to take the call in privacy while Tina twitched with anger and nerves.
Suddenly we could hear Bernadette screaming, ”Randy, I’m not coming back. You lied and lied and lied to me…” Tina, Lejeune and I tiptoed towards the kitchen, hiding around a corner so we could eavesdrop on every word. Bernadette ranted on then slammed the phone down, leaving us scampering back to the bedroom to retake our positions as if we had been there all along
Bernadette returned to the bedroom shaking, her face twitching with fear. Her voice shaking, she said, ”I can’t go back to him. He knows my every movement, he follows and stalks me. I mean, I can come out of a food store or the gym and he’ll be there, hiding behind something just watching. ”
She rubbed the goosebumps on her arms and said, “He phones around and checks up on me to see if I’m where I said I was going… and he picks and choose who I’m allowed to see…”
The phone rang again and Tina grabbed it, calmly but firmly stating, ”Do not phone my house again. She does not want to speak to you tonight and I’m sure you two can sort things out tomorrow. Meantime you are not welcome to phone my home.”
She slammed the receiver down. An hour and half passed. Suddenly the doorbell rang.
We all glanced at each other, I pressed the buzzer, asking who was there. The uninvited visitor replied, “This is Randy Jackson. Is Bernadette there?” I replied, “She’s left.” Randy frantically replied, “I know she’s there. I know she is! I’ve got to see her. I’ve got to come in.”
She pounced on the intercom button and barked, ”You ring my buzzer one more time and I call the police. You are to leave my property immediately.” Tina slowly paced her bedroom with her arms folded across her chest. I knew she was silently chanting to herself to calm her anger.
She let out a few deep breaths and paused in front of the vast sliding glass doors, the light from her bedroom casting her shadow onto the garden of her dream home. She paused for a moment, enjoying the stunning moonlit view of the tree- filled terracotta pot garden in bloom.
Tina glared disapprovingly at Bernadette, chastising her with her angry eyes as she repositioned herself in front of her large make-up mirror. She was fed up with Bernadette and made no effort to hide her disappointment while making her feelings clear to the girl who was once her son’s fiancée.
To make her point, Tina lifted her index finger and wagged it furiously her trademark red nails glistening as she spoke.
”Bernadette, I don’t know why you keep messing with these guys. And after all the things you’ve seen and all the things I’ve told you.” As soon as we saw Tina wag her finger, we knew she meant business and knew to stay silent. Bernadette quietly wept and mopped the tears from the corners of her eyes while Tina delivered a stern lecture.
”So why did you bother with him in the first place? Because he’s Michael Jackson’s brother? That doesn’t mean anything. That Randy Jackson’s no good! He’s like any other man getting their kicks scaring their women. And you put up with him running his mouth all over town saying you and me are lesbian lovers. Who does he think he is?”
Tina’s hand reached for a glass of white wine. She took a large sip and pursed her angry lips. ”And you gave him my phone number and address. How dare he keep pressing my intercom. If he presses that intercom one more time, I’ll call the police. He’d better get off my property.”
(…)
Alone, I listened to Tina as she continued delivering the motherly lecture to Bernadette, nodding my head in agreement. ‘Bernadette, let me tell you something, you’ve got yourself an Ike Turner, You better get rid of him. I know you’re scared. Aaagh!” Tina was furious, and she threw her hands up in disgust. ”I know what it’s like, Bernadette, It’s best for you if you stay here tonight. Just make sure you get rid of that Randy Jackson first thing tomorrow.”
But no sooner had Tina spoken, than the noisy shuffling of footsteps could be heard outside. I paused and watched her from across the bedroom. The worry on her face was unmistakable. Bernadette had already scared the daylights out of us with horrifying stories of Randy’s violence. Lejeune and Tina remained still and silent as the intrusive sounds outside continued. There was a momentary eeriness, and then, without warning, one of Tina’s huge, treasured terracotta pots burst through the glass doors, exploding on impact.
Shards of razor-sharp glass sprayed like darts throughout the bedroom. There was soil and terra cotta everywhere. Everything else that followed seemed to happen so quickly.
Randy Jackson leapt through the broken window and paused for a moment breathing and sweating heavily. Then, as he moved, glass fragments on Tina’s plush cream carpet could be heard crunching beneath his hard determined steps. He seemed possessed, and his wild eyes rapidly scanned the bedroom. It only took a split second to focus on what he had come for. Like an animal stalking prey, he walked towards Bernadette muttering like a crazy man about how much he loved and needed her.
In all the years I had spent with Tina, she had drilled me over and over on certain safety procedures should an intruder gain entry into her home. We always thought if it happened, it would be her ex-husband Ike. On this particular day, we were wrong. Worse still, everyone froze in shock, forgetting Tina’s meticulous safety drill.
The only one to spring to action was Tina herself.
She calmly and purposefully walked into the bedroom, where her eyes immediately darted to the framed pictures on her bedside table where she hid her loaded handgun. Without looking away from the table, her hand whipped out with shocking speed and grabbed a second gun-a shotgun- from behind the freestanding oval antique mirror just next to her.
She cocked the weapon, then turned and aimed the loaded barrel at Randy Jackson’s head. Her body stiff and her aim steady, she said with true determination, “Freeze or I’ll blow your brains out.”
Randy did stop, but only for a split second. Locking eyes with Tina, he ignored her warning, and lunged for Bernadette.
Tina, still several feet away from Randy, raised the gun a blew a hole in the ceiling. Randy, his face a mask of brutality, charged straight at Tina like a raging bull.
Still in total control, Tina moved the barrel slightly to the side and fired towards the doorway.
She pointed the gun at Randy.
Randy, suddenly terrified, leapt through the broken windows, fleeing for his life.
There was a silence as we all stood, shocked by the scene we had just witnessed. Then Bernadette snapped out of her trance and raced in hot pursuit of her lover.
Tina, Lejeune and I stood in stark amazement listening to the voices in the distance. Bernadette’s voice was breathless and tearful as she professed her love and loyalty to Randy. Only then did Tina’s body start shaking, and although in shock, she had the presence of mind to press the panic button beside her bed. Like a robot, I handed Tina a white towel which she numbly wrapped her half-finished head of hair. Lejeune, whom I had rarely seen touch any form of alcohol over the many years I had known her uncharacteristically swigged straight from the bottle of wine.
Over the next few minutes none of our eyes met. We couldn’t believe what had just happened. Like zombies, we stepped over the debris of the elegant bedroom which now looked as if a bomb had hit it.
Barely able to breathe, we all sat on the bed, completely stunned. It wasn’t until we heard the police sirens in the distance that we snapped back to reality. Tina, still slightly dazed, nervously ran her sweating palms down her thighs, smoothing the fabric of her designer knit sweat suit. She glanced at herself in the mirror and took several deep breaths, calming herself. Then she held her head high and adjusted the towel tightly wrapped over her hair in readiness to deal with uniformed officers.
After the police took their report and asked Tina if she would press charges, they left us to get on with the task of clearing away debris not to mention the fact that we still had a long way to go in finishing Tina’s hair.
Randy phoned to apologise to Tina but she said, ”I have nothing to say to you. Don’t ever use my number again. I have given the police all the details they need to contact you.” Then she put the phone down.
Bernadette phoned too, and apologized over and over, begging Tina not to press charges on Randy. While an emergency service busied themselves boarding up and temporarily making safe the door area of Tina’s bedroom, Tina coldly told Bernadette on the phone, ”Bernadette, I can no longer have you around me.”
(…)
The following day, a man arrived with an envelope with several thousand dollars sent from Randy Jackson to cover expenses due to the damage caused by his breaking and entering. Tina refused the cash, firmly saying, “I don’t do things this way.”
Tina, after discussing things with Roger, decided not to press charges. Roger very rightly felt that Tina’s reputation would be damaged and people might think she was like Ike Turner. By not pressing charges, it did not make the newspapers and the incident became a matter of police record.
Randy Jackson confirmed it on twitter, 2nd of July 2011
randyjackson8 Randy Jackson
This is something many of u probably don’t know…
Yes, Tina Turner shot me. I have the scar to prove it.
Having said that, there was no violence on my part, nor have I ever owned or carried a weapon.
I went to Tina’s house to see my girlfriend. I guess I caught them off guard. Hmmm…. Next question.
It was in the Eighties. And I don’t hold a grudge against Tina, she’s a great artist an asset to our industry.
Arrested for domestic abuse on his wife and daughter, New Straits Times, November 1991
Stephen Randall “Randy” Jackson was sentenced Thursday to 30 days in jail for beating his wife and infant daughter. The same day, his defense attorney.
“Mrs Jackson phoned authorities to report that her husband was pushing and punching her and the baby.”
Jermaine Jackson
“Jackson Family Values” biography by Margaret Maldonado (Jermaine’s ex-girlfriend and mother to two of his children), November 1995
Given the way the Jackson children were raised, I should not have been surprised when Jermaine started to spank Jeremy and Jourdynn with increased frequency and force. I begged him to stop, telling him that we weren’t in Gary Indiana and that he wasn’t his father.
To my surprise, Katherine didn’t back me up. She sided with Jermaine, reciting the old chestnut, “spare the reed, spoil the child.”
LaToya Jackson
In 1987 Joe Jackson introduced LaToya to Jack Gordon.
On September 5, 1989, after her Sizzling Spectacular concert in Nevada, Gordon forcibly married Jackson, claiming it was for her own protection against kidnapping by her family. La Toya Jackson states that this was both unplanned and against her wishes. According to Jackson; “I told him, ‘No way, Jack! I can’t marry you. You know what marriage means to me. I’ve never been in love; I don’t even date…. It’s not right. I don’t love you. I don’t have feelings for you.’” Jackson tried to run out of the chapel three times but bodyguard Antonio Rossi grabbed her saying, “There’s some things you have to do. Even if you don’t want to.” Jackson told Ebony magazine the marriage was “strictly in name only. It has never been consummated.” Six months into the marriage, Jackson asked Gordon for an annulment when in Rome, Italy. In response, Gordon repeatedly bashed her head against the corner of the hotel room table saying that he would never let her go. Paparazzi subsequently photographed Jackson with black eyes, which Gordon claimed was caused by an intruder.
For roughly the next decade Gordon controlled Jackson with threats, lies, and routine violence. According to Jackson, “When he hit me, the first time I was in shock, I just recalled my ear ringing, just ringing so hard.” Gordon confiscated Jackson’s passport, transferred her bank accounts into his name, hired bodyguards to watch La Toya constantly and banned her from speaking to or seeing her family, monitoring her every phone call. La Toya’s father Joseph stated in his book The Jacksons that he believed Gordon brainwashed La Toya and made her fearful of her own family. Katherine also believed that La Toya had been brainwashed while Gordon claimed that Katherine had tried to kill her daughter. Sister Janet concurred with her parents saying at the time, “I think this guy who is with her has brainwashed her and made her like this… He keeps her away from the family, and now he’s brainwashed her so much she keeps herself away from us.”
In 1993 in their New York home, Gordon beat Jackson repeatedly with a heavy brass dining room chair, leaving Jackson with black eyes, swollen lip and chin “the size of a clenched fist,” cuts requiring 12 mouth stitches and contusions on her face, arms, legs and back. Jackson lost consciousness during the beating, leading Gordon to believe she was dead. She recalled, “He called his friends and said, ‘She’s dead. I killed her,’ because I was lying in a puddle of blood and I was out.” Gordon was arrested but then released, claiming he beat Jackson in self defense.
In December 1993 Gordon hastily arranged a press conference in Tel Aviv, where he had Jackson read a statement claiming to believe the sensational sex abuse allegation against her younger brother Michael might be true. This was an abrupt reversal of her previous defense of Michael against the charges. Gordon claimed La Toya had proof which she was prepared to disclose for a fee of $500,000. A bidding war between US and UK tabloids began, but fell through when they realized that her revelations were not what she had claimed them to be. According to La Toya, Gordon threatened to have siblings Michael and Janet killed if she didn’t follow his orders.
In 1996, Gordon attempted to force Jackson to dance at a Cleveland, Ohio, strip club. She refused to do so and in return, was booed and heckled by the predominantly male crowd. When Jackson became aware that Gordon was planning to feature her in a pornographic film she decided she’d had enough. Jackson phoned brother Randy who flew to New York to help her escape while Gordon was out. Only days later, La Toya filed for divorce from Las Vegas and sued Gordon in civil court for years of abuse under the Violence Against Women Act.
According to La Toya, Michael knew that she was forced to attack him in the press against her will and he did not blame her. “He never held any of that against me, I remember when I’d got away from this total hell I’d been through where I’d been beaten, abused, controlled and forced to say those terrible things about Michael, which I didn’t for a moment believe, he held out his arms and just hugged me. I was crying saying: ‘I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry.’ He just held me tight and said: ‘I am your brother, I always knew it wasn’t you saying those words.

Joe Jackson’s Own Words

People magazine, Susan Schindehette & Todd Gold, August 8 1988
Twenty-nine-year-old Michael, for example, has become a virtual stranger to the family; he lives in isolated splendor 100 miles northwest of L.A. in Santa Ynez, Calif., and last saw his parents in February.
“A father will always feel he knows more than his kids,” says Marlon. “It just got to the point where we were grown men, and we had our own lives. We couldn’t always do what he wanted.”
Now, there is de facto estrangement: Phone calls are rare, and Katherine sees him only when she flies out to visit him on the road. For his part, Michael alluded to earlier problems in Moonwalk, his new book, charging that Joe beat him as a child (an allegation Joe denies). And although Michael has been conspicuously generous with his parents (more than a million in cash and jewels for both Mom and Dad), Joe is miffed. “We wonder why things have changed like they have, why he doesn’t seem to care about his family,” he says. “The few times we’ve spoken to him, he seems glad to hear from us. But when you talk to other people, they say Michael doesn’t want to be involved with his family.”
Even Joe still expects Michael to one day return to the fold. “But I may have to go get him and let him know that he has a family still,” he says. “I can always go drag him out of there. He ain’t never going to get too big for me to go get him. And he knows I’ll come get him, too.”
“Bill Bray is so secretive about Michael,” says Joe. “The one thing I do know is that [Michael's managers] don’t want me anywhere around. I’d love to know if Michael is aware of what his people are doing, which I don’t think he is. We’re talking about millions and millions of dollars.”
Joe Jackson interview, Kitty Kelley, Nov 16, 1991
Interviewed by Kitty Kelley for her forth coming MCA TV talk show, Joe asserts: “Maybe I should’ve punched La Toya, like any other normal parent would do, but I never laid a hand on La Toya. My wife whipped her once. La Toya was always afraid of whippings, you know, and she stayed and she never did get into any trouble or nothing. Lately La Toya hasn’t been herself, he said. “I think she’s being brainwashed… been given some kind of mind- altering drugs or something.”
Joe Jackson interview, Roger Friedman, Fox News, 10th Sept 2001
I did ask him though about his parental philosophy. “You have to be strict with kids,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with punishment as long as you know how to punish.”
What would be a typical punishment? “Beat his back,” Joe Jackson replied before I could even get the question out.
Joe Jackson interview with Theroux, 13th November 2003
Joe: “I whipped him with a switch and a belt. I never beat him. You beat someone with a stick.”
Theroux told Joe Jackson that his son was so nervous when he saw his father that he “regurgitates”, and Joe responds by saying: “He regurgitates all the way to the bank. That’s right.”
On Joe Jackson, Roger Friedman, 7th July 2009
No one can stop the avaricious, evil father of Michael Jackson.
In the 18 days since Michael’s tragic death, Joseph Jackson has made at least a half million dollars off his late, famous son.
This week, according to sources, “Good Morning America” paid Jackson around $200,000 for a series of interviews that commence tomorrow morning.
ABC says it’s done this as part of a deal for a one-hour documentary on the Jackson family.
At the same time, Jackson is said to be arriving in London tomorrow, the day that Michael was set to start his shows at the O2 Arena. Sources tell me that the British tabloids are paying Jackson at least $250,000 plus expenses to exploit Michael’s memory.
Meanwhile, Michael—remember him? – is lying in a borrowed vault in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Los Angeles, still not permanently buried or interred because the Jackson family hasn’t figured out which location would maximize their profits best.
The horror of Joseph Jackson is only more heightened by the fact that he’s told reporters this week that he somehow foresees exploiting Michael’s children as performers in a bid to regain his glory days of the Jackson 5.
If Michael had a grave, he’d be rolling in it.
Michael Jackson told interviewers many times how his father abused and beat him when he was a child. He said it through tears to Oprah Winfrey.
There is abundant evidence that Michael hated his father. One insider working on Jackson’s business affairs since his death, a person who hadn’t known Joseph Jackson previously, said to me last week, “He killed Michael. Everything he did to to him led up to this. I’ve never met a more awful person.”
Indeed, Joseph Jackson has never hesitated to try and cash in on Michael’s success after his superstar son finally broke free of him in the late 1970s with the “Off the Wall” album. Joseph is famous for coming up with schemes behind Michael’s back.
To wit: On the day of Michael’s famous 30th anniversary solo show, Joe Jackson called a news conference and invited select journalists. I was one of them. It was obvious Michael had no idea this was going on. Mr. Jackson told us he was going to start selling footage of the Jackson 5 for profit. He was eager to be a star himself, clearly.
I asked him about his parental philosophy. “You have to be strict with kids,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with punishment as long as you know how to punish.” What would be a typical punishment? “Beat his back,” Joe Jackson replied before I could even get the question out.
In 2004, before Michael’s child molestation trial began, I received a call from vulture journalist Daphne Barak. She said, “I have Joseph Jackson here and we want to talk to you about a project.” I hung up.
This year, on March 26th, Jackson himself called me to say he wanted to take over the just announced concerts at the O2 Arena because only he and his partner Leonard Rowe would know how to run them. Shortly after that, Jackson and Rowe threw in with another concert promoter. The latter man filed suit against Michael to get a cut of his AEG Live contract.
And still: three days after Michael died, Joseph Jackson turned up at the BET Awards in Los Angeles with a Michael Jackson impersonator in tow. He announced that he was starting a record company on national TV.
It’s not the first time that Joseph Jackson has tried to claw his way back into the music business. A few years ago he tried in vain to launch a young female singer out of Las Vegas. The project didn’t go anywhere.
Meantime, the judge in the custody hearing next Monday July 20th deciding the fate of Prince, Paris and Blanket Jackson should be aware of some things in the Jackson family history. Joe Jackson has an illegitimate daughter named JohVonnie by a woman named Cheryl Terrell. Janet actually mentioned this in an interview with Parade Magazine in 2008.
He also had at least one other extramarital relationship, with a woman named Gina Sprague. All of this has been documented in various Jackson books, including one by LaToya.
Also, Katherine Jackson filed for divorce twice during her marriage, once in 1973 and again in 1979. In each case she was persuaded not to go through with it rather than hurt the family’s reputation.”

Joe Jackson And Abuse: Michael Jackson’s Childhood

Stories From The Other Jackson Family Members

#LaToya Jackson

September 1987, Japan, Todd Gold’s book
Katherine Jackson and LaToya visited and compared shopping tips; Michael preferred that his father, also in town, stay away. ”That’s a touchy situation,” said Latoya from her suite at the Akasaka Prince Hotel.
“Growing Up In The Jackson Family,” LaToya autobio, February 7th 1991
What began as a hobby quickly turned into work. Each day after school the guys rehearsed rigorously, first under Mother’s direction, then, after dinner, with Joseph. My father demanded absolute perfection, rarely praising, constantly criticizing, and often hitting. Long before the guys became a national sensation as the Jackson 5, their calling card was precise choreography inspired by their idols, Jackie Wilson and James Brown. I can still see my father standing in the living room, whip in hand. If someone missed a dance step, crack! Sometimes after Joseph had attacked one of the guys, leaving him gasping for breath and doubled over in pain, Mother cried, “It’s not worth it, Joe! Just forget it. The boys don’t have to be singers.”
But Joseph never answered. Even with school the next morning, he rehearsed the quintet to exhaustion. For up to eight hours straight, the same notes, the same words, the same moves, repeated until everyone memorized them. Step, dip, and spin. Step, dip and spin. Step, dip, and spin…
Because eight year old Marlon had a hard time learning the choreography, he suffered many beatings. Joseph hadn’t wanted him in the group at first, but Mother insisted, even though she would concede privately, “He doesn’t know his left foot from his right.” Marlon refused to quit though and practiced constantly. Today, of course, he’s a brilliant dancer.
For no reason I could understand, our father singled out his first born son for the most punishment. I used to ask Mother why Joseph treated Jackie so badly. All she’d say was, “I don’t know… he just never liked him.” As if that made it all right. One of the most talented Jacksons, my brother won many dance competitions as a child. As a young man, he had a warm smile and intelligent brown eyes that made women sigh. I truly believe that Jackie had the same potential to become a star in his own right. But endless psychological and physical battering wore him down.
As if my brothers didn’t suffer enough at their fathers hands, he forced them to don boxing gloves and fight one another while he watched. “Okay, Jackie,” he’d sneer, “let’s see what you and Tito can do.” The two selected halfheartedly punched each other right there in the living room, just to get it over with, while Joseph egged them on.
Another of his pastimes was frightening us. For as long as I can remember, he got the biggest kick out of lurking around our windows at night and tapping on the glass, or pretending to break in. When one of us tiptoed to the window to investigate, my father, wearing a gruesome latex mask, leaped up and growled like a beast. We screamed in terror, and Joseph laughed. It wasn’t done playfully or as part of a game. Why a grown man would deliberately scare his children out of their wits is beyond me.
Even worse was being startled awake by a hideous monster hovering just inches above our faces. While we shrieked, Joseph ripped off his mask and fell out laughing, as if this was the funniest thing he’d ever seen. It got so where every night I pulled the covers tightly over my head and gently rocked myself until drifting off. Even now, that is the only way I can get to sleep.
[...]
Adolescence proved awkward for Michael too. He sprouted from just over five feet to five feet ten. Overnight, it seemed, he went from a cute little boy to a gangly teenager. Certain body parts outgrew others, and now Michael was the object of merciless ribbing, especially from his father. “Look at that big nose on your face,” Joseph used to taunt. “I don’t know where you got that from… Bignose.”
LaToya Jackson, Aug 31, 1991
“My father was deplorably violent, whipping smacking, and punching his children.”

 # Marlon Jackson

National Enquirer interview, 1988
In one altercation recalled by Marlon, Joseph held Michael upside down by one leg at the age of three and “pummeled him over and over again with his hand, hitting him on his back and buttocks.”
Marlon also said he himself would “get lit up like a Christmas tree,” by Joseph.
The Mirror, 29th August 2009
Michael loathed their dad Joe, accusing him of beating him as a child, which Joe, who lives apart from Katherine, has always denied.
But Marlon insisted: “My father beat us a lot of times. I felt resentful. That sort of discipline wasn’t abnormal in our neighborhood but it doesn’t mean it was right.”
And Marlon believes the beatings may have fatally damaged Jackson’s self-esteem and ability to fend for himself.
“It does a couple of things to you – it forms you into this person who is not able to confront people when they’re not satisfied with things. It also makes people able to take advantage of you. I found a lot of my siblings were that way.”

#  Jackie Jackson

The interview that still haunts me was one that came from Jackie. While all the brothers made references to Joseph’s temper and the beatings they would receive at his hand, Jackie as the oldest boy, saw and felt more than any of the others.
“My father used to hurt,” Jackie told Joyce. “I mean, if you knew you had a beating the next morning, you couldn’t sleep at night. We were scared of him – all of us. Especially when I was little. We would all try hard in school and if we got bad grades, he would line us up on our knees and hit us. I remember we studied the time tables on Saturdays and we’d be shaking. Even if we knew them, we’d be shaking ’cause you’re thinking about the beating if you miss one. And if you did, he’d get a switch off a tree and pull down your pants.
“He was hard on us, all right. Too hard. I always thought maybe he was upset ’cause he worked so hard and he was taking it out on us a little bit. My father was the type of guy, he never showed us love. He loved us, but he never showed it.”
“He never put his arms around us and said, ‘Son, I love you.’ My father never said, ‘I love you,’ ever, to any of us. I never got that from him.”
“My son knows that I love him. When I think about it, it brings tears to my eyes all the time ’cause my father just couldn’t say it. I know that he really wanted to, but he could never say those words, ‘I love you, son.’”
Jackie, the athletic talent of the family, became emotional when watching scenes in which he was depicted playing baseball with his school team. I watched as tears came to his eyes and he began to sob. “Do you know that my father never came to watch me play ball?” he said. “My father never believed in me.” His pain was hard to watch. I had hoped this miniseries would bring everyone together as a family. Instead it just seemed to be evoking painful memories.
With the memory of that interview and others in my mind, I watched as Joseph would repeatedly look the press straight in the eye and swear: “We never beat LaToya or any of the other kids.” He’d then retreat behind the gates of his home and watch all his children walk the opposite way.

#Tito Jackson

Each of the brothers had his or her own story of life with Joseph – some sad, some angry. They would come to me, one by one, and share something they had hidden from the scriptwriter. Of all of them, Tito’s was the most bitter. After watching some dailies, Tito came up with me an uncharacteristic steely look in his eyes.
“You were very kind, Margaret,” he told me. “The beatings, I mean. Joseph used to whip me with an ironing cord and then pour salt into the wounds.” Tito seemed to have neither tears nor forgiveness, just memories that didn’t go away

# Katherine

It was quite a paradox to watch Katherine deny in the press that Joseph had ever struck their children, then read transcripts of interviews with Joyce in which Katherine had spoken of such incidents.
Again, she told me a story of her own. She said one time Joseph had come after her, intent on hitting her. She said she picked up a glass ashtray and threw it directly at her husband. The edge of the ashtray slashed his arm. “Joseph took one look at the blood and from that point on, he never ever messed with me,” Katherine said

#Janet Jackson, Dateline, February 2011
MEREDITH VIEIRA: I think you open up about your dad a lot in this book.
JANET JACKSON: My father and I, we’ve gone through our moments, we’ve had a different kind of relationship… My father was never there the way I really wanted a father to be… I would see my friends interact with their dad and I would say to myself, “That’s what I want to do. I want to be able to sit on his lap. I want to be able to call him, ‘Dad’.”
MEREDITH VIEIRA: You called him Joseph, right?
JANET JACKSON: Yeah, he said, “That my name to you. You call me Joseph. You don’t call me Da—” I tried it once.
MEREDITH VIEIRA: To call him dad?
JANET JACKSON: Yeah.
MEREDITH VIEIRA: And what happened?
JANET JACKSON: He said, “I’m Joseph to you. You do not call me dad.” See, you’re gonna start me to going here. That affects you as a kid… I know my father loves me. He just has a very, very different way of showing it.
MEREDITH VIEIRA: You give your dad credit for activating your career. You’re also blunt, Janet, you — and Michael said this too, that you were scared —
JANET JACKSON: Of course.
MEREDITH VIEIRA: — of your dad and there was a time when you were, I guess, in the bath and he struck you with a belt when you came out?
JANET JACKSON: That was the only time my father ever whupped me.
MEREDITH VIEIRA: How old were you then?
JANET JACKSON: I was very young, very young. And I can’t even remember what I did, but I remember it happening. And I don’t think I deserved it. I don’t think it should have ever happened. A lot of times I felt that my father would take things out on us because of — I don’t know, issues outside of the home. But we were, we were afraid of my father, growing up.
Janet Jackson, “True You,” autobiography, May 2011
It was always difficult talking to my father, who made us call him Joseph, not Dad. He was a man of action, not words. And the truth is that we feared him. I was the last of nine children, and I believe that by the time I was born my parents had grown tired of disciplining. They were more lenient with me and Randy, the next to youngest, than with our older siblings. There was one time, however, when my father hit me. I can’t remember what rule I had disobeyed, but I had just stepped out of the bathtub when he struck me with his belt. It left marks on my skin. It’s interesting that I don’t recall the lesson my father was trying to teach, only the violence he used to make his point.
Violence has a way of overwhelming everything. I think my father is misunderstood. It’s important for you to know that my father loves all of his children and that his way of communicating his love was a result of his upbringing. I tell this story not to judge him, but to be open and to break the cycle. Fear can also be overwhelming.
Many nights my siblings and I would put on our pajamas and go to Mother’s room. We would tell jokes, read stories, and watch TV. We felt safe there.
In between our laughter, we’d sometimes hear the crunching sound of tires rolling up the gravel driveway. It was Joseph in his car, headlights turned off, windows rolled down, trying to sneak up on us to hear what we were talking about. The sound of his car stopped us cold. We’d scatter like roaches, off to our rooms, ducking down low so not to be visible through the windows. We didn’t know what mood Joseph was bringing home.
I know that my kind of story is not uncommon, and I know many have endured far worse. Through it all we always had Mother’s love as a constant, and so many people don’t even have that .
But it is important to remember that with an unstable foundation, you can’t find your own true you.
I’m certain I received less of his wrath than my other siblings did, but there were times when Joseph began screaming at me for reasons I didn’t comprehend. I now understand that he has an issue with anger management.
My father’s love for us, his passion for us to succeed, his burning desire to provide for his children, were sometimes communicated in anger. I wish I had understood then what I understand today. But as children, when we face anger— anger that strikes us unexpectedly, like a lightning bolt—we have no no real protection. We presume either that we did wrong or simply are wrong, through and through.

Joe Jackson And Abuse: Michael Jackson’s Childhood

Others Who Witnessed It

Johnny Jackson, original drummer in the Jackson 5, 1968
Once, Joe tried to convince Michael to execute a dance step a certain way. Michael refused to listen. According to Johnny Jackson, Joe smacked Michael across the face. Michael fell backwards and hit the floor with a thud.
“Now, you do it the way I told you to! You hear me?” Joe hollered at the nine year old.
“I once heard that Michael was late coming to rehearsal and when he walked in, Joe came up behind him and shoved him into some musical instruments. Michael feel into the drums and got banged up pretty bad. Maybe Joe didn’t mean to shove him so hard, I don’t know. But Michael was affected. I know for a fact that Michael began to dislike his father at an early age.”
Sam Moore of Sam and Dave, Late 1960s
Sam Moore, of Sam and Dave, recalled Joe locking Michael – who was maybe 10 years old – in a dressing room while Joe went off on his own adventures. Michael sat alone for hours. He also later recalled having to go onstage even if he’d been sick in bed that day.

Anna Perez, flight attendant, late July 1973
Memory of Micheal: In the early ’70′s, the Jackson 5 was at the height of their popularity and on tour. I was a flight attendant and the group, their roadies and their father filled my first class cabin on a short hop from NYC to Rhode Island for a concert. We had some pretty bad turbulence and were trying to land. I was in the galley, closing out the liquor when the very shy, beautiful teenaged Micheal walked in and said “My father would like two more double Johnny Walker’s– and your phone number.” So, his married father sent his young son to solicit for him. Whatever problems Micheal had later in his life, I place at least some of the responsibility at his father’s feet.
Michael at Montclair Prep Highchool, 1972-1974
“His father Joe Jackson was very strict — he didn’t give him any leeway,” Simpson noted. “One day, Michael got in trouble, not a big thing, but Joe Jackson came to the office furious and started yelling at him. You could see that Michael was very intimidated by his father. My uncle (who was the principal then) had to intervene to calm things down.”
At a Party For LaToya Jackson, Sepia, 1980
And speaking of Polydor Records, the company staged a giant get-acquainted party in Hollywood at Jackie-O’s one recent night for LaToya Jackson, attractive singing sister in the singing Jackson family. LaToya now records for Polydor.
After the hilarity had subsided, and the many press photographers had departed, invited guest Richard Pryor arrived, dressed in a T-shirt imprinted: “Up In Smoke.” Pryor was with his actor friend Stan Shaw, both having arrived in Pryor’s sleek Rolls-Royce Corni- che convertible.
Another late arrival was LaToya’s famous singer-brother, Michael, whose tardiness so enraged their father, Joe (who was observing his own birthday), that the elder whisked off his belt as if to give his 21 -year-old son a few birthday licks.
Filming of Thriller, Vanity Fair, October 11-20 1983
Still living at home at the age of 25, Jackson’s problems with his family were painfully apparent during the shoot. Landis and other crew members witnessed the frequent clashes between father and son, which would become public knowledge in the coming years, when Jackson would publicly refer to Joe Jackson’s abuse.
More than once Landis found himself caught up in the twisted dynamics of the Jackson family. One night when Joseph and Katherine Jackson visited the set, the director recalls, “Michael asked me to have Joe removed. He said, ‘Would you please ask my father to leave?’ So I go over to Mr. Jackson. ‘Mr. Jackson, I’m sorry, but can you please … ?’ ‘Who are you?’ ‘I’m John Landis. I’m directing this.’ ‘Well, I’m Joe Jackson. I do what I please, and I want to be here.’ I said, ‘I’ll have to ask security to remove you if you don’t leave now.’” Landis had a policeman escort Joe Jackson off the set.
“Michael was scared to death of Joseph,” says Larry Stessel, who vividly recalls and evening where Joe walked into the room at the Encino house and Michael literally moved behind Stessel to hide, cowering.
“Michael would lock his bedroom door,” remembers Branca, “and Joe would threaten to bang it in.” (Joe Jackson, through his lawyer, denies this account.)
LaToya Jackson and Ronnie Rancifer on “Night Talk with Jane Whitney,” 1992
Jane: Ronnie you were keyboardist with the Jackson 5 for what, a good number of years.
Ronnie: Yeah. for about 10 years, 8-10 years.
Jane: And at one point you lived with the family?
Ronnie: Yeah, in California.
Jane: Now, [LaToya's allegations] are a terrible thing.
Ronnie: It is.
Jane: Does that surprise you?
Ronnie: Not really, ’cause I don’t really put anything past Joseph.
Jane: What does that mean?
Ronnie: Well, I’ve seen him in occasions like, I mean one time in Gary, while we were rehearsing and his mother fixed him a nice dinner and the brothers were sitting down commiserating and having fun and talking about going to the Appollo theater and doing a gig there and it was zero degrees outside and Joe said, “I want some Kool-Aid.” He said, “Jermaine, go out to the store and get me some Kool Aid,” and Jermaine said, “It’s cold outside!” Joe picked up a harvest spoon and – BAM! hit him across the head, sending him out to go in the cold.
Jane: So you say he was physically abusive to his children. You saw that happen.
Ronnie: With a harvest spoon. Big harvest spoon.
Jane: That aside, how did he treated Latoya? From What you saw.
Ronnie: From what I saw, like Latoya said, she tried to stay to herself, okay, she was real quiet, she was like a shadow. Whenever a guy would come around to Latoya and take on a date, Joseph would hit the ceiling. I was like, wow. Even one time I had, personally, I was teaching her how to swim and he went off. More like, “This is my girl, man.”
Jane: Sounds like a jealous boyfriend more than…
Ronnie: A boyfriend moreso than a father.
Jane: Was he like that when you started to have attention from other men? Was he jealous?
LaToya: Well he didn’t allow me to do anything. I don’t recall a thing, I don’t know if I should phrased it as jealousy or not because you don’t see it that way, but I do recall him not wanting me to do anything with anyone. He just basically wanted me to himself.
Jane: That’s sort of a reclusive life. You didn’t have a normal life where you could go out like other people.
LaToya: No, it wasn’t normal
Jane: Now why did you wait so long to get out of the house, Latoya?
LaToya: Sometimes it takes a lifetime. I tried to leave several times actually and my parents are very good at playing these guilt tricks on you, “You can’t leave the house, you’re a Jackson, somebody’s gonna follow you, they’ll kidnap you,” and my father, he took my luggage and he threw it back in the room, and he threw me in the room and he closed door saying, “You’re not going anywhere,” and this went on continuously when I tried to leave. Now, I look back on it and say, “How silly, why didn’t you just get up in the night and just go.” They always say, “If you left I’ll find you right away and bring you right back home.”
MORET: It is not the media that’s accusing him. Michael Jackson said to ’93 to Oprah Winfrey in a huge interview, and again ten years later, in another huge interview, my father beat me. He abused me. This has been out there in the public. Michael Jackson isn’t here anymore to refute Joe Jackson’s claims. It has been out there in the public. Joe Jackson had his opportunity to refute it. He didn’t.
KING: Roger, wasn’t the age, though — he’s 80 years old — of spare the rod and spoil the child?
FRIEDMAN: Not exactly. I have people who worked for the Jacksons in the ’70s, who talk about how when the kids were rehearsing for the Jackson 5, if Joe didn’t like what Michael was doing, and Michael was his star, he would lock him in a dark closet until he was ready to take him out. Not only he harassed, he tortured this kid.
You wonder why Michael Jackson says he couldn’t sleep. If he did die of Diprivan or something where he couldn’t sleep and needed extreme medicines to make him sleep, this is why; he had nightmares about Joseph Jackson. This is why Joseph Jackson is not in Michael’s will. That should tell us everything right there.
FRIEDMAN: All right, these two guys, they’re the only ones that anyone was trying to keep away from Michael Jackson. They’re the only two that were kept away. Leonard Rowe and Joseph Jackson actually called me on March 18th — I just looked it up on my cell phone bill. They called me to say, right after the AEG Concerts were announced, that they wanted to get involved and take over the concerts.
Joe Jackson said to me, I have to get in there and fix this, because it is no good. Why was it no good? Because he and Leonard Rowe were not getting a cut of it. Last year, Leonard Rowe was sued successfully by R-Kelly, the singer, for 3.4 million dollars for setting up a fraudulent concert tour.
He also had to paid Nio, another R & B singer, 700,000 dollars. The guy has an awful reputation. He’s not even a concert promoter. He’s just a bad guy.
Frank Dileo, Hits Daily Double, 31st July 2009
What was Michael’s relationship like with his father?Joe was his father, and that’s what Michael wanted. He didn’t want to know about any business. He just wanted him to be his father. He wanted to be loved as a son, not a commodity.
Did he ever get that?I don’t know. Watch the Larry King interview with Joe Jackson and you make that determination. It was a train wreck.