Los Angeles - The enigma that surrounded Michael Jackson's
life continued in his mysterious death as his family gathered at
their compound Saturday in the Los Angeles suburb of Encino to demand
answers from the doctor who was with the singer when he died.
'When did the doctor come? What did he do? Did they inject him, if
so, with what?' asked civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, after
meeting with the grieving family.
Outside the walled compound, fans had questions too.
'We grew up with Michael - it's like we are his family too,' said
Linda Hunt, 35. 'How could the people who were close to him, the
people who were looking after him, how could they let this happen?'
Her daughter, Hailey, 12, observed: 'People are saying that he was
in great condition for his comeback shows - and then he drops dead.
The whole thing just doesn't make sense.'
Across town at ground zero of the public mourning for Michael
Jackson, Geraldine Hughes was not having a good day. The self-
described 'street missionary' - who tries to keep kids out of gangs
in the rougher districts of Los Angeles - was braving the midday heat
a few metres from the Michael Jackson star on the Hollywood Walk of
Fame. She stood by a box of books she had written more than years ago
about the pop superstar, but no-one seemed interested in buying.
'Twenty bucks, or 25 (dollars) if you want a signed copy,' her
brother shouted to the crowd.
Business was hardly better for the dozens of other vendors trying
to hawk newly printed Michael Jackson memorial T-shirts for 10
dollars. But Hughes wasn't discouraged.
'This book proves he was innocent,' she said. 'That's what's so
horrible. His whole life he was set up and framed.'
As she spoke, a steady stream of visitors filed past the makeshift
shrine that had grown around the star - a small mound of flowers,
teddy bears, cards, posters, candles, rosaries and, bizarrely, a
flat-panel TV screen. But there was nothing like the crush that had
brought traffic on the surrounding streets to a halt a day earlier,
and in their cordoned off area in the road, relieved TV crews were
packing up their equipment after two days in the broiling LA sun.
Hughes has a unique perspective on the travails that marred
Jackson's life. Sixteen years ago, she was a legal secretary for the
lawyer representing the 13-year-old boy who sued the pop superstar
for child molestation in a case that was never brought to court, with
Jackson settling for millions of dollars.
'It sounds funny to say it now, but this story is only just
beginning,' said Hughes, 50.
She recounted how mainstream publishers had never wanted to
publish the book, and how TV stations had ignored her evidence for
years.
'They didn't want to know. They were making too much money trying
to show a dirty side to Michael Jackson,' Hughes said. 'But that boy
wasn't a child molester.'
Now, she claims to be close to finalizing a film deal: 'Only now
they want my book. It's such a shame.'
According to Hughes, the bizarre behaviour that has led many to
label Jackson a kind of 'manboy' was little more than an exaggerated
version of the midlife crisis other men have.
'They buy open-top sports cars and leave their wives. Michael
liked other kinds of toys. So what? You have to remember that he
needed to create his own world because normal society would not let
him in,' she said.
Hughes said that her contacts with the family had corroborated the
concern that Jackson's father Joe had expressed about the people who
were surrounding the reclusive pop idol, and who according to
speculation had been allowing a regime of powerful pain killers.
'Michael was dulling his senses, but no one did what was
necessary,' she said.
'But maybe it was all part of Michael's plan. Now people are
listening to his music. They are discovering him through his music,
through his message of love, rather than through the lies and smears
put out by hateful people.'
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