Remember the Time: Protecting Michael Jackson in His Final Days by Tanner Colby, Bill Whitfield, Javon Beard
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could go to her with some of my questions, and she felt comfortable giving me more of the background, like with Mr. Jackson’s family and that whole Randy situation. He always had issues with Michael, especially financial. She’d share these things with me, and we established a rapport. Only thing I didn’t feel comfortable bringing up with herwas Raymone. Grace and Raymone talked. I liked Grace, but the two of them had their own thing.
Raymone would come into town from time to time to meet with the boss or do some business dealings on his behalf. Whenever she flew down, she would stay at a hotel close to Mr. Jackson, the JW Marriott, and usually one of us would pick her up and take her to her hotel from the airport. After her first few trips, she flew in and I was driving her to Mr. Jackson’s house and she asked me, “Bill, do you know any housekeepers?”
There was a young lady who used to clean my house every couple weeks, so I said, “Yeah, I know somebody.”
She said, “Oh good. Because I need my place cleaned at least once a week. I want to keep it tidy when I’m not here.”
I was like, Huh? She has an apartment in Vegas? I only remembered taking her to the hotel. I was curious, but I didn’t ask her anything about it. I just recommended my cleaning lady, who also happened to be a friend.
Couple weeks later, I was speaking to this woman about coming to clean my house and she said, “Can we change the date? I need to clean Raymone’s place.”
I said, “Where’s Raymone’s place?”
She said, “At the Turnberry.”
“The Turnberry Towers?”
She said, “Yeah, the Turnberry apartments.”
When she told me that, I was like, Wow.
Javon: Apartments in the Turnberry Towers are nice . They can run you a few thousand a month, easy. It’s the kind of place that caters to celebrities and professional athletes. There’s full-time security, valet parking, dry cleaning—all those perks you get for paying these high prices for these little condos. The Turnberry was where Ms. Grace had an apartment. So when Raymone first started asking us to drive her there, I thought I was taking her to visitMs. Grace’s. I wasn’t thinking at first that she had her own place.
When you pull in to the complex, they have a guardhouse right at the front. I was used to giving Ms. Grace’s information to the guard. Then Ms. Raymone started giving her own apartment information, and pretty soon they were just waving her through. They knew her on a first-name basis. “Hey! How was your day, Ms. Raymone?” Everyone knew her, even the valets.
Bill: Having contacts here in Vegas, I can usually get certain kinds of information when I need to. So I looked into it. Both of them, Grace and Raymone, had apartments in Turnberry Towers, but Mr. Jackson didn’t seem to know anything about it. He always talked like Raymone was still staying at the Marriott. He’d say, “Go pick up Raymone from the hotel.” Stuff like that.
I didn’t say anything to him at the time. I never felt comfortable going over those boundaries. His relationship with his manager? That was way above my pay grade. You don’t go to Michael Jackson after two months on the job and start giving him advice on how he handles his affairs. But if things were this messed up down at our level, if there was all this drama with simple things like payroll or sending Javon to run errands, you could only speculate about what was going on at the top of the organization, at the billion-dollar level, where all his record deals and financial affairs were being managed. How was that being handled? You wondered.
It hadn’t always been like this. That’s one of the things Grace and I would talk about. She told me how well things used to run. At Neverland, back in the day, it ran like a machine, like a real corporate business. Everybody was paid on time. People knew their place, played their position, and that was that. There wasn’t all this jockeying for control,
Raymone would come into town from time to time to meet with the boss or do some business dealings on his behalf. Whenever she flew down, she would stay at a hotel close to Mr. Jackson, the JW Marriott, and usually one of us would pick her up and take her to her hotel from the airport. After her first few trips, she flew in and I was driving her to Mr. Jackson’s house and she asked me, “Bill, do you know any housekeepers?”
There was a young lady who used to clean my house every couple weeks, so I said, “Yeah, I know somebody.”
She said, “Oh good. Because I need my place cleaned at least once a week. I want to keep it tidy when I’m not here.”
I was like, Huh? She has an apartment in Vegas? I only remembered taking her to the hotel. I was curious, but I didn’t ask her anything about it. I just recommended my cleaning lady, who also happened to be a friend.
Couple weeks later, I was speaking to this woman about coming to clean my house and she said, “Can we change the date? I need to clean Raymone’s place.”
I said, “Where’s Raymone’s place?”
She said, “At the Turnberry.”
“The Turnberry Towers?”
She said, “Yeah, the Turnberry apartments.”
When she told me that, I was like, Wow.
Javon: Apartments in the Turnberry Towers are nice . They can run you a few thousand a month, easy. It’s the kind of place that caters to celebrities and professional athletes. There’s full-time security, valet parking, dry cleaning—all those perks you get for paying these high prices for these little condos. The Turnberry was where Ms. Grace had an apartment. So when Raymone first started asking us to drive her there, I thought I was taking her to visitMs. Grace’s. I wasn’t thinking at first that she had her own place.
When you pull in to the complex, they have a guardhouse right at the front. I was used to giving Ms. Grace’s information to the guard. Then Ms. Raymone started giving her own apartment information, and pretty soon they were just waving her through. They knew her on a first-name basis. “Hey! How was your day, Ms. Raymone?” Everyone knew her, even the valets.
Bill: Having contacts here in Vegas, I can usually get certain kinds of information when I need to. So I looked into it. Both of them, Grace and Raymone, had apartments in Turnberry Towers, but Mr. Jackson didn’t seem to know anything about it. He always talked like Raymone was still staying at the Marriott. He’d say, “Go pick up Raymone from the hotel.” Stuff like that.
I didn’t say anything to him at the time. I never felt comfortable going over those boundaries. His relationship with his manager? That was way above my pay grade. You don’t go to Michael Jackson after two months on the job and start giving him advice on how he handles his affairs. But if things were this messed up down at our level, if there was all this drama with simple things like payroll or sending Javon to run errands, you could only speculate about what was going on at the top of the organization, at the billion-dollar level, where all his record deals and financial affairs were being managed. How was that being handled? You wondered.
It hadn’t always been like this. That’s one of the things Grace and I would talk about. She told me how well things used to run. At Neverland, back in the day, it ran like a machine, like a real corporate business. Everybody was paid on time. People knew their place, played their position, and that was that. There wasn’t all this jockeying for control,
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