Part 12 (1/2)

'Cool,' John said. The two shook hands. They were developing trust in one another, and nothing could come of such faith but the very best that the record business had to offer for both of them.

Joseph's Secret.

Many people today think of Michael Jackson as an enigma. It's ironic that, twenty-some years ago, his father, Joseph, was thought of in exactly the same way if not by the public, most certainly by his family and friends. 'Sometimes, I think he leads a double life,' Michael said of his father back then. 'He is a very mysterious person.' Of course, Joseph's other life involved the women with whom he had a.s.signations outside of his marriage. But was there more? In 1980, office employees at Joseph Jackson Productions began to suspect that their boss was trying to hide more than just infidelity.

By early 1980, a nineteen-year-old employee named Gina Sprague had become particularly close to Joseph. Gina is of Mexican-English-Irish descent. At five feet five, one hundred pounds, with shoulder-length brown hair, she was vivacious, intelligent and gorgeous. Joseph was taken by her. However, she insists that she and Joseph were not having an affair, though many Jackson intimates do not believe her. They were, she says, just close friends. 'He needed a friend,' she said. 'He was so estranged from his family. Sometimes, he would need to talk. I was there for him. I knew he had a reputation of being a womanizer, but that is not what our relations.h.i.+p was about.

'If he believed in you, he gave you enough strength and courage to try and attain your goal, even if you didn't think you could do it. Once I knew him, I could understand why the family had become superstars. I had to remind Joseph that he should be proud. I used to tell him, ”Sure, Michael and the rest get all of the attention, but look at where they came from.”

'”The kid hates my guts,” he said of Michael. I said, ”Joseph, that's not true.” He said, ”You haven't seen the way he looks at me.” There were tears in his eyes. ”The kid hates me, Gina. Hates my guts. They all do.”

'One thing that struck me very strange is that Michael and his brothers and sisters called him Joseph,' she recalled. 'The first time Janet came into my office she was about thirteen. She walked in and, in a very flip manner, said, ”h.e.l.lo. Where's Joseph?” Or Michael would call. ”h.e.l.lo, Gina, this is Michael. Is Joseph there?” And I would say, ”Your father father is in a meeting at the moment.”' is in a meeting at the moment.”'

One day Gina, concerned about Joseph's recent mercurial behaviour and mysterious disappearances, asked him what was going on in his life. 'I'm not gonna tell you,' he said with some hesitation. 'Instead, I'll show you.'

Joseph then drove Gina to a building in a suburban Los Angeles neighbourhood where he introduced Gina to Cheryl Terrell. Then, a small African-American child of about six years of age came bounding into the living room. 'Daddy! Daddy!' she exclaimed.

'There she is,' Joseph said with a big smile. 'My little girl.' He scooped the child up in his arms and hugged her tightly.

As he later explained it, Joe and Cheryl Terrell had an affair in 1973. The result of that relations.h.i.+p was a daughter, Joh'Vonnie, born in Los Angeles on 30 August 1974, the day after Michael's sixteenth birthday. Joseph Walter Jackson's name appears on the birth certificate. His occupation is listed as 'entertainment manager'. His age was recorded as forty-six at the time of the baby's birth; the mother's age, twenty-six.

Joseph kept the secret for many years but by 1980 he had decided to tell his family about his daughter. He wanted to become more involved in her upbringing and wanted her to be recognized as a member of the family.

After breaking the ice with Gina, Joseph gathered his sons together in a dressing room after a performance to tell them that they had a half-sister. One can only wonder what he thought their reaction to such news might be and why he decided to tell them the news before before telling Katherine? Of course, they were all upset. The sons then told the daughters, who were also hurt and angry. The children then wrestled with the question of how to tell Katherine, or, if they even telling Katherine? Of course, they were all upset. The sons then told the daughters, who were also hurt and angry. The children then wrestled with the question of how to tell Katherine, or, if they even should should tell her. What a burden it was for them to have this information. In the end, according to LaToya, one of the brothers it's not known which one told Katherine. Of course, she was overcome with understandable emotions. tell her. What a burden it was for them to have this information. In the end, according to LaToya, one of the brothers it's not known which one told Katherine. Of course, she was overcome with understandable emotions.

After she and Joseph had it out, there was nothing to do but deal with the situation as it existed. As a practical woman committed to family values, Katherine put her feelings aside and agreed that Joseph had a responsibility to Joh'Vonnie and to her mother. As a way of providing for them, she and Joseph purchased a three-bedroom home in Van Nuys, a suburb of Los Angeles, for $169,000. As a trustee of his daughter's estate, Joseph then signed the property over to Joh'Vonnie. She and her mother then moved into the home. Katherine could do no more than that. Her nephew, Tim Whitehead (Tim's mother was Katherine's sister, Hattie, and his father is Joseph's stepbrother, Vernon), said, 'Joseph wanted the child to be accepted into the family, but there was no way that was going to happen, I'm afraid. It was too painful for my aunt, and for the children. This was difficult, heartbreaking.'

According to Jerome Howard, Joseph's and Katherine's former finances manager, 'Katherine told me she went into the grocery store one day and saw Joseph's girlfriend and the daughter. She said she just stood there, frozen. ”Jerome, the girl looks exactly exactly like Joseph,” she said.' like Joseph,” she said.'

Though Katherine seemed to be acting in a logical and sensible manner, she was not as unfazed by the news of Joh'Vonnie's existence as she may have wanted people to believe. Michael would indicate later that it was at this time that he sensed an emotional transformation in his mother. She rarely smiled during these days. Her temper would flare over unimportant matters. She ever swore from time to time, which was unusual, and had called Joh'Vonnie a 'b.a.s.t.a.r.d'. When Michael protested, she suggested that if he looked up the word in the dictionary, he would find that she was using it properly. Apparently, Joseph's indiscretions had worn her down, chipped away at her self-esteem, her pride. She now sometimes seemed bitter and angry.

Even though Katherine was going through an ordeal, and the family was being torn apart by the recent turn of events, the Jacksons had no choice but to continue to express a strong sense of unity to the media. Public relations was an important consideration. The family had been turning away from reality and toward image-making ever since they arrived in Los Angeles from Gary. However, for Michael, nothing would ever be the same. Joseph's actions had resulted in the ultimate betrayal of his mother, indeed his entire family, and Michael would have a difficult time dealing with his father on any level, for many years. Despite what people may have thought, Michael somehow expected more from his father.

Though Katherine was clearly angry, and had good reason to be, she was a religious woman who desperately wanted to be a forgiving Jehovah's Witness. She would not confide in anyone about her fury, would not discuss her hurt over what had happened with Cheryl Terrell and Joh'Vonnie. It was just a matter of time before her suppressed rage would erupt, especially when she heard rumours in the summer of 1980 that Joseph was having an affair with Gina Sprague, the woman in whom he had first confided about Joh'Vonnie. Some of her friends felt that Katherine Jackson was much like a time bomb, ticking, ticking, ticking... about to explode.

Katherine is Pushed Too Far.

As time pa.s.sed, Gina Sprague began to 'cover' for Joseph Jackson whenever he wanted to visit his daughter. 'Even though the family knew about her, he didn't want to flaunt her,' says Gina. 'Sometimes, they would call and ask for him and, even though I knew he was with Joh'Vonnie and maybe even Cheryl, I would lie and say he was in a meeting, or otherwise unavailable. This went on for months.'

Because Joseph and Gina seemed to share so many secrets, the word was out in his production company that they were having an affair. According to Gina, someone in the office began feeding misinformation to Katherine, who was already suspicious of all of Joseph's female friends and still reeling from the shock of Cheryl and Joh'Vonnie.

One day, the phone rang. Gina picked it up. 'Good afternoon, Joseph Jackson Productions.'

'I want you to quit your job,' said a female voice. 'Do you hear me? Quit, or we're coming to get you.'

'What? Who is this?' Gina asked, panicked.

The caller hung up.

Gina was upset. She went straight to Joseph and told him about the mysterious call.

'Oh, that's just nonsense,' Joseph told her, barely glancing up from his paperwork. 'No one is coming after you, Gina,' said. 'I promise you. You'll be fine.'

The next day, 16 October 1980, at three o'clock in the afternoon, Gina was behind her desk in the reception area of Joseph Jackson Productions, 6255 Sunset Boulevard, Suite 1001 (the same building in which Motown Records was housed), when Randy Jackson, then eighteen, entered. He asked two other employees to leave the office so that he and Gina could be alone. The two employees did as they were told. Randy then also left for a moment, and returned with Janet, fourteen, and with Katherine. A bitter argument about Gina's relations.h.i.+p with Joseph ensued.

Then, according to what Gina told police, matters got out of control and Katherine, Randy and Janet pulled her into a stairwell and a.s.saulted her. When Jim Krieg, an office security guard, heard screams, he ran to investigate and later said he observed Randy holding Gina against the wall while Katherine pummelled her with her purse. Upon seeing the guard, Janet hissed at him, 'Leave, mister. This is a family affair.' He left, as instructed by the fourteen-year-old. Katherine grabbed a gold medallion from Gina's neck. 'This belongs to me,' she said. 'Not you.' When one of Diana Ross's brothers happened by, he asked 'Mother, what are you doing?' [Many of her friends called Katherine 'Mother'.] 'Go about your business, this is a family matter,' she told him, according to what he later recalled. He ran off, stunned. The rest of the police report is graphic in its account of the violence Gina says took place that afternoon.

Joseph was in a meeting with his door closed. When Gina came stumbling back into the office suite, she was crying. He ran out of his private office. 'My G.o.d, what happened to you?' he asked her.

Too upset to speak, Gina collapsed on to the floor. Police officers and an ambulance, summoned by Jim Krieg, arrived on the scene. When medics lifted Gina to put her on a stretcher, she let out a piercing scream. Joseph leaned over and whispered urgently in Gina's ear, 'Tell me, who did this to you? Was it some crazy fan?'

'It was Katherine,' Gina said through her tears, her voice lowered so as not to be heard by anyone by Joseph.

Joseph's eyes widened. 'But that can't be true,' he whispered.

'It is true, Joseph,' Gina insisted.

Gina Sprague was taken to Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, where she was treated for multiple cuts, bruises, and a minor head injury. Joseph did not visit her there. She was released the next day. Exhausted, she went to bed as soon as she got home. Just as she was about to doze off, she heard loud voices, as her friend refused to allow Joseph into the house. Gina got up and went to the door. 'You can let him in,' she said.

Joseph looked worn out from lack of sleep, sapped of his usual vitality. With some hesitation, Gina's friend left them alone.

'Why, Joseph?' Gina asked him, according to her memory.

'I just can't believe she would do that,' Joseph said, putting his head in his hands. Gina had never seen him this way before; it was a shock. Still, she was furious with him.

'You called the cops, didn't you? Now what's gonna happen?' Joseph asked. 'And you, of all people in my life, know how much I love my family. They're everything to me.'

Gina shook her head in astonishment. 'I was trying to cover up for you so you could visit Joh'Vonnie, and this is what happened to me because of it,' she said, angrily. 'Don't you even care about that?'

'What I care about is my family,' Joseph repeated. He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. 'I have worked so hard,' he said, reaching into the breast pocket of his jacket. Then, with a shaking hand, he pulled out an envelope and handed it to Gina. Inside, as Gina recalled it, there was a cheque for a large sum of money.

'Take it,' Joseph instructed. 'It's yours.'

She gave him an incredulous look. 'I don't want your money, Joseph,' she said. She crumpled the cheque and threw it at him. 'Leave my house,' she demanded. 'How dare you?'

Floundering, Joseph walked out of the room, his head drooping. Gina slammed the door behind him.

Michael was stunned by the way his mother, sister and brother had supposedly attacked Gina. He could not reconcile such a violent act with the image of his beloved and gentle mother. He refused to believe it, and insists to this day that it never happened. Most of the family, though, knows that Katherine had reached her limit. 'Basically, Joseph was in love with that girl Gina,' recalled Tim Whitehead. 'And my aunt didn't like it and wanted it to stop. She became extremely upset, and went to the office to see Gina. After so many years, Kate had just reached her breaking point. You can only push a person so far.'

Gina decided not to press charges against the Jacksons. She says that her attorney told her not to bother, 'because those rich people will never be going to jail, and you'll be wasting your time trying to put them there.' Instead, she filed a twenty-one-million-dollar civil lawsuit against Katherine, Janet and Randy.