INDEPTH: MICHAEL JACKSON
The King of Pop
CBC News Online | June 13, 2005
In 1991, Michael Jackson proclaimed to the world through his hit song Black or White that "I'm not gonna spend my life being a colour." In fact, the man known around the world as one of the greatest musical stars of his generation began transforming his African features back in 1984.
First his nostrils appeared narrower, his eyebrows higher, his lips thinner. A cleft appeared in his chin in the late '80s and his skin was shaded to a ghostly white.
Jackson told interviewers that he suffered from vitiligo, a disorder in which the skin loses its pigmentation. Contrary to rumours, he said, he had only undergone two cosmetic changes.
One of nine children, Jackson's star rose high in the '70s as a member of the Jackson Five and his fame soared even higher in the '80s as a solo artist.
The '80s belonged to Jackson. His 1982 album Thriller, which sold 40 million copies and won virtually every top award, was a sensation at dance clubs around the world and the accompanying video was considered revolutionary.
Bad, released in 1987, won Jackson further accolades, as did Dangerous in 1991.
Bad and dangerous were only two words used to describe Jackson in 1993, the year he was accused of molesting a 13-year-old boy. The case was eventually settled out of court and Jackson continued to maintain his innocence, but the scandal and his bizarre lifestyle choices caused his popularity and music sales to slide.
Jackson defended his sleeping with children as an innocent act. "When you say bed you're thinking sexual," he told a BBC reporter. "It's not sexual, we're going to sleep. I tuck them in… It's very charming, it's very sweet."
The public was surprised to learn in 1994 that Jackson had married Lisa Marie Presley. A year-and-a-half later they divorced. Then the gossip magazines had a field day when they learned that Jackson, who had remarried in 1996, had fathered a son, then a daughter and, in 2002, another son.
In 2001, Jackson tried to mount a musical comeback by releasing a sixth solo album Invincible, but it received a cool reception from critics.
Then, in an odd twist of destiny, on Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2003, the same day Jackson's latest CD, Number Ones, was released, the pop star was accused of multiple counts of lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14. The allegations involved a 13-year-old cancer survivor who had stayed at Jackson’s Neverland Ranch earlier in the year.
"Michael would never harm a child in any way. These scurrilous and totally unfounded allegations will be proven false in a courtroom," Jackson spokesman Stuart Backerman said in a written statement in November 2003, while authorities investigated the allegations – but before charges were laid.
On April 30, 2004, Jackson was charged with 10 counts including child molestation, extortion, child abduction, false imprisonment and giving a minor an intoxicating agent.
The case went to trial on Jan. 31, 2005.
The prosecution tried to portray Jackson as a serial child molester and his Neverland Ranch as a predator's lair. He was accused of plying his young victims with alcohol.
The defence argued that Jackson was a victim of an extortion attempt, saying the now 15-year-old child's family tried to pull "the biggest con of their careers."
"They are trying to take advantage of Michael Jackson," said defence attorney Thomas Mesereau to the jury. "They are trying to profit from Michael Jackson. They think they have pulled it off. They are just waiting for one thing – your verdict."
Jackson’s defence team relied on several character witnesses, including former child star Macaulay Culkin, who spent significant time at the Neverland Ranch.
Like other boys who testified, Culkin said he slept in Jackson's bed a number of times between the ages of 10 and 14, but said it was simply because he fell asleep in the bedroom.
The case went to the jury on June 3, 2005. The jury took its time considering Jackson's fate, deliberating for more than 32 hours over the following 10 days.
Then, on June 13, the verdicts: Not guilty on all counts. Michael Jackson would not go to jail.
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