In this episode, the audience learns how the Chandlers begin and develops their friendship with Michael Jackson. The Chandlers first visit Neverland in February 1993, and Jordan says the abuse began a few months later. Jordan denies any abuse until his alleged confession as he was waking from anesthesia in July. Evan Chandler asks Michael Jackson for 20 million to not take his allegations public, but Jackson refuses to negotiate. When Evan is court ordered to return Jordan to his mom, he takes Jordan to a psychiatrist which leads to a criminal investigation of Jackson. The episode concludes in August 1993 with the surprise raids on Neverland and Jackson’s L.A. apartment.
Recommended documentary about the Chandler Case: We recommend watching the Square One documentary by Danny Wu, for a more concise summary of the evidence in the Chandler case. Wu is the first to interview Josephine Zohny about her experience with accuser Jordan Chandler.
In later court documents, Ray Chandler reveals that he moved in with Evan to start working on his book in August 1993, when the Chandler allegations went public. Here are those court documents.
Because the majority of the book is from Evan's perspective and because it's written dramatically with an abundant use of dialogue, many, including myself, suspect it is largely ghostwritten by Evan.
Hughes was the legal secretary working for Chandler's lawyer, Barry Rothman, during the time of the Chandler scandal. She reports seeing Jordan Chandler alone in Rothman's office for hours before he ever went to the authorities.
Debbie Rowe's testimony about Jackson's March 1993 scalp surgery
March 1993 is right before Jackson starts spending a lot of time with the Chandlers at their house in April and May.
Rowe talks about the severe post-op pain Jackson was experiencing in the months following surgery. She also describes how his scalp never fully healed because of his lupus, and describes the thick painful keloid scarring on his scalp. Her testimony reinforces the idea that Jordan Chandler should at the very least have seen distinctive scarring and possibly observed the inflated masses on his scalp in the months after surgery. She describes the progressive stretching procedure over 3 months after the March 1993 surgery. She explains how lupus made Jackson's skin "friable," inhibiting healing, which is why his surgeries never took. This 1993 scalp surgery was ultimately unsuccessful and fell apart. Rowe also describes how Jackson was taken advantage of by his doctors. Rowe is similar to Jackson's brother Jermaine by saying Jackson's fear of the pain was almost worse than the actual pain. She says Jackson didn't want to wear the hairpiece anymore so that was the reason behind the scalp surgery in 1993. Rowe confirms the accounts of many other friends when she describes how talking on the phone (including talking to her) was one of Jackson's favorite things to do.
Sasaki describes the scalp surgery he performed on Jackson in March 1993. He states that he progressively cranked metal plates to stretch the skin, and says the procedure is very painful, especially 4-6 weeks after surgery, which is when Jordan Chandler will later allege the abuse took place.
Faye describes how Jackson's inflation device was removed just prior to leaving on the Dangerous Tour in 1993.
Klein describes how without his hat, Jackson had a big ball on top of his head from his tissue expansion surgeries.
Strick was appointed by DA Tom Sneddon to examine Jackson’s medical files, and in an interview he explains Jackson's repeated plastic surgeries were actually to correct the progressive damage from lupus tissue breakdown.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTuvCalcgPw&t=1s
Her testimony includes a description about how there were no beds at Jackson's hideout, just sleeping bags.
From his book, The Magic, The Madness, The Whole Story.
Feldman's Disneyland account supports the idea that Jackson always offers the bed to guests. Feldman spent a lot of time with Jackson when he was a young teen, and has always denied any abuse.
The Cascio family story about Jackson friendship
The whole family describes how Jackson enhanced family togetherness--there were never any attempts to undermine the parents' authority or push the family aside to spend more time with the kids. They had a long-term friendship of almost 30 years.
Emmanuel Lewis about Jackson’s living with them after his scalp burn
Lewis also describes how the friendship brought his family closer, there were no attempts to isolate or undermine his parents.
They explain how Jackson friendship was with the whole family and promoted togetherness--he never tried to isolate the kids.
Reference is in Jermaine's book, You Are Not Alone.
Because of Jackson's March surgery, Jackson still needs to wear the hat to cover and protect the surgical site during healing.
Fisher was a dental patient of Evan Chandler's during this time in 1993, and says he offered unnecessary dental work to feed the drug habits of his patients, including herself.
Jackson told Frank that he thought Evan's anger was because Jackson failed to follow up on Evan's screenwriting proposal.
Nordahl says that Evan's screenwriting ambitions and his rejected $20 million dollar proposal when first meeting Jackson were what was behind Evan's later demands of $20 million.
LA Times article on Jackson deal with Sony that includes involvement in film.
UPI article on sources reporting that Evan Chandler asking for $20million deal
This case illustrates the danger of how deceptive and coercive police questioning can lead to false confessions. Similar to what Evan Chandler does with Jordan Chandler, the police make sure the Central Park 5 kids know that the only way they can go home is if they confess. Evan Chandler similarly lets his son know that the only story he will accept, is for Jordan to confess a sexual relationship with Jackson.
These are the best practice guidelines for interviewing potential child sex abuse victims.
(From: The Society for Child and Family Policy and Practice, A Division of the American Psychogical Association)
In this literature review of the evidence, the unreliablity of memories reported under the influence sodium amytal is explained. The American Medical Association refutes the validity of recovered memories with the aid of sodium amytal.
Ray claims in legal documents from October 2004 that he moved in with his brother Evan to start on their book 2 days after allegations made public in August 1993.
Abrams was the psychiatrist who first reported Jordan's allegations of abuse. In this article, Abrams notes that he had no opportunity to evaluate whether or not there was coaching after reporting Jordan's allegation for the first time to authorities.
(BBC site currently unavailable for this source)
Thanks to the following sources, which helped guide my research
These sources have collected documents and followed the sex abuse cases over many years:
(currently a private site)
Thanks also to the website, Reflections on the Dance for the interview with painter David Nordahl.
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