Haunted Gary

by Ursula Bielski

  From 1966 to 1968, the Jackson Five toured the Midwest, making the rounds of all-black clubs called the “chitlin’ circuit,” opening for acts like Sam and Dave, the O’Jays, Gladys Knight and Etta James, but also performing at strip clubs and high school dances.

  Whether noble or notorious, the drive paid off. In August 1967, the Jackson Five performed its debut at Harlem’s Apollo Theater, taking the Amateur Night honors. Afterward, a local producer, Gordon Keith of Gary’s Steeltown Records, signed the group for its first record.

  The album Big Boy was released in January 1968 and won the family a contract with Motown records, which changed the spelling of the group to the Jackson 5 and propelled the boys into stardom. Joe went on to manage the group despite its new life of world renown. He moved the family to Encino, California, where the living room, it is said, could have fit two of their Gary bungalows comfortably.

  It was the little one who made them all stars. Hailed as a prodigy, Michael Jackson and his vocal stylings broke records from the get go, taking the group’s first four singles—”I Want You Back” (1969), “ABC” (1970), “The Love You Save” (1970) and “I’ll Be There”—to number one on the Billboard chart. Michael became a teen idol almost overnight. The city that Michael—and his family—left behind on the Lake Michigan shore has continued to tend strong ties to its favorite son, despite largely unspoken disappointments. The communal hope that Michael would one day return to somehow “fix” the broken city of his birth remained throughout Jackson’s lifetime. With his premature death came, too, what could be called a mercy killing of those dreams.

  But in recent years, projects continue to surface, which some interpret as Michael’s posthumous efforts to rescue the city his success left behind. Michael played a concert at West Side High School in 1971, two years after his first commercial success, but returned to Gary only once more, in 2003. Plans had been announced for a Michael Jackson Performing Arts Center. During his commentary, in which he pledged to make the dream a reality, Michael said, “Gary, you are family.” The center was never built.

  Plans for the complex moved forward without Michael in 2010, with the city promising a $300 million entertainment extravaganza, including a performing arts center, a hotel, a golf course and possibly even a casino. The Jackson family home was also slated to be moved to the complex as part of a museum. Hopes were high for the venture, which allegedly expected 750,000 visitors per year and millions in revenue for the desperate city.

  Literally hours after the announcement, Howard Weitzmann, attorney for the Jackson estate, publicly announced that Jackson’s image and name could not be used by the Gary project without permission. His public statements clarified that, as executor of Michael’s estate, his concern was not for the support of Michael’s hometown but primarily for Jackson’s family. Interestingly, however, he also suggested that the estate had its own museum plans for California.

  Gary’s mayor retorted with his own information: the Department of Public Works had already approved the land transfer to the Jackson Development & Marketing Corp., and Joe and Katherine Jackson were on board with the project.

  Indeed, Michael’s parents, in 2010, formed the Jackson Family Foundation, a nonprofit, to spearhead the Gary project, but in the end, without the approval of the estate, there was no money to back it. In the end, the one thing that could send Gary on the rise again is dying—or dead. As of 2014, the foundation’s business license was suspended because it owed about $530 in California state taxes.

  Stories of the paranormal have surrounded Michael Jackson and his family since the King of Pop’s death in June 2009. Shortly after his death, a correspondent for Larry King Live was granted permission to tour Jackson’s now-abandoned Neverland ranch. Accompanying the reporter was Mike Brando, son of Marlon, who had been a close confidant of the singer before his death. During the live broadcast, cameras picked up what appeared to be a shadowy figure walking across a room at the end of a corridor. In the days that followed, the video clip raged across the Internet, accompanied with claims of “Michael Jackson’s Ghost!” and “Jacko Haunting Neverland!” The staff soon claimed to have solved the mystery; the shadow figure was, they said, simply a ranch employee walking across a lighting source that had been set up for the filming. But fans could not be convinced. For them, it was a loving sign that their hero was still alive and well.

  Around the same time, a California medium named Bonnie Vent claimed that she had been regularly channeling the late Jackson. Her claims were met with polarized reactions, some fans supportive of her suggestion that Jackson was murdered and others calling fraud before the first video was over. In the fall of 2009, the now-dethroned celebrity medium Derek Acorah (formerly of the hit ghost hunting show Most Haunted) claimed to channel Michael during a live televised séance at an Irish country house where the singer once stayed. The show was voted by Yahoo! users as the “Worst Television Program of 2009.”

  In early 2013, Michael’s sister LaToya attempted to find answers to her brother’s death by visiting a psychic. The visit was filmed for her television show, Life with LaToya. During the segment, LaToya makes the visit dressed in disguise and speaks in an altered voice to avoid giving away her identity and, thus, tipping off the psychic. In the course of the reading, the psychic stuns LaToya by mentioning June (the month of Michael’s death), the name Mickey or Michael and the mention of toxins in the body. He then says he sees passion and energy. Then the psychic tells LaToya, “His passing was an accident, but it wasn’t.”

  In June of that same year, the Jackson family was back in court, suing the production company AEG Live for negligence in hiring Dr. Conrad Murray, the physician who had given Michael the fatal dose of Propofol that led to his death—and who ended up jailed for involuntary manslaughter. Randy Phillips, CEO of AEG Live, testified in court about conversations that had gone on with the ghost of Michael Jackson. Phillips claimed that his friend Brenda Richie—Lionel Richie’s former spouse—had received messages from a medium that allegedly came from the late Michael. In the messages, Phillips asserted, Jackson said he “accidentally killed himself” and that the death, then, was not the fault of his doctor. Los Angeles County Superior Court judge Yvette Palazuelos allowed the testimony to stand, even though the courtroom shook with laughter during Phillips’s statement.

  Countless artists claim to be “haunted” by the spirit or influence of Michael Jackson, some more famously than others. In 2013, Jamie King, creator of the Michael Jackson–themed Cirque de Soleil show in Las Vegas, publicly stated that he believes Michael is an unseen director of the show, claiming that the deceased star has “guided their latest work.” The show was written in Michael’s memory and performed at the Mandalay Bay Resort. King has said he felt Jackson’s presence in rehearsals, “absolutely,” though no specific manifestations have been reported.

  In May 2014, a photograph of a Michael Jackson impersonator taken by a British teen went viral on the Internet. The photo, which shows the tribute artist signing autographs at an event, shows what looks like a face in the upper right part of the shot. Fourteen-year-old Reece Savva took three photographs of the performer as he himself waited in line for an autograph, but only one frame showed the face. Savva and many others believe the face resembles Michael Jackson.

  In the summer of 2012, nearby neighbors of Michael’s former Beverly Hills home began reporting ostensible “auditory apparitions” at the star’s estate. Though three years had passed since Jackson’s death, sounds of his music and even his own voice singing were being reported in the vicinity of the home. At the time, neighbors referenced Michael’s interest in the afterlife, believing that his interest was related to his apparent visitations after death.

  In early 2013, Michael’s sister LaToya revealed on Good Day New York that Michael’s ghost could be regularly heard tap dancing at the Jackson family’s Encino, California estate, where Katherine Jackson and Michael’s children, Paris, Prince and Blanket, have lived since their fath
er’s death and which was the first home the family lived in after signing with Motown. The tap dancing was reported coming from Michael’s childhood room, where—according to his sister—he had also practiced tap dancing for two hours each Sunday. The room is also the site where the family dog would bark at the door for extended periods of time. Along with the tap dancing—which LaToya claimed was also heard by security guards—she also claimed to feel a thick presence at times.

  But what about where it all started? Is Michael Jackson still connected, even in death, to the town where he was born and the home in which he first became a star?

  Visitors to the monument at the Jackson family home in Gary have reported hearing music at the site, and more than one visitor has claimed to have been touched on the arm or shoulder. The strong smell of flowers has also been reported at the site, even when no fans have left bouquets (a common practice).

  Paranormal investigators have longed to investigate the house, but it does not appear that any have been successful in gaining permission to do so. When I attempted to record for EVP at the property, in front of the fence near the memorial, my recorder kept shutting itself off. However, during one of the recordings I was able to make, a male child’s voice cried, “See me!” before the tape recorder once again went dead.

  Monument to Michael Jackson at the Jackson family home, 2015. Photo by John B. Stephens.

  Only one notable change has been made to the Jackson property since the Jacksons left the home in 1969. In June 2010, the City of Gary dedicated a monument at the home in honor of Michael Jackson. Standing eight feet tall and weighing five thousand pounds, the monument was donated by a local business, Stone Plans. The granite was mined from a quarry in India owned by the family of company owner CEO Senthil Muruganantham, but the monument was completed in just two days after Muruganantham, a longtime fan, was inspired during a television viewing of Jackson’s memorial service.

  The black granite monument praises Michael as the King of Pop and lists his birth and death dates and details of his life, beginning with his earliest days in Gary. The front of the monument shows Jackson in silhouette, in a pose he made immortal, balanced on his toes—a moment of glory, frozen forever. Under the etching, a lyric:

  Never Can Say Goodbye.

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  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Ursula Bielski is a lifelong Chicagoan with, like many Chicagoans, a soft spot for Northwest Indiana. She is the founder of Chicago Hauntings, the oldest ghost tour company in Chicago, and the host of PBS’s The Hauntings of Chicago (WYCC). A graduate of St. Benedict High School in Chicago, Ursula holds a BA degree in history from Benedictine University and an MA in American cultural and intellectual history from Northeastern Illinois University.

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