DEVIL IN THE FAMILY
Jacko ‘abused’ own nephews: police sources
Investigators were convinced Michael Jackson preyed on his own nephews, several sources involved in the criminal probe told The Post.
Santa Barbara County detectives interviewed two of Jackson’s nephews and another family member while investigating the King of Pop for child molestation in 2004-2005, but believe Jacko silenced his family with gifts and threats.
“We received a credible tip about the nephews and, as with many things that happened during the investigation, Jackson’s people got wind of it and Jackson spirited the one boy off to an island,” said a former county detective.
“Well, when that boy returned, Jackson had also purchased him a brand new car, which, we understood, along with the trip, was to shut the nephew up.”
But the then-18-year-old nephew still hinted that something was amiss.
“He was home alone and invited two detectives in, offered refreshments and he also offered that he would be unwilling to talk bad about his uncle,” a prosecution source said.
“It was odd that he wasn’t upset with the visit, he wasn’t upset that the detectives told them what they had suspected happened between he and Michael and he never gave a real denial,” the source said.
Another nephew denied being assaulted by the “Dangerous” singer.
One family member “said he feared there were several nephews who had already been victimized and that he also feared that Jackson’s own son [Blanket] was being groomed by Jackson for unsavory behavior,” the detective told The Post.
“What he told us was eyeopening. He told us that Jackson had for years tried to hide his predilection for prepubescent boys,” and that family matriarch Katherine Jackson “knew about her son’s activities with boys but was too embarrassed to do anything about it. He told us that Katherine implied that Hollywood turned Jackson gay, which had nothing to do with his being a pedophile.”
The family member added that Jackson had been addicted to all kinds of drugs and often was too screwed up to even realize that others were witnessing him touching little boys.
But Jacko was never charged because the relatives wouldn’t cooperate, investigators said. The family member told detectives that he’d be ostracized from the family or even killed if he testified.
The police interviews took place before Jacko’s molestation trial began in Santa Maria, Calif. Jackson was accused of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old cancer patient, but was acquitted. Four years later, the singer suffered a fatal overdose — Saturday was the seventh anniversary of his death.
Last week, Radar Online reported that Jacko hid a twisted sex addiction as well as deviant artifacts like a JonBenet Ramsey doll with a noose around her neck and torture magazines at his Neverland Ranch.
The Web site said police also found photos of scantily clad young boys, including shots of Jackson’s nephews, Taj, Terrell and T.J. — the sons of Jacko’s brother, Tito — who formed the 1990s pop group 3T.
One private investigator with direct knowledge of the police raids told the site, “The detectives’ report cites Michael even used sexy photos of his own nephews . . . in their underwear to excite young boys.”
Jackson attorney Brian Oxman said the Radar report mischaracterized art as porn: “Terrell is standing naked with a shirt in front of him. It is reminiscent of Kim Kardashian on the cover of GQ magazine. He had the photo done for an album cover. There were 50 people there at that photo shoot.”
Jacko recorded and produced music with his nephews and, as revealed in a family member’s tweet last year, eerily wrote a letter to the boys’ late mother — his sister-in-law — warning her to “please read this article about child molestation and please read it to Taj . . . it brings out how even your own relatives can be molesters of children, even uncles or aunts molesting nephews or nieces. Please read. Love, MJ.”
Jacko-estate lawyer Howard Weitzman told The Post Michael “never molested anyone. And whoever would say that he would harm his own children is ridiculous.”
Jacko had a total of 23 nephews and nieces. He sired three children of his own, Prince, 19, Paris, 18, and Blanket, 14.