Jack Wishna, tied to Michael Jackson, found dead in Las Vegas

bluesky

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By Associated Press, Updated: Wednesday, November 28, 12:34 PM

<article>LAS VEGAS &#8212; A dealmaker who helped bring Donald Trump to Sin City, courted Michael Jackson for a casino residency and consulted for Treasure Island owner Phil Ruffin has been found dead at his home in Las Vegas.</article><article> Jack Wishna was found dead at his Las Vegas-area home Tuesday, Clark County Coroner Mike Murphy said.</article><article>
The circumstances surrounding the 54-year-old&#8217;s death was unknown. Murphy said he hoped investigators would be able to determine the cause of death Wednesday afternoon.
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The well-known wheeler and dealer will be remembered for orchestrating a multimillion-dollar agreement between performer Wayne Newton and the Stardust casino, said Dan Wilinsky, a spokesman for Wishna&#8217;s latest project.
He&#8217;s credited with bringing Trump and Ruffin together to build the Trump International Tower in Las Vegas, and he was also &#8220;instrumental&#8221; in convincing Jackson to return from his extended stay abroad in the mid-2000s, said Randall Sullivan, author of &#8220;Untouchable: The Strange Life and Tragic Death of Michael Jackson.&#8221;
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Jackson, who had been castle-hopping in Ireland, came straight to Las Vegas from Dublin.
&#8220;Michael arrived in a private jet and Wishna and his wife were there to meet him,&#8221; Sullivan said. &#8220;So that tells you that Wishna was the guy in Michael&#8217;s life at that time.&#8221;
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Wishna had been planning to install the singer in a new themed casino.
&#8220;They were thinking the front would be a set of flashing lights, a picture of Michael Jackson,&#8221; Sullivan said.
After the singer&#8217;s death, Wishna worked to establish a Jackson-themed Cirque du Soleil production.

Wishna had recently been developing a social media website, RockCityClub.com, for musicians and their fans, Wilinsky said.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/enter...cd803c-3991-11e2-9258-ac7c78d5c680_story.html
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Whuuuut! :eek: Dang, thats a trip. Sorry to here that.

Wishna had been planning to install the singer in a new themed casino.
&#8220;They were thinking the front would be a set of flashing lights, a picture of
Michael Jackson,&#8221; Sullivan said. After the singer&#8217;s death, Wishna worked to
establish a Jackson-themed Cirque du Soleil production.

I need to re-read the thread on this.....need some clarification.
 
Sheesh why are those articles quoting Sullivan. he is not the source. That info has been available for years-
Do we really have to suffer with him being quoted as some MJ expert now. :doh:



RIP Mr Wishna. My condolances to your family and friends


These are articles below are from people that actually knew Jack Wishna and I believe Norm
from Vegas review was the original source years back for the info above credited to Sulivan

LAS VEGAS DEALMAKER JACK WISHNA FOUND DEAD


6662133-2-4.jpg


Jack Wishna, an influential Las Vegas deal maker with a client list that included Michael Jackson
, Donald Trump and Wayne Newton, was found dead at his home on Tuesday.

The development was first reported by entertainment reporter Alicia Jacobs. Another source
said a death was reported at Wishna&#8217;s residence.

Wishna was instrumental in arranging Jackson&#8217;s 2006 move from self-exile in
Ireland to Las Vegas, where the pop icon hoped to launch a comeback.

He was an intermediary during the process that led Trump to build his first
tower in Las Vegas in 2008. In 1999, Wishna engineered Newton&#8217;s return to Las
Vegas as a headliner.

Among the deals Wishna said he pursued for Jackson included a marriage with
Cirque du Soleil, ala Cirque&#8217;s collaboration with The Beatles music.

--NORM CLARKE, Vegas Confidential
http://www.lvrj.com/columnists/norm...-WISHNA-FOUND-DEAD-181126061.html?normBN=true

More detalied information ............

Upon passing, Jack Wishna remembered as a man who loved Las Vegas
http://www.lasvegassun.com/blogs/ka...assing-jack-wishna-remembered-man-who-loved-/

By John Katsilometes Published Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2012 | noon Updated 1 minute ago

We both loved Las Vegas, more than anything. That is why I got along so famously with Jack Wishna.

He loved it here. I love it here. And when we had lunch together at Capital Grille at Fashion Show mall (where he always ordered the Wishna Salad), we would talk about why we loved Las Vegas. We would gaze out toward the Strip, at the gold Trump International and Wynn/Encore Las Vegas, and Jack would talk of the latest grand plan in the resort or entertainment industries.

He would often preface his tales with, &#8220;I hate to drop names, but Tony Orlando and I &#8230;&#8221; and we would laugh at all the name-dropping that was a hallmark of these lunch visits.

Wisha, 54, a friend of so many Las Vegas execs, officials and entertainers, was found dead Tuesday morning at his home in Anthem.

Henderson Police said a 911 dispatcher took an emergency call at 6:20 a.m. Tuesday from the Plum Hollow Drive home owned by Wishna and his wife, Donna. Officers forced entry into the garage and found Wishna unconscious. Paramedics rushed him to St. Rose Dominican Hospital, Siena Campus. The Clark County Coroner&#8217;s Office confirmed today that Wishna died of carbon monoxide intoxication, the result of a suicide.

Wishna was the founder of the entertainment and resort consulting firm CPAmerica, which had offices in New York, Florida and Las Vegas. Over the years, Wishna was friendly, and conducted business, with many famous figures in Las Vegas and beyond, including Michael Jackson, Donald Trump, Wayne Newton and Orlando. His most recent project was the social music network RockCityClub.com, designed as a platform for emerging artists to showcase their latest releases and for music fans to find the latest hot new acts.

Wishna&#8217;s original partner in the platform was the late Don Kirshner, and he also worked with longtime producers Ron Dante and Phil Ramone on the project to form a Producers Circle within the organization. As the project took form, Wishna assembled a deal with the Palms to present rising artists featured on RockCityClub onstage at the Pearl Concert Theater, with the shows streaming live on the website.

This morning, Dante said, &#8220;I am in shock. This came out of nowhere. It is a terrible tragedy.&#8221; Dante added, &#8220;I knew when he didn&#8217;t respond to my e-mails over the past two or three days, something was wrong. When he didn&#8217;t show up at the office on Monday, I knew something was wrong.&#8221;

No memorial services have been announced for Wishna, a native of New York City who split time between Las Vegas and Boca Raton, Fla., in recent years.

Wishna launched RockCityClub.com a year ago and was still seeking investors in the project as recently as this week. He missed a Tuesday lunch meeting at BLT Burger with Mirage President Felix Rappaport and Rappaport associates, during which Wishna was expected to propose an investment opportunity for Rappaport in Wishna&#8217;s Rockrena Inc., the parent company of RockCityClub.

Rappaport said he knew Wishna to always be on time, even early, for such appointments, but didn&#8217;t think anything tragic had unfolded until reading overnight reports that Wishna had died.

&#8220;He was a great friend and a great conceptual thinker,&#8221; Rappaport said in an e-mail today. &#8220;He thought of great partnerships and then assembled them.&#8221;

Wishna was a regular visitor, nearly every night, to chef Carla Pellegrino&#8217;s restaurant Bratalian on South Eastern Avenue, where Pellegrino often observed him writing his memoirs into a notepad and iPad unfolded in front of him as he ate. When Wishna did not show up for dinner Monday night, she became concerned. Word about his death surfaced Tuesday night, as freelance entertainment reporter Alicia Jacobs, a close friend of the Wishnas, was first to tweet that she heard Jack had died, and Pellegrino soon followed with a heartfelt tribute to her friend on her Facebook page.

Word circulated quickly, and news of Wishna&#8217;s passing was posted on updates to his Facebook page and Wikipedia entries even before his death was confirmed by the Clark County Coroner&#8217;s Office.

Wishna arrived in Las Vegas in 1999, and his first significant venture was to help forge the contract between Newton and Boyd Gaming officials, which led to Newton performing at the Stardust in the Wayne Newton Theater from 2000-2005. In a statement today, Newton said, "It comes as a tremendous surprise. Jack and Donna have been longtime friends. Our thoughts and prayers are with Donna during this time of great loss. Jack will be missed.&#8221;

Wishna was a conduit between Trump and Phil Ruffin in the deal that led to the construction of the Trump on the Strip parcel owned by Ruffin just north of Fashion Show. Trump thanked Wishna for his friendship at the ribbon-cutting ceremony in the summer of 2006, and Wishna often acted as a go-between for Trump and media seeking contact from the real-estate mogul.

Wishna also talked of his involvement in convincing Michael Jackson out of retirement after a 1 ½-year hiatus and putting the superstar recording artists in contact with representatives of Cirque du Soleil, a process that ultimately helped led to the Cirque show based on Jackson&#8217;s life and career (a theater version of which is moving into Mandalay Bay Theater in the spring of 2013). Over the years, the celebrities and moguls he listed as clients, or as those with whom he consulted, included Britney Spears, Madonna, Michael Flatley, Richard Branson and Mohamad al-Fayed.

Orlando was a close friend and in an e-mail today said, &#8220;Our heartfelt prayers, sympathies and deepest condolences go out to the Wishna family and Donna on the loss of her husband, Jack.&#8221;

Wishna was at most show and resort openings and major events in Las Vegas. Several weeks ago, we hung out at the premiere viewing party of the CBS series based on the life of Ralph Lamb, &#8220;Las Vegas,&#8221; at Green Valley Ranch. One favorite moment was the night in December 2009 that Donna, he and I overtook the chocolate display at the opening of Aria.

We always had a &#8220;next lunch&#8221; on the books, but the last time I saw Jack was at the wedding of R-J columnist Norm Clarke. We were on the dance floor, and Jack was wearing sunglasses and smiling as we tried to perform something akin to the Hustle. We had some laughs, for sure, and I&#8217;ll always remember that smile, and the love that Jack Wishna had for this city.
 
^^I wasn't talking about Randall Sullivan.
sorry for the confusion Silloutte. I was just refering to the original article posted .. not your post and not a member.
Ill edit my post to make that clear.

I do have some info on The Stories about a MJ Casino in Vegas and MJ's interest in Cirque du Soleil theme based on Thriller. but its from memory so Im looking for the source of those stories
 
I really find it odd that these people that had any ties to MJ always pass of "suicide"...not just Mr.Wishna....But Peter Lopez to..to much coincidence if you ask me. RIP..Mr Wishna.
 
I really find it odd that these people that had any ties to MJ always pass of "suicide"...not just Mr.Wishna....But Peter Lopez to..to much coincidence if you ask me. RIP..Mr Wishna.
Look at it this way. Michael had ties with hundreds if not 1000's of people in the business - so it is not that odd to me that 2 people or any of them in such a cut throat business might be tied up in problems either personal or business wise that would cause them to committ suicide. It happenes often but we just dont hear of it. There could be many reasons other than knowing Michael. I dont even speculate that some one is doing away with them over Michael.
 
And wishna was hardly close to mj. he spent more time talking crap about mj in the last years
 
i find it fishy that everyone close to mj died one after another after mj's death.
 
Why do you think that?
Noone attended his funeral, cremation. I think even if they were estranged at the end when he died some of them would have come, for all the other years. I think they were scared, knew something was wrong. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1229622/Killed-curse-
article-1229622-074689C0000005DC-498_233x423.jpg
And although he was the father of three children and hailed from a large and prominent Jewish family, only the crematorium staff were there to see the curtains close on his coffin when he was cremated a few days ago.
Michael-Jackson-What-drove-father-Jordy-Chandler-gun-head.html

Suicides are supposed to be investigated as a possible murder as could easily be staged.
 
His death was investigated and due to all the evidence they deemed it a suicide. Evan's mental and physical health were deteriating. He alienated all his family by his hateful and violent actions. He was alone and miserable... and he was not of sound mind. I think he did committ suicide. There is no evidence or facts to show other wise. I find it odd when people disreguard the facts and assume otherwise. I see no basis for it.

And although he was the father of three children and hailed from a large and prominent Jewish family, only the crematorium staff were there to see the curtains close on his coffin when he was cremated a few days ago.
Thats an odd statement in that article. People are not usually present when someone is creamated (placed in a furnace). That is not something most wants to see. The funeral home usually takes care of sending the body to a creamatory at famlies request and recieving the ashes for the family to pick up. We really dont know what the family did.
 
His death was investigated and due to all the evidence they deemed it a suicide. Evan's mental and physical health were deteriating. He alienated all his family by his hateful and violent actions. He was alone and miserable... and he was not of sound mind. I think he did committ suicide. There is no evidence or facts to show other wise. I find it odd when people disreguard the facts and assume otherwise. I see no basis for it.


Thats an odd statement in that article. People are not usually present when someone is creamated (placed in a furnace). That is not something most wants to see. Plus they are not creamated in coffins. The funeral home usually takes care of sending the body to a creamatory at famlies request and recieving the ashes for the family to pick up. We really dont know what the family did.

IMO it was mentioned in the articles because noone from the family came, not even his brother - the people who worked there thought it was odd. I think when someone dies, peoples' perspectives change, they remember better times when they were growing up. Alot of times people want to see someone after they passed one more time.

I can think of some good reasons someone might want to murder Evan as Michael died, his image is important to future money making deals for alot of people - Sony, Branca, etc - Evan in some way wrote the book with his brother during the trial - so he was risky & his murder sends a message to the rest of the family - no talking.

I do respect your opinion qbee, but I just disagree. Murders can easily be staged as suicide.

As far as Jack Wishna's suicide- the only odd thing to me is the time being so early in the morning. Very sad for him & his family.
 
Interesting Jrsfan....I could def see that being the case, who knows? Whatever the truth is though I can't feels sorry for Evan! Not one freakin bit! By the way, I truly believe both accusers Gavin and Jordan are definitely being watched by certain folks. Making sure they don't open their lying traps. Zonen being close to the Arviso's till this day even being part of his wedding is no coincident. As well has People like Dimond being part of the pack. She always had up dates on Jordan life throughout the yrs as well. Creepy ish! A lot rides on these accusers keepin their mouth shut and certain folks are makin sure of it. SCREW EM ALL!
 
Interesting Jrsfan....I could def see that being the case, who knows? Whatever the truth is though I can't feels sorry for Evan! Not one freakin bit! By the way, I truly believe both accusers Gavin and Jordan are definitely being watched by certain folks. Making sure they don't open their lying traps. Zonen being close to the Arviso's till this day even being part of his wedding is no coincident. As well has People like Dimond being part of the pack. She always had up dates on Jordan life throughout the yrs as well. Creepy ish! A lot rides on these accusers keepin their mouth shut and certain folks are makin sure of it. SCREW EM ALL!

Totally agree with all you say.
 
IMO it was mentioned in the articles because noone from the family came, not even his brother - the people who worked there thought it was odd. I think when someone dies, peoples' perspectives change, they remember better times when they were growing up. Alot of times people want to see someone after they passed one more time.

I can think of some good reasons someone might want to murder Evan as Michael died, his image is important to future money making deals for alot of people - Sony, Branca, etc - Evan in some way wrote the book with his brother during the trial - so he was risky & his murder sends a message to the rest of the family - no talking.

I do respect your opinion qbee, but I just disagree. Murders can easily be staged as suicide.

As far as Jack Wishna's suicide- the only odd thing to me is the time being so early in the morning. Very sad for him & his family.

That is not always the case though, some people are true to their word or themselves even on death. It's interesting though because the conclusion I came to at the time was that all his family must have known something, something really bad, probably what we have known all these years plus some more. IMO it takes something huge to have happened to break a family apart like this.
 
I need some clarity is this guy instrumental in setting up the Cirque deal? I thought Branca and Cirque were the main people involved. Another think why is that paper quoting a book that just came out and only a few people read. Is he giving exposure to his friend so people will buy the book? These people really stick together.

Blue I agree with you about people keeping an eye on the accusers to make sure they do not talk. Once they talk all these people in power will be in serious trouble, so they keep them close, pretending it is due to friendship.
 
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That is not always the case though, some people are true to their word or themselves even on death. It's interesting though because the conclusion I came to at the time was that all his family must have known something, something really bad, probably what we have known all these years plus some more. IMO it takes something huge to have happened to break a family apart like this.
I would highly doubt all the family must have known something, only a few. So some family members would have believed Evan & his son Jordan & there would be sympathy for that. If Evan was suffering from Gaucher's disease, certainly there would have been sympathy for his suffering that would have caused him to commit suicide. Noone came.
 
I would highly doubt all the family must have known something, only a few. So some family members would have believed Evan & his son Jordan & there would be sympathy for that. If Evan was suffering from Gaucher's disease, certainly there would have been sympathy for his suffering that would have caused him to commit suicide. Noone came.

For me it is far more feasible that his family simply had the measure of him. But beside that how do you know that he didn't leave wishes that he didn't want anyone at his funeral?

But what I really don't understand with the scenario that he was murdered, why only him? Why not June or Jordy? June was clearly venomous toward MJ during the trial.

Why would, Michaels estate (I'm guessing that's who you would think would order the hit) need to murder him? If they were to think he would be damaging after MJ's death then surely aren't June and Jordy, plus some others just as threatening?

I guess what I am not grasping is the 'why'.
 
I can think of some good reasons someone might want to murder Evan as Michael died, his image is important to future money making deals for alot of people - Sony, Branca, etc - Evan in some way wrote the book with his brother during the trial - so he was risky & his murder sends a message to the rest of the family - no talking.

What exactly are you implying jrsfan - that the chandlers have such damaging info about mj that the executors of the estate had to go murder evan to protect mj's reputation??? You do realise that this is the type of baseless, slanderous conspiracy theory that only the most frenzied of mj's haters could come up with.
 
What exactly are you implying jrsfan - that the chandlers have such damaging info about mj that the executors of the estate had to go murder evan to protect mj's reputation??? You do realise that this is the type of baseless, slanderous conspiracy theory that only the most frenzied of mj's haters could come up with.

Not to mention the fact that jrsfan is accusing people of murder, no less, without any evidence...

Why does everything need to be a conspiracy?

With the direction it has taken this thread belongs to the Controversy section.
 
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