Howard Mann told me one story that I know to be mostly true and that I feel
should be told, even though it was omitted from the main body of this book: In the
fall of 2009, Mann made a deal to acquire the trove of Jackson family memorabilia,
videotapes, photographs, and music recordings that Henry Vaccaro called “ The
Michael Jackson Secret Vault.” Among those items was what had long been the
most speculated about piece of physical evidence ever possessed by the Santa
Barbara County District Attorney’s office. This was a box of “ salacious materials”
that would become the object of a frenzied hunt in the weeks after Michael’s death.
When the British tabloids discovered that these “ materials” were now in Mann’s
possession, they began a bidding war that, according to Howard, resulted
ultimately in an offer of seven figures. (I know there was a bidding war, but doubt
the amount offered ever approached a million dollars.) Whatever amount of money
it was that the British tabloids offered, it’s a fact that instead of selling these
objects he conveyed the box and its contents to the Hayvenhurst compound and
presented it to Katherine Jackson. It was an attempt at forging a relationship with a
woman he had never met. “ I told Mrs. Jackson I didn’t think it would be right or
smart to sell this stuff to a tabloid that would trash her son’s reputation,” Mann
explained to me, “ and that I was giving it to her to do with as she saw fit.”
Katherine opened the box, looked inside, closed her eyes for a moment, then
thanked Mann profusely for his kindness and consideration. “ It was very good of
Howard,” Mrs. Jackson said months later, after he had become her business partner
and personal advisor.
Mann told me that the box of “ materials” had been packed by Marc Schaffel and
delivered to Michael Jackson back in 2002. “ Michael asked me to send some of the
movies I’d made,” Schaffel explained when I asked him about this. The “ exotic”
sex toys in the box, more than the gay porn films, were what the tabloids had
coveted. “ I threw that stuff in to make him laugh,” said Schaffel. No, he didn’t
believe Michael was gay, Marc said: “ At least I never saw any sign of it.” Michael
often commented that he found this or that woman attractive, admiring the curve of
her hips or the shape of her posterior, but Schaffel never knew him to engage in
anything more than a brief and superficial flirtation with any female. He certainly
never slept with one during the years Marc spent with him. So why did Michael
want him to send that box of gay porn films? I wondered. “ He was curious,”
Schaffel said. “ Michael was interested in everything. He looked at straight films,
gay films, tranny films—you name it. He wanted to see it all. I took it as him
trying to know about things he wasn’t experiencing in his own life.”
