In the mid-1980s, Gordon began to manage La Toya Jackson alongside her father, Joseph. In the late 1980s, he took over her management completely. He married her in Reno, Nevada on September 5, 1989, claiming that it was for her own protection against kidnapping by the Jackson family. La Toya Jackson states that this was both unplanned and against her wishes. According to Jackson; "I told him, 'No way, Jack! I can't marry you. You know what marriage means to me. I've never been in love; I don't even date.... It's not right. I don't love you. I don't have feelings for you.'" [5] Jackson tried to run out of the chapel three times but bodyguard Antonio Rossi grabbed her saying, "There's some things you have to do. Even if you don't want to." [6][7] Jackson told Ebony magazine the marriage was "strictly in name only. It has never been consummated." [5] Six months into the marriage, Jackson asked Gordon for an annulment in Italy. In response, Gordon repeatedly bashed her head against the side of a table saying that he would never let her go. Paparazzi subsequently photographed Jackson with black eyes, which Gordon claimed was caused by intruders. [6][8][9] From this point forward, Jackson lost all contact with her family and wrote her autobiography, La Toya: Growing up in the Jackson Family, which accused her father of child abuse.[10]
Gordon hired bodyguards to watch La Toya constantly and would never allow her to speak to or see her family. La Toya's father Joseph stated in his book The Jacksons that he believed Gordon brainwashed La Toya and made her fearful of her own family. [11] Jackson's mother Katherine also believed that La Toya had been brainwashed while Gordon claimed that Katherine had tried to kill La Toya.[12] Sister Janet concurred with her parents saying at the time, "I think this guy who is with her has brainwashed her and made her like this... He keeps her away from the family, and now he's brainwashed her so much she keeps herself away from us." [13]
In 1993, in their New York home, Gordon beat her repeatedly with a heavy brass dining room chair, leaving Jackson with contusions on her face, arms, legs and back in addition to a black eye, lip and chin swollen to "the size of a clenched fist," requiring 12 mouth stitches. Jackson told reporters, "he kicked me in the mouth (and) the boot went right up under my lip . . . all the way through the skin and burst my lip." Jackson lost consciousness during the beating, leading Gordon to believe she was dead. She recalled, "He called his friends and said, 'She's dead. I killed her,' because I was lying in a puddle of blood and I was out."[14] Gordon was arrested but then released, claiming self defense after La Toya "came at" him with a knife. He revealed to the press he that was undergoing radiation treatments for cancer. [15][16][17]
In December 1993 Gordon hastily arranged a press conference in Tel Aviv, where he had Jackson read a statement that she believed sex abuse allegations against her younger brother Michael. [18] She stated, "I cannot and will not be a silent collaborator in his crimes against young children... Forget about the superstar, forget about the icon. If he was any other 35-year-old man who was sleeping with little boys, you wouldn't like this guy". Gordon claimed La Toya had proof which she was prepared to disclose for a fee of $500,000. A bidding war between US and UK tabloids began, but fell through when they realized that her revelations were not what she had claimed them to be.[19] According to La Toya, Gordon threatened to have siblings Michael and Janet killed if she didn't follow his orders. [14]
Under Gordon's management, Jackson's career declined, booking her disreputable jobs such as spokesperson for the Psychic Friends Network. Due to Gordon's steady stream of publicity stunts Jackson had become a hate figure of sorts. In 1997, Gordon attempted to force Jackson to dance at a Cleveland, Ohio strip club. She refused to do so and in return, was booed and heckled by the predominantly male crowd.[20] When Jackson became aware that Gordon was planning to feature her in a pornographic film she decided she'd had enough. Jackson phoned brother Randy who flew to New York to help her escape while Gordon was out. [21][22] Only days later, La Toya filed for divorce. [2
