Wade Robson’s Emails: THE MEMORY OF A SEVEN-YEAR OLD

When Wade Robson made his early visits to America he was only seven-eight years old, and his emails to Mom make it clear that he cannot and doesn’t remember any of those events – except those which suddenly begun to ‘evolve’ in his mind only recently.

So the real story will have to be restored by us, same as we need to find an explanation why his memory is working in so strange a way. And for the restoration to be true every single detail should be find its place and each fragment should fit in leaving no baffling questions behind.

From this point of view the fact that he was probably left by his family in Neverland between the two weekends on their first visit there should have an explanation. If his memory is indeed correct, dropping him all alone there due to sheer negligence was ruled out, so the only other explanation would be that the boy pleaded with his parents and grandparents so much that they finally gave in and let him stay (again, this is only in case his memory of it is indeed correct).

However this could be possible only if he was absolutely happy with what he was experiencing in Neverland and there was not a single thing to disturb him there. And if there was nothing to confuse his little mind, this in its turn means only one thing – that what he is describing now never happened.

There is one thing all of us need to realize. If the child lives in one family with a sexual predator and trusts him since day one of his/her life, any improper touches from this beast could really be taken by the child as a given and kept a secret for some time until the child begins to understand what’s what.

But accepting anything like it from a stranger and in a sudden manner like Robson describes it and in so grossly a form too (it wasn’t a mere kiss) – no, if that had been the case it would have inevitably left a huge emotional trace behind it, which could not go unnoticed by adults and even his sister the very next day.

The boy’s shock would have been so big that the next morning he would have displayed obvious signs of misery and discomfort. He would have probably kept silent as abused children usually do,  but there would have been other things – a sudden change of mood, inexplicable tears and stubbornness, no desire to meet, sit by this adult and play with him, and even signs of physical aversion like refusing to eat, vomiting, etc.

In a situation like this the relatives would have surely noticed something wrong. And the boy himself would have never pleaded with his family to let him stay – on the contrary, his only desire would have been to run and escape from that fearful place as soon as possible.

Remember all hell breaking loose when those women in Germany were suddenly groped by unknown males on the New Year night, and the confusion and trauma it gave them? Even some of these adult women initially wanted to kept silent, but all of them felt shattered to pieces and it would be impossible to imagine them expressing a wish to stay in the hands of their abusers – say, for a week.

Same here. Even if the family hadn’t noticed anything, it would have been inconceivable for the child to want to stay there even for an hour, not to mention a whole week and all alone too.

So what Robson is telling us now is a Hollywood scenario with almost all necessary details technically in place, except that it is totally wrong from the point of view of human psychology and behavior. A thriller it is, only a fictional thriller and not the truth.

As to wrong technicalities Robson should please sort it out how he can remember two opposite things – the fact that he was left alone at age 7 and his testimony at the trial that he was never left alone except when he was 11 and was on his own at Neverland on a couple of days, hanging out with Jordan Chandler and the Culkins  in Michael’s room.

I mean this episode in Robson’s testimony:

7       Q.  How often do you recall your mother

8   going to Neverland with you?

9       A.  It’s been every time except for that one

10   time that I spoke of when I was there with Jordie

11   Chandler and Macaulay and I.

20   I remember myself and Kieran Culkin, I think, slept on

21   Michael’s bed, and Michael slept on a cot, or

22   something, on the side of us, and I don’t know,

23   Macaulay fell asleep on a couch or something.

Yes, while Robson and Kieran were sleeping on Michael’s bed, Michael himself was sleeping on a cot. This is what he actually meant by all that ‘sharing his bed’ theory.

“MICHAEL SPENT MUCH OF THE TIME AWAY”

If you dig into Robson’s story deep enough you will be surprised that despite his claim about the alleged “abuse going on from age 7 to age 14” in reality his close ties with Jackson were from age 7 to age 9, and even these two years should be further reduced to three visits only, one of which has been covered here already.

A quick recap of the factual side of his story will remind us that after their move to the US in September 1991 the family stayed at Neverland in the company of Michael Jackson on four occasions only, and as to the rest of their 40-50 visits there all of them took place when Michael was away. The average stay was over a weekend and the longest visit was no more than a week.

Joy Robson was obviously unhappy about them seeing each other so rarely as she said to Variety Today in 1995:

“Michael told us when we were first considering a move to LA, to `follow our heart’, and it felt right to go,” said Joy. “The first 18 months in LA was really tough going. We had taken six suitcases and little money and knew no-one in LA, only Michael who spent much of the time away”

So in the first year and a half after the arrival, until approximately January 1993, Michael was away for most of the time.

And at the 2005 trial Joy Robson provided us with more detail about it and said they had stayed at  Neverland together with Jackson only on 4 occasions in 14 years.

           5       Q.  You testified that you’ve been out at the

           6       ranch on an average of about four times?

           7       A.  Four times a year, but Michael was never

           8      there.

          11       Q.  He’s never there when you go there?

          12       A.  Very rarely.  I can only remember four times

          13      in 14 years that we’ve been there with him since we

          14      have lived here.                                                                           

          20       Q.  How many times do you think you visited

          21       Neverland when Mr. Jackson wasn’t even there?

          22       A.  Maybe 40, 50 times.                                                       

Now what is four times in 14 years? It is one visit per three and a half years and this is how ‘often’ Robson spent his time at Neverland together with Michael Jackson.

Yes, Robson was there on innumerable occasions, but his personal interaction with Michael was only on four of those visits. Well, to be more exact, on three of them as the fourth was spent by Robson together with Jordan Chandler, Macaulay and Kieran Culkin when all of them were hanging out in Michael’s room.

Of course some visits to the Westwood and Century City apartments should also be added to those three occasions. Robson testified to a couple of more stays in each of those places (on one of them he was with Macaulay Culkin in the Century City apartment), but will these several days change anything in the overall statistics? No, they won’t.

And this little maths exercise will surely not explain why Michael had to move Robson across the ocean to spend so little time with him, unless he did it solely for giving him a start in his career and focused his attention on his talents rather than on what Robson is telling us now.

Michael Jackson did indeed try to help Robson as much as he could, but there were reasons for his little presence in Robson’s life. Michael himself was extremely busy and worked hard – first he released the Dangerous album (November 1991), then he made videos films for its songs (1991/92), then he went on a tour (June 1992), then he had an operation on his head and kept in touch mostly with the Chandlers (March 1993) – partially because the Robson family themselves distanced from Michael at that time (more about it later).

And then the Chandler scandal broke out (1993), the second leg of the tour was cancelled, and when things got a little calmer he married Lisa Marie Presley (May 1994) and lived “at her house in the city, every now and then visiting Neverland on their fun weekends” as he himself said; then he got a divorce (1995) and had a child by Debbie Rowe (1996) and went on the History tour – and this brings us to our deadline as according to Robson’s complaint by that time his so-called ‘abuse’ had stopped.

But when did it start and ‘flourish’ in the first place? When was the time for it if Joy Robson herself says that Michael was never there?

While Michael was doing his own thing Robson was trying to get talent agents to notice him by making appearances in Michael’s videos. Black or White was broadcast in November 1991, then came Jam, and Heal the World which were evidently made in late 1991/early 1992.

But Joy Robson found it a lot more difficult to establish themselves in the US than she anticipated. She spoke about it in her interviews and testimony, and it also becomes clear from Robson’s email to her to which we don’t know her reply.

In his email dated October 4, 2012 Robson asked her:

When we were moving to America, what was your expectation or belief of how our living situation and how our life was going to be?

I can’t remember why, but I remember that when we arrived and showed up to the Oakwood apartments, something happened and the mood became stressed, angry, confused, sad. It was as if we thought something was going to be one way and we just found out that it was not going to be that way at all. I just don’t remember what it was that we/you found out.

I also remember that you & therefore we were suddenly scared about our lack of money.

Most probably Joy Robson found that though they were always welcome at Neverland, they wouldn’t live there forever, and that the rent for her apartment was high. And since they didn’t have enough money for it Michael paid their rent – at least for the first month as she said at the trial.

Well, it was her decision to come, not Michael’s and it was her decision to stay too.

It is interesting that Robson remembers all those emotions but doesn’t remember the reason for them, and this is a vivid example of how our memory works – we remember whether we were happy or sad at a certain moment in time, though the event itself may slip from our mind, unless it was a shock like the alleged ‘abuse’ Robson allegedly sustained (which he never did).

In 1992 Robson took part in Michael’s Pepsi commercial. Yes, it was Robson who played the part of young Michael Jackson – the family needed money and Michael Jackson gave them this chance, with the face of the boy then digitally replaced and given a darker tone.

In case you are interested here is the commercial:

Robson was paid $500 per each day of the two-day video shoot. See his email about it:

Wade Robson

To Mom Robson                                                                                    May 9 at 7:37 Pm

Any guess on approximately what I was paid for Pepsi commercial playing him as kid?

Aloha, Wade.

Mom Robson answered him:

It would have been SAG* scale. Whatever that was at the time. You worked two days. It was 500 and something per day. You never got residuals on it because it followed the tour and the tour was cancelled.

*SAG stands for the Screen Actors Guild, an American labor union for actors.

So the commercial was evidently meant to accompany the Dangerous tour and this could bring them extra money (which is why Michael gave him this job), but the tour was cancelled and the commercial couldn’t be released in the US anyway due to the sudden scandal it landed the Robson family into.

On January 2nd or 3rd 1993 the New York Post broke a story saying “Michael Jackson picks a white boy to portray him in ad”. The NY Post also reported: “Plans to use old footage of Jackson were scrapped at least in part because the pictures would make Jackson’s plastic surgery and skin-bleaching makeover too obvious”.

As usual a mountain was made out of the molehill and what was supposed to be a lucrative deal for Robson turned into so big a scandal that the Robson family had to move to another place.

“We were in Australia when the news broke and when we returned to LA the press wouldn’t leave us alone. They tried to get us through out agents, were repeatedly knocking on our door, posed as couriers, followed us everywhere. It was quite scary,” said Joy.

<> their lives became virtually `public property’ overnight around the world when the news broke that young Wade was the `white boy’ appearing as Michael Jackson in the controversial Pepsi Commercial. As a result, the commercial was screened only in the countries Michael visited on his `Dangerous’ tour – and not in the USA.

Meanwhile, the Robson family’s lives were thrown into chaos as press from around the world hounded them for the `inside story’.

As a result, the family had to move from their West Hollywood apartment, and change all their numbers to bring a little sanity and privacy back into their lives”

http://onwiththeshow.com.au/the-inside-story-on-life-in-michael-jacksons-shadow-1995/

It was evidently around that time that Michael gave Joy Robson a loan of $10,000 (not to be repaid) to help them pull through the difficult times and certainly denied that it was Robson who played the part – admitting it would have only added fuel to the fire and could have even nipped Robson’s career in the bud.

And it was at that moment in time that Joy and Wade Robson distanced themselves from Michael. In his recent deposition in December 2016 Robson even remembered that emotional period of their life (the words ‘emotional’ and ‘remembered’ are of course in direct connection with each other):

Q. Do you remember a period of time when your mother disassociated from Michael or stopped him from communicating with your family?

A. I have a vague memory, I don’t even know if I remember exactly why, but it was something around the Pepsi commercial/Super Bowl, that Michael performed in the Super Bowl, which I think was around, like, I don’t know, could be ’92 or ’93, maybe. So I feel like there was something to do with how those situations went down that my mother was upset about and there was some distance for a period of time.

Q. Do you remember how long a period of time?

A. I don’t.

So the scandal was raging, the mother was upset …. and  the time when Robson was 10 should be thrown out of his complaint as there were no ties with Jackson whatsoever.

And in late 1993 the situation got even worse. By then Robson had formed a hip hop duo called Quo (with DeWayne Turrentine) and had recorded 10 tracks for their first album. The album was to be released by the end of the year under Michael Jackson’s MJJ Music label.

But the time of the release fell right into the midst of the Chandler scandal. The deal was put on hold and the advance which they relied on very much was not paid. It was then that Pellicano offered them a loan until Robson’s share of money for the album ($30,000) came through.

Joy Robson explained that situation in her email to Robson on October 4, 2012, at 8:01 PM:

After we moved to the States, he used to send a lot of gift baskets. There were two 10,000 dollar loans…  one was the Anthony Pellicano one he paid. That was because Pellicano put a hold on the record deal and therefore the advance. The only other was the 11,000 dollar balance on the Saturn. I had asked him if the company could co-sign the loan because I had no credit rating and he didn’t want to do that so he told us where to find the money in his closet at Neverland … remember?

The only other gift he gave me was the massage chair… until the Christmas before he died .. the flat screen and DVD player. I forgot… remember he sent us a television and VHS player when we first arrived because we didn’t have one. He bought you the video camera on that first trip. Then there was all the recording equipment.

Saturn is a car which as I understand was almost fully paid for by Michael Jackson. An interesting detail in her reply is that Michael wasn’t even in Neverland when he offered them help with a car –  he told them to go to his closet and find the money stacked there and get as much as they needed ($11,000), and over here it is not only the gift which is important, but the trust he had in these people – he really regarded them as his family!

And see what this ‘family’ is doing to him now – turning all the gifts, warmth and support Michael gave them into a case against him.

It even seems that at the time Joy Robson was writing the above reply her son’s complaint was already in the making as his questions definitely sound more like an interrogatory for the forthcoming lawsuit than ordinary questions. See how he worded them in his email on October 2012, well before the actual lawsuit was filed nine months later:

What gifts, material and monetary, can you remember Michael giving me/us from when we became friends in 1990 until we moved to USA?

What gifts, material and monetary, can you remember Michael giving us from when we moved to USA in 91 on?

Well, on our part we will also make a list of something Robson should remember after they moved to USA in 1991.

And one of the main points on this list will be the fact that after they arrived in the US Robson actually had very little interaction with Michael Jackson. It was just on a couple of visits to Michael’s apartments in Westwood and Century City and four (or even three) visits to Neverland when Robson had Michael all to himself.

And that was all.

HE WAS ONLY SEVEN

Surprised by the little time spent by Robson and Michael Jackson together in the period of 1991-1996 we will now reverse to the two visits he made to the US before the family moved there.

This is when their ties were really close, but this is also the time which Robson remembers least of all as he was merely seven years old then, and understanding this point may be crucial to understanding the whole of his story in general.

His emails to Mom are proof enough that he himself remembers almost nothing of it – same as we wouldn’t remember our early childhood either. And now he is trying to fill in the gaps by turning to some ‘insight-oriented therapies’ and long-time Michael Jackson’s haters who are restoring his memory all right and in the direction we can easily envision, and by drawing information from statements like those of Charlie Michaels, a one-time security guard in Neverland, who is a small but vicious liar about Jackson.

So in the mess that ensues as a result of such ‘remembering’ it is very difficult to make out what is really remembered by him and what is a false memory imposed on him from the outside.

What’s more, when the memory of so little a child is in question he himself may not always be able to distinguish fact from fiction. Memory is a tricky business and if something is hammered into it long enough you may really begin thinking that someone’s tale about your past is what you really experienced and simply forgot.

In his recent deposition in December 2016 Robson extensively talked about his memory ‘evolving’ which is a statement that may be interpreted in two ways – either he is telling us complete bs because thirty years later you cannot remember the events better than you remembered them thirty years ago, and no amount of memory-evolving will help it; or someone is telling this bs to him.

Lately lots of research appeared which proves that false memories happen to us on a regular basis, and to see that it is indeed possible please look up a short video where Julia Shaw, a British psychological scientist explains how easy it is to implant false memories into anyone – even when the implanted false memory suggests that you committed a crime and then ‘forgot’ it, and now ‘remember’ it so well that you will even confess to it.

So for me the biggest question of all is whether Robson is simply a cynical liar or whether he has developed false memories about his early childhood and is now presenting them as nasty tales about Jackson, or whether he is a combination of both.

WORKING RELATIONSHIP

Another point to keep in mind is that Robson, same as Michael, also started working at too early an age and in contrast to many others Michael’s friendship with this seven-year old was mostly a working relationship.

When hanging out with Culkin, for example, the situation was exactly the opposite  one – both Michael and Macaulay were relaxing from work and formed an ideal gang of pranksters who were always ready for all sort of mischief, throwing cakes, water balloon fighting and making all other tricks they so much adored making.

Michael’s friendship with Jordan Chandler fell on a period when Michael was physically in much pain from the stretch-skin operation on his head. Due to Jordan’s sense of humor he made Michael laugh so hard that ‘his make-up was smeared’ as Jordan’s uncle put it and all that laugh was a great distraction for Michael at that moment. Add to it that Jordan’s mother June also made him feel so extremely comfortable that he fell under her charms deep enough to give her a love bracelet.

Michael’s association with the Cascios and the Bretts was evidently mostly due to them having much in common and sharing a kinship of some sort.

But in Wade Robson Michael saw his talent first and foremost and his own younger self – and this is why their friendship developed more along professional lines. Even during those two early trips to the US Robson’s visits to Michael were mostly to his dancing and recording studios, videos production sites, photo shoots, etc. – none of which can be said about Jordan, Macaulay and the others.

Actually, Robson was an ambitious child since age five which is when he decided to go into entertainment business. It happened during his first performance with MJ in Brisbane in front of a 60,000 strong audience:

Robson during the Australian Star Search program, 1991

“So, I came to the next show and Michael was performing the last song, “Bad”, and this big massive security guard came and picked me up and took me backstage and threw me on stage in front of 60,000 people. I just started dancing and then didn’t want to get off (laughs). It’s supposed to be like a minute long, and he started leaving, he’s telling me to leave (laughs). I wouldn’t get off stage, I was loving it so much! 

You know, and just from that point, kind of finalized that this is what I want to do. I mean not just dancing, I wanted to be in the entertainment industry. Period. So the next day I went and joined a dance company, and started doing it professionally, and we would do shows all week and that sort of thing for years.” [ 2001] http://archivewr.tumblr.com/

And it is with making a mental note of all the above that I think we should approach Robson’s two early visits to the US before their move there for good.

THE TWO TRIPS

This is how Joy Robson remembered their second visit to the US in her October 4, 2012 email:

“We made two trips back to the States. The first one was for the LA Gear shoot. Then there was the trip to meet Taco. The first one was a few months after returning… I think around March of 1990”

Interesting that now that Robson’s memory is ‘evolving’ his mother’s memory is failing (which is a natural process in contrast to Robson’s) and she is mixing up all the dates. They indeed went to the US several months after their first visit in February 1990, only it was in May 1990 and not in March.

This is what she said about it in her testimony:

23 Q. In May, when you came back, it was for the

24 purpose of your son participating in an L.A. Gear

25 commercial?

26 A. Yes.

27 Q. And who arranged for him to be in that

28 commercial?                                                                       9231

1 A. Michael.

2 Q. And Mr. Jackson paid his way over here,

3 correct?

4 A. L.A. Gear paid.

7 Q. L.A. Gear paid for that?

8 A. Yes, they have to if a minor’s working.

13 Q. Now, at the time that you came over here for

14 the L.A. Gear commercial, you were staying in The

15 Holiday Inn?

16 A. Yes. In Westwood.

So the second trip to the US included a photo shoot for “Michael Jackson LA Gear” (the photos appeared in international magazines in May 1990), and when making those photos both of them stayed at the Holiday Inn hotel and not with Michael in his apartment.

Why not in the apartment any more? Probably because most of his time Michael was away working and coming late. Or it could be because they preferred sleeping in proper beds to sleeping on the floor as all of them had to the previous time they stayed there.

Sometimes Robson migrated to Michael’s flat but it was on occasions only. At the trial he testified:

5   One time when we came over, we stayed — I

6   think it was the Westwood apartment, his Westwood

7   apartment.  There was a Holiday Inn that was across

8   and we stayed there most of the time.  And then

9   certain nights I would go over to Michael and stay

10   with him.

This is when the prosecution wondered if he thought he could be molested in his sleep and Robson gave him a slightly sarcastic reply: “I would think something like that would wake me up.”

          19   Q.  All right.  What you’re really telling us is

          20   nothing happened while you were awake; isn’t that

          21   true?

          22   A.  I’m telling you that nothing ever happened.

          23   Q.  Mr. Robson, when you were asleep, you

          24   wouldn’t have known what had happened, particularly

          25   at age seven, would you have?

          26   A.  I would think something like that would wake

          27   me up.

Besides Westwood Joy and Wade Robson also stayed at Neverland. This second visit to the US was long and lasted for a month and a half (six weeks).

11  Q. You came back in May of 1990, correct?

12 A. Yes.

13 Q. And you were here for six weeks, correct?

14 A. Yes.

And it was during that stay in Neverland that the incident on Mother’s day happened. That day was Sunday, May 13th and Joy Robson was upset because she didn’t see her son. The reason for that was that he was sleeping almost the whole day.

Sneddon asked her:

   4       Q.  <> you were crying at one point?

           5       A.  Yes.

           6       Q.  And the reason for that was that you had not

           7       seen your son all day, correct?

           8       A.  Yes.

           9       Q.  And it was Mother’s Day?

          10       A.  That’s right.

          11       Q.  And you found out that the reason that you

          12       hadn’t seen your son that day was because he had

          13       been sleeping all day, correct?

          14       A.  I think so.  Yeah.

          15       Q.  And you spoke to some people at the ranch

          16       about your feelings, did you not, one of the

          17       employees?

          18       A.  I think someone asked me if I was okay.

          19       Q.  And you told them that you felt that your

          20      son would rather be with Michael Jackson than with

          21       you, correct?

          22      A.  I don’t remember saying that.

The person who asked her if she was okay was a security guard named Charlie Michaels whose statement Robson refers to in his email and now includes in his complaint. The statement was made to the Santa Barbara Sheriff department on April 15, 1994 and Ms. Michaels claimed there that on Mother’s day Robson’s mom was crying because Norma Staikos restricted her from seeing her son and didn’t allow her to enter the Neverland dance studio where Michael and the boy were supposedly rehearsing.

But Joy Robson testified to the opposite – that the ‘rehearsal’ thing was nonsense, and Norma actually helped her, but it was at another time and at a different place too. This other incident happened in Westwood and it was by the end of their stay in the US (so there could be two stays in Westwood during that visit).

Joy Robson said about it:

          23   A.  Not that day.  That was — that was the time

          24   that we were staying in Westwood, and Wade and I had

          25   our ticket booked to return to Australia.  And he

          26   had been at the recording studio with Michael for a

          27   couple of days, and I just hadn’t heard from them.

          28   I know that they were working long hours, and then     9263

           1   they’d take off again the next day. 

           8       A.  <>– I had called Norma looking for

           9   him, and she found them.  She said they were in the

          10   recording studio and, “Michael is bringing him back

          11   to you. They’re on their way.”

As I’ve said, no one was forcing Robson to spend his time in Michael’s recording studio – it was his own passion and his own ambitious plans.

          12       Q.  To your knowledge, did your son spend a lot

          13   of time with Michael Jackson at recording studios?

          14       A.  Often, yes. < > Wade was interested in being a

          17   recording artist, he was interested in being a

          18   producer.  He was learning.  He loved to be around

          19   that and absorb that.  He was like a sponge.  And

          20   he — that was the relationship that he and Michael

          21   had.  It was — a lot of it was a working

          22   relationship and Michael was teaching him.

Those two days in the recording studio, when they got so carried away that Robson forgot about his plane, were obviously spent in the presence of many other people who often worked with Michael on night shifts – he had a tendency to start late in the afternoon and work till early hours of the next day.

And Robson was not the only child to attend those recording sessions. Many other children did – for example, Natalia and Robert Barrett, the children of a recording engineer who also used to spend time in the studio together with their father and Michael Jackson, and sometimes on night shifts too.

In fact night shifts in the recording business are evidently so common that Natalia Barrett says that her favourite song is called “The Nightshift”:

1987 California. Natalia and Roman Barrett with MJ in a recording studio

“My father, Ben Barrett, was in the music business and recorded a great deal of Michael Jackson’s music—from the early days with the Jackson Five right up to the “Dirty Diana” album. My brother Roman and I spent a lot of time in the studios when our dad was recording; he would even take us with him on the nightshifts. So the two of us spent time with Michael playing video games and consuming “studio snacks” (sugar cubes, Hershey’s Kisses, Melba Toast, and Coffee-mate). Michael was always kind and engaging—never once inappropriate with us, just for the record. One of my favorite songs is “The Nightshift” by the Commodores. It reminds me of my dad making music-magic in the studios in the 60s, 70s, and 80s–when most of the biggest R&B hits were recorded.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/natalia-rose/michael-jackson-the-man-i_b_223432.html

What other business did the Robson family attend to during that long visit to the US? Well, Joy Robson’s email suggests that they also met Taco.

Now, who is Taco?

Taco’s real name is Bruno Falcon. He is 6 years younger than Michael Jackson (born in 1964) and he is mostly known as Poppin’ Taco as he, same as several other street dancers, created a dance style called popping.

Taco taught Michael Jackson many of his dance moves and for a certain period of time was said to be Michael’s dancing tutor and possibly even choreographer. Indeed, if you see him dance you will indeed realize who Michael got his style from and then took to a supreme perfection.

In this video at 1:45 Taco says that he knew Michael since 1983 and was his creative consultant until about 1995 as I gather (the period of the History album). In the second part of this video you can see Poppin Taco dance to a modern adaptation of Beethoven’s Symphony #5 (an interesting sight):

But what does Taco have to do with Wade Robson?

Well, from his mother’s email we learn that during their second visit to the US Michael Jackson introduced him to Taco as his own dancing tutor and this is when Robson’s tutelage under Taco’s guidance probably began.

Robson himself spoke about his dance sessions with Popin Taco and Popin Pete (another dancer from whom the style originated) and said that it was under their guidance that he perfected his street dance skills. The article “Wade Robson: An Innovator at Work” by Wendy Garofoli says about it:

“Under the tutelage of Popin’ Taco and Popin’ Pete, Robson continued perfecting the street styles he so identified with in the “Thriller” video. “Wade was an eager beaver,” says Popin’ Pete. “He didn’t lose focus like some children do.”

http://www.dancemagazine.com/issues/March-2008/Wade-Robson-An-Innovator-at-Work

Now that some big fragments of Robson’s second visit to the US are more or less clear to us we can also see the reason why Robson and his mother stayed there for so long.

During that visit Robson was not only learning dance from Michael Jackson, but he was also making his first connections in entertainment business and learning a lot from other people, including those in music recording and even video production.

Some of those early visits are described by Robson in the Michael Jackson Opus (and it is only the recording studio gift which refers us to a later time):

<> he’d take me into his dance studio, put some music on and we’d dance and jam for hours. We’d sit there and watch films like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Other times we’d just leave Neverland and drive out in a car, blasting music really loud.

He even taught me how to do the moonwalk. We were in his dance studio. He taught me foot by foot. I couldn’t sleep that whole night. The thrill of pushing off the bar and sliding backwards in a moonwalk with the guy that made it famous was so exciting.

He told me when I was seven that I’d be a film director and that’s what I became; he created a thirst for knowledge in me. Once, a mini recording studio turned up on my doorstep, but what was cool was that he stopped me from becoming a spoiled brat. He would say “This is for you, but I want to see you do something with it. Don’t take it for granted or I’ll take it back”.

After the second trip to the US Robson didn’t see Michael for eight months (when they exchanged telephone conversations and faxes only) and this makes me ask a cynical question – if the master plan was to ‘abuse’ him as Robson now suggests it, couldn’t Michael befriend someone geographically closer to himself and why did he have to go into all that trouble with their relocation to the US? To later spend time with him at Neverland on four occasions only?

The third trip took place in February 1991 and in her recent email Joy Robson mixes up all the dates again:

“< > then the second one was when we went to Las Vegas. I think that was around May of 1991 but not sure. I would have to look up my journals. I have kept them all but they are in storage.”

This third visit was exactly a year after the first one. The first time was February 1990 when Robson was seven and the third was in February 1991 when he was eight, so in terms of his memory the situation did not change radically for the better – he was still very small.

Just how small he was can be seen in this video made on July 6^th 1990 when he was performing “The way you make me feel” with his dance group in Australia:

The third visit to the US was much shorter and lasted only seven days, and was most probably just for fun and not business, especially since this time they went to Las Vegas.

The idea was to see a performance by Michael’s favourite magicians Siegfried and Roy, so as usual for Michael they flew by Steve Wynn’s plane and stayed at the Mirage which was the obvious choice as Siegfried and Roy was a resident show at this hotel.

Joy Robson testified about it:

          15       Q.  And then you came back again in February of

          16       1991, correct?

          17       A.  Yes.

          18       Q.  For about seven days?

          19       A.  Yes.

          20       Q.  And during the time that you were here in

          21       1991, you spent time on the ranch, correct?

          22       A.  Yes.

           6       Q.  Have you ever traveled with Mr. Jackson?

           7       A.  Only once.  We went to Las Vegas with him.

           8       Q.  What was the purpose of that trip?

           9       A.  We went to see Siegfried & Roy.

          10       Q.  How did you get to Las Vegas for that trip?

          11       A.  We went on a private jet. I think it

          12       belonged to Steve Wynn.  We were staying at The

          13       Mirage.

          17      <> A.  We had a penthouse suite.  There were two

          18       bedrooms, and I stayed in one of them.

          19       Q.  And who stayed in the other room?

          20       A.  Michael and Wade sort of went between both

          21        rooms.  He did stay in Michael’s room most of the

          22        time.

          23       Q.  And were you ever in Michael’s room on that

          24       trip?

          25       A.  Yes.  As a matter of fact, we spent a whole

          26       day sitting in bed, the three of us, eating popcorn,

          27       watching cartoons.

After learning all these details about the two trips it will be much easier to decipher the lies told by Ms. Charlie Michaels’ statement mentioned earlier to which Robson’s mother replied in her email:

• “Wow. None of it is true”.

But since this post is already too long that piece will have to come in the next part.