Dear Jordan Chandler,
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Dear Jordan Chandler,
I find that I am almost at a loss for words. I cannot sit here and express my condolences on the loss of your father and yet I feel that I should. In my mind he was among the lowest forms of life: an opportunist who had no regard for the lives he was willing to destroy, and did destroy, in his quest for the only thing that mattered to him, which was money. His appetite for that money was insatiable, and in the process he annihilated two of the most precious gifts God has ever bestowed upon this earth.
The first was Michael Jackson. He destroyed the very foundation of everything that Michael was and everything that he stood for: Michael was a man with a spirit as innocent as a newborn kitten, and a heart that was simply too big for his body. His only objective was to make this world a better place, for you and for me. He believed we could change the world, and he recognized that the best place to start was with the Man he saw in his mirror every morning. He knew that the vast majority of adults in the world were, sadly, already too consumed with their own struggle to survive and achieve, and therefore too tainted by their own history to see his vision. So he turned to the only class of people who had never let him down: children. He opened his heart and his home to children who might otherwise never experience the wonderment of a place like Neverland: a place where those stricken with debilitating or life-threatening illnesses could let the wind caress the bald heads that chemotherapy had left them with, or traverse in their wheelchairs, without shame or self consciousness. They were free, for that day, to simply be. His love for children was the very blood that pumped through his veins, and he believed it was his moral obligation to help as many as he could.
The second was the innocence of a child. His own child. He knew precisely what he was doing when he administered the sodium amytal to you that day, and afterward you performed like the puppet he was hoping for. It defies my comprehension how any human being could intentionally subject a child, let alone their own child, to the inherent shame and guilt and emotional torment that accompanies the realization of molestation. How did he live with himself when you cried? When your very soul was shattered at the “knowledge” that someone you considered to be your best friend in the world had stolen your innocence, betrayed your trust, and scarred your emotions for life? That’s what he convinced you, and tried to convince the world, had happened to you.
And it did happen to you. Make no mistake about that. The problem with his story was that Michael Jackson wasn’t the perpetrator of these crimes: Evan Chandler was. Simply allowing you to believe that these egregious acts had occurred when in fact they had not is emotional molestation at the very least.
Evan Chandler’s actions resulted in a life sentence for both of you and ulitmately took a heavy toll on him. We know that he was terrified of the paparazzi, and Michael’s fans, and even the non-fans who believed in “justice for all”. His guilt led him to morph his face into a barely recognizable version of his former self, ironically much like the man he set out to destroy, in order to avoid recognition. He was gravely ill, and he was lonely, estranged from his entire family, and probably estranged from himself as well. In the end, he himself will be counted among the collateral damage that resulted from his campaign of greed. I’m not going to pretend that I’m sorry it happened to him because that would be as dishonest as the man himself was. I’m not sorry. I think he got a small measure of precisely what he deserved. I think when the heavens opened up and rained Karma down upon him, he had no umbrella, no rock to crawl under, and no place to hide.
It is my understanding that you live a rather luxurious albeit lonely life. That you live under an assumed name and enjoy skiing and playing the stock market, and that you’ve had some success with your investments. You’ve grown into a very handsome man, Jordan, and the world can once again be your oyster if you choose to make it so.
I want you to think about taking the steps necessary to free you from the prison your father sentenced you to 16 years ago. I believe you now know the truth, that you were a pawn in his evil scheme, and now you have to ask yourself, “How do I make it right?” You simply start at the beginning, Jordan, with an apology. The rest will come naturally, and you will find yourself surrounded by the love you’ve never had but always deserved, and an army of supporters.
As for the money? Keep what you’ve made on your investments and give the rest to a charity for emotionally abused children so that they might heal more quickly than you did, if in fact you’ve even begun the healing process. I think Michael would approve wholeheartedly.
It won’t be easy and I don’t want you to think it will be. But would you rather be known as the boy who falsely accused one of the greatest humanitarians this world has ever known, and continue to live a lie, or as a man of integrity who took a horrible wrong and made it right?
You will be forgiven. And I think Michael himself would forgive you. You owe it to yourself, Jordan. You owe it to the legacy of a man who loved you dearly and whom you loved in return. And you owe it to your own legacy.
Make that change. It’s gonna feel real good.
