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All That Glitters : Michael Jackson - The Crime and the Cover Up
An extraordinary case study giving the sensational but highly detailed factual evidence about allegations against Michael Jackson, self-styled 'King of Pop'. It is about being in the centre of the maelstrom that became the life of Jordie Chandler, the young boy, and his family, who were involved with Jackson. It is a blow-by-blow account of their relationship both while their story was undetected and afterwards when all concerned were hit by the media feeding frenzy - and worse - in what remains one of the major scandals of pop history. The author claims to unmask Michael Jackson and to put the spotlight on character traits of paedophiles; on the US legal system; on a cunning plot of deception and manipulation; on a campaign of vilification and victimisation; on how fame and power corrupted; and on a story that is increasingly topical again as the new Jackson trial looms. A highly accessible and gripping account of a drama - that included a USD20 million pay out - by one who had a ringside seat. "He (Michael) said that we had a little box, and this was a secret - and it's a box that only he and I could share. You put the secret in the box and nobody can know about what's in the box but him and me. He said that we weren't conditioned, but if this box were revealed to other people, like regular people of today's society, they're conditioned and so they would believe it was wrong. And so that's why I shouldn't reveal what's in the box."
- GenresNonfictionMusic
Paperback
First published August 2, 2004
4 people are currently reading
84 people want to read
About the author
Raymond Chandler
451 books5,641 followersRaymond Thornton Chandler was an American-British novelist and screenwriter. In 1932, at the age of forty-four, Chandler became a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive during the Great Depression. His first short story, "Blackmailers Don't Shoot", was published in 1933 in Black Mask, a popular pulp magazine. His first novel, The Big Sleep, was published in 1939. In addition to his short stories, Chandler published seven novels during his lifetime (an eighth, in progress at the time of his death, was completed by Robert B. Parker). All but Playback have been made into motion pictures, some more than once. In the year before his death, he was elected president of the Mystery Writers of America.
Chandler had an immense stylistic influence on American popular literature. He is a founder of the hardboiled school of detective fiction, along with Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain and other Black Mask writers. The protagonist of his novels, Philip Marlowe, like Hammett's Sam Spade, is considered by some to be synonymous with "private detective". Both were played in films by Humphrey Bogart, whom many consider to be the quintessential Marlowe.
The Big Sleep placed second on the Crime Writers Association poll of the 100 best crime novels; Farewell, My Lovely (1940), The Lady in the Lake (1943) and The Long Goodbye (1953) also made the list. The latter novel was praised in an anthology of American crime stories as "arguably the first book since Hammett's The Glass Key, published more than twenty years earlier, to qualify as a serious and significant mainstream novel that just happened to possess elements of mystery". Chandler was also a perceptive critic of detective fiction; his "The Simple Art of Murder" is the canonical essay in the field. In it he wrote: "Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. The detective must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor—by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it. He must be the best man in his world and a good enough man for any world."
Parker wrote that, with Marlowe, "Chandler seems to have created the culminating American hero: wised up, hopeful, thoughtful, adventurous, sentimental, cynical and rebellious—an innocent who knows better, a Romantic who is tough enough to sustain Romanticism in a world that has seen the eternal footman hold its coat and snicker. Living at the end of the Far West, where the American dream ran out of room, no hero has ever been more congruent with his landscape. Chandler had the right hero in the right place, and engaged him in the consideration of good and evil at precisely the time when our central certainty of good no longer held."
Chandler had an immense stylistic influence on American popular literature. He is a founder of the hardboiled school of detective fiction, along with Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain and other Black Mask writers. The protagonist of his novels, Philip Marlowe, like Hammett's Sam Spade, is considered by some to be synonymous with "private detective". Both were played in films by Humphrey Bogart, whom many consider to be the quintessential Marlowe.
The Big Sleep placed second on the Crime Writers Association poll of the 100 best crime novels; Farewell, My Lovely (1940), The Lady in the Lake (1943) and The Long Goodbye (1953) also made the list. The latter novel was praised in an anthology of American crime stories as "arguably the first book since Hammett's The Glass Key, published more than twenty years earlier, to qualify as a serious and significant mainstream novel that just happened to possess elements of mystery". Chandler was also a perceptive critic of detective fiction; his "The Simple Art of Murder" is the canonical essay in the field. In it he wrote: "Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. The detective must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor—by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it. He must be the best man in his world and a good enough man for any world."
Parker wrote that, with Marlowe, "Chandler seems to have created the culminating American hero: wised up, hopeful, thoughtful, adventurous, sentimental, cynical and rebellious—an innocent who knows better, a Romantic who is tough enough to sustain Romanticism in a world that has seen the eternal footman hold its coat and snicker. Living at the end of the Far West, where the American dream ran out of room, no hero has ever been more congruent with his landscape. Chandler had the right hero in the right place, and engaged him in the consideration of good and evil at precisely the time when our central certainty of good no longer held."
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
August 24, 2009
this book is so poorly written that even if it is true it's hard to take it seriously. i don't think i have ever read a worse 'non-fiction' book
June 15, 2015
The story of Michael Jackson and the accusations of the alleged child molestations is a very unique one, unlike any others. A story where truth perhaps becomes too uncomfortble, and even too unbelievable, to some. Many seems to just pre-choose not to believe it, before really looking at the details and the evidence. Which is vast, by the way. Jackson was and still is one of the most beloved artists that ever sat his feet on a stage. And in a sense its so easy to feel sorry for him for all his hardships. Many people for emotional reasons seem to go along with whatever he said.
What is true though? Many are confused what to believe.
The story of "All That Glitters" is the one where a father gets to know that his 13 year old son has been taken under Michael Jacksons care, wants to sleep in bed with him, has the mother under a spell, and wants to take Jordy on tour with him for months and months. Just one catch, he is also seemingly molesting him. Something that starts with a suspicion from the fathers side, but the son eventually admits it. Then hell is about to start. The whole world is against Evan. Jackson with his brigades of loyal fans are ready to hate him. How can you fight one of the biggest star in history?
Evan decides to do it.
Evan Chandler might be one the most misunderstood and mythic man in recent times. Blamed by some people as a cold extortionist, an opportunist, for either brainwashing or drugging his son to lie, and a dozen of other well established myths that is alive and well in the Jackson fan community. Its difficult to know what was true with Evan though. He never did a single interview ever, there was never a real court case with the Chandlers, as it was with the Arvizo's, where more details could come forward.
Its also known Evan ended up as a distrusting reclusive, estranged from family(except his son), before shooting himself 6 months after Michael Jackson died. Who was he? What the heck happened?
Well. He did one thing nobody can deny. He brought Michael Jackson down. He made Jackson humiliate himself to pay 20 million dollars in an out of court settlement, and the police raided Neverland and made Jackson's career go on a loop. Everyone understands there's more to this story than Jackson just being an innocent lamb, that there's more to this story. Even Jacksons defenders know there even if they can find dirt on Evan and the Chandlers, its difficult to explain away everything. There's more going on here.
Who was Evan? What happened? This is a book that probably is the most revealing book about this that has been written, if you'd like to know. And worse, nobody that reads it with an open mind will again ever doubt that Jackson was a molester. Just a warning.
I'll give some short answers to whats in here, to questions some might want to know.
Was there an extortion attempt? No. Evan didn't have custody over his son, and he knew something was wrong with his relationship with his son and Michael. His mother however trusted Michael and had say yes for Michael to take Jordy with him on the upcoming tour, and Evan was shut off, even though he had told them it couldn't happen. Evan was extremely angry, because he had no control.
Michael Jackson however wanted to give the impression to the mother and the stepfather and his own people that Evan only wanted money. That had to be it, right. The infamous Schwartz-Chandler tape was set up, but contrary to popular belief there is no sign that Evan wanted money. The transcript is online to read for anybody in doubt. Evan wanted his son safe, and away from Michael Jackson, and that was all, and its clear. When you read it all in context, its hard to explain any other way.
Why didn't The Chandlers take the case to criminal court? Wouldn't they want to see MJ in jail? Yes, they did, but to them it was even more important to protect their son from the media pressure and potential trauma. Psychologists warned that Jordy could potentially never recover from it, and that it would be very traumatizing to be center of such a case. It was also not exactly safe either to blame the King Of Pop of pedophilia for anyone. The Chandlers were physically attacked by fans, and had dozens of death threats on their phone daily, and still got them many years after. On the initial days the story broke out Evan was hit by a guy with a bat inside the corridors of his workbuilding. And then it just got worse. The exposure was enormous. The book goes very much into detail how they went back and forth with lawyers how to deal with things.
The family still ended up saying they'd go through with a criminal court if they could get witness protection after the case was over. For whatever reason they were denied that. But the biggest reason for not doing it was to protect their son. And its not like Michael Jackson wanted a case either, for that matter. He made up some weird reasons for it to have to be put on hold for 6 years.
Why a 20 million dollars settlement? Thats a large sum, why not something less? Why money at all, indeed? Evan was actually not that interested in money for himself. That was not the point. His reason for such a large sum was that it was supposed to be punitive for Jackson. To accept just a million or less, he felt like with Jacksons enormous fortune would be just to "pay them off". The sum had to be high for it to make an impact. It had to look bad for Jackson, and that it was. The case was so strong, and Jacksons defense team collapsed in fear, so that they accepted the settlement. And all of the money was going for Jordy, so that he could have a safe life after the case.
Was there ever any drug involved with influencing his son? No. Its simply just a myth, and it makes no sense anyway.
Jordy told his story numerous times to both the police, psychiatrists, and experts on child molestation, and Jordy never changed his story once, and everybody found him both very reflected and highly believable. You can read the interview in this book too, and judge for yourself. (Its online on Mjfacts, too!)
Was Evan Chandler an angel himself? Not really. Not only. This story could easily have been portayed as the heroic story of a man who wanted to protect his son, in spite of impossible odds, and imporssibe smearing against the supreme power of the world. Its stuff for a movie. Who'd believe Jackson could be a child molester? Nobody, at first. Jackson as everybody first things, was just a child himself, and he did so many good things for children, how could he harm anyone? It was an uphill battle. Evan and his son was against the world, slowly gaining support from more and more people, and slowly turning the tide on Jackson. The tide ended up turning back on the Chandlers, and it kind of ended destroying the families life, but also Michael Jackson. (Although Jackson later would have other accusations, both from other kids, but also many witnesses and co-workers at Neverland.)
But no, Evan was not perfect, and the book shows both the good sides of him as well as the bad. Evan was not your average Joe, and while its easy to identify with him through the story, and he's very intelligent, its clear he made some bad decisions along the way, mostly caused by a temper that probably did bite him in the back many times in his life, and did here too. He had a strong personality, and an incredible will to never give up, even if it meant his own demise. Which was both good and bad, depending on the situation. Was he rude and sometimes even a bit aggressive? Yes, sadly.
But one thing is clear. He loved his son. This was not for himself, this was all to protect his son. And he understood before anyone else what kind of dark double-life Michael Jackson lived, and he took all of hits for his son, for the blaming, and ended up being quite misunderstood and smeared in the end. But damn, is this story believable.
Read this book, if you want the Chandler side of the story. Its well written by his brother Raymond, and gives a lot of insights how it was. The closing part of the book with musings on who Michael Jackson really was, inside his lonely sad shell, among other useful information on child molesters, is a great bonus.
The book however is probably not for fans that does not have the mental or emotional capability of looking soberly on both sides of the story. If you can't deal with the idea that your idol might have been a serial molester, stay away, and go back to your safe MJ Vindication sites. This book is for those open to look at both sides, and accepts truths, even when its uncomfortable.
What is true though? Many are confused what to believe.
The story of "All That Glitters" is the one where a father gets to know that his 13 year old son has been taken under Michael Jacksons care, wants to sleep in bed with him, has the mother under a spell, and wants to take Jordy on tour with him for months and months. Just one catch, he is also seemingly molesting him. Something that starts with a suspicion from the fathers side, but the son eventually admits it. Then hell is about to start. The whole world is against Evan. Jackson with his brigades of loyal fans are ready to hate him. How can you fight one of the biggest star in history?
Evan decides to do it.
Evan Chandler might be one the most misunderstood and mythic man in recent times. Blamed by some people as a cold extortionist, an opportunist, for either brainwashing or drugging his son to lie, and a dozen of other well established myths that is alive and well in the Jackson fan community. Its difficult to know what was true with Evan though. He never did a single interview ever, there was never a real court case with the Chandlers, as it was with the Arvizo's, where more details could come forward.
Its also known Evan ended up as a distrusting reclusive, estranged from family(except his son), before shooting himself 6 months after Michael Jackson died. Who was he? What the heck happened?
Well. He did one thing nobody can deny. He brought Michael Jackson down. He made Jackson humiliate himself to pay 20 million dollars in an out of court settlement, and the police raided Neverland and made Jackson's career go on a loop. Everyone understands there's more to this story than Jackson just being an innocent lamb, that there's more to this story. Even Jacksons defenders know there even if they can find dirt on Evan and the Chandlers, its difficult to explain away everything. There's more going on here.
Who was Evan? What happened? This is a book that probably is the most revealing book about this that has been written, if you'd like to know. And worse, nobody that reads it with an open mind will again ever doubt that Jackson was a molester. Just a warning.
I'll give some short answers to whats in here, to questions some might want to know.
Was there an extortion attempt? No. Evan didn't have custody over his son, and he knew something was wrong with his relationship with his son and Michael. His mother however trusted Michael and had say yes for Michael to take Jordy with him on the upcoming tour, and Evan was shut off, even though he had told them it couldn't happen. Evan was extremely angry, because he had no control.
Michael Jackson however wanted to give the impression to the mother and the stepfather and his own people that Evan only wanted money. That had to be it, right. The infamous Schwartz-Chandler tape was set up, but contrary to popular belief there is no sign that Evan wanted money. The transcript is online to read for anybody in doubt. Evan wanted his son safe, and away from Michael Jackson, and that was all, and its clear. When you read it all in context, its hard to explain any other way.
Why didn't The Chandlers take the case to criminal court? Wouldn't they want to see MJ in jail? Yes, they did, but to them it was even more important to protect their son from the media pressure and potential trauma. Psychologists warned that Jordy could potentially never recover from it, and that it would be very traumatizing to be center of such a case. It was also not exactly safe either to blame the King Of Pop of pedophilia for anyone. The Chandlers were physically attacked by fans, and had dozens of death threats on their phone daily, and still got them many years after. On the initial days the story broke out Evan was hit by a guy with a bat inside the corridors of his workbuilding. And then it just got worse. The exposure was enormous. The book goes very much into detail how they went back and forth with lawyers how to deal with things.
The family still ended up saying they'd go through with a criminal court if they could get witness protection after the case was over. For whatever reason they were denied that. But the biggest reason for not doing it was to protect their son. And its not like Michael Jackson wanted a case either, for that matter. He made up some weird reasons for it to have to be put on hold for 6 years.
Why a 20 million dollars settlement? Thats a large sum, why not something less? Why money at all, indeed? Evan was actually not that interested in money for himself. That was not the point. His reason for such a large sum was that it was supposed to be punitive for Jackson. To accept just a million or less, he felt like with Jacksons enormous fortune would be just to "pay them off". The sum had to be high for it to make an impact. It had to look bad for Jackson, and that it was. The case was so strong, and Jacksons defense team collapsed in fear, so that they accepted the settlement. And all of the money was going for Jordy, so that he could have a safe life after the case.
Was there ever any drug involved with influencing his son? No. Its simply just a myth, and it makes no sense anyway.
Jordy told his story numerous times to both the police, psychiatrists, and experts on child molestation, and Jordy never changed his story once, and everybody found him both very reflected and highly believable. You can read the interview in this book too, and judge for yourself. (Its online on Mjfacts, too!)
Was Evan Chandler an angel himself? Not really. Not only. This story could easily have been portayed as the heroic story of a man who wanted to protect his son, in spite of impossible odds, and imporssibe smearing against the supreme power of the world. Its stuff for a movie. Who'd believe Jackson could be a child molester? Nobody, at first. Jackson as everybody first things, was just a child himself, and he did so many good things for children, how could he harm anyone? It was an uphill battle. Evan and his son was against the world, slowly gaining support from more and more people, and slowly turning the tide on Jackson. The tide ended up turning back on the Chandlers, and it kind of ended destroying the families life, but also Michael Jackson. (Although Jackson later would have other accusations, both from other kids, but also many witnesses and co-workers at Neverland.)
But no, Evan was not perfect, and the book shows both the good sides of him as well as the bad. Evan was not your average Joe, and while its easy to identify with him through the story, and he's very intelligent, its clear he made some bad decisions along the way, mostly caused by a temper that probably did bite him in the back many times in his life, and did here too. He had a strong personality, and an incredible will to never give up, even if it meant his own demise. Which was both good and bad, depending on the situation. Was he rude and sometimes even a bit aggressive? Yes, sadly.
But one thing is clear. He loved his son. This was not for himself, this was all to protect his son. And he understood before anyone else what kind of dark double-life Michael Jackson lived, and he took all of hits for his son, for the blaming, and ended up being quite misunderstood and smeared in the end. But damn, is this story believable.
Read this book, if you want the Chandler side of the story. Its well written by his brother Raymond, and gives a lot of insights how it was. The closing part of the book with musings on who Michael Jackson really was, inside his lonely sad shell, among other useful information on child molesters, is a great bonus.
The book however is probably not for fans that does not have the mental or emotional capability of looking soberly on both sides of the story. If you can't deal with the idea that your idol might have been a serial molester, stay away, and go back to your safe MJ Vindication sites. This book is for those open to look at both sides, and accepts truths, even when its uncomfortable.
July 21, 2017
This book was far from well written, but it was still interesting and answered questions that I had about this case such as:
"Why did Evan Chandler initially demand money from Michael Jackson for molesting his son?"
"Why did they press a civil suit against Jackson instead of a criminal trial?"
"Why did they Chandlers agree to the out of court settlement instead of continuing the court case?"
Ray Chandler did have copies of legal documents regarding this case available for purchase on his website. The issue is that his website was taken down years ago and nobody who purchased the documents had decided to release them afterwards. There are some documents that can be found online, such as the psychiatric interview between Jordan Chandler and Dr Richard Gardner and the full transcript of a phone conversation between Evan Chandler and Dave Schwartz.
It's sad that Michael Jackson may have gotten away with molesting children, having given two families large amounts of money and winning against another family in a criminal trial. There are three adults now, a 34-year-old man, a 38-year-old man, and a 42-year-old woman, who claim to have been victims of Michael Jackson, they have some pretty damning evidence against him, and they are now suing Michael Jackson's companies for allegedly facilitating the abuse. Whether or not they win will be determined in a trial that starts in March of this year.
"Why did Evan Chandler initially demand money from Michael Jackson for molesting his son?"
"Why did they press a civil suit against Jackson instead of a criminal trial?"
"Why did they Chandlers agree to the out of court settlement instead of continuing the court case?"
Ray Chandler did have copies of legal documents regarding this case available for purchase on his website. The issue is that his website was taken down years ago and nobody who purchased the documents had decided to release them afterwards. There are some documents that can be found online, such as the psychiatric interview between Jordan Chandler and Dr Richard Gardner and the full transcript of a phone conversation between Evan Chandler and Dave Schwartz.
It's sad that Michael Jackson may have gotten away with molesting children, having given two families large amounts of money and winning against another family in a criminal trial. There are three adults now, a 34-year-old man, a 38-year-old man, and a 42-year-old woman, who claim to have been victims of Michael Jackson, they have some pretty damning evidence against him, and they are now suing Michael Jackson's companies for allegedly facilitating the abuse. Whether or not they win will be determined in a trial that starts in March of this year.
January 21, 2013
I suppose what Raymond Chandler is saying is plausible. But personally I don't believe most of anything he's saying. I'm sure the stories have some truth to them. If you've read the book 'The Magic, The Madness, The whole story'' by Randy Taraborrelli some of the stories even sort of make sense. As far as actual molestation goes, I don't believe anything sexual really happened between Michael Jackson and Jordy. I think this book was concocted with Michael's relationship with the kid into something perverse and construed into a believable story. I don't believe it. I'm sure there is something to be learned about MJ in this book. I feel disturbed the Chandler family found a way around the stipulation that MJ and Evan and Jordy had in the settlement agreement not to talk about the details. Having Jordy's uncle write this book comes off to me as shady. Read it if you must. But don't be manipulated into believing the garbage about there being a sexual relationship between him and the boy. It's bullshit.
May 13, 2024
If parts 1 & 4 were the only ones that made up this book, it might have been tolerable. But parts 3 & 4 were so boring and full of legal specifics that they made my eyes glaze.
The typos were enough to bring me to tears as a proofreader and editor. There was regular misuse of apostrophes, quotation marks and proper tense. The fact that the editorial service was actually given credit speaks either to extreme naïveté or extreme narcissism. Not sure which applies best.
Just for fun, here are a few of the more egregious errors that I couldn’t help but note. Enjoy the chuckles:
Balled like a baby - page 17
Michael had mosested her son - page 113
Sleepiing - page 126 (a simple spell check would have found this
Ron Weisner, his manger in the 1980s - page 259
The typos were enough to bring me to tears as a proofreader and editor. There was regular misuse of apostrophes, quotation marks and proper tense. The fact that the editorial service was actually given credit speaks either to extreme naïveté or extreme narcissism. Not sure which applies best.
Just for fun, here are a few of the more egregious errors that I couldn’t help but note. Enjoy the chuckles:
Balled like a baby - page 17
Michael had mosested her son - page 113
Sleepiing - page 126 (a simple spell check would have found this
Ron Weisner, his manger in the 1980s - page 259
December 12, 2024
I'm not a writer or anything, but there were a lot of spelling mistakes here.
As for the contents, after thinking about it for a few days... I'm still on the fence about it all. The evidence isn't accessible anymore like someone else here said, because the website got taken down. But assuming it's all real, then yeah this book is super sad. There were some boring parts, but this isn't a story book, it's real life, so not everything has to be interesting.
As for the contents, after thinking about it for a few days... I'm still on the fence about it all. The evidence isn't accessible anymore like someone else here said, because the website got taken down. But assuming it's all real, then yeah this book is super sad. There were some boring parts, but this isn't a story book, it's real life, so not everything has to be interesting.
April 19, 2023
This book gives great insight to the Chandler case that was not accurately presented by the media. Michael Jackson was a master of media manipulation and this book gives the facts that he'd rather not present or would rather lie about. Chandler makes great points that if, with all the mountains of evidence, Michael were a regular man he would have been in jail.
December 13, 2016
Lots of detailed factual information, from some-one not covered by the gagging order relating to the first Michael Jackson case. Lays out the character traits of pedophiles and explains why the experts believed Jacksons guilt, to be unarguable. It shows how impossible it is even with overwhelming evidence, to go up against powerful people. Foot note, Evan Chandler, who brought the original case, even after disappearing and having plastic surgery, ended up with a bullet through his head, which was officially suicide.
February 12, 2010
Micheal Jackson Definatly was guilty
November 17, 2016
So this book was written by the uncle of the molested boy so i found it kinda bias. Having said that I found it an interesting read and Michael Jackson is a proper villain.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews