Michael Jackson’s Dark Obsession with The Elephant Man & Buying His Bones!
On May 30th, 1987, the Los Angeles Times ran a sensational story that pop singer,
Michael Jackson, put in a serious request to purchase John Merrick’s remains, better known as the ‘Elephant Man’, to the London Hospital Medical College for $500,000. According to Jackson’s manager, Frank Dileo, “Jackson has a high degree of respect for the memory of Merrick. He has read and studied all material about the Elephant Man and has visited the hospital in London twice to view Merrick’s remains. His fascination with their historical significance increased with each visit, along with hopes to add them to his collection of rare and unusual memorabilia at his California compound.”
Once Jackson caught wind that his bid was rejected by the British medical institution, he reportedly upped it to $1 million. Dileo adding, “he has no exploitative intentions whatsoever and is concerned with the Elephant Man as a dedicated and devoted collector of art and antiques.” David Edwards, Chief Administrator at the London Hospital Medical College soon discussed Michael’s proposal on radio. Edwards spoke about Michael’s visit to the museum where the skeleton is housed, and mentioned Michael making two bids for the remains, but both of which were rejected. ‘The Elephant Man’ was simply not for sale.
However, ever since Michael Jackson has denied claims that he tried to purchase the remains, characterising it as just another ridiculous story that the tabloid press conjured up from nothing. Michael saying to Oprah Winfrey in 1993, “no I never asked for the Elephant Man’s bones, where am I going to put some bones?” However, he did admit to his fascination with Merrick’s story and how he could empathise, “I love the story the Elephant Man, I could relate to it, it usually makes me cry”.
So, who was ‘the Elephant Man’?
John Merrick, aka ‘the Elephant Man’, lived in Britain in the late 19th century and suffered from an extremely rare medical condition called neurofibromatosis, which caused severe deformities and abnormalities in his physical appearance. From an early age, Merrick’s condition led to a life filled with hardship and cruelty. He faced ridicule and discrimination from society, enduring a challenging existence marked by isolation and exploitation. As a young adult, he found himself abandoned by his family and left to fend for himself. Unable to support himself through traditional means of work, Merrick allowed himself to be exhibited as a freak show spectacle under the name ‘The Elephant Man’.
In 1884, a surgeon named Frederick Treves discovered Merrick while visiting a London hospital. Treves was deeply moved by Merrick’s plight and offered him a place at the London Hospital, where he could receive proper care and attention. Merrick accepted the offer, and his life underwent a dramatic transformation. Under Treves’ care, Merrick finally found a compassionate environment where he was treated with dignity and respect. Treves and his colleagues studied Merrick’s condition, seeking to understand and alleviate his suffering. They provided him with a safe haven, allowing him to experience moments of normalcy and companionship that had been denied to him for so long. Initially assumed to be “an imbecile” because of his severe speech impediment caused by his facial abnormalities, Merrick was considered rather intelligent and possessed a gentle and kind-hearted nature. Merrick’s story captured the public’s attention, and he developed friendships with many people, whether within the hospital, high society or even royalty.
Sadly, John Merrick’s life was cut short when in 1890, at the age of 27 he died in his sleep of asphyxia caused by a dislocated neck. He may have suffered his fate because he wanted to lie down to sleep like a normal human being, despite knowing that the weight of his head made it impossible for him to breathe in this position. John Merrick’s legacy endures to this day. His life serving as a powerful reminder of the resilience of the human spirit and the potential for kindness to transform lives. He would become the subject of multiple books, stage plays, and movies, most famously director David Lynch’s 8-time Academy Award nominated 1980 biopic ‘The Elephant Man’. Michael Jackson was reportedly moved by the film, who saw parallels between his own life and that of Merrick. The story goes that he watched the black and white movie 35 times, never once without crying. Jackson finding solace in a scene where Merrick — portrayed by actor John Hurt — is chased by an angry mob through London’s Liverpool Street station and cries out to his attackers: “I am not an elephant. I am not an animal. I am a human being! I…am…a…man!”.
Over time, Jackson became increasingly fascinated by Merrick’s life, reportedly picking up antique medical books on facial deformities while in Australia, in 1985. He even arranged to view The Elephant Man’s skeleton at the Royal London Hospital. Richard Trembath, a geneticist at the institution saying, “he would come and spend time on his own sitting next to the skeleton, obviously contemplating.” When asked about the fascination Jackson said, “I’ve been to the London School for Doctor’s twice, and I visited his remains who I feel a closeness too, I love the story of the Elephant Man, a very sad story.”
So, considering Michael’s own admission of having an infatuation with the tragic life of John Merrick, could the Elephant bones story have some truth to it? And if not, where did the bizarre tale come from then?
It has long been claimed that Frank Dileo was the source of some of the more outlandish tabloid myths about Michael Jackson, the Elephant Man’s bones and sleeping in a hyperbaric chamber being two obvious examples. It has also been said that some of these headline-grabbing myths originated from Michael himself, or were at least approved by him, in order to build upon the mysterious and fantastical persona he was cultivating for himself at the time. Michael Jackson had been out of the public eye for an extensive period of time before the release of his much anticipated ‘Bad’ record later in the year. The superstar could have been simply looking to generate some much-needed publicity before his comeback to the pop music scene, hoping it would ultimately translate to record sales.
In her book, ‘My Family, the Jacksons’, his mother Katherine wrote, “To be fair, a couple of the stories had been spread by Michael’s own people. I didn’t talk to Michael about the rumours, so I don’t know what role, if any, he had in putting the stories out. But I did watch with dismay as his manager, Frank Dileo played up the stories to the press… As for the Elephant Man’s bones, I have no idea whether Dileo made an attempt on Michael’s behalf to buy them. If he did so, he did so in jest. And if by some miracle the London medical centre that owns the bones had agreed to sell them, Michael knows me well enough to know that I wouldn’t have let him in the house with them.”
Although the bid for the Elephant man’s bones may have been conjured up by his team as some kind of publicity stunt. In 1988, Michael highlighted the absurdity of the story by dancing with an animated version of Merrick’s skeleton in his ‘Leave Me Alone’ music video, as a way of poking fun at the tabloids and their nonsensical claims. Though disguised as a tale of love gone wrong, the song’s lyrics could have been a plea from Merrick himself as he attempted to evade those who followed and harassed him out of curiosity for his deformities. As he explained in his autobiography ‘Moonwalk’, Michael was sending out a simple message. “The song is about a relationship between a guy and a girl. But what I’m really saying to people who are bothering me is: ‘Leave me alone.’”
Michael and the skeleton appear as though they are in a sideshow exhibit, with bars behind them, forcing them to face their audience and perform, with Michael shackled to a ball and chain. Distasteful as this may seem to some, the video is simply Jackson drawing an analogy between his own life and Merrick’s, namely their “freak” social status, and how those who hounded them had condemned the pair to an isolated, lonely cell of existence. The Elephant Man imprisoned in his deformity; Michael Jackson shackled by his fame; both of them objects of curiosity for an insatiable public. With Merrick’s deformities forcing him to wear a hood over his head; and Michael’s vitiligo causing him to wear surgical masks and increasingly heavier make-up to disguise it. Both sensitive human beings who were otherised, and therefore dehumanised, because of their lack of the wholesome pleasantries of everyday human connection.
Maybe Michael Jackson’s attempt to associate himself with that of ‘the Elephant Man’ was to draw attention to the similarities in their shared struggles, a desperate cry for help and a plea for wider understanding. As demonstrated in an open letter written by Michael while on tour in Japan a few months after the bones scandal arose. “As an old Indian proverb says… ‘Don’t judge a man until you’ve walked two moons in his loafers.’ Most people don’t know me, that’s why they write things that most of them aren’t true. I cry a lot because it hurts and I care about the kids, all my kids all over the world, I live for them. If a man can’t say anything he can’t prove, against a character, the story can’t be written. Animals don’t attack out of malice, but because they want to live, it’s the same with those who criticize me, they want our blood, not our pain. But I still have to reach my goals, I have to seek the truth in all things. I have to bear for the power that I was sent, into the world for the children. But have mercy, because I’ve been bleeding already for a long time now.” Revealing words for a pop superstar notorious for refusing all interviews.
Michael Jackson grew incredibly rich and powerful, but ironically that also made him as equally vulnerable, and a target to be taken advantage of. Many people will be nice to you, but he developed a distrust in what their motivations were. A scene in Lynch’s ‘The Elephant Man’, where John Merrick’s home is invaded and he is aggressively picked up and moved around, ploughed with drink, and forced to be gawked at and kiss women to their disgust, demonstrates viscerally the worst of humanity. Likely tapping into Michael’s own fear of being used up by clout chasing groupies, dehumanised, and passed around like a toy for others to profiteer from. Hence, Michael’s longstanding choice to spend much of his time with the innocent and uncomplicated minds of animals and children.
Much like Merrick, fame, instead of a medical abnormality, transformed Michael Jackson’s face into a sensation, with crowds clambering over each other to just get a glimpse. Mass fascination makes famous bodies somewhat public property. With overzealous fans’ instinct being to touch, grab and pull without permission or consideration, and the press’s inclination to constantly scrutinise and ridicule the appearance of those in the public eye. For the intensely private Michael, his body was forcibly examined and photographed due to alleged claims. After his death, long speculated physical abnormalities were revealed in autopsy reports that made newspaper headlines, with little regard to what Michael wanted to reveal publicly. Upon Merrick’s passing, even the medics who once treated him as a friend and helped improve his life immensely, boiled his corpse and stripped it of its flesh before the man was even cold. With his soft matter unceremoniously disposed of in an unmarked grave, those who made their reputations pimping Merrick’s suffering to the world now had their prize. Locked in a university’s glass case, his bones were to be examined and put on display as an oddity forever. For the purpose of science with little emphasis on Merrick’s humanity.
Was the bid for the Elephant man’s bones, Michael Jackson’s way of saying enough, it’s time to set him free from this never-ending captivity?