In December 1993, Michael Jackson’s genitals were photographed by the Santa Barbara county sheriff’s department and the Los Angeles police department (LAPD). The pop music titan had been accused of sexually abusing Jordan Chandler, a 13-year-old boy who had accompanied Jackson on his Dangerous world tour and regularly shared a bed with the singer. Chandler had made a drawing of distinctive markings and blotches on Jackson’s crotch which matched the photos, law enforcement said. “Not just the genitalia,” said deputy district attorney, Lauren Weis, in comments echoed by LAPD colleagues. “But a particular mark on the underside of his penis which the victim described.”
The incident is a well-known part of Jackson lore; in a live satellite feed broadcast shortly after, the singer branded the strip-search “the most humiliating ordeal of my life”. The following month, Jackson paid a reported $25m to settle the case out of court. Jackson and his estate have always maintained his innocence in Chandler’s claims and nearly a dozen other allegations of child molestation. “All these lies and all these people coming forward to get paid … ,” he told Diane Sawyer in a 1995 interview. “Just lies. Lies, lies, lies.”
