Michael Jackson: Hometown set for tribute

Michael Jackson: Hometown set for tribute

The family of Michael Jackson attended a memorial service in his hometown of Gary, Indiana, as investigators said they could not definitely rule out homicide in his death.

Hours before the gates at the city's baseball stadium were to open for a hometown tribute to the King of Pop, all the Jackson fans had gathered beneath a large black banner picturing Jackson over the words "Never can say goodbye."

Those lyrics from a Jackson 5 hit seemed to sum up the plight of millions of fans across the United States in the two weeks since the pop icon's mysterious death on 25th June.

Fans were eagerly anticipating an appearance by Jackson's father, Joe Jackson, which had been promised by Gary Mayor Rudy Clay. And civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, who has visited Gary on many occasions, was also expected.

But amid the anticipation of a second, more intimate memorial after Tuesday's star-studded ceremony in Los Angeles, mystery still surrounded the circumstances of Jackson's death and his final resting place.

Coroners have called for any records held by Jackson's many doctors to be presented, "including radiology and psychiatric records." A famous newspaper of United States has brought out this report. 

According to Los Angeles police chief Bill Bratton his department was looking into Jackson's history of prescription drug use, as well as the doctors that he had seen over the years.

Bratton told another news channel, "Are we dealing with homicide? Are we dealing with an accidental overdose? What are we dealing with? So as we are standing here speaking, I can tell you, I don't have that information,"

The Jackson family has yet not revealed where the pop icon is to be buried, or where his body has been placed since it was displayed in a gold-plated coffin at center stage at the Staples Center memorial.

On Friday a famous news channel claimed that the body was stored in crypt at the Forest Lawn cemetery which is owned by Motown founder Berry Gordy.

Gordy paid moving tribute to Jackson at the public memorial that was watched by millions after Jackson's family and friends held a private service at the holly Hills cemetery.

The unconfirmed report  revealed that there was feuding in the Jackson family over where his final resting place should be.

Joe Jackson was still pushing for his son to be buried at the Neverland complex, but wife, Katherine, bitterly opposed the idea after Michael Jackson fled his luxury ranch in 2005 on being acquitted of child abuse, saying he never wanted to return.

However on Friday, Gary, a city of 100,000 in northern Indiana seemed determined to give its native son a fitting send-off, some 40 years after Michael Jackson and his family left the hard-luck steel town behind.
At the tiny white Gary home where the Jackson family of 11 had lived till Michael was 11, the crowds were as large as those who had gathered the day after he died.

Fans approached the home at 2300 Jackson Street with a reverential hush by surveying that the hundreds of Teddy bears, flowers, and votive candles laid on the front lawn, while the strains of "Billie Jean" played from one of the nearby vendor's tents.