In our 2001 book The National Enquirer: Thirty Years of Unforgettable Images, we reported that while Jackson dressed his pet chimp Bubbles to look just like himself and wanted to buy the bones of the Elephant Man, it was an exclusive photo published in The Enquirer that convinced the world the then 28-year-old performer in 1986 was truly one mad hatter.
"I believe if I treat my body properly, I’ll live to be at least 150," explained the Peter Pan of pop, announcing plans to buy, and sleep in, a hyperbaric oxygen chamber used for burn patients.
Jackson supplied Polaroids of himself napping in the chamber to The Enquirer through his then-manager Frank DiLeo.
"Michael specifically insisted that the world ‘bizarre’ be used in the story to identify him," DiLeo recalled.
"Bizarre didn’t quite stick, but ‘Wacko Jacko’ turned out to be a keeper."
