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STACY BROWN: NEVERLAND WAS HEAVEN ON EARTH

Stacy Brown is a reporter and longtime friend and confidante of the Jackson family.

Neverland. You had to see it to believe it.

Heaven on Earth, a modern day Garden of Eden. The first time I went to Michael Jackson’s hideaway was a bit more than a decade ago. As we rode down a gravel-paved road between immaculately manicured lawns, I spotted life-sized mannequins sitting at bus and train stops (yes, there really was a train), an ice-cream parlor, candy store and a pond filled with various fish.

The guesthouses were each 850 square feet of pristine living quarters complete with canopy beds, satin sheets and 31-inch flat-screen televisions. The theater was a tremendous, 300-seat domed building that had life-sized cutouts of “Men In Black,” “Star Wars,” “Home Alone,” and other characters. It was fully stocked with popcorn, candy, ice cream, hot dogs and all of the items you’d find in a local AMC.

Tents and Indian-style teepees were found throughout the property. In the zoo, a monkey named Patrick could spit 25 yards and often tried to hit anyone in sight.

I saw Michael climb a tree, ride the back of a lion, let a boa wrap around his neck and chase bats away from the gutters of the main house at Neverland. He once carried a dead rattlesnake around figuring out what to do with it before finally placing it in the sand where a horse-drawn carriage was coming. He wanted to see if he’d get any reaction from the horse. Thankfully, the horse kept going. It was always fun at Neverland. Always. You were in another world.