Charles Thomson And The Dubious Sodium Amytal Story
Dec 8, 2019
Square One, directed by Danny Wu, revisits the 1993 Jordan Chandler allegations. The documentary features fanatics devoted to glorifying Michael Jackson, rather than impartial adults. Its cast includes a legal secretary who claims to be a witness to an "extortion plot," a college student who took a keen interest in Jordan’s clothing, Taj Jackson who reminds us that he was once in a pop group, and the self-described "award-winning" journalist Charles Thomson, who acts as the main narrator.
Unsurprisingly, the documentary does not address the dangers of adults luring unrelated children into private spaces. Instead, it directs intense criticism at Jordan and his father, Evan.
Within the Michael Jackson fan community, Jordan is often considered the initiator of the "false" allegations. Square One maintains that "if the first allegation crumbles, so do the rest."
But, how does it explain how a 13-year-old Jordan Chandler detailed allegations of sexual abuse spanning several months to law enforcement if they weren't true? The simple answer is to accuse his father of drugging and brainwashing him with the potentially lethal Sodium Amytal.
Yes, really!!!
Watch the segment below.
Charles Thomson in Square One
Square One fails to mention that the original Sodium Amytal story originated from TMZ's Harvey Levin during his time at KCBS-TV, and was embellished and weaponized by Mary Fischer in a GQ Magazine article from October 1994.
One might expect that such a sensational story, presented as factual truth in Square One, would have caused a major stir in the 90s. However, the story was largely disregarded, and neither the police nor child protection services hurried to aid Jordan.
I believed it was only fair to reach out to Charles Thomson with a series of questions via email, just to ensure I covered all bases. My sole purpose was to establish some fundamental facts, but it wasn't long before I found myself caught in the whirlwind of the Michael Jackson misinformation machine.
Among other claims, Thomson asserted that the authorities involved in the 1993/1994 case were inclined to unquestioningly accept Jordan’s allegation and had even coerced and threatened other children who had individual contact with Jackson into falsely confessing that he had molested them. He even alleges that they were threatened with the release of photographic evidence of their actual abuse if they did not comply. As if that weren't outrageous enough, Charles Thomson also posited that Jordan's allegation was a product of "Satanic Panic," a series of false accusations that swept through the United States in the 1980s and early 1990s, which according to him, was induced by Sodium Amytal.
Below is the complete email(s) that I sent to his address ([email protected]) on 4 December 2019. The text highlighted in grey with a blue line represents my emails, and Charles Thomson’s response is highlighted with a red line.
It's quite a lengthy read, but undoubtedly worth the time.
Good day,
I have a question regarding your recent appearance in a YouTube video titled Square One: New Witness in Michael Jackson Case.
At around 26:27 in the video, you discuss Sodium Amytal and claim that Jordan Chandler's father, Evan, used it to implant false memories of child molestation.
This is a direct quote from you:
“Evan sedated him with a drug called Sodium Amytal. Supposedly did a dental procedure, although it’s a very dubious story that he’s telling there because there’s no reason to use Sodium Amytal if you’re doing a dental procedure. But he gives him this drug, which had a reputation in the 80s as a truth serum. Problem is that Sodium Amytal just in 1993… the evidence was just coming out that Sodium Amytal had been wrongly used as a truth serum for years. If you look at journals today, like Psychology Today, they say it’s completely false that anybody ever considered it a truth serum. It just wasn’t. What it did was make people massively suggestible. You could administer Sodium Amytal to someone, plant an idea in their head, and when they woke up, they would believe it was true.”
I find this story difficult to believe for several reasons. Firstly, the original claim comes from Mary Fischer’s article in GQ Magazine (October 1994), where she alleges that Evan, alongside his assistant Mark Torbiner, used this powerful and potentially life-threatening drug during a dental procedure to implant months of false sexual abuse details—presumably within just a couple of hours.
However, there is no evidence that Sodium Amytal was ever used in this instance or that it could have been successfully utilised by a dentist described as below-average. Evan Chandler had no expertise in brainwashing and likely had no knowledge that Sodium Amytal could even be used for such purposes until 1993—the same year he allegedly put his plan into action.
I am not disputing the plausibility of temporarily convincing someone they have been a victim of a crime under the influence of drugs, just as you could momentarily convince someone who has had ten pints of lager that they have won the lottery—until the effects of alcohol wear off.
We know that Jordan and Michael Jackson spent several months together, including at least 70 one-on-one nights in the same bed. If I am to believe your account, all of Jordan Chandler’s memories from that time were transformed from innocent to sinister in a single dental procedure where Sodium Amytal was allegedly used.
The reality is that Jordan did not merely accuse Jackson of child molestation in August 1993 (or earlier) and then disappear. He was interviewed by experienced physicians, detectives, social workers, lawyers, and district attorneys—all of whom found him credible.
Fast-forward to 6 October 1993—around six weeks (or more) after Evan and his assistant allegedly drugged Jordan—and he was still able to sit down face-to-face with Dr Richard Gardner, who was, at the time, one of the nation’s leading authorities on false claims of child sexual abuse. Jordan managed to exchange thousands of words with this expert, yet not once did Gardner suspect that Jordan was under the influence of any mind-altering drug or that he had been brainwashed into claiming he had been sexually molested.
Moreover, throughout the allegations and after, Jordan was able to interact with family members, friends, neighbours, and teachers—none of whom noticed any abnormal behaviour.
If you truly believe the Sodium Amytal story, then surely it is only right to question why you feel comfortable using it to defend a grown man who had an unhealthy obsession with one-on-one sleepovers with unrelated boys, yet fail to use your investigative journalistic skills to expose the police, social services, or even the FBI—who all ignored Mary Fischer’s account in 1994.
You credit yourself with helping to expose historic child sex abuse cases in south-east England and even making freedom-of-information requests to the FBI concerning Jackson’s "innocence." Yet, to my knowledge, you have made no attempt to investigate the LA, Santa Barbara, or FBI departments regarding Jordan Chandler—who, according to you, was not only involved in a multi-million-dollar extortion plot but was also drugged with a substance powerful enough to have killed him.
In my view, that constitutes child abuse—and you appear to be ignoring it.
Looking forward to your reply.
Many thanks.
Hello David,
Thanks for your email.
The story of the Sodium Amytal does not originate with Mary Fischer. It originates with Evan Chandler, who confirmed he had administered the drug in a statement to a Los Angeles television station. Mary Fischer mentions that statement in her article, which was published in GQ and Esquire after undergoing several rounds of editing and fact-checking.
I am aware that a few years ago some people researching the case managed to establish that the pertinent news report was available in a television archive, but they could not afford the fee to purchase a copy.
There is no question that Sodium Amytal is capable of producing extremely detailed and voluminous allegations of childhood sexual abuse. There have been many cases in which it has done so, destroying families after adults in therapy falsely remembered years of childhood sexual abuse that in fact had never happened.
It is not correct to suggest that Evan would have had to specifically implant all of the memories. Rather, patients under Sodium Amytal tend produce their own false memories under prompting from their questioners.
None of this is my own deduction. It’s a matter of scientific fact.
As Square One makes clear, Sodium Amytal was only part of the story. At the same time, Jordy was being taken to what Geraldine Hughes felt looked and sounded like coaching sessions in his lawyer’s office.
While you suggest nobody noticed anything strange about Jordy’s behaviour, this is not really true. His mother and her partner – and their lawyer – firmly believed the allegations were false and that Jordy was lying and being ‘controlled’ by Evan. June Chandler only changed her position when she was warned that if there was a judgement against Jackson, Evan could then sue her for letting it happen. When June switched positions, her lawyer was so disgusted with her that he quit.
It is noteworthy that Evan and his lawyer had Jordan examined by a psychologist called Richard Gardner, as you mention, with a view to him to producing an expert report they could rely on as part of their case. After Gardner produced his report, they decided not to use it and sought a second opinion from a man called Stanley Katz, who was linked to hundreds of false allegations in the famous McMartin pre-school debacle.
One cannot help but wonder why Gardner’s report was binned and whether June, her partner and her lawyer weren’t alone in thinking the allegations were iffy. Another extremely significant figure in the case also privately expressed their belief that Jordy was lying, but that is newly uncovered information which has yet to be made public.
My role in Square One was that of an unpaid interviewee. Danny Wu telephoned me and asked me questions and I answered them. I was not an investigator for the documentary and so see no reason why I would be under any expectation to investigate the FBI or anybody else.
Charles Thomson.
Hi,
So, you’re telling me that Evan Chandler openly admitted to an unnamed/anonymous television station that he used an unnecessary and life-threatening drug on his 13-year-old child to extract a tooth, yet neither you nor I can verify this story because it’s hidden behind a paid firewall that nobody can afford to access? That doesn’t sound very convincing.
Again, if Mary Fischer had proof in 1994 that Evan openly admitted to using a potentially lethal drug on his son to implant false memories, why weren’t the police or social services contacted immediately and presented with the “facts”? Jordan was still a child under the age of 16 at the time. Was she and this anonymous TV station more interested in crafting a sensational story that exonerated Jackson while leaving a minor in the hands of an unstable and dangerous man?
I’m fairly certain that Sodium Amytal cannot be purchased over the counter at a pharmacy, so in terms of solid proof, can you confirm or deny whether any forms, receipts, or delivery notes were ever discovered showing that Evan and his assistant were in possession of this drug during that period?
Regarding the use of any powerful mind-altering drug, I’m not disputing the plausibility of temporarily implanting false memories. However, the fact remains that Jordan and Jackson spent months together, and you are alleging that within a single dental procedure, which presumably lasted no more than a couple of hours, Evan was able to implant perfectly balanced memories—not just of a sexual nature, but also of kindness and generosity on Jackson’s part. And between August 1993 and January 1994, when Jordan was questioned, these “false” memories apparently fooled multiple law enforcement professionals trained to detect signs that a child had been coerced or brainwashed into making accusations? It sounds too good to be true.
You also have to question exactly when the effects of Sodium Amytal supposedly wore off. How did Jordan go through his teenage years in 1994, 1995, 1996, and beyond without ever experiencing a mental breakdown or realising that he had been drugged, brainwashed, and used in an elaborate and successful extortion plot? I don’t believe he lived as a hermit locked away in a cellar.
I would love to read factual reports on Sodium Amytal and its use in cases similar to that of Jordan Chandler and the 1993 allegations, but I have not been able to find any. Feel free to share any sources.
I also recently discovered that, in 2012, while rebranding her original GQ Magazine article, Mary Fischer claimed that Jordan Chandler publicly admitted in 2009 that he had lied about the allegations and was deeply sorry. As I’m sure you will agree, this is completely untrue—no such confession exists. If she is willing to fabricate that, then her Sodium Amytal and brainwashing story appears increasingly fictional.
Thanks again for any future replies.
Hi David,
The television station is not anonymous. Fischer names it in her story and says when it aired.
I have no idea why the authorities did not investigate, but I would hazard a guess that it was because 1) nobody filed a criminal complaint and 2) a dentist administering Sodium Amytal, whilst highly unorthodox, is not illegal.
Sadly, you give the authorities too much credit. The training of child abuse officers at that time – where they even existed at all – was rudimentary compared to today’s standards. In the Jackson case, the detectives accepted the story at face value and then began visiting the homes of other children who’d met Jackson, where they aggressively interrogated the children for hours on end and refused to leave and accused the children of lying when they insisted nothing had occurred. They also made up lies, such as telling the children they had photographs of Jackson molesting them, and that they would get in trouble if they kept lying, to try to trick them into saying Jackson had abused them. This outrageous behaviour prompted complaints from several of the children’s parents.
One of the lead officers in the case was called Bill Dworin. Dworin was involved in the McMartin case, a total debacle in which similarly unprofessional investigative techniques had produced hundreds of abuse allegations against the owners of a pre school, all of which turned out to be false.
Dworin refused to accept that he had been wrong in the McMartin case and actually commented to people, immediately after the allegations came in from the DCFS, that he wasn’t going to let Jackson get away with it like the McMartins did.
Officers like Mr Dworin didn’t take much convincing.
It’s worth remembering that the Jackson allegations came amid what was known as the ‘Satanic Panic’, a ludicrous moral panic which had swept across America and seen police officers all over the country waste millions of dollars investigating crackpot allegations – many of them induced by Sodium Amytal. There was a huge hysteria about child abuse at the time.
Charles
Hi,
Oh, I had assumed that you meant Evan walked into an unnamed TV station and confessed, in front of multiple witnesses, to using a potentially lethal drug simply to extract a tooth from his 13-year-old son. I am fully aware that, according to Mary Fischer and Harvey Levin (the founder of gossip website TMZ), it was revealed on KCBS-TV that Evan had used the drug—though neither Fischer nor Levin disclosed their source.
In fact, Harvey Levin never claims to have had any direct communication with Evan. Given the explosive nature of the allegation—not to mention the obvious implications of child abuse—you would expect independent and unbiased sources to validate such a claim. However, no such corroboration exists.
Again, in terms of hard physical evidence, did Mary Fischer or Harvey Levin produce anything to substantiate the claim that Evan obtained one or more samples of Sodium Amytal around the time Jordan was allegedly drugged? Were any relevant forms, receipts, delivery notes, or other documentation discovered?
Regarding the policing of child sexual abuse, yes, things are very different now compared to 25+ years ago. But you mention that detectives visited the homes of boys who denied being abused by Jackson. Today, the world is far more familiar with the grooming and seduction process that child sex abusers use on their victims, and the fact that many children do defend their abusers—something more commonly known as the offender–victim bond.
Umm, I am trying to correctly process your claim that the authorities interrogated children who had one-on-one contact with Jackson, accused them of lying when they denied abuse, and even asserted that they possessed photographic evidence of their alleged abuse. Is this truly what you are claiming?
Bill Dworin, if I am correct, has a wealth of experience, having dealt with over 4,000 sex abuse cases. He has repeatedly stated that Jordan Chandler was able to correctly identify discolouration on Jackson’s genitalia. Whether or not you wish to dispute that, I would always question why Jackson remained so relaxed and never pursued legal action—if the accusation was entirely false.
That said, if—according to you—Bill Dworin worked on one or two cases where he was proven wrong, that does not diminish his entire career or undermine the legitimacy of his hard work.
If we focus on the reality of your claim in Square One—that Jordan Chandler was drugged with Sodium Amytal just once—how would you, as an investigative journalist, explain how so many detailed false memories (both good and bad) could have been implanted in his mind and remained consistent from at least August 1993 to January 1994, throughout interviews not only with law enforcement but also social workers? As I previously outlined, these were not brief conversations—some of these interviews contained hundreds, if not thousands, of questions.
Have you, in your experience as an investigative journalist, ever witnessed or reported on similar cases? What is your general understanding of Sodium Amytal and its use as a mind-controlling drug? If you have any reliable sources available, I would be very interested in reading them.
Thanks in advance.
After 5 December, I did not receive any further replies from Charles Thomson, but I did send one more email on 8 December inquiring about his startling allegation that the authorities were coercing and blackmailing children into making false confessions.
Hi,
I’m guessing you no longer wish to discuss the plausibility of the dubious Sodium Amytal story. Fair enough. However, I am still trying to understand your allegation that the local authorities were so desperate to secure a conviction against Jackson that they resorted to bullying and blackmailing children who had one-on-one contact with him—forcing them to falsely claim they had been molested or threatening to use photographs of their alleged abuse against them.
When exactly did this allegedly occur, and who was responsible? I have searched extensively but cannot find any complaints filed with the Santa Barbara or LA police departments regarding detectives engaging in such appalling and illegal behaviour.
Also, regarding Satanic Panic, how many cases involved adult men or women who had spent hundreds of nights sleeping in the same bed as unrelated children?
Thanks.
Hi David,
I decided to stop interacting with you because you kept misstating the facts and I felt you were just deliberately trying to waste my time.
A formal complaint was made to the Los Angeles chief of police about the officers’ outrageous behaviour towards children who had known Jackson. The chief was called something funny like Willie Williams, but I’d have to look it up to check it. The complaint was reported contemporaneously. It was a collective complaint made by Bert Fields, at the request of numerous parents who had contacted him, dismayed at the officers’ behaviour. The chief defended the officers’ behaviour, rather than denying it.
Charles
Hi,
Is it time-wasting to question the plausibility of a dubious brainwashing story that you willingly chose to broadcast in a YouTube video, knowing that thousands—if not millions—of people would eventually watch it? Is it time-wasting to ask whether Evan legally obtained the drug Sodium Amytal, which would undoubtedly leave a paper trail? Is it time-wasting to question how a dentist with no prior experience in brainwashing techniques was able to implant months’ worth of “false” abuse stories into his son’s mind within just a couple of hours? Is it time-wasting to ask why neither Mary Fisher nor any of her so-called “fact-checking” colleagues ever informed the police about such a serious crime involving a minor?
These are not unreasonable questions—especially for a self-proclaimed investigative journalist. Instead, I am expected to believe that the entire Californian police force was corrupt and intent on imprisoning an innocent man.
Regarding the alleged bullying and blackmailing of children—who was involved? Brett Barnes? Wade Robson? Macaulay Culkin? James Safechuck? Jonathan Spence?
The only relevant information I have found is from latimes.com, where Jackson’s lawyers—“in response to mounting legal pressure”—accused police officers of using “any device to generate potential evidence” and “we have nude photos of you in order to push them into making accusations against Mr. Jackson.”
Source: latimes.com
Multi-million-dollar lawyers launching aggressive attacks to protect their client is hardly unheard of. There is no mention of police officers claiming to have photos of actual abuse, as you asserted. Furthermore, considering many of the same officers continued investigating Jackson up to 2005 and even formed part of the prosecution, it is puzzling why none of these allegations were ever proven or referenced in legal proceedings.
Then again, perhaps there is some truth to it. We know that during the 1993 raid, a fully nude photograph of one of Jackson’s special friends, Jonathan Spence, was obtained. Additionally, there was an image of a young boy holding an umbrella while wearing bikini bottoms that were partly pulled down. And, of course, there were books such as Boys Will Be Boys, The Boy: A Photographic Essay, and In Search of Young Beauty—all of which contained fully or partially nude images of children.
Source: sbscpublicaccess.org
Curiously, none of these items were mentioned by you in Square One.
Thanks.
No more replies were received after the 8th of December.
Read the original emails here.
The Sodium Amytal story has never particularly piqued my interest, but like most information originating from devoted Jackson apologists, it lacks both credibility and plausibility. Charles Thomson fails to acknowledge its origins and essentially parrots Mary Fisher’s words verbatim for a fresh and receptive audience.
Even if Evan had administered every available mind-altering drug to his son, it still wouldn't explain:
In fact, one could question if the Sodium Amytal story was lifted from a science fiction movie. In 1990, the film Total Recall was released, in which a character called Douglas Quaid, portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger, has false memories implanted in his mind, leading him to live a fabricated life until his real memories resurface.
Watch the clip here
The biggest irony in Square One is Charles Thomson’s demonisation of Evan Chandler, by claiming that: “instead of going straight to the police as you would expect a parent to do if their child had said that they’d been sexually abused by a man, he instead goes directly to Michael Jackson and his legal team and starts demanding 20 million dollars.”
However, the same reasoning does not seem to apply to Mary Fisher, despite her purported possession of concrete evidence that a child was being abused and manipulated with a potent and potentially lethal drug. According to Thomson, her story underwent extensive editing and fact-checking, yet nobody, particularly Mary Fisher herself, considered reporting it to the police.
Moreover, one is led to believe that a grown man successfully brainwashed his child into fabricating allegations within a few hours; yet, Michael Jackson, a man who evidently displayed an unhealthy interest in young boys and spent over 1000+ one-on-one days and nights with them, couldn't have manipulated and coerced them into sexual contact and prompted them to deny it, both in childhood and adulthood.
I have expressed this sentiment previously, and I reiterate it now: I not only consider Charles Thomson to be untruthful, but also someone who endeavours to manipulate and sway others through misinformation.
You could entertain his claims that the entire police force in California is so corrupt it coerces and blackmails children into producing false confessions of sexual abuse, that "Satanic Panic" genuinely drove the 1993 allegations, or that the truth exists but is obscured behind a paywall that nobody can afford to access. However, this investigative journalist seems reluctant to provide any credible sources to support these extraordinary claims.
Links of interest:
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