According to a heavily redacted FBI file, a Chicago lawyer tried to extort $250,000 from the 'When You Believe' hitmaker back in 1992 over rumors of a lesbian affair with her assistant.
- Jun 8, 2015
AceShowbiz - Whitney Houston was blackmailed by a Chicago lawyer over rumors of a lesbian affair, according to a heavily redacted file released by FBI under the Freedom of Information Act. The lawyer threatened Whitney back in 1992, the same year she got married to Bobby Brown, to reveal the "intimate details" of her affair unless she paid $250,000.
A passage from an enclosed memo reads, "[Redacted] said [Redacted] told him that [Redacted] has knowledge of intimate details regarding Whitney Houston's romantic relationships, and will go public with the information unless [Redacted] is paid $250,000. [Redacted] told [Redacted] client will sign a confidentiality agreement if [Redacted] is paid the $250,000." The file also includes an executed confidentiality agreement which suggests that the extortion plot was successful.
According to a new book titled "Whitney & Bobbi Kristina: The Deadly Price of Fame" by Ian Halperin, via New York Post, the extortion plot was based on the rumored affair between Whitney and her assistant Robyn Crawford. The lawyer told an FBI agent that the info included "knowledge of intimate details regarding Whitney Houston's romantic relationships and will go public with the information."
Whitney's father John Houston allegedly "settled the matter by sending a confidentiality agreement almost immediately" although it was "unclear how much money was paid to silence the person and whether he met the initial demand for $250,000."
According to Ian, Whitney gave Robyn a black Porsche as "a token of their friendship" on the day of her wedding to Bobby. The author quotes the singer's former bodyguard Kevin Ammons who said John was unhappy with Robyn and worried she would come forward with the relationship. John allegedly told Kevin, "We've got to do something about that motherf***ing b***h. She's ruining my family and driving everybody nuts. She's lost her grip on reality. I'll pay you $6,000 if you put the fear of God in her."
Kevin said he refused John's request and was warned to "keep an eye" on Robyn.
In the book, Ian also offers a theory on what happened to Whitney's daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown, who remains unresponsive after she was found unconscious in her bathtub back in January. According to the author, a suicide attempt was unlikely because of the water temperature. One local drug addict told him that Bobbi "probably took the plunge."
Ian writes, "He told me that when somebody 'drops' - which seems to be a term for an OD - there are all kinds of ways to revive them. 'I've never seen it done in a bath,' he said to me, 'but I sort of helped bring somebody around with a cold shower. You stick them under the cold water and you slap them to bring them around.' "
"Only the toxicology report - or in the worst-case scenario, an autopsy - can definitively answer the question about which, if any, drugs Bobbi Kristina had in her body at the time she was found," he adds, "It's possible that authorities will unveil new evidence that discredits the cold-water bath theory completely. It's also possible that we may never know what happened."
