Daily Express | UK News :: Jackson to be buried in ghoul-proof coffinJACKSON TO BE BURIED IN GHOUL-PROOF COFFIN
Michael Jackson's coffin is to be encased in concrete
Monday August 31,2009
By Sara Dixon
MICHAEL Jackson’s coffin is to be encased in concrete to protect it from ghoulish souvenir hunters.
Jackson’s funeral, which has been postponed several times, is due to take place on Thursday after the family moved the date from Saturday, the star’s 51st birthday.
In a private ceremony at a walled Los Angeles cemetery the singer will be laid to rest in an £18,000 gold-plated coffin.
It also emerged yesterday that a series of grief-stricken letters written by his three children, Prince Michael, 12, Paris, 11, and Blanket, seven, will be placed in the coffin.
The notes read: “Daddy we love you, we miss you” and will be placed next to the singer’s trademark single white glove, his brother Marlon revealed in an interview. The King of Pop has also been given one final makeover and been fitted with a special wig giving him flowing shoulder-length hair in preparation for his burial.
Soul legend Aretha Franklin will sing at the graveside during the 45-minute sunset service, restricted to family and close friends.
Immediately after, a wall of concrete will be poured around his coffin.
Jackson’s final resting place at the Holly Terrace Grand Mausoleum will then be watched over by motion-sensitive CCTV cameras linked to alarms.
Anybody visiting the cemetery, where Humphrey Bogart and Clark Gable are also buried, has to show ID.
Marlon Jackson, 17 months older than Michael, shared a bed with him when they were growing up in Gary, Indiana.
Yesterday he said: “This is the final step – the final curtain will be closed as regards to Michael’s life. It’s a quiet place where the children will be able to visit in private.”