Bill Whitfield had worked security in Las Vegas for years. Nothing in that job prepared him for his first night with Michael Jackson.
On December 22, 2006, Michael landed at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas with his three children, Prince, Paris and Blanket (who now goes by Bigi). The family had spent time living in Bahrain. Now they were moving into a gated home in the Summerlin neighborhood, and they needed someone to watch the door.
That someone was Bill.
Michael didn’t make a big speech about it. He turned to his kids and kept it simple: “Kids, this is Bill. He’s our new security.”
Paris and Prince said hello. Blanket was a lot shier. Bill later remembered that the little boy “was very reserved and quiet, hiding behind his father and giving a little wave.”
Then the kids went off to settle into their new house, and Bill went to work.
His post that night was the garage. He set up a folding chair and sat down to keep watch. There was one big problem, though. The garage wasn’t insulated, and it was the middle of a desert winter.
“Twenty-eight degrees and I had on nothing but a two-piece suit, dress shirt, and tie,” he wrote.
Anyone who has worked a night shift knows how slowly those hours crawl. Now add the cold, a famous new employer and a house full of people he’d only just met on the other side of the wall. Bill stayed put on that chair. It was the job.
Years later Bill sat down for a long interview about guarding Michael and the kids, and it’s worth hearing him talk about those early days, including a chapter about protecting the family alone on his first night.
Bill Whitfield talks about his years guarding Michael Jackson
Morning finally came. At about a quarter past seven, Bill heard something behind him.
“I heard the interior door to the house unlocking. It opened, and this tiny voice said, “Excuse me.””
It was Paris. She was 8 years old.
She had a cup in her hands, and Bill could see what was inside. “It was hot chocolate, with some of those little melted marshmallows in it.”
Paris didn’t chatter or ask him a bunch of questions. She just stood there quietly and said, “Daddy said to give you this.”
So that was how Bill’s first morning on the job began. Michael knew a stranger had spent the night out in the cold guarding his family, and he sent his little girl out to warm him up.
Bill went on to protect Michael and the children for about two years. He told the story in his 2014 book, “Remember the Time,” which he wrote about his time on the job.
The timing makes the moment even sweeter. The family had landed in Las Vegas just three days before Christmas. According to the book, Michael celebrated the holiday “because he wanted the kids to have the experience.”
Bill got a small taste of that holiday spirit before he’d even finished his first shift.