David Gest hired a hitman to kill Sir Elton John, it has been sensationally claimed.
According to his former bodyguard, Imad Handi, the eccentric music producer planned to have Elton “taken out” after he made public comments about his sexuality.
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Shortly after the producer married Liza Minelli in a lavish ceremony in New York attended by Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Jackson and Martine McCutcheon, Elton reportedly joked: “I’d love to buy Liza a heterosexual husband.”
David Gest was allegedly so furious by the comment that he hired a hitman to kill Elton!
“David flew into a rage and yelled, ‘I’m going to kill [him]. He’s a dead man,” Imad told The Sun.
“I think he was so angry because Elton rumbled who he really was.”
At the the time, Gest was living in Honolulu and knew of a well-connected Maori club doorman who would be able to help organise the planned hit.
“No one knew his name but the Maori man said he had friends who could sort it for £40,000,” Imad claimed.
“I had to do the research to work out when Elton would next be in Los Angeles for the hit.
“David then gave me $25,000 (£20,000). The following night, I took the money in a white laundry bag to the Hilton village hotel and gave it to the man.
“He said he wanted the remainder afterwards. I felt guilty but I felt loyalty to David.”
The day chosen to kill Elton was January 17, 2003, when he was due to perform in Anaheim, California.
Luckily for Elton, Imad started to get cold feet and started to worry about being implicated and pleaded with David to call the hit off.
Thankfully, David agreed but told Imad that he wanted him to get the money back from the hitman.
“The man only gave me £8,000 back,” Imad said. “So David lost £12,000 but at least Elton didn’t die.”
In spite of David’s reaction to Elton’s comments about him being gay, Imad says that David had gay leanings.
“He was obsessed with Simon Cowell,” he told The Sun. “He was his dream man because of his power.
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“David bragged that Simon had invited him to Lisbon with him because he was supposedly working there. I think it was in David’s fantasy.
“He’d talk about men, his love for well-endowed blokes.
“If anybody asked if he was gay, he flatly denied it but he regularly went to gay sex parties in the English countryside.”