Tito Jackson's Nightmarish Childhood Laid Bare by Sister LaToya: 'Michael Was the Only One Who Hit Abusive Dad Back'
LaToya Jackson detailed the alleged abuse in her family in her 1991 memoir.
As fans mourn the loss of Tito Jackson, details about his tragic childhood as a member of the Jackson 5 are resurfacing.
RadarOnline.com can reveal LaToya Jackson exposed the horrors her father Joe Jackson allegedly put their family, and especially Michael Jackson, through as children.
LaToya Jackson released another book, Starting Over, in 2012.
In her memoir, LaToya: Growing Up in the Jackson Family, the second daughter born to Joe and his wife, Katherine Jackson, claimed her father "took sick delight" in frightening his children.
And Michael was the only one of the nine Jackson kids – Rebbie, 74, Jackie, 73, Tito, Jermaine, 69, LaToya, 68, Marlon, 67, Michael, Randy, 62, and Janet, 58 – who would fight back.
LaToya wrote: "Michael always talked back and had to get in the last lick, even if that meant another beating."
She also said she and her siblings often wondered: "Why doesn't Mike quit while he's ahead? He's only making it worse for himself."
LaToya said they secretly admired his "fearlessness" when it came to their father.
Michael was reportedly the only Jackson child who would stand up to their father.
Joe, who also managed his son's mega-group, the Jackson 5, took pleasure in forcing his sons to don boxing gloves and fight each other in their Gary, Indiana, home.
LaToya recalled a time when Joe forced Tito and Jackie to fight in the living room. The two punched each other as Joe "egged" them on.
It was not just the Jackson kids who found themselves being abused by the patriarch of the home.
Just before the 1988 Grammy Awards, LaToya revealed Michael called her and broke the news Joe also hit their mother.
He told his older sister: "I hate Joseph so much. I'll never forget the times he hit mother, and I hate him for it!"
LaToya replied: "You're lying. Joseph may have done a lot of things, but he never hit mother!"
But Michael insisted he had.
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Tito Jackson would be forced to fight his brothers, LaToya claimed in her book.
LaToya didn't believe her father laid hands on their mom, so she called her big sister Rebbie for confirmation.
Rebbie told Latoya: "Joseph used to hit her all the time."
She also said Katherine, now 94, would jump on Joe's back and hit him with her shoes to make him stop – but her actions only turned Joe's anger against her.
Rebbie was shocked LaToya didn't remember.
Despite the claims of abuse, Tito paid tribute to his father a few weeks after Joe Jackson died on June 27, 2018, aged 89.
While admitting his father "whipped him with his belt", he also said he probably saved his sons from a life of crime.
He claimed his dad and Michael, who died in 2009, had made peace in their relationship.
Tito told The Mirror: "My dad will be so happy to be reunited with Michael in heaven. They are having fun right now.
"He will probably be trying to get new music from Michael."
The Jackson family posted a tribute to Tito days after his death.
Tito died on Sunday, September 15, while making a pitstop on a cross-country road trip with his best friends, Terry Harvey Maltbia and Ronald Balfour.
After alerting his friends that he "couldn't breathe", they flagged down authorities who transported him to a New Mexico hospital.
He was later pronounced dead from a heart attack.
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