David Gest’s bodyguard reveals furious star ‘hired a hitman to kill Elton John at a gig’ after the singer suggested he was ‘gay’
In 2002, the great Liza Minnelli married music producer David Gest. Alluding to perceptions that the flamboyant Gest was secretly gay, as well as to the fact that Minnelli's first husband, songwriter Peter Allen, was a gay man, John reportedly remarked that he'd "like to buy Liza Minnelli a heterosexual husband."
When asked Elton John when he first realized he was gay, and John shared some awkward anecdotes about his burgeoning teenage sexuality. In one story, John didn't choose his words very carefully.
"At school everyone boasted about sex. Meanwhile I was dying to be molested by someone. When I went to therapy, my therapist said, 'I have to ask you if you were molested.' And I said, 'No, actually.' But I was dying to be molested by someone — just to teach me, just to find out, you know?"
According to The Sun, that nasty joke made Gest so angry that he allegedly ordered a hit on John. On the one-year anniversary of Gest's death in 2017, his best friend and bodyguard, Imad Handi, claimed Gest gave him $25,000 to arrange John's murder. Handi said he set the whole thing up but got cold feet and successfully begged Gest to call the whole thing off just days before the scheduled hit in 2003.
He looked me in the eyes and said, ‘I want him dead’.“I think he was so angry because Elton rumbled who he really was.” Gest was living in Honolulu when he read Sir Elton’s comments. Imad recalled: “David spent a lot of time in the bars and got talking to a Maori doorman who was connected on the island. “David approached him about the possibility of bumping Elton off.
Imad went on to allege that he was given the responsibility of checking Sir Elton’s diary to see when he’d next be in Los Angeles, before being the person who acted as the go-between, taking the £20,000 down payment from Gest and handing it to the hit man.
“I took the money in a white laundry bag to the Hilton village hotel and gave it to the man, “ claimed Imad.
“He said he wanted the remainder afterwards. I felt guilty but I felt loyalty to David.”But, as Imad tells it, he started to worry about what he was getting involved in and pleaded with Gest to call off the plan - and was successful.
“He eventually said OK but told me I had to get his money back,” said Imad.
“The man only gave me £8,0000 back so David lost £12,000 but at least Elton didn’t die.”
