The John Travolta extortion case

The “plot thickens” in the alleged scheme to extort up to $25 million from Hollywood star John Travolta over the death of his 16-year-old son, Jett, said Stephen Foley in The Independent. A Bahamian senator has resigned; former tourism minister Obie Wilchcombe—supposedly a “close friend of the Travoltas”—was questioned; and a paramedic who tried to revive Jett is in police custody. What’s going on?

Wilchcombe is claiming he’s innocent, said Perez Hilton, and that he simply tried to alert Travolta’s lawyers of the extortion plot by relaying information that was passed on to him from the senator, Pleasant Bridgewater, who was really the “woman who put everything into motion.”

We may know more soon, said TMZ. Originally, it was believed that John Travolta was being extorted for photos that were taken of Jett in the ambulance. But we’ve just learned that “Bahamian police have recordings of conversations” in which “the plotters haggled with Travolta's reps” over the price that they wanted.

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If there was a scheme in motion, said Esther Kustanowitz in Beliefnet, let’s hope that the people behind it are brought to justice. “This kind of extortion plot and media attention must be a horrible addition to what is already a terrible time” for the Travoltas—they’re a “grieving family” and deserve to “get back to mourning their son.”