As if the death of John Travolta's son Jett wasn't bad enough, his family have had to put up with multiple rumours about extortion, claimed post-mortem pictures of the dead child and some incredible nonsense about a document that was allegedly being used to extort the grieving family out of $25m.

When Jett died on a family holiday in the Bahamas earlier this month it instantly became open season for rumour and nonsense. The only thing that was glaringly obvious was the fact that some people close to the scene grabbed on to the situation for dear life, seeing the death of a child as their lifeboat away from a sea of financial woes.

 

It appears that the Travolta family (even in the hour of their greatest grief) were the subject of a blackmail plot regarding a document that came to light after Jett's death. Yesterday the 'mystery document' was revealed to be a 'refusal to transport' form. The Nassau Guardian spoke to the Senior Assistant Commissioner of Police Marvin Dames, who said that a document such as this,

 

"Is signed by a party when refusing, for example, emergency medical services from trained personnel."

 

Now this ties in well with previous claims that John Travolta refused counselling and drugs for Jett, who was reported to suffer from autism amongst other ailments. So therefore it must be the truth, and the reason for the blackmail.

 

Except the always excellent TMZ.com have pointed out that Travolta's reason for 'refusal to transport' his son to a Bahamian hospital was the fact that he had his own, fully-fuelled personal jet which could transport his critically-ill son to a private hospital in Florida where the medical care would be to a much higher standard.

 

When you weigh this up against the 45-minute ambulance trip to the Bahamian hospital you can see why Travolta might make such a decision. The document that led to the blackmail plot merely released Bahamian emergency services from any financial liability should Jett die in transit.

 

As it turned out, Travolta did put his trust in the local health facilities and Jett passed away anyway, though there is no suggestion that the outcome would have been any different had his son survived the journey to Florida.

 

Whatever you think of John Travolta's acting career, hair or cod-religion, it appears that his motivation for the whole affair was to do his best for his terminally-ill son. We've had plenty of harsh words to say about him in the past (and rightly so) but let's give him the benefit of the doubt as a father merely trying to do the best for his son.

 

By Ian McShane