The Dish Rag

Bahamian officials arrested in John Travolta blackmail scheme

By Elizabeth Snead

   |  

January 23, 2009 4:24 PM

Johntravoltajett What happens in the Bahamas, stays in the -- wait,  gets blackmailed?

A police official tells TMZ that Bahamian Minister of Tourism Obie Wilchcombe was one of the three people arrested by Bahamian police in connection with an alleged extortion of actor John Travolta.

He was brought to the police station under the pretext of helping authorities crack the case, but he's now in custody.

Wilchcombe was a friend of the Travolta family. On Larry King's show, he talked about how the family was coping with Jett Travolta's death and provided details of the funeral home and the cremation.

According to TMZ, two of the three people arrested were politicians -- Wilchcombe and a current member of Parliament, Pleasant Bridgewater. Also arrested: an ambulance driver, Tarino Lightbourne, possibly one of the EMTs who tried to revive Jett.

Click here to see videos of Wilchcombe calling in to "Larry King Live" on the day Jett died and of ambulance driver Lightburne doing an interview with "Inside Edition" the next week.

We thought something smelled funny when the EMT guy was talking to "Inside Edition." Didn't you?

Related Travolta posts:
Hearse decoy, Jett Travolta cremated.

Who is Jett Travolta's male nanny, Jeff Kathrein?

John's brother, autism activist Joey Travolta, thought Jett had autism

Family lawyers: Jett's anti-seizure meds stopped working

John Travolta's public statement about Jett

Scientology critics cite 2007 blog about Jett's impending death

Family lawyers say Jett's death caused by head trauma

John Travolta's son, Jett, 16, dies in the Bahamas

Photo: WireImage


3 Comments

3 People were held for questioning:

Ex Parliament Senator & Lawyer, Pleasant Bridgewater

Obie Wilchcombe, the former minister of Tourism.

The ambulance driver Tarino Lightbourne


If pictures aren't involved with the alleged extortion; then what it has to be about is something someone said or did, or didn't do or say.

What that might be will be brought out at a trial, if charges go forward.

I wouldn't be surprised if Travolta tries to get the charges dropped, and the matter hushed up. But then, why would he have reported it in the first place?


This is making a big deal out of nothing. Perhaps there is more to the story than we know. Why is John so silent?


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