Thaindian News

The body of dead entertainer Michael Jackson will commence its last tour on Thursday, July 2, 2009 with a public viewing planned for Friday, July 3.

Los Angeles police said planning is under way for a 30-car motorcade carrying Jackson’s remains to leave the Los Angeles area at 10am Thursday for Santa Barbara County.

The body will then go on display Friday so that grieving fans can pay their last respects to the dead King of Pop, ahead of a private funeral service planned for Sunday.

The final resting place for the dead 80s music icon has not been finalized as yet, though Jackson’s hometown of Gary, Indiana, is angling to have its favorite son buried there.

A burial site could be near a proposed Jackson family museum and a performing arts center, said mayoral spokeswoman Lalosa Burns, who said Gary Mayor, Rudy Clay, hadn’t received any confirmation.

Clay told a Chicago, Illinois, radio station Tuesday that he has been in contact with the Jackson family about the burial and he expects Jackson’s body, at the least, will be taken to Gary for a July 10 memorial service at US Steel Works ballpark.

Jackson’s father, Joe, has said Neverland Ranch has been ruled out as a burial site, but the family has given no public indication on where the singer’s final resting place may be.

Michael Jackson purchased Neverland Ranch – named for the fictional world in J M Barrie’s Peter Pan – in 1987 and filled it with animals and amusement rides.

Tom Barrack Jr., the billionaire who engineered Jackson’s financial rescue last year and gained control of the ranch through his company, said the property’s future will be discussed later.

On Wednesday more than two dozen TV satellite trucks lined a narrow, two-lane road leading to the Neverland Ranch, jostling to reserve space for Friday’s public viewing – which authorities believe will cause a 125-mile (201-kilometer) traffic jam involving tens of thousands of cars.