Whitney Houston’s casket photos were most likely taken and sold to the National Enquirer by a “friend” of the family who has a history of trickery and treachery, the media reports.
Sources inside the Whigham Funeral Home in Newark, N.J., said their employees witnessed the person who took photos of the private ceremony. The man whom they identify goes by the name of Raffles van Exel, an alleged famous flunky with multiple aliases who orbits the worlds of high profile celebrities, Forbes magazine is reporting. The man was also said to be inside the circles of another deceased megastar: Michael Jackson.
Van Excel, the report continues, also goes by the name of Raffles Benson and Raffles Dawson, and he attended the two private viewings of Houston prior to the public funeral.
This refutes an earlier report that identified a member inside the Bobby Brown-Whitney Houston family who betrayed the legendary singer’s sanctity. Van Excel is not related to the Houston family but nevertheless was aboard the private plane from Los Angeles to New Jersey and was the only non-family member who was with Whitney s sister in law/manager and newly appointed executor Pat Houston in her car to Whitney s memorial and funeral and to the viewings. Strangely, van Excel had a bodyguard with him, the Whigham Funeral home revealed. A source from Whigham s says when the picture appeared on the cover of the Enquirer, they told the Houstons of their suspicions.
“They didn t do anything about it,” says a source, according to the report. “They re protecting him. How come they haven t gotten him out of their circle?”
Van Excel has been reached multiple times about the story, but has refused to answer or corroborate or refute the story. He has been involved in some shady dealings in the past, the media states, including suspected theft of singer George Benson of $25,000, another New Jersey resident. Van Excel also been the subject of at least one lawsuit under another name than the one he uses regularly.
