ONTD

You're looking at a heavily-redacted internal Federal Bureau of Investigation memorandum detailing an extortion case against the late entertainer Whitney Houston. The memo is included among the 128 pages of documents in the FBI's file on the late singer that were released last night.

The Bureau investigated three episodes in Houston's life—two involving stalking from fans and the extortion case—between 1988 and 1999. A woman was paid off by Houston after threatening to reveal "intimate details" of Houston's "romantic relationships," reports USA Today reports.

Those documents begin on page 61.

In 1992 a letter, marked "extortion" by the FBI, was sent to Houston's New Jersey offices of Nippy Inc., in which a woman demanded that unless Houston paid $100,000, "certain details" of her "private life" would be revealed. A later letter upped the ante to $250,000 and claims to have "intimate details" of Houston's "romantic relationships.

The FBI interviewed Houston, two lawyers and her father, John Houston. The singer tells agents she considered the woman "a friend" and "did discuss personal things" with her. It appears from the documents that Houston's father next sends the person a confidentiality agreement along with a sum of money (the amount is blacked out in FBI documents) and the case was closed soon after.

At least three Houston fans were investigated over that period for stalking and obsessive fandom, adds the Los Angeles Times.

One unnamed man, from Vermont, claimed to have sent more than 70 letters over a 17-month period to Houston and a handful of her associates. The letters declared love for the singer, and then turned a bit threatening. ... The FBI determined during interviews, that the fan was not physically threatening Houston but rather was suggesting declaring his love to outlets like the National Enquirer so they might print his story and get her attention.

Whitney Houston was one of the world's best-selling music artists and sold over 200 million records worldwide. The iconic singer with the megawatt voice and powerful range died on February 11 2012 in a Beverly Hills hotel room. The cause of death was drowning due to heart failure exacerbated by alcohol and cocaine consumption.

Almost one year, the late singer's mother finally addressed the decades of speculation and rumors around her daughter's sexuality. Cissy Houston appeared on Oprah's Next Chapter in January. Houston admitted that she "did not know" if her daughter had a romantic relationship with her longtime friend and employee Robyn Crawford—who is a lesbian—but she would "never" accept or condone that. "Never," repeated the matriarch of the Houston clan.

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