Non Hip-Hop Rumor: Is This the Man Who Sold Whitney Houston’s Casket Photo?

It looks like the mystery of who sold Whitney Houston’s casket photo is over, and all fingers are pointing to her confidant, Raffles Van Exel. The Whigham Funeral Home in New Jersey where Whitney was buried is saying that one of their employees witnessed Van Exel take the photo. A source from Whigham’s says when […]

It looks like the mystery of who sold Whitney Houston’s casket photo is over, and all fingers are pointing to her confidant, Raffles Van Exel.

The Whigham Funeral Home in New Jersey where Whitney was buried is saying that one of their employees witnessed Van Exel take the photo. A source from Whigham’s says when they saw the photo on the cover of the Enquirer, they told the Houston’s that it was Van Exel and, “They didn’t do anything ab0ut it.”

“They’re protecting him. How come they haven’t gotten him out of their circle?” said the source.


After doing some digging, we found that this Van Exel dude is one shady person. First of all, he has numerous alias including Raffles Benson and Raffles Dawson. He even pretended to be famous R&B singer George Benson’s (“Give Me the Night,” “Turn Your Love Around”) son and weaseled his way into his mansion, all the while allegedly stealing $25K in cash and then disappearing. Van Exel is a washed-up, wanna be singer who is a well-known Hollywood mooch. This guy even mooched off of Michael Jackson for a while! It’s incredible how he could get so close to these legends.

Van Exel  was the only non-family member who accompanied Whitney’s sister in law/manager and newly appointed executor Pat Houston in her car to Whitney’s memorial, funeral, and viewings. He even traveled with the Houston family on the private plane from Los Angeles to New Jersey.

This sounds a little shady to me. Especially because when Pat Houston was interviewed by Oprah, and she said she didn’t care who took the photo of Whitney in her coffin. How could she not care?! Maybe she doesn’t care, because she already knew who it was and somehow has something to do with it. Could they have split the money? What’s even worse is that Pat was with Whitney in L.A. the week before she died and did nothing to stop her from drinking and taking prescription medication. How could you witness your best friend and sister-in-law going down a dangerous downward spiral and do nothing about it?  So many questions!

I wonder what Whitney’s mother, Cissy Houston, is going to do about all of this information that is now coming to light?