11

Dreams do come true, if only we wish hard enough. You can have anything in life if you will sacrifice everything else for it.

J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

The day after Jackson’s death, the world woke up to the news with a huge sense of shock. ‘A Star Idolised and Haunted, Michael Jackson Dies at 50’ was the headline in The New York Times. ‘The King is Dead’, pronounced The Guardian in the United Kingdom. Rio de Janeiro’s Extra simply devoted its front page to an image of Jackson’s single diamond-studded white glove resting against a black background, under the title ‘Michael Jackson 1958–2009’.

Other headlines, however, began suggesting a sense of inevitability in Jackson’s death and started looking for clues as to the cause of his passing. ‘The Thriller Is Gone – Death of “King of Pop” at 50 Remains Mystery’ said the Daytona Beach News Journal, while the UK’s Daily Express asked on its cover, ‘Did Injections Kill Michael?’. New York’s Daily News proclaimed, ‘He Saw It Coming – King of Pop had a chilling premonition of own death’.

On the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the singer’s star was covered by a film premiere that was taking place so fans started laying flowers on another star bearing the name Michael Jackson on the Walk of Fame, a star that actually honoured a talk-show host with the same name and not the King of Pop.1 Elsewhere in Los Angeles, fans were holding vigils outside Jackson’s Carolwood home where they played his music, danced and cried. Curious onlookers gathered to watch similar tributes in cities across the USA. In Gary, Indiana – Michael Jackson’s hometown, hundreds of people made the pilgrimage to the simple house where the singer spent much of his childhood. Some lit candles or left teddy bears while others placed personal notes at the shack.

Such was the level of grief worldwide that even Nelson Mandela made a brief and rare public appearance to comment on Jackson’s life and legacy. The world’s largest online fan club, MJJcommunity. com, reported that 12 Michael Jackson fans had apparently committed suicide following the singer’s death. Gary Taylor, head of the fan club, told Sky News that, ‘It is a serious situation that these people are going through but Michael Jackson would never want this. He would want them to live.’2 Throughout Jackson’s international fan base, there was a great sense of depression, sadness and anger.3 One of Jackson’s closest friends, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, identified this and encouraged the singer’s fans to support each other: ‘This is a time when hearts are heavy. There is great pain but great cause to celebrate Michael’s life. It made Michael happy saying “We Are The World”. Don’t self destruct.’4

Across the radio, airwaves were filled with music from throughout Jackson’s career while the music channels on television showed the singer’s groundbreaking videos on a continuous loop.

Meanwhile, as Jackson’s musical legacy was being played out on televisions, radios and the Internet worldwide, on the morning of 26 June 2009, Dr Christopher Rogers, the Chief of Forensic Medicine at the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office was preparing for Autopsy Case Number 2009-04415 to determine the cause and manner of death of Michael Jackson.

At around 6:45pm the previous day, a helicopter had ferried Jackson’s body to the Los Angeles Coroner’s Office. A news channel filmed the moment when hospital workers placed the singer’s body, wrapped in a white sheet, onto a stretcher and then into a waiting van. It had lain overnight in the mortuary at Lincoln Heights until 10:00am on the morning of 26 June, when a three-hour autopsy was performed by Dr Rogers and the Chief Medical Examiner, Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran,5 with Detective Scott Smith of the LAPD witnessing the procedure.

Dr Christopher Rogers had been employed with the LA County Coroner’s Office since 1988. Previously he had attended medical school at the University of California in San Diego, after which he undertook a pathology residency at Los Angeles County USC Medical Center before training in forensic pathology. In the course of his career he had performed thousands of autopsies and, given the nature of his location in California, a number had been on celebrity figures. But Michael Jackson wasn’t just a celebrity, he was a global superstar, at one time perhaps even the most famous man on the planet. People wanted to know how, and why, he had died. The rumour mill was already beginning to spin out of control, and it was hoped the autopsy would provide the answers to the singer’s cause of death.

The autopsy report reveals Dr Rogers’ observations regarding his initial external examination: ‘The body is identified by toe tags and is that of an unembalmed refrigerated Black male who appears the stated age of 50 years. The body weighs 136 pounds, measures 69 inches in length, and is thin.’6

It had seemed for many months, perhaps years, people around Jackson had been concerned about his health but, in fact, one of Dr Rogers’ early observations was that the singer’s general health was excellent. There were some incidental findings: Jackson had an enlargement of the prostate gland, he had Vitiligo, a polyp on his colon, some inflammation and scarring of his lungs, and traces of arthritis, particularly in his spine.

Dr Rogers was particularly surprised by the health of Jackson’s heart. It had no abnormalities and, in particular, did not have coronary artery atherosclerosis,7 which virtually everybody at Jackson’s age would be expected to have to some degree. There was also no sign whatsoever of Jackson suffering from any form of cardiac disease. And he found no observations or evidence of any trauma or natural disease that would have caused Jackson’s death. In fact, the only signs of trauma to Jackson’s body were as a result of the desperate struggle to save his life: his chest showed some bruising and there were a number of cracked ribs, almost definitely caused by the CPR. The intra-aortic balloon-pump remained in Jackson’s heart and the singer was still wearing a condom catheter. Dr Rogers noted ‘numerous’ puncture marks on both arms and additional puncture marks on Jackson’s left knee and right ankle, an indication, perhaps, of Jackson’s prior drug use or simply sites for IV drips.

What Dr Rogers’ autopsy report did show was that Michael Jackson had a number of cosmetic tattoos. Both eyebrows and the areas beneath his eyes – his lower eyelids – had dark tattoos around them and his lips had a pink tattoo on and around them also. There were a number of scars that indicated cosmetic surgery: one scar behind his left ear and another behind his right ear, each measuring approximately three quarters of an inch in length and suggesting Jackson had had either a limited facelift or that both his ears had been pinned back as the result of having skin grafts due to the burns he suffered in 1984. On each nostril Dr Rogers discovered more scarring which would have undoubtedly been connected to cosmetic surgery on the singer’s nose, probably a result of removing excess skin during a nose procedure.8

While scarring on his face was expected owing to his prolific history of cosmetic surgery, Dr Rogers also found scarring on other parts of Jackson’s body. On his left arm, the singer had a quarter-inch scar just below the bicep. This could have been scarring that had built up from multiple IV entries. There was also a scar on both wrists and one on his right hand, all of which were probably resulting from ligament surgery. On his torso, Jackson had a scar that suggested an appendectomy and two small scars around his belly button, which would indicate that a type of liposuction (likely a procedure known as BodyTite Fat Reduction) had been carried out on the singer. More scarring on his right leg, specifically around the knee area indicated possible knee surgery.

Given the fact that Jackson had suffered third degree burns to his head in 1984 as a result of his accident while filming the Pepsi commercial, it was not surprising that Dr Rogers’ autopsy would find anomalies with Jackson’s scalp. There was evidence of the singer going bald above his forehead, while the rest of his hair was short and tightly curled. This had been completely covered up by the style of wigs Jackson had appeared in during the last few months of his life. The bald part of Jackson’s scalp, the area that had been significantly affected by the accident, had been darkened by a tattoo that covered the top of his scalp from ear to ear and which would have been used to hide scars from burns and hair loss resulting from the accident.

After concluding the autopsy, Dr Rogers was unable to point to a specific cause of death. He had found evidence that Michael Jackson had taken prescription medications, but everyone would have to wait for the results of the toxicology tests before establishing whether this had any bearing on his death.

Craig Harvey, the Chief Investigator for the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office stated that, at that moment, there was no evidence of trauma or foul play and continued, ‘There will be no final ruling as to the cause and manner of death until requested test results have been received and reviewed in context with the autopsy findings.’ It was anticipated that these tests would take between four and six weeks to complete, which only meant that speculation would continue as to the cause of Jackson’s passing. In the meantime, Jackson’s body was released to his family although the Los Angeles Times suggested that the coroner had probably kept Jackson’s brain in order to conduct a neuropathology test to determine whether the singer’s brain had been damaged by drug abuse.9

Around the world, all manner of theories were beginning to emerge as reporters, analysts, investigators and fans dissected every bit of information they could find out about Jackson’s last few days alive. There were even theories that the singer had faked his own death to escape the complex and serious financial difficulties he had found himself in and that the body discovered and being investigated was actually that of a Jackson lookalike who had terminal cancer and, in return for a substantial payment to his soon to be bereaved family, had died in place of the King of Pop.

Of course, the man who could provide many of the answers was Dr Conrad Murray, but he was nowhere to be found. The Los Angeles Police Department had made efforts to contact him on the evening of Thursday 25 June, the day Jackson had died, but Murray had slipped out of UCLA Medical Center and wasn’t responding to any attempts to call him via his mobile phone and had seemingly disappeared into thin air.

The LAPD continued to try to contact Dr Murray on 26 June, but it wasn’t until much later in the day on the 26th, after the initial autopsy had been completed, that Murray’s attorney, Michael Pena, contacted the LAPD on Murray’s behalf. Speaking to Detective Orlando Martinez, Pena suggested that they should meet, along with Dr Murray who wanted to talk, on Saturday, 27 June 2009. Michael Pena said he would call back on the Saturday with a convenient time and location.

Meanwhile, on Friday 26th, the Jackson family, having just taken possession of the singer’s body, demanded that a second autopsy be carried out. They had been gathering together at their estate in Encino since the singer’s death but were becoming increasingly frustrated by the unanswered questions surrounding the tragedy. ‘We don’t know what happened. Was he injected, and with what? All reasonable doubt should be addressed,’ said the Reverend Jesse Jackson after he spent time visiting the Jackson family.10 In fact, TMZ.com reported that the new autopsy was already underway at a secret Los Angeles location.11 It was debatable whether this second autopsy would do anything but confirm what was discovered in the first autopsy. ‘The organs have already been dissected once, and with the second autopsy, you are not getting the same pristine blood samples that you got in the first’, Dr Stephen Cina, Deputy Chief Medical Examiner of Broward County in Florida, and one of the pathologists involved in the autopsy of celebrity Playboy pinup Anna Nicole Smith, told Time magazine.12 What the Jackson family might have been hoping for, however, was that this second autopsy, conducted by a private pathologist, might provide answers quicker than the LA County Coroner who probably had a backlog of cases to investigate.

The Jackson family had every right to ask for a second autopsy. They also had every right to be suspicious of Dr Murray. After all, it emerged that none of them had ever met Murray although he claimed to be Jackson’s private physician. The Reverend Jesse Jackson spoke about the uncertainty that the Jackson family were feeling regarding the death of the singer and the role Dr Murray might have played in his passing: ‘Michael was in good shape, he was in good health, practising three to four hours a day. There is a gap between him going to bed and the next day when we got a call that he was not breathing. All we know is that something happened to Michael with the doctor present. How long had he stopped breathing, how long was he unconscious?’13

On Saturday, 27 June, as agreed, Michael Pena called Detective Orlando Martinez and suggested they meet at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Marina del Rey on Westside, Los Angeles County at 4pm. Martinez travelled with Detective Scott Smith to the location where they met Michael Pena, Dr Conrad Murray and, also, Ed Chernoff.

Ed Chernoff was the leading attorney of the firm Chernoff Law, based in Houston, Texas. After attending the University of Houston Law Center, Chernoff joined the Harris County District Attorney’s office where, during his time there, he only lost one felony trial. In 1991 he started Chernoff Law and, according to his website in 2015, he ‘… currently holds the record for the quickest acquittal in the Southern District of the United State Courts, as a jury acquitted his client after 15 minutes of deliberations’. He was just the type of attorney Dr Murray needed. Despite Murray not being suspected of any wrongdoing at this stage and considered solely to be a witness in events surrounding Michael Jackson’s death, newspapers were beginning to delve into his background and revelations were emerging about Murray’s financial past and the string of debts and missed alimony payments that were connected to him.

The meeting between Dr Murray, his representatives and the LAPD took place in a boardroom at the Ritz Carlton Hotel and lasted for approximately three hours. Murray told the detectives that he had met Jackson initially in 2006. Later, he said, Jackson wanted him to be his personal physician on the London tour. He told them he was an interventional cardiologist and also stated that he was aware Jackson was seeing other physicians and that, upon a cursory physical exam, he found little wrong with the singer.

They discussed the treatments Jackson was receiving at Carolwood and, naturally, the night that Jackson died. Murray gave a comprehensive account of all that had happened on the night of 24 June and the morning of 25 June, and revealed the sedatives he had given to the singer throughout the period. During the interview, Dr Murray mentioned Propofol to the detectives, referring to it in the beginning by the term ‘milk’, the word that Jackson would himself use.14 Murray told the detectives he gave Jackson 25mg of Propofol between 10:40am and 10:50am and Jackson was asleep by 11am, upon which Murray went to the bathroom for two minutes before returning to find the singer not breathing.

Murray went on to tell the detectives he was trying to wean Jackson off Propofol at the time of his death and that he was aware other doctors had given it to Jackson multiple times.15 Throughout the rest of his interview, Murray described his efforts at resuscitation and the arrival of the paramedics before the journey to hospital where Jackson was pronounced dead.

It was towards the end of the interview when Dr Murray first mentioned a bag he had placed in one of Jackson’s cupboards in the closet. It came about during an exchange in which the detectives had been questioning Murray about the syringes that were being used on the final night. Dr Murray revealed he used two syringes:

Detective Smith: These … the evening that this was going on at Mr Jackson’s house, his final night, these different syringes or one syringe was used when you injected it into his IV drip down below?

Dr Murray: Yeah, one syringe for that, yeah.

Detective Smith: I’m sorry.

Dr Murray: Yes.

Detective Smith: One syringe was used for the various medications you gave him, or …

Dr Murray: No, I had …

Detective Smith: Each time it was a …

Dr Murray: No, I had two syringes, and they were … I would recap them, if I needed it. And you know, I would use the medication, and then I would draw some saline to have them mix. Right away then I would use it.

Detective Smith: What did you do with those syringes when you were done with them?

Dr Murray: Well, I usually have my bags right there. Everything I use, I would put it quickly into the bags and, you know, just put it into the cupboard, because he wanted me to not have anything hanging around.

Detective Smith: Where’s your bag where those syringes would be at now?

Mr Chernoff: Oh, really?

Dr Murray: I don’t have them.

Mr Chernoff: I thought you left it there.

Dr Murray: Yeah, I did.

Detective Smith: Where? Where did you leave it?

Dr Murray: In that same bedroom, in the closet, where it always stays.

Detective Smith: Okay. Which closet? It’s a mess.

Detective Martinez: It’s forty-five cupboards.

Dr Murray: Yeah, if you walk into the dressing room and you turn right, the high level top, the bags are right there with the items in it and the medication.

The detectives were alerted by the prospect of the bags containing material relevant to the investigation. The bags hadn’t been found in the search of Jackson’s Carolwood property so far and they were curious as to what they might contain. They continued their discussions with Murray, focusing specifically on the bags:

Detective Smith: Black attaché bags?

Dr Murray: Three bags. There were three. One is a little Costco bag. One is a black small bag. The other one is a little blue bag that has a zipper at the top of it.

Mr Pena: And you left it there because you went directly with the EMTs to the hospital and never went back to the house, right?

Dr Murray: Oh, but … yeah, but they would have stayed there anyway until I came back the next night and help him, because, you know, it has the IV catheters and everything is in there.

Dr Murray left the hotel after the three-hour interview with his aides. It was to be the last time he would talk to any authority about the death of Michael Jackson.

Meanwhile, the LAPD switched their attention to finding the bags in the closet that Murray had referred to, in order to see what they contained and whether the contents would be crucial evidence in the investigation into Jackson’s death. On Monday, 29 June, Elissa Fleak returned to Carolwood to recover the bags that Murray had mentioned. On her previous search of the property, this closet hadn’t been thoroughly investigated, as the team was more interested with the actual scene of Jackson’s cardiac arrest, the second bedroom or his medication room, as it was known. Now, returning to the scene, Fleak passed through Jackson’s bedroom and found the closet. Going to the cupboard in the closet that Murray had identified as containing the bags, she found them stored on the top shelf. As Dr Murray had said, there was a black bag with a zipper, a larger dark blue bag and a light brown and blue bag with side pockets.

Examining the contents of the bags, Elissa Fleak discovered a collection of medical supplies including a plastic bag full of tubes of Benoquin lotion, a blood pressure cuff and three bottles of Lidocaine in the small black bag, two of which were empty and one partly empty. In the large blue Costco bag, Elissa Fleak found a 100ml vial of Propofol inside a cut-open IV saline bag. Inside the blue bag was also a second vial of Propofol, measuring 20ml, one vial of Lorazepam and two vials of Midazolam. There was also a bloody piece of gauze, a bag of miscellaneous medical packaging that had been crumpled up, supply packaging and a finger pulse monitor. In the light blue and brown bag she found two 100ml unopened vials of Propofol, four 20ml vials of Propofol (also unopened) and three 20ml bottles of Propofol, all of which had been opened. She also found two 30ml bottles of Lidocaine, both open, but both with liquid in them. There was also one unopened 30ml vial of Lidocaine, one 10ml vial of Midazolam, which had been opened, two 10ml unopened vials of Midazolam, one 5ml bottle of Flumazenil, which was open with liquid inside, one 4ml bottle of Lorazepam, which was also open and a similar bottle that hadn’t been opened. She also found a red pill bottle with no label that contained fourteen red and black capsules, another tube of Benoquin, over-the-counter eye drops, an IV clamp and a blue strip of rubber. Alongside all of this were five business cards for Dr Conrad Murray. In total, she had found 11 bottles of Propofol with contents totalling 460ml of the drug, 180ml of which had been used. Another empty bottle of Propofol had also been found on the floor of Jackson’s bedroom.

In his testimony, Alberto Alvarez recalled being instructed by Dr Murray to put bottles into bags before he called 911. He specifically remembered a brown bag, into which he put a plastic bag containing some bottles and he also remembered a blue bag, into which he put the IV bag, which, as he recalled, had a bottle inside the saline bag. Alvarez’s testimony suggests that these were the bags found in the cupboard and seemed to indicate that Murray may have been determined to hide them as best he could. Murray knew the authorities were rushing to the location following the 911 call and may have assumed that he would be able to return to Carolwood later to remove the evidence before the house was searched. Perhaps this was why he was so keen to get a lift back from the hospital to the singer’s home on the evening of Jackson’s death.

The amount of Propofol found was a major turning point in the investigation into Jackson’s death. At that time there was no conclusive proof that detectives were looking at a criminal case or homicide, but such a substantial amount of one drug, seemingly hidden away, aroused their interest. However, for the time being, they would have to wait until the results of the toxicology tests arrived back.

In the meantime, Jackson’s music sales had skyrocketed. On the same day that Elissa Fleak was discovering the bottles of Propofol in his home, he topped the UK album chart once more and four of his other hit albums reappeared in the UK Top 20. Six of his singles also entered the UK singles chart and he had sold 300,000 records in just two days. By 3 August, he had sold 2 million records in the UK alone in the week since his death. HMV reported that sales of Jackson’s records were 80 times greater than they had been up to the day before he died and online retailer, Amazon, had sold out of all Jackson’s and The Jackson 5’s CDs within minutes of the news of his death. In Australia, 15 of Jackson’s albums were back in the Top 100 and he had 34 singles in the Top 100 singles charts, including four in the Top 10. In Billboard’s European Top 100 albums, eight of his albums were in the Top 10. In the USA, Jackson occupied all of the top nine positions on Billboard’s Top Pop Catalogue Albums and in the third week after his death he was to occupy the entire top 12 positions. His album Number Ones saw a 2,340 per cent increase in sales in the USA, and he became the first artist ever to sell over 1 million downloads in a week. By the end of 2009, six months after his death, Jackson had sold over 8 million albums in the USA alone, and in the year following his death Michael Jackson sold 35 million albums worldwide and generated revenues of approximately $1 billion for his estate.

While everyone waited for the results of the toxicology tests (the second autopsy yielded nothing that wasn’t already evident in the first autopsy), plans were being made for a public memorial service in advance of Jackson’s funeral. The date set was 7 July and the venue would be the Staples Center where Jackson had completed his final rehearsal only hours before he died. AEG Live, the promoters of his now-cancelled London shows at the O2, were in charge of organising the memorial and if they weren’t already facing enough of a backlash from Jackson fans, some of whom thought they might be partly responsible for his death by creating an impossible schedule for the singer, then claims that AEG were going to charge fans $25 for tickets to the memorial service were a PR disaster.16 Unsurprisingly, within a week, AEG Live had backtracked on their apparent decision and confirmed they would not be charging and that 11,000 tickets would be made available, free of charge, to fans and distributed via a lottery system.17

After the memorial service, Jackson would be taken to Forest Lawn Cemetery in Hollywood Hills, California, where he would be buried. But in the week leading up to the funeral, rifts were already evident within the Jackson family. According to a story in the Daily Mail,18 some within Jackson’s family wanted a shrine to the singer erected at Neverland but they were over-ruled by Katherine Jackson and the pop star’s sisters. It also seemed that his brothers in The Jackson 5 wanted an open coffin and for the singer to be driven through the streets of Los Angeles, enabling mourners and devastated fans the opportunity to throw flowers. Once again, Katherine Jackson had the final say. She felt an open coffin would be ‘ghoulish’ and might affect and harm the children.19 It seemed that Katherine was determined to respect her religious principles while the brothers were eager for the funeral to reflect Jackson’s showbiz pomp.

But Jackson’s mother had other matters to deal with as well as the funeral. On the day before her son was due to be buried, a Los Angeles judge denied her control of Michael Jackson’s multi-million dollar estate for the immediate future. Instead, Jackson’s former attorney, John Branca and the record executive John McClain were appointed temporary administrators of the Jackson estate until 3 August, while the authorities attempted to determine the validity of Michael Jackson’s 2002 will. In this will, Michael Jackson inserted a no-contest provision, meaning Katherine Jackson risked losing the 40 per cent of the assets left to her by her son if she contested the will. However, her lawyers suggested Katherine Jackson wasn’t contesting the will, merely trying to preserve her role as the administrator.20

Bizarrely, this will was signed on 7 July 2002, exactly seven years to the day before his funeral. In the will it said that his estate is left to the ‘Trustees of the Michael Jackson Family Trust’.21 These three trustees were John Branca, John McClain and Barry Seigel. However, on 26 August 2003, Seigel signed a letter saying he no longer wished to be an executor of the trust. The will went on to intentionally omit Jackson’s former wife and mother of two of his children, Debbie Rowe. Jackson’s mother, Katherine, was named to serve as the guardian to his children. If she was unable, or unwilling, then the back-up guardian was none other than Diana Ross. At no point in the will are any provisions made for Jackson’s father, Joe, or any of the singer’s eight siblings.

Given that Katherine Jackson was entitled to 40 per cent of her son’s estate, why was she battling for control of it and challenging the will? Was it connected to the fact that, although Jackson’s will was dated and signed at 5pm on 7 July 2002, a number of other people had suggested Michael Jackson was actually in New York on that date, taking on the former president of Sony Records, Tommy Mottola, in court? Jackson’s former manager, Leonard Rowe, was one of those not convinced that Jackson had actually signed the 2002 will in Los Angeles. He had received a call from Randy Jackson in the weeks after Michael’s death and Randy suggested he had proof that Michael was definitely in New York on the date the will was supposed to have been signed in Los Angeles. This proof was in the form of a tape from the Reverend Al Sharpton, who was in court with Michael Jackson at the time.22 The executors and administers of the 2002 will were John Branca and John McClain (now that Barry Seigel was no longer an executor). With Michael Jackson dead, they acquired full power to administer his estate, which included the lucrative Sony/ATV catalogue. But, as Leonard Rowe pointed out in his book What Really Happened To Michael Jackson?, John Branca had been fired by Jackson from his role as his attorney on 3 February 2003 and in the termination letter to Branca, Jackson wrote, ‘I have asked Mr LeGrand23 and Ms Brandt to obtain all of my files, records, documents, accounts for myself and all companies I won or control which may be in your possession. You are to deliver the originals of all such documents to Mr LeGrand immediately.’ Leonard Rowe suggests that, while John Branca handed over the other files as requested, he ‘… secretly refused to turn over the purported July 7th, 2002 will and March 2002 trust. No will was ever turned over to Michael’s new attorney.’24 On 17 June 2009, just eight days before Jackson died, Branca reappeared when he was re-hired by Michael Jackson. Within a few days, Branca would have control over all of Jackson’s assets. Of course, the will might simply have been assigned the wrong date, perhaps Branca, McCain and Seigel flew to New York to meet with Jackson instead, or maybe the singer’s signature was forged, although there is no evidence of this and no suggestion of it made by anybody. Whatever occurred, John Branca was now in a strong position with regards to administrating Jackson’s will and overseeing the finance streams coming in and going out. But the whole affair created an unsavoury backdrop to Jackson’s impending funeral.

As it turned out, Michael Jackson’s funeral was a combination of showbiz and spirituality. On the morning of 7 July, Jackson’s long-time make-up artist, Karen Faye, prepared his body for the family to say their final goodbyes at Forest Lawn Cemetery. Faye, along with Jackson’s costume designer Michael Bush, dressed the singer in a black tunic on which was laid white pearls and a gold belt. Faye glued fake eyelashes onto Jackson and then applied three coats of his favourite mascara, a coat of pale foundation and rose-pink lipstick. The final touch was his jet-black wig.

When his family had said their final goodbyes, the solid bronze casket (which cost a reported $25,000 and had been finished with 14-carat gold-plating and lined with blue velvet), was closed and transported to the Staples Center. The freeways along the 11-mile route were closed and the casket arrived at 10am with the service due to begin at 10:30am.

All of Michael Jackson’s brothers sat in the front row, each wearing a single white sequined glove. Other guests included Berry Gordy, Lionel Richie, Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant, Mariah Carey and John Mayer. Debbie Rowe did not attend as, according to Attorney Marta Almli, ‘The onslaught of media attention has made it clear her attendance would be an unnecessary distraction to an event that should focus exclusively on Michael’s legacy. Debbie will continue to celebrate Michael’s memory privately.’25

The service was broadcast around the world and is reported to have been watched by up to 1 billion people, although with the advent of Twitter, blogs and other new media, it could have been significantly higher.26 They witnessed Stevie Wonder, Mariah Carey and Jennifer Hudson singing the King of Pop’s songs and Jermaine Jackson singing his brother’s favourite song, Charlie Chaplin’s ‘Smile.’27 They saw film clips illustrating his entire career, an array of speakers from the worlds of show business and rights movements, and a dance spectacular choreographed by Kenny Ortega. Jackson’s daughter, Paris, delivered a short, but emotionally charged few words before being escorted off the stage in tears by her family: ‘I just want to say, ever since I was born, Daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine … and I just want to say I love him … so much.’ The onlookers in the crowd were silenced by her show of raw emotion.

Afterwards, the casket was carried from the Staples Center as an instrumental version of Jackson’s ‘Man In The Mirror’ played. At 12:48pm, the memorial service finished and the coffin was taken back to Forest Lawn Cemetery where the plan was to bury the singer on 29 August – what would have been his fifty-first birthday.28

The final cost of Jackson’s funeral was over $1 million, paid for by his estate. His crypt in the Great Mausoleum29 at Forest Lawn Cemetery, dubbed the ‘New World’s Westminster Abbey’ by Time magazine, cost $590,000. Other costs included the guest invitations totalling $11,716. The cost of security and the fleet of luxury cars was $30,000 and the sum for the florist was $16,000. The funeral planner charged $15,000 and an Italian restaurant in Pasadena, where guests went after the service, billed the estate $21,455.

While Jackson’s funeral was taking place and while the Jackson family were starting to get embroiled in a bitter battle about the validity of the singer’s will, the law enforcement agencies in Los Angeles were beginning to turn their attention to Dr Conrad Murray and the possibility that he had more to do with Jackson’s death than anyone might have thought.

Officers raided Murray’s Houston offices on 22 July 2009 and seized a number of items, including computer hard drives and a ‘Texas Department of Public Safety controlled substance registration’. However, they failed to find any Propofol, the drug that was now dominating their investigation. They were still waiting for the results of the toxicology analysis, and the actions of LAPD in seeming to target Dr Murray was causing his attorney, Ed Chernoff, a great deal of concern: ‘Based on Dr Murray’s minute-by-minute and item-by-item description of Michael Jackson’s last days, he should not be a target of criminal charges,’ Chernoff said to CNN. ‘Dr Murray was the last doctor standing when Michael Jackson died and it seems all the fury is directed at him. Dr Murray is frustrated by negative and often erroneous media reports. He has to walk around 24-7 with a bodyguard. He can’t operate his practice. He can’t go to work because he is harassed no matter where he goes.’30

It seemed the whole world was waiting for the toxicology results. Dr Murray was still a free man and guilty of no crime, but William Bratton, the Los Angeles Police Chief, made it clear in an interview with CNN that the coroner would determine the exact cause of Jackson’s death based on the results of the toxicology tests: ‘Are we dealing with a homicide, or are we dealing with an accidental overdose?’ he said.31

One person confident that there was foul play involved was Jackson’s sister, La Toya. She was the driving force behind getting the second autopsy carried out and she was under no illusions about what had happened to her brother. ‘I believe Michael was murdered. I felt that from the start. Not just one person was involved, rather it was a conspiracy of people,’ she told The Mail on Sunday in July 2009.32 ‘Less than a month ago, I said I thought Michael was going to die before the London shows because he was surrounded by people who didn’t have his best interests at heart. Michael was worth more than a billion dollars. When anyone is worth that much money, there are always greedy people around them. I said to my family a month ago, “He’s never going to make it to London”. He was worth more dead than alive.’

While La Toya was certain her brother was murdered, there was still no definitive evidence or smoking gun to suggest anything sinister had happened. Dr Murray still seemed the man most culpable as he was with the singer when he had died and throughout the rest of July and August, police continued to raid Dr Murray’s home and offices in Las Vegas. The pharmacy belonging to Tim Lopez in Las Vegas, which supplied many of the drugs that Murray administered to Jackson, including Propofol, was also raided when the authorities established a link between Murray and the pharmacy.

Whilst the LAPD were focusing their investigation with ever-greater intent on Dr Murray, the eight-page toxicology report that everyone was waiting for had arrived on Dr Christopher Rogers’ desk.

But, before that, a team from the LA Coroner’s Office had another task. On 6 August 2009, six weeks after Jackson’s death, LaToya Jackson accompanied three officials from the Coroner’s Office as they went to Forest Lawn Memorial Park. Among them were Craig Harvey, the Chief of Operations, Jose Hernandez, a forensic technician, and Jaime Lintemoot, a senior criminologist. The reason for them being there was to take hair samples from Michael Jackson’s head for potential toxicology testing. His body had yet to be buried and when it was brought to La Toya and the team of coroners, they found Jackson ‘supine in a yellow casket with blue lining. The majority of the decedent was covered with multiple white towels/sheets leaving only the hands and top of the head exposed’.33 Just as when he was alive, a wig of long, dark hair covered his head, but it was what lay beneath that the team were interested in. Carefully and precisely, with gloved hands, samples of Jackson’s natural hair hidden beneath the wig were collected. Gently plucked out one by one, these one and half inch strands would potentially provide evidence that would show, beyond reasonable doubt, just how long Jackson had been taking drugs, whether it be Propofol, benzodiazepines or any other chemical influences.

As it turned out, these hair samples weren’t required as Dr Rogers had, by now, received the toxicology report and had analysed it. Completed on Wednesday, 15 July, the toxicology report showed a cocktail of drugs in Jackson’s body. Propofol, Lorazepam, Midazolam, Lidocaine, Diazepam and Nordiazepam were found in Jackson’s blood samples. Propofol, Midazolam, Lidocaine and Ephedrine were found in his urine. Propofol and Lidocaine were found in his liver tissue, Propofol was identified in his vitreous humour (the gel between the eye’s lens and retina), and Lidocaine and Propofol were found in his stomach contents.

The report showed the amount of Propofol found in Jackson was 3.2mcg/ml in his heart blood, 4.1mcg/ml in his hospital blood and 2.6 mcg/ml in his femoral blood. Dr Selma Calmes, the anaesthetist consultant concluded that, ‘The levels of Propofol found on toxicology exam are similar to those found during general anaesthesia for major surgery (intra-abdominal) with Propofol infusions, after a bolus induction.’34 Basalt’s textbook The Disposition of Toxic Drugs and Chemicals in Man (7th edn) mentions that in five fatal cases of acute Propofol poisoning, postmortem Propofol levels ranged from 0.5–5.3mcg/ml. The levels found in Jackson were within this range.

On 19 August, Dr Rogers concluded that:

Toxicology studies show a high blood concentration of propofol, as well as the presence of benzodiazepines as listed in the toxicology report. The autopsy did not show any trauma or natural disease, which could cause death.

The cause of death is acute propofol intoxication. A contributory factor in the death is benzodiazepine effect.

The manner of death is homicide, based on the following:

1. Circumstances indicate that propofol and the benzodiazepines were administered by another.

2. The propofol was administered in a non-hospital setting without any appropriate medical indication.

3. The standard of care for administering propofol was not met (see anaesthesiology consultation). Recommended equipment for patient monitoring, precision dosing and resuscitation was not present.

4. The circumstances do not support self-administration of propofol.

This coroner’s report was released on 27 August 2009, and one day later the Los Angeles Police Department said that they had sent the case to prosecutors, who would decide whether or not to file criminal charges.

Dr Murray, meanwhile, had released a video on YouTube just a few days previously. Filmed by a Houston-based production company, Murray used it to deliver a message to his friends and supporters. Lasting barely a minute, it featured an emotional Murray saying,

I want to thank all of my patients and friends who have sent such kind emails, letters and messages to let me know of your support and prayers for me and my family. Because of all that is going on I’m afraid to return phone calls or use my email. Therefore I recorded this video to let all of you know that I have been receiving your messages. I have not been able to thank you personally, which you know is not normal for me. Your messages give me strength and courage to keep going. They mean the world to me. Please don’t worry. As long as I keep God in my heart and you in my life, I will be fine. I have done all I could. I told the truth and I have faith truth will prevail.

In reality, Dr Murray’s legal team was in the process of negotiating the terms of his surrender. Murray had returned to Houston in the aftermath of Jackson’s death and had kept a low profile while he made plans to revive his clinics in Houston and Las Vegas. It was reported that his finances were deteriorating (his home was eventually repossessed in May 2010), he had not been paid a dime by AEG Live, but, according to his attorney, it appeared many of his patients wanted him to return to medicine. However, as the net began to close in on him and speculation about his role in Jackson’s death grew, Murray flew from Houston to Los Angeles at the end of January, prepared to surrender after his advisors spoke with members of Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. These discussions were centered on whether Murray should be arrested or whether he should be allowed to turn himself in. There was, however, a considerable amount of concern and anger at the prospect of Murray simply being allowed to surrender. The LAPD were worried that, with an impending arrest, Murray might actually flee to another state or even abroad, and they were also aware that the sight of Murray surrendering and handing himself him to the police without being arrested might give the impression that he was receiving preferential treatment. Detectives were keen to arrest him on Friday, 5 February 2010, but negotiations eventually allowed Murray to turn himself in on Monday, 8 February.

Almost eight months after the death of Michael Jackson, Dr Conrad Murray walked into a courthouse in Los Angeles, as onlookers shouted ‘murderer’, and surrendered. Superior Court Judge Keith Schwartz charged him with involuntary manslaughter. The charge was that Murray, ‘did unlawfully and without malice, kill Michael Joseph Jackson … in the commission of an unlawful act, not a felony: and in the commission of a lawful act which might have produced death, in an unlawful manner, and without due caution and circumspection.’ Dr Murray pleaded not guilty to the charge, which carried with it a maximum sentence of four years in prison, and was released after posting $75,000 bail money and surrendering his passport. He was also granted permission to continue practising medicine on one condition: as long as he didn’t administer anaesthesia.

While everyone waited to see how the charges against Dr Murray would play out, the Jackson family was still haggling over the will. For the last few months of 2009, Katherine Jackson had been going back and forth in her legal challenges against the 2002 will made by her son. Initially dissuaded to challenge it by her lawyers, who realised that such a challenge would be fruitless, Katherine reiterated her desire to have John Branca and John McClain removed as executors to the will, believing they had undue influence. However, Katherine eventually dropped her challenges towards Branca and McClain only to see her husband35 Joe Jackson take up the baton. In the will, Joe Jackson had been left out entirely and was set to receive nothing from his son’s estate, an estate that was beginning to look increasingly lucrative in the months after his death. Michael, and some of his other siblings, had claimed that Joe had physically abused Michael as the child was growing up and, at times, apparently merely the sight of his father made Michael want to throw up.36 La Toya had written that Joe beat his children and even molested her sister, Rebbie.37 With these allegations in the background, it’s perhaps no wonder that Michael struck him out of his will.

But despite this, Joe continued to challenge all and sundry in an effort to get what he perceived as his legitimate share of the will. He said he needed over $15,000 per month simply to cover his expenses38 and, seeing how much money the estate was making since the death of his son, was eager for people to know that he should be due a share. He even stated during an Extra TV show appearance that his son was, ‘… worth more dead than alive’.39 But for all his legal challenges, Joe Jackson was ultimately unsuccessful and was destined to survive by selling perfume in a Las Vegas Strip mall. That was until the mall shut down his operation as the perfume contained an image of Michael Jackson that Joe couldn’t prove that he had the licensing rights to. While Katherine received over $1 million a year from Michael Jackson’s estate, Joe received nothing. He moved to Las Vegas where he lives in a condo near the Stratosphere Casino and attempts to charge a $50,000 per appearance fee to anyone who will have him, but there appear to be few bookings.40

With Murray now under arrest, and the challenges to the will seemingly at an end, the executors of the will began to address the financial situation surrounding the estate of Michael Jackson. There were substantial claims against the estate in the wake of Jackson’s death, and John Branca was determined to restructure the estate in order to service the debts that had accrued over the past few years; debts which totalled in excess of half a billion dollars.41

AEG Live were also anxious to recoup as much as they could. They had sold over 750,000 tickets for the O2 concerts and were sitting on roughly $85 million. They faced having to refund all of it until they came up with an intriguing and potentially lucrative plan. As well as offering full refunds to anyone who wanted their money back, they also offered ticket holders the option to receive the actual tickets they had purchased for the concerts, tickets that AEG Live suggested Michael Jackson had personally had a major part in designing. But in receiving the actual tickets, the holders would forfeit their option to a full refund. AEG Live have never released the figures regarding this refund offer, nor how many people took up the option to receive their souvenir ticket in exchange for its purchase price. But suffice to say that if only 50 per cent asked for a full refund, AEG Live would still be making in excess of $42 million, in addition to the cancellation insurance they had taken out on the singer.

John Branca, along with AEG Live, then saw footage that had been shot during the ‘This Is It’ rehearsals. This was originally private footage, intended only to be seen by Jackson as the show developed in rehearsals, and after the tour to be hidden away in his own personal archives.42 Branca, however, quickly identified the financial potential of this raw footage. Kenny Ortega was a willing cohort in the possibility of producing a film from the footage, especially when fans bombarded him with requests to see it once they discovered some of the rehearsals had been filmed: ‘At first I got so many messages from fans around the world asking to see the shows, asking to see the footage and eventually I realised the journey wasn’t over and we had to do this.’43 But the real reason to make the film was money and AEG Live had 100 hours of footage to exploit. The deal that was eventually struck, after much legal wrangling in the courts, was that Sony Pictures paid at least $60 million for the film rights,44 with Jackson’s estate entitled to share 90 per cent of the profits with AEG.45 When tickets for the film went on sale they sold out within two hours and it made over $23 million in the USA on its opening weekend.46 Despite some fans of Jackson’s boycotting the film, complaining that AEG Live were partly responsible for Jackson’s death and now profiting out of it, the film became the most successful music film of all time raking in over $261 million at the international box office.47 It made an additional $45 million in DVD sales in the USA and topped DVD charts worldwide, selling particularly well in Japan and Europe. John Branca had also negotiated a deal with Sony to put out Jackson’s unreleased material and existing recordings that could be exploited at certain appropriate anniversaries for a fee reported to be up to $250 million,48 and he entered a deal with Cirque du Soleil for a Michael Jackson-themed show called ‘Immortal’, which has brought in another $300 million since its opening.49 In fact, the money required to pay off all of Jackson’s debts had been raised by Branca within five months of Jackson’s death. The estate still faced six major lawsuits, including one claim of $300 million from AllGood Entertainment, who were suing for losses, claiming Jackson had pulled out of a reunion concert with his brothers that was scheduled to be on television,50 but it was a remarkable turnaround for an estate that only a few months earlier was deep in debt. In fact, it has been hailed as ‘… the most remarkable financial and image resurrection in pop culture history’ by CBS’s ‘60 Minutes’.51

Facing a more uncertain future, however, was Dr Conrad Murray. It was at the end of July 2010, following a major investigation into not only Murray but into all of the doctors who had treated Jackson in the past, that justice officials revealed that only one of these physicians would face charges. That one was Dr Murray.

The trial started on 27 September 2011 in Los Angeles County Superior Court with the presiding judge being Judge Michael Pastor. Throughout the proceedings, Dr Murray refused to take the stand, relying solely on the interview he gave to LAPD detectives two days after Jackson’s death. However, it quickly became evident that the various witnesses called to give testimony had accounts of the night of 24 June and the morning of 25 June 2009 that differed widely from the account given by Murray.

The prosecutors52 in the trial told the jury that, ‘… misplaced trust in the hands of Murray cost Jackson his life.’ In response, Murray’s attorney, Ed Chernoff said that Jackson was tired from rehearsals, took eight tablets of Lorazepam and, ‘When Dr Murray left the room, Jackson self-administered a dose of Propofol that, with the Lorazepam, created a perfect storm in his body that killed him instantly. The whole thing is tragic, but the evidence is not that Dr Murray did it.’

As the trial progressed, details of Murray’s orders of Propofol from Tim Lopez started to emerge and when Elissa Fleak, the Los Angeles County Coroner, was called to the stand and stated she found evidence of numerous prescription medicines in Jackson’s bedroom, including empty bottles of Propofol, the noose began to tighten around Murray’s neck. Earlier, Alberto Alvarez had described how he was told to pack away vials of medicine quickly before the paramedics arrived and how one of the IV bags had a bottle with a milky substance actually inside the saline bag, and a bottle inside a saline bag, regardless of its contents, is an extremely irregular procedure. This milky substance could only have been Propofol.

On day 10 of the trial, Dr Christopher Rogers took to the stand and, based on his autopsy and the subsequent toxicology report, concluded that the cause of death was acute Propofol intoxication with contributory effects from benzodiazepines. When asked about the manner of death, he testified it was homicide and quashed suggestions that Jackson could have self-administered the Propofol. He said that the ‘… circumstances do not support self-administration’ as Jackson would have had to wake up, self-administer the drugs (and he was needle-phobic), let the drugs circulate through the bloodstream to the brain, and then be found not breathing, all in the space of the two minutes that Murray claimed he was out of the room. Instead, it was likely, in Dr Rogers’ professional opinion, that Dr Murray was estimating the doses given to Jackson and that ‘… Murray accidentally gave too much’. Additional evidence to support his theory was found in the shape of a cut in the rubber stopper of the Propofol vial inconsistent with a needle but known in medical circles as a ‘spike’, which is used to allow the drug to flow out of the vial constantly.53 54

D.A. Walgren asked Dr Rogers whether, if Jackson had self-administered the Propofol and/or Lorazepam, would it still be homicide because of negligence by Murray? Dr Rogers replied simply, ‘Correct’.

Dr Alon Steinberg, a cardiologist, found Dr Murray exhibited ‘six separate and distinct extreme deviations from the standard of care’ and suggested these contributed to Jackson’s untimely death.55 Dr Steven Shafer, a Professor of Anaesthesiology at Colombia University and a worldwide expert who has published numerous papers concerning Propofol and has a particular interest in mathematically modelling Propofol dosage, concentration and effort, found 17 ‘separate and distinct egregious violations’56 of the standard of care Murray gave to Jackson, and when asked whether, ‘Each one of the seventeen egregious violations is individually likely or expected to result in injury or death to Michael Jackson?’ Shafer replied with, ‘Yes’.57

As key figures from the events leading up to and including 25 June testified – figures such as Randy Phillips, Cherilyn Lee and Kenny Ortega – Dr Murray’s defence seemed to be in tatters and his interview to LAPD appeared obviously misleading. Ex-patients of his were called to try to portray him as an angel of mercy, but they did little to sway the jury and on 7 November 2011, after nine hours of deliberation, Dr Conrad Murray was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and was taken into custody pending sentencing. On hearing the news, Jackson’s sister LaToya screamed out and Jermaine Jackson consoled his weeping mother, Katherine. Outside the court, Jackson fans cheered and burst into applause.

On 29 November 2011, Murray was sentenced to the maximum penalty of four years incarceration58 for the involuntary manslaughter of Michael Jackson with the judge59 saying, ‘Dr Murray created a set of circumstances and became involved in a cycle of horrible medicine. The practice of Propofol for medicine madness, which violated his sworn obligation for money.’ The Jackson family was in court and released a statement before sentencing:

We are not here to seek revenge. There is nothing you can do here today to bring Michael back. We respectfully request that you impose a sentence that reminds physicians that they cannot sell their services to the highest bidder and cast aside their Hippocratic oath to do no harm. The Bible reminds us that men cannot do justice. They can only seek justice. That is all we ask as a family. And that is all we can ask for here.

As he was led away, Murray blew a kiss to his mother and his girlfriend while, outside the court, Katherine Jackson said to the waiting media, ‘Four years is not enough for someone’s life. It won’t bring him back, but at least he got the maximum. I thought the judge was very, very fair and I thank him.’

However, Jermaine was more direct outside the court and alluded to the wider picture saying of Murray, ‘He’s just a finger to a bigger hand,’ before pointing to a sign held by a Jackson supporter that read ‘AEG needs to be investigated’.60

Almost two years later the Jackson family launched a lawsuit against AEG Live in April 2013, seeking some $40 billion in damages. This claim was based on the presumption that AEG Live were negligent in hiring Dr Murray as Jackson’s personal physician, and ignoring the fact that Jackson was already in poor health before he died. AEG Live countered by saying Jackson’s drug abuse began long before he came into contact with Dr Murray and that, in fact, they hadn’t chosen the physician but, instead, Jackson had personally selected him. In their closing statement, AEG Live attorney Marvin Puttnam told jurors that, ‘AEG would never have agreed to finance this tour if they knew Mr Jackson was playing Russian Roulette in his bedroom every night’. After five months in court, a jury in Los Angeles exonerated AEG Live, finding that they played no part in Jackson’s death. The verdict was a huge blow to Katherine Jackson and Michael’s three children.

Another big blow for the family came a month later when Dr Murray was released from prison at 12:01pm on 28 October 2013, two years ahead of schedule owing to prison overcrowding in California and his good behaviour. Upon his release, his legal representative said, ‘He’s pretty confident that he’ll be able to practise medicine again somewhere’. With his medical licence revoked in Texas and suspended in California and Nevada, there was only one place for Dr Murray to go. In 2014 he headed back to his native Trinidad where he secured a job, but only on a voluntary basis, with the Trinidad Ministry of Health, consulting local heart surgeons.61 62

Meanwhile, the Michael Jackson estate continued to rake in money at an astronomical rate. The combined earnings of Jay Z, Taylor Swift and Kanye West since Michael Jackson died come nowhere near the revenues Jackson has earned for his estate after his death, with some estimates putting the sum at $1 billion dollars in the 12 months following his death alone.63 That year Billboard suggests Jackson made $429 million from music sales, $392 million from film and television, $130 million from music publishing, $35 million from licensing and touring, and $31 million from his recording contract.64 He has sold over 50 million albums since he died and remains the biggest selling artist on iTunes.65 Even ringtone revenues give a net value of $5 million. And, of course, his estate still holds a 50 per cent share in the Sony/ATV catalogue, a catalogue now valued at $2 billion.66

Michael Jackson has never been richer. As Joe Jackson said, as Frank Dileo said, as even John Branca said, ‘Michael Jackson is worth more dead than alive’.