5

Peter had seen many tragedies, but he had forgotten them all.

J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

Dr Conrad Murray first met Michael Jackson in 2006. The singer was, by then, living in Las Vegas, and in December of that year, he became concerned that his daughter, Paris, was coming down with influenza. One of Jackson’s security guards at the time happened to be the son of a patient of Dr Murray, a cardiologist with offices in Houston and close to Jackson’s mansion in Las Vegas, and so the security guard suggested that Murray be called over to the house.

When he arrived in his silver BMW, wearing blue scrubs, Dr Murray had no idea who the patient was, but when Michael Jackson opened the door to him, the star-struck Murray was stunned. The meeting with the pop superstar was, for Murray, a far cry from his poverty-stricken childhood, but the pinnacle of all he had hoped for when he left his native Caribbean to seek his fame and fortune in the 1980s, at precisely the moment when Michael Jackson was the undisputed King of Pop.

Grenada is a small, but lush, Caribbean island at the southern end of the Grenadines. Originally subjugated by the French in 1654, it was ceded to the British in 1763. Eighty years later, a merchant ship en route to England from the East Indies left a small quantity of nutmeg trees on the island. Some curious locals planted these trees and, now, Grenada supplies almost 40 per cent of the world’s annual nutmeg crop lending Grenada the moniker, the ‘Spice Island’. It was amongst the smell of spice, on the western edge of the island, in the parish of St Andrew’s, that Conrad Robert Murray was born on 19 February 1953, to the unmarried Rawle Helyn Andrews and Milta Murray.

Grenada might be a lush and stunning Caribbean island, but to the child Conrad Murray it was the backdrop to a harsh upbringing. With his father having moved away to live in Texas, where he worked as a doctor in Houston,1 the young Conrad was raised by his grandparents who scraped a living in Grenada’s barren agricultural industry.

At the age of seven, Conrad left Grenada with his mother to return to her native Trinidad and Tobago. They settled in El Socorro, a squalid, crime-ridden district of the capital, Port of Spain. The young Conrad Murray was an enthusiastic scholar and worked hard at school while his spare time was spent playing cricket, showing skills as a wicket keeper, in the streets of the surrounding slums with his friends. All about them, as they played, were scenes of despair, decay and desperation. Cocaine addiction was rife throughout the neighbourhood, and occasionally the young boys were tempted to ‘escape’ their surroundings thanks to a local female drug-dealer called ‘The Coke Queen’.

Unlike many of his friends though, Murray never gave into temptation and kept cocaine at arm’s length. He had dreams of following his father into medicine and wanted to escape the deprivation that was threatening to envelop him. His ambition, like his father’s, was to travel to the USA and become a physician with the aim of making his fortune before returning to Trinidad, where he could provide care for poor Trinidadians who couldn’t afford proper healthcare.

Devoting himself at an early age to his education, Murray was the only child amongst his class to pass enough exams at the age of 12 to be given a place at high school in Trinidad. By this point, his mother had remarried and had a daughter, a stepsister for Conrad, called Suzanne Rush, but for all the apparent domesticity at home, Murray had still yet to meet his natural father. He had heard his father was a successful physician in the USA, but there had been no time spent together. Despite this, the young Conrad Murray continued to dream of following in his father’s footsteps and pursuing a medical career. In order to save enough money to travel to the USA and study medicine, Conrad passed through a number of jobs in Trinidad, from teacher to customs clerk to an insurance underwriter.

Already, before he had even started his medical training, the young Conrad Murray would cruise around Trinidad in his cream and brown Dodge Avenger as the sun set, or invite himself to weddings, always in the pursuit of eligible young women, bragging to them confidently that he was a junior doctor. By the time he was accepted into Texas Southern University in Houston at the age of 27, Murray had already established a reputation on the island for his womanising, and had fathered at least one child.2

Relocating to Texas, Murray completed an undergraduate degree in Houston before going on to study medicine at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, from where he graduated in 1989 – but left with debts of around $71,000 in student loans, debts that still hadn’t been settled some 20 years later. It was an early indication that Murray seemed to struggle to control his finances, and this struggle was to impact on his personal and professional life for the next two decades, ultimately resulting in him accepting the invitation to become Jackson’s personal physician.

During the 1990s, Murray performed his medical residency at Loma Linda University Medical Center in California, before undertaking fellowships in cardiology at the University of Arizona in 1995 and interventional cardiology at the Foundation for Cardiovascular Medicine in San Diego. Licensed to practise medicine as a cardiologist in Texas, California and Nevada,3 it was in 2000 that Murray founded Global Cardiovascular Associates in Las Vegas and then, in 2006, opened an office in the Armstrong Medical Clinic in North Houston.4

In Houston, Murray was eager to follow in his father’s footsteps.5 His father was extremely well respected for bringing medical care to the impoverished African American neighbourhood of Acres Homes in northwest Houston. Conrad Murray wanted to continue this legacy and was lauded for bringing medical treatment to areas where others feared to go, treating poor, predominantly African American, patients who could rarely pay Murray’s normal rates. This meant Murray lost money with almost every patient he saw at his Acres Homes Cardiovascular Center in Houston. Even in Las Vegas, his clientele seemed to cover the entire Las Vegas caste system, those less fortunate and barely able to avoid treatment could find themselves sharing the same facilities as members of the Las Vegas governmental elite.

Becoming increasingly successful, or so it seemed, Murray used a $1.66 million loan to purchase a four-bedroom, 5,268sq ft mansion with stunning swimming pool, close to the 18th hole of the glitzy, gated Red Rock Country Club in Las Vegas in October 2004.6

With a glamorous address, silver BMW, two clinics and his stature in the community assured, owing to his position as a cardiologist caring for those less fortunate, the journey of Conrad Murray from a poor child growing up in a red-brick house amongst the drug addicts of Trinidad to renowned physician in the USA appeared almost complete.

But Conrad Murray had many skeletons in his closet. He’d had run-ins with various authorities ever since his arrival from Trinidad to the USA in the 1980s. He still had the student debts of $71,000 from Meharry Medical College hanging over his shoulders, a debt that officials were fervently chasing. In addition, while at Meharry, Conrad Murray had been arrested by police in November 1985 at the behest of a girlfriend who had accused him of a fraudulent breach of trust. Murray posted a bond of $2,000 and the case was eventually dismissed in January 1986.

Six years later, in June 1992, Conrad Murray further exhibited his inability to control his finances when he filed for bankruptcy in California. Less than a year after that, the State of California placed on record that Murray had failed to pay $1,578 in state taxes.

In February 1994, Conrad Murray was charged with domestic violence over an incident in Arizona while he was undertaking his cardiology fellowship at the University of California. It was alleged that he threw his then-girlfriend, Janice Adams, to the ground after she had accused him of having an affair. This alleged incident happened while their baby was apparently sitting crying on the floor. Murray stood trial for this offence in July 1994 but was ultimately acquitted of the charge.

In May 2001 the State of California reported that Murray had failed to pay state taxes once more, this time amounting to $19,457, and in April 2003, Murray again was reported for not paying state taxes, this time owing a sum of $21,084. And in 2003, Murray was one of several defendants named in a civil lawsuit brought by Canada Life Assurance Co. This suit was eventually settled and dismissed but in March 2008, Siemens sued Murray and his company, Global Cardiovascular Associates, for unpaid fees stemming from equipment lease and personal guarantee. They claimed $309,046 from the company and $123,033 from Murray himself and the Nevada court ruled in Siemens’ favour. In addition, Murray owed a former business partner almost $70,000 over the failed launch of an energy drink named Pit-Bull.7 8 9 10 11

Murray also had over $13,000 outstanding in child support payments. By this point, he had allegedly fathered six children by five different women and his difficulty in keeping up with alimony payments, or at least remembering to keep up with alimony payments, had seen him sentenced to jail twice. In 2007 he was sentenced to 25 days in jail for non-payment of child support in connection with a child he had with Nenita Malibiran, a nurse who had worked with Murray in Sharp Memorial Hospital, San Diego, California,12 and, on 29 April 2009, he was again sentenced to jail for 25 days for failing to pay Malibiran child support. On each occasion, Murray avoided incarceration by swiftly paying the money he owed. None of this should have been a surprise; in 1999, during a child custody hearing, Murray revealed himself that he had a history of fathering children before abandoning their mothers.

Murray’s first wife was Zufan Tesfai, who he married in Texas on 17 October 1984. But during this marriage he began an affair with Patricia Mitchell, who bore him a child and was the same woman who accused him of a fraudulent breach of trust in November 1985. Murray and Tesfai eventually divorced on 26 August 1988, but he then went on to have two daughters with Janice Adams while working in Tuscon, Arizona. Adams was the woman who reported Murray on domestic violence charges for which he was acquitted. By 2009, Murray had married his current wife, Blanche Yvette Bonnick Murray,13 with whom he had two children, born in 1990 and 1996, and who were living in his Las Vegas mansion at this time.

However, unbeknown to Blanche, Conrad Murray had many more mistresses scattered around the country; there was Sade Anding, a cocktail waitress he had met in Houston when he gave her a $110 tip for an $11 drink, and two strippers, Michelle Bella, whom he had paid $1,100 for her services, and Bridgette Morgan.

There was also 29-year-old Nicole Alvarez. She was an aspiring actress14 who Murray had met in 2005 in the VIP lounge of the Crazy Horse strip club. Alvarez had given Murray a private dance, after which Murray gave her a cheque for $3,500. Besotted with her, Murray rented her a flat in Santa Monica and paid the monthly rent of $2,564. It was the least he could do – Alvarez was pregnant with Murray’s seventh child, becoming the sixth woman to bear him a child, and the baby was due in March 2009.15

As well as all the women in his life, Conrad Murray had another secret he wanted to keep.

His father, Rawle Andrews, MD had been, for many years, a revered and respected doctor in Houston and had been practising in his Andrews Medical Clinic since 1964. But, in 1994, Dr Andrews had his medical licence restricted by the Texas Board of Medical Examiners for over-prescribing ‘controlled substances and substances with addictive potential’ to two patients for ‘extended periods of time without adequate indications’.

In their report, the board highlighted four ‘dangerous’ painkilling drugs that Dr Andrews had overly prescribed: Stadol,16 Nubain,17 Phenergan18 and Talwin.19 Following his medical licence being restricted, Dr Andrews was required to complete courses on pain management and the prevention and treatment of drug abuse. In addition, he had to keep separate records of prescribed controlled drugs for the remainder of his career and appear before the board once a year. Dr Andrews was allowed to practise medicine once more in 1999 after he had complied with all the provisions laid down in the restrictions. He continued to work in his Houston clinic until two months before his death on 12 July 2001.20

Dr Conrad Murray would have known that his father had suffered disciplinary action for prescribing dangerous and addictive painkillers for extended periods. Although the parallels might be coincidental, it was a dark shadow that already existed on the Murray family’s professional medical history.

In the early months of 2009, Conrad Murray was in deep financial trouble – his two clinics were facing legal actions totalling hundreds of thousands of dollars and he was threatened with individual claims for similar amounts. In addition, he had tens of thousands of dollars of child support to pay, and another child on the way by his mistress, whose rent he was also paying. And, if all that wasn’t enough, Murray was also facing repossession of his $1.2 million Las Vegas mansion as he had fallen almost $100,000 behind on mortgage repayments.21

Coincidentally, or perhaps not, the company holding the mortgage on Conrad Murray’s property was Sunrise Colony, a company owned by, amongst others, Tom Barrack, the same Tom Barrack who had saved Neverland from being repossessed by paying off Jackson’s debt on the property, and the same Tom Barrack who had introduced AEG’s Philip Anschutz and Randy Phillips to the singer with a view to creating the forthcoming O2 concerts. Curiously, Tom Barrack’s partner in Sunrise Colony is William Bone, the same William Bone that owned Sycamore Valley Ranch before Michael Jackson purchased it in 1988 and renamed it Neverland. It seemed everyone circling Jackson was connected in some way.

Murray needed a way out, some opportunity to make a lot of money very quickly in order to put all his financial problems behind him and to enable him to keep his house on the Red Rock Country Club, a resort that was also owned by Sunrise Colony.

So, financially, he was in a similar situation to Jackson. It might have been on a far lesser scale than the singer, but for Murray, trying to service all his debts, while appearing to those around him as though everything was in order, was becoming all consuming. In addition, it now appears both Murray and Jackson were in debt, either directly or indirectly, to Tom Barrack, Colony Capital and Sunrise Colony. And, for Murray in particular, with no publishing royalties, back catalogue or potential sell-out concerts, there seemed to be no end in sight.

However, for Conrad Murray and Michael Jackson, everything was beginning to align. From very different backgrounds, the two of them were about to come together in an ultimately fatal encounter. One was a fading pop superstar, riddled with addictions to painkillers, with a face corrupted by plastic surgery, drowning in half a billion dollars worth of debt, and forced to go back on the road one more time; the other was a womanising doctor, with a trail of failed relationships behind him, a man with increasing debts and decreasing morals. The temptation to indulge the King of Pop’s desperate addiction for painkillers in exchange for the financial pay-off that would settle his own debts might well have been huge.

Michael Jackson had been impressed by the way Conrad Murray had treated his daughter, Paris, back in Las Vegas in December 2006. Murray had visited Michael Jackson a further seven times between 2006 and 2008 when the singer resided in Las Vegas. Not once did Murray prescribe any painkillers during these visits, although he did prescribe Jackson a sedative in 2008 when the singer complained of insomnia.

In the spring of 2009, prior to rehearsals taking place for the ‘This Is It’ concerts, AEG Live raised the issue of Michael Jackson requiring a personal physician. Given Jackson’s well-documented health issues over the past two decades, it was only natural that AEG Live felt the performer’s well-being was a major concern as the July concerts deadline loomed on the horizon. The singer’s continued association with dermatologist, Dr Arnold Klein, was also causing a level of apprehension amongst the AEG Live fraternity, despite the fact Jackson hadn’t paid Klein a visit during January and February of 2009.

Seeking a comprehensive insurance policy to cover Jackson failing to fulfil his commitments to them, AEG Live began negotiations about taking out a $17.5 million policy with Lloyd’s of London in February 2009. The policy would cover the first 30 concerts at the O2 Arena, meaning that, in announcing 50 concerts, AEG Live effectively had 20 concerts that weren’t yet insured. Lloyd’s of London demanded that Jackson undertake a physical examination and so, on 4 February 2009, Jackson, under the name of ‘Mark Jones’, received a visitor to his Carolwood mansion: the New York ear, nose and throat specialist, Dr David Slavit, who was hired for the physical by Lloyd’s themselves.22 23 24

In New York, Jackson underwent what has been described by Randy Phillips as a ‘… pretty gruelling five-hour physical’.25 26 Dr Slavit was aware that Jackson was intending to tour in London and had asked to see Jackson’s medical records for the previous five years in order to make an accurate assessment. Slavit requested these records as the insurance broker had already raised questions regarding Jackson’s health, including anything relating to his heart, lungs, weight or prior drug use, if any. The brokers were specifically questioning Jackson’s breathing capacity and his pulmonary status.

As it turned out, Dr Slavit never received any documents relating to Jackson’s medical history for the previous five years prior to overseeing the examination. The only information he received regarding Jackson’s medical history was that which Jackson volunteered to him during the physical. During their one-to-one examination, held behind closed doors, Dr Slavit asked Jackson if he was taking any medication, to which the singer replied that he was on antibiotics for his nasal cold and didn’t mention anything about painkillers. Jackson also failed to mention anything about having trouble sleeping or whether he was in pain.

During the medical examination, Dr Slavit took Jackson’s temperature, blood pressure and pulse readings. He examined Jackson’s ears, nose and throat, examined his heart and lungs as well as his abdomen, skin and peripheral pulses. The report states that Jackson weighed 127lbs, but Dr Slavit didn’t weigh the singer, he merely relied upon what Jackson told him.

To conclude the examination, Dr Slavit took blood samples from Jackson at 1:44pm, which upon examination by Westcliff Medical Laboratories, resulted in normal and consistent findings. Reviewing the report with Jackson, Dr Slavit asked him to respond truthfully to item number 4, a question, which read, ‘Have you ever been treated for or had any indication of excessive use of alcohol or drugs?’ In his own hand, Jackson circled the answer, ‘No’.

Based on the information Dr Slavit now had at his disposal, and based upon the understanding that the examination was to find out whether Jackson was physically capable or in physically good shape as far as moving forward with the aspect of performing, he concluded that the singer was in excellent condition. Following this, the insurance broker announced that Jackson had passed with flying colours, despite having a little hay fever. The insurance policy, finally completed in April 2009, had a clause in it however that stated the insurers are exempted, should the concerts be cancelled because of death, or if Jackson was involved in the possession of or ‘illicit taking of’ drugs.

Dr Slavit’s report27 fails to mention anything about Jackson’s painkiller addiction or narcotic abuse. It doesn’t make any reference to his frequent cosmetic surgery. There is no reference to any of the ailments, some apparently life-threatening, that Jackson was suffering from, and which the global press were always keen to offer up in international tabloids.

But there is one entry that is particularly interesting, one name included in the report stands out specifically, that of Dr Conrad Murray. Dr Slavit writes, ‘Dr Conrad Murray in Las Vegas, Nevada, follows Mr Jackson on a regular basis’. It appears that, during the examination, Dr Murray was identified by Jackson as his personal physician and he even reported seeing Murray when needed, most recently a couple of months ago for a general check-up. Jackson went on to tell Dr Slavit that he thought Conrad Murray was a good doctor, who was caring towards him and that he was satisfied with the treatment he was receiving from Murray. But nobody within Jackson’s inner circle seemed to be aware that Murray was, at this point in time, Jackson’s personal physician. And why would they be? Jackson was now living in Los Angeles; Murray’s clinics were in Houston, Texas and Las Vegas, almost 300 miles away.

Not only is Murray’s name of interest in Dr Slavit’s report, the date is also significant. If, as indicated in Slavit’s report, Jackson was referring to Conrad Murray as his personal physician in February 2009, and had been seeing Murray two months previously, in December 2008, for a routine check-up, then this is the first indication that Murray was already entrenched in Michael Jackson’s life and didn’t assume his role solely as a result of the O2 concert schedule. Certainly, those around the singer seemed totally unaware of Murray in such a pivotal role. Bill Whitfield and Javon Beard, Jackson’s Las Vegas-based bodyguards, recall seeing Murray in 2006 and on rare occasions since but generally to only check on his children’s well-being. Kenny Ortega said in his testimony that he never met Murray until April 2009 and even Faheem Muhammad, Jackson’s Head of Security, hadn’t encountered Murray before March 2009.

In his interview with Los Angeles Police Department on 27 June 2009, two days after Jackson’s death, Conrad Murray stated to the police that he had been working for Jackson for ‘… a little over two months’,28 which would suggest he started working for the singer directly in April 2009 following a phone call from Michael Amir Williams.

So why was nobody within Jackson’s team seemingly aware of Murray in the early months of 2009?29 Or earlier? And why did Murray, himself, tell police he had only worked for Jackson for a little over two months30 when, in February 2009, Dr Slavit’s31 report32 quite clearly mentions Murray as Jackson’s personal physician?33 34 In fact, closer inspection of Murray’s medical records in relation to Jackson, or often ‘Omar Arnold’35 shows Murray was treating him regularly from 12 April 2007 and had seen him at least three times in 2008, including an appointment on 19 November 2008 when Jackson (or ‘Arnold’) was complaining of insomnia and anxiety, for which Murray prescribed Xanax and Restoril.36 This meeting correlates with the information Jackson had given to Dr Slavit about Murray being his personal physician for a couple of months before his February medical.

Exactly how close Murray was to Jackson during the early part of 2009 can be judged by an examination of Dr Murray’s relationship and communications with Tim Lopez, the owner of Applied Pharmacy Services in Las Vegas, Nevada. This might provide some answers to the importance Murray had, and was being groomed to have, by Jackson.

Applied Pharmacy Services was a pharmacy on West Flamingo Road in Las Vegas where Tim Lopez was owner and chief pharmacist. It was opened as a corporate entity in May 2000 and was what is known in the USA as a compounding pharmacy, which meant that medicines are made specifically for patients rather than stocking general medicines found in regular retail pharmacies. The pharmacy had traded successfully except for a case in July 2008 when the Nevada State Board of Pharmacy had taken action against Allied Pharmacy Services pharmacists Jessica Nguyen and Timothy Lopez for failing to keep proper records and for failing to have the education and experience in filling a prescription properly. They were fined $1,225 and instructed to complete an educational course.37

Another dubious record of the pharmacy was the employment of Kenton Crowley in 2002. Crowley was an experienced pharmacist in California, but he had his licence revoked in 1999 owing to his own drug abuse, notably addiction to Demerol, and the fact that he had been prescribing medications to an addict and also sending medications across state lines without a prescription. Crowley had also spent time in jail for drug-related crimes. Despite his tarnished reputation, he successfully applied for his Nevada pharmacy licence in 2002 and it was issued on a probationary basis, whereupon Lopez, who had supplied a letter of recommendation to the board, hired him. Crowley stopped working for Lopez in July 2008, shortly after he was arrested for driving on a suspended driver’s licence and speeding (he had been convicted of DUI in 2007). He never met Murray or dispensed prescriptions to Jackson but it’s curious that Lopez should willingly employ a character with such a background.38 39

In November 2008, Tim Lopez received his first phone call from Dr Conrad Murray. Murray identified himself as a cardiologist from Las Vegas and described himself as an African American. He stated that a lot of his patient clientele were also African American and that they suffered from a condition known as Vitiligo. The reason for his phone call, so he said, was to enquire about a chemical treatment for that condition called Benoquin.

It was well known that Michael Jackson suffered from Vitiligo,40 a chronic disorder that causes depigmentation of patches of the skin. During the 1980s, many onlookers had noted that Jackson’s skin was getting paler and the tabloids even suggested the singer bleached his skin and changed his features to appear European. Throughout the 1990s, Jackson continued to get paler and paler and, given the severity of his condition, it was decided by his dermatologist, none other than Dr Arnold Klein, that the easiest way to treat the condition, rather than drugs and ultraviolet light treatments, was by using creams to make the darker spots fade so the pigments could be evened out across the body. The cream that Klein used on Jackson was Benoquin, the same cream Conrad Murray was enquiring about when calling Tim Lopez in November 2008.

Was Murray calling Lopez out of the blue in 2008 to discuss Vitiligo and Benoquin in order to provide treatment to none other than Michael Jackson? Certainly, if Murray was Jackson’s personal physician by now – even if not officially – as indicated in the report written by Dr Slavit in February 2009 (in which Jackson himself alluded to Murray having been his personal physician for at least two months), it would be a necessary treatment for Murray to acquire for his client.

Conrad Murray didn’t follow up his phone call with Tim Lopez immediately. Instead, the next time Lopez heard from Murray was in March 2009 when Murray called him asking why Lopez hadn’t called him back to follow up on his request for Benoquin. Lopez offered that he might have lost Murray’s contact information. Murray enquired again about Benoquin and Lopez went off to check the sources of availability. Locating a limited quantity of the cream, Lopez called Murray back on 1 April 2009, saying that he had found some of the desired cream and that it would have to be considered a special order. He was able to offer Murray 40 tubes of 30 grams each and Murray placed the order. At no point did Murray reveal the names of any patients he would be using the cream for, and suggested it would be used on a trial basis. When the order was ready to be collected, Murray arrived in person at the offices of Allied Pharmacy Services to pick up the consignment. This was the first occasion Lopez actually met Murray face-to-face. They discussed the cream and Lopez offered to make any changes to the formula if it was required following Murray’s trial period. Murray paid by company cheque and then he asked Lopez if it was possible to send any future orders direct to his offices. Lopez confirmed that this wouldn’t be a problem as long as Murray left him a credit card on file.41

Two days later, on 3 April 2009, Murray called Lopez to state he was happy with the cream. This timescale means that Murray only had 2 April to treat Jackson with the Benoquin, given that Murray had to travel back from Las Vegas to Los Angeles. It is known that Jackson had started to see Dr Klein again in March and April but, conveniently, Jackson did not visit Klein between 23 March, when he was given 200mg of Demerol following Botox injections under the eyes,42 and 6 April for Restylane injections into the cheeks as well as a further 200mg of Demerol. During this period, Jackson didn’t receive treatment from nurse Cherilyn Lee either; he saw her on 26 and 31 March. Therefore, if he needed it, Murray had uninterrupted access to Jackson between 1 April and 3 April to administer Benoquin to the singer and, possibly, discuss other medicines that Murray might be able to get hold of.

Whatever Murray and Jackson discussed at the beginning of April, it can’t be any coincidence that during a phone call with Tim Lopez on 3 April, Conrad Murray enquired about the availability of saline bags for IV drips and, more interestingly, Propofol and its package sizes and price. Lopez was unable to provide Murray with the information he requested at that precise moment but promised to research the drug and its availability.43

On 6 April, while Jackson was visiting Dr Klein, Murray made another phone call to Tim Lopez, during which Lopez confirmed he could access Propofol and saline bags for Murray. Immediately, Murray placed an order over the phone for 10 x 100ml vials and 25 x 20ml vials. In addition Murray ordered nine saline bags and 40 x 30 gram tubes of Benoquin, and requested the entire package be sent to his office in Las Vegas.44 But when the courier arrived at Murray’s Las Vegas office, Murray requested that part of the order be taken, instead, to a location in Santa Monica. The address he gave to the courier was that of his mistress, Nicole Alvarez.

But before the courier left, Murray removed several vials of Propofol.45 Why did he do this? Was it to take them to Jackson to prove that he could get access to the drug? Had Jackson and Murray been having conversations about Jackson’s desire for the drug, particularly with his forthcoming concert schedule? Did Jackson promise Murray the exclusive role of personal physician in London if he could provide a steady stream of Propofol for him?

One of the stipulations that Jackson had made of AEG Live during the negotiations for the London O2 shows was that AEG Live pay for the services of a personal physician. Jackson referred to himself as ‘the machine’, telling those around him that they had to ‘… take care of the machine’. AEG Live knew this, particularly given Jackson’s previous record of health-related issues and his known predilection for pulling out of concerts at the last minute. Consequently, they had agreed to provide and pay for Kai Chase, a personal chef and nutritionist and had also hired Lou Ferrigno, once known as TV’s ‘Incredible Hulk’, as his personal trainer. Randy Phillips was reluctant, initially, to pay for a personal physician, particularly when Jackson demanded that a person of his choosing would fill this role. But, reflecting that a personal physician might reduce Jackson’s dependency on Dr Klein and therefore the drugs Klein was believed to be supplying to Jackson, AEG Live agreed to pay for a private physician. Little did they know that they were breaking the drug cycle with Klein, who was providing Jackson with Demerol, but were unwittingly about to introduce Jackson to a gateway to his drug of choice, the more dangerous Propofol.

Propofol, also known as Diprivan, and sometimes Milk of Amnesia, is an extremely strong anaesthetic used primarily during surgery and administered via an injection through a needle placed into a vein, with a maximum dose of 250mg, with 40mg given every 10 seconds until anaesthetic induction is reached. However, if a longer period of sedation is required it can be continuously infused by an IV drip. It is never given as an aid to sleeping. Propofol is extremely fast acting, its effects occur within a matter of seconds, and works by slowing brainwave activities and the nervous system. It works for short periods, for example three to five minutes generally, enabling doctors just enough time to perform a short painful procedure on a patient, such as cardiac shock or to fix a joint dislocation. However, it also wears off rapidly, allowing the patient to wake within a short time with reasonably full alertness. Deadly in the wrong hands, Propofol is only designed for use in a medical setting where ventilation support and monitoring of cardiovascular functions is available and must only be administered by a trained professional, although there is no DEA licensing requirement, meaning any physician can use it. The main issue with Propofol is that it can make the patient’s brain forget to breathe. Excess sedation can occur if Propofol is used in conjunction with drugs such as Diazepam, hence the reason that constant monitoring of the patient is essential and critical at all times.46

Without any DEA licensing requirement, Murray was legally able to administer Propofol but it would be highly irregular and irresponsible to attempt to administer the drug anywhere except in a hospital where access to monitoring and resuscitation technology was immediately available.

Tim Lopez never questioned why Murray wanted the Propofol and never asked where it would be used. In fact, the only checks Lopez carried out on Murray were to verify his medical degree and determine his designation, the name, address, phone and fax number of his clinic, his licence number and his DEA number.47

On 8 April, the courier delivered the packages of Propofol to the home of Nicole Alvarez in Santa Monica. By now, she had given birth to Murray’s child and had been introduced to Jackson by Murray some months before, visiting the singer’s home on two or three occasions.48 In March 2009, Murray had also told Nicole Alvarez that they would be going to London when he revealed that Jackson was getting ready for his concert tour. All this was happening before Murray had been officially approached by anyone other than Jackson about being his personal physician on tour and without anything detailed in writing. When the first package arrived at her flat on 8 April, Alvarez signed for it, but didn’t open it. However, she made sure that Murray knew a package had arrived for him at her apartment. For Murray, knowing that the delivery had arrived from Allied Pharmacy Services was important because, in April 2009, they weren’t the only medical suppliers he was ordering goods from.

SeaCoast Medical is a company based in Omaha, Nebraska. Opened in 1991, they provide pharmaceutical products and services to non-acute physician offices throughout the USA. They had had dealings with Conrad Murray since December 2006 but since his last order from them on 16 December 2008, transactions between Murray and the company had stopped. However, on 25 March 2009, they received a call from Connie Ng in Murray’s Las Vegas office enquiring about obtaining an IV fusion set. The order was placed over the phone with delivery noted as being to Murray’s Las Vegas office. But the credit card used to pay for the order was declined and, a week later, nothing had been resolved regarding the payment.49

On 13 April 2009, Connie Ng rang SeaCoast again. During this call, Ng asked SeaCoast representative, Sally Hirschberg, if the package could be sent to a residential address in California instead of Murray’s office in Las Vegas. This unusual enquiry raised a red flag in Hirschberg’s mind and she refused to complete the order. But the following day, another order was placed for a whole variety of medical goods, ranging from Sodium Chloride to injection components for an IV device, to syringes and saline bags. Two further orders were made by Murray’s office in April: on the 16th there was an order for 25 tubes of Lidocaine and on 21 April an order for a blood pressure cuff and components and IV catheters. All of these supplies were delivered to Murray’s Las Vegas offices.50 How much of it was to treat Jackson is unknown, but the fact Murray wanted shipments directed to Santa Monica instead of his Las Vegas offices, can only mean that some, if not all, was meant for the singer. It indicates that Murray was stockpiling a significant amount of medical paraphernalia in Los Angeles. Was this because Jackson had already promised him the role of personal physician in London?

Certainly, as April progressed, Murray was becoming the only potential source of Propofol for Jackson. By 19 April, nurse Cherilyn Lee had been dispensed of when she refused to supply Propofol and despite Jackson’s frequent visits to Dr Klein – he had visited him five times by 19 April and across these visits received a total of 1,100mg of Demerol from him – the dermatologist was also refusing to administer Propofol. Murray had proved he could lay his hands on Propofol, as his successful order via Tim Lopez on 6 April had shown and, as such, had manoeuvred himself into a position in Jackson’s inner circle as Kenny Ortega, the man who was directing the ‘This Is It’ shows, confirmed when he spotted Murray at Carolwood in April.51

Murray wasn’t finished yet. On 28 April he placed another Propofol order with Tim Lopez, this time for 40 individual vials of 100ml of Propofol and 25 vials of 20ml of Propofol. Again, Murray stipulated that the order should be delivered to the Santa Monica address of Nicole Alvarez and just two days later, on 30 April, Murray ordered injectable forms of both Lorazepam (10 x 10ml) and Medazepam (20 x 2ml). This package was also shipped to Nicole Alvarez’s address.52

So, by the end of April 2009, without so much as a formal commitment and operating solely on some sort of verbal agreement with the singer that he was to be Jackson’s personal physician, and with a potentially lucrative trip to London ahead of him, Dr Conrad Murray had already ordered some 5,900ml of Propofol. To put this amount into some sort of perspective, a typical hospital with nine anaesthetists working 10-hour days every day of the week would use around 5,000ml a week.

Dr Murray was a qualified cardiologist and not an anaesthetist who would have a more detailed professional knowledge of Propofol, its uses and its dangers.

Despite this, Murray hadn’t stopped ordering Propofol or other drugs, as his continued business with Tim Lopez’s wholesale pharmacy in Las Vegas shows.53

In fact, as April ended and May began, he had only just got started.