Two is the beginning of the end.
J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan
At around 12:30am on the morning of 25 June 2009, Michael Jackson made preparations to leave the Staples Center after what most of those present had thought was a successful rehearsal. Michael Amir Williams, Jackson’s personal assistant,1 recalled saying to Jackson that he thought the rehearsal was extraordinary. ‘Oh Brother Michael,’ replied Jackson, ‘it’s just thirty, forty per cent. I don’t go a hundred until the show time.’
With a black robe wrapped around him and covering the length of his body, Jackson shuffled towards the golf cart which, driven by Alberto Alvarez, would take him to his waiting SUV. As he made his way slowly to this golf cart, Jackson was accompanied by two bodyguards, with his manager, Frank Dileo, following on behind. Before he got into his SUV, Jackson saw Randy Phillips from AEG Live. The singer went over to him, put his hand on Phillips’ shoulder and said, ‘You got me here. Now I’m ready. I can take it from here’. Jackson and Phillips embraced before the singer got into his vehicle and headed back to his Carolwood home. Neither Randy Phillips, nor any of those attending rehearsals that night, could possibly have thought they would never see Jackson alive again.
Before Jackson got into the motorcade at the Staples Center, Michael Amir Williams had already made a phone call to Dr Conrad Murray at 12:10am, telling the doctor that Jackson had finished rehearsals and that he wanted Murray at Carolwood by the time Jackson was due home. This was a regular pattern following rehearsals, and one that both parties were used to.2
Leaving the Staples Center, Jackson’s car, driven by Faheem Muhammad with Michael Amir Williams in the front passenger seat, slowed down to allow the singer to greet his fans who, even at that time of the morning, continued their vigil outside the rehearsal studios. While Jackson did this, another car went ahead to prepare for his arrival home.
While Jackson was leaving the rehearsal venue, Dr Murray made his way, alone, to Jackson’s home and his silver BMW 650 convertible passed through the security gates at the singer’s Carolwood mansion at approximately 12:45am. Michael Jackson had yet to arrive home so, once in the house, Murray went straight to Jackson’s ‘medication’ room on the first floor.
Jackson’s car, with Michael Amir Williams accompanying him, arrived back at Carolwood, just over 10 minutes later, around 12:58am, as part of a three-car convoy. Amir Williams was relieved to see Dr Murray’s car already parked in the driveway. Arriving home, Jackson, after once again stopping outside the gates to greet the small band of loyal fans waiting there, went straight into the house. Alberto Alvarez would be waiting by the door to greet the singer and open the front door for him. As Jackson entered, Alvarez wished him goodnight. A few minutes earlier, Alvarez had arrived back in the first car of the cavalcade carrying all of Jackson’s paperwork, bags and gifts from fans that had accumulated during the evening. Alvarez unloaded all of this from the vehicle and left it at the bottom of the stairs. It would likely be Michael Jackson, Prince or the housekeeper who would carry them upstairs the following morning.
Once inside, Michael Amir Williams would usually say goodnight to Jackson and then go into the security trailer, which stood near the front door, for a debriefing with the rest of the security staff, before making his way to his own home, leaving the security detail to keep watch over the property throughout the night.
The security of Jackson’s property was taken care of by a Los Angeles-based firm, called Security Measures, a company owned by Steven Echols, a self-avowed member of the Nation of Islam.3 This company was personally selected by Michael Amir Williams to secure the contract and Williams was also a member of the Nation of Islam. The trail of the Nation of Islam ran deep within Jackson’s empire; other members of the security firm working at Jackson’s property, such as Larry Muhammad, Isaac Muhammad and Patrick Muhammad, were all members of the Nation of Islam. Alberto Alvarez was also apparently a member of the group and Grace Rwaramba, the woman employed by Jackson to look after his children, had close ties to Louis Farrakhan, who was the leader of the Nation of Islam in 2009. The connection went even deeper – Farrakhan’s son-in-law and chief-of-staff, Leonard Muhammad, was previously chosen to oversee Michael Jackson’s business affairs, despite the fact that he had a somewhat dubious business background selling unproven Aids treatments to deprived areas of Chicago.4 5
For a number of years, there had been rumours that Michael Jackson was becoming increasingly influenced by the Nation of Islam, and many of those close to him feared that the financially vulnerable singer could be open to exploitation by the organisation. This was despite the fact that, in November 1984, Louis Farrakhan,6 the leader of the Nation of Islam, said of Jackson, ‘[His] Jheri curl, female-acting, sissified-acting expression is not wholesome for our young boys, nor our young girls.’7 It was a view that was to change significantly in 1993, following Jackson’s first molestation scandal, when Farrakhan said Jackson was being treated like, ‘… a slave on a plantation’.8 Later that same year, during a rally in New York, Farrakhan said, ‘The powers that be can’t stand to see Michael Jackson politically aware and using his money for the advancement of his people.’9
The Nation of Islam is an Islamic religious and political movement that was founded in Detroit, Michigan on 4 July 1930 by Wallace D. Fard Muhammad.10 The organisation combined the elements of traditional Islam with black, nationalist ideas and would bring Malcolm X into the spotlight in the twentieth century. Following the mysterious disappearance of its founder in 1934, the new leader, Elijah Muhammad was convinced the twentieth century was the time for black people to assert themselves and encouraged followers in the USA to drop their ‘slave’ names in favour of Muslim names or simply an ‘X’, signifying they had lost their identities in slavery. During the 1980s the Nation of Islam, and Louis Farrakhan, its new leader, had a record of violent pronouncements against Jews, whites, Christians and homosexuals, but, since then, the organisation has attempted to sanitise its public image by promoting the work its security companies, such as Security Measures, have done in eliminating drugs and crime from public housing projects.
In December 2003, the New York Times published an article11 in which it was suggested officials from the Nation of Islam had moved into Jackson’s Neverland ranch, and had begun to make decisions regarding his business affairs, associates, friends and legal strategies. Coincidentally, that month, Jackson’s official spokesperson, Stuart Backerman, resigned in protest at the Nation of Islam’s presence in Jackson’s life and the fact that he was concerned that the singer’s multicultural message to the world was in contrast to the Nation of Islam’s philosophy of black separatism.12 An associate of Jackson said the group were ‘brainwashing’ him and suggested that they had tried to do the same with Whitney Houston.13
Jackson’s brother, Jermaine, had already converted to Islam in 1989 and many think it was Jermaine, and Michael Jackson’s nanny, Grace Rwaramba, who introduced the singer to the Nation of Islam.14 It is more likely that the actor Eddie Murphy was the first figure to entice Michael Jackson to the group. On his Bad tour in 1988 and 1989, Murphy had provided the singer with some tapes of Louis Farrakhan’s speeches and these sparked Jackson’s interest. Before long, the singer had donated $25,000 to Farrakhan’s Million Man March,15 a gathering, en masse, of African Americans in Washington D.C. to ‘convey to the world a vastly different picture of the Black male’. However, if the Nation of Islam had hoped Jackson might convert to Islam, they would be disappointed. Jackson was, and remained, a Jehovah’s Witness.16
So why did Jackson align himself so closely to the Nation of Islam in 2003? Was he really a follower of the Black Muslim movement? Or was there something else going on behind the scenes? One theory in circulation during 2003, and connected to Jackson’s further trials regarding child molestation, was that Jackson was cultivating a relationship with the Nation of Islam to provide him with protection inside the United States’ prison system should he be convicted of any wrong-doing. Certainly, as far as Farrakhan was concerned, he was only too keen to exploit any association with the King of Pop (and the cash Jackson was supposedly filtering his way) given that his group had only 20,000 followers at the time, and any publicity that the pop superstar could give them would be welcome.
As it turned out, Michael Jackson didn’t go to jail, and he soon fired a number of members of his entourage who were affiliated to the Nation of Islam, but rumours of the singer’s association with the group continued over the next few years – Grace Rwaramba was gaining considerable influence over the singer, the Nation of Islam provided Jackson with security during his 2005 trial for child molestation, and there were even rumours that the Carolwood mansion was owned by the Nation of Islam and that the rent they charged the singer, $100,000 per month, was considerably more than elsewhere in the neighbourhood.
Despite him being a Jehovah’s Witness, stories and rumours about Michael Jackson converting to Islam also began to surface. Jackson helped fuel these rumours in 2005, when, following his acquittal of child molestation charges, he went to live in Bahrain as a guest of Sheikh Salman bin Hamed Khalifa. Two years later, in January 2007, Reuters published a headline proclaiming ‘Jermaine Jackson wants Michael to convert to Islam’, and on 21 November 2008, The Sun, under the title, ‘The Way You Mecca Me Feel’, ran an ‘exclusive’ which reported that Michael Jackson had converted to Islam. The article stated that,
Michael Jackson has become a Muslim – and changed his name to Mikaeel. The skint superstar, 50, donned Islamic garb to pledge allegiance to the Koran in a ceremony at a pal’s mansion in Los Angeles, The Sun can reveal. Jacko sat on the floor wearing a tiny hat after an Imam was summoned to officiate.17
After Michael Jackson’s death, his brother, Jermaine, confirmed that the singer didn’t ever convert to Islam, but his ties to the Nation of Islam had been close in the weeks leading up to his passing.18
* * *
By 1am on Thursday, 25 June 2009, Dr Conrad Murray, was already in the singer’s Carolwood mansion awaiting the arrival of the King of Pop. Later Murray claimed that the night before he had been successful in getting Jackson through a whole night of sleep without using any anaesthetics, such as Propofol. It was apparently his plan to wean the superstar off his Propofol dependency (Murray had given it to him for 60 consecutive nights to help Jackson sleep) and, for the past 72 hours, he had tried to slowly withdraw the drug from Jackson’s nightly cycle. According to Murray it had worked the previous night, but Murray was never sure what frame of mind Jackson would be in when he returned after rehearsals.
Murray had made his way upstairs upon arrival and had settled in, as normal, into one of Michael Jackson’s two bedrooms. The second floor at Jackson’s rented Carolwood home, reached by a large and winding staircase, was a maze of bedrooms, bathrooms, closets and foyers that spanned out from the landing. Four bedrooms occupied this floor: there was the Master Bedroom and Bedroom Two, separated from each other by a large foyer area that led from the landing into Bedroom Two. The Master Bedroom was accessed directly from the landing at the top of the winding stairway. Both bedrooms had their own closets and bathrooms. The two other bedrooms were considerably smaller, but both still had their own closets and bathrooms. Prince used one of these smaller bedrooms, while Paris and Blanket shared the other bedroom.
The room that Murray always inhabited was Bedroom Two, but to all intents and purposes it was considered the ‘medication room’. It was here that the doctor had his medical equipment laid out ready to receive Jackson when he returned.
Haunting photographs taken by LAPD investigators on the day Jackson died, and released during the trial, provide a fascinating window into how the singer lived, and died. The medication room looked out over an expansive back garden and had a large double bed that faced the window. In the corner of the room a doorway led to the bedroom’s large closet room and then on into the bathroom. This room, despite having a feature fireplace, gold-leaf mirrors and upholstered French period chairs, resembled the squalid lifestyle of a drug addict. Tables were strewn with medical paraphernalia such as vials of drugs, syringes and tubes. Plastic bags, scattered on tops of chairs and tabletops, contained latex gloves, creams and saline bags. In the corner of the room, 11 oxygen tanks stood upright next to an electric fan which was perched on a seat, while Murray’s medical holdalls were lying open on the floor, on chairs, on table surfaces and even stored in cupboards. Opened cans of Sprite lay scattered on the floor, while various tubes of pills and tablets – some closed, some open – could be found on shelves.
Next to the bed was a dressing table with three more oxygen tanks beside it. On the dressing table stood a number of plates featuring photos of babies or young children and a Michael Jackson DVD. Propped up against this dressing table was a large photo of a black infant smiling, with the words ‘Sweet Baby’ printed next to the child’s face.
A cheap television had been placed on a small round table that stood between two upholstered chairs while a sofa faced away from the bed towards an unused fireplace. Numerous DVDs and CDs were stacked high on a portable shelving unit with the top shelf covered in empty bottles and more medical paraphernalia. A black fedora was placed on one chair. An oxygen canister, attached to a device that allowed it to be wheeled around the room after the patient, stood near the foot of the bed.
Next to the bed was a bedside table with a number of bottles of pills, some bottled water, a bronze figurine and, tucked underneath out of sight, a telephone. In the closet, suitcases and travel holdalls were piled on top of each other and next to them stood a Walt Disney bag. In another area a mauve suitcase lay on the floor, its top open and clothing spilling out of it, while another beige suitcase stood upright and unopened next to a cardboard box full of rolled posters. In front of them, on the floor, was a cushion with the image of Michael Jackson staring back.
The bed itself was a double bed, with an elaborate golden headrest. Beneath the sheets on the bed was a waterproof mattress liner to cater for Jackson’s supposed incontinence. On the bed rested a porcelain doll with curly golden hair, dressed in a beige romper-suit with images of animals adorning its chest. A black electric fan stood at the base of the windows ready to direct cool air over the bed as all the windows were closed and the heavy gold curtains drawn. The narrow toilet cubicle was adjacent to a dressing room with a sink. The whole area was strewn with medical equipment, cans of Red Bull, disposable latex gloves, paper on the floor and bags left opened but piled high in the corners.
It was in the bedroom, amongst the mess, that the doctor had his medical equipment laid out ready to receive Jackson when he returned, including a hanging IV bag, primed to administer intravenous fluids.
Emerging from Bedroom Two and exiting the foyer onto the landing, a sharp right turn would lead to the Master Bedroom, a room that Jackson regarded as his inner sanctum. He was the only person, except for his children, who was allowed access to this bedroom. Even the cleaners weren’t allowed entry. Conrad Murray later described how Jackson would spend long periods of time in this room spraying himself with Cologne, perhaps to obscure the smell from this unclean and unkempt room. Like the other bedrooms, this bedroom had a bathroom and closet, but they dwarfed anything else on the floor and were larger than most living rooms. There was also a mirror in this Master Bedroom, upon which Jackson had written a message to himself: ‘TRAIN, perfection, March, April. FULL OUT May’. It seems Jackson always had two rooms to himself, no matter where he was living or staying. His reason for this was that he never trusted anyone coming into his room. As a result, this room was constantly in a terrible state.
Despite the fact that generally nobody was allowed into this room, Dr Murray suggested he was actually once permitted to enter, and in an interview with The Mail on Sunday,19 he referred to it as one of the ‘… happiest days of his life’. In this interview Murray recalled being granted rare access into this inner sanctum, which smelled terribly and in which there were clothes strewn everywhere. Once Murray was inside, the singer reached out to grab his hand and said, ‘There are only four people in my family now, Paris, Prince, Blanket and you, Dr Conrad’.
According to Murray’s testimony and other evidence from the later trials, the night unfolded broadly as follows.
Around 1:05am, Michael Jackson joined Dr Murray in the bedroom. As always, the two of them had a brief conversation, enquiring about each other’s day. On this particular night, Jackson told Murray he was tired and fatigued, and complained that he was being treated like a machine, before following his normal routine – leaving Murray and having a shower before returning to the bedroom where Dr Murray would apply a dermatological cream to Jackson’s body, primarily his back, after which the singer would put on his pyjamas. This was a nightly ritual for Murray and Jackson and would involve Benoquin, a treatment cream Jackson had been using for decades.
As soon as Murray had applied the dermatological cream to Jackson’s body, as well as fitting a condom catheter, the singer was desperate to get to sleep. Only an hour or so before, however, Jackson had been on stage, driving himself through rehearsals. Consequently, even at this time of the morning, the singer was still buzzing from the natural highs of performing and was unable to sleep. The fact that Jackson was still drinking Red Bull, that his bedroom was fully lit and that he insisted on playing loud music as he tried to sleep might have been a factor in him not being able to drift off easily, but, according to Murray, Jackson was adamant he needed these distractions in his bedroom to help him sleep.
Initially, Dr Murray attempted to talk with Jackson, to try to calm him down a little,20 but this had no effect on the singer who remained awake and restless. According to his police interview, Dr Conrad Murray then placed an intravenous drip into Jackson’s leg, just below the knee.21 This IV technique is the most common form of IV medication and is known as the Peripheral Cannula method. This method ensures the IV is injected into the veins peripherally in either arms or legs. The injected cannula contains an injection port that is separate from the regular tubing through which injections can also be administered alongside the saline.
By now it was around 2am. The singer seemed to be no closer to sleeping and was growing increasingly anxious. According to Murray’s interview, he then gave Jackson an oral pill of 10mg of Valium, a sedative to reduce anxiety. Jackson sat on his bed, waiting for the Valium to have any effect, but one of the issues with Valium is that the effects are delayed, and Jackson needed to sleep, so Murray turned to the IV drip. Following the oral dose of Valium, Murray began to give Jackson Lorazepam in an IV form. He gave him 2mg in total, injected through the port, which was diluted with saline and pushed slowly into Jackson’s veins. This was a standard dilution and would usually suffice in sedating most normal adult patients. But Jackson wasn’t a normal patient; his years of drug abuse had given him a level of tolerance to sedatives that meant this initial dose was nowhere near enough to send him to sleep.
Waiting, and hoping, that the Lorazepam would work, Dr Murray sat in a chair next to Jackson’s bed and observed him, but after an hour the singer was still wide awake and continuing to complain to Murray that he had to sleep. Dr Murray then decided to give Jackson a different agent, this time Midazolam. He went ahead and injected 2mg of the drug slowly into Jackson at about 3am. Midazolam is a potent sedative that requires slow administration. It can also cause serious and life-threatening cardiorespiratory failure so Murray would have needed to monitor the singer constantly. Murray waited again by Jackson’s bedside observing the singer and waiting for the drug to take effect. But, once again according to Murray, there was little, if no, impact on Jackson. Murray asked Jackson if he felt even a little bit drowsy, but he was wide awake. ‘Do you think your eyes are telling you to sleep?’ Murray asked the singer, but the response was a firm ‘No’.
Murray’s next move was to encourage Jackson to try to meditate. Changing the lighting of the room to a more tenebrous setting and lowering the music, Murray began rubbing Jackson’s feet in the hope that it would make him relax. Reluctantly, Jackson started to meditate and Murray watched him for 10 to 15 minutes until the singer’s eyes began to close and he drifted off at around 3:20am. Murray kept watching Jackson as he slept, hoping that, at last, the drugs had worked, but within 10 to 12 minutes, Jackson woke up again with a start, as is generally the case with Midazolam, where rapid awakening is one of the results of levels of the drug dropping quickly after administration is terminated.
It was, by now, around 3:30am. Jackson, desperate to sleep, was surprised that the meditation had worked, albeit briefly, and asked Dr Murray if they could continue trying it. But an hour later their further efforts at meditation had failed to work and the singer was still wide awake. It was at this time in the morning that Jackson’s mood began to change significantly. Apparently he started complaining more forcefully to Dr Murray. He told Murray, ‘I got to sleep, Dr Conrad, I have these rehearsals to perform. I must be ready for the show in England. And tomorrow I will have to cancel my performance. I have to cancel my trip, because, you know, I cannot function if I don’t get my sleep.’ The pressure on Dr Murray was beginning to grow as Jackson put the cancellation of the entire tour on his shoulders. The responsibility of getting Jackson to sleep, the only way in which he could function and therefore fulfil his commitments to the rehearsal process and, eventually the tour, was at that moment transferred to Dr Murray.
Responding to the increasingly agitated Jackson, Dr Murray suggested that they continue to try meditation. He reported saying to Jackson, ‘I want you to try. Just try, you know. So you have to close your eyes’. The singer would follow his instructions but continued to be restless on the bed, moving his feet constantly and shifting around incessantly. He started to complain once more to Murray. ‘Oh, I just can’t sleep,’ Jackson said, ‘The medicine doesn’t work.’ Looking at his watch, Murray worked out it was almost three hours since he had first given Jackson a dose of Lorazepam so, at around 5:00am, Murray felt it appropriate to administer another 2mg of Lorazepam to the wide-awake singer, but, like before, this had absolutely no effect. Jackson was, by now, increasingly troubled and becoming more and more anxious at his inability to sleep and the subsequent effects it would have on the concerts. He continued to pressurise Murray, once more saying that he couldn’t perform, that he’d have to cancel rehearsals again, which would put the show behind and disappoint his legion of fans. Murray told Jackson that, ‘If I got the medicine that I gave you, I’d be sleeping until tomorrow evening, a normal person’s way. You are not normal.’
At 5:54am, while Murray was reportedly trying to placate Jackson, he received an email on his iPhone from Bob Taylor of Robertson Taylor Insurance Brokers in London. Murray recalled reading the email quickly. It began, ‘Hi Conrad’ and asked questions about issues of well-being with Jackson, press reports about the artist and issues of full disclosure needed for an insurance policy for the singer. In the email Taylor urged Murray to realise that they were ‘… dealing with the matter of great importance’, and reminded the doctor that his ‘… urgent attention will be greatly appreciated’. Despite the urgency of this, and the priority everyone else seemed to be giving it, Dr Murray decided not to reply to the email immediately, and waited almost six hours before doing so. Why did he wait so long to answer?
This email was critical, as it followed an email trail from the previous evening concerning the matter of the cancellation insurance policy for AEG Live regarding the O2 concerts. In order to obtain the insurance necessary (and AEG Live were looking to obtain the maximum available to them at that time, some $17.5 million in insurance cover for cancellation), the insurers were requesting access to Michael Jackson’s medical records for the past five years, as well as Jackson submitting to a new medical in London. For much of the evening of 24 June and the early morning of 25 June, Paul Gongaware and Bob Taylor had been emailing each other22 with increasing concern about getting hold of Jackson’s records and getting him to agree to undertake the medical. In fact, AEG Live had already booked 6 July as the date of the medical in London at a private suite in Harley Street.
It was rapidly becoming a critical situation, and one that Dr Murray was an increasingly integral figure in. Paul Gongaware had copied Murray in on the email chain at 7:08pm and at 8:32pm, Bob Taylor had replied, again copying Murray in, saying, ‘I await hearing from Dr. Murray’.
For the two days leading up to 25 June, AEG Live had also been emailing Murray with details of his proposed contract. These emails had been arriving into Murray’s inbox with increasing urgency, and, after deciding he was happy with what he was seeing in the proposed agreement, Murray signed the contract on 24 June. Why was there a sudden desire to get the contract to Murray? Was it because AEG Live realised that, in order to get access to Jackson’s medical records, they were dependent solely on Dr Murray? They hadn’t signed the contract yet, so Murray had no guarantee of getting paid anything, and he had already worked for two months without getting a dime of the $300,000 that was owed him. So is it possible that AEG Live were holding Murray to ransom; get Jackson’s medical records and get the singer to agree to a London medical and then, and only then, will AEG Live sign the contract guaranteeing Murray the money he so desperately needed? Of course, Michael Jackson would need to sign the contract too, but if Murray could persuade the singer to agree to releasing his medical records and undergoing the London medical, then surely Jackson would sign the contract. All it needed was for Murray to get Jackson to agree. And now, it was incumbent on Murray to do so for his own long-term financial future and for AEG Live’s insurance policy, which, with Jackson unable to convince anybody of his ability to carry out the 50 shows at O2, was becoming increasingly vital to AEG Live.
Murray was already aware of the importance of getting the medical records and his role in the entire process as, two days earlier, on the evening of 23 June, Murray had been in constant touch with his office in Las Vegas in an attempt to locate and source as many of Jackson’s medical records as he could. As the evening of the 23rd progressed, one of his office workers, Connie Ng, had been emailing him various medical notes and files connected to Jackson or, in the case of these records, Jackson’s alias, Omar Arnold. But while Murray had actually managed to get hold of Jackson’s medical records, he still hadn’t got permission from the singer to release these to AEG Live, or agreement from the singer to undergo another medical. As far as Jackson was concerned, he had already passed a medical and was refusing to undertake another one. Suddenly, Murray realised the whole tour, and consequently his own financial salvation, might hang on his ability to convince Jackson to release his medical records and undergo another examination in London at the behest of AEG Live and their insurance brokers.
But it seems that Jackson was refusing to back down. He was already at loggerheads with AEG Live over their demands for so many shows at the O2 and had supposedly professed the opinion, according to later reports, that they were ‘… going to kill him’.23 24 As far as Jackson was concerned, he was doing, and had done, all that was required of him.
At 6:31am, a text was logged on Murray’s iPhone and at 7.01am, Murray made a call to Andrew Butler, a friend and patient of his in Nevada, from his Sprint phone.25 The call lasted for 25 seconds. Perhaps Jackson drifted off momentarily allowing Murray the brief window to make this call. Whether he did or not, from this moment on, there appear to be a number of discrepancies between Dr Murray’s version of events as told in his LAPD interview on 27 June 2009 and what actually happened.
As the sun rose on 25 June 2009, Jackson was still wide awake, still talking, and still pressuring Dr Murray to help him sleep. At 7:30am, Dr Murray prepared and gave Jackson another 2mg of Midazolam, still to no effect whatsoever. Thinking there might be something wrong with the IV site as Jackson wasn’t responding to any of the drugs, Dr Murray checked it to ensure the IV was flowing into Jackson and not over the bed sheets, but there was no sign of any of the drugs escaping.
Before administering the Midazolam, Murray supposedly made Jackson urinate. The singer wore a condom catheter while under Murray’s care, a flexible sheath that covered Jackson’s penis just like a condom. Dr Murray would roll the catheter onto Jackson’s penis every evening before the singer went to sleep and then attach it with either double-sided adhesive or a strap. The catheter would then be connected to a tube that would drain Jackson’s urine into a drainage bottle, which stood on the floor nearby. The condom catheter was necessary, according to Dr Murray, as Jackson was incontinent,26 but it is more likely that Murray used both an incontinence pad placed beneath Jackson on the bed (one was photographed by LAPD when they arrived at the scene of Jackson’s death) and a condom catheter mainly because the singer was apparently under anaesthetic every night and unable to control his urination rather than medically incontinent. Dr Murray said that he made Jackson stand up and urinate through his condom catheter, and that the singer filled a bag that he had attached to him. Murray emptied this bag into a portable jug that stood beside the bed on a table before administering the further 2mg of Lorazepam through the IV but, once again, there was little effect on Jackson and he remained awake.
Elsewhere in the Carolwood mansion, the chef and nutritionist Kai Chase arrived for her day’s work at 8am as usual.27 Upon arrival she would generally prepare breakfast for Prince, Paris and Blanket Jackson and help get them ready for school28 before getting lunch and dinner prepared. She would also make breakfast for Michael Jackson, usually granola and juices, always organic. Preparing these various breakfasts, Chase opened the fridge in the kitchen and noticed that the dinner she had made the previous evening for Jackson and Murray, a white bean soup, was unusually still in the fridge and untouched.
Jackson would generally come down into the kitchen in the mornings, as he was very hands-on and interested in his children’s nutrition, but on this particular morning, Jackson didn’t appear, and neither did Dr Murray, who would normally come down around 10am on most days to collect the singer’s breakfast and take it up to his room. But Chase didn’t think anything of this, she was aware of his rehearsal schedule and the strains that this routine was putting on Jackson, and frequently saw oxygen tanks lined up in the security booth, which she assumed must have been for Jackson. Shortly after preparing the food, Chase left to visit the local market to buy some fresh produce.
Meanwhile, between 7:30am and 10am, upstairs in Jackson’s bedroom, Dr Murray, according to his testimony to the LAPD, continued to watch the singer while trying to encourage him to meditate as Jackson still wasn’t sleeping. Jackson was getting increasingly anxious and continued to berate Murray, telling him that because he cannot sleep he will have to cancel the day and therefore the rehearsal and, consequently, everything will be thrown off schedule (a schedule that was already tight given that they now had little time left before they were supposed to leave for England).
During this period of time, Murray received and sent a number of text messages from Texas. These occurred at 8:36am, 9am and 9:11am. He also received two phone calls: one at 8:49am from Antoinette Gill, a patient and friend in Nevada seeking a referral from another physician which lasted for 53 seconds, and the other one at 9:23am which came from Marissa Boni, a friend of Murray’s daughter in Nevada. This phone call lasted for 22 minutes. So, between 8:36am and 9:45am, a total of 69 minutes, Dr Murray had been on the phone for 23 minutes and sent or received three texts. Murray had previously said he had spent the time between 7:30am and 10am watching and talking to the singer, trying to encourage him to go to sleep. It would be reasonable to assume that, during the phone calls from 8:49am to 8:50am and 9:23am to 9:45am, Murray had either left Jackson’s bedroom to talk freely, or the singer was asleep; either scenario being contrary to Murray’s later testimony to LAPD.
At approximately 10am on 25 June, according to Murray’s police interview, nine hours after he returned home from rehearsals, Jackson was still wide awake and continuing to complain that he wasn’t sleeping and that the rehearsal would have to be cancelled. It was now, as testified by Murray, that Michael Jackson said to him, ‘I’d like to have some milk. Please, please give me some milk so that I can sleep, because I know that this is all that really works for me.’ ‘Milk’ was Michael Jackson’s name for Propofol.29 Dr Murray was aware that everything he had used throughout the night hadn’t worked on Jackson, and Murray knew that the singer had to be up and about by a certain time in order for his participation in the rehearsals to be productive.
If Dr Murray’s recollections, as told to the LAPD, are correct, then he was now caught between a rock and a hard place. He had to heed a different set of warnings and threats from AEG Live – that if he didn’t get Jackson to rehearsals there would be no show in London, and if there was no show, then Murray wouldn’t get paid.30 For a man in his own perilous financial straits, Conrad Murray was banking on the $150,000 a month from this job, to help sort out his own affairs. Any prospect of the tour not going ahead, and him not receiving the money, would be a financial and personal disaster. Consequently, Dr Murray had to get Jackson to sleep, even if only for a few hours, so he would be fit for the rehearsals later that day.
Supposedly a conversation took place between Murray and Jackson in the singer’s bedroom at around 10am, with Jackson on the bed, desperate to go to sleep: ‘If you got Propofol now,’ said Murray, ‘how much time, how much sleep [do] you expect to have? You know, you [are] going to be needed to be up no later than noon.’ ‘Just make me sleep,’ replied Jackson, ‘Doesn’t matter what time I get up.’ Murray responded with, ‘What will happen to you? Your rehearsal is already scheduled for today.’ Jackson came back with, ‘I can’t function if I don’t sleep. They’ll have to cancel it. And I don’t want them to cancel it, but they will have to cancel it.’
AEG Live had made it plainly clear that it was Murray’s responsibility to get Jackson to rehearsals, and with the concerts looming, there was an added urgency for Jackson to attend, despite his apparent ambivalence towards them. Murray knew that AEG Live were growing impatient with Jackson, and with the demands for Murray to get him in a fit state suitable for rehearsals, the pressure on Murray was growing. He knew that he depended on this job and if he couldn’t do what AEG Live required, then the whole tour could be cancelled. And that would be a financial disaster for Murray.
Dr Murray stated to the LAPD that it was roughly 10:40am when he began giving Michael Jackson Propofol. He diluted it with Lidocaine, to avoid Jackson suffering any burning sensation during the administration of the drug, and then pushed in 25mg of Propofol. It took Murray between three and five minutes to administer the drug and, within 15 minutes, according to Murray, the singer had fallen asleep. While Jackson was falling asleep, Dr Murray said he began taking all the precautions he possibly could, given that he was administering Propofol, a drug that Murray realised could have potentially lethal effects. He ensured that the oxygen canisters were at the bedside and that Jackson was using an oxygen nasal cannula. He claimed he also put a pulse oximeter over one of Jackson’s fingers to check the singer’s oxygen saturation level and his heart rate.31
Dr Murray had given Michael Jackson Propofol every day for two months, so was aware how the singer had reacted to the drug in the past. But for the three days leading up to 25 June 2009, Murray insisted that he had been trying to wean Jackson off Propofol in order for the singer to assume a more natural pattern of sleep. In their discussions some weeks before, Murray had been surprised at Jackson’s pharmacological knowledge. He found it odd that the singer seemed to know so much about Propofol but quickly discovered through conversations with him, that Jackson had taken it multiple times in the past having been given it by a number of other doctors in various places around the world.32 Murray also learnt that Jackson knew all about the anti-burn precautions required such as using Lidocaine before injecting Propofol, as injections of Propofol in the past had set his ‘… limbs on fire’.33
During these discussions, according to Murray, Jackson claimed that other doctors had allowed him to infuse Propofol himself, but Murray refused to allow Jackson to do this, much to the singer’s annoyance. ‘Why don’t you want me to push it?’ Jackson asked Murray. ‘You know, it makes me feel medicine is great.’ Dr Murray was adamant that he would not let Jackson administer the drug himself and responded, ‘Well, if I’m going to give you an agent that is going to put you to sleep immediately and be so quick to act, I don’t want you ever to infuse such a substance when I’m present. I’ll do that. So sorry about the other doctors who have done this. I would not.’
As far as Dr Murray was concerned, he was trying to wean Jackson off Propofol and return the singer’s sleep patterns to a more physiological state. He also reported being concerned about Jackson’s reliance on the drug once he had finished the tour. He asked Jackson, ‘If this is your pattern, what’s going to happen when the show is over? Are you going to continue like this?’ Jackson responded by saying, ‘No, I think I’ll do fine. I think I’ll be able to sleep without it.’
But that was all for the future. Right now, following a restless night, Jackson was insistent that he have his ‘milk’. So, at 10:40am on Thursday, 25 June 2009, Dr Murray pushed 25mg of Propofol slowly into the singer. By 11am, according to Murray, Jackson had fallen asleep. It wasn’t a deep sleep, as Jackson snored while he was sleeping deeply and he wasn’t snoring now, so Murray was hesitant, aware that the singer might suddenly jump out of his sleep, as he was prone to do, and reach for the IV site as he had done in the past. According to Murray’s police interview on 27 June 2009, he stayed and monitored Jackson. He checked his oxygen saturation, which was in the high-nineties and saw that his heart rate was roughly in the seventies. It seemed that everything was stable with Jackson but Murray continued to sit and watch him ‘… for a long enough period that I felt comfortable’. After this, Murray testified that he needed to go to the bathroom himself, as well as having to empty some of Jackson’s urine from the bottle that he had collected overnight. To reach the bathroom, Murray had to leave Jackson’s bedroom, pass through another chamber, similar to a dressing area, and into a third vault, which is where the bathrooms were.
But Murray’s phone records indicate a different pattern of events and contradict the story he gave to the LAPD. At 10:14am Murray used his iPhone to call his clinic in Houston, Texas. This call lasted for two minutes. At 10:22am his Sprint phone received a call from Dr Joanne Prashad in Houston regarding a patient and some medications. Murray answered all her questions knowledgably without even having access to the patient’s medical records, which somewhat surprised Dr Prashad. This phone call lasted one minute and 51 seconds, and it appeared to Dr Prashad, that there were no other distractions occurring about Murray while the call was held.
At 10:34am, Murray called his personal assistant, Stacey Ruggles on a San Diego number, with regards to a letter for the London Medical Board concerning the forthcoming London tour. This phone call lasted for eight-and-a-half minutes and, once again, Murray sounded normal and not distracted in any way.34
None of this activity matches with Murray’s account that he administered the Propofol to Jackson at 10:40am. He also told the LAPD that it took three to five minutes to administer slowly, which means that he would have been occupied with the administration of the drug from 10:40am to 10:45am, at exactly the same time the records indicate he was talking on the phone to Stacey Ruggles.
Murray also said to the police that he was having a conversation with Jackson around 10am, and it was during this conversation that the singer first asked for Propofol. But from 10:14am to 10:43am, Murray had spent much of the time on the phone, so it’s hard to envisage how he could have had such a pivotal conversation with the singer. Dr Murray’s phone activity between 8:36am and 10:43am was such that it is likely Michael Jackson was actually asleep during these 127 minutes. For a patient to be sedated for that long much more than 25mg of Propofol is required. In fact, it has to be continuously infused through the IV line. During such administration, the patient’s brain can forget to breathe, so the patient has to be monitored constantly, and a person with the skills to breathe for the patient is required to stand guard at all times next to them in case of emergency. If Dr Murray was on the phone so frequently during those 127 minutes, as phone records suggest, then it seems doubtful he would be focusing his entire attention on monitoring the well-being of his patient.
While all this was happening on the second floor of Jackson’s home, Kai Chase had arrived back from her shopping trip to the market. When she returned to the kitchen, she noticed nothing unusual; Jackson’s three children were all playing together in the den, and she began unloading the groceries, putting things away before starting to prepare the lunch around 10:15am.
At 11:17am, Dr Murray finally responded to the email he had received earlier that morning from Bob Taylor. He wrote:
Dear Bob, I am in receipt of your email. I spoke with Mr. Jackson and requested his authorization for release of his medical records in order to assist you to procure a cancellation policy for his show, however authorization was denied. I therefore suggest that someone from AEG should consult kindly with Mr. Jackson as to its relevance for he is of the opinion that such a policy is already secured in the U.S. As far as the statements published by the press, let me say they’re all fallacious to the best of my knowledge. Sincerely, Conrad Murray.
After sending this email, Murray then held a phone call with his office in Las Vegas that (according to records) started at 11:18am and ended at 11:49am. During this phone call, at 11:26am, he received an incoming call from Bridgette Morgan, one of his ‘mistresses’, but he was unable to answer this call owing to the fact he was already on the phone to his office. Immediately following the phone call to his office, Dr Murray called one of his patients, a man named Bob Russell at 11:49am. Russell didn’t answer the phone so Murray left a brief message: ‘Just wanted to talk to you about your results of the EECP. You did quite well on the study. We would love to continue to see you as a patient, even though I may have to be absent from my practice for, uh, because of an overseas sabbatical.’35 This phone call to Bob Russell ended at approximately 11:51am.
Given that Murray sent an email to Bob Taylor at 11:17am, which would have taken at least a minute or two to compose, and then immediately followed this at 11:18am with a call lasting almost 32 minutes to his office and then another one to Bob Russell that lasted a further couple of minutes, it seems that Dr Murray was on the phone or composing emails for at least 34 minutes consecutively in the hour after he had supposedly given Jackson 25mg of Propofol, a drug which requires constant and close observation of the patient. How could Murray monitor his patient after giving him 25mg of Propofol if he was engaged in emails and phone conversations? And even if he had given him 25mg of the drug, Jackson had now been asleep for over an hour; it would usually require 60–200mg of Propofol to knock out an adult for that long, particularly one who had developed a tolerance to the drug, unless the patient was being continually administered the drug via an IV drip.
* * *
To revisit Murray’s story, he told the LAPD that he had administered Propofol at 10:40am and then monitored Jackson until he was asleep at 11am before going to the bathroom to relieve himself and empty a urine bottle. It is possible that he then made all his emails and phone calls until 11:51am, from the bathroom area, but this would have meant that Murray had definitely neglected the care of his patient, who had just been injected with a potentially lethal drug.
Moreover, Murray wasn’t finished with the phone calls yet. Immediately after his call to Bob Russell, Murray made another call. At 11:51am, he called Sade Anding, another one of his ‘mistresses’, and right from the outset of the call Anding said she felt that Murray ‘… didn’t sound like himself at all’. What could she mean by this? Why wasn’t Murray sounding ‘like himself’?
Without knowing it, this call placed Anding at the heart of a moment in pop history as Dr Murray entered the 83-minute window that was to make him notorious around the world.