83 Minutes

The ‘other’ Michael Jackson honoured in Hollywood was born in London on 16 April 1934. After the Second World War, his family moved to South Africa and then to the USA in 1958. Jackson began hosting radio shows in San Francisco, playing chart music, before ending up in Los Angeles hosting a talk show on KABC for over three decades. In 2003 he was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame. He is married to the daughter of the actor Alan Ladd. When he heard that people had been laying flowers on his Hollywood star rather than that of the singer he said on his website: ‘I am willingly loan(ing) it to him and, if it would bring him back, he can have it. He was a real star.’
Sky News, ‘Grieving Jackson Fans “Commit Suicide”’, 29 June 2009.
In 2014, a French judge ruled that Dr Murray should pay five Michael Jackson fans one Euro in ‘emotional damages’ as they were distraught following the singer’s death. Reuters said, ‘The court ruling in the city of Orleans capped a two-year struggle by a group of 30 French, Swiss and Belgian fans of the pop star for legal recognition of their loss’. The lawyer for the fans, Emmanuel Ludot said the ruling would be communicated to Murray and commented that all parties in the proceedings in France had found the case amusing. ‘I respected the suffering of the plaintiffs,’ Ludot said, ‘but the process wasn’t easy because of all the sniggering.’ Reuters, ‘Michael Jackson Doctor Must Pay Grieving Fans 1 Euro: French Judge’, 11 February 2014.
Reuters, ‘Michael Jackson Doctor Must Pay Grieving Fans 1 Euro: French Judge’, 11 February 2014.
Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran was a star witness at the 1995 O.J. Simpson murder trial.
Based on these measurements, Jackson had a perfectly normal BMI (body mass index).
Coronary artery atherosclerosis is the single largest killer of men and women in the USA and is the principal cause of coronary heart disease. It is a condition where the arteries become clogged up by fatty substances known as plaques or atheroma which cause the arteries to harden and narrow, restricting blood flow which can damage organs and stop them functioning properly. If the plaque ruptures it can cause a blood clot, which can block the blood supply to the heart, triggering a heart attack.
A bandage was present on the tip of Jackson’s nose during the autopsy.
Andrew Blankstein, Rong-Gong Lin II, Harriet Ryand and Scott Gold, ‘Michael Jackson’s Doctor Interviewed by LAPD’, Los Angeles Times, 28 June 2009.
Paul Farhi, ‘Investigators in Michael Jackson’s Death Turn Attention to His Doctor’, The Washington Post, 28 June 2009.
TMZ.com, ‘Second Autopsy For Michael Jackson’, 27 June 2009.
Alice Park ‘What Killed Michael? What The Autopsy Could Reveal’, Time magazine, 30 June 2009.
Paul Thompson and David Harrison, ‘Michael Jackson: Second Post Mortem Examination Taking Place’, The Telegraph, 28 June 2009.
Confused by the term ‘milk’, Detective Smith asked Murray if it was ‘Hot milk or warm or just…’ before he was advised by Murray that it was the term Jackson used for Propofol.
Dr Murray refers in his interview to an instance in Las Vegas a few months previously when Michael Amir Williams had called Murray out of the blue saying Jackson wanted to speak with him urgently. When Dr Murray spoke with Jackson, it was clear the singer was in need of Diprivan (Propofol) to help him sleep. Murray told him he couldn’t get any but, between them, they identified a Dr Adams in Las Vegas who, apparently, had given Jackson Propofol before and Murray allowed Dr Adams to use his office on a Sunday to give Jackson the Propofol he needed.
Nancy Grace, ‘DEA Joins Jackson Death Investigations’, CNN, 2 July 2009.
Over 1.2 million people worldwide entered the online lottery for the tickets to Jackson’s memorial. Officials in Los Angeles released a statement asking fans who failed to get tickets to stay away from the city amid fears it would be swamped.
Caroline Graham and Daniel Boffey, ‘Jackson Family Fallout’, Daily Mail, 5 July 2009.
At this point, Katherine Jackson had temporary legal guardianship of Jackson’s children.
Michael Jackson’s 2002 will stated that his entire estate be placed in a trust to be executed by three trusted advisors. This enabled Jackson to keep his wishes private rather than avoiding probate, a very public process; a trust is rarely made public while a will generally is. Jackson’s assets almost entirely consisted of assets that were non-cash and non-liquid, but totalled $567.6 million. These included his share of the Sony/ATV Music Publishing catalogue – valued at $390.6 million – his Neverland ranch and ‘other entities’.
The provisions of the Michael Jackson Family Trust stated that the first 20 per cent of his estate is to be left to one or more children’s charities, selected by a committee consisting of his mother and co-trustees. After deductions for estate taxes, medical bills, funeral expenses, attorney’s fees and other costs incurred in settling Jackson’s estate, the remaining estate was to be distributed 50 per cent equally amongst his three children and 50 per cent to his mother. Katherine’s 50 per cent was to be held in a lifetime trust for her benefit with Branca and McClain serving as co-trustees. If Branca, McClain and Siegel were all not able to serve as trustees then Nations Bank, now known as Bank of America, would become trustee.
TMZ.com also verified this when they spoke with the Reverend Al Sharpton’s representative, Rachel Noerdlinger, who confirmed Jackson was with Sharpton in New York on 6 and 9 July. So is it realistic to think he flew to Los Angeles and back over a weekend to sign a document?
Michael Jackson had hired corporate lawyer David LeGrand for a three-month period in 2003. His task was to sort out confusion over Jackson’s business interests. BBC News, ‘Jackson Trial: week 11’, 13 May 2005.
Leonard Rowe, What Really Happened To Michael Jackson: The Evil Side of the Entertainment Industry (Linell-Diamond Enterprises, 2010).
Mike Fleeman and Champ Clark, ‘Debbie Rowe Won’t Attend Michael Jackson Memorial’, The People, 7 July 2009.
P.J. Huffstutter and Richard Fausset, ‘Around The World, A Shared Moment of Missing Michael’, Los Angeles Times, 8 July 2009.
Michael Jackson recorded ‘Smile’ for his 1995 double album, HIStory: Past, Present and Future and it was planned to be released as the eighth single from the album in 1998 but was withdrawn.
As it happened, Jackson was eventually buried on 3 September 2009, 10 weeks to the day after his death. Two hundred family and close friends watched as Jackson’s children placed a golden crown on his coffin at the beginning of a 75-minute service which ended with Jackson’s brothers, all wearing suits with their brother’s signature black armband and one sequined glove, carrying the casket into the Great Mausoleum.
Also buried here is Gunsmoke actor, James Arness, sex-symbol Jean Harlow, comedian Red Skelton, the head of MGM Studios in its heyday – Irving Thalberg, acting superstars Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, as well as W.C. Fields, Lon Chaney and ‘Hopalong Cassidy’. Jackson’s great friend, Elizabeth Taylor was buried there following her death in 2011.
Alan Duke, ‘Lawyer: Manslaughter Evidence Sought At Jackson Doctor’s Office’, CNN, 23 July 2009
Alan Duke, ‘Jackson Family Aware Probe Could Be Criminal Case’, CNN, 10 July 2009.
Caroline Graham, ‘“Michael was Murdered … I Felt it From the Start”’, The Mail on Sunday, 13 July 2009.
J. Randy Taraborrelli, Michael Jackson: The Magic and the Madness (Sidgwick & Jackson, 1991).
The Poison Review, ‘Michael Jackson Toxicology Report Released’, 13 February 2010.
Joe and Katherine Jackson never officially divorced but have lived apart for several years.
Stacy Brown, ‘Joe Jackson “No Longer A Part of The Family”’, New York Post, 31 August 2014.
Stacy Brown, ‘Joe Jackson “No Longer A Part of The Family”’, New York Post, 31 August 2014.
CBS News, ‘Joe Jackson To Inherit Nothing From Son’, 11 November 2009.
Extra, 28 October 2009.
Stacy Brown, ‘Joe Jackson “No Longer A Part of The Family”’, New York Post, 31 August 2014.
In his book, ‘Michael Jackson Inc.’, Zack O’Malley Greenburg wrote, ‘These ranged from petty to outrageous: the State of California sought $1,647.24 for its franchise tax board, a company called Intermedia Productions claimed an amount “not yet determined … in excess of $1 million”, and a man named Erle Bonner insisted Michael Jackson had stolen his cure for herpes – and filed a suit for $1,109,000,503,600.00.’
Mayer Nissim, ‘“This Is It” Has Unguarded Honesty’, Digital Spy by, 22 October 2009.
Mayer Nissim, ‘“This Is It” Has Unguarded Honesty’, Digital Spy by, 22 October 2009.
Ben Fritz, ‘Sony Pictures To Produce Michael Jackson Film’, Los Angeles Times, 11 August 2009.
Lauren Streib, ‘Michael Jackson’s Money Machine’, Forbes, 27 October 2009.
Box Office Mojo, ‘Opening weekend: $23,234,394 in 3,482 theatres’.
In 2011, Justin Beiber’s Never Say Never surpassed This Is It in terms of US lifetime gross in theatres with $73,013,910 compared to Jackson’s $72,091,016. However, Never Say Never only made an additional $26,022,917 in foreign box office earnings while This Is It made an additional $189,092,572 at the foreign box office. (Box Office Mojo)
Ben Sisario, ‘Michael Jackson Estate Signs Deal With Sony’, New York Times, 15 March 2010.
Dorothy Pomerantz, ‘Michael Jackson Leads Our List of The Top-Earning Dead Celebrities’, Forbes, 23 October 2013.
The breach of contract suit was eventually thrown out by a New York court who ruled that AllGood Entertainment Inc. only had an unenforceable letter of intent and not a firm agreement, and that there were ‘… no specific factual allegations’ to support AllGood’s claim for tortuous interference and that there factual basis for fraud was ‘… at best, thin’.
CBS’s 60 Minutes, ‘Michael Jackson’, produced by, 19 May 2013.
The prosecutors were David Walgren and Deborah Brazil, both LA deputy district attorneys.
Official court records, People v. Conrad Murray, testimony of Dr Christopher Rogers.
On 12 October 2011, CNN reported that, ‘Rogers bolstered the prosecution contention that Murray used a makeshift IV set-up to keep Jackson medicated and asleep, but that it malfunctioned while the doctor was not medicating the patient. The Propofol bottle that prosecutors contend Murray used for the IV drip had a slit in the rubber top that appeared to have been made with a medical spike, not a syringe needle. Murray could have pushed ‘a spike into the rubber stopper and then the Propofol would flow out the end,’ Rogers said. (CNN, ‘Jurors View Michael Jackson Autopsy Photo’ by Alan Duke, 12 October 2011.)
Official court records, People v. Conrad Murray, testimony of Dr Alon Steinberg.
The 17 deviations were: 1) The lack of the basic emergency airway equipment. 2) The lack of the advanced emergency airway equipment. 3) The lack of suction apparatus. 4) The lack of an IV infusion pump. 5) The lack of alarmed pulse oximetry. 6) The lack of, and failure to use, the blood pressure cuff. 7) The lack of electrocardiogram. 8) The lack of capnography. 9) The failure to maintain a doctor/patient relationship. 10) The failure to continuously monitor the mental status of the patient. 11) The failure to continuously monitor the breathing of the patient. 12) The failure to continuously monitor and have available the blood pressure, pulse oximetry and heart monitors to maintain constant vigilant monitoring. 13) The failure to call 911 immediately. 14) The failure to document and chart at the outset of the procedure (egregious and unconscionable). 15) The failure to maintain written informed consent (egregious and unconscionable). 16) The failure to document throughout the course of sedation (egregious and unconscionable). 17) The failure to disclose to both the paramedics and UCLA the use of Propofol and the facts surrounding what Dr Murray witnessed at the arrest.
Official court records, People v. Conrad Murray, testimony of Dr Steven Shafer.
Initially, the Jackson family also sought $100 million in restitution payments to them from Dr Murray. But in January 2012, they withdrew their petition for restitution from Murray; it appears that the Jackson family realised there was simply no way that Murray could pay up. He had been sentenced to four years in jail, had his medical licence suspended and was bankrupt.
The judge, Judge Pastor, also said he was particularly angered by a ‘faux reality production’, the television documentary called Michael Jackson & The Doctor: A Fatal Friendship that Murray had been secretly filming throughout the six-week trial. (The Telegraph, ‘Michael Jackson’s Doctor Conrad Murray Sentenced to Four Years for Involuntary Manslaughter’ by Nick Allen, 29 November 2011.) The Mail Online also referred to this documentary, in particular how Murray might profit from it. On 9 November 2009 an article appeared which said, ‘Conrad Murray may be facing jail for the involuntary manslaughter of Michael Jackson – but he looks set to be a very rich man regardless of whether he goes to prison or how long he stays there. As the doctor awaits sentencing, it has emerged he took a starring role in a documentary about the King of Pop, which began filming almost immediately after his death in 2009. Entitled Michael Jackson & The Doctor: A Fatal Friendship, the film is set to be released this week and will reveal intimate details about the singer and his relationship with the disgraced doctor. While it is unclear exactly how much Murray will make from the film, worldwide interest in the trial suggests he will take a handsome cut of the profits.’ The Mail Online, ‘Murray The Millionaire? How Killer Doctor Is Set To Cash In On Michael Jackson’s Death’ by Sara Nelson and David Gardner, 9 November 2011.
Miriam Hernandez, Subha Ravindhran, Carlos Granda, Elex Michaelson, Robert Holguin and Nannette Miranda, ‘Conrad Murray Handed Maximum 4-Year Sentence’, ABC, 29 November 2011.
Trinidad Daily Express, ‘Conrad Murray Not Hired By T&T Government’, 12 March 2014.
TMZ.com, ‘Conrad Murray: I’m Back in the Medical Biz!’, 12 March 2014.
With the Jackson estate earning so much money since his death, it was only natural that before long, the USA tax authorities would want their share and in August 2013 reports emerged that the IRS were going to hit the estate with a $702 million bill which included $505 million in taxes and almost $197 million in penalties. Attorney Howard Weitzman, on behalf of the estate, said that the estate had already paid over $100 million in taxes and was ‘in full compliance with the tax laws’. Forbes commented that “Estate taxes are levied on the value of assets at the time of death, not at the time the tax bill is issued or announced. And as a result, it seems unlikely that the tax court will rule in favour of the IRS getting its $702 million”. Forbes, ‘Why The $702 Million IRS Tax Claim On Michael Jackson’s Estate Won’t Stand Up’ by Zack O’Malley Greenburg, 23 August 2013.
Cortney Harding, ‘Michael Jackson, It’s A Wonderful Afterlife’, Billboard, 3 April 2010.
Daisy Wyatt, ‘Even In Death Jacko is Still Bigger Than Bieber’, The Independent, 20 May 2013.
Zach O’Malley Greenburg, ‘Buying The Beatles: Inside Michael Jackson’s Best Business Bet’, Forbes, 2 June 2014.