83 Minutes

Owing to the increased overcrowding in USA state prisons, Murray had been allowed to serve his sentence in Los Angeles due to a new law aimed at easing overcrowding by placing nonviolent offenders, such as Murray, to local facilities. Prior to his release, his lawyer Valerie Wass said, ‘Dr Murray has not received any special treatment in jail and, in fact, has many less privileges than most inmates because of his notoriety.’ She continued by saying that he ‘… is very much looking forward to his release and getting on with his life. However, the fact of his incarceration is increasingly difficult for him.’
Caroline Graham, ‘No, I Didn’t Kill Michael. He Did It Himself’, The Mail on Sunday, 24 November 2013.
CNN, Tonight, ‘Conrad Murray: “I’m Remorseful”’, 26 June 2014.
Bizarrely, Randy Phillips, the CEO of AEG Live, suggested that Michael did kill himself accidentally as Phillips’ friend, Brenda Richie, the ex-wife of Lionel Richie, had spoken to a medium or had contacted Jackson’s ghost herself and said that Michael had told her that it wasn’t Dr Murray’s fault and that he had accidentally killed himself. When Randy Phillips announced this evidence in the 2013 trial of Jackson’s family seeking billions of dollars in damages against AEG Live, the LA County Superior Court Judge allowed his strange evidence to stand despite many in the courtroom bursting into laughter.
At the AEG Live wrongful death trial, an entertainment industry expert suggested Jackson could have performed up to 260 shows globally as part of the ‘This Is It’ tour and would have earned himself $890 million.
CNN, ‘Conrad Murray Trial’, 27 September 2011.
In the book, Remember The Time, co-author and Jackson’s former bodyguard, Bill Whitfield wrote: ‘In my experience, nearly everything the media said about him was wrong pretty much all the time. I was actually with him when I heard that he died. The first time I heard that he died. We were in Virginia, driving. We’d just left Walmart and we were heading back to Chuck E. Cheese’s to pick up the kids. Mr Jackson was sitting in the seat behind me when the radio announcer came on and interrupted the broadcast and said, “Hold on, we have an announcement … Hold on just a minute, folks … Yes, we’ve just received breaking news that Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, has passed away.” I turned around and said, “Mr. Jackson, did you hear that?” “No, what?” “On the radio. They’re saying that you died.” He just laughed. He said, “Yeah, I get that all the time.”’
USA Today reported that, ‘A three-page document Walgren [the prosecutor] read aloud in court said that a print matching Murray’s left index finger was found on a 100-milliliter bottle of Propofol. Los Angeles County Coroner’s investigator, Elissa Fleak, testified Wednesday that she had found that bottle four days after Jackson’s death within a saline IV bag. Both items were in a blue Costco Wholesale bag on the shelf of an armoire in the large walk-in closet adjoining the bedroom where Jackson was stricken, Fleak said.’ USA Today, ‘Fingerprint Mystery Surfaces In Jackson Doctor’s Trial’ by Martin Kasindorf, 6 October 2011.
At the time of Jackson’s death, Dr Murray hadn’t been paid a dime. Despite having a contract made effective as of 1 May and expecting payments on the fifteenth of each month, not one of these payments had yet reached his bank account. Coincidentally or not, Dr Murray had only signed his contract of engagement on 24 June, less than 24 hours before the death of Jackson, and only after a series of amendments had been made to it. But, effectively, even this contract was not worth the paper it was written on, as Michael Jackson hadn’t countersigned it. And unless he did so, there was no prospect of Dr Murray getting paid at all.
AEG Live CEO Paul Gongaware had sent an email in which it said, ‘We simply want to remind Murray that it’s AEG, not MJ, who is paying his salary. We want to remind him what is expected of him.’
On 20 May 2009, AEG Live announced that the opening four nights of the ‘This Is It’ tour had been delayed. The first show, scheduled for 8 July was pushed back by five nights and the three dates after that, on 10, 12, 14 July were rescheduled for March 2010.
Jos Borsboom, Michael Jackson: The Icon(self-published, 2011).
ABC News, ‘Lawyer Points Finger At Jackson Drug “Enablers”’, 26 June 2009.
A roller-clamp is a small plastic roller that can be rolled counter-clockwise to close off primary IV tubing or clockwise to open it. It can also be manipulated to increase and decrease the flow of the IV solution and is easily moved with the thumb, making it a one-handed convenience in the administration of IV therapy.
Starting Over by La Toya Jackson (Gallery Books, 2011).
Official court records, People v. Conrad Murray, testimony of Dr Shafer, 20 October 2011.
Official court records, People v. Conrad Murray, rebuttal testimony of Dr Shafer, 1 November 2011.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Sign of The Four (1890).
Alberto Alvarez recalled during the trial that he only saw Murray attach the pulse oximeter to Jackson when Alvarez had already reached the room after being called by Murray.
A friend of Murray’s daughter.
Ian Halperin, ‘How The King of Pop Made $1.5 billion … Over His Dead Body: Five Years On, Michael Jackson’s Posthumous Fortune Has Broken All Records’, Mail Online, 7 June 2014.
In the book Remember The Time, co-author Bill Whitfield wrote, ‘No one in his family was allowed past the front gate without advance notice, with the exception of Mrs Jackson, his mother.’
Superior Court of the State of California, County of Los Angeles, Case No. YC052627, Ayscough & Marar v. Michael J. Jackson, 25 July 2006. In the same document it is revealed that Michael is ‘generally not paying his debts as they become due’ and lists a host of creditors including Attorney Zia Moddaber (owed $400,000), Attorney Brian Oxman (owed over $1,250,000), Attorney Michael Sydow (owed over $1,000,000), Criminal Defense Attorney Bob Sanger (owed over $1,200,00), Attorney Michael Abelson (owed over $100,00), Fortress (owed $325,000,000) and Attorneys Lavely & Singer (owed approximately $100,000). In addition claims of $48,000,000 and $64,000,000 were also pending and the document quotes that ‘Mr Jackson was behind on paying his staff at Neverland’.
Randall Sullivan, Untouchable: The Strange Life & Tragic Death of Michael Jackson (Grove/Atlantic, 2012).
Randall Sullivan, ‘Curse of Michael’s Millions: How Michael Jackson’s Family Preyed On his Wealth And Took It By The Vanload After His Death’, Daily Mail, 10 November 2012.
Katherine would apparently divide up the $25,000 cheque Michael sent to her every month among needy family members. Daily Mail, ‘Curse of Michael’s Millions: How Michael Jackson’s Family Preyed On his Wealth And Took It By The Vanload After His Death’ by Randall Sullivan, 10 November 2012.
John Patterson, ‘Michael Jackson’s Family: Where Did It All Go Wrong?’, The Guardian, 14 August 2012.
Jackson was the best man at Branca’s first wedding. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Jackson brought, ‘… his chimp, Bubbles – clad in tuxedo – to the ceremony’. The Hollywood Reporter, ‘Michael Jackson’s Strange Final Days Revealed In Duelling Lawsuits’ by Kim Masters, 19 July 2012.
The insurance policy, with Lloyd’s of London, covered ‘… the first 30 Concerts at the O2 Arena in London’ and the artist covered in the document was Mark Jones, an alias of Michael Jackson.
Rolling Stone, ‘Michael Jackson Promoter Withdraws Insurance Claim Over Singer’s Death’, 12 September 2012.
In 2010, Live Nation purchased Ticketmaster Entertainment for some $889 million to create a powerful live-music conglomerate.
Philip Anschutz claimed he was selling the company as he was suffering from a debilitating back injury. But following corrective surgery, and a lack of bids that failed to reflect the ‘uniqueness’ of the company, he decided to abandon the auction. It is believed that Qatari Sports Investment and Colony Capital (the same company owned by Tom Barrack) made an all-cash offer of $7 billion, which was unsuccessful. (Bloomberg, ‘Anschutz Says Luring NFL Team Is Priority After Ending AEG Sale’ by Scott Soshnick, 15 March 2013.)
Ray Waddell, ‘“This Is It” – The Inside Story of the Michael Jackson Movie’, Billboard, 30 October 2009.
In her book, Starting Over, La Toya Jackson writes how she is increasingly suspicious about the filming of rehearsals. She claims that, ‘The sale of the rehearsal footage more than made up for any money lost on the shows, and that doesn’t take into account distribution, ticket sales, or back-end participation for the film.’ She goes on to write, ‘Why would AEG film Michael’s rehearsals when they had no agreement in place with him to make a concert film? And did they own the footage, or did Michael, as I suspect? If Michael owned it, how did AEG have the right to sell it, and would his children get a share of the profits from the sale that they deserved? When AEG found themselves in possession of the last footage of the legend performing on the nights before he passed, wasn’t it a little heartless of them to immediately make plans to create a film that would allow them to profit from that material?’
Chelsea White, ‘This Is It! After Years of Teasing Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch Is Up For Sale For An Astonishing $100m’, Daily Mail, 29 May 2015.
It transpired that Murray had DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) numbers in Nevada and Texas, but didn’t have one in California. He had to have registered with the DEA in any jurisdiction in which he would administer or prescribe controlled substances ranging from extra-strong cough syrup to powerful painkillers and, at the time of Jackson’s death, he hadn’t. (Daily Telegraph, ‘Michael Jackson’s Doctor Conrad Murray “Not Licensed To Adminster Strong Drugs”’ by Tom Leonard, 7 July 2009.)