The world stopped spinning when the news broke Pop legend Michael Jackson dies In late June of 2009.
The 50-year-old “Thriller” singer was found unresponsive at his Los Angeles home after suffering cardiac arrest caused by propofol – a drug said to be routinely used by Jackson’s doctor, Conrad Murray.
Death was judged to be murder, and Murray took all the blame. He was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to four years in prison. Serves just under two people behind bars.
But Murray bore the brunt of public hatred even though Jackson – who would have turned 64 on Monday – had been taking drugs for most of his life in disturbing doses, allegedly easily enabled by a host of other doctors – those he had never seen. A day in prison after the death of the King of Pop, according to a new documentaryTMZ Investigations: Who Really Killed Michael JacksonIt is scheduled to air on Fox next month.
“It’s a lot more complicated than just: Dr. Murray was at his bedside when he died,” says Orlando Martinez, the Los Angeles Police Department detective assigned to Jackson’s death.
“Circumstances led to his death for years, and all these different medical professionals allowed Michael to dictate his own terms, get the drugs he wanted, when he wanted them, and where he wanted them,” Martinez asserts. “They are all the cause of his death today.”
Jackson was taking propofol in bottles the size of “Gatorade” at the time of his death, according to Ed Winter, the assistant chief of coroner for Los Angeles County. In many ways, the medical community facilitated his obsession with the substance, according to Murray, who adds that propofol “was the only way he could sleep, especially when he was getting ready for a tour.”
Says Murray, who used it routinely for Jackson. “He was able to push the propofol off himself, and the doctors let him do that, and that was fine.”
On top of his temporary sleep medication — a drug that addiction specialist Dr. Drew Pinsky says explicitly is neither a drug to treat insomnia nor one that is routinely stocked outside of medical facilities — Jackson has also been addicted to other drugs throughout his career, according to the documentary.
It all started in 1984 when he sustained second and third degree burns to his scalp During a fiery disaster While filming a Pepsi commercial, they were given painkillers to recover.
In Jackson’s own words, drugs had taken over his life in the years that followed.
“I became more dependent on painkillers to be able to help me through my tour days,” Jackson says in an archived audio recording, explaining why he canceled the last part of his “dangerous” world tour in 1993 and announced he was on his way to treatment.
All that time on the road was a misery for the star act. In the archived footage, Jackson admits: “I don’t like it…go on a tour of hell.”
Things got worse in the ensuing years, as Jackson cemented a relationship with famed Hollywood dermatologist Arnold Klein, who Died at the age of 70 From Natural Causes in 2015. Klein admitted taking out the opioid Demerol with more substances for the star.
TMZ executive producer Harvey Levine — whom Klein admitted in a November 2009 interview — says it was “routine” for MJ to hike on Demerol “for hours at a time” in Klein’s office.
“Dr. Klein was more than happy to oblige and justified it with simple procedures,” says Levine. “And he did this over and over again.”
According to Pinsky, Jackson was taking Demerol at a whopping 300 milligrams at a time. The pop singer even mentioned substance in his 1997 track”morphine. ”
Debbie Rowe – Jackson’s ex-wife who worked with Klein as an assistant for years – spoke only about the doctor and not about her late ex-husband. She says that Klein was known to do immoral things to lure the Hollywood elite into his office.
“There were times when he would write recipes for things that had nothing to do with what we were treating them for,” Rowe says in the document. “He was writing prescriptions that were not conducive to what a dermatologist would normally write for a prescription.”
She added that Klein was “someone you want to hang out with because you’ll be able to get something in return.”
It was also revealed that with Jackson and Klein’s relationship turning into more of a friendship than a doctor-patient relationship, the dermatologist allegedly kept false documents on the singer.
Jackson had created 19 fake aliases to collect different drugs, and Klein kept a private book indicating which prescriptions went to each fake ID, according to Winter.
“The way Michael went to get all these drugs was doctor shopping. He had several different doctors he was involved with and he would go to Dr. A and ask for a sedative, and then he would go to Dr. B and he could ask for the same doctor,” the plastic surgeon at Jackson, Dr.; Harry Glassman, Claims. “Michael is responsible, to a large extent, for his death, but he certainly got a lot of help from the medical community.”
Murray, who admits to taking a keen interest in Jackson, says that none of this information was ever shared with him.
“He made it seem like I was his only doctor… If I had known Michael was going to a dermatologist or any doctor and he was shot or taking opioids every day, it would be a two-step dance. One, he has a problem. Second, I’ll take you where you need treatment—and if you fail to do so, I’m out,” Murray says.
Things came to a boiling point in 2009 when Jackson was preparing for his “This Is It” tour as his behavior became a notable concern for director Kenny Ortega.
“There are strong signs of paranoia, anxiety, and obsessive-like behavior. I think the best thing we can do is get a senior psychiatrist to assess him as quickly as possible. No one is to blame,” Ortega wrote in an email about caring for him during training.
“Today I was feeding him, wrapping him in blankets and calling his doctor,” he added.
Jackson was also rehearsing for the tour which took him a lot until the day before his death on June 25 – another factor in his death.
“Michael Jackson was a drug addict and he was really good at manipulation because Michael was manipulating me,” Murray says. “I have never enabled it to become addictive.”
Even Martinez admits that Murray unjustly suffered consequences that weren’t necessarily all he does.
“We knew there were several doctors doing what Dr. Murray did and they’ve been doing it for years,” Martinez says. We decided to focus that night on the criminal side of it. So he invalidated that other date with the other doctors.”
“There are a lot of people to blame who were never held accountable for his death.”
“TMZ Investigates: Who Really Killed Michael Jackson” premieres Tuesday, September 6 at 8 p.m. on Fox.
