TMZ Investigates: Who Really Killed Michael Jackson (2022) - full transcript

My brother, the legendary King of Pop,

Michael Jackson, passed away on Thursday.

[narrator] Michael Jackson died June 25, 2009 from a drug overdose.

[reporter] The district attorney has charged Dr. Conrad Murray with involuntary manslaughter.

-[judge] Guilty. -[narrator] Dr. Conrad Murray

was held solely responsible for Michael's death.

[judge] The court imposes the high term

of four years imprisonment in this case.

[narrator] Now, the lead detective in the case

says Dr. Murray was just the last doctor of many

-left holding the bag. -[Det. Orlando Martinez] There's a lot of folks



who are to blame that have never had a reckoning.

[narrator] Doctors like Arnold Klein,

who regularly plied Michael with powerful opioids.

[Dr. Harry Glassman] Massive doses of Demerol

were utilized for something that generally doesn't require

anything other than maybe a topical anesthetic.

[narrator] Michael's ex-wife Debbie Rowe

worked for Dr. Klein for years,

and says her ex-boss was a real-life Dr. Feelgood.

There's a number of people

that have died from their addictions.

And in some way, I was part of it.

Give me a minute.

[narrator] Turns out Klein was just one of many doctors



who put Michael on a fatal path.

[Martinez] All of these different medical professionals

that allowed Michael to get the medicines he wanted,

all of them are the reason why he's dead today.

I have taken a lot of blame that was not right.

But regardless...

[cries]

...I will always love Michael.

Who really killed Michael Jackson?

It's my profession.

[♪♪]

We quickly learned from a couple of sources

that he went into cardiac arrest.

He was rushed to UCLA Medical Center.

So we started getting word from our sources

that Michael Jackson was dead, dead at the house.

So it was really weird that they still rushed him down

to UCLA Medical Center.

And it was just after two in the afternoon

that we posted the story. Michael Jackson had died.

[male reporter] TMZ broke the story of his transfer

to the hospital this afternoon.

The reports we are hearing from TMZ

that the era of the King of Pop is over.

[female reporter] TMZ was the first to report this

that Michael Jackson had died.

[crowd chanting] Michael!

My brother, the legendary King of Pop,

Michael Jackson, passed away on Thursday, June 25.

[male reporter] Drug Enforcement agents,

Las Vegas and Los Angeles police officers

raided the Las Vegas home of Dr. Conrad Murray.

A law enforcement source tells CBS News

the investigation is centered around

the powerful anesthetic propofol.

[protesters chanting] Guilty.

[narrator] The district attorney has charged Dr. Conrad Murray with involuntary manslaughter

in the pop star's death.

The coroner ruled Jackson's death a homicide.

[protesters chanting] Justice for Michael!

[foreperson] We, the jury in the above entitled action,

find the defendant, Conrad Robert Murray,

guilty of the crime of involuntary manslaughter.

[Harvey Levin] Dr. Conrad Murray may have been the final straw,

but it was the straw that broke the camel's back.

This was decades in the making.

The reality is a bunch of doctors

got Michael addicted, kept him addicted,

connived with him to keep him strung out.

And the fact is his death, it was almost inevitable.

It's a lot more complicated than just

Dr. Murray was at his bedside when he died.

Circumstances had been leading up to this death for years.

And all of these different medical professionals

that allowed Michael to dictate his own terms,

get the medicines he wanted, when he wanted him,

where he wanted them,

all of them are the reason why he's dead today.

My name is Orlando Martinez. I am a detective with the Los Angeles Police Department,

Robbery/Homicide Division.

I was one of the lead investigators

in the Michael Jackson death investigation case.

I'd been a police officer for 27.5 years.

At first, it was just a death investigation.

It was, we thought it was natural causes.

When I went to the house,

nothing was really setting off alarm bells.

As soon as I got into the room

where he was being treated or being cared for,

that's when my spidey sense or my, my experience

told me something is different here.

So from the start, we had heard that Michael was being fueled with drugs.

Frankly, we knew this because he was going to

a Beverly Hills dermatologist named Arnold Klein,

just about every day

in the two months leading up to his death.

And he would go in there for about three to four hours.

And when he came out, it was absolutely bizarre.

We had these videos of him interacting

with fans and paparazzi, and he looked like a zombie.

[male reporter]

[reporters clamoring]

The day after Jackson's death, the coroner went to the house,

and that was the first time we heard about propofol.

My name is Ed Winter. I was the assistant chief

for the Los Angeles County Department of Coroner.

I was there just under 17 years.

I oversaw the high-profile cases,

and I was called out the day that Michael Jackson

was found unresponsive,

was transported to the hospital,

and passed away.

We were able to recover large,

I-- I'd describe it almost as Gatorade-size

bottles of propofol in the residence.

I'm Dr. Drew Pinsky. I'm a board-certified internist

and addiction medicine specialist.

I'm a fellow with the American College of Physicians.

I was the program medical director

for a Chemical Dependency Unit at Las Encinas Hospital.

Let me be clear, propofol is not a sleep medication. It's an anesthetic.

You are completely shut down while you're on that medication.

You are not going through normal sleep cycles and restorative sleep.

You are on a profound anesthetic.

The fact that that was stored and administered in a private residence,

not specifically in a hospital or surgical center,

can't-- can't imagine how that happened.

-[camera shutter clicking] -[Martinez] There's a place called

Applied Pharmacy Services, which was in Las Vegas.

Over the course of, uh, April, May, and June,

they shipped over four gallons worth of propofol

to Dr. Murray's girlfriend's house,

for him to use to help keep Michael Jackson asleep

every single night.

I mean, it's-- it's amazing that Mr. Jackson

hadn't passed away sooner.

Dr. Murray told cops

propofol was nothing new in Michael's life.

[Martinez] One of the things that Dr. Murray told us

was that Michael had an affinity for the propofol,

which he called "milk" because it looks like-- it's a white liquid.

And that Michael had been using it

to help him get rest and get sleep for years

since he had discovered it in Europe.

Dr. Murray said that he had a couple of doctors in Europe

that would travel with him and provide him this drug

to-- to help him sleep.

Dr. Murray took over from a doctor

who had taken over from other doctors,

basically allowing Mr. Jackson to dictate his own treatment,

to use the drug that he preferred

-to help him get his rest. -[male reporter] Do you feel like you've been

unjustly accused with Michael Jackson?

Because a lot of people feel like you're not guilty.

[Martinez] Dr. Murray felt that if he did not help and administer it to Mr. Jackson

that Michael would just go somewhere else to get it.

He-- he needed it. He knew about the drug.

He knew that it worked for him,

and was the one who suggested it to Dr. Murray.

Actually demanded it.

The criminalist who advised me

that the toxicology was showing a extremely large amount

of propofol in Michael's system, and that, in his words,

he said there was enough propofol in him

to put down a rhinoceros.

Michael Jackson died of acute propofol intoxication

and I believe cardiac arrest.

I am Conrad Murray, a subspecialist in cardiology.

I was Michael's personal physician

at the latter part of his life.

[crowd shouting]

[Murray] The trial was clearly unjust.

We first could not call any witnesses

that we were interested in, many of whom were doctors

that had treated Michael for years and years,

decades, with opioids. I never did that.

I never enabled his addiction, which I was not aware of.

Your Honor, I am an innocent man.

They accused me of having Michael

on a three-hour propofol infusion.

That was false.

[crowd shouting]

We had no doubts. That's why we're here.

Michael was watching over us.

-He was watching over us. -[reporter] For sure.

-Are you happy? -Yes. Very happy.

The judge denied Murray bail and sent him straight to jail.

The judge is really throwing the book at him.

[judge] The court imposes the high term

of four years imprisonment in this case.

[Murray] I stayed in-- in the Los Angeles Jail for two years.

I lived in a seven by five feet cell.

It was a shattering experience.

I was both mostly decimated with grief and-- and pain.

I lost just about most of what I had set up for my retirement,

for my children's future,

for a home, my livelihood.

[singing Pepsi commercial to the tune of "Billie Jean"]

[Charles Latibeaudiere] Michael's downward spiral

all started when he filmed a Pepsi commercial in 1984.

He was onstage as the director called for

pyrotechnics to go off all around him.

They did take after take after take.

Finally, on take six, they pushed a little too hard

and Michael ended up in harm's way.

The pyrotechnics went off and the flames were licking

right at Michael's hair, caught on fire.

It was a horrific scene.

[intense music playing]

[male reporter] Singer Michael Jackson is back home tonight

after suffering burns to his head last night

during the filming of a Pepsi TV commercial.

Jackson was dismissed from the hospital today

against the advice of his doctor.

He has both second and third-degree burns

of the scalp.

Fortunately, the third-degree component is relatively small.

[Dax Holt] Michael's injuries were horrendous.

Doctors used balloons to stretch his skin.

And honestly, he never fully recovered,

and that's when he got hooked on painkillers.

Keep in mind, this is 1984.

A full quarter century before he died,

and he became profoundly addicted to pain meds.

[Pinsky] It is completely appropriate

for Michael Jackson to receive opiates for a burn.

He shouldn't suffer. He should get the necessary pain medication.

But to go for months or even years afterwards

on opioid pain medications is ridiculous

and there was an excessive enthusiasm in my profession

for the prescribing of opiates.

[Dr. Stuart Finkelstein] I attempted to give him

a shot of Demerol.

But his buttocks was so scarred up and abscessed

that the needle almost bent.

[Murray] He was quite familiar with the product

and felt that there was no fear of it.

Different doctors had given it to him

from all around the world including Germany,

and they allowed him to sometime inject the medicine.

He was able to push the propofol himself

and the doctors allowed him to do it.

And that was okay.

[♪♪]

[crowd cheering]

[Levin] There's a vicious cycle going on here.

The more Michael Jackson recorded hits,

the more he toured,

and the worse his addiction became.

For example, he recorded Thriller.

That became the biggest selling album of all time

and that created an insatiable appetite

on the part of his fans to want to see him in concert.

-[crowd screaming] -[reporter]

[crowd chanting]

[reporter] This was the scene last night as people arrived plenty early

for the long-awaited sold-out Michael Jackson concert.

[chanting] Michael!

I love Michael Jackson.

He's fantastic.

I love him so much. Whoo!

And there was also the Victory Tour,

which was the farewell tour for the Jackson Five.

And Michael didn't even want to do that tour.

When I do those solo albums

and I'm doing all kinds of different music, it's wonderful.

I feel like I'm accomplishing what I'm supposed to do.

[male interviewer] And you don't feel guilty or worried about your brothers?

-No. -[Zavidow] But there was so much family pressure.

His mom eventually convinced him to do it

and that just made a bad addiction worse.

It happened about an hour ago in Kansas City,

the start of what's being billed as

the biggest traveling musical show in American history.

Some people say that it's more like

what happened 20 years ago

when the Beatles first played Kansas City.

But most of Michael Jackson's fans

are too young to remember that.

For them, this is the biggest moment in their lives.

And that was followed by the Bad tour.

Sixteen months of grueling performing and traveling.

By the time the Dangerous Tour hit,

Michael was a mess.

When I look at somebody like Michael,

I've seen him, the lights have gone out on stage,

and he's fallen to the floor in the darkness.

Somebody comes out, gives him oxygen,

the lights come up and he's right back ready to hit it.

[reporter]

He started canceling tour dates for various illnesses

before he just pulled the plug on the entire tour.

[male reporter] Jackson canceled a Friday show in Caracas, Venezuela,

and shows scheduled for Sunday and Tuesday in Puerto Rico,

and all future dates on the Dangerous Tour.

[Levin] So here's what was going on behind the scenes.

Michael graduated from pain meds to anesthesia.

He used it to sleep and he became shockingly reliant on it.

A lot of people were saying privately,

Michael's addictions and the cancellation

of the Dangerous Tour were directly connected.

I attempted to give him a shot of Demerol.

But his buttocks was so scarred up and abscessed

that the needle almost bent.

In which case, at that point in time, I ran an IV

and I administered some IV pain medication.

[interviewer] And do you recall what IV pain medication you administered?

-Morphine. -Michael was on the Dangerous Tour in 1993 in Bangkok,

and that's when he asked Dr. Finkelstein

to shoot him up with Demerol.

After I took care of Mr. Jackson

and he went on stage, another doctor from England

came and assumed responsibility for Mr. Jackson.

I came back from a trip to the pyramids,

and my suitcase that of which I had all my medications in

was broken into.

That time, the doctor, you know, told me

that he had broken into my suitcase to get medications.

[interviewer] What specific medication did he break in your suitcase to get?

The pain meds. I don't recall if it was Demerol or morphine or both.

[interviewer] And did he break in to get the pain medication?

-To give it to Mr. Jackson? -Yes.

We felt that we needed to do an intervention.

He needed to be detoxed.

They called in Elizabeth Taylor to do an inter-- intervention.

[Elizabeth Taylor] When Michael's doctor called

to ask if I could help, I was glad to intervene.

I traveled to Mexico City, where I saw for myself

that Michael was in desperate need

of specialized medical attention.

Because of my own experience

with addiction to prescription medicines,

I was able to make a number of calls

in search of the best

and most appropriate treatment for Michael,

and he is now undergoing such treatment in Europe.

Michael was in such bad shape. He knew he needed help.

Superstar recording artist Michael Jackson

says he is canceling the rest of his world concert tour

because he's addicted to painkillers.

[male reporter] Superstar Michael Jackson

is now in a drug clinic somewhere.

As you may already know, after my tour ended, I remained out of the country,

undergoing treatment for a dependency on pain medication.

This medication was initially prescribed

to see the excruciating pain that I was suffering

after recent reconstructive surgery on my scalp.

[Michael]

[Zavidow] It was really only after this we could see the pattern.

The overwork, the cancellations.

In hindsight, it was so clear.

All these pills were from doctors.

He got heavy-duty, very, very strong painkillers

and he took them, unfortunately.

He was barely able to function adequately

on an intellectual level.

[male interviewer]

[male interviewer]

[Levin] Painkillers were one thing

but Michael had even bigger problems.

He couldn't sleep, especially when he was on tour

or getting ready for tour.

So he went to doctors for help.

And it turns out, Conrad Murray was late to the game.

Michael was using propofol to sleep.

He had mentioned that that was the only way he could go to sleep,

especially when he was getting ready for a tour.

I'm always writing a potpourri of music.

I never stopped.

[Murray] He was quite familiar with the product

and felt that there was no fear of it.

You know, it was not a big deal.

He had been using it for decades.

Uh, different doctors had given it to him

from all around the world, including Germany.

And they allowed him to sometime inject the medicine.

He was able to push the propofol himself.

And the doctors allowed him to do it and that was okay.

[Winter] Dr. Klein's attorney told me

that he would come in for injections

for an acne treatment.

And that was quite strange because I don't know anybody

that goes in for a three- to four-hour acne treatment.

[Pinsky] When I heard Michael Jackson died,

I immediately thought of him going out to his dermatologist

on a regular basis for "some sort of treatment."

I knew it was opiates, and I knew that was the primary issue.

[Holt] We were getting videos daily

of him going to Dr. Arnie Klein's office.

He looked totally normal going in.

Three or four hours would go by

and he would come out looking completely out of it.

-[reporter 1] Love you, Michael. -[reporter 2] Okay.

-[overlapping chatter] -[bodyguard] Give him room. Give him room.

[♪♪]

[reporters clamoring]

[bodyguard 2] Let us by. Excuse us, guys.

[Latibeaudiere] The day Michael died,

he spent hours begging, begging to fall asleep.

Begging for propofol.

Michael was desperate. And Murray told detectives that he simply gave in.

[reporter] Hey, your concert got canceled, Mike.

When are you gonna have it, Mike?

At the time all this was going on,

Michael was going to see Dr. Arnie Klein,

the famous Beverly Hills dermatologist.

Klein, who died back in 2015,

was known as the dermatologist to the stars.

All these famous people like Elizabeth Taylor, Carrie Fisher,

and so many others went to him for skin treatments.

And Michael did as well, and the two became not just close,

but best friends.

Klein essentially became Michael's Dr. Feelgood.

I administered Demerol because you have to understand

that the procedure I do are painful injections.

And I would give him-- I would say I would take

an hour and a half to inject him

and I would do somewhere around,

oh, well over a hundred facial injections on him.

I'm Dr. Harry Glassman. I'm a plastic surgeon.

I've been in private practice of plastic surgery

in Beverly Hills for the past 45 years.

Massive doses of Demerol were utilized for something

that generally doesn't require anything

other than maybe a topical anesthetic.

Let me be as clear as I can be.

Demerol is not a sedative. It can make you drowsy.

It is not a sedative. It is an opiate medication.

But the-- the goal of medication like Demerol is pain control.

[male reporter] How's it going, Michael?

Are you going on tour?

To London, huh?

What about the Jackson 5? Going on tour with Jackson 5?

-[man] Thank you, Michael. -[male reporter] Oh, you are?

[Levin] Michael's routine was to go to Dr. Klein's office

and get high on Demerol for hours at a time.

Dr. Klein was more than happy to oblige.

And he justified it with minor procedures--

acne treatments, Botox, Restylane.

And he did this over and over and over again.

-[fan] That's so cool. -I don't know anybody that goes in

for a three- to four-hour acne treatment.

[Pinsky] When I heard Michael Jackson died,

I immediately thought of him going out to his dermatologist

on a regular basis for "some sort of treatment."

I knew it was opiates, and I knew that was the primary issue.

The propofol was just the final event.

[Latibeaudiere] And here's where the plot thickens .

Klein was always at the ready for Michael.

And MJ never had to look too far to find him.

They went on vacations together, they spent Christmas together,

they would go to events together.

It's pretty clear that each was getting

what they wanted out of this relationship.

[Glassman] There is in, uh, the relationship

between the doctor and the celebrity patient,

something that sort of becomes a quid pro quo. I'll do this for you.

In Arnie's case, he was traveling with Michael, he's on vacation with Michael.

And you'll do this for me, obviously, in this case,

narcotics, or even heavy sedation.

He was getting propofol in Germany.

That's the most recent tour. That was being arranged--

I'm not going to mention the doctor--

by another doctor in Los Angeles.

And I told the doctor, I mean,

I just thought this is totally insane.

This doctor is arranging German doctors

to give Michael propofol.

It's like giving someone the drug they want.

I was able to interview his wife, Debbie Rowe.

She said that Dr. Klein accompanied him when he was in Germany,

and he couldn't prescribe medicines or medication there

but hooked up with a doctor too in Germany

to get drugs for Michael.

[Holt] Fast forward to three months before Michael's death.

We were getting videos daily

of him going to Dr. Arnie Klein's office.

He looked totally normal going in.

Three or four hours would go by

and he would come out looking completely out of it.

[reporters] Hey, Michael.

-Hey, Michael. -Michael, how are you?

-Yo, Michael! -[man] Assignment or operation?

-[reporter] Michael! How's your skin? -Make a pathway, guys.

-Make a pathway. Make a pathway! -[man 2] Love you, Michael.

-You're the best. -Give him room, guys. Give him room.

[woman] Get in the car. Get him in the car.

[reporter] Michael! Michael!

[fan] Michael, you're the best.

Hey, Michael, can you still moonwalk?

Can you still moonwalk, Michael?

[attorney] Do you recall taking Michael Jackson to visit Dr. Arnold Klein?

-Yes. -[attorney] On many occasions?

-Yes. -[attorney] Estimate for us how many times a week

-you would-- he would do that. -It could fluctuate.

Uh, there were times when he was going almost every day.

[Zavidow] Michael became a regular and he was going to Klein's office

almost every day and getting Demerol injections.

At least 51 injections within the three months before he died.

And these weren't small doses. Three hundred milligrams a pop.

Oh no, that's-- that's absurd. There's categorically no justification

for massive doses of opiates

for simple dermatologic procedures.

Not only that, he was using Demerol 300 milligrams at a time.

Three hundred milligrams of Demerol is enough to knock out a horse.

I had no idea of Michael's, uh, history of his health

and doctors who were treating him.

He never ever mentioned anything of drug addiction to me.

What I used drugs for was not to give him drugs.

I mean, he uses drugs to relieve the pain when I did a procedure.

So we have to make a big difference.

If you're having a surgical procedure,

and these are really minor surgical procedures,

and with my length of time it takes me to do it, it's not minor.

You have to use some amount of-- of drugs.

[Glassman] For Michael to have been going almost daily

for injections of his acne or injections of Restylane

or-- or Botox, it kind of doesn't add up for me.

-[reporter] How are you? -[Muhammad] Come on, guys.

-[reporter] How are you? -[reporter 2] Hey, you look great.

[Glassman] You don't go and have Restylane on Monday,

more Restylane on Tuesday,

more Restylane on-- on Wednesday.

The only thing that makes any sense to me

is that he was there for the drugs,

not for the Botox or fillers or acne.

[attorney] Dr. Waldman, have you formed an opinion

about whether or not Michael Jackson

was dependent on Demerol?

Yes, I believe there's evidence that he was dependent upon Demerol.

Six weeks of very frequent high-dose use, I believe,

would result in-- in opioid dependence in any of us.

[reporter] Hey, Michael. What are you up to today, Michael?

-It's Earth Day. -[Michael] Thank you.

[Ed Winter] Dr. Klein would have him go up

to this gynecologist's office.

And Dr. Klein would go-- go give him his shot

or do whatever he was going to do

and then go back down to his office

so Michael wasn't hanging out at his office

for two or three hours.

I honestly don't believe that Michael Jackson

got 51 shots of Demerol from Arnie Klein.

I would guess probably two or three times that.

-["Morphine" by Michael Jackson] - ♪ Demerol

♪ Demerol Oh, God, he's taking Demerol ♪

I'm Kerry Anderson.

And prior to working with Michael Jackson

as the director of security, I worked LAPD for several years.

I worked narcotics. I was considered

a court-qualified narcotics expert.

I dealt with, uh, Arnold Klein a couple of times.

Michael had me go down and pick him up once and bring him to Neverland.

I walked Dr. Klein... probably 20 feet from the courtyard area

inside Michael's main residence.

I walked him upstairs to Michael's room.

Michael had requested,

"Get Dr. Klein something, uh, to drink."

So I went back downstairs,

and myself and another personnel in the house,

and we weren't gone any more than

I would say four minutes at the most.

And by the time I got back up, Michael was so out of it.

So whatever he gave him,

I-- I've never seen a narcotic do somebody like that, so quick,

because Michael was perfectly normal

when I went upstairs, and in a four-minute period,

he was almost a zombie.

So it must have been some kind of injection of something.

And at times, you'd want to put hands on people like that.

I don't-- I don't have a lot of good things to say

about people like that. Uh, he's disgusting to me.

Arnie Klein shot Michael up with Demerol for a price. A pretty hefty one.

He was charging him thousands and thousands of dollars, just for a weekend visit.

Money's not my object in life. My object is to be the best doctor.

I mean, I gotta be honest, I never asked him for a nickel. Now you say my bill was a lot.

And I have to tell you about my bill.

My bill was, you know, I used to spend three days with him.

You know, I used to fly back and forth with--

-on helicopters when he called me. -[Levin] Right.

So I mean, when you put all that money together,

flying around in helicopters all the time to see him

and spending three days with him at a time,

your days-- over three days is worth a lot of money.

You were friends with him

and you were best friends with him.

And you were also his doctor.

And I asked you if there's a danger of blurring the line.

And if you could go back 20 years,

would you elect to treat Michael Jackson as a patient?

I don't have many friends, you know that. My friends are my patients.

My patients are my patients 24 hours a day.

You know, they call me three o'clock in the morning,

they call me four o'clock in the morning.

You know, I've flown to as far as Tokyo to see a patient.

I've flown to Middle East to see a patient,

where Jews shouldn't go.

So I'm telling you,

when you say what I do is medicine,

the practice of medicine, I mean, I'm not a shrink.

I'm not, you know, Freud. But I think that you do blur the lines

because you're available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

It's-- it's exploitative to some extent

for a doctor also to be their friend.

You're there to be their doctor, and that's that.

Be that, and that's it.

If you wanna be their friend, be their friend, that's fine.

But you can't also be their doctor.

The fact is, if you slip from a physician to friend,

that's on you. That-- that's a problem.

You've-- you've crossed a boundary at that point.

My name is Debbie Rowe,

and I worked with Dr. Arnold Klein for 27 years.

And there's a number of people that have died from their addictions.

And in some way, I was part of it.

Give me a minute.

[♪♪]

-Scene one, take one. ABC mark. -[clicks]

My name is Debbie Rowe

and I worked with Dr. Arnold Klein for 27 years.

And would assist him in the back with patients.

I did everything from acne surgery

to prescribing medications.

-[woman] -Yeah.

Dr. Klein was a brilliant dermatologist.

He could walk into the room, look at you,

almost give you a family history of who you were

and what diseases were in the family and stuff like that.

When Dr. Klein started treating famous people,

celebrities, um, powerful people,

he started to be invited to their, uh, parties

and things like that.

And I think it influenced some of the ways that...

he thought.

And he enjoyed going to the parties.

If he was having a get-together or a party,

they would all be invited.

He enjoyed living that lifestyle.

He did try very hard to be of the rich and famous.

Anybody who sees, uh,

a particular group of patients

that they are in awe of

or enamored with,

will do almost anything

to get another person

of that caliber into the practice.

It ends up being more of a friendship

than it is a professional relationship.

You pick who you hang with,

and he is a person that you want to hang with

because you're going to be able to get something in return.

There were times that he would write prescriptions

for, um, things that had nothing to do with

what we were treating them for.

You know, some people would come in

and say they can't take the pain,

so they would want a Percocet or they would want Demerol

or they would want something else.

I believe very firmly that you are only as good as the last patient you inject.

[Rowe] So there might be someone

and they were a big star.

He would write prescriptions

that were not conducive

to what a dermatologist

would normally write a prescription for.

The primary responsibility of any doctor is the patient care.

I mean, we take an oath to above all else, do no harm.

And giving someone massive doses of narcotics

for an everyday trivial procedure

is clearly a breach of the person's medical care.

You don't give Xanax

because someone says they can't sleep.

You don't give them Demerol because they have pain

that they either aren't monitoring,

don't have anyone moderating it and watching it,

or they just want it.

They would ask Dr. Klein to write a prescription

because they were having a party

and a bunch of people were coming

and they wanted to have party favors.

We had some powerful patients

that would come in and say,

"I'm-- I need to get 90 Percocet

for Saturday night."

And then you go to the party that weekend

and there's a candy dish with Percocet or Quaaludes

or something like that.

And it came from the office

by trading drugs for the invitation, the inclusion.

You know, he just wanted to be in that group.

I don't know if he knew the person was an addict

but didn't care 'cause he didn't want to lose that person as a patient.

But it was done.

And there were a lot of doctors out there with the same,

um, patients that would do the same thing.

It's narcissism. It's gratifying to have a special person under your care

and that person to then be satisfied

and tell you you're a good doctor,

and it helps build people's reputation.

You become, particularly in the-- the sort of

field of plastics and dermatology and beauty,

you become the doctor that's taking care

of those people we see in the magazines.

Sometimes patients had obvious signs of addiction.

Injection marks all over their body.

I was mortified when I found out

that patients were so addicted to something that...

you couldn't sedate them or whatever.

You have to start an IV

if you're going to sedate someone.

And not being able to find a vein to start an IV,

there was no place to be able to do it.

I do believe boundaries were down

and lines were crossed that should not have been.

Prescriptions were written that didn't need to be written.

You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours.

It is such a violation of our basic responsibility

and ethical standards as a physician

to be treating people to make ourselves feel special.

In other words, we are there to serve the patient.

And if we are somehow excited by or turned on by

the patients we are treating, there's already a problem.

And then, if you are handing out medication

without proper justification, I-- I-- I,

it just doesn't get worse than that.

I went through the two decades

of my patients being killed routinely by my peers,

and it was often in situations like this.

[Rowe] I feel horrible about not trying to stop it

with people that I knew had problems.

And there's nothing I can do

to take it back.

And if someone was hurt by it...

saying "I'm sorry" isn't enough.

To me, it's like I should have tried harder.

[sniffles] I should have tried to stop it.

I should have done more. I should have done something.

And I didn't.

And at the end, you're ultimately responsible for what you've done,

how you've participated.

You have to take responsibility for it.

There's a number of people that have died from their addictions.

And... in some way, I was part of it.

Give me a minute.

[sniffles]

You know, it's hard when you feel like

you're part of the problem, and you don't stop.

[sniffles]

I just think I should have been a better person than I was.

I sucked as a human being.

[sniffles] And for years, when I think about it,

I was basically...

I was basically as bad as him.

And I regret that.

I will regret it.

And I'm so sorry

that I participated in it.

[sniffles]

[Murray] If I had known that Michael

was going to a dermatologist's office

or any doctor and being shot up or dripped up with opioids

on a daily basis, there would be a two-step dance.

One, he has a problem.

Two, I take you to where you can be treated.

And if you fail to do that, I'm out.

[Pinsky] He's getting opioids during the day. He's withdrawing at night.

So now we have somebody on continuous substances

that are dangerous and inappropriate.

[♪♪]

-[reporters shouting] Michael! -[man] Michael, we love you!

[Latibeaudiere] Michael had a lot of psychological problems.

In addition to addiction, he suffered from body dysmorphia.

He became a plastic surgery addict.

He got his nose done. Then he got it redone, then redone again.

There's something called the body dysmorphic disorder.

Has anyone here ever heard of that? Anyone here?

Are there any women right here? Women?

Any women here? So you know these people, if you walk down the street,

are obsessed with the way they look

to the point where they distort themselves.

And these are people who go after doctors

and end up having faces after faces,

they look tighter and tighter until they don't look human anymore.

And these are the people you really have to deal with, these body dysmorphic people.

[interviewer] When you look in the mirror, are you happy with what you see?

-In-- in what way? -[interviewer] Just when you look there,

in terms of that social philosophy?

Um, I'm never totally satisfied.

I always wish the world could be a better place.

Um... no, not at all.

Is it like on a scale where he was an extreme...?

Extreme, but he really viewed his face as a work of art.

You have to understand. It's hard to take-- to understand this.

But he really looked at his face as a work of art, an ongoing work of art.

What was-- was his about aging or was it about--?

It was about pure beauty

and he wanted people to see him and pee in their pants.

That's what he told me.

[fans shouting] Michael!

-Michael! -[Glassman] Michael came to see me

quite a number of years before he passed away.

He was referred to me by his dermatologist, Dr. Arnold Klein.

And he was seeking surgery on his nose,

but his nose had been operated on many times before that.

And so I did the courtesy of examining him,

and then advised him against having surgery

for fear that one more procedure

could conceivably compromise the blood supply to his nose.

And so he was not very happy with me.

Um, he tried to encourage me to change my mind,

but my mind was fixed the moment he walked through the door.

But it was his addiction to opioids and anesthesia

that really consumed him.

So by day, Dr. Klein would shoot Michael up with Demerol,

which, by the way, causes insomnia.

By night, Dr. Murray would shoot him up with propofol.

Michael Jackson never mentioned a single doctor

to me who was treating him with opioids, propofol,

or any of those substances.

He made it look as though I was his sole physician.

Dr. Arnold Klein addicted Michael Jackson to Demerol.

And he will tell you that one of the insidious effects,

the most difficult things about Demerol addiction

and its withdrawal...

is an inability to sleep.

[camera shutter clicking]

[Murray] If I had known that Michael was going

to a dermatologist's office or any doctor

and being shot up or dripped up with opioids on a daily basis,

there would be a two-step dance.

One, he has a problem.

Two, I take you to where you can be treated.

And if you fail to do that, I am out.

Michael's insomnia was drug withdrawal. Let's be clear about that.

He was an opiate addict, benzodiazepine addict.

Those patients always have insomnia.

And he found an interesting solution to his drug withdrawal,

which is a barbiturate, in this case, propofol,

which treats the drug withdrawal insomnia.

It does it very effectively.

It doesn't treat the addiction, it makes the addiction worse

and it threatens his life.

So he's getting opioids during the day,

he's withdrawing at night.

So now we have somebody on continuous substances

that are dangerous and inappropriate.

It became known to me after Michael died

that he had been at various facilities

throughout the community

for-- for relatively trivial matters,

and placed under either general anesthesia

or-- or let's say sedation in order to do

the sort of thing that you would do, um, every day

without any sort of medication or without anesthesia.

There were a number of facilities

and a number of different people involved.

[reporter] How are you, Michael?

[man 1]

[man 2] Thank you, brother. Thank you so much.

[Zavidow] For more than two decades,

Michael was using doctors to fuel his addiction.

And if you think there's any way these doctors

didn't know he was a hardcore drug addict

who needed help, that's just impossible.

Michael Jackson had dozens,

dozens of injection marks all over his body.

-Right. -All over his body. Dozens.

So he had a serious, serious drug problem.

[Glassman] Anyone who's gone to medical school

and sees a patient with multiple puncture sites

in the veins of their arms and legs,

I mean, it hits you over the head.

I mean, this person is clearly an addict.

The doctors allowed him to use 19 different aliases

for all these different medications, powerful medications.

And with that, you cannot crosscheck against each other

because one doctor doesn't know

what name another doctor has given.

And that's enabling abuse.

Michael Jackson was a drug addict.

And he was a master of manipulation

because I was manipulated by Michael.

I did not enable him, at any time, in his addiction.

I would never do that.

[♪♪]

-[reporter] Michael, how are you? -[Michael] Good, thank you.

-[female fan] We love you. -We found out that Michael was using aliases.

I did go to Dr. Arnold Klein's office

and wanted to interview him

and get a copy of his medical records

and find out what was going on.

When I got to the office, his office,

he supposedly was unavailable.

[male reporter 1]

[male reporter 2]

So I went downstairs to the pharmacy,

and talked to the pharmacist

and the pharmacist gave me the whole list

of what drugs he was taking and the aliases.

I was shocked. I was shocked at-- that this was going on.

[Martinez] The doctors allowed him to use 19 different aliases

for all these different medications, powerful medications.

And with that, you cannot crosscheck against each other,

because one doctor doesn't know

what name another doctor has given.

And that's, that's, that's enabling abuse.

[reporters clamoring] Michael!

[Glassman] The way that Michael went about

getting all these drugs was doctor shopping.

He had multiple different doctors

that he was involved with.

And you know, he would go to Dr. A and ask for a sedative.

And then he'd go to Dr. B and may ask for the same one.

And so by manipulating a series of different doctors,

Michael accumulated an enormous amount of medication.

What you're going to learn about Michael Jackson is that he had the habit

of compartmentalizing relationships,

packaging relationships, like spokes in a wheel.

The wheel in his life turned

but the people that he associated with,

the groups of people were like spokes,

they rarely have ever touched.

[Murray] When I put it all together,

what I've learned since then, during and before the trial,

Michael Jackson was a drug addict.

And he was a master at manipulation

because I was manipulated by Michael.

I did not enable him, at any time, in his addiction.

I would never do that. I cared about Michael too much.

I love Michael.

I haven't lost that love for Michael

despite the pain and suffering that I've encountered.

There were what they call a drug book,

that every doctor has a book

that he puts his patient's information in

and is supposed to list what medications they had,

and that Dr. Klein actually had two books.

One that just showed some miscellaneous medication.

And then another book that listed his aliases

and some of the other medications he was getting.

Through the investigation and in the trial,

one of the things we found out,

there was a pharmacy in Beverly Hills called Mickey Fine

that he owed an excess of 100,000 dollars.

And that pharmacy was on the ground floor

of Dr. Arnold Klein, the same doctor that was

infusing him with opioids on a daily basis.

After Michael's death, the extent of his drug use became evident.

He had basically a pharmacy of prescription drugs,

dangerous drugs, written by various doctors

using Jackson's 19 aliases.

And the list of prescriptions found at his home after he died,

it was eye-popping.

Such a variety of powerful meds,

it baffled even the most seasoned of doctors.

I don't even know what half of those drugs are.

I mean, I looked at that list and I was amazed

at how many drugs were found at the scene.

The sheer number of prescriptions

found at Michael's bedside when he died,

it's just mind-boggling.

Twenty-two different meds

prescribed by at least four different doctors

from four different pharmacies.

And a lot of these prescriptions

didn't even have the patient's name

or the doctor's name on the label.

The labels were just blank. It's insane.

[man's voice] Propofol, Lidocaine,

Diazepam, Nordazepam,

uh, Lorazepam, and Midazolam.

Opiates like Demerol,

benzodiazepines like Ativan and Xanax,

and the barbiturates like propofol,

they eventually come together to suppress respirations.

And people don't breathe, and then their heart stops.

Michael's addiction was much worse

than the medical records that we were able to obtain or see,

were-- were much greater that... We'll never know.

-[fan 1] Roll down the window. -[fan 2] We love you, Michael. We love you.

-[fan 1] Michael! Michael! -[fan 2] I love you.

[Holt] It all comes back to the fact that Michael Jackson

was one of the biggest stars on the entire planet

and all these doctors like Klein who treated him,

they themselves became intoxicated.

[Glassman] Celebrities can manipulate doctors

to get what they want. No question about that.

And it's been my experience

that you have to be very resilient to their--

to their seduction such that you don't treat them

any differently than you would a non-celebrity.

Michael is responsible to a great extent

for his own demise, but he certainly had

a lot of help in the medical community.

It's sad that the doctors are caught up

with the celebrity status, and that some of the celebrities

are caught up, you know, wanting to keep that doctor close.

You know, some of the drug addicts,

they're best friends with the person

they're buying their heroin from,

and they want to stay close to them.

I don't think there's any question that Michael was a drug addict.

I made two personal interventions on him.

Remember that. I got him off drugs twice in my lifetime.

So there was an ongoing problem with him and the use of drugs.

Now, when you're rich and you're famous in America,

you can get anything you want.

Because I think what we have here is a lot of bad medicine.

We have some good medicine, but I think we have a whole bunch of bad medicine.

A lot of people who didn't care whether Michael lived or died

as long as they made money off of him,

and I think that was the biggest thing, that this whole story is about,

that we've seen the loss of integrity in many fields.

There's a lot of folks who are to blame

that have never had a reckoning for his death.

[Paris Jackson] Ever since I was born...

Daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine.

[cries] And I just wanted to say I love him so much.

-[sobs] -[crowd applauds]

[Levin] So addiction is one thing.

But there's another factor in Michael's death, a big factor.

At the time Michael died, he was rehearsing for the This Is It Tour.

And there were alarm bells going off everywhere.

Michael was strung out, too weak to perform.

And the sad fact is very few people around him

were even listening.

The record company is usually

like, for you to support your album and go on tour.

And, uh, I don't like to.

It's a difficult thing to tour.

You go from one continent to another.

You're sleepy. The time zones are different.

You can't sleep after the show.

Adrenaline is up here.

[interviewer] Can we just do it again without-- just the negative statement

-you don't like to tour? Just-- -I don't like it, though.

-[interviewer] I know. But-- -I go through hell.

I go through hell touring. Okay.

Then I... I'll make it positive, then.

-[interviewer] Yeah. Just-- -Well, you know the truth.

-[interviewer] Yeah. -Okay.

[interviewer] And rolling. Action, Michael.

-I love to tour. That's it. -[crew laughing]

You guys... [laughs]

[attorney] I'm gonna read this again

and see if you have an understanding of what it means.

"We want to remind him that it is AEG,

not MJ, who is paying his salary."

Based on the assumptions that AEG is your company

and MJ is Michael Jackson,

do you have an understanding of what that means?

No, I don't understand it,

because we weren't paying his salary.

-[attorney] So why would you write that? -I have no idea.

[attorney] When you say his salary, who are you talking about?

-I don't know. -[attorney] Oh.

But how do you know you weren't paying his salary

if you don't know who we're talking about?

-I don't remember this email. -[attorney] No. You-- you just testified,

"We weren't paying his salary."

You just testified to that a few seconds ago. Right?

I guess.

-[bodyguard] Watch yourself. -[fan]

-[fans clamoring] -[fan]

Michael wasn't well, but he needed the This Is It Tour

for a couple of reasons.

He was deep in a financial hole,

and in danger of losing Neverland Ranch, his home.

Also, after the molestation trial,

he felt the need to gain the approval of his fans.

He was sick, addicted, and desperate.

[Michael]

[Levin] So Michael's family sued AEG,

the production company behind that This Is It Tour,

claiming that it was responsible for Michael's death

by hiring Conrad Murray and by pushing Michael too hard

in the wake of all of his problems,

including his addictions.

These will be my final show performances

-in London. -[crowd cheering and applauding]

This Is It. Let's see you in July.

[crowd cheering and applauding]

The family felt that AEG was more interested

in making a fortune than protecting Michael's health,

and the family's lawyers grilled AEG bigwigs in depositions.

[attorney] Was there a problem, Mr. Phillips,

with Mr. Jackson's appearance at the press conference that day?

-Something unusual happen? -We were late.

[attorney] You send an email to Mr. Leiweke?

-Yes. -[attorney] Do you recall receiving this email

-from Mr. Randy Phillips? -No.

[attorney] And so this is dated March 5, 2009.

Uh, Mr. Phillips wrote to you according to this exhibit...

"MJ is locked in his room, drunk and despondent.

"Tohme and I are trying to sober him up

and get him to the press conference

with his hairdresser, makeup artist."

[attorney] Do you see that? The bottom of the page?

-I read it. -[attorney] Do you know who's--

who he was referring to with MJ?

I-- I didn't get-- I don't remember this email.

[attorney] And then Mr. Leiweke responds, "Are you kidding me?"

-Correct? -[attorney] You responded to Mr. Phillips,

"Are you kidding me?"

Do you see that?

I see it.

[attorney] Do you recall what you meant by that?

I-- I don't remember this email.

[attorney] And then you responded with the longer entry there.

-Correct. -[attorney] And you wrote, "I screamed at him so loud,

-the walls are shaking." -Yes, that was a--

that was an exaggeration, but I did raise my voice.

[attorney] All right. And then Randy Phillips responded to you,

"This is the scariest thing I've ever seen.

He is an emotionally paralyzed mess

riddled with self-loathing and doubt.

Now that it is showtime, he is scared to death.

Right now, I just want to get through this press conference."

-Did I read that correctly? -Yes.

[attorney] Was that an exaggeration?

-A little bit. -[attorney] And was it an exaggeration also

that he is an emotionally paralyzed mess?

That's what it-- that's what I-- that's what I felt at the time.

[attorney] And then according to this evidence,

you responded, "Call me, please."

I agree that it says that.

[attorney] Do you know why you asked Mr. Phillips

to call you, please?

I don't remember the email.

[Levin] The AEG execs were grilled

over emails they sent.

Emails that paint a picture of a company

that was determined to get Michael on stage

and ignore some of the problems

that he was dealing with, including his addictions.

When they were asked about these emails,

these execs had lots of memory lapses.

[attorney] I'm going to read this again

and see if you have an understanding of what it means.

"We want to remind him

that it is AEG, not MJ, who is paying his salary."

Based on the assumptions that AEG is your company

and MJ is Michael Jackson,

do you have an understanding of what that means?

No, I don't understand it,

because we weren't paying his salary.

-[attorney] So why would you write that? -I have no idea.

[attorney] When you say his salary, who are you talking about?

-I don't know. -[attorney] Oh.

But how do you know you weren't paying his salary

if you don't know who we're talking about?

I don't remember this email.

[attorney] Um, didn't you just testify

that we weren't paying his salary?

AEG?

[attorney] Yes. No.

You-- you just testified we weren't paying his salary.

You just testified to that a few seconds ago. Right?

I guess.

[attorney] Okay, then let's go on to the next sentence.

"We want him to understand what is expected of him.

Period." Do you know what you meant there?

No.

[attorney] It... is there-- is there a word in that sentence

that you don't understand?

-I don't understand the sentence. -[attorney] I'll read it again.

"We want him to understand what is expected of him."

-Does that help? -No.

[attorney] I'm gonna-- I'm gonna-- I'm gonna put in place of "him"

what I think it supposed to be and see if that helps.

"We want Dr. Murray to understand

what is expected of Dr. Murray." Does that help?

No.

[♪♪]

Michael was incoherent at times, clearly because of drugs.

There is audio of him after that London press conference,

and it is bone-chilling.

[Michael slurring]

[♪♪]

[man] Hey, Michael. What's up, man?

[man] Where's your car, Mike? Where's your car?

The Jackson family believed that AEG ignored clear signs that Michael was in grave danger

because AEG stood to make a fortune off the This Is It Tour.

[attorney] Mr. Gongaware wrote, "Meanwhile our play here is to not back off.

We are holding all the risk.

If MJ won't approve it, we go without his approval."

-Do you see that? -Correct.

[attorney] And Paul recommended going ahead

with the press conference and putting the tickets on sale,

because once-- once we go on sale,

which we have the right to do, he is locked.

He has no choice. He has to do it. Right?

-That's what he wrote. -[attorney] Okay. Did you agree with that?

-No. -[attorney] Randy Phillips wrote,

"We need to pull the plug now. Period.

I will explain. Period."

Do you have an understanding of what Randy Phillips meant by that?

-I have no idea. -[attorney] Did you have an understanding

that for some reason, on March 25, 2009,

Mr. Phillips thought that you needed to

pull the plug on the tour?

-I don't recall that. -[attorney] Did something happen around this time, March of 2009,

that was creating a concern for you and Mr. Phillips?

Not that I recall.

[attorney] You sent an email to Dan Beckerman stating,

"Trouble with MJ, big trouble. Period.

What are you guys up to tonight? Period."

I-- I don't remember the specific email.

[attorney] Does this email indicate to you

that you knew as of June 20, 2009,

there was some trouble going on with Michael Jackson?

We were aware that he had missed several rehearsals.

[attorney] And you thought he was having a mental breakdown, didn't you?

-No. No. -[attorney] You didn't?

[attorney] Then why did you write to Dan Beckerman

at 4:15 p.m. that same day,

"He is having a mental breakdown."

I'm not sure I'm not referring to Randy.

-[attorney] Oh, really? Was-- -I-- I don't know specifically.

[attorney] Was Mr. Phillips having a mental breakdown?

I don't know what I was referring to, specifically,

but it could have been to Randy.

[attorney] Mr. Kane, uh, was Mr. Jackson's

-business manager eventually? Is that correct? -Yes. That is correct.

[attorney] And he sends you an email on June 23 at 11:22

asking on the list of doctors that will help get

up from today to the opening night,

-where does Arnold Klein stand on the list? -Correct.

[attorney] Probably "up" was "us," should have been "us"?

-Mm-hmm. Correct. -[attorney] And your-- what was your response?

He scares us to death because he's shooting him up with something.

[attorney] Why did he scare you to death?

I don't remember why I used that terminology.

[Latibeaudiere] Randy Phillips had good reason to be scared

because Michael was incoherent at times, clearly because of drugs.

There is audio of him after that London press conference

and it is bone-chilling.

[Michael]

[Latibeaudiere] Kenny Ortega, the producer of the This Is It Tour,

wrote a letter to AEG shortly before Michael's death.

This is what he wrote.

[attorney] Can you describe what you personally observed

on that day, June 19, 2009?

That my friend wasn't right, that he wasn't well,

there was something going on that was deeply troubling me.

-And, um, he appeared lost. -[attorney] What do you mean by that?

Just sort of lost

and-- and a little incoherent.

And although we were conversing and, um,

and I did ask him questions and he did answer me,

I did-- I did feel though that he was not well at all.

-Did you think he was well enough to rehearse? -[Ortega] No.

So as they say, the show must go on.

So he rehearsed right up until the day he died.

-[playback of "The Way You Make Me Feel"] -♪ Come on, baby, hee-hee

One more time.

♪ You really turn me on

That's why we rehearse. It's okay, it's okay.

[attorney] Can you read me out loud what you wrote to Michael Roth

on August 18, 2009, at 7:24?

"I wonder why now?

I think I know what MJ died of

and this would exonerate Conrad."

-[attorney] Conrad Murray. -Correct.

[attorney] What did you know would exonerate Conrad Murray?

-I don't remember. -[attorney] No recollection at all.

No.

[attorney] Was anybody-- did anybody ever ask you

what you knew that would exonerate Conrad Murray?

-No. -[attorney] Did you ever tell the police

that you had information that would exonerate Conrad Murray?

-No. -[attorney] Have you ever told the LA County District Attorney

what information you had that would exonerate Conrad Murray?

-No. -[attorney] You ever tell his attorney what information,

Murray's attorney what information you had

that would exonerate Conrad Murray?

No.

Dr. Murray had no control over the situation

because what was happening in the background...

He was just a little fish in a big dirty pond.

[♪♪]

♪ Did you ever stop to notice

♪ All the children dead From war? ♪

[Murray] With what I know today,

Michael would not have been able to complete the shows.

[man]

Michael was too weak,

too-- too emaciated, lack of energy.

♪ What have we done To the world? ♪

♪ Look what we've done ♪

♪ What about all the peace

♪ That you pledge Your only son? ♪

[emotional music playing]

[harmonizing]

[Levin] Lawyers for the Jackson family

tried hard to convince the jury

that AEG was responsible for Michael's death.

The jury didn't buy it.

That said, there is plenty of blame to go around here,

with doctors and drugs and pharmacies;

to lay all the blame on Conrad Murray seems unfair.

We knew that there were multiple doctors

doing what Dr. Murray had done,

and that they had done it over the course of years.

We decided to concentrate on that night

for the criminal side of it.

And so that negated all of the other history

with the other doctors.

[Martinez] I really do believe that this death was inevitable.

Whether it was Dr. Murray or the next doctor,

is lucky it hadn't happened before

because Michael was going to get what he wanted.

And if you said no, he would find somebody

who would do it for him.

[crowd chanting]

I do agree that Murray was the one who...

ended up taking all the responsibility for Mr. Jackson's death.

I don't think it's right. But, you know, what's right and what can be proven

are two completely different things.

There were a lot of people

who should have been held responsible.

The medical community is in great part responsible for Michael's death.

-It was just terrible medical care. -Here's how deep it goes.

Even doctors who were asked to testify in Dr. Murray's trial

about the dangers of giving someone propofol

every night for months, they ran for the hills.

When I was trying to find doctors

to evaluate the care that Dr. Murray had provided...

a lot, most doctors told me "No."

They didn't want anything to do with it,

because they were worried about when malpractice

becomes criminal conduct and setting a precedent.

So I contacted 53 different doctors

trying to find experts to review Dr. Murray's level of care.

And ten of them said that they would do it.

Everybody else said, "No, I want no part of it."

There's one issue that got lost during Dr. Murray's trial.

The doctor told cops that he was actually trying

to wean Michael off of propofol three days before he died.

And on that fateful day,

Murray says he walked out of the room,

and when he was gone, Michael took matters into his own hands.

I successfully weaned him off of that agent,

up to three days prior to him passing.

He was off propofol. He had his own stash at home.

It was in a red and white sports bag.

He knew how to use propofol.

He said he-- doctors allow him to put it in,

push it before in my absence.

I believe Michael Jackson got ahold of propofol

and he slammed it into his system.

And if you slam propofol into your body,

you're gonna have cardiopulmonary arrest.

It would support the fact that they did not find propofol in his brain.

There was not enough time for it to get there.

[reporter] Michael, how are you? Michael?

[reporter] You're looking great, man.

[Zavidow] The fact is Michael Jackson is not the only celebrity

to die at the hands of doctors who were more than accommodating

when it came to pumping them full of drugs.

The number one cause of unnatural deaths

in the United States of America this year

was prescription drug overdoses.

Some of the people who are complicit

in that scourge that is killing people

like Michael Jackson and thousands of others

are people like Dr. Conrad Murray.

The so-called Dr. Feelgood doctors.

It's pathetic that a number of celebrities

have passed away with doctors turning their heads

and just writing prescriptions and giving their patients

whatever they want, whenever they want.

Being at the coroner's office for 17 years,

I had a number of celebrities that did die,

a number of them that died due to overmedication.

[♪♪]

I've been punished.

I've been harmed. I've been hurt.

I've taken a lot of blame that was not right.

But regardless of what I have gone through...

[cries]

[♪♪]

[choir singing] ♪ We are going to see The King ♪

[singing continues]

Michael's death was not the result of one fatal incident.

It was more like a case of death by a thousand cuts.

Who really killed Michael Jackson?

In my opinion, Michael Jackson is ultimately responsible.

I think he had willing accomplices along the way,

but you have to hold Michael accountable.

He seduced these people.

Who really killed Michael Jackson?

I would say that Dr. Murray was a facilitator,

and Dr. Klein, and a number of the other doctors

that were in a hurry to give Michael what he wanted.

The family couldn't stop it. They were concerned.

AEG, according to the family,

put a lot of pressure on Michael.

And no matter what anybody says, there gets a point

where you could take a whole group of people

and say that was the basic cause.

Who really killed Michael Jackson? [sighs]

It's a lot more complicated than just

Dr. Murray was at his bedside when he died.

Circumstances had been leading up to this death for years.

And all of these different medical professionals

that allowed Michael to dictate his own terms,

get the medicines he wanted, when he wanted them,

how he wanted them, where he wanted them,

all of them are the reason why he's dead today.

Who really killed Michael Jackson?

In my opinion, it's my profession.

It was not just one physician, it was multiple physicians.

And I'm here to tell you that in those decades, my peers killed my patients,

often celebrities, all the time.

And it breaks my heart to say it,

but it's the truth.

Who really killed Michael Jackson?

It's sad to say that Michael Jackson died.

But Michael Jackson killed Michael Jackson.

And all of those other doctors that enabled him

with opioids over the years are complicit to his death.

I will always miss Michael.

I have had a tough time.

I've-- I've been punished.

I've been harmed.

I've been hurt.

I've taken a lot of blame that was not right.

But regardless of what I've gone through...

[cries]

[voice breaking] I will always love Michael.

[sobs]

[♪♪]

To the outside world, Michael was a genius with unchallenged ability.

To the people who were lucky enough to know him personally,

he was caring and funny,

honest, pure, non-jaded,

and he was a lover of life.

[♪♪]

[sobbing]

[narrator] Michael Jackson's death was a tragedy.

Dead at 50 from years of abuse

at the hands of many doctors who got him addicted to drugs,

and then fueled that addiction.

In the five decades of his life,

he made enormous contributions to music and pop culture,

contributions highlighted during his memorial.

Michael, when you left us, a part of me went with you.

And a part of you will live forever within all of us.

I will treasure the good times, the fun we had.

Singing, dancing, laughing.

From the first beat of "Billie Jean"

and the toss of that hat, I was mesmerized.

But when he did his iconic moonwalk, it was magic.

[Queen Latifah] He let me know that as an African-American,

you could travel the world.

There was a world outside of America.

He allowed Kobe and I to have our jerseys,

and people homes across the world

because he was already there.

And he opened all those doors for us.

To the outside world, Michael was a genius

with unchallenged ability.

To the people who were lucky enough to know him personally,

he was caring and funny,

honest, pure, non-jaded,

and he was a lover of life.

[Bernice King] Few are chosen from amongst us

to use their gifts and talents

in an effort to bring the world together

in true sister and brotherhood.

Michael was such a one.

If he was burned, he built a burn unit.

If a hospital needed beds, he built those beds.

Michael never stopped giving.

I'm glad I live in an era when I got a chance to see

the greatest entertainer of all time.

-I'm glad that I live in this era. -[crowd applauds]

He was the consummate student.

He studied the greats and became greater.

He raised the bar and then broke the bar.

I think he is simply the greatest entertainer

that ever lived.

[crowd cheering and applauding]