The coroner confirmed Jackson had lethal levels of the powerful anaesthetic propofol in his body.
Court documents unsealed in Houston, Texas, revealed that Dr Conrad Murray had admitted to detectives that he gave the singer several different drugs in the hours before the star died, after he repeatedly complained of insomnia. These included propofol, a powerful anesthetic usually only used in surgery, which the coroner said had been found in high levels in the body of the “King of Pop”.
Forensic tests reportedly showed that propofol, acting together with at least two sedatives, to cause his death.
The coroner’s findings increase the likelihood that Dr Murray will face criminal charges, police in Los Angeles said.
The cardiologist was reportedly offered $150,000 a month to look after Jackson. He was with the singer at his rented Los Angeles mansion on the morning of his death.
Under Californian law, a homicide does not have to be intentional killing and investigators are understood to be looking at whether the doctor’s decision to give propofol to Jackson outside a hospital environment constituted a level of negligence required for an involuntary manslaughter charge.
Since Jackson, 50, suffered cardiac arrest and died on June 25, police have searched Dr Murray’s home and his two clinics in Las Vegas and Houston.
According to a search warrant affidavit, Dr Murray told police he had been treating the singer for insomnia for around six weeks and had administered several drugs, including propofol. He claimed Jackson had already been given it by other doctors and referred to the drug as his “milk”.
We have to give the man his due: Michael Jackson was – beyond a shadow of a doubt – a great artist whose recorded legacy will endure for decades, maybe even a century or more. But an examination of his life is riddled with questions of all that might have been; all that should have been. It is more than likely that this was a severely mentally ill human being who never sought the treatment he so desperately needed; surrounded by fawning sycophants who enabled his sickness by constantly reassuring him that he could do no wrong. As John Lennon once said in the same context about Elvis Presley, another victim of the excesses of fame: “It’s always the courtiers that kill the king”.
The sad, inescapable truth is that for reasons we will probably never be able to fully understand, his talent and his career were ultimately wasted. Like Charlie Parker, Montgomery Clift, Judy Garland and Lenny Bruce before him, his brilliance as an artist would be overshadowed by severe, psychological torment and an unexplainable desire for self-destruction. Therein lies the real, unspeakable tragedy of Michael Jackson.
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Tom Degan
Goshen, NY