UPDATED : Michael Jackson Dead
UPDATE: Saturday 27th June: Doctors conducted an autopsy on the body of Michael Jackson on Friday but could not immediately determine what killed the “King of Pop,” amid reports he had been injected with a narcotic painkiller shortly before collapsing.
Jackson was in full cardiac arrest when paramedics arrived at his rented mansion in the Holmby Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles on Thursday afternoon, with his personal physician trying desperately to revive him.
The 50-year-old pop superstar was rushed to nearby UCLA Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead without regaining consciousness.
“The cause of death (determination) has been deferred, which means that the medical examiner has ordered additional testing such as toxicology and other studies,” Los Angeles County Coroner’s spokesman Craig Harvey said. “Those tests we anticipate will take an additional four to six weeks.”
Speaking to a throng of reporters outside the coroner’s office, Harvey said, “There was no indication of any external trauma or indication of foul play to the body of Mr. Jackson.”
Police said they were seeking to question Jackson’s personal physician, identified by news media as Houston-based cardiologist Dr. Conrad Murray.
Jackson’s body was moved to a mortuary at the family’s request on Friday night, assistant chief coroner Ed Winter told reporters. He did not disclose the location and there was no immediate word on when Jackson would be laid to rest.
Celebrity website TMZ.com, citing an interview with an unidentified “close member” of the Jackson family, reported the entertainer was injected with Demerol about half an hour before he went into cardiac arrest.
DAILY SHOT OF DEMEROL?
TMZ, citing family members, said Jackson received a daily shot of Demerol, a narcotic painkiller, and that the family believed his death was caused by an overdose of the drug.
Detectives searched Jackson’s home and impounded Murray’s Mercedes from the driveway, saying it might contain evidence.
An unidentified man called a 911 emergency phone line from the mansion at 12:21 p.m. local time, saying Jackson was unconscious and not breathing.
In excerpts from the call released by authorities, the caller said the physician was the only other person present and was frantically performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the unconscious Jackson without results.
“He’s pumping, he’s pumping his chest but he’s not responding to anything, sir, please,” the man said.
A senior law enforcement official told ABC News that Jackson was “heavily addicted” to the painkiller Oxycontin and was injected daily with that medication, along with Demerol.
Lawyer Brian Oxman, a Jackson family spokesman, told CBS’ “The Early Show” he had been concerned about the prescription drugs Jackson took due to injuries suffered while performing.
“I do not want to point fingers at anyone because I want to hear what the toxicology report says and the coroner says but the plain fact of the matter is that Michael Jackson had prescription drugs at his disposal at all times,” Oxman said.
Fans and fellow pop stars revived memories of Jackson’s musical genius, tarnished over the past decade by accusations of child molestation and eccentric behavior.
U.S. President Barack Obama called Jackson a “spectacular performer” but said he believed aspects of his life were “sad and tragic,” the White House said.
FANS PAY TRIBUTE
Jackson’s death was front-page news around the world as airwaves filled with his greatest hits from “Thriller” to “Billie Jean” and social networking sites were bombarded with messages and tributes.
“My heart, my mind are broken,” actress Elizabeth Taylor, long a close friend of Jackson, said in a statement.
“He will be in my heart forever but it’s not enough,” Taylor said. “My life feels so empty. I don’t think anyone knew how much we loved each other.”
On Hollywood Boulevard, police put up barricades to control thousands of fans who filed past Jackson’s star on the Walk of Fame to honor the child prodigy who became one of the top singers of all time with an estimated 750 million albums sold.
About 50 people danced to such Jackson hits as “Rock with You” and “Beat It” in New York’s Washington Square. When “Thriller” played, the crowd formed into lines to imitate the moves from Jackson’s ground-breaking video for the song.
Facing a battered reputation and a mountain of debt that The Wall Street Journal reported ran to $500 million, Jackson spent the last two months rehearsing for a series of London concerts, including Wednesday in Los Angeles.
Despite reports of Jackson’s ill health, the promoters of the London shows, AEG Live, said in March that Jackson passed a 4 1/2-hour physical examination with independent doctors.
TMZ reported it was AEG that had retained Murray.
In death, Jackson’s music enjoyed an immediate rebound that eluded him for years. His songs surged to the top 15 on online retailer Amazon.com’s best-selling albums within hours.
He dominated the charts in the 1980s and was one of the most successful entertainers, with 13 Grammy Awards and several seminal music videos. His 1982 album “Thriller” yielded seven top-10 singles.
But he was twice accused of molesting young boys and was charged in 2003 with child sexual abuse. He was acquitted of all charges in a four-month trial in 2005.
LOS ANGELES — Michael Jackson, the fallen King of Pop, is dead. The singer, songwriter and dancer whose career reached unprecedented peaks of sales and attention, died Thursday. He was 50.
Jermaine Jackson, who performed with his brother, confirmed the death in a brief news conference Thursday evening. Mr. Jackson said that his brother had been in a coma and in cardiac arrest when he was taken U.C.L.A. Medical Center, a six-minute drive from the rented mansion in which he was living, shortly after noon by Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics. He was pronounced dead at 2:26 p.m. Pacific time. His brother added that an autopsy might be performed as early as Friday.
As with Elvis Presley or The Beatles, it is impossible to calculate the full impact he had on the world of music. At his height, he was indisputably the biggest star in the world and has sold more than 750 million albums. Radio stations across the country reacted to his death with marathon sessions of his songs. MTV, which was born in part as a result of Mr. Jackson’s groundbreaking videos, reprised its early days as a music channel by showing his biggest hits.
From his days as the youngest brother in the Jackson 5 to his solo career in the 1980s and early 1990s, Mr. Jackson was responsible for a string of hits like “I Want You Back,” “I’ll Be There,” “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough,” “Billie Jean” and “Black and White” that exploited his high voice, infectious energy, and ear for irresistible hooks.
As a solo performer, Mr. Jackson ushered in the age of pop as a global product — not to mention an age of spectacle and pop culture celebrity. His early career with his brothers gave way to a solo act in which he became more character than singer: his sequined glove, his whitened face, his Moonwalk dance move became embedded in the cultural firmament.
But not long after his entertainment career hit high-water marks — “Thriller,” from 1982, has been certified platinum 28 times by the Recording Industry Association of America — it started a bizarre disintegration. His darkest moment undoubtedly came in 2004, when he was indicted — though later acquitted — on child molesting charges. A young cancer patient claimed the singer had befriended him and then sexually fondled him at his Neverland estate near Santa Barbara, Calif.
Reaction to Mr. Jackson’s death started trickling in from a stunned entertainment community late Thursday, while radio stations immediately programmed marathons of Mr. Jackson’s music. MTV broke into its regularly scheduled program to air the music videos for “Beat It” and “Thriller.”
“I am absolutely devastated at this tragic and unexpected news,” the music producer Quincy Jones said in a statement. Mr. Jones, who produced “Thriller” said Mr. Jackson “had it all — talent, grace, professionalism and dedication.” He added, “I’ve lost my little brother today, and part of my soul has gone with him.”
The Apollo Theater, where Mr. Jackson first performed in 1969 with his brothers at the ripe age of 9 (they won amateur night), said, “We will always remember Michael in our hearts as a true Apollo legend, known for his professionalism and grace.”
Kenny Ortega, the director and choreographer who was working with Mr. Jackson to create the London concert series, called “This is It,” said, “This is all too much to comprehend.”
Impromptu vigils broke out around the world, from Portland, Ore., where fans organized a one-gloved bike ride (“glittery costumes strongly encouraged”) to Hong Kong, where fans gathered with candles and sang his songs in unison.
Mr. Jackson was an object of fascination for the press since the Jackson 5’s first hit, “I Want You Back,” in 1969. His public image wavered between that of the musical naif, who only wanted to recapture his youth by riding on roller-coasters and having sleepovers with his friends, to the calculated mogul who carefully constructed his persona around his often baffling public behavior.
Mr. Jackson had been scheduled to perform a 50 concerts in at the O2 arena London beginning next month and continuing into 2010. The shows were positioned as a potential comeback, with the potential to earn him up to $50 million, according to some reports.
But there has also been worry and speculation that Mr. Jackson was not physically ready for such an arduous run of concerts, and Mr. Jackson’s postponement of the first of those shows from July 8 to July 12 fueled new rounds of speculation about his health.
“The primary reason for the concerts wasn’t so much that he was wanting to generate money as much as it was that he wanted to perform for his kids,” said J. Randy Taraborrelli, whose biography, “Michael Jackson: The Magic and the Madness,” was first published in 1991. “They had never seen him perform before.”
Mr. Jackson is survived by three children: Michael Joseph Jackson, Jr., Paris Michael Katherine Jackson and Prince “Blanket” Michael Jackson II.
The performer’s eccentric lifestyle took a severe financial toll. In 1987 Mr. Jackson paid about $17 million for a 2,600-acre ranch in Los Olivos, Calif., 125 miles northwest of Los Angeles. Calling it Neverland, he outfitted the property with amusement-park rides, a zoo and a 50-seat theater, at a cost of $35 million, according to reports, and the ranch became his sanctum.
But Neverland, and Mr. Jackson’s lifestyle, were expensive to maintain. A forensic accountant who testified at Mr. Jackson’s molestation trial in 2005 said that Mr. Jackson’s annual budget in 1999 included $7.5 million for personal expenses and $5 million to maintain Neverland. By at least the late 1990s, he began to take out huge loans to support himself and pay debts. In 1998 he took out a loan for $140 million from Bank of America, which two years later was upped to $200 million. Further loans of hundreds of millions followed.
The collateral for the loans was Mr. Jackson’s 50 percent share in Sony/ATV Music Publishing, a portfolio of thousands of songs, including rights to 259 songs by John Lennon and Paul McCartney that are considered some of the most valuable properties in music.
In 1985 Mr. Jackson paid $47.5 million for ATV, which included the Beatles songs — a move that estranged him from Paul McCartney — and 10 years later Mr. Jackson sold 50 percent of his interest to Sony for $90 million, creating a joint venture, Sony/ATV. Estimates of the value of the catalog exceed $1 billion.
In many ways, Mr. Jackson never recovered from the child molestation trial, a lurid affair that attracted media from around the world to watch as Mr. Jackson, wearing a different costume each day, appeared in a small courtroom in Santa Maria, Calif., to listen as a parade of witnesses spun a sometimes-incredible tale.
The case ultimately turned on the credibility of Mr. Jackson’s accuser, a 15-year-old cancer survivor who said the defendant had gotten him drunk and molested him several times. The boy’s younger brother testified that he had seen Mr. Jackson fondling his brother on two other occasions.
After 14 weeks of such testimony and seven days of deliberations, the jury returned not-guilty verdicts on all 14 counts against Mr. Jackson: four charges of child molesting, one charge of attempted child molesting, one conspiracy charge and eight possible counts of providing alcohol to minors. Conviction could have brought Mr. Jackson 20 years in prison.
Instead, he walked away a free man to try to reclaim a career that at the time had already been in decline for years.
Posted by Dave Fish Eagle
on June 26, 2009. Filed under Entertainment,Main Headline.
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