MICHAEL JACKSON: KILLER THRILLER

Part 2

But, twelve years later, his obsessed prosecutor, D.A. Tom Sneddon, charged Michael yet again. Though eventually acquitted, the star was devastated and irreparably wounded. And he became even more dangerously addicted to narcotic sleep aids and propofol. 

Family and friends tried drug interventions. Michael excommunicated them. Doctors and nurses refused to give him more. Michael fired them.

His father-in-law, Elvis, had been even more incorrigible. When his doctors refused to prescribe more of what he called his Vitamin E, the King jumped up on a pool table, air-conditioned the ceiling with his .38, and declared, “I’ll buy the goddamed drugstore if I have to. I’m going to get what I want. People have to realize either they’re for me or against me!” When his bodyguards refused to dose him, he told them: “I’m in charge here and if anyone wants to say different, then I may get hurt but somebody is going to die.” When his own step-brother, David Stanley, told him he was confiscating his stash, the King put a gun to his head and said, “No, you’re not.”

Other stars were just as contrary. Said Jerry Garcia’s detox acupuncturist, Yen-wei Chong: “In ancient China, you know which kind of patient is the most difficult to treat? The Emperor.” 

Long before the Doors’ Jim Morrison fatally ODed in Paris, his producer, Paul Rothchild, said of his suicidal drinking and doping: “Everybody tried to stop him. He was unstoppable!” 

The same went for Hendrix, Joplin, Cobain, and many others. 

So, like his predecessors, the King of Pop refused to take no for an answer. On the fatal night, Dr. Conrad Murray, in an attempt to wean his patient off the propofol, gave him only a half dose. But soon he was forced to administer six additional sedatives. By that morning, the still sleepless star was reportedly “begging” for his “milk” – the propofol. Murray gave in. Jackson died. 

But fans continue to ask HOW? WHY? Expressing a common sentiment, Leonard Pitts recently wrote What Michael Jackson Needed Most: A Dr. No.  “That’s Michael Jackson’s ineffable tragedy,” the columnist concluded. “He died of an overdose of yes.”  

But didn’t Michael -- like Elvis, and so many other stars – fire many Dr. No’s during his years of addiction? And, had Murray said no, wouldn’t he have simply been replaced by another Dr. Yes? Just as some choose “death by cop”, others choose “death by doctor” suicide. By most accounts, Michael – devastated by the past trials, and terrified by the future “comeback” concerts – had little interest in continuing to live. He just wanted to sleep at last and forever. 

Who then is responsible for his end? His unwitting accomplice? Or the man in the mirror who, tragically, could not change his ways?