The King of Conspiracy
Camron Steadman
Michael Jackson: The King of Conspiracy
Michael Jackson, also known as the “King of Pop,” was one of the greatest artists in modern history. People knew him for various reasons; for his music, his dancing, his scandals, and in 2009, before he was supposed to go on his ‘This is It” tour, he was known for his untimely death. He is believed to have overdosed on a drug called Propofol that he was misusing as a sleep aid. There are many speculations and theories about his death. Did a “Bad” person intentionally murder him, or did he tell people to “Leave me alone” and fake his own death? These are two of the biggest conspiracies out there. Are they possibly true, or are we just chasing “Ghosts”?
Michael Jackson was a thrilling and well loved artist, but what was he beyond that? To describe Michael, people have most commonly used two very different words: love and pain. Jackson was a very loving man and was a very strong advocate to “Heal the World”. A quote from his song “Man in the Mirror" says, “If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make a change”. Michael, along with being loving, was in a lot of pain. He suffered a lot of trauma in his life, resulting from years of abuse from his father and from severely burning himself while filming a commercial for Pepsi in 1984.
To expand on Michael Jackson’s love, there is a quote from his daughter, Paris Jackson "I kind of felt like no one understood what a good father he was. He was the best cook ever, he was just a normal dad.”(Friedman). He was a loving dad to his kids, even though he was an international pop star. He was also part of the "We Are the World” movement, which is when many artists came together and sang to raise funds for hunger relief in Africa. He and Lionel Richie came together to write the hit song “We are the World”. He wrote many songs about loving and caring for the world we live in, including “Heal the World”, “Man in the Mirror”, “Earth Song”, and “Black or White." Along with caring for the world, he loved kids. He ended up starting a place called “Neverland” a place where he could be a kid and kids could just be kids. He said, "When I was creating Neverland, I was creating a world the way I would like to see it.
I wanted it to be a place to bring sick kids who are deprived and underprivileged from around the world... A haven for them, where they could feel safe and have some escapism. Or kids, who never got to see this type of things in the inner cities to breathe fresh air and see mountains and all that"(Bradley). His love for kids caused a lot of scrutiny and scandals about inappropriate relationships with the kids. His love for people can’t be denied but it can be said he may have pushed it too far.
Along with that love for people, he suffered a lot of pain in his life, it all started when he was a kid. Michael was strongly encouraged by his dad to join his brothers in a band that became the “Jackson 5”. He joined the group at the age of five. He went on to say, “My father would rehearse with a belt in his hand. You couldn’t mess up”(Mckevoy). Being brutalized at that age caused a lot of troubles in Michael’s adult life; he was cheated out of a childhood, causing him to want one, and he was very discontent about his appearance. In 1984, he suffered an accident while filming a commercial for Pepsi. His hair caught fire while performing, causing him to have a huge patch of hair burned off, leading him to have surgery to try and repair it. He later suffered from severe migraines because of it.Another accident he had was later that year while performing in Munich, when a bridge above the stage collapsed as Jackson was dancing on it. That resulted in him having severe back pain. He also claimed to have the skin pigment disease "vitiligo." His skin color had changed drastically from his childhood to even his twenties. These accidents, trauma, and “diseases” caused a lot of pain in his life, and the public opinion of him changed drastically. The toll of the pain he went through resulted in multiple surgeries and bodily changes. He was also taking a lot of pills and medicine to try and cure the pain.
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Michael Jackson was a loving man but was also in a lot of pain, both mentally and physically. He loved people and the world, but maybe that love blinded him. He dealt with the pain by trying to get that time back or with pills and medications. Karen Faye said this about his belief in doctors, “He believed if he got something through a doctor that it was safe and OK for him to use it.”(Duke). His love and trust in people, combined with all the pain he was experiencing, may just be the reason for Michael Jackson’s unforeseen death.
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After Michael Jackson's death, two main conspiracy theories emerged. The first theory argues that someone murdered Michael, while the second suspects that he did not actually die, but instead faked his death to get away from his hectic life as the “King of Pop”. The most popular conspiracy, that he was murdered, is widely supported. In Michael Jackson’s last days, it was reported by a former staffer that he was taking 30 to 40 xanax pills to help him sleep every night. As a result, he became very paranoid and scared for his life. Later, he wrote in a diary that he gave to Michael Jacobshagen , the following statements: “They are trying to murder me.”, “scared about my life”, “the system wants to kill me for my catalog”(Beal). These statements show that Michael was scared for his life, but what had him so worried? Was someone actually trying to kill him? Paris Jackson, in an interview with the magazine “Rolling Stone”, was asked why she thinks that her father was murdered. Paris answered, "Because it's obvious. All arrows point to that"(Hiatt). It seems that he knew that his death was imminent. After his death, in an interview between investigators and Conrad Murray, Murray said “Michael begged for Propofol and that he administered it once”. Propofol according to Murray is “a sedative that could also be used for anesthesia”.He then say he has given it to him everyday for months. Conrad Murray has already been charged of manslaughter against Michael, which definitively closed the case, but there are two things that can not be explained.The first being why did he flee hours after Michael was taken to the hospital and the second why did he administer CPR with only one arm and on a bed rather than on a hard surface?
The second and least likely conspiracy is that he is still alive and faked his death. This conspiracy does not have much basis since they have hte body and hav confirmed that it in fact is Michael Jackson. Although, there is a case for why he would fake his death. The first reason is he was in millions of dollars in debt. According to William R. Ackerman Michael was “between $400 million and $500 million in debt”(Wynne). The second possible reason, there were a lot of allegations towards him. In the years before he died he had been sued multiple times for allegedly having inappropriate relationships with kids. Michael said this about the allegations: “I was shocked because God knows how much in my heart I adore children,”(Rothstein). The last possible reason would be to get away from everything to privately raise his kids.
Michael Jackson was one of the greatest artists in modern history. He was declared to have overdosed on a drug called Propofol that he was misusing as a sleep aid. There are two common theories about his death. Did his doctor, Conrad Murray, murder him or did he fake his own death? The most probable of the two is that he was murdered, but his doctor was already charged with involuntary manslaughter and the case was closed. Though there is still much speculation, it seems that there is a “Smooth Criminal”.