The Death of Michael Jackson
The year 2019 marks a decade after the world woke up to the news of the loss of an iconic ‘King of Pop,’ Michael Jackson. Most people, however, came to know Michael Jackson after his death due to the conspiracy and rumors that surrounded his death. Like the death of any other artist, fans were quick to mourn online, re-watch his videos and get over the news to resume the normal life. However, the question that has remained in the minds of the musician’s friends and followers has been on the cause of Michael Jackson’s death. The death of Michael Jackson was not the first time that a celebrity was dying under unclear circumstances, but the news of his death was received shockingly by the world of pop music due to the future that the star had promised the field.
The pursuit of truth has been the norm of each day after Michael Jackson died suddenly on the 25th June 2009 aged 50 years. Several theories and conspiracies were developed concerning the death of the star. The year 2011 saw the former Michael Jackson’s physician being charged for involuntary manslaughter in a court conviction (Cohen & Hoffner, 2016). The case that found Conrad Murray as the first suspect in the death of Michael Jackson also revealed that the ‘King of Pop’ died from the impacts of excessive medication in his blood. However, Murray was not at the scene of Jackson’s death since reports showed that the physician had left a heavily drugged Jackson on his bed and several events remained unrevealed from the moment the physician left to the time the artist was pronounced dead. The conviction of Murray was, however, viewed as a cover-up for Jackson’s real cause of death by several scholars. Michael Jackson had been a victim of drug addiction in a bid to restore a personality that different scholars believe that Jackson was not mentally ready to manage.
Michael Jackson’s death has been attributed to an overdose of Propofol, which is always injected to the bloodstream of an individual before surgery (Hutchings, 2016). Funny as it may sound, Michael Jackson was an addict to drugs due to his cases of depression and insomnia. Michael Jackson is said to have been a victim of loss of sleep and had to rely on medication to be able to sleep and relax. Jackson had been using sleeping pills for some time, but his severe insomnia led his doctor into administering Propofol as his last option. On several occasions, Michael Jackson admitted his love with Propofol and even referred to it as his ‘milk’ due to its appearance. The administration of Propofol was done by Conrad Murray and hence the reason Murray was arraigned in court for charges against manslaughter. The charges against Murray almost took a twist when Jackson’s family sued the company that had certified Murray, but the suit failed since the company was not responsible for the doctor’s change in behavior. In addition to the claim on drug overdose, a different group of family members and fans believed that Michael Jackson’s death was prearranged and that Murray was only completing a mission that had taken a long time.
Confusion surrounding the death of Michael Jackson has continued to grow wider and wider. Several individuals have decided to hold contradicting explanations to the events leading to his death. First, several scholars who have utilized the information presented as evidence in Murray’s case have had a different point of view. Michael Jackson has been blamed for causing his death through a process that took several years. The excessive dependence on narcotics has been associated with an instance that happened in 1984 when Michael Jackson was filming a Pepsi commercial. Jackson is said to have suffered burns on his scalp, and the pain from the burns led him into using large amounts of Demerol. The life of Michael Jackson was never to be the same after his introduction into narcotic dependence. However, Jackson’s family members, as well as some fans, believe that Jackson was murdered. The claims by Jackson’s daughter Paris has seen most fans believe that Jackson was intentionally murdered. Paris claimed that her father had talked about people trying to kill him for several years, and thus, his death could not have been a doctor’s mistake (Bruhm, 2017). However, tangible evidence has not been found to associate Jackson’s death with planned murder, and the decision remains that an overdose led to the loss of Michael Jackson’s life. The main suspect to Michael Jackson’s death served two of his four-year sentence.
In sum, the death of a celebrity hits the fans as a surprise, but most of the mourning is done online as the fans try to get over the news. The news of Michael Jackson’s death was, however, not left at his burial. Several conspiracies and rumors have been on stage to date concerning the real cause of Jackson’s death. The trial of Conrad Murray led to the idea that Michael Jackson could have died due to an overdose of Propofol that the doctor had prescribed to help Michael Jackson get some sleep.
References
Bruhm, S. (2017). Michael Jackson’s queer funk. In Queering the Gothic. Manchester University Press.
Cohen, E. L., & Hoffner, C. (2016). Finding meaning in a celebrity’s death: The relationship between parasocial attachment, grief, and sharing educational health information related to Robin Williams on social network sites. Computers in Human Behavior, 65, 643-650.
Hutchings, T. (2016). Wiring death: Dying, grieving and remembering on the internet. In Emotion, identity and death(pp. 55-70). Routledge.