Long before Dr. Conrad Murray was convicted over Michael Jackson’s death, one member of the family met him and came away uneasy. Jermaine Jackson could not point to anything specific the man had said or done. But something about the way he carried himself around Michael didn’t sit right, and Jermaine has said in interviews since that feeling never fully left him.
Here is who Murray actually was, because most people only know the name. He was a cardiologist with practices in Las Vegas and Houston, hired only weeks before Michael died, specifically for the This Is It comeback shows in London. He was reportedly to be paid $150,000 a month. He had not been part of Michael’s life before that.
Jermaine: Something Strange About Conrad
On 25 June 2009, Murray was alone with Michael at his rented mansion in Holmby Hills, Los Angeles. He had been administering propofol — a powerful anesthetic normally used in hospitals under strict monitoring, never as a sleep aid at home — to help Michael sleep.
Murray told police he stepped away briefly and returned to find Michael not breathing.
The timeline is what convicted him. Phone records showed he had been on calls for close to an hour while Michael lay unresponsive, including a 32-minute call to one of his own medical clinics. He also delayed calling emergency services. He did not tell paramedics or the hospital that he had given Michael propofol.
Inside the Final Days of Michael Jackson with Dr Conrad Murray | 60 Minutes Australia
The coroner ruled the death a homicide, caused by acute propofol intoxication. In November 2011, Murray was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to four years. He served under two years, released early on good behavior and California overcrowding rules. He has never accepted responsibility.
For Jermaine, the verdict never closed the question. In his book, he raised something that has never been fully explained: surveillance footage from the house was erased, and he has argued that investigators never got to it. He has said publicly that he believes Murray was part of something larger rather than acting alone.
It is worth being careful here. No evidence has ever supported a wider conspiracy, and nobody else has been charged. Jermaine’s view is a brother’s view, not a finding of fact.
But the narrower point stands on its own, and it is bleak. A doctor was hired in a hurry, on an enormous salary, to keep the most valuable performer in the world upright for fifty concerts. And a member of his own family took one look at the arrangement and knew something was wrong.