La Toya reveals she believes Michael was effectively murdered by 'shadowy entourage'
La Toya Jackson has stated she believes her brother Michael Jackson was effectively murdered by a 'shadowy entourage'. Michael's closest sister portrays the King of Pop as a lonely, isolated figure who died at the hands of money-motivated staff who fed him drugs to control his moods, cut him off from his family and forced him to sign up for the 50-date This Is It tour.
La Toya belives his entourage saw him as a 'cash cow' and exploited him at every turn, ultimately leading to his death.
Last week, Los Angeles police chief William Bratton confirmed that investigators had not ruled out homicide.
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Under Californian law, murder also covers killings that were not premeditated, which would be classed as manslaughter under the British legal system.
Though the formal state autopsy’s results will not be known for two weeks, La Toya has had a private autopsy conducted.
She did not reveal the details of the results, but did say that four fresh needle marks were found in his neck.
'I believe Michael was murdered, I felt that from the start. Not just one person was involved, rather it was a conspiracy of people.
'He was surrounded by a bad circle. Michael was a very meek, quiet, loving person. People took advantage of that. People fought to be close to him, people who weren’t always on his side.
‘Less than a month ago, I said I thought Michael was going to die before the London shows because he was surrounded by people who didn’t have his best interests at heart.
‘Michael was worth more than a billion dollars. When anyone is worth that much money, there are always greedy people around them. I said to my family a month ago, “He’s never going to make it to London.” He was worth more dead than alive.’
At the end she said Michael was 'isolated from his family. He had no real friends. He was the loneliest man in the world. I knew something terrible was going to happen'.
Upon hearing Michael had been taken to the hospital, she said: I jumped into my car and kept calling my mother’s assistant saying, “How is he? How is he?”’ she recalls. ‘But he wouldn’t tell me.
'Finally, I heard Mother in the background asking, “Who is that?” When she learned it was me, she screamed, “Why don’t you just tell her?” and she grabbed the phone and just screamed as loud as she could, “He’s dead!”
‘I nearly crashed my car. My legs went weak. I couldn’t press down on the gas pedal. I got to the wrong entrance at the hospital and was begging the security guys to help me and take my car because I was so weak and faint. They took me up to the area where Michael had been taken. Mother was crying and Michael’s kids were crying.'
She says Paris demanded to see her father ‘one last time’.
She says: ‘There was a towel over his face and I lifted it and the kids saw him and Paris said, “Oh Daddy, I love you.”
‘We hugged and kissed him and the children lifted up his hands. He didn’t look like he was gone. His eyes were half open and he looked like he was sleeping. He wasn’t cold.
‘The kids had been screaming and crying but once they were in that room and saw Michael they stopped and became calm. We said prayers over him. I asked them, “What do you want to say to Daddy?” and they said private things to him.
'Paris was holding his hand. We were all sitting around the bed. His chest was very red from the attempts to revive him. I lifted the covers to see his legs. Everything looked fine.’
According to reports, Jackson used intravenous anaesthetics to help him sleep, including Demerol and Diprivan, a drug never normally used outside the operating theatre.
Police also removed two bagfuls of prescription drugs issued to various aliases from pharmacies in different US states. They have subpoenaed the star’s medical records from a series of doctors. La Toya says: ‘It will all come out. You will be shocked.'
The official coroner’s report is due soon along with the results of a second autopsy, which La Toya arranged.
She says: ‘We want to sit down and compare the two reports before anything is made public. I have a strong idea of what the outcome will be but I cannot say anything at this stage.
‘He had needle marks on his neck and on his arms and more about those will emerge in the next few weeks. I cannot discuss that any further as I may jeopardise the investigation. I can, however, say that I have not changed my mind about my feeling that Michael was murdered.’
La Toya added that the family will not stop until they get answers.
'Those people around him didn’t care about Michael the man. They were interested in Michael the cash cow.
‘Michael didn’t keep a close eye on his finances. A lot of people made a lot of money out of Michael. The house he was renting at the end is a classic example. It would cost £15,000 a month to rent but he was charged £60,000 a month because he was Michael Jackson.’
‘As a family, we tried to get involved. We wanted to stage an intervention. But we couldn’t get near Michael. I knew something terrible was going to happen.
‘I believe he was cut off from the real world and the drugs were a way [for his hangers-on] to get in there. They got him hooked on drugs. He was pure and clean and then drugs came back into his system. I think it shocked his system so much it killed him.’
She says the family will file a civil lawsuit against anyone they believe responsible, as well as pushing for police to serve criminal charges: ‘I am going to get down to the bottom of this. I am not going to stop until I find out who is responsible. Why did they keep the family away? It’s not about money. I want justice for Michael. I won’t rest until I find out what – and who – killed my brother.’
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