The strongest version of this theory starts with real facts. Jackson was worth far more as a catalog than as a debtor; people around him were paid well to keep him working; he was given a dangerous drug by a doctor who was badly in debt and paid by the tour. His sister La Toya said in July 2009 that he had told her people would kill him for his music catalog, and that a “shadowy entourage” was responsible. [1][2]
The coroner did rule the death a homicide. [3] But the investigation that followed, including a criminal trial with a full presentation of the evidence, found that the death came from Murray’s gross negligence. Prosecutors charged manslaughter because they had no evidence of intent. [4][5]
There is no evidence in the trial record, the AEG civil trial or the coroner’s report of a plan to kill him. The theory survives because the fears were his own and because the money is real. Neither is evidence of a murder.
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