Michael Jackson dead at 50

Michael Jackson has died at the age of 50.

An autopsy on the body of the self-proclaimed “King of Pop” was being performed on Friday, though results are not likely to be final until toxicology tests are completed.

The process could take several days and sometimes weeks.

However, Los Angeles County Coroner Investigator Jerry McKibben said if a cause can be determined by the autopsy, they will announce the results.

The Los Angeles Police Department has told ABC News Michael Jackson received an injection of painkiller Demerol one hour before his death. ABC News is also reporting that Michael Jackson was “heavily addicted” to the powerful pain killer Oxycontin and received “daily doses” of it and of Demerol, according to a senior law enforcement official briefed on the initial investigation of his death.

OxyContin is in a group of drugs called narcotic pain relievers. It is similar to morphine. Demerol is in a group of drugs called narcotic pain relievers. It is similar to morphine.

Only Online
– Michael Jackson tribute by 680News music reporter Rudy Blair
– Submit your memories and condolences
– 911 call in Michael Jackson death
– Newspaper front pages from around the world
– Michael Jackson music videos
– 680News arts blog: “King of Pop” lives on
– Tributes to Michael Jackson
– Timeline of his career
– Cardiac arrest vs. heart attack
– The fate of Jackson’s estate
– Michael Jackson official site
– Michael Jackson profile

Jackson, 50, died Thursday at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles at 2:26 p.m. (L.A. time) after being stricken at his rented Los Angeles home.

The circumstances of Jackson’s death were not immediately clear. Jackson was not breathing when Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics responded to a call at his Los Angeles home about 12:21 p.m., Capt. Steve Ruda told the Los Angeles Times.

In the 911 tape, you can hear the unidentified caller telling dispatch that Jackson was unconscious and not breathing.

The paramedics performed CPR and took him to the hospital, Ruda told the newspaper.

Paramedics tried to resuscitate him for nearly three-quarters of an hour, then rushed him to the hospital, where doctors continued to work on him.

According to Michael’s brother Jermaine, Michael was rushed to hospital and paramedics tried to re-gain a pulse for more than an hour, but were unsuccessful.

“It is believed he suffered cardiac arrest in his home,” Jermaine said. However, he said “the cause of his death is unknown until results of the autopsy are known.”

Reports say Jackson’s doctor was with him when the musician suffered from cardiac arrest.

A newspaper reports the doctor whose car was towed from Michael Jackson’s house is a cardiologist who practises in California, Nevada and Texas.

A woman who answered the phone Friday at Dr. Conrad C. Murray’s clinic in Houston confirmed to The Associated Press that Murray was Jackson’s cardiologist. The woman, who refused to give her name, would not confirm the Los Angeles Times report that Murray was performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Jackson when paramedics arrived at the entertainer’s home Thursday.

The Texas State Board of Medical Examiners web site shows no complaints filed against Murray in the four years he’s been a licensed cardiologist in Texas.

Los Angeles police say they want to speak to the doctor but stressed he was not under criminal investigation.

Jackson was preparing for what would have been a series of 50 concerts starting July 13 in London.

His death brought a tragic end to a long, bizarre, sometimes farcical decline from his peak in the 1980s, when he was popular music’s premier all-around performer, a uniter of black and white music who shattered the race barrier on MTV, dominated the charts and dazzled even more on stage.

His 1982 album “Thriller” — which included the blockbuster hits “Beat It,” “Billie Jean” and “Thriller” — is the best-selling album of all time, with an estimated 50-million copies sold worldwide.

The public first knew him in the late 1960s, when as a boy he was the precocious, spinning lead singer of the Jackson 5, the music group he formed with his four older brothers. Among their No. 1 hits were I Want You Back, ABC, and I’ll Be There.

He was perhaps the most exciting performer of his generation, known for his feverish, crotch-grabbing dance moves and his high-pitched voice punctuated with squeals and titters. His single sequined glove, tight, military-style jacket and aviator sunglasses were trademarks second only to his ever-changing, surgically altered appearance.

“For Michael to be taken away from us so suddenly at such a young age, I just don’t have the words,” said Quincy Jones, who produced Thriller. “He was the consummate entertainer and his contributions and legacy will be felt upon the world forever. I’ve lost my little brother today, and part of my soul has gone with him.”

Jackson ranked alongside Elvis Presley and the Beatles as the biggest pop sensations of all time. He united two of music’s biggest names when he was briefly married to Presley’s daughter, Lisa Marie, and Jackson’s death immediately evoked that of Presley himself, who died at age 42 in 1977.

As years went by, Jackson became an increasingly freakish figure — a middle-aged man-child weirdly out of touch with grown-up life. His skin became lighter, his nose narrower, and he spoke in a breathy, girlish voice. He surrounded himself with children at his Neverland ranch, often wore a germ mask while travelling and kept a pet chimpanzee named Bubbles as one of his closest companions.

“It seemed to me that his internal essence was at war with the norms of the world. It’s as if he was trying to defy gravity,” said Michael Levine, a Hollywood publicist who represented Jackson in the early 1990s. He called Jackson a “disciple of P.T. Barnum” and said the star appeared fragile at the time but was “much more cunning and shrewd about the industry than anyone knew.”

Jackson caused a furor in 2002 when he playfully dangled his infant son, Prince Michael II, over a hotel balcony in Berlin while a throng of fans watched from below.

In 2005, he was cleared of charges he molested a 13-year-old cancer survivor at Neverland in 2003. He had been accused of plying the boy with alcohol and groping him, and of engaging in strange and inappropriate behaviour with other children.

The case followed years of rumours about Jackson and young boys. In a TV documentary, he had acknowledged sharing his bed with children, a practice he described as sweet and not at all sexual.

Despite the acquittal, the lurid allegations that came out in court took a fearsome toll on his career and image, and he fell into serious financial trouble.

Jackson was preparing for what was to be his greatest comeback: He was scheduled for an unprecedented 50 shows at a London arena, with the first set for July 13. He was in rehearsals in Los Angeles for the concert, an extravaganza that was to capture the classic Jackson magic: showstopping dance moves, elaborate staging and throbbing dance beats.

Singer Dionne Warwick said: “Michael was a friend and undoubtedly one of the world’s greatest entertainers that I fortunately had the pleasure of working with. … We have lost an icon in our industry.”

Hundreds of people gathered outside the hospital as word of his death spread. The emergency entrance at the UCLA Medical Center, which is near Jackson’s rented home, was roped off with police tape.

“Ladies and gentlemen, Michael Jackson has just died,” a woman boarding a Manhattan bus called out, shortly after the news was announced. Immediately many riders reached for their cellphones.

So many people wanted to verify the early reports of Jackson’s death that the computers running Google’s news section interpreted the fusillade of “Michael Jackson” requests as an automated attack for about half an hour Thursday evening.

_____

Associated Press writers Derrik J. Lang in Los Angeles and Virginia Byrne, Nekesa Mumbi Moody and Jocelyn Noveck in New York contributed to this report.

Photo: Some of Michael Jackson’s records (Photo courtesy of: SonyMusic.com)