WAS MICHAEL JACKSON MURDERED? YOU BE THE JUDGE

A writer argues that a pop superstar was murdered in this debut work of true crime.

Michael Jackson’s death spawned theories of foul play almost immediately, many of them directed at the singer’s personal physician, Dr. Conrad Murray. Watson contributes his own evidence to the case against Murray, who was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and served two years in prison for improperly administering the drug that killed Jackson. In Watson’s view, Murray actually successfully carried out a premeditated murder of Jackson. Using documents from the court case, Murray’s film on the subject, and the author’s own research, Watson attempts to establish that the doctor’s work for Jackson was essentially a scam from the beginning, one that only got worse the longer that the singer was in his care. The author claims that Murray kept Jackson drugged and confused in order to extract increasingly lucrative contract provisions for himself and then—when the superstar discovered his scheme—elected to end the singer’s life rather than suffer the consequences. Watson’s prose is generally choppy and ungrammatical: “As Dr. Murray’s situation begins to unfold and the situation begins to materialize,” his common-law wife “knows his future is in jeopardy, but also was her’s and her son’s. It was a question of if he would be charged and now it is when would he be charged and what with.” The book seems to be primarily an adaptation of the material from Watson’s film The Murder of Michael Jackson: The Perfect Murder, which he claims he was unable to find distribution for due to the appearance of Murray’s own documentary on the case. The author delivers some intriguing details and thought-provoking contentions. Unfortunately, he offers proof for some of his arguments but not others. For example, he claims several times without explanation that Murray was not a licensed cardiologist. Watson also mentions events and people, like “Dr. Cooper” (the subject of an entire chapter), without properly introducing them. While the author’s theory certainly seems to be within the realm of possible scenarios, it is laid out in such an undisciplined way that readers will be unable to give it as much credence as they might otherwise.

An urgent yet messy accusation of murder in the case of Michael Jackson.