Pop star Michael Jackson rehearses at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on Tuesday, June 23, 2009.
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Unquestionably, Jackson is worth more dead than alive. The 1,000 hours of video of the final rehearsals of his London show could be worth about $500 million in gross sales of DVDs, CDs and other items. His assets include half ownership of music publisher Sony/ATV, worth $1 billion. His small remaining interest in Neverland could skyrocket in value; so will his personal items when sold. But his staggering debt, perhaps $500 million, reflects a lifetime of indulgence on antiques, houses, helicopters, more than $100 million in annual upkeep on the 2,500-acre (1,000 hectare) Neverland estate and the hosting of an army of parasitic hangers-on, pseudo advisers and business partners whose main concern did not seem to be him. Says a source with knowledge of Jackson's finances: "All these other guys tried to set these deals up--lucrative deals up--everything from starting theme parks in different countries to other brand-extension-type ideas. They were trying to set up deals and take fees regardless if they made him money or not."
The King died from a surfeit of pills and junk food. But what or who killed the King of Pop? Amateur pathologists in the entertainment-news industry flooded TV, newspapers and the Internet with lurid theories. British tabloid the Sun claimed that an autopsy revealed that Jackson's body, weighing an emaciated 112 lb. (50 kg), was riddled with needle marks from painkiller injections, a report swiftly denied by the Los Angeles County coroner's office.
Not that Jackson hadn't punished his body--sculpted, spindled and mutilated it--on his own. The extensive plastic surgery he permitted on his face left a beautiful young man looking like the Phantom of the Opera; he often wore a mask to hide his disfigured features. After he was injured in a fire while shooting a Pepsi commercial in 1984 and, later, in a stage fall, he became dependent on prescription medication and on the Dr. Feelgoods who cater to the pharmacological demands of the stars. "The doctors prescribed so much drugs, it was crazy," said a longtime Jackson-family attorney, Brian Oxman. Jackson often looked frail and wasted away in his public appearances, the result, said another tabloid, of a malady called alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, a genetic condition that leads to the breakdown of the lungs. Yet according to those who worked with him, he was vital and tireless the night before his death.
A harsh spotlight fell on Murray, the cardiologist who had been hired to accompany Jackson on the tour. The autopsy dismissed foul play, and Murray denied injecting Jackson with Demerol, a powerful painkiller.
The star's survivors and friends are also pressing for answers. "The doctor has showed some bizarre behavior," the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who has ministered to the family in recent days, told PEOPLE. "Apparently, the doctor was with Michael, maybe administering to his back pain. And then, the next thing that happens is there is a 911 call ... Then, of course, the doctor did not confer with the family ... He didn't sign the death certificate. He didn't talk with the coroner. And then he was missing in action. Finally, when he surfaced, he surfaced with a lawyer. All these are rather bizarre actions. There may be plausible answers, but we don't know."