Michael Jackson fans have been left “haunted” by footage of the singer taken just hours before his tragic death in June 2009.
At the time, the Jackson 5 star was rehearsing for his This Is It tour. Footage taken on June 24th, 2009, showed the Thriller hitmaker looking weary as he tried to keep up with his backing dancers and rehearsed vocals. But the star was visibly out of time with his dancers, and couldn’t quite match their energy.
Jackson wore a black silk bomber jacket over a loose white shirt and a t-shirt, along with a pair of black trousers, and pulled his curly black hair into a ponytail at the nape of his neck. He could be seen pushing his hair out of his face and chatting to a stage manager before walking tiredly across the stage.
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Reacting to the video on YouTube, one devastated fan commented: “He looks so tired. It hurts to watch this knowing how weak his heart was and how close he was to the end. But he was so driven and such a professional! He was the most amazing, gifted entertainer!”
(Image: YouTube)
Someone else said: “You can tell his body was not keeping up with the pace anymore. But his heart was still young. RIP.” While another agreed: “You can tell how exhausted he is from everything but he still tried to get everything perfect for his fans.”
In the early hours of the next day, June 25th, Jackson was struggling to sleep. He was given Valium at 1:30am, and finally injected with anti anxiety drug Ativan at around two in the morning, by his live-in doctor Conrad Murray.
The drug was administered via a drip in Jackson’s bedroom, but by 3am he was still awake. A second sedative – Versed – was administered, before Jackson was given more Ativan. By 10:40am he was given propofol and left alone while Dr Murray went to the toilet.
(Image: YouTube)
When he returned, he claims Jackson had stopped breathing. He started CPR but didn’t call the emergency services immediately, before alerting one of MJ’s security guards. The 911 call was finally made at 12:21pm. News of his death broke at 2:44pm, when he was declared dead at the UCLA medical centre.
Paramedics said they were sure they’d been called to the home of a terminally ill patient, and were unable to recognise the singer. He was pale and weighed just 136 pounds, according to his autopsy report.
(Image: YouTube)
The report also revealed that Jackson wore a wig in the later stages of his life, with the hair on top of his head described as “sparse”. He had “frontal balding”, meaning the wig had to be glued to his scarred scalp.
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It is believed the star first began wearing a wig in 1984 when his hair caught fire while filming a Pepsi advert, which left him with second and third degree burns. He was dancing down a flight of stairs as fireworks went off around him, but they exploded too early – with sparks igniting the gel in the star’s hair.
His lips had been tattooed pink and his eyebrows tattooed black, as the star suffered from skin pigmentation disorder vitiligo, with the skin on his chest, face, arms and abdomen turning white. The front of his scalp also had to be tattooed black to blend in with the line of his wig.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
