Las Vegas Weekly

September 11, 2009 · 12:35 PM

LaToya Jackson says in interview Michael’s death ‘was murder’

By Robin Leach

LaToya Jackson and Barbara Walters.

Photo: Donna Svennevik/ABC TV

LaToya Jackson charges “it was murder” when she discusses the death of her brother Michael in her first in-depth interview. She also opened up exclusively to Barbara Walters about the family’s grief and the secrets of his burial. The incredible Barbara Walters interview airs on ABC’s 20/20 tonight.

ABC just released the following official commentary about the interview and its contents. It is accompanied by a video clip in which LaToya clearly states: “I knew something terrible would happen at the end. Michael told me, ‘If I die, they will murder me, they will kill me.’ I always believed from day one that he was murdered. They could tell me it was a heart attack or he fell off a ladder. But I knew it was not a heart attack. He was murdered.”

LaToya, 53, who lives here in Las Vegas, told Barbara: “I don’t think we'll find a person as talented, a person who thought the way he thought. A person with the heart that Michael had. People aren’t that way anymore. He was special. He wasn’t God, but he was certainly God-like. He was the closest thing to a god that I knew.”

LaToya, one of Michael’s closest siblings, was one of the first ones to appear at her brother’s bedside the day he died. Since then, the solo artist and model signed her brother’s death certificate, became the legal guardian of his body and, with the entire Jackson family, planned the funeral and memorial service in Los Angeles.

Michael was laid to rest in a private ceremony last week, nearly two months after his death, at Forest Lawn in Glendale, Calif. LaToya told Barbara that her brother looked “absolutely fabulous.”

“He was dressed in all white pearl beads going across, draped across. A beautiful big gold belt. Like ... like a belt that you win being a boxer,” she said. “Full makeup. ... His hair was done beautifully, his makeup was done beautifully.”

According to LaToya, in addition to the stones Paris placed on his chest, the family put sunglasses, an iconic white glove and a few other items in the casket with him.

According to the autopsy, the late King of Pop died of a fatal combination of drugs, including the powerful anesthetic propofol. Dr. Conrad Murray, Michael’s personal physician, has admitted administering propofol, but has denied giving Michael anything that “should have killed him.”

Dr. Murray told investigators that he had been trying to wean the singer off propofol by administering a series of other prescription sedatives. When asked by Barbara if Dr. Murray murdered her brother, LaToya said, “Something went wrong. Something went wrong.”

LaToya also addressed reports that Michael’s oldest son, Prince, was summoned by Dr. Murray the night of his father’s death to help resuscitate his father.

“He called Prince ... Prince ... watched him do this, Barbara. And you don’t do that to a child. You don’t do that to a child, especially when you knew prior to asking that child to come up, that Michael was no longer alive,” she said.

LaToya stressed that she believes Michael was dead long before Dr. Murray even called for Prince -- but called the 13-year-old in to “show that [he] had nothing to do with this.”

Since Michael’s death, the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office ruled the manner of death a homicide. The Los Angeles Police Department is continuing to investigate the circumstances surrounding his death. Dr. Murray, as well as other doctors known to have prescribed narcotics to Michael, has been questioned.

“I blame any and everybody who was instrumental in Michael’s life providing him with drugs because it was wrong. It was terribly wrong,” LaToya said. “They’re doctors! This is going against their license, Barbara. You don’t do things like that.”

From the day each of Michael’s three children was born, the identity of their biological father has been questioned.

“It doesn’t really matter; those are Michael’s kids. He raised those kids,” LaToya said. “They were in his arms when they were born; the minute that they were, they were right there with him. They only know Michael as their father.”

Michael married the mother of his two oldest children, Debbie Rowe, but she has had almost no contact with the children for nearly a decade.

“They know who Debbie Rowe is. Whether or not they know she’s their mother, I'm not so sure,” LaToya said. “They haven’t seen her since he’s passed. But they’re more than welcome.”

Blanket, Michael's youngest child, was born to an unnamed surrogate after Michael and Debbie divorced. LaToya said that Michael had told her that Blanket is Hispanic.

“I said to Michael, I said, ‘He looks Hispanic.’ And Michael said, ‘He is,’ ” LaToya told Barbara.

In his will, Michael named his mother, Katherine Jackson, as their sole guardian, and in July, she was granted full, permanent custody of the three children. LaToya said that they will continue to be home-schooled, “just the way they were with their dad.”

LaToya also talked to Barbara about how the kids are coping with the grief. Silencing rumors that Michael did not want the children around his father, Joe Jackson, LaToya said Michael had made amends with his father and that the kids had a good relationship with their grandfather.

“They love their grandfather,” she said. “They ... like the fact that he’s very outspoken. And they say that, ‘Grandpa, he tells you like it is.’ ”

Despite the past, she believes Michael would have wanted Joe to be involved in their lives. Michael never revealed why, but his will states that if his 79-year-old mother ever becomes unable to care for the children, he wants them to be raised by Diana Ross, 65.

“I know, of course, that Diana Ross is second in line for the children, of course, and mother has spoken to her about things of that nature, but I don’t wish to go into detail,” LaToya told Barbara.

LaToya said that the children don’t have a relationship with Diana or know that she might possibly be the woman raising them. When asked if Diana wants to raise Michael’s three children, LaToya responded: “I think my mother knows the answer to that.”

Why Michael preferred Diana over his own eight siblings to care for his children was not explained in the will; sister Rebbie, who has three children of her own and has been married for 41 years, could be a candidate to raise the children in the event that their mother is incapacitated.

“There’s a possibility. There’s a possibility,” LaToya said, “She’s done a wonderful job with her children.”

LaToya asked ABC News to make it known that she was not paid for this interview.

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

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