Looking relaxed and seemingly untroubled, he moves through his daily routine in Sunrise, Florida, much like any other resident of the quiet, middle-class city on the edge of the Everglades.
Driving an $80,000 white BMW X1, he heads to the gym for a workout, then stops at a nearby Walgreens to collect medication. Before returning to his $600,000 lakeside home, he makes one more stop to pick up some of his favorite Caribbean takeout. On the surface, it all appears perfectly ordinary.
But the man seen in these photographs, obtained exclusively by the Daily Mail, is anything but ordinary.
He is Dr. Conrad Murray, the physician held responsible for the death of pop icon Michael Jackson, who died 17 years ago this week.
Murray administered the fatal dose of propofol, a powerful anesthetic and sedative, into Jackson’s bloodstream. He was later convicted of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to four years in prison.
It is the kind of scandal and tragedy many might expect to weigh heavily on a person for the rest of his life — a public disgrace tied to a death that could have been prevented.
Yet as Murray walked in the Florida sunshine this week, just before the anniversary of Jackson’s death, one source said the disgraced doctor appeared “like a man who didn’t have a care in the world.”
Jackson died on June 25, 2009, at the age of 50. By then, his public image had been deeply damaged, even after his acquittal on child molestation charges in 2005. Still, nearly two decades later, public fascination with the fallen superstar remains as strong as ever.
Dr Conrad Murray, the physician held solely responsible for the death of Michael Jackson, is seen on the eve of singer’s death in these photographs obtained exclusively by the Daily Mail
Murray headed to the gym for a workout before stopping by his local Walgreens to pick up medication
It was Murray who injected the fatal dose of propofol into Jackson’s veins. He was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to four years in prison
Michael Jackson died on June 25, 2009. He was just 50
Millions took to social media to mark the anniversary of his death with tributes and prayers.
A new three-part Netflix documentary, Michael Jackson: The Verdict, has ranked among the streamer’s top ten most-watched shows worldwide since its release earlier this month.
Meanwhile, the blockbuster movie Michael, which charts the singer’s rise to fame, and stars his nephew Jaafar Jackson, has grossed more than $960million at the global box office making it the highest-grossing biopic of all time.
Then there is MJ the Musical, which continues to sell out on Broadway night after night and is now touring across America.
With Jackson’s legacy so firmly back in the spotlight, many might have expected the past to weigh heavy on the 73-year-old man convicted of causing the superstar’s death.
But having met Murray personally, shortly after his release from prison when he granted the Daily Mail his first ever interview, I know that not only has he never expressed any regret for the role he played in Jackson’s death – he has never accepted any responsibility.
Untroubled by guilt, Murray appears to be living a life of striking ease far removed from the scandal that made headlines around the globe.
Our source who saw the former doctor this week said: ‘He walked around like he didn’t have a care in the world. He looked relaxed and happy.
‘He wears his hair in a man bun and appears very chill. He went to the gym for a leisurely work-out, then stopped at Walgreens and swung by Golden Krust which sells Caribbean fast food like jerk chicken.
‘He’s driving a fancy BMW and lives in a beautiful home overlooking a lake in a private community. What’s not to love?’
Of course Murray’s life today is a far cry from the one he enjoyed when he worked as Jackson’s private doctor on a staggering salary of $150,000-a-month.
A cardiologist who had clinics in Las Vegas and Houston, he met Jackson in 2006 when the singer brought his then eight-year-old daughter Paris to him after the child fell sick in Vegas.
The pair struck up a friendship and, three years later, Jackson made the fateful decision to hire Murray as his personal physician to keep him healthy as he prepared to launch his This Is It comeback concert residency at London’s O2 Arena.
Our source who saw the former doctor this week said: ‘He walked around like he didn’t have a care in the world. He looked relaxed and happy’
Our source said: ‘He’s driving a fancy BMW and lives in a beautiful home overlooking a lake in a private community’
Untroubled by guilt, Murray appears to be living a life of striking ease
His life today in the sleepy middle-class town on the edge of the Everglades is far removed from the scandal that made headlines around the globe
Just 18 days before the first concert, Jackson was discovered by Murray, dead in bed at his Los Angeles mansion. Some moments earlier Murray had administered an injection of propofol, medication used almost exclusively in hospital settings and operating rooms, before stepping out of Jackson’s bedroom to answer a lengthy phone call from his girlfriend.
Prosecutors argued Murray acted with ‘gross negligence’ by giving propofol to Jackson, a known prescription drug abuser and a man in fragile health, without the proper monitoring equipment and outside a hospital.
It later emerged that Murray did not call 911 for 20 minutes as he frantically tried to revive the unresponsive superstar.
A jury unanimously found Murray guilty of involuntary manslaughter on November 7, 2011. He was released from Los Angeles Men’s Central jail in 2013 after serving just two of his four-year sentence.
I met Murray a few weeks later when he agreed to give the Daily Mail that first post-prison interview.
We met in a nondescript hotel, south of Los Angeles and I was struck by how little responsibility Murray took for his role in Jackson’s death.
He has always protested his innocence and, on that day, I sat open-mouthed as he insisted to me that he gave Jackson only a ‘tiny amount’ of the drug that killed him and offered his theory that Jackson got up while he was on the phone and injected himself with the fatal dose.
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Murray’s eyes filled with tears as he told me: ‘I never gave Michael anything that would kill him. I loved him. I still do. I always will.’
A hulking 6ft 5in of a man who towered over me, I remember thinking, as the interview stretched over five hours, how Murray still had the supreme confidence of a man used to being respected as a doctor, rather than the contrition you might expect from someone found guilty of causing the death of a patient in his care.
Murray talked in graphic detail about how, when he went back into Jackson’s bedroom after ending his phone call, he was faced with the sight of his friend in full-blown cardiac arrest on the bed.
He insisted that Jackson was already addicted to propofol and a host of other drugs long before he ever met the star.
‘He begged me for the drug because he wanted to sleep, because then he didn’t have to think. He was in crisis at the end of his life, filled with panic and misery. I would sit with him when he was on a propofol drip. I gave him very light, light sedation.’
When I challenged why, as a doctor who swore the Hippocratic Oath to do no harm, he had given his friend a drug that could kill him Murray visibly stiffened.
Annoyed, he told me that Jackson was ‘frail and decrepit’ and in ‘a terrible state.’
He had recently learned, he said, that the singer was addicted to the powerful painkiller Demerol, which had been prescribed to him by another doctor.
I met Murray in 2013 when he agreed to give the Daily Mail that first post-prison interview and I was struck by how little responsibility he took for his role in Jackson’s death
Jackson was discovered by Murray, dead in bed at his Los Angeles mansion
He insisted that Jackson was already addicted to propofol and a host of other drugs long before he ever met the star
The singer was addicted to the powerful painkiller Demerol, which had been prescribed to him by another doctor
Michael, who called propofol ‘milk,’ because of its creamy, opaque, appearance begged Murray to administer the drug, Murray claimed: ‘He was hysterical, he was begging me, ‘Please Dr Conrad, I need some milk so I can sleep.’ This went on for hours. I believe his insomnia that night was caused by withdrawal from Demerol.’
Murray said that he gave Jackson a dose of ‘milk,’ left the room and returned to find him not breathing.
‘I left the room because I didn’t want to disturb him. I believe he woke up, got hold of his own stash of propofol and injected himself. He did it too quickly and went into cardiac arrest.’
The heart doctor began CPR, telling me nonchalantly that he left Jackson on the bed rather than move him to a hard surface like the floor, ‘because I’m a trained cardiac specialist and this is what I do.’
Murray claimed he detected a faint pulse, but when paramedics arrived at the home they determined that Jackson had none. He was officially pronounced dead at UCLA medical center 42 minutes later.
The Murray I met was a far cry from the relaxed man-bun sporting person in our exclusive pictures taken this week.
He was terrified for his personal safety and traveled with a bodyguard having received multiple death threats from Jackson supporters who dubbed him ‘Dr Death’ and were enraged that he only served two years in jail.
He was clearly under stress, pacing around the room and, at times, putting his head in his hands in disbelief at the misfortune that had befallen him. His pity, it seemed, was reserved for himself.
He was angry, claiming he would never have hurt his ‘dear friend Michael’ who he was intimately close to.
His determination to prove just how close led to him disclosing shockingly personal details that, surely, the star would not have wanted made public.
But, to Murray, proving his point seemed more important than protecting the dignity of his late friend.
‘You want to know how close Michael and I were?’ he demanded.
‘I held his penis every night. I had to put a condom catheter on him because Michael dripped urine. He had a loss of sensation and was incontinent.
‘Michael didn’t know how to put a condom on, so I had to do it for him. His room smelled terrible. I told him, ‘Michael you can’t live this way, we have to get the maids in to clean the bedding.”
Murray had not always enjoyed the riches his friendship with Jackson brought. Back in 1992, he filed for bankruptcy and reportedly owed nearly $1 million in student loans, tax liens and business debts.
By the time of our meeting, he had fathered seven children with six different women, including his then girlfriend, Nicole Alvarez.
Ms Alvarez is listed in public records as owning the three-bedroom, three-bathroom home in Sunrise where Murray now lives. The couple have a son, Che, 17.
Murray only gave a handful of interviews after mine. They followed the 2016 release of his memoir called, This Is It! The Secret Lives of Dr Conrad Murray and Michael Jackson.
Murray’s eyes filled with tears as he told me: ‘I never gave Michael anything that would kill him. I loved him. I still do. I always will’
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In one he sensationally claimed that Jackson had developed an ‘eerie obsession’ with Che, an explosive allegation that caused Jackson’s daughter Paris to lash out on social media saying: ‘The fact that people are actually listening to, and believing, a cold-blooded murderer is honestly beyond me.’
Murray has not been able to practice medicine in the States since his conviction saw his medical licenses in California, Nevada and Texas revoked.
But he later returned to his home country of Trinidad and Tobago and, the Daily Mail has learned, launched the DCM Medical Institute there in May 2023.
It is not clear whether he continues to work at the clinic or indeed if he works at all. What is clear is that he seems to have accomplished the goal he expressed to me as we parted all those years ago when he told me: ‘I just want peace and quiet. I want to go back to having a quiet life.’
Judging by the pictures taken this week that’s exactly what he’s managed to do.
