Dark History - 132: Dark History: Doctor or Dealer? How celeb doctors destroyed American icons

Episode Date: May 15, 2024

Hi friends, happy Wednesday! People put their lives in the hands of doctors every day, but what if those doctors aren't so trustworthy? We've got a pair of crazy stories for you today...  Dr. Max "Feelgood"  Jacobson, who spent his career injecting politicians and Hollywood elite with his "feelgood" amphetamine vitamin cocktail till they were hooked, and Dr. Conrad Murray, the man who gave Michael Jackson a lethal dose of sedatives. But how did these crooked doctors get away with it for so long? I appreciate you for coming by, and tune in next week for more Dark History. Want some cool Bailey Merch? Shop Dark History Merch: https://www.baileysarian.com _______ You can find the Dark History podcast on Apple, Spotify, wherever you listen to your podcasts, and every Thursday here on my YouTube for the visual side of things. Apple Podcast- https://www.apple.co/darkhistory Dark History Merch-  https://www.baileysarian.com _______ FOLLOW ME AROUND  Tik Tok: https://bit.ly/3e3jL9v Instagram: http://bit.ly/2nbO4PR Facebook: http://bit.ly/2mdZtK6 Twitter: http://bit.ly/2yT4BLV Pinterest: http://bit.ly/2mVpXnY Youtube: http://bit.ly/1HGw3Og Snapchat: https://bit.ly/3cC0V9d Discord: https://discord.gg/BaileySarian RECOMMEND A STORY HERE: [e-mail]  Business Related Emails: [e-mail] Business Related Mail:  Bailey Sarian  4400 W. Riverside Dr., Ste 110-300  Burbank, CA 91505 _______ Go to https://www.Hungryroot.com/darkhistory, to get 40% off your first delivery and get your free veggies. Visit https://www.Audible.com/DARKHISTORY or text DARKHISTORY to 500-500. New users can try Audible premium plus for free for 30 days.  Indulge in affordable luxury! Go to https://www.Quince.com/darkhistory for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. 

Okay, I've got a little riddle for you. Who doesn't love a riddle? What do JFK, Elvis, and Hedy Lamar all have in common? Times up. Well, they all had the same doctor. Cute, right? Well, not just any doctor. His name was Max Jacobson, but everyone knew him as Dr. Feelgood. I imagine feelgood, yeah. Have you ever heard that Aretha Franklin song about him? Yeah, I mean, I always thought it was just like a made up name and the whole thing was like a metaphor, but I guess not. Dr. Feelgood was a real person and he did some absolutely

wild things to his patients. And that doctor's celeb relationship set the stage for one infamous man to become a household name. And that man is Dr. Conrad Murray. And he may or may not have killed the most famous pop icon of all time. So in this episode, we're gonna talk about Dr. Feelgood and Dr. Conrad and about two allegedly evil doctors

who changed American pop culture forever. ["Dark History"] Hi friends, I hope you're having a wonderful day today. My name is Bailey Sarian and I'd like to welcome you to my podcast, Dark History. Here we believe history does not have to be boring, might be tragic, sometimes it's happy, but either way, it's our dark history. Also don't forget to like and subscribe because I'm here for you every week with that hot, juicy history gus. And also don't forget to leave a comment down below because I love hearing from you in the comment section.

Now let's get into it. Max Jacobson was born on July 3rd 1900 and grew up in Berlin. His family was Jewish and I guess his dad worked as a butcher. One day little Max is out playing in the street and he decides to climb a fence. I guess this fence had some pretty gnarly spikes on it. So I guess he was trying to get to the other side because there were some coins that were lying in the courtyard. But Max ends up impaling himself on one of these spikes and it's bad.

I guess there is blood gushing everywhere. So his mom obviously freaks out and calls the family doctor because this definitely needed to be stitched up, you know? Well, the doctor rolls up in like some brand new car. And mind you, it's like 1905. So this is like the early days of cars and honestly to have one, let alone a really nice one, was a very big deal.

So this doctor rolls up and he's all dressed to the nines. New suit, looking great. Max is totally distracted and he stops crying. And in this moment he's like, you know, one day I'm gonna be a doctor just like that guy. Max would later say that he was driven by the desire to quote, drive such a magnificent automobile. Kind of wild, because you'd want a doctor to be like, I wanna help people. But he was like, I want a magnificent automobile. Priorities or whatever.

When he was 11, his parents gifted him a microscope so he could study cells. And he would take it like to his dad's work at the slaughterhouse where there were dead animals everywhere. So I guess Max would take little slides of meat tissue and study it. In 1914, World War I breaks out. By the time Max is 17, he's emotionally preparing to be drafted like his older brothers. But then his family gets some bad news. Both of Max's older brothers had died in the war.

So then, Max turns 18 and he gets drafted himself. I guess his mom was like, hell no, I'm not letting another one of my kids die, you know? So she decides to get a little creative and she ends up bribing a military officer with cheese. Yes, cheese, the power of cheese. Rumor was that this important recruitment officer was obsessed with this one specific cheese called Lederkron's. But the problem was that there was so much food rationing

happening that finding this cheese was like impossible, but Ax's dad was a butcher so he had these like cheese connections. So Max's mom was able to locate this rare cheese at a great price so she wraps it up, she boxes it, and sends Max off to the draft board with it like tucked under his arm. The cheese. Max goes in and explains to the guy that he had lost both of his brothers and what he was just like dying to study medicine. And then he was like, you know, rumor has it you like cheese. Maybe this will help you make a decision. So Max tossed that big hunk of cheese on the man's desk and surprise, surprise, it

worked. Cheese, huh? Yeah, Max was free. I love cheese. So Max goes off to pre-med at University of Berlin and then transfers to the University of Würzburg where he becomes the surgeon in training. In 1929, Max graduated and pretty quickly opened up his own private practice in Berlin studying blood chemistry, which sounds kind of spooky, like something a vampire would do, you know? But just wait, because it gets spookier. Jonah's picked up gardening. Oh yeah, so cute. I guess she wants to have all organic food, which is great, like good for you girl. Yeah, but I like, you know, I hate to burst your bubble, Joan, but like those fruits and veggies

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Bye. In this lab, they would take refined sheep or like goat blood and mix it with different pharmaceuticals to make a serum. And then they would inject this little cocktail into people. And a very popular pharmaceutical that Dr. Max was using in this little potion

was liquid amphetamine. Now, allegedly this would alleviate the suffering of any patients dealing with like injuries or stress. But in reality, all it did was get them high. Yes, that's the word high. And apparently it's hard to be stressed or in pain when you're high on methamphetamines. The problem was that Dr. Max was studying the effects of this potion by injecting it into himself. So like, he was high on the job.

According to the Science of Amphetamines journal, Jacobson's mistake was testing the drug on himself. It distorts the senses and does not allow for a scientist to empirically study the drug. Meaning he couldn't exactly be neutral and think things through logically. But there was no denying the immediate results. The potion made Dr. Max's patients, quote, feel good. So he started using it to treat conditions that had no cure and only got worse over time. Like multiple sclerosis. Max was essentially just giving people pain relief, but was calling it a cure.

Now Dr. Max was getting pretty popular, as you might imagine, but the problem was he was Jewish and living in Germany in the 1930s. The Nazi party was only getting bigger and stronger by the day. Now, little did Dr. Max know he was on a kill list. And there was a unit within the Nazi party

called roll commando. Sorry, I was just thinking about like people rolling around naked, you know, or in their underwear. There was a unit within the Nazi party called roll commando that handled assassinating a list of quote, undesirables. Most of them were important people in the media or were influential in their profession and happened to be Jewish.

But Dr. Max got lucky. A Nazi soldier came to him one day and begged him to secretly treat him for gonorrhea. I guess the soldier would have been punished for this if he had gone to a Nazi military doctor. So he went to our friend here. And in exchange for treating him, this soldier told Dr. Max that he was on the Royal Commando List and to get the hell out of the country.

So Dr. Max did just that. He and his wife and son left Germany the next day. In 1936, after a little time in the Czech Republic, Dr. Max moves to New York. When he's there, he opens a practice in Manhattan and right away he gets tons of patients. Mostly because his number one remedy for everything was that amphetamine injection. Now Dr. Max started noticing that using methamphetamine in a low dose could actually increase a medication's therapeutic effects. It could lower the chances of nausea, dizziness, and any other side effects

of the actual medicine that they were on. So Dr. Max becomes well known for his miracle cures and is all over the papers. Because his patients with like MS feel better than they've ever felt, I mean they they believe they are actually like getting better. But little did they know that this miraculous vitamin shot was just methamphetamines and steroids. Yeah, it has steroids in it now. So that's great. So at this point, Max's potion simply became known

as a vitamin injection. I mean, we learned in the Hedy Lamarr episode that she was under the impression that she was receiving simple B vitamin shots, you know? Now it wasn't that crazy for Dr. Max to be experimenting with meth. Amphetamines were having a major moment in America. In 1937 the American Medical Association approved amphetamines

in tablet form as a medical treatment. Then something called dextroamphetamine shows up. Dextroamphetamine was created specifically for the military, but guess what it's known as today? Adderall. Yeah. The ADHD medicine that's prescribed to millions of people a year. But back then you could use these pills like over the counter, whatever, boof, easy, you know?

But Dr. Max's vitamins were so much more than vitamins. They represented the promise of health, recovery, and the results were immediate. So it makes sense that Max's patients were having a positive experience with it. At first, one of Max's first big A-list clients was Cecil B. DeMille. Cecil was one of the founders of Hollywood.

He was a producer, a director, and an actor, and he made over 70 movies in his lifetime. So he was a pretty big deal. But by this point, all the big starlets with connections to Cecil were being treated by Dr. Max. Like I'm talking Elizabeth Taylor, Judy Garland, and of course our girl Hedy Lamar. Hollywood was churning out movies and it was like good for business to keep the actresses hopped up on amphetamines in order to get their best performances. And you know, also to keep them awake

when they work these really long hours. But at night, after taking all of those methamphetamines, they needed something to help them go to sleep. And Dr. Max, of course, had something for that too. In the early 50s, Dr. Max was introduced to the one and only Marilyn Monroe. And within a few years, she too would be addicted to his vitamins.

Okay, story time, you guys. Listen up, 15-year-old Ellie Mack was the perfect daughter. She was beloved by her parents, friends, and teachers. She and her boyfriend made a teenage, golden couple. Oh, yes. She was days away from the perfect summer vacation with her whole life ahead of her. And then she was gone. Oh, I know, Casparilla.

Now her mother, Laurel Mack, is trying to put her life back together. I mean, it's been 10 years since her daughter disappeared, seven years since her marriage ended, and only months since the last clue in Ellie's case was unearthed. Yeah, this is the plot of an audio book I've been listening to

called Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell. And remember, as an Audible member, you can choose one title a month like this one to keep from their entire catalog, including the latest bestsellers and new releases. Plus, did you know Audible is the destination for thrilling audio entertainment, with highly anticipated new releases for every type of thriller listener? Oh yeah? With female writers and heroines, celebrity narration, multicast productions with immersive sound design, and traditional audiobooks, Audible has you covered for any type of excitement that you're looking for.

Audible members get full access to a growing selection of thousands of audio books, Audible originals, and podcasts. And with Audible, they let you enjoy all of your audio entertainment in one app, so you'll always find the best of what you love, or even like maybe something new to discover. Like, you know, what happened to Ellie Mack?

Dun, dun, dun! discover? Like, you know, what happened to Ellie Mac? Visit audible.com slash dark history or text dark history to 500 500. New users can try audible premium plus for free for 30 days. That's audible.com slash dark history or text dark history to 500500. Thanks Audible for partnering with us on today's episode. Now let's get back to today's story. The date is May 19th, 1962 and anyone who is anyone is at Madison Square Garden to celebrate the birthday of President John F. Kennedy. A friend of Dr. Max was backstage and he said, quote, I had followed Max backstage to meet with the president. I stood by as Max prepared a syringe and injected the president.

We turned around and saw Marilyn Monroe behind us and she was absolutely shivering. She saw Max and smiled. Without saying one word, Max went into his bag, prepared another syringe, and injected Monroe in the neck. She gave Max a peck on the cheek and we went back to our wives and our seats." End quote. And then not long after, Marilyn walked out on stage in front of 15,000 people wearing a skin-tied dress with her

hair and makeup on point, she proceeded to sing the most iconic version of Happy Birthday Ever. Allegedly. Maybe. Doped up the entire time. Maybe. Yes, you heard that right. Not only was Dr. Max seeing Hollywood celebs as clients, the biggest client he had was

none other than President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. JFK was constantly in pain. He was diagnosed with Addison's disease, had a herniated disc, and in 1957, he had this crazy procedure done where they fused his spinal cord. So the man's back hurt like all of the time.

So it makes sense that JFK, you know, had Dr. Max on speed dial. Apparently the nickname Dr. Feelgood was coined by JFK's secret service as a doctor's code name. But the president also called Dr. Max, Miracle Max, and JFK took Max everywhere. Whenever Ms. Dunn called the doctor's office, it was actually code for JFK calling. Dr. Max would drop everything to get on a private jet and keep JFK feeling good wherever

he was going. The Kennedy compound, Palm Beach, Washington DC, it didn't matter. But people were starting to get a little suspicious of this Miracle Max guy. The Secret Service in particular were getting a little curious about like what exactly Dr. Max was mainlining into the leader of the free world.

One Secret Service agent, Larry Newman, apparently called Max Jacobson, quote, the batwing and chicken blood doctor. On June of 1962, the Attorney General, who was JFK's brother, Bobby, sent a bottle of the vitamins over to the government labs for examination. Now, JFK was probably a little annoyed by his brother narking on him because honestly he didn't care what was in it and made him feel good. JFK apparently said quote, I don't care if it's horse piss, it works. Sounds like a man who wants his vitamins, huh?

Bobby Kennedy was pissed at Dr. Max for doping up his brother with amphetamines. He told the doctor to go back to New York. And Jacobson was so offended by this that he officially resigned as JFK's private doctor. But his vitamins were too good. JFK literally flew to New York after Dr. Max. It's like a beautiful rom-com moment, you know? Don't leave me, I'm never gonna leave you at the airport.

Like, I don't know. Has a sign. You get it great dr. Max is like fine whatever you know I'll do it like it's fine you obviously love me you chased after me it's true love actually this is when dr. Max accidentally gives JFK too high of a dose and it leads to the president having a full blown psychotic break. Apparently something happened where JFK ran naked through the Carlisle Hotel. Sounds like a good time but like not for the Secret Service agents who had to chase him down and try to control him. He's the president. What are you doing? Put some clothes on. Now, because Dr. Max's clients were so wealthy and powerful,

he doesn't really come under any scrutiny. That is until December of 1972. Harvey Mann, who had worked for Dr. Max in his lab, comes to the New York Times and like, just spills the beans. He tells a journalist that not only was his boss injecting people with amphetamines and steroids, the whole operation was absolutely lawless. Uh oh. Dr. Max, it turns out, was hiring completely unqualified people to do the majority of these injections. Like for example, a man named Harvey.

You see, he was an out of work actor and was in charge of giving patients shots. That is until he almost killed someone with an air pocket. Also, he was manufacturing Dr. Max's signature drug cocktail himself and shipping it worldwide. Other people start coming out of the woodwork to testify against Dr. Max. One patient's testimony read, quote,

"'My last shot was a blood red thing about a foot long. "'I went blind for two days, "'and when my eyesight finally came back, "'I threw away all my speed,' end quote." That sounds wild. Gone blind for two days? What the fuck did he give you? Jeez, little ways.

Obviously, this puts some heat on Dr. Max, and then there's a full medical investigation. So a report comes out listing over 200 charges against Dr. Max. And a couple of the big ones were, quote, administering amphetamines without sound medical justification or reason to do so, unquote. And then there was misrepresentation of his injections

as treatments when in fact no medical evidence supports his contention. Ooh. tension. Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu. Somebody's in trouble. So three years after that New York Times expose in April of 1975, Dr. Max's medical license was officially revoked by the New York State Board of Regents. So after that he's just back to being Max, I guess. But he was found guilty of 48 counts of unprofessional conduct, including fraud.

And four years later, Dr. Feelgood, or Max, passed away. He left behind a legacy of making people feel good in the sketchiest, most questionable ways. Before his downfall, there was a reason why business was booming for Dr. Feelgood. It helped that people eventually became addicted to his medication. But there's another angle to it. There is also a demand for public figures

and celebrities to always be on. You know what I'm saying? You know, like if you see a celeb or something and they snub someone for an autograph, people automatically think like, oh my God, wow, what an awful fucking match. But really it's like, maybe they were fucking tired. You know?

Like maybe they were just having a bad day. We don't know. It doesn't matter. But we want our celebs like on our time and not theirs. So it was like, it's like a huge pressure for them to always perform and be on. So it's like, give me the drugs, doc. Like, woo! And you'd be all excited and I'll sign whatever.

You know? Two sides to every story. So let's look at this from the side of the celeb patient. And when we do that, we see one giant problem when it comes to Dr. Feelgood. He's got too many clients, right? He's spread too thin. Unless you're JFK, his celeb patients don't get his undivided attention.

And the solution to that problem is something that A-listers love more than anything. No, not drinking the blood of virgins at Illuminati meetings. I'm talking about exclusivity. Just hire a personal doctor and pay them a stupid amount of money so you get the doctor all to yourself.

This is when something called VIP syndrome enters the story. So in 1964, the phrase VIP syndrome was invented by a psychiatrist named Walter Weintraub. And VIP syndrome shows up in a bunch of different ways. So sometimes the doctors, they won't ask hard questions because they don't wanna offend the VIP. Other times, the doctors, they just like bend the rules you know

maybe looks the other way to make their celeb patient happy because at the end of the day it all comes down to money. Classic conflict of interest. Now because of this VIP syndrome can have deadly consequences like for our next doctor who may or may not have killed the most famous person to Moonwalk the planet since Jesus I'm sorry to put you on blast Joan, but I had to take her debit card away because she has an online shopping problem No, you cannot dip into the budget for the show I mean look if you're gonna splurge you might as as well do what I do. Do it right. You gotta check out Quince.

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for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Love to hear that. That's quince, Q-U-I-N-C-E dot com slash dark history to get free shipping and 365 day returns. quince.com slash dark history. On February 19th, 1953, Conrad Robert Murray was born in a small country called Grenada. I guess it's a little island in the Caribbean Sea, just north of South America. And Conrad's biological father was a physician, so you can say being a doctor island in the Caribbean Sea, just north of South America. And Conrad's biological father was a physician,

so you can say being a doctor was in this guy's blood. But it wasn't easy to get there. Conrad was initially raised in a rough part of town by his grandparents who were farmers. Then in 1960, seven-year-old Conrad moved to a country called Trinidad and Tobago to live with his mom and his stepdad.

Now this is another beautiful island in the Caribbean and wealthy people, I guess, you know, they go there to like get away. For Conrad, life on the island was no vacation. The family was poor, barely scraping by, and they, you know, they did what they had to do to get by. And it was at this time that Conrad swore he was going to make a better life for himself.

So after graduating high school and working as a volunteer teacher, Conrad set his sights on the United States of America, the land of opportunity, specifically Houston, Texas. Yeah, because I guess that's where his biological dad was at. Papa, can you hear me? Alright, it's always so lonely in here when I sing and no one sings back with me.

Paul, are you supposed to be Dr. Evil? Nobody's seen Austin Powers in like a hundred years. Try again. Why didn't you put on your little nurse outfit for me, Paul? No? Okay. Around the age of 25, Conrad met his dad, Raul, for the... Sounds like a lion. Conrad met his dad, Raul, for the first time.

And this was like a very formative experience for young Conrad. Not only was Raul a well-respected doctor in Houston, but he was devoted to providing health care to the poor. The man was like doing the Lord's work and Conrad was inspired. So Conrad goes off to college at Texas Southern University where he graduates in just three years and like near the top of his class. I mean this guy was killing it. He was smart. Conrad then literally followed in his father's footsteps and went to Meharry Medical College

to become a doctor where he graduated in 1989. The 90s were a busy time for Dr. Conrad Murray. He finished his medical training at respected institutions like the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. And he also spent time at medical centers and hospitals in California and Arizona. His specialization became cardiology, which is the study of the heart. You know, romantic. By the year 2000, Conrad had opened his own private medical practice in Las Vegas and in Houston and he also opened an institute called Akers Home Heart and Vascular. Yeah no he was hustling. In both Vegas and Houston, Konrad made it his mission to

give back. He not only saw wealthy patients but he also gave free health care to patients who couldn't afford it or maybe just didn't have insurance. Ruby Mosley, a patient of Conrad from Houston said quote, We have been so lucky to have Dr. Murray and the clinic in this community. There are many, many patients that thank God this man was here for them. End quote. So Conrad seemed to be doing great. Woo!

You know? He was well on his way to achieving that American dream he wanted so badly. And hey, he was helping people along the way. But, you know, we're here. Sometimes people do good deeds to make up for some skeletons hiding in their closet. And turns out, Conrad's closet was so packed, you couldn't close the door. In the mid-2000s, Conrad's life was quietly in total chaos. First of all, he owed a former business partner $68,000 and almost $50,000 to both California and Arizona in back taxes.

So in 2002, instead of paying his debts, Conrad filed for bankruptcy. Then the court told him he had to repay $71,000 in student loans that he still owed to the medical school. And if you're like me, you might be wondering, this guy is a successful cardiovascular doctor. Like where the hell is all of his money going? Well, Conrad was busy.

He had fathered around eight kids with seven different women. Like I'm saying around eight kids because we don't really know the exact number of kids he had, but whatever the number was or is, I mean, that's a lot of mouse defeat. And even then there was a whole bunch of child support that he was not paying or couldn't pay, I'm sure.

But around this time, something happened that changed Conrad's life forever. In December of 2006, Conrad got a call while he was working at his Las Vegas clinic. Blink, blink, hello. That call came from Michael freaking Jackson. What?

Yeah, the king of pop. And Michael was in town with his kids and I guess he needed some help. Michael's daughter, Paris, was sick and needed to see a doctor right away. And for some reason, Conrad came into the mix. We don't really know why exactly, but great. We don't know what was wrong with his daughter,

but Conrad must've done a good job because at this point Conrad and Michael develop a little friendship. So they stay in touch and they keep talking over the years. Meanwhile, Conrad's finances, I guess they only got worse. He owed more than $780,000 across the board. Conrad was in serious financial trouble. As you can probably tell,

he was gonna take a miracle to pull him out of it. And wouldn't you know that miracle came to him in the form of Michael Jackson. Oh! In 2009, Michael Jackson announced that he was gonna do a bunch of shows in London. This was a huge deal for a lot of reasons. First of all, he didn't tour a lot.

Second of all, he disappeared from the public eye after a whole child sex abuse scandal. And finally, the tour was called This Is It, because it would be Michael's final time performing in London. He was like telling everyone, this is it. So stop asking. Michael himself said, quote, when I say this is it, it really means this is it. This is the final curtain call, end quote.

Yeah, you guys, I think this was it. Just my guess here. But in response, people lost their damn minds. They're like, this is it. This is fucking it. When tickets went on sale, two websites offering the tickets crashed. Oh yes. In just four hours, 750,000 tickets were sold and a total of 2 million people tried to buy pre-sale tickets. Yeah, this was a big deal. And there was like a lot riding on this for Michael.

And again, this was it. Right? For the same time, behind closed doors, Michael was battling some serious demons. Because of years of plastic surgery and performing, he was constantly in pain and also was dealing with insomnia. So in May of 2009, Michael calls Dr. Conrad and he offers him a sweet job. He wants Conrad to be his personal doctor looking after him during the entire tour. And for this to work, Michael is willing to pay him, Conrad, a hundred and fifty thousand dollars per month. Who

and nanny I am in? I'm not a doctor but I'd be like, yeah I'm there. Great! $150,000 a month? I mean knowing how much debt he's in, I can't imagine it took Conrad long to say yes. Right? I mean this is it. Now it's June 2009, so just over a month after Michael hired Conrad. Michael is deep into rehearsals for his tour and he's working really long hours. The pressure was on. After a long day of rehearsals, Michael returns home during the early morning hours of June 25th. So Dr. Conrad is already there waiting for him.

Like many nights before, Conrad said Michael was agitated and restless like a hamster on a wheel. Michael then complained of fatigue and said he needed to sleep, which I guess was his way of saying like, hey doc, get the drugs. I need sleep. So Dr. Conrad does what he had done many nights before. He hooked Michael up to an IV and gave him a couple different medications to help him sleep. Now the first one was for like, it's an anti-anxiety medication. And the other one was a muscle relaxer.

And that worked for a couple of hours. Then Michael, I guess like woke up a few times when he's trying to sleep. So to help him go back to sleep, Conrad gave him more of those medicines. He also, I guess, tossed in some Valium for good measure. But again, Michael woke up and this time he was begging for his quote, milk. End quote.

I don't know, I was like what? What? Okay, you see, milk is what Michael Jackson called propofol. That's because it's like a white colored liquid and Michael believed he needed it to live. It's a very strong sedative that acts really fast. If you've ever had to go under anesthesia for like a procedure, chances are

that they actually knocked you out with propofol. So you know how strong this stuff is. I mean you can't fight it. And this was Michael's milk. According to Conrad, he didn't want to shoot Michael up with propofol because he was worried Michael was forming an addiction to it. And that's because he was, allegedly. Conrad gave this drug to Michael every night. 50 milligrams of it. Girl, what? Yeah, that's a deep sleep. So he was trying to like wean Michael off of it but I guess Michael knew this stuff worked so he kept begging for his milk.

So this is where Conrad comes down with a bad case of VIP syndrome. Conrad said it himself on 60 Minutes in 2013. He said quote, Michael Jackson is not a guy you can just say stop it. End quote. I mean he kind of missed a real opportunity to say like beat it. Anyway around 1040 AM, 1040 AM? My god. After quote, repeated demands for propofol,

Conrad administered 25 milligrams of Michael's milk. This dose was half of what Conrad would normally give him. Eventually, Michael fell asleep. Now the thing about propofol is that it needs to be administered in a hospital. That's because it can cause a sudden decrease in blood pressure and even stop the patient from breathing. So they constantly need to be monitored

in case you know what happens. But here's what Conrad does. Conrad stepped out of the room to make a couple of phone calls. He swung by the bathroom to, you know, get out of the bathroom and on his way back to Michael's bedroom, he crossed paths with a waitress. So he's like chatting to her about god knows what for a couple minutes

and when he returned he found Michael had a weak pulse and was not breathing. Oh. So right then he started to give him CPR. When that didn't work, Conrad turned to his bag of tricks and gave Michael another drug to try to offset the propofol. Some experts believe that this additional medication may have actually made the situation worse. 82 minutes went by before Conrad finally called 911. That's a long time, Conrad. So I guess Conrad rode in the ambulance with Michael to UCLA Medical Center.

When they got there, you'd think like one doctor talking to another doctor, like Conrad would be totally honest, right? But he didn't tell the paramedics or doctors at UCLA about the volume or the propofol he gave Michael. Not great, right? Well sadly, Michael Jackson was pronounced dead at UCLA Medical Center on June 25, 2009. At first, Conrad was very cooperative with the LAPD's investigation. He and his lawyer claimed that he wasn't a suspect, but that he was just a witness to a horrible tragedy. One of the things Conrad told investigators was that he didn't order or buy any propofol.

He said he found it laying around Michael's house as one does. But then, surprise, surprise, after investigators searched a Las Vegas pharmacy, they uncovered evidence that Conrad purchased the very same propofol he gave to Michael the day he died. So after reviewing the toxicology report, the Los Angeles coroner ruled Michael Jackson's death

a homicide, saying that an overdose of propofol was the cause of death. Conrad Murray was charged with involuntary manslaughter. So the trial began in September of 2011, and there were 50 witnesses over 23 days. The prosecutors painted Conrad as a greedy and reckless doctor. They also found it weird that he waited so long to call 911 and that he lied to the UCLA doctors.

Prosecutors also said good medical judgment went out the damn window the second Conrad gave in to demands of one of the world's most famous humans. also said good medical judgment went out the damn window, the second Conrad gave into demands of one of the world's most famous humans. Dr. Stephen Schaefer, an expert witness for the prosecution said, quote, he has been entrusted by Michael Jackson to look after his safety every night and he has failed, end quote.

I mean, damn, like how do you argue with that? You can't really argue with that. Well, Conrad's attorney essentially had one major argument. Michael Jackson himself gave the fatal dose of propofol when Conrad wasn't in the room. Conrad to this day says Michael was hiding an opioid addiction. He said, or he claimed, that Michael shot himself up because he was suffering from withdrawals. Now, this sounds like he could be making this up

just to avoid prison, but here's something interesting that I found in my research. During the trial, it came out that during the last 60 days of Michael's life he was injected 51 times with a huge amount of a strong opioid called Demerol. Michael got these shots from his dermatologist. A dermatologist named Dr. Arnold Klein. I know kind of weird why is a dermatologist giving this like drug right? It doesn't make any sense.

Now apparently this guy gave Michael a total of over 200 of these opioid shots. Huh, for what, huh? So many don't think that the secret addiction theory is really that crazy, but you know, the jury, whatever. They didn't like really buy into it. On November 7th, 2011, Conrad was found guilty of killing Michael Jackson. He was sentenced to serve four years in prison.

Unsurprisingly, he also lost the right to practice medicine in the future, just like Dr. Feelgood. Two years into his sentence, Conrad became eligible for parole and the state of California gave it to him. Yeah, he got out early as if four years wasn't even that long. But he still got out early. So when he got out of prison, Conrad moved to Florida where he kept a low profile for a while and like I guess spent time walking his dog. And like to this day, Conrad Murray says he's an innocent man. Which is why we shouldn't be surprised to learn that in 2023, Conrad moved back to Trinidad and Tobago.

When he got there, he opened the DCM Medical Institute. It's a full healthcare center doing all sorts of things, including being a quote, health hub for medical tourism. End quote. On their website, it says quote, the acronym DCM brands its founder's vision and his name, Dr. Conrad Murray, a well-respected US cardiologist. End quote.

They're really banking on no one Googling Conrad's name, I guess. Look, these are just two doctors we're talking about. So imagine how many are still out there. Because you know there's probably a lot. Private doctors are a thing that wealthy people and public figures use all the time. Joan has one. Is that why you're always so excited to be here?

Just kidding. There are a few definitions for the word, you know, evil, but I like this one. Profoundly immoral and wicked. To me, Dr. Feelgood lands in that wicked category. It seems he was actively going out of his way to harm people, but Conrad lands in that immoral bucket where the lines of right and wrong are blurred. In this case, like by the dazzling fame of his client.

I think we can all agree, it shouldn't matter if a person is a billionaire, a celeb or a president. You know, everyone should have access to the same healthcare, but that's not the way it fricking works. Welcome to America. Do do do do do do do do do do do do. I mean, this story just really highlights that,

you know, if people have enough power and money, they can get healthcare on demand. And they can get like whatever they want too. Like Domino's. And hey, maybe Dr. Feelgood is why the 60s and 70s were just so unhinged. Our pop icons and leaders were out there living every day like a Florida man.

All right, let me give you a little teaser for what's coming next week. When it comes to black history, it feels like most of us only learned like a name or two. Like for example, the Underground Railroad. I mean, most people immediately think Harriet Tubman. Got it, great, she's iconic woman, right? Amazing, incredible.

But what if I told you, like, there was someone just as influential behind the scenes of the Underground Railroad. And this woman was a secret, self-made millionaire during a time when slavery was still happening. She's actually known as one of the godmothers of the civil rights movements. Next week we'll be talking about none other than Mary Ellen Pleasant. An icon, a legend. I personally

didn't know anything about Mary Ellen Pleasant so let's freaking learn together. Well friends, thanks for hanging out with me today. You can join me over on my YouTube where you can watch these episodes on Thursday after the podcast airs. And while you're there you can also check my murder mystery and makeup. Also don't forget to like and subscribe. Plus leave a comment down below because I'd love to hear your reactions to today's story. Now let's read a couple of comments you guys left me. Trish Yang left me a comment saying quote, every time I hear the theme song I imagine Bailey driving a convertible on route 66 with Joan

on the passenger headrest. Wow I love that for me what kind of convertible? You know when a convertible, I don't really think I would like a convertible because I wear fake lashes all the time. And when the wind, you know, when the wind blows the lashes and you're like, whoa, Joan, I mean, she would love to be the passenger. So you're right there. Let me know what kind of convertible. Let me know down below.

Katie Bird, eh? 3534 left us a comment saying quote, when I'm watching dark history, I just feel like I'm at the raddest sleepover ever. Comfy spooky vibes, end quote. Oh my God, Katie, thanks. That's a very big compliment. Comfy spooky vibes.

That's gonna be the name of my album. Comfy spooky vibes. That's what I'm going for. I love that, invite me over. I might come. What kind of snacks you got? I like M&M's in my popcorn. Do you ever get like, heated popcorn

and then you put M&M peanuts in there and they kind of melt so you get like, chocolatey popcorn and then also the peanut M&M's? You should try it, it's really good. It makes a really good spooky comfy vibe snack. All right, awesome. Thanks, Katie. The anonymous 133 left us an episode suggestion.

Quote, dear Bailey, please do a dark history episode about garlic? Huh? Vampires? Garlic? Okay, here I go, staying up all night, Googling what's up with garlic. You guys have my Google history,

it's just all sorts of funky because of the recommendations you guys give me, but I'll look into it. Garlic, huh? All right, here we go. Garlic, I love you for watching and I also appreciate you guys so much for engaging. So, you know, keep on commenting because maybe you'll be featured.

And hey if you don't know Dark History is an audio boom original. And I'm your host Bailey Sarian. I hope you have a good rest of your day, you make good choices, and I'll be talking to you next week. Goodbye!