title: Belle Delphine

text: Delphine's popularity notably increased in the autumn of 2018. She "quickly rose to the top of the 'For You' page on TikTok", after participating in the platform's trends and challenges. Delphine's image was subsequently spread around 4chan and Reddit, where users praised her "ironic approach to online thotting" as "genius" and "brilliant performance art". Delphine's Instagram follower count surged from 850,000 in November 2018 to 4.2 million in July 2019. Her content began to notably and frequently include "ahegao" facial expressions, which are exaggerated expressions often featured in adult anime to signify an orgasm. "Complex" stated that she "posted clips of herself coyly eating a raw egg, shell and all. A scroll through her feed is just as likely to find colorful thirst traps as it is to see photos of her playing with a dead octopus."


title: Belle Delphine

text: As her popularity grew, Delphine began to draw controversy for her content. In January 2019, adult content creator Indigo White alleged that, while underage, Delphine passed off the photos of other sex workers as her own. A February video, in which Delphine danced to a song about suicide while holding a gun, also drew controversy. Shortly after it was posted, false rumors of her death circulated online.


title: Belle Delphine

text: In June 2019, Delphine made a post on Instagram in which she promised to create a Pornhub account if the post reached 1 million likes. Pornhub responded to the post, calling it "the best news." The post quickly earned over 1.8 million likes; as promised, Delphine created a Pornhub account, to which she uploaded 12 videos. The videos were all troll videos that featured misleading titles and thumbnails and were not sexually explicit. Each of the videos received poor like-to-dislike ratios, ranging between 66% and 77% dislikes. Pornhub Insights published a statistics report detailing that Delphine's videos became the most-disliked in the website's history. One of the videos, titled "PEWDIEPIE goes all the way INSIDE Belle Delphine", was a minute-long clip which featured "a cat ear-clad Delphine "eating" a picture of YouTuber PewDiePie, winking throughout." The video drew a similarly joking response from PewDiePie. Later in 2019, Delphine won the Top Celebrity Pornhub Award. In December, Pornhub's annual statistics report listed Delphine as the most-searched celebrity in 2019; "Belle Delphine" was also the site's fourth-most-searched term in general during the year.


title: Belle Delphine

text: On 1 July 2019, Delphine launched her online storefront, including a product dubbed "GamerGirl Bath Water". The product was marketed as the remains of her bath water in a jar and was priced at $30 (£24). Delphine stated that the idea for the product to sell her bath water came from continued fan comments on her photos saying they would drink her bath water. Upon initially selling the product, Delphine added the note: "This water is not for drinking and should only be used for sentimental purposes". The first run of the bath water sold out in three days. The product was met with controversy, media coverage, and Internet memes. Two days after the bath water product sold out, a website was created attempting to capitalize on its success, selling "GamerGirl Pee" for just under $10,000; this was confirmed not to be associated with Delphine. @BakeRises, a since-banned Twitter user, fabricated a headline alleging that Delphine's product caused a herpes outbreak, which was debunked. YouTube video responses also sprung up featuring individuals supposedly drinking, cooking, and vaping the bath water.


title: Belle Delphine

text: EJ Dickson of "Rolling Stone" noted that the response to Delphine's gamer girl bath water stunt from media outlets alternated between "deriding Delphine's fans for their naïvete and applauding her for her marketing savvy". Katie Bishop, writing for "The Guardian", reported that the sale was "widely mocked". Patricia Hernandez of "Polygon" opined "What's curious about Delphine's side hustle here is that it seems to be a mixture of business and next-level performance art. In the video advertising the bath water, she outright calls this a stunt. And if you look at her wider Instagram oeuvre, Delphine's work is defined by her willingness to "go there"."


title: Belle Delphine

text: In response to her increased public exposure, Delphine was interviewed by "The Guardian"; she stated "I'm lucky. I can do crazy things and get to see the world react to it, and there's definitely enjoyment in that, even if it's sometimes a little scary. I get a bigger reaction to my weirder content but I think that's only possible because I also make risqué content". She added "I think it's been amazing and fun, but it's time to move on to new things. I have a diary next to my bed full of crazy ideas. I'm not sure what will top this, but I'm looking forward to seeing what will come next".


title: Belle Delphine

text: On 19 July 2019, Delphine's Instagram account was banned. A spokesperson for Instagram stated that her account had violated the community guidelines, though the specific post or reason was not provided. At the time of the ban, the "belle.delphine" account had accumulated over 4.5 million followers, according to "Business Insider" and Social Blade. "Business Insider" reported that there "appeared to be a coordinated effort to report Delphine's account."


title: Belle Delphine

text: Delphine continued using her Patreon and Twitter accounts. At one point, her Patreon account had over 4,400 supporters. "Polygon" noted that "at least one man" spent $2,500 in exchange for a personal Skype conversation with Delphine. In late August, Delphine became inactive on her social media platforms, making many Patreon supporters believe they were being scammed out of previously promised upcoming content.


title: Belle Delphine

text: On 7 October 2019, Delphine tweeted an image of her mugshot, with a caption detailing that she was arrested. The image contained a "Metropolitan Police Service" watermark, although there was not any external proof of an arrest from the Metropolitan Police or otherwise. Delphine later stated that someone had stolen her pet hamster at a party and that she vandalised that person's car in retaliation, resulting in her arrest. Online publications and users questioned the authenticity of her claims, while the Metropolitan Police stated they were "unable to disclose any information" regarding the arrest due to the Data Protection Act. Delphine uploaded her fourth YouTube video in November 2019, before taking a break.


title: Belle Delphine

text: In June 2020, Delphine returned to social media with a YouTube music video parodying the song "Gooba" by American rapper 6ix9ine. The video also promoted her newly-launched Instagram, TikTok, and OnlyFans accounts. She was later banned from TikTok. "The Spectator" and "Business Insider" reported that her OnlyFans account draws in over $1.2 million (£1 million) per month. In September, Delphine uploaded a music video for Doll.ia's "Plushie Gun" song, which featured her twerking, licking a razor blade, and playing with toy guns.


title: Belle Delphine

text: On 20 November, Delphine's YouTube channel was terminated without warning "due to multiple or severe violations of YouTube's policy on nudity or sexual content". This termination occurred almost immediately after Delphine's "Plushie Gun" video was removed for violating the platform's sexual content guidelines. Prior to this, many of her videos had been age-restricted for their adult content. Her channel had around 1.8 million subscribers and 78 million video views prior to its termination. The termination drew criticism from both Delphine and her fans, who questioned if there was a double standard between mainstream celebrities and independent content creators like Delphine. Her channel was shortly reinstated with YouTube attributing the termination to "a mistake by the review team." Around this time, Delphine started posting adult and explicit content on her Twitter account. On 25 December, she uploaded her first homemade hardcore porn to her OnlyFans account.


title: Belle Delphine

text: In January 2021, Delphine posted images of a staged-kidnapping fantasy shoot, which led to several Twitter users accusing her of promoting rape. Delphine defended her post, stating "there is nothing wrong with enjoying power-play and BDSM where both people are consensual." She took another hiatus from the Internet in 2021, sharing on Twitter that she "vowed never to do porn again," wanting instead to live in a cottage and travel. However, in April 2022, she resumed making online content.


title: Belle Delphine

text: Delphine's persona and content has garnered curiosity and scrutiny from online users and media outlets alike. Various outlets, including "Business Insider", "The Cut", "Kotaku", and "Polygon" have described her as a "troll", and several instances of her activity online as "stunts". Many of those outlets also assert that Delphine's often erotic content has a satirical and ironic layer to it. "Business Insider" cited one fan response in particular, which likened Delphine to a "2019 Andy Warhol". Referring to her as "a surrealist troll that became too much for Instagram", the publication also ranked Delphine 89th on the 2019 edition of its UK Tech 100 list. The list's purpose is to feature the one-hundred "most interesting, innovative, and influential people shaping the UK tech scene".


title: Belle Delphine

text: The intentionally "weird" aspect of Delphine's social media presence has been often noted in media coverage of her. Alex Galbraith, writing for "Complex", commented that her "exceptionally weird" stunts "seem to be satirizing the whole idea of sexiness". Writing for "Vice", Kitty Guo described Delphine's humour as "tongue-in-cheek and deliberately gross-out", and commented that her modelling shots have a "slick glamour". Bishop wrote that Delphine "has successfully tapped into an online subculture by creating content that exists somewhere between Internet pranks and erotic modelling. For many of her followers, Delphine is a personality before she is a pornographic model". Aoife Wilson, Head of Video at "Eurogamer" commented positively on Delphine's online persona and content, asserting that "[Delphine] is an incredibly savvy businesswoman. She gained a huge online following through her love of cosplay and her ability to replicate real-life "ahegao" faces. She's kept that momentum going by engaging with her followers and trying new things, always skirting the line between sexy and surreal. She absolutely knows her audience".


title: Belle Delphine

text: Writing for "Kotaku", Joshua Rivera opined that the overt sexuality in Delphine's content was presented satirically, "given her long list of stunts that all tend to subvert or toy with well-established fetish tropes". On the sexuality found in her social media posts, James Cook of "The Telegraph" commented on Delphine being "one of a new breed of mostly young social media celebrities to have found a way to harness obsessive, sexualised internet culture to make huge amounts of money", albeit in a "dubious fashion". Delphine has also been noted to be often accused of making herself look younger, particularly to "cater to followers' barely-legal fantasies," due to her regularly using fake braces and styling her hair into pig tails in her posts.


title: Belle Delphine

text: Delphine herself views her modelling as falling into the category of erotica, but in December 2020, when asked on if she considers her online activity as performance art, Delphine disputed the idea. Instead, she described her actions as "just jokes," and went on to say she enjoys "playing" around online, calling the internet "a really fun place to tease and mess around with".


title: Belle Delphine

text: Her content's use of themes from Japanese popular culture has also been examined. Originating in 1990s Japanese manga, the "ahegao" facial expression was specifically cited by media outlets for its frequency and prominence in Delphine's imagery. "Business Insider" stated Delphine was "most famous" for her "ahegao" photos, while "The Spectator" referred to her replication of the facial expression as her "break-out" online. Dickson wrote that the references to Japanese culture in Delphine's content have sparked criticism, as she has been "accused of racism and cultural appropriation in her cosplay, as well as capitalizing on the eroticisation of young girls". Conversely, Japanese adult performer Marica Hase stated "I see her manga characters as more of an homage and not racist".


title: Belle Delphine

text: Her association with an e-girl image has been covered in the media, with publications having cited her as influencing the e-girl aesthetic commonly found on TikTok. "Kotaku" and "Business Insider" have described Delphine as a "peak self-aware e-girl", and as a figure that some may point to as "a symbol of the first wave of e-girl", respectively. Kitty Guo of "Vice" also noted that over time, Delphine "moulded herself into the platonic ideal of an e-girl," as her content began leaning more into "a carefully crafted pastel-fairy-princess-anime aesthetic." Guo also labeled Delphine as an "Extremely Online" person.


title: Belle Delphine

text: Her association with a gamer girl image and its tropes has also been acknowledged. On her polarising social media presence, "London Evening Standard" wrote that Delphine "has sparked a flurry of debate online, with fans branding her everything from a master manipulator to a harmful sexist stereotype of gamer girls." Madeleine Aggeler of "The Cut" concurred, commenting:


title: Belle Delphine

text: Delphine herself has become something of an online Rorschach test, a figure in whom people see either a brilliant performance artist making a scathing commentary on the expectations of women online or someone cravenly taking advantage of misogynistic tropes of women gamers and appropriating Japanese cosplay culture."


title: Belle Delphine

text: After the success of Delphine's bath water product, Rivera opined "even the notion of 'gamer girl bath water' plays with all manner of stereotypes about women in games and how some men see them: as mythical unicorns to lust after". Lela London, writing for "The Telegraph", opined that "for women to truly escape gaming's gendered grip, we need to raise more non-fetishised Gamer Girls to the top. Belle Delphine is proof there is still quite a way to go." "Rolling Stones"s EJ Dickson described Delphine's posts as being more "bizarre" and "ridiculous", rather than "overtly sexual", and opined that "Such content appears to indicate that Delphine is leaning into — if not overtly parodying — the perception of the ideal girl as a hot, innocent young thing whose desire to play "Fortnite" is only eclipsed by her desire for nerdy gamer boy dick". Dickson also opined on why Delphine attracts much controversy, writing that:


title: Belle Delphine

text: Delphine markets herself as a 'gamer girl', which engages with a very specific stereotype about women in gaming. In the gaming community, there's a longstanding perception of female gamers as desperate attention-seekers who sexualise themselves to get more views and capitalise on horny dudes' desire for nerdy female counterparts.


title: Belle Delphine

text: In 2021, following her transition to OnlyFans, Delphine's account was noted as one of the most popular on the platform; "LA Weekly" ranked it as #6 on the site, calling Delphine the platform's "Best Gamer Girl", while "Men's Journal" called her "a top cosplay porn star on OnlyFans".


title: Maitreyi Ramakrishnan

text: Maitreyi Ramakrishnan ( ; born 28 December 2001) is a Canadian actress. She is known for her leading role as Devi Vishwakumar in the Netflix teen comedy series "Never Have I Ever" (2020–present) and as Priya Mangal in the Pixar film "Turning Red" (2022).


title: Maitreyi Ramakrishnan

text: Ramakrishnan was born and raised in Mississauga, Ontario. She was born to Tamil parents who immigrated to Canada as refugees from Sri Lanka due to the civil war. She identifies herself as Tamil Canadian rather than Sri Lankan. She went to Lisgar Middle School for elementary and graduated from Meadowvale Secondary School.


title: Maitreyi Ramakrishnan

text: Ramakrishnan made the decision to pursue an acting career in her last year at Meadowvale, and got the role in the Netflix teen comedy series "Never Have I Ever" less than a year after. She deferred her acceptance to the theatre program at York University in Toronto, which she had initially planned to attend the fall after she graduated high school, so she could shoot the series in Los Angeles. In 2021, she deferred her acceptance a second time, while also switching her degree to human rights and equity studies.


title: Maitreyi Ramakrishnan

text: Ramakrishnan made her professional acting debut as Devi Vishwakumar, the protagonist, in the Netflix teen comedy streaming television series "Never Have I Ever". In 2019, she was chosen by Mindy Kaling out of 15,000 candidates that had applied for an open casting call for the show. Ramakrishnan created her audition tape at a local library, using her mother's camera, eventually being asked to send four more videos, before having a screen test in Los Angeles and being offered the role. Ramakrishnan was 17 at the time of her casting and had not acted professionally. Her casting received significant media attention, especially in Canada, both due to the nature of the open casting call and for her Tamil Canadian identity. The same year, "Today" named her one of eighteen "Groundbreakers", a list of girls who were breaking down barriers and changing the world.


title: Maitreyi Ramakrishnan

text: In late April 2020, "Never Have I Ever" premiered on Netflix. Both the series and Ramakrishnan's performance received positive reviews, with "Variety" saying it was a "breakout performance". She received nominations for an Independent Spirit Award, a Canadian Screen Award, and an MTV Movie & TV Award. In July 2020, Netflix reported the series had been viewed by 40 million households globally since its release. In May 2020, Ramakrishnan was a co-host for the livestream segments of the 8th Canadian Screen Awards, along with Lloyd Robertson, Herbie Kuhn, Emma Hunter, Evany Rosen, Kayla Lorette, Eric McCormack, and Théodore Pellerin. Later that month, she also took part in the live-read series "Acting for a Cause", appearing as Olivia for a live staged reading of William Shakespeare's play "Twelfth Night", to help raise money for a local hospital in Chicago, which was struggling to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Maitreyi Ramakrishnan

text: In February 2021, Ramakrishnan was included and named as Breakout Actor in "Time"'s Time100 Next list of influential, rising stars. She also reprised her role as protagonist, Devi Vishwakumar, in the second season of Netflix's "Never Have I Ever", which premiered on the streaming platform in July that year. The season was positively received with critics and audiences praising Ramakrishnan's performance.


title: Maitreyi Ramakrishnan

text: In March 2022, Ramakrishnan was announced as a brand ambassador for clothing retailer American Eagle's "Member's Always: Future Together" campaign along with Madelyn Cline, Joshua Bassett, Michael Evans Behling, Coco Gauff, and Mxmtoon. Later that month, she voiced the character of Priya Mangal, a deadpan girl that is one of the protagonist's best friends, in the Pixar animated fantasy comedy film "Turning Red". The film was released on Disney+ along with a limited theatrical release, and received critical acclaim. In April 2022, she began starring in the voice role of Zipp Storm, in the "My Little Pony" franchise's made-for-YouTube 2D animated web series, "My Little Pony: Tell Your Tale" (replacing Liza Koshy who had voiced the character in the 2021 Netflix film ""). That same month, Ramakrishnan received the honorary Radius Award from the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television at the 10th Canadian Screen Awards, for her global impact on television of South Asian representation in Hollywood and breaking Asian stereotypes, as well as her work as a Canadian. In May 2022, she reprised her voice role as Zipp Storm in the Netflix CGI-animated series special — "My Little Pony: Make Your Mark".


title: Maitreyi Ramakrishnan

text: Ramakrishnan reprised her role as Devi Vishwakumar in the third season of "Never Have I Ever"; principal photography began towards the end of November 2021 and wrapped up in late February 2022. The new season premiered on 12 August 2022, on Netflix. She will also be reprising her role as her character Zipp Storm in the Netflix computer-animated series "My Little Pony: Make Your Mark", and the CGI-animated special "My Little Pony: Winter Wishday", which are set to premiere on 26 September and in November 2022, on the streaming platform respectively. She has also committed to star in the upcoming Netflix romantic comedy film "The Netherfield Girls", a contemporary adaptation of Jane Austen's novel "Pride and Prejudice," which will mark Ramakrishnan's film acting debut.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: On June 25, 2009, American singer Michael Jackson died of acute propofol and benzodiazepine intoxication at his home on North Carolwood Drive in the Holmby Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. His physician, Conrad Murray, said that he found Jackson in his room not breathing and with a weak pulse; he administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) to no avail, and security called 9-1-1 at 12:21 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time (). Paramedics treated Jackson at the scene, but he was pronounced dead at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: On August 28, 2009, the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner concluded that Jackson's death was a homicide. Jackson had been administered propofol and anti-anxiety benzodiazepines lorazepam and midazolam by his doctor. Murray was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in November 2011, and was released in 2013 after serving two years of his four-year prison sentence with time off for good behavior.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: At the time of his death, Jackson had been preparing for a series of comeback concerts, This Is It, due to begin in July 2009 in London. His death triggered reactions around the world, creating unprecedented surges of Internet traffic and a spike in sales of his music. A televised memorial service, held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, was viewed by an estimated 2.5 billion people globally. In 2010, Sony Music Entertainment signed a US$250 million deal with Jackson's estate to retain distribution rights to his recordings up until 2017 and to release seven posthumous albums over the following decade.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: At the time of his death, Michael Jackson was preparing for a series of comeback concerts, This Is It, due to begin in July 2009 at London's O2 Arena. On June 24, Jackson arrived for rehearsal at the Staples Center, Los Angeles, at around 6:30 p.m. According to the magician Ed Alonzo, Jackson jokingly complained of laryngitis and did not rehearse until 9 pm. "He looked great and had great energy," Alonzo said. The rehearsal went past midnight.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: Jackson returned to his home at 100 North Carolwood Drive in the Holmby Hills neighborhood around 12:30 AM the following morning and retired to bed one hour later. Jackson had long suffered from insomnia, and had a history of using drugs in an attempt to help him sleep. Jackson's physician Conrad Murray was present to help Jackson sleep and gave him various drugs including diazepam, ativan, lorazepam and midazolam while monitoring him by his bedside. After several hours and several drug injections, Jackson was still unable to fall asleep, and, according to Murray, was repeatedly asking him for "milk", a term for the powerful sedative propofol, which Jackson had used in the past as a sleep aid. At 10:40 AM, with Jackson still not asleep, Murray relented to his requests and injected him with 25 milligrams of propofol diluted with lidocaine. With Jackson finally asleep, Murray testified that he left his bedside to go to the bathroom, and after returning two minutes later, discovered that Jackson was not breathing and had a weak pulse.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: Murray testified that he tried to revive Jackson for around ten minutes by performing CPR and administering flumazenil, a drug used to counteract sedative overdose, after which he called for help from staff present in the house. Statements described Murray using a non-standard CPR technique on Jackson. The recording of the emergency call was released on June 26, one day after Jackson's death, and it described Murray administering CPR on a bed, not on a hard surface such as a floor which would be standard practice. Murray said that he placed one hand underneath Jackson and used the other for chest compression, whereas standard practice is to use both hands for compression. Murray controversially did not call 911, claiming that he was hindered because there was no landline telephone in the house and because he did not know the house's exact address. It was later discovered that Murray had made several private calls on his cell phone in the hour after discovering Jackson's state which he did not inform law enforcement about. A security guard eventually called 911 at 12:21 pm, nearly an hour and a half after Jackson was first discovered not breathing. Paramedics reached Jackson at 12:26 p.m. and found that he was not breathing and had no pulse.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: Paramedics performed CPR for 42 minutes at the house. Murray's attorney stated that Jackson had a pulse when he was taken out of the house and put in the ambulance. An LAFD official gave a different account, stating that paramedics found Jackson in "full cardiac arrest", and that they did not observe a change in his status en route to the hospital. LAFD transported him to the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. The ambulance arrived at the hospital at approximately 1:14 pm, and a team of medical personnel attempted to resuscitate him for more than an hour. They were unsuccessful, and Jackson was pronounced dead at 2:26 pm at age 50.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: Jackson's body was flown by helicopter to the Los Angeles County Coroner's offices in Lincoln Heights, where a three-hour autopsy was performed the next day (June 26) on behalf of the Los Angeles County Coroner by the chief medical examiner Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran. Jackson's family arranged for a second autopsy, a practice that could yield expedited, albeit limited, results. After the preliminary autopsy was completed, Craig Harvey, chief investigator for the coroner's office, said there was no evidence of trauma or foul play.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: On August 28, 2009, the Los Angeles County coroner classified Jackson's death as a homicide, determining that Jackson died from combined drug intoxication, with the most significant drugs being the anesthetic propofol and the anxiolytic lorazepam, and less significant drugs found in Jackson's body being midazolam, diazepam, lidocaine, and ephedrine. The coroner kept the complete toxicology report private, as requested by the police and district attorney.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: The autopsy report revealed that Jackson was otherwise healthy for his age (age 50) and that his heart was strong; his most significant health problem was that his lungs were chronically inflamed, but this did not contribute to his death. His other major organs were normal and he had no atherosclerosis except for some slight plaque accumulation in the arteries in his leg. Associated Press stated that his weight was in the acceptable range.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: Jackson's death was investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA); the latter agency had the authority to investigate issues otherwise protected by doctor-patient confidentiality, allowing it to trace the complex trail of prescription drugs supplied to Jackson.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: On August 28, 2009, LAPD announced that the case would be referred to prosecutors. Because the LAPD did not secure Jackson's home and allowed the Jackson family access to it as well before returning to remove certain items, the department raised concerns by some observers that the chain of custody had been broken. The police maintained that they had followed protocol. California Attorney General Jerry Brown announced that his office was helping the LAPD and DEA to create a statewide database of all medical doctors and prescriptions filled.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: The LAPD subpoenaed medical records from doctors who had treated Jackson. Police considered, but did not bring, homicide charges against those who had supplied drugs to Jackson.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: Marc Schaffel, Jackson's former video producer, said that the singer had used propofol, alprazolam (an antianxiety agent) and sertraline (an antidepressant). Other drugs included omeprazole, hydrocodone, paroxetine, carisoprodol, and hydromorphone. After his death, police found several drugs in his home, which included propofol. Some of these drugs had labels made out to false names, and others were unlabeled. A 2004 police document prepared for the 2005 "People v. Jackson" child abuse trial said that Jackson was taking up to 40 alprazolam pills a night. Alprazolam was not found in his bloodstream at the time of death. Jackson's friend Dr. A. J. Farshchian stated that Jackson was scared of drugs.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: Eugene Aksenoff is a Tokyo-based physician who had treated Jackson and his children on a few occasions, and he expressed concern about Jackson's use of various drugs. He said that Jackson asked for stimulants so that he could get through some demanding performances, but he said that he refused to prescribe them. He recalled that Jackson had chronic fatigue, fever, insomnia, and other symptoms, and he took a large amount of drugs. He suspected that one of the major factors causing these symptoms was excessive use of steroids or other skin-whitening medications.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: Janet Jackson claimed that the Jackson family tried to stage an intervention in early 2007 when Jackson was living in Las Vegas. She and some of her brothers allegedly traveled to his home but were turned away by security guards who were ordered not to let them in. He was also rumored to have refused calls from his mother. However, the family denied that they had tried to intervene.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: Of all the drugs found in Jackson's home, the one that most concerned investigators was propofol (Diprivan), a powerful anesthetic administered intravenously in hospitals to induce and maintain anesthesia during surgery. Nicknamed "milk of amnesia" because of its opaque, milk-like appearance (and a play on the words "milk of magnesia"), the drug has been associated with cardiac arrest, but it still may be increasingly used off-label for anxiolytic and other medically unsubstantiated purposes. Several propofol bottles, some empty, some full, were found in Jackson's home.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: On June 30, Cherilyn Lee, a nurse who had worked as Jackson's nutritionist, said that he had asked her in May to provide propofol to help him sleep, but she refused. He told her he had been given the drug before for persistent insomnia, and that a doctor had said it was safe. Lee said she received a telephone call from an aide to Jackson on June 21 to say that Jackson was ill, although she no longer worked for him. She reported overhearing Jackson complain that one side of his body was hot, the other side cold. She advised the aide to send Jackson to a hospital.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: Arnold Klein said that Jackson used an anesthesiologist to administer propofol to help him sleep while he was on tour in Germany. The anesthesiologist would "take him down" at night and "bring him back up" in the morning during the HIStory tour of 1996 and 1997.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: The DEA focused on at least five doctors who prescribed drugs to Jackson, trying to determine whether they had had a "face to face" relationship with him and whether they had made legally required diagnoses. At least nine doctors were under investigation. The police wanted to question 30 doctors, nurses, and pharmacists, including Arnold Klein. Klein said that he occasionally had given Jackson pethidine to sedate him, but had administered nothing stronger and that he had turned his records over to the medical examiner.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: Cardiologist Conrad Murray joined Jackson's camp in May 2009 as part of Jackson's agreement with AEG Live, the promoter of his London concerts. Murray first met Jackson in Las Vegas when he treated one of Jackson's children. AEG Live said Jackson insisted the company hire Murray to accompany him to England. During Murray's trial it emerged that AEG employed Murray and that Jackson did not sign the contract for the above-cited employment either.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: Murray said through his attorney that he did not prescribe or administer pethidine or oxycodone to Jackson, but did not say what, if anything, he did prescribe or administer. Los Angeles police said Murray spoke to officers immediately after Jackson's death, and during an extensive interview two days later. They stressed that they found "no red flag" and did not suspect foul play. On June 26, police towed away a car used by Murray, stating that it might contain medication or other evidence. The police released the car five days later.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: Politician and minister Jesse Jackson, a friend of Michael Jackson's family, said that the family was concerned about Murray's role. "They have good reason to be ... he left the scene." Over the next few weeks, law enforcement grew increasingly concerned about Murray, and on July 22 detectives searched Murray's medical office and storage unit in Houston, removing items such as a computer and two hard drives, contact lists and a hospital suspension notice. On the 27th, an anonymous source reported that Murray had administered propofol within 24 hours of Jackson's death. Investigators had searched Murray's home and office in Las Vegas, as well as a Las Vegas pharmacy. Jackson paid Murray $150,000 a month.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: On February 8, 2010, Murray was charged with involuntary manslaughter by prosecutors in Los Angeles. Murray pleaded not guilty and was released after posting US$75,000 bail. Shortly thereafter, the California Medical Board issued an order preventing Murray from administering heavy sedatives.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: On January 11, 2011, the judge from Murray's preliminary hearing determined that Murray should stand trial for involuntary manslaughter in the Jackson case. The judge also suspended Murray's license to practice medicine in California.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: After several delays, the jury trial began on September 27, 2011. On November 7, 2011, Murray was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and he was held without bail to await sentencing. On November 29, 2011, Murray received the maximum sentence of four years in prison. Murray was released on October 28, 2013, due to California prison overcrowding and good behavior.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: Stacy Brown, a biographer, said Jackson had become "very frail, totally, totally underweight", and that his family had been worried about him. Another biographer, J. Randy Taraborrelli, said Jackson had been addicted to painkillers on and off for decades. Arnold Klein, Jackson's dermatologist, confirmed that Jackson misused prescription drugs, and that Klein had diagnosed Jackson with vitiligo and lupus. However, Klein said when he saw Jackson at his office three days before his death, he "was in very good physical condition. He was dancing for my patients. He was very mentally aware when we saw him and he was in a very good mood."


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: La Toya believed her brother "was murdered for his music catalogue". Shortly after Jackson's death, his family raised questions about the role of AEG Live, the "This Is It" concert promoter, in the last few weeks of his life. Joseph, Michael's father, filed a complaint with the California Medical Board alleging that AEG Live was illegally practicing medicine by demanding that Murray get Jackson off various medications. The complaint also alleged that AEG Live failed to provide the resuscitation equipment and nurse which Murray had requested. AEG spokesman Michael Roth declined to comment on the complaint.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: After Murray pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter charge, several members of the Jackson family said they felt he deserved a more severe charge. On June 25, 2010, Joseph filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Murray. The lawsuit alleged that Murray repeatedly lied to cover up his use of propofol, did not keep sufficient medical records and was negligent in his use of medications on Jackson. Murray's civil attorney, Charles Peckham, denied that Murray gave Jackson anything life-threatening. On August 15, 2012, Joseph dropped his wrongful death lawsuit against Murray.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: Michael Jackson's family praised the guilty verdict against Murray. In 2017, Paris Jackson stated that she was "absolutely" convinced that her father had been murdered.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: In 2010, Jackson's three children and his mother sued Jackson's concert promoter Anschutz Entertainment Group, Inc. (AEG) and its subsidiaries and principals, alleging that AEG had negligently hired the doctor. In 2013, following a 21-week trial in Los Angeles, the jury rendered a verdict in AEG's favor, finding that AEG had no reason to know that Murray would be "unfit or incompetent to perform the work for which he was hired" and therefore was not negligent.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: Jackson's last will was filed by an attorney John Branca at the Los Angeles County courthouse on July 1, 2009. Signed July 7, 2002, it names Branca and accountant John McClain as executors; they were confirmed as such by a Los Angeles judge on July 6, 2009. All assets are given to the (pre-existing) Michael Jackson Family Trust (amended March 22, 2002), the details of which have not been made public. The Associated Press reports that, in 2007, Jackson had a net worth of $236.6 million: $567.6 million in assets, which included Neverland Ranch and his 50% share of Sony/ATV Music Publishing' catalogue, and debts of $331 million. The guardianship of his three children is given to his mother, Katherine, or if she is unable or unwilling, to singer Diana Ross. Jackson's will allocates 20% of his fortune as well as 20% of money made after death to unspecified charities.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: Media reports suggested that the settlement of Jackson's estate could last many years. The value of Sony/ATV Music Publishing is estimated by Ryan Schinman, chief of Platinum Rye, to be US$1.5 billion. Shinman's estimate makes Jackson's share of Sony/ATV worth $750 million, from which Jackson would have had an annual income of $80 million. In September 2016, a deal was finalized for Sony's acquisition of Jackson's share of Sony/ATV from the Jackson estate for $750 million.<ref name="Sony Finalizes Acquisition of Michael Jackson Estate's Stake in Sony/ATV Publishing">Ed Christman. , "Billboard", September 30, 2016.</ref>


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: Jackson's death was first reported by the Los Angeles-based celebrity news website TMZ. Doctors at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center pronounced Jackson dead at 2:26 p.m., and TMZ announced the death 18 minutes later. The "Los Angeles Times" confirmed the report at 2:51 p.m. PDT (5:51 p.m. EDT). The news spread quickly online, causing websites to slow down and crash from user overload. TMZ and the "Los Angeles Times" suffered outages. Google initially believed that the millions of search requests meant their search engine was under DDoS attack, and blocked searches related to Michael Jackson for 30 minutes. Twitter reported a crash, as did Wikipedia at PDT (22:15 UTC). The Wikimedia Foundation reported nearly a million visitors to Jackson's biography within one hour, probably the most visitors in a one-hour period to any article in Wikipedia's history up to that point. AOL Instant Messenger collapsed for 40 minutes. Around 15% of Twitter posts (5,000 tweets per minute) mentioned Jackson after the news broke, compared to the 5% recalled as having mentioned the Iranian elections or the flu pandemic that had made headlines earlier in the year. Overall, web traffic ranged from 11% to at least 20% higher than normal. MTV and BET aired marathons of Jackson's music videos.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: Specials about Jackson aired on multiple television stations around the world. The British soap opera "EastEnders" added a last-minute scene to the June 26 episode, in which the character Denise Johnson discussed the news with Patrick Trueman. Magazines including "Time" published commemorative editions. A scene that had featured Jackson's sister La Toya was cut from the film "Brüno" out of respect toward Jackson's family.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: According to an analysis released by the Global Language Monitor (GLM), 72 hours after his death, Jackson became the ninth-most-covered news item in global print and electronic media. For the Internet and social media, Jackson was number two, behind the election of President Barack Obama. Commentators discussed Jackson's work and his "profoundly tragic figure". "Le Figaro" columnist Yann Moix said that although Jackson, like his iconic Moonwalk, lived life in reverse, the world at his death shed "identical and universal tears".


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: A Pew Research Center survey found that two-thirds of Americans believed the coverage of Jackson's death was excessive, while 3% felt it was insufficient. In the UK, the BBC received over 700 complaints from viewers who thought his death dominated the news. On June 29, American conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh said the coverage was a "horrible disgrace" and lent his support to activist-ministers Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, who were fighting to stem the press' speculation about what caused the death. Other conservatives, including commentator Bill O'Reilly and Congressman Peter T. King, also disapproved the receiving of the media attention about Jackson's death. Meanwhile, Hugo Chávez, the President of Venezuela, called the pop star's death some "lamentable news", but criticized CNN for covering the death more heavily than the Honduran coup d'état.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: In 2009, Jackson's family paid social media marketing company uSocial.net to increase the numbers of followers on Jackson's Twitter profile. According to the "New York Daily News", uSocial was contracted to deliver 25,000 followers to the account.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: News of Jackson's death triggered an outpouring of grief around the world. Fans gathered outside the UCLA Medical Center, Neverland Ranch, his Holmby Hills home, the Hayvenhurst Jackson family home in Encino, the Apollo Theater in New York, and at Hitsville U.S.A., the old Motown headquarters in Detroit where Jackson's career began, now the Motown Museum. Streets around the hospital were blocked off. A small crowd, including the city's mayor, gathered outside Jackson's childhood home in Gary, where the flag on city hall was flown at half-staff in his honor. Fans in Hollywood initially gathered around the Walk of Fame star of another Michael Jackson, as they were unable to access Jackson's star, which had been temporarily covered by equipment in place for the "Brüno" film premiere. Grieving fans and memorial tributes relocated from the talk radio host's star the next day.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: From Odessa to Brussels, and beyond, fans held their own memorial gatherings. U.S. President Barack Obama sent a letter of condolence to the Jackson family, and the House of Representatives observed a moment of silence. Obama later stated that Jackson "will go down in history as one of our greatest entertainers". Former South African President Nelson Mandela said that Jackson's loss would be felt worldwide.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: In Japan, Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Tsutomu Sato told reporters, "I feel sad as I had watched him since he was a member of Jackson Five." Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada credited him with building a generation with his music. Health Minister Yōichi Masuzoe called the death an "extremely tragic loss".


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: In the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Gordon Brown's spokesperson said: "This is very sad news for the millions of Michael Jackson fans in Britain and around the world." Conservative opposition leader David Cameron said: "I know Michael Jackson's fans in Britain and around the world will be sad today. Despite the controversies, he was a legendary entertainer."


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: Russian fans gathered outside the U.S. Embassy in Moscow to mourn. French Minister of Culture Frédéric Mitterrand, said, "We all have a Michael Jackson within." Elizabeth Taylor, a long-time friend, said that she could not imagine life without him. Liza Minnelli told CBS, "When the autopsy comes, all hell's going to break loose, so thank God we're celebrating him now." His sister La Toya stated that his daughter said he was being overworked. La Toya was quoted as saying, "She said, 'No, you don't understand. They kept working him and Daddy didn't want that, but they worked him constantly'. I felt so bad."


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: On June 30, 2009, U2 while performing their first show of the U2 360 tour in Barcelona dedicated the song "Angel of Harlem" to Jackson. U2 vocalist Bono sang verses from "Man in the Mirror" and "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" at the end of the song. On July 10, 2009, six thousand fans attended a musical tribute in Jackson's hometown of Gary, Indiana. Local performers staged a medley of his songs, and mayor Rudolph M. Clay unveiled a seven-foot memorial to him. Jesse Jackson addressed the crowd, stating, "This is where Michael learned to dance, where he learned to sing, where he learned to sacrifice." The day after Jackson's death, rapper the Game released a tribute song, "Better on the Other Side", produced by DJ Khalil and featuring vocals by Diddy, Chris Brown, Polow da Don, Mario Winans, Usher, and Boyz II Men. A variety of other artists recorded tributes, including 50 Cent, LL Cool J, Robbie Williams, Akon and guitarist Buckethead.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: On June 26, artists including Pharrell Williams and Lily Allen paid tribute to Jackson at the UK Glastonbury Festival. Allen wore a single white glove (a signature look for Jackson), while the Streets performed a cover of "Billie Jean". Tributes to Jackson at the festival continued over the weekend. On July 5, 2009, Madonna performed a medley of Jackson's songs during her Sticky & Sweet Tour, while a Jackson impersonator performed Jackson's signature dances and photos of Jackson were displayed behind them. Beyoncé performed an extended version of "Halo", dedicating it to Jackson in various shows during her I Am... World Tour. Coldplay covered "Billie Jean" for the remainder of the 2009 shows of their Viva la Vida Tour.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: Metal and hard rock acts who performed Jackson songs in tribute include Metallica, Chris Cornell, Steve Vai and Andy Timmons, Extreme, and CKY. Buckethead wrote a song entitled "The Homing Beacon", inspired by Jackson's film "Captain EO". Statements of tribute came from rock musicians including Judas Priest bassist Ian Hill, Queen guitarist Brian May, members of Black Sabbath, former Skid Row frontman Sebastian Bach, Alice Cooper, Geoff Tate of Queensrÿche, Eddie Van Halen (who worked with Jackson during the recording of "Thriller") and Slash (who played guitar on Jackson's single "Give In to Me"). In October 2013, a tribute album was released featuring current and former members of Iron Maiden, Kiss, Motörhead, Testament, Guns N' Roses, Fozzy, Quiet Riot, Dio, Whitesnake, and Mr. Big, among others.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: Jackson's sister La Toya released her song "Home" on July 28 as a charity single in her brother's honor. All proceeds were donated to one of Michael's favorite charities. BET's annual 2009 Awards Ceremony aired three days after Jackson's death, on June 28, 2009, and included a tribute to him. Host Jamie Foxx said, "We want to celebrate this black man. He belongs to us and we shared him with everybody else." The ceremony featured performances of several of Jackson's songs, including pieces from his time with The Jackson Five and those from his solo career. Joe Jackson and Al Sharpton were in the audience, and Janet Jackson spoke briefly on behalf of the family. The show was the most-watched BET annual awards show in the awards shows history.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: The day after Jackson's death, the mayor of Rio de Janeiro announced that the city would erect a statue of him in the favela of Dona Marta. Jackson visited the community in 1996 and filmed a music video for "They Don't Care About Us" there. The mayor said that Jackson had helped make the community into "a model for social development". Memorials were held in locations as diverse as Tokyo, Bucharest and Baku, Azerbaijan. In Midyat, Turkey, a Salat al-Janazah (Islamic funeral prayer) was performed, and traditional funeral helva distributed.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: The music video for "Do the Bartman", a "Simpsons" song co-written by Jackson, was broadcast ahead of an episode rerun of "The Simpsons" on June 28. It featured a title card paying tribute to Jackson. The 1991 "Simpsons" episode "Stark Raving Dad", which Jackson guest-starred in, was broadcast on Fox on July 5. The episode had been broadcast on the Dutch Comedy Central the day after his death and was dedicated to Jackson's memory. His 1978 film "The Wiz" (in which he co-starred alongside Diana Ross and Richard Pryor) was briefly rereleased in a rare 35mm format and was shown at the Hollywood Theater in his honor. It was also re-released a week prior to the release of "Michael Jackson's This Is It" in select cities. Madonna opened the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards with a speech about Michael Jackson. Janet Jackson made an appearance at the VMAs to pay a musical tribute to her brother and honor his career. He was honored with a posthumous lifetime achievement award during the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards on January 31, 2010. Jackson was featured in the 82nd annual Academy Awards ceremony's "In Memoriam" tribute.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: Jackson's record sales increased dramatically, eightyfold by June 29, according to HMV. Bill Carr of Amazon said the website sold out of all Jackson and Jackson 5 CDs within minutes of the news breaking, and that demand surpassed that for Elvis Presley and John Lennon after their sudden deaths in 1977 and 1980 respectively. In Japan, six of his albums made SoundScan Japan's Top 200 Albums chart, and in Poland, "Thriller 25" topped the national album chart and was replaced by "King of Pop" the following week.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: In Australia, 15 of his albums occupied the ARIA top 100 as of July 5, four of them in the top ten, with three occupying the top three spots. He had 34 singles in the top 100 singles chart, including four in the top ten. Album sales were 62,015 for the previous week; singles tallied 107,821 units. In the second week, album sales rose from the previous week and tallied 88,650 copies. On July 12, four albums were in the top 10 with three occupying the top three spots. In New Zealand, "Thriller 25" topped the chart. In Germany, "King of Pop" topped the album chart, and from June 28 to July 4, nine of his albums occupied the Top 20 of CAPIF in Argentina.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: In Billboard's European Top 100 Albums, he made history with eight of his albums in the top ten positions. As of August 3, "King of Pop" has spent four weeks atop Billboard's European Top 100 Albums chart. "The Collection" also spent two weeks atop the same chart.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: In the UK, on the Sunday following his death, his albums occupied 14 of the top 20 places on the "Amazon.co.uk" sales chart, with "Off the Wall" at the top. "Number Ones" reached the top of the UK Album Chart, and his studio albums occupied number two to number eight on the "iTunes" Music Store top albums. Six of his songs charted in the top 40: "Man in the Mirror" (11), "Thriller" (23), "Billie Jean" (25), "Smooth Criminal" (28)", "Beat It" (30), and "Earth Song" (38). The following Sunday, 13 of Jackson's songs charted in the top 40, including "Man in the Mirror", which reached number two. He broke Ruby Murray's 1955 record of five songs in the top 30. "The Essential Michael Jackson" topped the album chart, giving Jackson a second number one album in as many weeks. He had five of the top ten albums in the album chart. In third week sales, "The Essential Michael Jackson" retained the number one position and Jackson held three other positions within the top five. By August 3, Jackson had sold 2 million records and spent six consecutive weeks atop the album chart. He retained the top spot on the album chart for a seventh consecutive week.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: In the U.S., Jackson broke three chart records on the first "Billboard" issue date that followed his death. The entire top nine positions on "Billboard" Top Pop Catalog Albums featured titles related to him. By the third week it would be the entire top 12 positions. "Number Ones" was the best-selling album of the week and topped the catalog chart with sales of 108,000, an increase of 2,340 percent. "The Essential Michael Jackson" (2) and "Thriller" (3) also sold over 100,000 units. The other titles on the chart are "Off the Wall" (4), Jackson Five's "" (5), "Bad" (6), "Dangerous" (7), "" (8) and Jackson's "" (9). Collectively, his solo albums sold 422,000 copies in the week following his death, 800,000 copies in the first full week, and 1.1 million copies in the following week of his memorial service. He also broke a record on the Top Digital Albums chart, with six of the top 10 slots, including the entire top four. On the Hot Digital Songs chart he placed a record of 25 songs on the 75-position list. In the U.S., Jackson became the first artist to sell over one million downloads in a week, with 2.6 million sales.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: By August 5, Jackson had sold nearly 3.8 million albums and 7.6 million tracks in the U.S. "Number Ones" was the best-selling album for six out of seven weeks that followed his death. By year's end in 2009, Jackson had become the best selling artist of the year selling 8.2 million albums in the U.S. He also became the first artist in history to have four of the top 20 best-selling albums in a single year in the U.S., nearly doubling the sales of his nearest competitor. Jackson was also the third best selling digital artist of 2009 in the U.S., selling approximately 12.35 million units.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: In the 12 months that followed his death Jackson sold nine million albums in the U.S., and 35 million albums worldwide. His estate also generated revenues of one billion dollars. In 2010, Sony Music Entertainment signed a US$250 million deal with Jackson's estate to retain distribution rights to his recordings up until 2017 and to release seven posthumous albums over the decade following his death.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: A private family service was held at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Los Angeles, after a public memorial at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California on July 7, where Jackson had rehearsed on June 24, the day before he died. The memorial service was organized by Jackson's concert promoter, AEG Live, who initially planned to charge for tickets. Following public pressure, AEG instead distributed the 17,500 tickets for free through an online lottery that attracted over 1.2 million applicants in 24 hours, and over a half-billion hits to the webpage. The service was broadcast live around the world, and was believed to have been watched by more than 2.5 billion people.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: Jackson's solid-bronze casket (which reportedly cost $25,000) was placed in front of the stage. Numerous celebrity guests attended the services. His brothers each wore a single, white, sparkling glove, while Stevie Wonder, Mariah Carey, Lionel Richie, Jermaine Jackson and others sang his songs. Jackson's then 11-year-old daughter, Paris, broke down as she told the crowd, "I just want to say, ever since I was born, Daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine ... and I just want to say I love him ... so much." Marlon Jackson said, "Maybe now, Michael, they will leave you alone."


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: According to reports, Jackson's burial was originally scheduled for August 29, 2009 (which would have been his 51st birthday). His service and burial were held at Glendale's Forest Lawn Memorial Park on September 3, 2009. The burial was attended by his family members, first wife Lisa Marie Presley as well as his old friends Macaulay Culkin, Chris Tucker, Quincy Jones, Eddie Murphy and Elizabeth Taylor, amongst others. The service began with Jackson's three children placing a golden crown on his casket.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: Jackson's funeral cost $1 million, including $590,000 for Jackson's crypt; $11,716 for guest invitations; $30,000 for security and luxury cars; $16,000 for the florist; and $15,000 for the funeral planner. Jackson's family planned the funeral. Howard Weitzman, a lawyer for the estate executors, said that Jackson's "bigger than life" lifespan matched the lavishness of the funeral.


title: Death of Michael Jackson

text: Jackson's remains are interred in the Holly Terrace section in the Great Mausoleum of Forest Lawn Memorial Park, a cemetery in Glendale, California. The mausoleum is a secure facility that is not accessible to the general public or to the media, except on an extremely limited basis. The unmarked crypt, which is partially visible at the tinted entrance of the Holly Terrace mausoleum, is covered in flowers fans leave, which are placed by security guards outside the crypt. The family had considered burying Jackson at Neverland Ranch. However, some family members objected to the site, saying that the ranch had been tainted by the 2005 trial and police raids of the property. Also, the owners of the ranch would have had to go through a permitting process with county and state government before establishing a cemetery at the site. In July 2010, security was increased at the mausoleum due to vandalism by fans leaving messages such as "Keep the dream alive" and "Miss you sweet angel" in permanent ink.


title: Rick James

text: James Ambrose Johnson Jr. (February 1, 1948 – August 6, 2004), better known by his stage name Rick James, was an American singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. Born and raised in Buffalo, New York, James began his musical career in his teenage years. He was in various bands before entering the U.S. Navy Reserve to avoid being drafted into the army. In 1964, James deserted to Toronto, Canada, where he formed the rock band the Mynah Birds, who eventually signed a recording deal with Motown Records in 1966. James's career with the group halted after military authorities discovered his whereabouts and eventually convicted him of desertion related charges. He served several months in jail. After being released, James moved to California, where he started a variety of rock and funk groups in the late 1960s and early 1970s.


title: Rick James

text: After forming the locally popular Stone City Band in his hometown of Buffalo in 1977, James finally found success as a recording artist after signing with Motown's Gordy Records, releasing the album "Come Get It!" in 1978 which produced the hits "You & I" and "Mary Jane". In 1981, James released his most successful album, "Street Songs", which included career-defining hits such as "Give It to Me Baby" and "Super Freak", the latter song becoming his biggest crossover single, mixing elements of funk, disco, rock and new wave. James was also known for his soulful ballads such as "Fire & Desire" and "Ebony Eyes". In addition, James also had a successful career as a songwriter and producer for other artists including Teena Marie, the Mary Jane Girls, the Temptations, Eddie Murphy and Smokey Robinson.


title: Rick James

text: James's mainstream success had peaked by the release of his album "Glow" in 1985 and his appearance on the popular TV show, "The A-Team". His subsequent album releases failed to sell as well as their predecessors. Rapper MC Hammer sampled James's "Super Freak" for his 1990 hit, "U Can't Touch This" which won Best R&B Song at the 1991 Grammy Awards. James received his only Grammy for composing the song. By the early 1990s, James's career was hampered by his drug addiction and he was embroiled with legal issues. In 1993, James was convicted for two separate instances of kidnapping and assaulting two different women while under the influence of crack cocaine, resulting in a three-year sentence at Folsom State Prison. James was released on parole in 1996 and released the album "Urban Rapsody" in 1997. James's health problems halted his career again after he had a mild stroke during a concert in 1998, and he announced a semi-retirement.


title: Rick James

text: In 2004, James's career returned to mainstream pop culture after he appeared in an episode of "Chappelle's Show". The segment involved a Charlie Murphy "True Hollywood Stories"–style skit that satirized James's wild lifestyle in the 1980s. This resulted in renewed interest in his music and that year he returned to perform on the road. James died later that year from heart failure at age 56.


title: Rick James

text: In November 2020, James's estate confirmed the sale of a 50% stake in his publishing and masters catalog to the Hipgnosis Songs Fund, founded by Canadian music industry executive and entrepreneur Merck Mercuriadis.


title: Rick James

text: Johnson was born on February 1, 1948, in Buffalo, New York, to Mabel (née Sims) and James Ambrose Johnson Sr. He was one of eight children. He was an altar boy and choir member at St. Bridget's Catholic Church. James's father, an autoworker, left the family when James was 10. His mother was a dancer for Katherine Dunham, and later worked as a cleaner in the day, and as a numbers-runner for the Buffalo crime family at night to earn a living. James's mother would take him on her collecting route, and it was in bars where she worked that James saw performers such as John Coltrane, Miles Davis, and Etta James perform. James claimed later, in the autobiography "Glow", that he lost his virginity at "age 9 or 10" to a 14-year-old local girl, claiming his "kinky nature came in early." James eventually attended Bennett High School prior to dropping out. James was introduced to drugs at an early age and was arrested for burglary as a young teen. Due to his stints in jail for theft, James entered the United States Navy Reserve at 14 or 15, lying about his age, to avoid the draft. During that time, he also became a drummer for local jazz groups in New York City. Due to his missing his twice-monthly Reserve sessions aboard , he found himself ordered to Vietnam.


title: Rick James

text: In 1964, James fled to Toronto. Soon after his arrival three drunk men tried to attack him outside a club; a trio of other men came to his aid. One of them, Levon Helm, was at the time was a member of Ronnie Hawkins' backing band. Helm invited James to their show later that night and he ended up performing onstage with the band. In Toronto James made friends with local musicians Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. To evade US military authorities, James went under the assumed name "Ricky James Matthews". That same year, James formed The Mynah Birds, a band that produced a fusion of soul, folk and rock music. In 1965, the band briefly recorded for the Canadian division of Columbia Records, releasing a single, "Mynah Bird Hop"/"Mynah Bird Song". At one point, Nick St. Nicholas, later of Steppenwolf fame, was a member; by the time "Mynah Bird Hop" was recorded bassist Bruce Palmer had replaced him. James and Palmer recruited guitarists Tom Morgan and Xavier Taylor and drummer Rick Mason to form a new Mynah Birds lineup, and soon traveled to Detroit to record with Motown. Before the group began recording their first songs for the label, Morgan left, unhappy about the label's attitude toward the musicians. Neil Young eventually took his place. It was while in Detroit that James met his musical heroes, Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder. After meeting Wonder and telling him his name, Wonder felt the name "Ricky James Matthews" was "too long", and told James to shorten it to "Ricky James".


title: Rick James

text: In 1966, a financial dispute in Toronto between James and the Mynah Birds' handler, Morley Shelman led to Motown's learning of James's fugitive status with the Navy. Hoping to prevent any scrutiny, Motown execs told Rick they would not be releasing any more of his material and convinced him to come back and work with them after straightening out his legal issues. James surrendered himself to the FBI, and, in May 1966, was sentenced by the Navy to five months' hard labor for unauthorized absence. He was not yet 19 years old. James escaped from the Brooklyn Naval Brig after only six weeks' confinement, but following another six months as a fugitive, surrendered himself a second time. With help from his mother, James found legal assistance from his cousin, future Congressman Louis Stokes, and another attorney, former Marine Captain John Bracken, who pled James's second court-martial down from a potential five years' hard labor to five months. After his release from Portsmouth Naval Prison in August 1967, James returned to Toronto and endured another detention, initially derailing resumption of his career with Mynah Bird bandmate Neil Merryweather, with whom he would later collaborate, first at Motown and then in Los Angeles.


title: Rick James

text: In 1968, again working under the pseudonym Ricky Matthews, James produced and wrote songs at Motown for acts such as The Miracles, Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers, and The Spinners. According to James, he briefly got involved in pimp activity during this time, but stopped because he felt he was not qualified for it due to the harsh activity and the abuse of women there. It was during this third stint at Motown that James met musician Greg Reeves. Reeves, hoping to find a better situation than the US$38 a week (US$ in dollars) he was earning as a session bassist for Berry Gordy, joined James, looking to "hitch a lift from Neil Young's rising star," and relocated to Los Angeles.


title: Rick James

text: On one of his first nights in Los Angeles, James was crashing on musician Stephen Stills' couch. When he awoke he saw a stoned young man sitting on the floor in the lotus position. The man's wrists were bleeding so a scared James sought help. James was later formally introduced to the man who was Jim Morrison, lead singer of the Doors. After the Doors opened for Buffalo Springfield at the Whisky a Go Go, Morrison tricked James into taking acid.


title: Rick James

text: In California, James initially worked as a duo with Greg Reeves, but soon after James introduced Reeves to Neil Young, it was Reeves, not James, who was hired as bassist for the newly formed rock supergroup, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Around this time James formed several versions of the rock band Salt'N'Pepper and got involved with hair stylist Jay Sebring, who agreed to invest in his music. James claimed that in 1969 Sebring invited him to attend a party at actress Sharon Tate’s house, but he was too hungover to get out of bed. The next morning he discovered that Sebring had been murdered when he saw the "Los Angeles Times" headline "Sharon Tate, Four Others Murdered."


title: Rick James

text: In 1970, James and Salt'N'Pepper member Ed Roth participated in the recording of Bruce Palmer's solo album "The Cycle Is Complete". The duo also recorded as part of the group Heaven and Earth in Toronto. Heaven and Earth eventually changed their name to Great White Cane and recorded a self-titled album for the Los Angeles label Lion Records, released in 1972. James formed another band, Hot Lips, afterwards. He also briefly replaced Mendelson Joe in the Toronto blues band McKenna Mendelson Mainline. During this period, James and Mainline guitarist Mike McKenna co-wrote the song "You Make the Magic", which would later be released by The Chambers Brothers as a B-side to their single "Boogie Children."


title: Rick James

text: In 1973, James signed with A&M Records, where his first single under the name Rick James, "My Mama", was released in 1974, becoming a club hit in Europe.


title: Rick James

text: In 1976, James returned to Buffalo and formed the Stone City Band. Shortly thereafter, he recorded "Get Up and Dance!", his second single to be released. In 1977, James and the Stone City Band signed a contract with Motown's Gordy Records imprint, where they began recording their first album in New York City.


title: Rick James

text: In April 1978, James released his debut solo album, "Come Get It!", which included the Stone City Band. The album launched the top 20 hit, "You and I", which became his first number-one R&B hit. The album also included the hit single, "Mary Jane". It eventually sold two million copies, launching James's musical career to stardom, and helping out Motown Records at a time when label fortunes had dwindled. In early 1979, James's second album, "Bustin' Out of L Seven", followed the previous album's success, eventually selling a million copies. A third album, "Fire It Up", was released in late 1979 going gold. Around that same period, James launched his first headlining tour, the Fire It Up Tour, and agreed to invite the then-upcoming artist, Prince, as well as singer Teena Marie, as his opening act. James had produced Marie's successful Motown debut album, "Wild and Peaceful" and was featured on the hit duet, "I'm a Sucker (For Your Love)". James was credited with naming Marie, "Lady Tee", on the song, a nickname that stuck with Marie for the rest of her career. The Fire It Up tour led to James developing a bitter rivalry with Prince, after he accused the musician of ripping off his act.


title: Rick James

text: Following the end of the tour in 1980, James released the ballads-heavy "Garden of Love", which became his fourth gold record. In 1981, James recorded his best-selling album to date, "Street Songs", which like his previous four albums, was a concept album. "Street Songs" featured a fusion mix of different genres, including rock and new wave, as well as James's brand of crossover funk, enabling James's own style of "punk funk". The album featured hit singles such as "Ghetto Life", the Teena Marie duet "Fire and Desire", "Give It to Me Baby", and his biggest crossover hit to date, "Super Freak", which peaked at number 16 on the "Billboard" Hot 100, and sold over 1 million copies. "Street Songs" peaked at number one R&B and number three pop, and sold over 3 million copies alone in the United States. Following up that success, James released two more gold albums, 1982's "Throwin' Down" and 1983's "Cold Blooded".


title: Rick James

text: During this period, when Prince also became a success as a producer of other acts including The Time and Vanity 6, James launched the acts Process and the Doo-Rags, and the Mary Jane Girls, featuring his former background singer Joanne "JoJo" McDuffie as the lead vocalist and background performer, finding success with the latter group, due to the hits, "All Night Long", "Candy Man", and "In My House". In 1982, James produced the Temptations' Top 10 R&B hit, "Standing on the Top". In 1983, James recorded the hit duet, "Ebony Eyes", with singer Smokey Robinson, as well as a ballad "Tell Me What You Want" with an introduction by Billy Dee Williams. In 1985, James produced another hit for entertainer Eddie Murphy with the song "Party All the Time". That same year he appeared on an episode of "The A-Team" with Isaac Hayes. After the release of his ninth solo album, "The Flag", in 1986, James signed with Warner Bros. Records, which released the album "Wonderful" in 1988, featuring the hit, "Loosey's Rap".


title: Rick James

text: James's controversial and provocative image became troublesome sometimes. Famous for promoting the use of marijuana live in concerts during a time that simple possession could lead to a long-term prison sentence, James was often threatened by cops in various cities that he would be arrested if he smoked marijuana on stage during performances of songs such as "Fire It Up" and "Mary Jane". According to Kerry Gordy, most Motown executives erroneously thought the latter song was a "simple cute love song to a girl" not knowing the song was about marijuana.


title: Rick James

text: James's overtly sexual bravado made it tough for him to be a bigger mainstream act. After the debut of the fledgling music video network MTV in August 1981, James tried to present the music video to "Super Freak" to the label, only for the channel to turn the video down. James accused the network of racism. MTV denied this, stating the real reason "Super Freak" was turned down by MTV was because they felt James's video was too vulgar for the channel. When younger artists such as Michael Jackson and Prince found fame on the channel, James accused the two singers of being "tokens" in a 1983 interview, demanding that any black artist that has a video aired on MTV take their video off the channel in protest. James's rant was cosigned by David Bowie, who argued with MTV VJ Mark Goodman about the lack of black artists being featured on the channel despite the successes of Jackson and Prince.


title: Rick James

text: When MTV and BET both avoided playing the video for "Loosey's Rap" because of its graphic sexual content, James considered the networks hypocritical in light of them still playing provocative videos by artists such as Madonna.


title: Rick James

text: In 1989, James's 11th album, "Kickin'", was released only in the UK. By 1990, he had lost his deal with Reprise/Warner Bros., and James began struggling with personal and legal troubles. That year MC Hammer released his hit signature song, "U Can't Touch This", which sampled the prominent opening riff from "Super Freak". James and his co-writer on "Super Freak", Alonzo Miller, sued Hammer for shared songwriting credit and all three received a Grammy Award for Best R&B Song in 1991.


title: Rick James

text: In 1997, James released "Urban Rapsody", his first album since his release from prison on assault charges and he toured to promote the album. That year, he discussed his life and career in interviews for the VH1 musical documentary series, "Behind the Music", which aired in early 1998. James's musical career slowed again after he suffered a minor stroke during a concert in 1998. He was featured on the song "Love Gravy" with Ike Turner for the 1998 soundtrack album "". James accepted an offer by Eddie Murphy to appear in the comedy-drama "Life" (1999).


title: Rick James

text: In early 2004, after years out of the spotlight, James participated in a comedy sketch on "Chappelle's Show", in a segment called "Charlie Murphy's True Hollywood Stories." James and Murphy recounted humorous stories of their experiences together during the early 1980s. During the sketch, James's character, played by Dave Chappelle, utters the now famous catchphrase, "I'm Rick James, bitch!" The sketches were punctuated by James, explaining his past behavior with the phrase, "Cocaine is a hell of a drug!"


title: Rick James

text: James enjoyed a career revival after his appearance on the show. He supported Teena Marie's tour of her album "La Doña" and toured with her in May 2004; playing with her at the KBLX Stone Soul Picnic, Pioneer Amphitheatre, Hayward, California. James gave his last public appearance and performance at the fourth annual BET Awards on June 29, 2004. He performed a live rendition of "Fire & Desire" with Teena Marie. James called out a girl backstage who didn't recognize him by saying, "Never mind who you thought I was, I'm Rick James, bitch!" The audience erupted and gave James a standing ovation as he walked off the stage.


title: Rick James

text: At the time of his death, James was working on an autobiography, "The Confessions of Rick James: Memoirs of a Super Freak", as well as a new album. The book was finally published in 2007 by Colossus Books and features a picture of his tombstone. Noted music journalist/biographer David Ritz, who had been employed by James to work on the book with him, later said that this version did not truly reflect how the musician wanted himself portrayed. In 2014, Ritz published his own, re-edited version, "Glow: The Autobiography of Rick James".


title: Rick James

text: In 2021, James was the subject of a documentary film '' directed by Sacha Jenkins that was produced and broadcast by Showtime. According to Rotten Tomatoes, the documentary has 100% positive reviews from 13 professional reviewers.


title: Rick James

text: James had two children with Syville Morgan, a former singer and songwriter. They had a daughter, Tyenza, and a son, Rick Jr.


title: Rick James

text: James dated actress Linda Blair from 1982 to 1984. They met after James read an interview where Blair called him sexy. He contacted her and spent time getting to know the actress during a short stint living at the Chateau Marmont in Hollywood. Early in their relationship, Blair became pregnant and had an abortion. James wrote in his memoir, "I loved Linda and it hurt me that she would choose to abort our child without even wanting to talk to me about it first. I still look back on her choice with sadness and wonder about our baby, and how having that child might have changed my life." His hit song "Cold Blooded" was about his relationship with Blair. "It was about how Linda could freeze my blood," he wrote in his memoir.


title: Rick James

text: In 1989, James met 17-year-old party-goer Tanya Hijazi. The two began a romance in 1990. In 1993, the couple had their only child and James's youngest, Tazman. Following their respective releases from prison for assaulting Mary Sauger and Frances Alley, they married in 1996 and divorced in 2002.


title: Rick James

text: James was very close with Teena Marie, whom he met and began collaborating with in 1979. Teena Marie stated they were engaged "for two weeks." Their professional partnership lasted into 2004, when Marie released her comeback album, "La Doña", which included her and James's duet "I Got You". When James died, Teena Marie said she was "devastated by his death" and struggled with a painkiller addiction following his passing.


title: Rick James

text: James had a close friendship with Eddie Murphy, whom he met in 1981. He was also close to Murphy's older brother Charlie Murphy, who worked as a security guard for his brother. On the Chappelle show skits, Charlie Murphy recalled occasions of mistreatment by James.


title: Rick James

text: James was good friends with actress Debbie Allen. Allen once invited James to a Broadway show and sent a car to pick him up; during the show, James fell asleep due to exhaustion from prior sexual activities. Afterwards, Allen confronted him in the dressing room. She pinned him down and pleaded that he was throwing his life away. "All you do is get high and have sex," she said. He promised to change his ways, but he broke his promise that same night.


title: Rick James

text: James was also a friend of fellow Motown act performers Smokey Robinson and Marvin Gaye, singers James idolized as a teenager. Additionally, he befriended Gaye's second wife, Janis, and he was godfather of Gaye's daughter Nona. James's relationship with Robinson began shortly after James signed with Motown and, in 1983, the duo recorded the hit "Ebony Eyes".


title: Rick James

text: James also idolized former Temptations lead singer David Ruffin and Ruffin's self-proclaimed cousin, bass vocalist Melvin Franklin, and grabbed at the chance to produce the hit "Standing on the Top" for them in 1982. Before that, the then-current lineup of the group recorded background vocals on two James-associated projects—James's "Street Songs" (singing "Ghetto Life" and "Super Freak") and Teena Marie's "It Must Be Magic" (singing on the title track). In "Super Freak", "It Must Be Magic", and "Standing on the Top", James famously shouted out, "Temptations, SING!"


title: Rick James

text: James's substance abuse began in his teens, first with marijuana and heroin. He began using cocaine in the late 1960s. His cocaine addiction increased by the 1980s, and he began freebasing by the end of the decade. When he smoked crack cocaine in his Beverly Hills mansion, he often put aluminum foil on the windows to block onlookers. Although James claimed that he quit cocaine when he entered prison, his autopsy showed there was a small amount of the substance in his bloodstream at the time of his death.


title: Rick James

text: His drug use led to major health problems. In April 1984, he was hospitalized after being found unconscious at his house by a friend. In 1998, James suffered a stroke after a blood vessel ruptured in his neck during a concert at Mile High Stadium in Denver. Earlier that year he had hip replacement surgery to repair bone damage "from jumping around on stage and substance abuse."


title: Rick James

text: By the 1990s, James's drug abuse was public knowledge. He was heavily addicted to cocaine and later admitted to spending about $7,000 per week for five years straight. On August 2, 1991, James and his girlfriend Tanya Hijazi were arrested on charges of holding 24-year-old Frances Alley hostage for up to six days, tying her up, forcing her to perform sexual acts, and burning her legs and abdomen with the hot end of a crack cocaine pipe during a week-long cocaine binge. James faced a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted on all charges, which included assault with a deadly weapon, aggravated mayhem, torture, forcible oral copulation, false imprisonment and kidnapping.


title: Rick James

text: On November 3, 1992, while out on bail for that incident, James, under the influence of cocaine, assaulted music executive Mary Sauger at the St. James Club and Hotel in West Hollywood. Sauger claims she met James and Hijazi for a business meeting, but said the two then kidnapped and beat her over a 20-hour period.


title: Rick James

text: James was found guilty of both offenses but was cleared of a torture charge that could have put him in prison for the rest of his life. While serving his five-year sentence at Folsom Prison, James lost a civil suit to Sauger, who was awarded nearly $2 million in damages in 1994. James was ordered to pay her about $1 million; the hotel and a private security firm were found liable for nearly $750,000 in damages due to negligence. James was released from prison on August 21, 1996, after serving more than two years.


title: Rick James

text: In 1998, James was accused of sexually assaulting a 26-year-old woman, but the charges were later dropped. In 2020, James's estate was sued for $50 million by a woman who accused him of raping her when she was 15 years old at a group home for troubled youths in Buffalo, New York in 1979. The suit was later dismissed.


title: Rick James

text: On the morning of August 6, 2004, James's caretaker found him dead in his Los Angeles home at the Oakwood Toluca Hills apartment complex, just outside Burbank. He was 56 years old. His longtime publicist, Sujata Murthy, released a statement to the media stating he died of natural causes. James died from pulmonary failure and cardiac failure, associated with his various health conditions of diabetes, a stroke, pacemaker, and heart attack. His autopsy found alprazolam, diazepam, bupropion, citalopram, hydrocodone, digoxin, chlorpheniramine, methamphetamine, and cocaine in his blood. However, the coroner stated that "none of the drugs or drug combinations were found to be at levels that were life-threatening in and of themselves".


title: Rick James

text: Following a public viewing for fans, a private memorial was held at Forest Lawn Memorial Park - Hollywood Hills. A public funeral was held at St. John Baptist Church in Buffalo, New York on Saturday, Aug. 14, 2004, with an estimated 6000 fans attending the viewing, and cremation following the service; a free tribute concert took place later that day in Martin Luther King Park. James was buried at the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo.


title: Rick James

text: James was nominated for three Grammy Awards, winning one as a co-writer for MC Hammer's song "U Can't Touch This".


title: Rick James

text: James's entire Motown Records back catalogue was released in 2014 on iTunes for the first time in digitally remastered form. This marks the first time many of his albums have been widely available since their initial releases. Physical copies of James's albums, namely "Fire It Up", "Garden of Love" and "The Flag", have become rare and highly sought after by fans.


title: Kenosha unrest shooting

text: On August 25, 2020, Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old from Antioch, Illinois, fatally shot two men and wounded another man in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The shootings occurred during the protests, riots, and civil unrest that followed the shooting of a black man, Jacob Blake, by a white police officer. Race was a major theme in US media commentary, although Rittenhouse and those he shot were all white. Rittenhouse was armed with an AR-15 style rifle and had joined a group of armed people in Kenosha who said that they were in Kenosha to protect businesses.


title: Kenosha unrest shooting

text: Joseph Rosenbaum, a 36-year-old unarmed Kenosha man, chased Rittenhouse into a parking lot and grabbed the barrel of his rifle. Rittenhouse shot Rosenbaum four times at close range. Rittenhouse fled and was pursued by a crowd. Anthony Huber, a 26-year-old-resident of Silver Lake, was fatally shot once in the chest by Rittenhouse after he struck Rittenhouse with his skateboard and grabbed Rittenhouse's gun. Gaige Grosskreutz, a 26-year-old West Allis man who pointed a handgun at Rittenhouse, was shot by Rittenhouse once in the right arm and survived.


title: Kenosha unrest shooting

text: Kenosha County prosecutors charged Rittenhouse with two counts of homicide, one count of attempted homicide, two counts of reckless endangerment, one count of unlawful possession of a firearm, and one count of curfew violation. His trial lasted from November 1 to 19, 2021. Prosecutors sought to show Rittenhouse as a criminal gunman, while defense lawyers argued that Rittenhouse had acted in self-defense, asserting that his attackers were part of a mob that "attacked him in the street like an animal" and that he used force necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to himself. Judge Bruce Schroeder dismissed the unlawful possession charge and the curfew violation charge for being legally unsupported, and a jury found Rittenhouse not guilty of the remaining charges.


title: Kenosha unrest shooting

text: Public sentiment of the shootings was polarized and media coverage both polarized and politicized. Multiple right-wing politicians and figures welcomed Rittenhouse's acquittal, stating that the shootings were self-defense. President Joe Biden called for the jury's verdict to be respected, saying: that the verdict "will leave many Americans feeling angry and concerned, myself included." Multiple left-wing politicians and figures criticized the verdict as a miscarriage of justice, saying that the acquittal was emblematic of racial double standards in the American justice system. Gun control advocates expressed concerns that the verdict would embolden vigilantism and militia groups. An "Economist"/YouGov poll conducted during the trial found that two-thirds of Republicans thought Rittenhouse should be acquitted, while three-quarters of Democrats thought he should be convicted.


title: Kenosha unrest shooting

text: On August 23, 2020, civil unrest erupted in Kenosha after the shooting of Jacob Blake, an African-American man who was shot four times by a Kenosha police officer and became paralyzed from the waist down. Following a resurgence in protests that were part of the Black Lives Matter movement after other high-profile killings of African-Americans by police officers in 2020, the protests in Kenosha included rallies, marches, property damage, arson, and clashes with police between August 23 and September 1.


title: Kenosha unrest shooting

text: On August 25, former Kenosha alderman Kevin Mathewson put out a call on the Facebook page of the Kenosha Guard militia group for "patriots willing to take up arms and defend" Kenosha. Mathewson had previously formed the Kenosha Guard in response to the George Floyd protests earlier that year. The event post, titled "Armed Citizens to Protect our Lives and Property," was picked up and redistributed by "InfoWars". It received a national and international online response, attracting a larger number of armed men than were present at other protests in Wisconsin that summer. Kenosha Mayor John Antaramian and County Sheriff David Beth expressed their disapproval of armed civilians patrolling the streets, while some Wisconsin police officers were seen in a video giving them water and heard saying, "We appreciate you guys, we really do."


title: Kenosha unrest shooting

text: At the time of the shooting, Kyle Rittenhouse was a 17-year-old resident of Antioch, Illinois, a community located about 20 miles from Kenosha by road. Prior to the Kenosha unrest, he had participated in local police cadet programs and expressed support on social media for the Blue Lives Matter movement and law enforcement. Three months prior to the shooting, Rittenhouse's friend, Dominick Black, purchased a semi-automatic, AR-15 style rifle as a favor for him in Wisconsin since Rittenhouse was too young to purchase a gun. Black's stepfather kept the gun stored in a locked safe at his home in Kenosha but had relocated the weapon to an unsecured area in the basement on August 24, the second day of the Kenosha unrest, in case of a break in.


title: Kenosha unrest shooting

text: Those killed were Joseph Rosenbaum, aged 36 from Kenosha, and Anthony Huber, aged 26 from Silver Lake. Gaige Grosskreutz, aged 26 from West Allis, was injured.


title: Kenosha unrest shooting

text: After the city suffered building and vehicle damage during protests on August 24, social media had drawn locals and outsiders, left-wing activists and right-wing militia into the city streets despite an evening curfew imposed on citizens. Some 250 National Guard members were deployed to the city.


title: Kenosha unrest shooting

text: On August 25, militia that included Boogaloo boys and a biker crew carrying "hatchets, ball bats, and firearms" assembled near two gas stations south of Car Source, an automotive business with three properties (a dealership, a used car lot, and another car lot to the South), which had been badly damaged during the first two nights of unrest. Car Source had suffered $1.5 million in arson damage the previous night.


title: Kenosha unrest shooting

text: Peaceful protests during the day were followed by chaos where demonstrators, armed civilians and others faced off against one another and the police at night. Two hours after the 8:00 pm curfew had begun, police began to drive the protesters south out of Civic Center Park using BearCat armored personnel carriers. The shootings took place shortly before midnight along Sheridan Road.


title: Kenosha unrest shooting

text: On August 24, Rittenhouse drove to Kenosha to stay with his friend Dominick Black. The following day, August 25, Rittenhouse helped clean graffiti off a school. Later, Rittenhouse and Black, both armed with rifles, arrived at Car Source. Accounts differ as to whether Rittenhouse and Black's help was requested by Car Source. The dealership owner's sons denied that gunmen had been asked to defend the business,<ref name="Vielmetti_9/3/20202"></ref> but several witnesses testified that armed individuals had been directly sought out by the business to protect their property.


title: Kenosha unrest shooting

text: In the hours leading up to the shooting, Rittenhouse appeared in multiple videos taken by protesters and bystanders and was interviewed twice: first by a livestreamer at the car dealership where he and a number of other armed men had stationed themselves, second by Richie McGinniss, a reporter for "The Daily Caller". Rittenhouse was seen talking with police officers, and offering medical aid to those who were injured. When McGinniss asked Rittenhouse why he was at the car dealership, he responded: "People are getting injured and our job is to protect this business, [...] [a]nd part of my job is to also help people. If there is somebody hurt, I'm running into harm's way. That's why I have my rifle – because I can protect myself, obviously. But I also have my med kit."


title: Kenosha unrest shooting

text: After 10:00 pm, Rittenhouse alternated between standing guard at the dealership and walking the street offering medical attention. Rittenhouse left Car Source around 11:40 pm and was blocked from returning to the business by the BearCats. Rittenhouse headed to the Car Source lot farthest to the south.


title: Kenosha unrest shooting

text: In the hours leading up to the shooting, prosecution witnesses described Rosenbaum as "hyperaggressive and acting out in a violent manner" and "acting very belligerently".


title: Kenosha unrest shooting

text: Witnesses described Rosenbaum carrying around a chain, trying to light fires, throwing rocks, and trying to provoke fights with people by "false stepping" at them. One witness described Rosenbaum "very bluntly asking people to shoot him" saying "shoot me, n-word", using a racial epithet to which other protesters displayed "negative" reactions.


title: Kenosha unrest shooting

text: Another witness described how, accompanied by Rittenhouse, he tried to calm a disagreement between Rosenbaum and another man when Rosenbaum made threats to kill both of them, saying "if I catch any of you guys alone tonight, I'm going to fucking kill you!". The witness stated that he believed the threat was directed at both himself and Rittenhouse and that Rittenhouse had heard the threat.


title: Kenosha unrest shooting

text: According to his testimony, Rittenhouse was on patrol along Sheridan Road south of 60th Street with another armed volunteer, Ryan Balch. While patrolling, Rittenhouse lost contact with Balch, and so turned back up Sheridan Road towards the Car Source location at 59th and Sheridan (referred to during the trial as "Car Source 2") where he had been originally posted. However, he was stopped by police stationed at the junction of Sheridan Road and 60th Street, who turned him back, saying they were not allowing anybody to cross north of 60th Street. Rittenhouse then went to the nearby Ultimate Gas Station, believing this to be a safe location.


title: Kenosha unrest shooting

text: Rittenhouse testified that he received a call from Dominick Black telling him that the Car Source location at 63rd and Sheridan was being vandalised and that many vehicles had been set on fire and requesting him to go to that location and help put out fires. Rittenhouse then asked another person at the Ultimate Gas Station for a fire extinguisher and to accompany him to the Car Source location at 63rd and Sheridan. This person provided him a fire extinguisher but did not accompany him to the location.


title: Kenosha unrest shooting

text: Rittenhouse testified that he then walked and ran towards the Car Source location at 63rd and Sheridan on his own, carrying his rifle, the fire extinguisher and some first aid supplies. As he approached the Car Source lot at 63rd and Sheridan he heard someone shout "Burn in hell!". He responded "Friendly! Friendly! Friendly!" to placate them but could not see who it was.


title: Kenosha unrest shooting

text: Rittenhouse testified that when he reached the Car Source lot, he noticed a Duramax vehicle with flames in the back seat and approached the vehicle intending to put out the fire. He was then approached from near the vehicle by Joshua Ziminski, who was holding a pistol in his hand. Rittenhouse dropped the fire extinguisher, intending to run away. He then noticed Rosenbaum approaching him on his right, around the side of the vehicle, with a t-shirt wrapped around his face. Rittenhouse testified that he recognized Rosenbaum as the man who had previously threatened him but did not recognize Ziminski. Rittenhouse also testified that he believed Rosenbaum to be unarmed. This interaction was witnessed by McGinniss, who perceived that Rosenbaum and other protesters were moving toward Rittenhouse and that Rittenhouse was trying to evade them.


title: Kenosha unrest shooting

text: Rittenhouse testified that he then believed himself to be in danger and ran south-west across the lot, aiming for the safety of the Car Source lot buildings. Rosenbaum chased after him. Rittenhouse testified that he heard Ziminski shout to Rosenbaum "Get him and kill him!", and that he soon perceived his avenue of escape to be blocked by vehicles and a group of protesters, and that Rosenbaum was catching up to him. Video footage showed Rittenhouse being pursued across a parking lot by a group of people. During the chase, Rosenbaum threw a plastic bag containing socks, underwear, and deodorant at Rittenhouse.