Around 2pm LA time on Thursday 25th June 2009, “King Of Pop” Michael Jackson died suddenly from a suspected cardiac arrest…. Or did he?  Within hours of his death, conspiracy theories began to emerge that questioned not only how and when he died, but whether he had actually dead at all.

So, for your reading pleasure, I would now like to present my Top 5 Michael Jackson Conspiracy Theories:

This is by far the most popular conspiracy theory and stems primarily from the fact that we now know Michael Jackson was in a dire financial situation before his death, with a debt estimated to be in the region of £100 million[1].  His death has, somewhat predictably, caused a phenomenal rise in the sale of his work and the end result is that he’s worth more dead than alive.   So, the conspiracy theory is that Michael Jackson has faked his own death in order to cash in on the money raised by his death, while he lives peacefully in a remote island somewhere.  If you need some evidence, take a look at this You Tube video which claims to show Michael Jackson’s body bag actually moving:

You might vaguely remember that there was an item in the news quite a lot before Michael Jackson’s death about Iran …. Think back … Remember now? Yes, that’s it – there was a nasty, violent clampdown in Iran after the election. Strangely it seems to have been forgotten completely since Michael Jackson’s death story hit the media, so conspiracy theorists believe that this was an intentional move by Iran Radicals to murder Michael Jackson in order to remove public attention from the situation in Iran.
Here’s a video:

I find this conspiracy theory quite hard to swallow, given that his death would have solved so many financial problems etc. – why keep it quiet? Anyway, the theory suggests that Michael Jackson died several years ago and has since had look-alikes playing his part ever since. If I’m not mistaken, the theory that he died several years ago actually stemmed from this article on The Onion: http://www.theonion.com/content/news/neverland_ranch_investigators Anyway some die-hard Michael Jackson fans watching Michael Jackson’s appearance in London to promote the forthcoming O2 tour are adamant that the man we all saw was in fact a look-alike – and an unconvincing one at that:
Have a look at this footage and decide for yourself:

This somewhat extreme conspiracy theory suggests that Michael Jackson was murdered by the US Congress in order for them to pass a controversial law.  The law in question restricts greenhouse emissions and had faced much opposition.  However, a late-night Friday vote was passed while everybody was too busy watching the Michael Jackson coverage.

Another theory suggests that Michael Jackson’s death was in order to distract us from the US Government’s plans to enforce an experimental H1N1 vaccine on the population. According to this website (http://www.nowpublic.com/culture/michael-jackson-murdered-protect-h1n1-vaccine-genocide-plot), Michael Jackson believed that the vaccine may have been a genocide plot by the New World Order.

To end, this is not a conspiracy theory, but a fabulous piece of footage of Michael Jackson’s ghost … or not … on Larry King (CNN):

If you have an alternative Michael Jackson conspiracy theory, please do add it as a comment in the space below!

[1] According to an article in the Guardian, dated 26 June 2009
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/jun/26/michael-jackson-london-o2-concerts