Children thought Jacko was playing a trick as he lay dying

ODD CHILDHOOD: Veiled Paris & Prince out with Daddy

By James Desborough, US Editor in Los Angeles,
TREMBLING with panic Jacko's little daughter Paris screamed: "Where's Daddy?" as a team of paramedics burst into their palatial Hollywood home on Thursday.

Her thick brown hair matted with tears, the 11-year-old clutched her brothers Prince Michael and Prince Michael II and together they cried for their father who was lying unconscious in the bedroom.

These were the chaotic moving scenes that faced emergency services when they raced into Jacko's £100,000-a-month rented pad in upmarket Carolwood Drive, Los Angeles.
The three children, who led sheltered lives as part of the King of Pop's entourage, were suddenly thrust into a nightmare their superstar dad would not survive.

Zombie

But, like every chapter in the troubled music legend's life, his final moments were riddled with macabre twists and turns. We can reveal:

* THE kids and Jacko's personal doctor Conrad Murray thought he was playing a practical joke by PRETENDING to be dead.
* JACKO morbidly told a close friend he wanted to "go out like Elvis".
* HE had REFUSED rehab for his addictions.
* THOSE drug habits DESTROYED his sleep patterns and turned him into an insomniac walking around like a zombie from his Thriller video.

Medics descended on Jackson's house at exactly 12.30pm, just nine minutes after the frantic 911 emergency call was made on Thursday.

A source in Jackson's staff told us: "An air of crisis swept through the house like a whirlwind.
The three children had been taken to another room by their nannies, but they thought their dad was just fooling around. He often played dead and would then jump up and surprise them, so they thought he was just having a bit of fun.

"But when they saw the emergency trucks arrive, that really shook them. There were paramedics running upstairs and ambulance sirens blaring. The kids were terrified and started crying and howling for their dad."

To save them the trauma of seeing their motionless father carried out of the house with an oxygen mask strapped to his face, the children were quickly hustled into the back of a waiting car by Jackson's sister La Toya and mum Katherine.

Paris, 12-year-old Prince and six-year-old Prince Michael II were then driven to the UCLA Medical Centre.

FAMILY MASQUERADE: Paris, Prince, Prince II and Jacko

On arrival at the hospital the kids were comforted by the family who handed them crayons and paper as a distraction and got them to draw their daddy 'Get well soon' pictures - even though he already lay dead in an operating theatre. At one point they hugged their older relatives and prayed for their father.

Speaking exclusively to the News of the World, Jackson's "spiritual advisor" Deepak Chopra said: "There were a lot of people there and the children were very distraught, screaming and crying."

After Jackson was pronounced dead at 2.26pm weeping relatives whisked the kids back to the Jackson family's main compound-style home in Encino.

It was only three short hours earlier that Jacko had been given the shot of Demerol - a powerful morphine-based painkiller he called his "health tonic" - that has been linked to his death. Chopra - who is also a well-respected medical doctor and Fellow of the American College of Physicians - confirmed to us the jab was administered.

He said: "It was the most inappropriate thing you could think of. To me it's very obvious that he was given a drug overdose."

Trouble

But we can reveal that Las Vegas-based cardiologist Conrad Murray, the personal physician who was by Jacko's side at the time of death, also thought his celebrity patient was just PLAYING dead.

"It was terrifically sad," said our inside source. "Murray told us he thought Michael was joking around, as he often did to entertain the kids. But this time, tragically, it was real. Murray tried to talk to Michael to rouse him but soon realised it was no joke. It suddenly dawned on him he was in deep trouble."

Shocked that his friend and patient was fighting for life, Murray then tried frantically to resuscitate him, yelling at him to wake up.

Our source added: "As he got louder he called out to other staff to help him. Others came in and saw Michael looking sickly white, collapsed on the bed. He was then dragged off the bed and another few attempts were made to resuscitate him.

"Murray looked close to tears and could barely speak. That's when the 911 call was made. But Murray suspected Michael was already dead.

"We were told that Michael had also been given a tranquilliser shot in the night and was pacing around the house frantically.

"He'd had a long day at his show rehearsals, which had ended after midnight. Weirdly the work left him completely wired - he was so exhausted he couldn't sleep.

"He couldn't sit down or stay still for a second and asked for a shot to calm his nerves.




"Lord alone knows how many sleeping pills he'd also popped to try and nod off. Michael was just on edge, a wreck and a complete mess. He complained that his heart and chest were pounding." Friend Chopra also revealed the star was in a morbid mindset before his death, adding: "He used to say to me he wanted to go out like Elvis, not like Marlon Brando. And I think on some subconscious level he had an inkling.

Abuse

"He might even have had what they call a death wish."

Elvis famously died aged 42 amid huge drama at his Graceland mansion in Memphis, Tennessee. Brando died at 80 due to a string of medical problems. Jackson, who blew a whopping £10 million on medication, met Chopra in 1988 and the pair remained close until his death. The medic had been determined to help the star kick his addiction to drugs.

He revealed: "After the child abuse trial in 2005 Michael came and spent a week with me at my house.

"At one point he suddenly asked me for a prescription. He knew I was a physician and asked me for a narcotic. I said, 'What the heck do you want a narcotic for?' And it suddenly dawned on me he was ALREADY taking these and probably had a number of doctors giving him prescriptions."

Jacko told Chopra he took the painkillers for backache.

But the medic said: "He wasn't confronting his addictions, which is the big problem."

Chopra pleaded with Jackson to go into rehab but the singer brushed him off. "I was really desperate to help," added Chopra. "But you can't help somebody who goes into denial.

"I think that drug addiction was responsible for his death. It was THE thing that caused his cardiac arrest."