Michael Jackson Dies

A copy of Michael Jackson's will has finally made it into the hands of the Jackson family.

The will -- which was being held by Michael's attorney John Branca -- reportedly leaves everything to Katherine Jackson, MJ's three kids and one or more charities ... and Joe Jackson gets nothing.

The Jackson family said the will is set to be filed in court.

We spoke to Tippi Hedren -- who runs the Shambala Preserve in California where MJ's former tigers (Thriller and Sabu) live -- and she said, "The animals will not be going back ... they're staying with me at the sanctuary."

We now know what the LAPD was after when it got a search warrant for Michael Jackson's home.

The warrant was specifically targeted to find controlled substances and paraphernalia -- in particular needles.

We've learned the LAPD wants to talk to Michael Jackson's longtime dermatologist Arnold Klein about drugs he may have prescribed or given Michael Jackson.

We're told Klein has already gotten a lawyer but as far as we know the LAPD has not spoken with him.

Michael Jackson was seen repeatedly going in and out of Dr. Klein's Beverly Hills office in the months before he died.

Search warrants were issued to search Michael Jackson's house ... the searches have already taken place.

The searches that took place yesterday and last Friday were performed as a result of the warrants.

The second search was triggered as a result of the interview LAPD had with Dr. Conrad Murray, according to law enforcement sources. The point of the search, in large part, was to retrieve medication.

Story developing...

We've just learned Michael Jackson's body is set to be driven to Neverland Ranch late Thursday morning.

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ upwards of a 30 car motorcade -- including Jackson's body -- will be traveling from Los Angeles to Neverland at 10 AM on Thursday.

We're told law enforcement is currently meeting to discuss security and traffic control. Our sources say plans are in the works for a public viewing to take place on either Friday or Saturday.

Story developing ...

We've learned Michael Jackson never adopted his three children, even though he's not the biological father.

We broke the story that neither Jackson nor Debbie Rowe are the biological parents of Michael Jr. and Paris. And Michael was not the biological parent of Prince Michael II either.

Now here's the rub. We've learned Jackson never filed legal papers to adopt any of his children. Legal experts tell us Jackson would be presumed the father but it's not conclusive by any means.

As for why Jackson didn't formally adopt -- we're told at the time the kids were born there was no third party whom he believed would try and claim custody. For some reason, Jackson never thought Debbie Rowe would mount a custody challenge.

Despite massive debt, Michael Jackson still claimed to have a net worth of $200 million, this according to papers obtained by the AP.

As of March 31, 2007, the papers show Michael had $567.6 million in assets -- which includes Neverland Ranch and his share of the Sony/ATV Music Publishing catalog (which includes the rights to songs by the Beatles) -- but his net worth was listed as $236 million.

The docs show Neverland was valued at $33 million and the publishing catalog was worth a whopping $390 million.

On the doc, Prince Michael Jackson II's father is listed as MJ -- but the space where Prince's mother is supposed to be named was left blank.

As we reported earlier this morning, Michael is not the biological father of his three children. In Prince Michael's case, the surrogate never knew she was carrying Michael's baby -- who was conceived in vitro.

And this is interesting ... Katherine Jackson apparently doesn't know Prince Michael's date of birth. Yesterday, in the guardianship papers, she listed his DOB as 1/21/02. The birth certificate says he was born on 2/21/02, one month later.

Michael Jackson signed a will in 2002 providing for his children and his mom, but leaving nothing to daddy Joe -- this according to the Wall Street Journal.

As we reported yesterday, attorney John Branca has the will and plans to file it with the court within 30 days of the singer's death. According to the will, Jackson reportedly left his estate -- estimated at $1 billion -- to his mother, three children and one or more charities.

As for why Joe was left out -- Jackson has said during his childhood his father beat him.

Michael Jackson's doctor -- the one who didn't call 911 for 30 minutes after finding MJ unconscious -- won't be attending his funeral, this according to the doc's rep.

We're told Dr. Conrad Murray hasn't been watching the media coverage and has been "isolating himself" from the public. Also, Murray hasn't spoken with the Jackson family since he saw them at the hospital on the day Michael died.

Murray's rep said he's skipping the funeral to "mourn privately for the death of his friend."

Lou told us he got to see Michael bust a few of his old moves -- and said the King of Pop was poised to make "the greatest comeback in history.'

The lawyer for Michael Jackson's mother filed documents in court today, sounding the alarm that people up to no good will try and fleece Michael's estate. The court had apparently had enough concern to make Katherine the administrator of the estate pending a hearing next Monday.

Katherine's attorney, Burt Levitch, claims there are numerous bank accounts of Michael's that are being controlled by third parties. He says the bank accounts are used "to pay expenses of [Michael's] parents' home." Levitch says these bank accounts need to be controlled so third parties don't misspend the money.

Levitch also says there is worry about Michael's stake in the Sony-ATV Music Publishing Catalog -- which includes Beatles' works -- that Levitch says is the most important asset in the estate. Levitch says no one is now representing Michael's interests and he wants Katherine to step in her late son's shoes.

Levitch says at least one person is claiming to have a power of attorney to act on Michael's behalf. Although a power of attorney would have ended when Michael died, Levitch worries that not everyone knows that and assets could be misappropriated.

And the family is questioning whether a will really exists, because no one has informed them of that fact. We're told attorney John Branca, who was re-hired by Michael three weeks ago, is in possession of a will.

UPDATE: We're told the LAPD retrieved several prescription bottles from Jackson's house ... but the plastic bags by no means were filled with pills.

The L.A. County Coroner's office went back to Michael Jackson's home to retrieve medications, based on information turned up by the LAPD.

Coroner's staff left the house with two large plastic bags.

The Coroner would not say what types of meds were retrieved.

As we first reported, it is increasingly looking like Jackson died from a drug overdose -- possibly a combination of drugs.

It took Michael Jackson's doctor a half-hour to call 911 after finding MJ unconscious -- this according to the doc's lawyer, Edward Chernoff.

Chernoff explained this bizarre revelation by saying Dr. Conrad Murray didn't immediately make the call from his cell phone because he didn't know the exact address of Michael's mansion. For the record, the house is just above Sunset Blvd. in Beverly Hills -- one of the most famous streets in the country.

Chernoff said Murray eventually got someone in the house to make the call.

Murray has already taken heat for performing CPR on Jackson as he was lying on a bed. Chernoff's excuse ... it was a "firm bed."

In a statement that was set to be released in a couple of hours -- that somehow leaked -- AEG promises "the refunds will be processed by each of the authorised ticket agencies (e.g. Ticketmaster, Viagogo, See or Ticketline)."

And the statement says fans "will have the option to be sent the actual tickets" for the show. Translation -- one hell of an expensive keepsake.