One of the biggest mysteries of the Michael Jackson case is how Dr. Conrad Murray found his way into Michael’s life.

Randy Phillips, head of AEG Live, has said repeatedly to me and to others that Jackson simply told him to hire Murray and pay him $150,000 a month. On the face of it, Murray was a cardiologist with offices in Las Vegas, San Diego, and Houston. He seemed OK. Phillips told me, “This is who Michael wanted.”

Did Michael have his own arrangements with Dr. Murray? This is still unknown.

But Murray, unbeknownst to the Jackson camp, was awash in personal debt. He was also not board certified.

A Jackson insider/employee recalls that Murray simply appeared on the scene this year, in 2009, and not in 2006, as his lawyer has claimed. Jackson spent 2006 in Bahrain, France, and Ireland. He could not have met Murray then.

“We were told he was one of the top 10 doctors,” says the source, “and that he had knowledge of mental issues. I asked again, ‘Is he a psychologist?’ I was told no, but he was great.”

The doctor, according to my source, sent out a message to the Jackson camp not to interfere with him. “I was told the doctor said not to placate Michael…tough love. This made me more irate. The mixed messages were insane. I begged [people on the inside]. I said, ‘Michael has lost 15 pounds since May!’ People thought they had it under control. They didn’t.”

This friend of Michael’s continued: “Everyone ‘thought they had it under control. There was too much at stake to think it wasn’t.’We just kept on going, hoping we could get the show up in London. Michael told me he wasn’t able to sleep. (my signal he was looking for’ drugs). He said his mind didn’t stop creating.

“I called Alberto (the security guard who eventually called 911) and told him to keep a close watch on’ Michael because I was concerned.’ I asked Alberto how often they were taking him to see [Arnold] Klein. He said two to three times a week.

“My suspicion is he was going there to ’sleep.’ Michael cannot sleep after performances.’ His adrenalin is so high, it takes him about 24 hours to relax. He rehearsed harder than ever…I think he really wanted to get this together and wanted to sleep to be able to do it again on Thursday. His heart was so weakened by his weight loss, his mental state and his physical exertion…it finally broke. And whoever was on watch failed him.

“I think both doctors contributed to his final demise.’ But it was’ years of anguish that drove him to finding ways to escape the pain.”

While the Los Angeles Police Department is focused on Michael Jackson’s principal doctors ‘ Conrad Murray and Arnold Klein ‘‘there are others worth investigating.

I’ve told you already about Dr. Neil Ratner of Woodstock, New York. He was the anesthesiologist who traveled with Jackson in the 90s.

Now I’m told there’s another doctor closer to Michael geographically: Dr. Stuart Finkelstein of Cerritos, California. Ironically, Dr. Finkelstein lists himself as an addiction specialist. When I tried to talk to him last week, he read me a statement and got off the phone. Finkelstein has gotten a lot of publicity for working with Britney Spears and Robert Downey Jr., among others. One article referred to him as “the rock and roll doctor.”

But sources who were close to Michael Jackson have lots of stories of Dr. Finkelstein traveling with the pop star in the mid-1990s on tour in places like Bangkok.

According to one observer, Dr. Finkelstein would supply Michael with the drugs he wanted, then tape the “antidote” to what he’d given him to the singer’s headboard.

“I refused to take part in any of it,” says this longtime Jacko friend. “I was asked to transport ‘patches’ to Bangkok during the ‘Dangerous’ tour. I refused. When I arrived the doctor found me and said it was’ good thing I didn’t because it was syringes and liquid opiates and I would have been hanged in Thailand for bringing them in without being a doctor.”

This source continues: “Michael was addicted, he was tortured in life. The doctors would ‘balance’ his drugs, just enough, so he could PERFORM and make his benefactors rich…Other doctors were just aboard for the celebrity ride. The exciting Michael Jackson ride would end, if the supply would dry up…I threatened doctors, but new ones would appear.”

The source of these quotes asks to remain anonymous. But the person is very much part of Michael’s inner circle. One day “they” may tell the whole story of who did what to him.

Meanwhile, last night’s ABC interview with Joseph Jackson was the lamest of all. In all the PR and flackery, no mention was made of Joe Jackson’s illegitimate child, the two times Katherine Jackson filed for divorce, the daughter-in-law who died in the Jackson swimming pool, or this Jackson family value: how Jermaine stole Randy’s wife and kids from him. Someone should interview Margaret Maldonado Jackson, Jermaine’s second wife, for the real perspective on the Jackson family. Ouch!

But one thing was clear: the Jacksons have not failed to exploit Michael’s death or earn money from it. His casket remains without a permanent home and Michael has only been dead for less than three weeks. What a family.