01x02 - Prince

[bunniefuu]

Prince was one of the biggest
artists of the 1980s.

He was huge.

He had this magnetism.

The Super Bowl performance,

that's going to
go down in history.

It's clear that you were head
and shoulders above

pretty much everybody else
in the world of music.

People throw "genius" around,

but man,
Prince was such a genius.

They found Prince lying
on his side in the elevator.

He was pronounced dead.

Prince was, like, everything
to me growing up.

He got me through
my middle school.

He got me through my high
school, my ups and downs.

When we got it was him,
and that was crazy, man.

In the days after his death,
there's chatter online

about what actually k*lled him.

He was a person that seemed to
live a really healthy lifestyle.

A lot of the stuff just
didn't add up.

When I got the news,
it was kind of like, "What?"

It doesn't make any sense to me.

He's 57, so he's fairly young
for the icon.

Over the years, there were
all sorts of wild theories.

It was reported that Prince
had A*DS.

They k*lled Prince.

Stevie Nicks says Prince
might have k*lled himself.

Someone out there knows
something about this

and is keeping their mouth shut.

You know, loose lips sink ships.

So some ships is getting ready
to be sunk.

911 emergency.

The official narrative
doesn't tell the whole story.

But you really have to look
at everything.

You still have to go down
that rabbit hole.

You still have to go
down that path.

When a celebrity dies,

the search for answers
moves online

and the truth
may be one click away.

On the morning of
April 21st, 2016, a 911 call

is made from 7801 Audubon Road
in Chanhassen, Minnesota.

Everyone in town knows
the home well,

and its nickname, Paisley Park.

At Paisley Park.

Person down, not breathing.

Emergency services
rushed to the scene,

arriving 5 minutes later.

And upon entering the building,

they find the owner
and music icon,

Prince, lying in an elevator.

They attempt CPR,
but by 10:07 AM,

they are unable to revive him.

Prince is pronounced dead.

When they said that there
was a death at Paisley Park,

my phone started
ringing from all over.

People start calling me up.

But when we got it was him,
that was crazy, man.

There's a ton of
things that hit me all at once.

The one is that I felt for him
being by himself.

You know, someone like him
in a situation like that.

That was hard to take.

News of Prince's death

causes an outpouring
of grief worldwide.

Prince was, like, everything
to me growing up.

He got me through
my middle school.

He got me through my high
school, my ups and downs.

He was a hell of a musician.

He played 14 instruments.

He wrote all of his own music.

Gifted musician.
He was a gifted person.

In public gatherings
and online forums,

people pay tribute to Prince.

He's dead, and it is
a very sad day for me right now.

Prince's musical journey starts
from a very young age

growing up in Minneapolis.

Our family is incredibly close
and nurturing.

So we go back and forth
to each other's homes.

Prince is already at five
playing commercials off TV.

"I Dream of Jeannie".

"Get Smart".

I'm dating myself,
but I don't care

because the '60s were funky.

This is a kid.

People throw "genius" around.

I'm telling you, man,
you know what it's like

when you really around
something real special.

Prince explodes onto
the music scene

and scores a recording contract
at just 19 years old.

My first memory of Prince
was watching him on TV in 1984.

Prince was in his early 20s.
He put out "Purple Rain".

And that's what took him
from being a star

to being a superstar.

Prince was one of the
biggest artists of the 1980s.

He had number one
after number one.

And on top of it all,
his music was revolutionary.

But it isn't just his music
that makes an impact.

It was this magnetism
that people wanted to watch him.

He's a little bit androgynous.

Women thought he was sexy.

Guys didn't feel intimidated
by him.

And then on top of it all,
you can't discount the fact

that his music
was really, really good.

Six weeks after Prince's death,
the Midwest medical examiner

releases the results
of his autopsy.

I'm going, "What is it?

Tell me what it is."

The official cause
of Prince's death

is an accidental overdose
of the opioid fentanyl,

a synthetic drug up to 50 times
more powerful than heroin.

His family and friends
just can't believe it.

Man, let me tell you something,
man, you know the drug scene?

He was totally against it.

Cigarettes, anything.

From when I heard that,

immediately, it hit me
different.

I was like, "You know, Prince?"

- Just doesn't sound like him.
- Doesn't make any sense.

It was a surprise
for pretty much everybody.

They were saying
that he's an addict.

I never saw any signs
of any addiction.

Like, a lot of this stuff
just doesn't add up.

And naturally,
given the subject matter,

within days of Prince's death,
online theories start to form.

From the possible
to the outlandish,

it seems that everyone
in the world

has a different opinion
on how he really died.

My name is Deanna Thompson.

I am an IT specialist,
and I specialize

in data analytics
and database construction.

I am a web sleuth at night,
and on my weekends, to try

and find people behind crimes
that occur on the Internet.

The reports on the autopsy
was that Prince died

from a fentanyl overdose.

And it was kind of like, "What?"

He lived very clean, right?

He was a vegetarian.

He didn't drink.

He didn't smoke.

He didn't even want people
to curse around him.

Like, he was a very clean,
healthy lifestyle.

It doesn't make any sense to me,
at all.

When I heard that Prince died,
it's like my heart sank.

It's like, another celebrity,
another famous singer.

We lost Michael Jackson,

we lost Whitney Houston,
and then we lose Prince.

It's like, what's going on
in the music industry

where we're losing
these talented artists

at such young ages?

That's the first thought
that went through my mind

when I heard that Prince died.

My background is Army
counterintelligence,

also forensics
and law enforcement.

So I'm trying to get inside
of his head, you know,

but there's just a lot
of different scenarios

that may have gone
through his mind.

Unfortunately, there's still
a lot of gaps of time

that are unaccounted for.

You know, when you're doing,
like, an investigation

into somebody's death, you want
to get, like, a timeline

of, like,
their last couple days.

Especially if there's,
like, shenanigans going on.

As online detectives start
to piece together the timeline,

they find that six days
before his death,

Prince flies to Atlanta

to play a sold out show
at the Fox Theater.

In an article in "The Guardian",

it's reported that Prince
arrived an hour before

he was supposed to be on stage,
got up on stage,

had a flawless performance,
no after party,

which was highly unusual,
and left right away.

According to TMZ, some pretty
alarming things

happened on that flight home.

The plane had to make
an emergency landing

in Moline, Illinois, because
Prince became unresponsive.

Prince was taken to
a local hospital,

but he didn't stay there long.

He was back on the flight
a couple of hours later,

back home to Minneapolis.

It was reported
that he had the flu.

That's what the press
release said.

And he had a party,
like, the next day.

So I've been working as an
investigative journalist

for a little over a decade now,
and I've been fascinated

by the details of the last days
of Prince's life.

It seemed like overall,
Prince was doing pretty well.

A couple of days
after that party,

he went out to a local jazz club
in Minneapolis.

People recall seeing Prince
cycling around Paisley Park

and outside of a pharmacy.

The last images
we have of Prince

are at a local doctor's office.

I found a video on YouTube
and it said Prince visits

his doctor's office
the day before his death.

Alright?

So I'm like,
"Yeah, I'm watching that."

So, in the video,
you see Kirk Johnson,

which was, like, Prince's,
like, best friend and bodyguard.

You see the doctor open the
door, let them into the hallway,

and all three of them disappear
out of frame.

An hour later, all three of them
come back into frame.

They're leaving,

and the doctor's, like,
walking them out.

They leave,
Prince waves goodbye,

and they get in the car
and drive away.

And that was the day
before Prince died.

According to police interviews,
Prince's bodyguard, Kirk,

and his personal assistant,
Meron,

were the last to see him
alive that night.

Prince was alone in Paisley Park
overnight,

and his body wasn't discovered
until morning.

Prince was wildly popular.

Just to die alone
in an elevator.

I mean, that was strange to me.

More than a dozen police cars
pulled into Paisley Park,

some of them unmarked.

Over the next two years,

the police do a full
investigation of Prince's death.

The investigation into Prince's
death is pretty intense.

It involves various
local, state,

and federal investigators.

In April 2018,
they released their findings.

There is no evidence to suggest
any sinister motive,

intent, or conspiracy
to m*rder Prince.

When testing the pills,

the police lab
makes a stunning discovery.

The fentanyl that k*lled Prince
was disguised

as a regular painkiller.

There is no evidence
that the pill or pills

that actually k*lled Prince
were prescribed by a doctor.

In all likelihood,
Prince had no idea

he was taking a counterfeit
pill that could k*ll him.

The investigation concluded
that Prince didn't even know

the drug he was taking
actually contained fentanyl.

It's definitely not impossible

that somebody had switched out
his medication

or given him
different medication

than the one he asked for.

Investigators were never able
to determine

the source of this fake Vicodin.

A lot of folks conclude it must
be something nefarious.

First, you have Michael Jackson,

who walks away from Sony

and then he dies.

Well, now you have Prince
who gets the rights to his music

and he also dies.

People are talking
and there's chatter online

about what actually k*lled him,
and it's worth a look.

With the official
investigation closed,

the remaining mysteries
of Prince's death

ignite an online wave
of speculation.

It's definitely worthwhile for
a group of citizen detectives

to look at a case
after law enforcement

has conducted
their investigation.

Sleuths dive deep into
the emerging conspiracy theories

around Prince's untimely death.

Was it possible that somebody
in his entourage did something?

Was there some other
underlying health problems

Prince was suffering from that
we didn't know about?

Is it possible that Prince
was k*lled

because he was exposing
a secret government program?

Not only do Prince and his
family deserve justice,

but Prince's fans
and the general public,

they deserve that, too.

People are talking. You know,
loose lips sink ships,

so some ships is getting ready
to be sunk.

Somebody could have swapped
out his medication

in an attempt to k*ll him.

My first thought was, "What did
Warner Bros. do to him?"

After Prince died,
a lot of people felt

that something wasn't quite
right about that official story.

As an investigative journalist,

step one is just compiling
everything that's out there,

getting a handle of
what's on the record.

As I was sifting through
all of this information,

one theory kept popping up.

That Prince's death wasn't
an accident, it was m*rder.

The way in which Prince died
definitely lends itself

to some of these theories.

After all, the investigation
concluded

that Prince didn't even know

the drug he was taking
contained fentanyl.

It definitely means that
somebody could have swapped out

his medication or lied
to him about the medication

he was getting
in an attempt to k*ll him.

The answers that I'm looking
for are,

"Why would somebody
want Prince dead?"

He was beloved, right?

Everyone loved Prince.

I've always been a really big
Prince fan,

but Prince was always
kind of weird.

I mean, he lived
in his own world.

He had this weird mansion
and his own studio,

and there were all these stories
circulating

about the oddness
of his life and his genius.

And so probably, inevitably,
the fact that his death

was somewhat mysterious

and private led people
to believe

that he had been a victim
of powerful forces.

When I think about when he died,

my first thought was that
he got into a car accident

and my second thought was, "What
did Warner Bros. do to him?"

Suspicions around the culprit
behind Prince's death emerge.

The idea that Prince was
m*rder*d by the music industry

had some pretty
high profile backers.

In 2020, Kanye West
reportedly tweeted,

"They made us call him crazy,
and then they k*lled him."

So Prince's quarrels with
the music industry

go back to the very
beginning of his career.

Even as an 18, 19-year-old
with his first record contract,

he was fighting for total
control of his music,

which is pretty unheard of
in the music industry.

And in protest, he would often
do kind of elaborate stunts

meant to expose the industry
for being as predatory as it is.

He changed his name to a symbol
at one point,

going by "The Artist
Formerly Known as Prince"

so he can have ownership
of his persona

so that they couldn't own him.

And, like, he would write,
like, "sl*ve" on his face

and, like, walk the red carpet,

and it was all saying that
he was basically a sl*ve

to Warner Bros.

Prince's distrust of the
record labels got so intense

that he just tried
to cut them out entirely.

He was really one of the first
big musicians to market

his music directly to fans
without going through a label.

So Prince was a thorn in the
side of the music industry.

Some of his most ardent fans
are convinced

that played a role in his death.

When he went into that record
company and talked to them folks

with that sl*ve thing on him,
that's what got him k*lled.

The idea reaches into some of
the darkest corners of the web.

One YouTube account goes by
"The Rabbit Hole".

Death is suspicious because
57 is fairly young for the icon.

There's not that many people
who know how to navigate

some of the darker corners
of the Internet

where a lot of these conspiracy
theorist gather and remix

and build on their theories.

I probably, unfortunately, spend
a lot of time in these spaces

and know them really well.

So in particular, on Infowars,

they built up this idea
that there was these signs

that Prince knew
the industry was out to get him.

They point to that Instagram
post he made before he died,

captioned, "Just when
you thought you were safe."

The idea goes that ever since
Prince won

over the rights to his music,

the music industry
has been out to get him.

Maybe to prove that artists
shouldn't own their music

and to scare off others
from doing the same,

or to win back control of that
massively lucrative catalog.

And the further you go into the
dark corners of the Internet,

the stranger the story becomes,

involving one of the world's
most pervasive

conspiracy theories.

So whenever you start talking
about the elites

who secretly run things,

whether it's the government
or the music industry

or the global financial system,

eventually someone's gonna bring
up the Illuminati,

and Prince is no different.

The Illuminati is this sort of
shadowy, villainous group

that actually existed
in the late 18th century

and disbanded soon thereafter,

but has remained
in the background as being this,

you know,
powerful, secretive force

that explains
how the world actually works.

A lot of these conspiracy
theorists see lots of hints

over Prince's career

that suggests that he was
pointing the finger

at this secret society.

Whether it was the symbol
that he changed his name to

in the '90s

or even the decorations
at his home in Minneapolis,

a lot of these conspiracy
theorists see these symbols

of the Illuminati
everywhere in Prince's music.

What's more, a lot of people
who believe in the Illuminati

are also big into numerology,

and Prince loved to pepper
his music

and his art with a whole bunch
of numbers

that taken together, they say,

is evidence that he was pointing
the finger at the Illuminati.

You know, already that Prince
had knowledge in his mind

and information
about what was going on.

However, the Cabal had
another plan,

and that's why at the end, he
ended up dying in the elevator.

There is a ton of people
who see Prince as a crusader

against this Illuminati cabal,

and they think
the Illuminati k*lled him.

While external forces
can't necessarily

be ruled out in Prince's death,

another theory points
to something much more personal.

Was he in chronic pain?

Stevie Nicks says Prince might
have k*lled himself.

In 2016, Prince,
one of the world's biggest

and most prolific superstars,

dies alone
in his Paisley Park mansion.

And mourners, fans,
and Internet detectives

debate the true cause
of his death.

Many doubt the official
explanation,

an accidental drug overdose.

For years, they've known
the performer

as a healthy living guru.

I was looking at pictures
of Paisley Park

that the police had taken.

His kitchen has, like, all those
snacks on the counter.

And it's all health food,

you know, tofu and salads

and fresh fruit.

And he was very, very meticulous

about his diet and what he ate.

He had all of his meals
at Paisley Park

prepared by a vegan chef.

He just led a very
healthy lifestyle.

But in the wake of Prince's
tragic overdose,

rumors circulate online
about chronic health issues

that contributed to his death.

Stevie Nicks says, "I think
he was probably fractured

from his neck
down to his feet."

She thinks Prince might
have k*lled himself.

A growing number of posts
and comments claim

debilitating health conditions
caused Prince

to deliberately
overdose on fentanyl.

With any celebrity death,
inevitably, people speculate,

tabloids grab a hold of it,
rumors are circulating.

But maybe there's an element of
truth to some of those rumors.

Was there some other
underlying health problems

Prince was suffering from that
we didn't know about?

Prince has had a complicated
relationship with his health

since early childhood.

I've never spoken
about this before,

but I was born epileptic.

In 2009, Prince shares that
he suffered seizures as a child

and his mom and dad

did the best they could
with what little they had.

The seizures pass,
but as he grows older,

he sees personal health as an
important part of his life.

I'm grateful that I grew up
with the brother.

We would play tennis,
everything, man.

Just stay in shape.
Always.

Our sport was music.

We treated it like that.

It was like keeping in shape.

Cigarettes, anything,
he was totally against it.

And barely raised his voice.

Just kept that instrument
just beautiful.

Just like, "Dude, don't you
ever crack?

Don't your voice ever go... "No.

He held the record
for never canceling shows.

As sleuths piece together the
few months prior to his death,

they uncover some major leads
around Prince's health.

Looking at Prince's
health history in the months

before his death,

we know that he was
going through some changes.

He seemed off, and even
his personal chef made comments.

He stated that, you know,
Prince's appetite had changed.

It seemed like he was kind of
eating less

in the months
prior to his death.

It seemed like
he was losing weight.

So those could all be symptoms

of some chronic
underlying health issue.

And with so much secrecy in the
weeks following Prince's death,

the rumors of A*DS
gained momentum.

Media reports have quoted
anonymous sources

as saying that Prince
contracted HIV in mid-'90s,

but condition developed
into A*DS six months ago.

"The National Enquirer"
published their tabloid

a week after Prince's death,

with a huge headline
that said "A*DS k*lled Prince".

I can't even begin to imagine

where they came up
with that craziness.

Prince had a stigma about him
already

because, like, he was,
like, oversexualized,

he was effeminate a little bit.

So the A*DS rumors seemed
a little bit h*m* to me.

It kind of made me personally,
like, gag a little bit,

like, "Ugh."

But there may be
a more plausible answer

to Prince's health mysteries.

So this is my mind map
for Prince,

and this is basically
where I started,

was looking at his health.

So when I first started
looking into,

like, what happened to Prince,
I don't know what possessed me.

For some reason,
I clicked on images

and I was just kind of scrolling
through, and there was an image,

and the title,
"76 photos of Prince

looking like a bad a*s
with a cane."

And so when I go to that
Pinterest board,

I was like, "Whoa,

I didn't realize he used
a can so much," right?

And some of them were of him,
you know,

on the red carpet or on stage.

He was very flamboyant
in his dress, right?

But when I saw Prince
with a cane

walking from, like, his airplane

to, like the, car, that really,
like, triggered something in me,

like, "Well, wait, why does
he need a cane for that?"

Was he in chronic pain?

Carver County, Minnesota,

the sheriff's office had a link
on their website called

"The Prince Investigation",

and they had a treasure trove
of information there.

I knew he was in some sort
of pain from all the touring,

but that was never
really documented

or out in the press
as far as I'm aware of.

From what I've learned,
in December 1984,

when Prince was rehearsing,

one of the scenes
was to be in a bathtub

that was suspended in the air
over the stage.

And whatever contraption
was used to hold this bathtub

in the air broke

and he fell 10 to 12 feet
inside the bathtub to the floor.

His tour manager said that
he was never the same again.

His hip and his leg
were constantly in pain.

These serious medical issues
could have been complicated

by Prince's religious beliefs.

On Websleuths, Reddit,

there's a lot of talk
about Prince having hip surgery.

For you and me,
that's not gonna be a problem.

But Prince was a very devout
Jehovah's Witness.

He went door to door sometimes,
even as a famous person.

As a Jehovah's Witness, we can't
get a blood transfusion, right?

Because he couldn't get a blood
transfusion,

it was somehow complicated and
he had a lot of pain from that.

There are those who speculate
that this extreme pain

may have caused Prince

to deliberately overdose
on fentanyl to end his own life.

Stevie Nicks says, "Fentanyl is
the worst of the worst;

way stronger than heroin,
morphine, anything...

And he was having to take it

because I think he was
probably fractured

from his neck down to his feet.

I don't know in my heart
of hearts

whether he just took too much

or did he purposefully
take too much?"

Followers of this theory point
to an eerie comment

Prince made
at his last public appearance,

just a few days
before his death.

So April 16th, the day after
the emergency landing

and the rush to hospital,
Prince puts on a party

as planned
at his Paisley Park residence

for a bunch of his friends
and fans,

where he showed off a new piano
and new guitar he had gotten,

and by all accounts, seemed
to be doing all right.

At that party, he said something

that was really interesting.

He said, "Wait a few days before
you waste your prayers on me."

And it turned out
to be pretty accurate.

And Tyka herself,
Prince's sister, has come out

and said that Prince had had
a conversation with her,

that he had come here to do
everything he had come to do.

But being a family member
and kind of watching all that,

I'm going, "None of this
is making sense."

While this remains
a possibility,

another demon may have been
haunting Prince.

On TV, they're saying they
don't think he was a drug user.

That's a mistake.
He was into some devil business.

In 2018, authorities conclude
Prince's death

is from an accidental
overdose of fentanyl.

His friends and family
are confused

and shocked by this news.

They only knew Prince
as a crusader against drugs.

We grew up with alcoholics
and people that were on drugs

in our families.

They had a real
heavy impact on the family.

We knew that's not
what we're gonna be doing.

He was totally against it.

He would come and look
at your eyes

and everything when you walk
in rehearsal,

because we would
experiment stuff like marijuana.

Other artists, they needed
to be high to play.

Man, Prince was such a genius.

You should have did the opposite
if you seen him

and just say, "Man,
maybe I shouldn't get high.

Because look at that."

But despite the public record
that Prince avoided drugs,

one online rumor speculates

Prince's death
wasn't an accident as reported,

but was maybe the result
of a long term drug addiction.

The rumor gains momentum
among online theorists

as the police investigation
closes

and thousands of documents

and photos of Prince's property
are released to the public.

The sheriff's office
released thousands

and thousands of photos,

and they did so many
search warrants

and you have to go through
so much paperwork

and it's in handwriting.

It's not, like, typed up.

And you have to
examine each photo,

you have to look
at the underlying data.

My eyes were, like, tearing up
and, like, almost falling out.

But you have to do it in order
to get the truth.

What I found interesting from
reading the search warrants...

They found so many pills

scattered throughout
Prince's home.

They were in suitcases,
they were in sock drawers,

they were in his bathroom,

they were in old bags.

They were hidden
all over his house.

There was a Bayer aspirin
bottle with 16 white pills.

So I want to know
what those are.

You Google C600 stamp...
Vicodin.

So I know that the cops
took Vicodin from his home

and it was hidden
in this Bayer bottle.

Those were the drugs
they believe k*lled him.

The web sleuthing community
kicks into overdrive

looking for answers.

It's possible that Prince's drug
use explains

the strange emergency
landing of his plane

in the lead up to his death.

By all accounts, the shows
that he performed in Atlanta

were normal.

Nobody noticed anything
out of the ordinary.

But some pretty alarming things
happened on that flight home,

as Prince became unresponsive.

When the plane lands, they're
met by paramedics on the tarmac

and Prince
is still unresponsive.

And so paramedics help
get him off the plane.

I did a bunch of research to try
to figure out anything

that could provide a clue.

I found because
he's unresponsive,

they give him a shot of Narcan.

But he was still unconscious
and unresponsive,

so they had to give him
a second one, and he woke up.

As an emergency room doctor,

when do we give Narcan?

We give Narcan any time anybody
has taken an overdose

of any kind of opioid,

whether that's, you know,
morphine

or oxycodone or fentanyl,

any number of them,
Narcan will reverse all of them.

But why do emergency responders

immediately give Prince
a Narcan shot?

My interpretation of the whole
situation as an investigator

is that somebody on the plane

believed that Prince had
a possible opioid addiction

and that he took something
on the plane

that caused him
to become unresponsive.

They probably relayed
that information to paramedics,

which is what led paramedics
to give Prince

the two shots of Narcan.

The Narcan saves Prince's life,

but raises questions about
the length of his drug use

and fuels speculation
that Prince might have known

the effects of the drugs
he ingested.

From what I've learned,

it appears
Prince started taking opioids

when he suffered a fall in 1984.

And then through the years
and the decades,

pharmaceutical companies
are developing

even stronger narcotics.

During an interview
with Carver County Police,

pop star and former collaborator
Sinead O'Connor says drugs

were everywhere during
Prince's professional life.

In the case of Prince,
everyone is mistaken

who believes that
he did not have a drug habit.

He used hard drugs commonly.

I know this because I spent time
with the man.

His eyeballs literally
disappeared out of his head.

This idea that he's only lately

been taking these painkillers
is nonsense.

The man has been on very scary,
hardcore drugs.

It's suspected that Prince
was in rehab in 1994.

If that's true, it shows a very,
very long term fight

that he had
with opioid addiction.

The very sad thing about
opioids is how quickly

and how very strongly
they can become addictive.

It only takes four or five days

of regular consumption
of opioids

for somebody to develop
a tolerance or a dependance.

Dependance means that
we start to need opioids

just to feel like ourselves.

It's why these are so addictive.

At the end of the day,
only a few people know

if Prince was really aware
of the power

of those Fentanyl pills or not.

- What's the mindset?
- Like, did he try to start

detoxing from the addiction
that night,

and it just... it
got to be too much?

It's obviously something
that we're never going

to know for sure.

In the wake of this tragedy,
two final questions remain...

Who sourced Prince's
fentanyl pills,

and do they bear some
responsibility for his death?

He touched so many people's
lives with his music.

We want to make sure
that justice

has been served for Prince.

Who gave it to him?

Like, you know, just gave him
something so strong

that he's dead now.

So it's just... it's bizarre.

It's a fact that a powerful
opioid caused Prince's death.

But the origins of the fatal
pills remain a mystery.

We know that the Vicodin that
Prince took was counterfeit,

meaning it was not
legally prescribed.

It was illegally manufactured
by somebody.

We don't know who.
We don't know where.

We don't know how he got it.

Who gave it to him?

Like, you know, gave him
something so strong

that he's dead now.

So it's just... it's bizarre.

From the beginning,
the police investigation focuses

on Prince's
tight knit inner circle,

but they find it difficult
to get clear information.

So Prince did a really good job
of surrounding himself

with people
who were not gonna talk,

and that extended
past his death.

He made sure of that.

With the people who he hired,
what they knew

and when they knew it,

they haven't gone public
with that.

And so you're left kind of
relying on police reports,

toxicology reports,

and a lot of speculation
about what had happened.

After he died, the inner circle
was distancing themselves,

getting lawyers,
not talking, being evasive.

So, yeah,
I was heavily concerned.

The hunt for the truth
about the involvement

of Prince's inner circle
has moved online.

There's a website called

and it's full
of really passionate

Prince Internet sleuths,

and they go through every bit
of information available

with a fine tooth comb.

These are really
my kind of people.

It has so much information about
the sealed lips kind of theory.

And they're very focused
on this Kirk Johnson fella.

Kirk Johnson was Prince's
former drummer,

and then he became Prince's
bodyguard at some point,

and they were obviously
very close.

It was Kirk who went to
the doctor's office

with Prince
during his final days.

In the video,
you see Kirk leaving.

He walks out of the door.
He gets into the car.

About 10 minutes later,
he comes back with a bag,

and I immediately stopped it,

downloaded the video,
and opened it up in VLC

and dumped it
out frame by frame.

These surveillance cameras
aren't that great.

This one's pretty good.

Sometimes, you can find a really
clear image of something.

And I did that,
and I found an image.

It's definitely
a prescription bag.

That bag and its contents match
the bag

found by police at Paisley Park.

Kirk had been giving
Prince medicine

through his own doctor,

Dr. Michael Schulenberg.

Dr. Schulenberg
stated to police

that he prescribed the drugs
in Kirk's name

in order to provide privacy
and anonymity to Prince.

I can sort of understand
that point of view

and that reasoning,

but at the same time,
it's just totally ill*gal.

In Prince's case, because
he found a doctor

who was willing to prescribe
medication in a different name,

he could have then gone
to another doctor

and got a second prescription
of the same pills.

I'm not saying he did that
because we don't know,

but it would have made it easier
for him to doctor shop

if that's something
he wanted to do.

According to some
online sources,

this activity raises questions
about how much Prince's

inner circle
really knew about his drug use.

In a 2017 CBS interview,
Kirk Johnson

refuses to answer questions
on the subject.

Is there anything that you wish
you had done

personally to stop his drug use?

I don't like being this.
Next.

Would Kirk Johnson know
about him being addicted

to pain pills?

- Oh, of course.
- He couldn't not know.

One of them knows something

and they're just not telling
the truth about it.

The person you work for
is dead now and one of you

had to have set up something
or gave him something

because he can't do it
on his own.

It's very possible that they
don't want to be implicated

themselves for providing him
with these medications

and basically be criminally
implicated in Prince's death.

When the police conclude
their investigation,

they reveal no charges
will be laid.

The only consequence is a fine
to Kirk's doctor

for giving Prince medication
in Kirk's name.

The police and others
have debunked this theory,

but it's not possible
for me to debunk it.

Just because they haven't
been captured and charged yet

doesn't make them innocent
of the crime.

Prince's death may forever
be associated with opioid use,

but there is also evidence
that in his final days,

he was taking action
to fight his addiction.

Prince called me the day
before he died

and said,
"I don't know what to do."

He said that he wants
to go get help.

I said, "I will help you find
some place for him to go."

He has the incident on the
airplane and has the overdose.

And I'm kind of wondering
if that was a scare to the point

where he was, like, willing
to talk about

what was going on
with his opioid addiction.

Clearly, he needs
some professional help.

I read in "People Magazine"
that they reach out

to Recovery Without Walls
in California

to talk about
the recovery process.

On the day before Prince dies,

Andrew Kornfeld, a member
of Recovery Without Walls,

flies overnight from California
to Minneapolis.

On April 21st, Andrew Kornfeld
flew to Minneapolis

to meet Prince

and to talk about
a treatment plan.

But he never got the chance
to have that meeting.

He shows up to Prince's
residence,

and as he's led inside
by Prince's assistant,

he hears a scream.

The two of them run down
the hall

and see Prince lying
on his side in the elevator.

It's Kornfeld who dials 911.

In Kornfeld's bag is medication

designed to manage
extreme drug withdrawal cases,

but he arrives
a few hours too late.

After looking into it,

I'm really not convinced
that this was m*rder.

This is a tragedy and it is
another example

of an incredibly talented person
falling victim to opioids.

When I reflect
on Prince's death,

I still feel like
it's unresolved.

We can be almost certain that
somebody out there knows

they manufactured
this counterfeit Vicodin

and that it made its way
to Prince and caused his death.

This has been a really
hard case to sleuth.

All the information that we need
to solve this case

was going on in Prince's head,

and we just don't have access
to that.

Despite the lack of answers,
friends and family,

like Charles Smith,

have continued to fight
for the truth.

Charles started the organization
Justice4Cuz.

People go like, 'Why do you do
what you're doing

getting justice for him?" I
said, "It's the least I can do."

Justice4Cuz is a place
that you...

If you find out anything
or have any information,

you can contact us,
and people have contacted us.

We started getting real stuff.

Whoever gave him that last dose
of fentanyl

deceived him.

Prince's death is a tragedy,

but what he leaves behind
is legendary.

In hindsight, it seems
that iconic performances

that were unforgettable
for his fans

were likely very painful
for Prince.

Prince wasn't the type of person

who was gonna give
an interview with Oprah

and talk about the pain
that he was in.

To us, we didn't know anything

about his personal life.

We just knew that he could get
up on stage

and knock our socks off.

So it's really sad to think
what cost that was to him.

If you've ever seen him
in concert, you know,

he really commits
when he's performing.

He gives it his all.

If I knew my man had...
I knew what kind of heart

he had,
and he suffered horribly for it.

But he's gonna be Prince.

He's gonna do the best
of the best

of the best of the best.

There's only one Prince, period.