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Post by Monsters of Rock on Jun 16, 2021 21:02:31 GMT 10
Jim Morrison's final hours - and why cause of death remains a mystery
Jim Morrison's death has sparked a number of conspiracy theories as the circumstances are still shrouded in mystery nearly 50 years on
Jim Morrison died 49 years ago today, but The Doors frontman's death still remains shrouded in mystery all these years later.
On July 3, 1971, his girlfriend Pamela Courson found him dead in the bath in their Paris apartment. He was just 27.
The Light My Fire singer had shot to fame in the sixties thanks to his poetic lyrics and wild stage performances, but by the early Seventies he had put on a lot of weight while he battled drug addiction.
His official cause of death was listed as congestive heart failure thought to be brought on by a heroin overdose, though no autopsy was ever performed.
Here we take a look at what happened to the self-proclaimed Lizard King in his final hours and the conspiracy theories about his death.
The Doors recorded their final album, LA Woman, in October 1970 and the following March Jim moved to Paris to live with Pamela, who herself died just three years later.
The band had been struggling to book concerts thanks to Jim's onstage antics.
In 1970, Jim - full name James Douglas Morrison - was convicted of indecent exposure for flashing his privates onstage.
He was sentenced to six months in prison and had to pay a $500 fine, but he remained free while he appealed the conviction and moved to Paris.
The move initially proved to be a good decision for Jim's health; the pair enjoyed long walks around the city and he began losing weight.
But just a few months later he would be dead.
The most accepted narrative of the night he died holds that Jim and Pam spent the evening listening to music and taking heroin.
When he began to react badly to the drug, Pam put him in a warm bath, which is said to help revive people suffering from heroin overdoses.
Pam called the emergency services but they failed to revive him and he was pronounced death at the scene.
An autopsy was never performed as this was not a requirement under French law at the time.
But there are other rumours about the way he died.
Pam insisted they'd spent that evening at the cinema, before having dinner and listening to records before they fell asleep.
She says in the middle of the night Jim was feeling ill and he went for a hot bath where she found him dead the next morning.
But Jim's friend Sam Bernett says Jim died in the bathroom of the Rock & Roll Circus club, which Sam was the manager of.
Sam claims he showed up looking to buy heroin and took it to the bathroom but never came out.
He says Jim's dealers wanted to cover up his death so they took him back to his apartment, where Pam found him the next morning.
Sam told Associated Press in 2014: "The flamboyant singer of The Doors, the beautiful California boy, had become an inert lump crumpled in the toilet of a nightclub.
"For me it's a very bad memory."
But Marianne Faithfull claims her ex-boyfriend, drug dealer Jean de Breiteuil, is responsible for Jim's death.
She says the two of them had stopped by the frontman's apartment to drop off some heroin just hours before he died but it proved to be too strong and killed him.
Marianne said in 2014: "I mean I’m sure it was an accident. Poor b*****d. The smack was too strong? Yeah. And he died."
In the days between his death and the funeral there were rumours that he had passed away but these were denied, with reporters at the time being told he was in hospital.
Jim was buried in Père Lachaise cemetery in the city the week after he died, with just a few mourners attending the service.
He was listed in the cemetery records under the incorrect name Douglas James Morrison.
The Doors' manager Bill Siddon got in contact with Pam who intially insisted he was alive before she admitted the truth.
His death wasn't announced to the world until after the funeral - his parents hadn't even been informed.
Some even believe that Jim faked his own death and went to live in New York City.
Jim's death made him a member of the 27 club, whose members are all famous figures who died at this age.
He passed away exactly two years after Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones and approximately nine months after the deaths of Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin.
All of them died aged 27.
The mysterious 27 Club has sparked many conspiracy theories in its time.
One claims there was a CIA operation to assassinate popular counterculture musicians in the sixties.
Mirror UK website
Jim Morrison's death has sparked a number of conspiracy theories as the circumstances are still shrouded in mystery nearly 50 years on
Jim Morrison died 49 years ago today, but The Doors frontman's death still remains shrouded in mystery all these years later.
On July 3, 1971, his girlfriend Pamela Courson found him dead in the bath in their Paris apartment. He was just 27.
The Light My Fire singer had shot to fame in the sixties thanks to his poetic lyrics and wild stage performances, but by the early Seventies he had put on a lot of weight while he battled drug addiction.
His official cause of death was listed as congestive heart failure thought to be brought on by a heroin overdose, though no autopsy was ever performed.
Here we take a look at what happened to the self-proclaimed Lizard King in his final hours and the conspiracy theories about his death.
The Doors recorded their final album, LA Woman, in October 1970 and the following March Jim moved to Paris to live with Pamela, who herself died just three years later.
The band had been struggling to book concerts thanks to Jim's onstage antics.
In 1970, Jim - full name James Douglas Morrison - was convicted of indecent exposure for flashing his privates onstage.
He was sentenced to six months in prison and had to pay a $500 fine, but he remained free while he appealed the conviction and moved to Paris.
The move initially proved to be a good decision for Jim's health; the pair enjoyed long walks around the city and he began losing weight.
But just a few months later he would be dead.
The most accepted narrative of the night he died holds that Jim and Pam spent the evening listening to music and taking heroin.
When he began to react badly to the drug, Pam put him in a warm bath, which is said to help revive people suffering from heroin overdoses.
Pam called the emergency services but they failed to revive him and he was pronounced death at the scene.
An autopsy was never performed as this was not a requirement under French law at the time.
But there are other rumours about the way he died.
Pam insisted they'd spent that evening at the cinema, before having dinner and listening to records before they fell asleep.
She says in the middle of the night Jim was feeling ill and he went for a hot bath where she found him dead the next morning.
But Jim's friend Sam Bernett says Jim died in the bathroom of the Rock & Roll Circus club, which Sam was the manager of.
Sam claims he showed up looking to buy heroin and took it to the bathroom but never came out.
He says Jim's dealers wanted to cover up his death so they took him back to his apartment, where Pam found him the next morning.
Sam told Associated Press in 2014: "The flamboyant singer of The Doors, the beautiful California boy, had become an inert lump crumpled in the toilet of a nightclub.
"For me it's a very bad memory."
But Marianne Faithfull claims her ex-boyfriend, drug dealer Jean de Breiteuil, is responsible for Jim's death.
She says the two of them had stopped by the frontman's apartment to drop off some heroin just hours before he died but it proved to be too strong and killed him.
Marianne said in 2014: "I mean I’m sure it was an accident. Poor b*****d. The smack was too strong? Yeah. And he died."
In the days between his death and the funeral there were rumours that he had passed away but these were denied, with reporters at the time being told he was in hospital.
Jim was buried in Père Lachaise cemetery in the city the week after he died, with just a few mourners attending the service.
He was listed in the cemetery records under the incorrect name Douglas James Morrison.
The Doors' manager Bill Siddon got in contact with Pam who intially insisted he was alive before she admitted the truth.
His death wasn't announced to the world until after the funeral - his parents hadn't even been informed.
Some even believe that Jim faked his own death and went to live in New York City.
Jim's death made him a member of the 27 club, whose members are all famous figures who died at this age.
He passed away exactly two years after Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones and approximately nine months after the deaths of Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin.
All of them died aged 27.
The mysterious 27 Club has sparked many conspiracy theories in its time.
One claims there was a CIA operation to assassinate popular counterculture musicians in the sixties.
Mirror UK website
