“CAN YOU FIND ME SOFT
ASYLUM?”
A DEFINITIVE REFERENCE GUIDE TO
JIM MORRISON’S FINAL DAYS
By Jerome L. Wallerstein
Copyright 2004,
Jerome L. Wallerstein Livermore,
First printing, 2004
This book is a compendium of previously published and
available quotes, for which the author takes no credit. The work is intended to
serve as a reference guide for fans and researchers. Accompanying each quote
the author has provided the original source; for those seeking further information
it is recommended you explore the sources being referenced.
Questions and correspondence may
be submitted to:
Evening Star Publications,
or by email to: Wallerstein@sbcglobal.net
“Last words, last words...out.”
Jim Morrison
AUTHOR’S
PROLOGUE
Jim Morrison and The Doors - a plethora of books exist on virtually
every facet of their existence and legacy, so why write another, and how does
this one differ from the rest?
The purpose of this book is simple: to gather together in a single compendium the sequence of events and oft-conflicting accounts of the final days of Jim Morrison, using quotes and verifiable information. There is seemingly no end to the quotes one could call upon, and determining what to leave out proved to be one of the biggest challenges – ultimately, in the interest of readability and in an effort to avoid redundancy, I elected to include those which most clearly served the purpose of the book. The goal is for the novel to be viewed as a definitive reference source for fans and researchers alike. Frequently asked questions surrounding Morrison’s final days form the basis of the book and lend a fundamental structure to the work.
The murky circumstances surrounding Morrison’s death have drawn
interest from all corners of the earth. Given there exists so much conflicting
and contradictory information in circulation, it is no wonder that confusion
and rumor exist to this day – and equally clear why his death has taken on near
mythological proportions in the more than thirty years since it occurred.
Intriguing discrepancies, combined with blatant traces of subterfuge and
deception, stoke the flames of interest and, in a morbid twist of irony, keep
the subject matter “alive”. Although conflicted at first, I consciously chose to include quotes from sources universally held to be completely credible, as well as quotes from individuals generally regarded as dubious (including Linda Ashcroft, whose self-serving book – which purports to be a first hand account of a long-term love affair with Jim Morrison – has drawn the passionate ire of devoted Doors fans from around the globe). The reason for including quotes from such disparate sources is to give evidence to how even today we continue to actively fuel myth-making by way of clouding the truth.
This book does not purport to provide any “new” information; on the
contrary, it is precisely the “pre-existing” documentation that forms the very
foundation to this work. The uninitiated will be well served by reading any of
the dozens of biographies available in libraries, on the Internet and from
bookstores. I have tackled this particular subject matter because it interests
me personally; my hope is that it will prove insightful to fans and historians,
and a valuable reference tool for authors and researchers.
QUESTIONS, QUOTES &
CONFLICTS
Q. WHAT WAS MORRISON’S HEALTH AND STATE OF
PATRICIA BUTLER: When Jim would pick up an occasional venereal disease. Max Fink sent
him to an old friend of his, a gynecologist in the Wilshire district who would
treat Jim quietly, after regular office hours. Most of the Doors and their
wives used the services of Dr. Arnold Derwin who would later be cited as an
authority on why Jim’s death could not have been caused by respiratory
distress, based on the fact that Derwin himself had not been aware of Jim’s
existing asthma condition, nor had Jim seemed ill the last time Dr. Derwin had
seen him. PG. 175 ANGELS DANCE AND
ANGELS DIE
DR. ARNOLD DERWIN: Jim was in excellent health before he went to
PATRICIA BUTLER: But Derwin had no access to Jim’s past medical records, nor was Jim
likely to provide an accurate history, assuming one had been requested. At the
time Jim left for
MONDO 2000... Hey! No one wants to be
expunged from the Book of Life. How many medical workers at UCLA knew that
Jim Morrison was being treated for gonorrhea in the Fall of 1970?
Knew of the biopsy that confirmed adenoma of the penile urethra -- often
consequence to repeated gonorrhea? This is a particularly swift form of cancer whose only
alternative may have been radical castration...“Queen Mu, PP. 131 MONDO 2000 MAGAZINE
PATRICIA BUTLER: Paul Rothchild had also tried to get Jim to seek
professional help on more than one occasion. “Oh! Everybody tried!” Rothchild
recalled. “I tried a lot, especially when he brought up repeatedly his problems
getting hard”, said Rothchild, referring to Jim’s increasing bouts with
impotency, a problem not uncommon in alcoholics, which both Pam and Jim had
spoken about with Paul. PG. 146 ANGELS DANCE AND ANGELS DIE.
PATRICIA BUTLER: His steady weight gain was compounded by the ever present layer of
bloat caused by his chronic alcoholism. The stress of the [
Q. What led Jim Morrison to leave
for
HANK ZEVALLOS: Hey, I knew Jim Morrison since before “Light My Fire” and was with
him his last night in
BILL SIDDONS: He went off to
PATRICIA KENNEALY: “I still don’t understand why you’re going” is what I say instead.
“It’s hard to explain” he says after a long silence. I kind of feel responsible
for [Pamela]. She’s not like you, she can’t do anything on her own, can’t take
care of herself – it’s over, but I think I owe her this.” PG. 296 STRANGE DAYS
LINDA ASHCROFT: I was thinking I might use the time in
BILL SIDDONS: "He said, I don't know who I am, and I don't know what I'm
doing at the moment. I even don't know what I really want, I just wanna go
away. Pamela was behind it all. It was her who pushed him to leave, and who
told him to take his scrap books and write a theatre play." FROM RAINER MODDEMANN’S
“QUIET DAYS IN
The
sessions for
RAY MANZAREK: And then he dropped the napalm. “I’m going
to
Although
Ray states that it came as a bit of a surprise, Robby Krieger states that they
had reason to anticipate it:
ROBBY KRIEGER: He has talked about
Others,
too, were aware that Morrison intended to join Pamela Courson in
LINDA ASHCROFT: Though he didn’t set a departure date for Paris – he wanted to wake
up one day and get on a plane, not dread it – we knew it would be soon. Any
day. Pg. 477 WILD CHILD
DANNY SUGERMAN: [Morrison said] That’s exactly what I’m doing – a semi-sabbatical, a
career break. I’ll be back in no time. Pg.
Q. How did his
friends and bandmates react to the news that Jim Morrison was going to
Manzarek sensed that
“something was wrong”, as Morrison had always been involved in the final mixes
of the albums but tried his best to be supportive and not over-react.
RAY MANZAREK: “
RAY MANZAREK: To be honest, I hoped Jim would use the break to get away from his
drinking buddies; get away from the hangers-on who were always attaching
themselves to him and taking him to the too many bars, dives, gin mills, and
wherevers. The sycophants. The leeches, as John and Robby and I called them.
His “friends,” as they became called in later years...they were just sucking up
his energy, keeping him from being a poet...and he wouldn’t be writing. He
wouldn’t be creating. He should have been spinning out great passages of new
verse, instead of talking it out and staggering home to Pam way past the
...They [Jim’s
drinking buddies] were a real sore point with Pam Courson, Jim’s live-in lady
and soul mate. Pam was always angry because Jim was running around and getting
drunk with his friends...So to make things up to her, on her suggestion, he was
going to take her to
Hell, it seemed like
a good idea; at least at the time...He could be the next generation of the
bohemian ideal, an American in Paris...I wanted him to go to Paris and write
again. Forget about being a rock star. It was time for Jim Morrison to be an
artist again. Just like in the beginning. PGS. 10 – 122 LIGHT MY FIRE
FRANK LISCIANDRO: "I remember Babe brought him to the airport but Kathy and I met
him there. They went in their car and we went in another car, and we met at
RAY MANZAREK: So off he went. Left the session, just like that. John and Robby and
I just looked at each other, dumbfounded. All we could do was shrug our
shoulders. “I think it’s a good idea”
said Robby. “Me too” I agreed. “Paris and writers, it’s a natural.” “Maybe
he’ll get the muse back” Robby said hopefully. PG. 12 LIGHT MY FIRE
Q. How long did
Morrison intend to stay in
RAY MANZAREK: “How long, uhh...how long you gonna be there?” “You know, Ray, I
don’t know” Jim said...”I don’t have any plans yet” he said. “I just need a
break. Some time to myself. A couple of months, six months. Maybe a year. Who
knows, man? I don’t.
“It’ll give you a chance to work
on those notes from
LINDA ASHCROFT: [Upon Morrison presenting
Ashcroft with a diamond ring, Ashcroft replied ]Give this to me in September.
When you get back from
PATRICIA KENNEALY: [In his letters he writes about]...how much he looks forward to our
being together in New York as he has promised, by October at the latest, so he
can catch the fall colors. PG. 315
STRANGE DAYS
LINDA ASHCROFT: ...He’d give [Pamela] six months to help her get off heroin, a
settlement to give her a start, and she would sign an agreement not to sue. I
had a hundred misgivings, but he said “I need to do this to be the man I want
to be.”...Finally, he repeated himself about the six months promised Pam to get
her on her feet. “I owe her that” he said.
PG. 476 WILD CHILD
DANNY SUGERMAN: "The album is out, as
you probably know. Sorry this letter is late, but things have been really
hectic these last few weeks, Jim is, in fact, in
Sincerely yours,
Danny Sugerman, Doors Productions." On
PATRICIA KENNEALY: ...And then he gets into us, him and me, how we will be together in
New York, in the fall, for the start of “the season” as he puts it, how we will
get a loft downtown, have poetry readings of his stuff at the St. Mark’s Church
poetry project where Tandy Martin’s husband reads his own work, I can write my
novels and Jim will do poems and films, maybe we will even write things
together... PG. 296 STRANGE DAYS
ALAN RONAY: [Jim Morrison said] I’ve no intention of leaving
ROBBY KRIEGER: We never really broke up…It was understood that it was gonna be a long
vacation for everybody. But there was no talk of breaking up The Doors…We
finished our contract with Elektra, as far as albums go…we were gonna take a
long vacation for sure, but we didn’t say okay, let’s break up the group…you do
a solo album, you do a solo album, and whatever….” PG. 447 break on
through
PATRICIA KENNEALY: When Jim left LA in March 1971, he left The Doors as well – whether
they knew it or not, whether they believed it or not. www.geocities.com/unfaithfulservant2002/KENNEALY.html
JOHN DENSMORE: "... I am sure that he
wanted to come back." FROM RAINER
MODDEMANN’S “QUIET DAYS IN
LINDA ASHCROFT: Jim was leaving for
PATRICIA BUTLER: I won’t be back in the States until September at the earliest, he
told [Tere Tereba]. PG. 163 ANGELS DANCE AND ANGELS DIE
JIM MORRISON: "I think we'll do a
couple of albums and then everyone will probably get into their own thing: each
guy in the band has certain projects that they want to do more
independently." Rolling Stone
interview with Ben Fong-Torres a few days before his departure
According
to Densmore, when he and Jim Morrison spoke on the phone in late June Morrison
himself suggested they record another album upon his return from
JOHN DENSMORE: “How’s
RAY MANZAREK: The next day John reported in. Everything was okay. Jim was feeling
good, having a good time. He had shaved his beard, he was excited about the
critical acclaim for [
RAINER MODDEMANN: When Tere took her leave,
saying that she was looking forward to getting back to
JERRY HOPKINS/DANNY SUGERMAN: When John told Jim how well the album and single were selling and
how much the press liked the records, Jim was amazed. “If they like this,
wait’ll they hear what I got in mind for the next one,” he told John. PG.
361 NO ONE HERE GETS OUT ALIVE
ROBBY KRIEGER: In fact Jim had never quit The Doors, what else could he do, he
would have been dead-bored after a couple of months. I think he always would
have come back to the group. INTERVIEW
WITH RAINER MODDEMANN, 1999 DOORS QUARTERLY MAGAZINE
HANK ZEVALLOS: There also were no future Doors plans in the works. They had
completed their contract extension with Elektra and there was only a very loose
“we’ll meet in maybe a year and see what happens.” FEB 2000 –www.findadeath.com
RAY MANZAREK: "That Jim went to
FRANK LISCIANDRO: Jim's feeling at the time - and I remember this distinctly because
we had more than one conversation about it - was that his days in
HERVE’ MULLER: I remember that he honestly wanted to settle in
PATRICIA BUTLER: [Morrison] grew somewhat evasive when talk would inevitably turn to
The Doors... PG. 162 ANGELS DANCE AND
ANGELS DIE
BILL SIDDONS: “We talked to him about coming back” says Siddons, “and all we ever
got was ‘Ah. No plans! I’m having a great time. Maybe someday we’ll do another
record, but no plans!” … PG. 162 ANGELS DANCE AND ANGELS DIE
Q. WHAT, IF ANY,
COMMUNICATION DID MORRISON HAVE WITH HIS BANDMATES WHILE HE WAS IN
JERRY HOPKINS/DANNY SUGARMAN: [Morrison] placed an early morning call to John Densmore and asked
him how the material was coming. PG. 361
NO ONE HERE GETS OUT ALIVE
RAY MANZAREK: John [Densmore] finally said, impatiently, “I’m gonna call [Jim].” I
said “Why? Let him alone for a while. He doesn’t want anybody bugging him.
He’ll call when he’s ready.” John paced the rehearsal room, unable to control
his anxiety. “I just gotta know” he said. “I can’t wait any longer.” And so he
called him. PG.
13 LIGHT MY FIRE
Contrary to Manzarek’s
statement that John Densmore initiated the call, Densmore claims that Morrison
called him.
JOHN DENSMORE: The phone rang on a Thursday morning. “Hey, man, how ya doin’?” said
the voice I knew only too well, the whiskeyed voice that struck terror in me. PG.
6 RIDERS ON THE STORM
And in
contrast to what Densmore states, Rainer Moddemann claims Morrison calls on a
different day:
MODDEMANN - On (Monday) 14th June he telephoned John Densmore in
Q. Morrison’s
relationship with Pamela Courson was stormy and tempestuous from the start. How
did they get along in
ALAN RONAY: “…[Pamela] led her own independent life in
JERRY HOPKINS/DANNY
SUGERMAN: To ZoZo (Elizabeth Lariviere) it
seemed a peculiar relationship. Whenever she talked with Pamela, Pamela spoke
only of Jim and how wonderful he was, “everything was Jeem, Jeem, Jeem.” But
then when Pamela stayed out all night with some of the French friends she’d
made through the rich count, in the mornings on the telephone she begged ZoZo
to tell a lie for her. “Oh please say to Jeem I was in your friend’s house all
the night and I’m going to come back at twelve.” I always used to have to say
that to [Jim]. PG. 351 no one here gets out
alive
LINDA ASHCROFT: “Pamela is having this fantasy about our getting back together. She
seems to have confused the public image we’ve had for some time with the
reality of the trip. If she introduces herself as Mrs. Morrison one more time,
she’s going to have to slap me out of hysterics.”. ..Delighted by the sound of
his voice, I had to make myself pay attention to what he was saying...September
seems awfully far away.” PG. 483 WILD
CHILD
PATRICIA
KENNEALY:
[Morrison said] it’s over, but I think I owe her this...” ”This isn’t doing her
any favors –“ “I know, I know, I just want to end it off gently”. PG. 296 STRANGE
DAYS
PATRICIA BUTLER: For the first time he began talking about having children [with
Pamela]... As they had done several times before in the States, the couple
obtained another marriage license. PG. 158 ANGELS DANCE AND ANGELS DIE
BILL SIDDONS: [Referring to a marriage license allegedly taken out while in
JERRY HOPKINS/DANNY
SUGERMAN: [For a period of time, while
they traveled through the South of
LINDA ASHCROFT: The thirtieth of June Jim’s
voice was so tired, I wanted to send him my exuberance over the wire... “Pamela
and I had our last fight. She made confetti of all my recent work. She’s never
destroyed my writing before. I told her that ends my obligation to her.” PG 486 – 487 WILD CHILD
JIM MORRISON: Hello Bob, how are you? The weather today finally turned sunny,
after a month of gray. Paris is beautiful in the sun, an exciting town, built
for human beings. Speaking to Bill (Siddons) a while back I told him of our desire to stay here indefinitely.
Will that be possible? Could you write and give me an idea of how long we can
stay on living at our present rate, a sort of financial statement in general?
Also, a copy of the partnership agreement, if it was ever completed. We have
decided to turn the shop (Themis, Pamela's boutique) over to Tom and Judy
(Pamela's sister and her husband), so they can seek alone. All but the
furnishing sans some personal things, which we ought to keep. Eventually, we'd
like to be completely clear of any involvement. Could you help to figure out
the best way to do this? Incidentally, would you ask Judy for her parents'
address and send them 100 bucks for the dog (Jim and Pamela's dog Sage)? Any
luck on the credit cards? We Could use them made out in both our names. What's
the problem? And if you'd send our cheque when you receive this - house bills
are catching up. Please send $3,000. Give
our best to all, later, Jim . letter to Bob Greene, received ON
PATRICIA KENNEALY: [In his letters to me] ...He speaks tenderly of how he misses me, of
how it is winding down at last to the final break with Pam, of how there is so
much history there, both good and bad, but that this is really it, as far as he’s concerned...” PG. 315
STRANGE DAYS
PATRICIA BUTLER: Jim told Bill [Siddons] that he was doing fine, that he and Pamela
were living together and doing well… Jim and Pam talked briefly about buying a
house in the French countryside. PG.
162-163 ANGELS DANCE AND ANGELS DIE
HERVE’ MULLER: [Pamela] wanted to find an old church or chapel and turn it into a
house. PG. 163 ANGELS DANCE AND ANGELS
DIE
KATHY LISCIANDRO:...maybe he did marry Pam but I know from a phone conversation with
him in may that he kept up his old on-again-off-again style of living, one
apartment with her, one without. PG. 113
THE DOORS COMPANION (ROCCO)
Q. WHERE
EXACTLY DID MORRISON STAY WHILE IN
RAINER MODDEMANN: At Jim's
suggestion Pamela had flown to Paris on 14th February 1971, St Valentine's Day,
to find an apartment for them and to prepare everything for his arrival. While
looking, Pamela stayed at the Hôtel Georges V, which Jim had recommended to
her....To begin with, they lived at the Hotel Georges V in Avenue Georges V. Only a week later Jim and Pamela moved in at No.
17 Rue Beautreillis. ZoZo gave them one of the three bedrooms of the
spacious apartment, and Jim moved a desk for himself near to the window. He
shaved off the long dark beard he had worn for almost six months... FROM RAINER
MODDEMANN’S “QUIET DAYS IN
PATRICIA BUTLER: When Jim first arrived in
PAMELA COURSON:
Before living at rue Beautreillis, my boyfriend and I lived for three weeks at
the Hôtel de Nice, rue de Beaux Arts, I think...” FROM PAMELA COURSON’S POLICE STATEMENT
RAINER MODDEMANN: In the sunny, quiet apartment in the Marais quarter he was very
happy. He loved to walk down the Rue St. Antoine, an ordinary tourist, or take
expeditions across the Ile St. Louis. He found total peace and quiet in the
close-by Place des
Q. DID MORRISON FIND HIS MUSE IN
LINDA ASHCROFT : Jim sent a postcard from
PATRICIA KENNEALY: …In April, I get my first communiqué’ from Paris…May brings a real
letter, June two more letters and a small package – the last things I am ever
to receive from Jim’s hand. The gifts are as they are; but the letters are
alarming. Not so much the first two, save only between the lines: Outwardly Jim
speaks with real feeling of the beauty of Paris but then admits that he has
been ill and unable to write as much as he would like, that he cannot seem to
settle into a productive creative groove, cannot find his writing voice, and
this makes him unhappy and uncertain. PG. 314
STRANGE DAYS
LINDA ASHCROFT: Jim gathered his strength by telling me he had made a tape in a
studio of his three new songs to send to the other Doors as a peace
offering...I wrote down the lyrics on the newspaper that was spread out on the
table. In case Pamela got her hands on them, I told myself, I’ll have copies to
present him at the airport. The songs were so beautiful, they made me cry. PG 498
WILD CHILD
ALAN RONAY: ...He wrote all the time. FROM ALAN RONAY’S ARTICLE “JIM AND I -
FRIENDS UNTIL DEATH”.
LINDA ASHCROFT: “What makes dealing with
Pamela worse is that I can’t write worth shit. I keep telling people about this
novel I’m working on. Don’t remember what the hell I’ve told them, but it sure
isn’t on paper...I sit with paper in front of me but I can’t write a goddamn
sentence. Did I ever write anything? I can’t remember what I sounded like. PG
483 – 484 WILD CHILD
ALAN RONAY: He wrote practically every day.” PG. 158 ANGELS DANCE AND ANGELS DIE
LINDA ASHCROFT: He read from a long poem he had teased about in his postcard. A man
in
KATHY LISCIANDRO: Maybe he was doing something close to a reasonable amount of writing.
Maybe. The Jim I knew had a king-size block as a writer. For him to get off
even a few lines a week might look like a burst of productivity from up close.
PG. 113 THE DOORS COMPANION (ROCCO)
LINDA ASHCROFT: Jim’s next letter implied the writing was rolling; the next, a false
start. Then he wrote a postcard claiming at least he was writing a poem about
the blues...On the very day I received the postcard, Jim made a second call.
..[After meeting with an analyst who reassured him that he need not lose his
creative edge by operating within a normal sphere, he realized] He had gone to
help Pamela and found help for himself. PG. 485 WILD CHILD
Q. What was Jim Morrison’s
general state of mind while in
JERRY HOPKINS/DANNY
SUGERMAN: ...It was calm, at first. PG.
350 NO ONE HERE GETS OUT ALIVE
ALAN RONAY: In the beginning he was very hopeful and bright about a new life. Most
of the time he was very calm and wasn’t drinking very much. He wrote
practically every day…I rally felt that he totally reclaimed himself. BREAK ON
THROUGH PG. 445
PATRICIA KENNEALY: [In his first two letters to me]...he ends both missives on
determinedly upbeat notes, as if he were trying to convince himself as well as
me. Still, the subtext of depression is there in both letters, and much plainer
in the second than in the first. PR. 315
STRANGE DAYS
RAINER MODDEMANN: Although it would seem that Morrison enjoyed traveling and certainly
relished not having to put on airs or be hounded by paparazzi he nonetheless
seemed to edge more and more into a state of depression. Morrison continued to
struggle with his alcoholism and was probably wracked with guilt indecision and
relative to his personal relationships (should he break it off once and for all
with Pamela, should he return and live with Patricia Kennealy? What of the
unborn child Kennealy had aborted? What was to become of the band? What did he
want to do with his life? FROM RAINER
MODDEMANN’S “QUIET DAYS IN
KATHY LISCIANDRO: I suppose he’d have been pleased to find himself but my impression
was he didn’t know where to look and had long ago given up trying, except maybe
in the bottle. You know what people find in vodka bottles, vodka. PG.
113 THE DOORS COMPANION (ROCCO)
LINDA ASHCROFT: Jim sent a postcard from
BILL SIDDONS: I spoke to Jim on three separate occasions. He always seemed to be
in good spirits, happy that he’d gone [to
PATRICIA KENNEALY: I had eight or ten cards and letters from him in the three months he
spent there. Some were exalted and joyous and others were veiled in despair.
The last letter he wrote me was mailed only a few days before he died. He wrote
of how tired he was and how much he missed me. "My side is cold without you..."
he told me. The letter was to weep for, and I did, and still do. INTERVIEW WITH
AMERICAN LEGENDS
Frank Lisciandro’s
recollections seem to corroborate this:
FRANK LISCIANDRO: “I had written to Jim about a month after he left
saying that Kathy and I were planning a trip to
…as do Alan Ronay’s,
who paints a picture of Morrison’s time in
ALAN RONAY: Therefore, with a few exceptions, Jim and I spent almost the whole
month of June alone together. Our days were tranquil and were probably the best
we shared....In that brief period he was happy, calm and free.
PATRICIA KENNEALY: …But it is the third letter Jim sends me, the last one, the June one,
which genuinely frightens me…he calls to mind joyful things…but otherwise there
is little joy here. He speaks of standing on the down slope to a void and not
knowing where, or even if, he is; of crying himself to sleep on a night of rain
and wondering if I heard him; says that for the first time he is uncertain of
where I am, says that he reaches out for me in his sleep but his side is cold
with my absence.
He writes that he
thinks he really wants to be dead, not mad, after all, and how I always thought
it was the other way around…he says that he feels cornered, says that he’s not
even going to mail this to me after all.
And toward the end
he writes that he is tired…says that he walked for miles and came home limping;
says he doesn’t really know why he does these things and yet seems to learn so
little... [He] says that now he requires that reassurance {that he hadn’t sold
out – ed.} from me; says he wants me to look at him and tell him that he has
not sold anything that could not be bought save by honest coinage.
There is much more
in the same dreadful despairing vein: The pages seem frosted with hopelessness…The
more I read and reread, the more I weep for him, and the more I want to jump on
the first plane to Paris and drag him back with me to safety in my arms,
forever, away from his pain.
But his pain seems
to be his fellow-traveler, and other people are hearing very different things
from him, seemingly, at this very moment… To some he talks of getting back in
the studio in September; to others he speaks of having finally, definitively,
broken with Pam...and wanting to return home before the fourth of July (bitter
irony); to others still he extends invitations to come stay with him and Pam in
their Parisian idyll. It is all probably true and meant, and to weep for. PGS. 315-316
STRANGE DAYS
RAINER MODDEMANN: The contradictory nature of Jim Morrison as a person becomes
apparent. On the one hand he is plagued with self doubts, depressed with his
immediate surroundings and his poor physical condition, even mentioning the
wish to die, while on the other he's playing the carefree poet, with lots of
plans on his mind, seemingly very glad to be in
JOHN DESNMORE: “Hi Jim” I replied tentatively…”How is it over there? …How’s
PATRICIA KENNEALY: [Recalling the last time she spoke with Morrison] He called for my
birthday, the first week of March, and apologized for his behavior in
FRANK LISCIANDRO: My feeling now is that Jim was
somewhat lonely for his friends in
PAMELA COURSON: “Jim’s suicidal.” PG. 401 WILD CHILD
PATRICIA KENNEALY: I think he was just incredibly depressed. I heard stories and I have
letters that are just so down. Nothing was happening. He wasn’t writing. He
wasn’t able to get past whatever it was.
Q. Clearly there are
differing reports on Morrison’s state of
JAMES RIORDAN/JERRY
PROCHNICKY: In France, [approximately 4
months after his February fall from the Chateau Marmont] Morrison was said to
be having some sort of respiratory trouble, even coughing up blood now and
then. Pam later claimed that Jim saw two doctors during the time and even
complained of the condition on the day before his death. PG. 453 BREAK ON THROUGH
PATRICIA BUTLER: But
RAINER MODDEMANNN: To cover up his now already
uncomfortable and corpulent figure he wore baggy shirts and dark striped
trousers, together with his old, worn out suede boots. FROM RAINER MODDEMANN’S “QUIET DAYS IN
JERRY HOPKINS/DANNY
SUGERMAN: But contrary to Pamela’s fantasy,
Jim was still drinking – and heavily. PG. 352 NO ONE HERE GETS OUT ALIVE
JAMES RIORDAN/JERRY
PROCHNICKY: By late June, whatever Morrison
had hoped to accomplish in
PAMELA COURSON: [In
PATRICIA BUTLER: The excursion to
RAINER
MODDEMANN: [Phil] Trainer particularly
remembers Jim's coughing fits in between deep inhalations from the cigarettes
he smoked. FROM RAINER MODDEMANN’S “QUIET DAYS IN
RAINER MODDEMANN: Jim telephoned Agnes Varda. She invited him to her daughter
Rosalie's birthday party. Jim who only spoke a few words of French, came and
drank vast amounts of Grand Marnier in the midst of the other small party
guests. Agnes Varda remembers: "He fell on one of the girls' little
tables. However, they were still happy, because they liked him very much. FROM
RAINER MODDEMANN’S “QUIET DAYS IN
JAMES RIORDAN/JERRY
PROCHNICKY: Morrison had come to realize
that he was an alcoholic and he struggled to stop drinking. Spent three weeks
in April and May traveling across France, Spain and Morocco, and another 10
days at the end of May visiting Corsica...PG. 448 BREAK ON THROUGH
We know
for a fact that, contrary to Ronay’s clam that Morrison “had almost Stopped
drinking”, that Morrison was in fact drinking heavily and often.
JAMES RIORDAN/JERRY
PROCHNICKY:– He took to wild partying again
and he and Pam clashed regularly. Often she ran with her friends and he with
his just like they had so many times in L.A. Jim met a whole new set of
drinking buddies in Paris and he started hanging around sleazy French
nightclubs…within a few months he had brought about the very same life he had
tried to run away from. PG. 449 BREAK ON
THROUGH
GILLES YEPREMIUM: He drank like hell, every day. INTERVIEW WITH RAINER MODDEMANN IN DOORS
QUARTLERY, APRIL 1993
SAM BERNETT: He was always high or drunk, in an abnormal state. PG. 148 THE DOORS COMPANION( ROCCO)
HERVE’ MULLER: He was drinking twice as much as anybody else. At the end of the
meal they came with two bottles of cognac and asked him which one he wanted.
And he just grabbed one of them, tore off the top and raised the neck to his
mouth...” PG. 358 NO ONE HERE GETS OUT
ALIVE
RAINER MODDEMANN: Pamela who did not drink much, preferring a cocktail of drugs,
complained about Jim's alcohol consumption. He had almost totally cut out the
drugs, and had for some time been advancing to the state of an extremely heavy
drinker. From
In mid June Jim went to see a doctor for the second time, because he
had been coughing up blood again. The physician urgently advised him to stop
smoking and drinking heavily. From his consumption of alcohol and a great deal
of French food, Jim's body had become bloated, and his powers of concentration
that he needed to be able to work had diminished significantly and suddenly. He
also had severe coughing fits. FROM RAINER MODDEMANN’S “QUIET DAYS IN
Not only had he
informed Patricia Kennealy that he had been ill, but Alan Ronay relates that:
ALAN RONAY: [A week or so before
Morrison’s death] While I was coming up the landing…Jim let a bundle of
firewood fall (we had just bought the wood for the fireplace). He was winded
and couldn’t get his breath back. He complained saying that he needed the
firewood to keep warm, in June. “But do you feel OK?”, I asked him. “Look at
me, I’m ten years older than you and not exactly in such terrific shape, but
I’m not winded either”. FROM ALAN
RONAY’S ARTICLE “JIM AND I - FRIENDS UNTIL DEATH”
RAINER MODDEMANN: In the last week of his life Jim began to drink again, although the
French doctor had prescribed him some medication for his heavy asthma which
explicitly warns against alcohol consumption. According to one of Morrison's
close friends, Jim could not have taken this warning seriously, as he had not
read the instruction leaflet that was in French. FROM RAINER MODDEMANN’S “QUIET
DAYS IN
ALAN RONAY: He had gotten rid of the damage produced by fame and had found
himself again...and he had almost stopped drinking…He didn’t take drugs yet.
Pam’s habit hadn’t gotten to him yet. FROM ALAN RONAY’S ARTICLE “JIM AND I
- FRIENDS UNTIL DEATH”
Allegedly,
the physician advised him to stop smoking and drinking heavily. Apparently he
had become unable to concentrate on his writing and was victim to severe
coughing fits.
PAMELA COURSON: Before living at rue Beautreillis, my boyfriend and I lived for
three weeks at the Hotel de Nice, rue de Beaux Arts, I think, and while we were
there my friend was sick, he was complaining of difficulty breathing and he
also had coughing fits at night. I called a doctor to the hotel who prescribed
pills for asthma but my friend didn’t like to see doctors and never looked
after himself seriously. I can not say
precisely who the doctor was, and I didn’t keep the prescription. During a
previous stay in
LINDA ASHCROFT: When he told me he felt too tired for one more fight with Pamela, I
asked that he go straight to the
GILLES YEPREMIAN: "I was there with some friends in the restaurant of the
club", Gilles Yepremian "I just saw a shadow where the security guys
were standing. Later I went out and saw this guy kicking the doors with his
feet, he apparently wanted to get inside. But the security wouldn't let him in
again because they had just thrown him out. When I looked at his face I
realized it was Jim Morrison. He was completely drunk. He didn't look like Jim
Morrison, the rockstar, but like an American student traveling in
RAINER MODDEMANN: The completely drunk Jim Morrison spent the night at Muller's
apartment on Place Tristan-Bernard, and a totally surprised Hervé had to give
up his bed to spend the night in a sleeping bag and let the paralytic Jim sleep
off his drunken stupor. [Morrison] only
awoke at
GILLES YEPREMIAN: Hervé and I met a girl several months later, her boyfriend was in
jail, and this girl was called Nicole. She told everyone it was her boyfriend
who sold the drug to Jim. But who knows. It is very hard to believe what a
pusher says. INTERVIEW WITH RAINER MODDEMANN FOR DOORS QUARTERLY, APRIL 1993
PATRICIA KENNEALY: The difficult with the heroin scenario was that anyone who knew Jim
at all well had big problems accepting smack as the cause of his death. And not
just because he was scared of needles, either...if Jim had ever wanted to do smack, in
GILLES YEPREMIAN: …We never saw him take drugs; alcohol seemed to be more his thing.” INTERVIEW
WITH RAINER RODDEMAN DOORS QUARTERLYAPRIL 1993
LINDA ASHCROFT : “You don’t do that [heroin]?” “No. I tried opium in college. Wound
up spitting blood. Decided I was allergic to opiates.” PG. 379 WILD CHILD
Q. How exactly did JIM Morrison spend
his final day in Paris
Hopkins / Sugarman
tell us that all day Thursday, July 1, and Friday, July 2, 1971, Morrison was
deeply depressed and that Alan Ronay and Pamela Courson tried in vain to cheer
him up. They report that “Alan Ronay had never seen him so low, and Pamela was
frightened.” On the evening of Friday, July 2, on the suggestion of Ronay, the
three of them ate dinner at an outdoor café located in close proximity to the
apartment Jim and Pamela shared. In her
statement to police, Pamela states that Morrison ate dinner alone and that she
had not joined him.
We know that after
dinner Morrison sent a telegram to his editor Johnathan Dolger requesting that
the cover of the soon-to-be-released paperback “The Lords And The New
Creatures” be altered (replacing the famous “young lion” photo with a more
recent picture that better represented who Morrison was these days). And then
it is precisely at this point that events become shrouded in mystery and
incongruities.
Some reports – those
most frequently circulated - have it that Jim Morrison went by himself to see
the movie “Pursued”, starring Robert Mitchum. After watching the movie Morrison
returned to the flat he shared with Pamela Courson.
Other unsubstantiated
reports, claim that Morrison was driven to the airport and was witnessed
boarding a plane. There is no reliable
source, nor any documentation, to substantiate this.
And still others have
it that Morrison went to the Rock And Roll Circus, a club that
HERVE’ MULLER: “Jim was supposed
to finance a drug deal for Pamela and her Parisian junkie
friends there. Pamela had been a heroin addict for a long time. The dealer
offered him to test the wares. Although Morrison is no junkie himself, he is
drunk enough to agree. He goes to the restroom and sniffs a little of the heroin
the dealer gave him. In the presence of Pamela’s drug friends he passes out.
The heroin is very strong and Morrison already completely drunk – a deadly
combination.” PG. 15 MUSIK EXPRESS SOUNDS MAGAZINE
RAINER MODDEMANN: His condition was still the same
on 2nd July. Alain Ronay noticed his depressions, and without Pamela they had
dinner at a restaurant on Rue St. Antoine, where Morrison ate his food in
silence. Alain later remembers that Jim Morrison's face looked like a death
mask, and that he had had a bad hiccoughing fit. FROM RAINER MODDEMANN’S “QUIET
DAYS IN
ALAN RONAY: I can’t believe some of the things written about Jim dying in a
nightclub or there being bloodstained daggers found under his bed…Some accounts
even have us eating at a sidewalk café on the night of his death and me saying
that I thought he was terribly depressed. None of that’s true. We didn’t dine
together that night and I didn’t say I thought he looked depressed. I had been
living with them but had moved out a few days before that. On July 2nd I spent the whole day
with Jim but I left him and Pam around six or seven in the evening because I
had a date for dinner. I did recommend that he see Pursued and he was trying to
get me to meet them at the movie. When I saw Pam the next day, amid all the
drama, it was like we were in shock. I said “Did you go?” and she said they had
gone, but that he didn’t like the movie very much.” PG. 459 BREAK ON
THROUGH
In the
official statement made to police, Pamela stumbles over her words before
explaining that Morrison went out to dinner alone the night before his death,
followed by their mutual night out at
the cinema:
PAMELA COURSON: Last night I had dinner with my friend. I am not explaining myself
properly. I didn’t have dinner last night, my friend went out to a restaurant
on his own, probably in the area. When my friend came back we went to the
cinema to see the film
BOB SEYMORE: He and Pam went to the cinema where they saw the late evening
screening of
JAMES RIORDAN/JERRY
PROCHNICKY: The following day Alan
Ronay stopped over and recommended that Jim see a Robert Mitchum film, Pursued,
knowing that Morrison admired the actor. According to Pam, Morrison decided to
go and see the movie and set off for the cinema alone. PG. 450 BREAK ON
THROUGH
'PAMELA COURSON:
When my friend came back from the restaurant, we both went to the cinema to see the film
ALAN RONAY: 'I did recommend that he see Pursued and he was trying to get me to
meet them at the movie. When I saw Pam the next day, amidst all the drama, it
was like we were in shock. I said, "Did you go?" And she said they
had gone, but that he didn't like the movie very much.' PG. 459 BREAK ON THROUGH
RAINER MODDEMANN: After this, he and Pamela went to a cinema near the metro station
Pelletier, to watch the film
JERRY HOPKINS/DANNY
SUGERMAN: He then took Pamela home, going
on alone to a movie that Alan had recommended (Pursued with Robert Mitchum). PG.365
NO ONE HERE GETS OUT ALIVE
PAMELA COURSON: …we came back
from the cinema around
In stark
contrast to the domestic scene she had presented to the authorities, Courson
gave a far different story to Alan Ronay. According to Ronay, who kept the
secret until his confessionary article. Pamela
Courson said:
PAMELA COURSON: “The other night we came home right after the movie. When we arrived
we immediately began to sniff heroin and Jim began to play his songs. He played
all of them, one after another, even ‘The End’. Then we went to bed. Jim asked
me to give him some more stuff, that’s how it happened that he took much more
than me, especially since he’d taken some on his own during the day. We also
did a little on the night before.” FROM ALAN RONAY’S ARTICLE “JIM AND I -
FRIENDS UNTIL DEATH”
This alleged
confession was purportedly made in the presence of Agnes Varda, Ronay’s
companion.
Q. What do we know
about the activities of the hours directly prior to Morrison’s death?
There
are a variety of accounts of the sequence of events of the night proceeding the
actual death, as well as on the morning of Morrison’s death.
Pamela
Courson’s official statement to police was recorded as follows:
PAMELA COURSON: Round about
I shook my friend. I slapped him a few times to wake him.
I shook him and he woke up. I asked him what was wrong. I wanted to call a
doctor. He got up, walked about in the bedroom and then told me he wanted to have
a bath. PAMELA COURSON’S POLICE STATEMENT
Pamela’s
confession to Ronay of this sequence was virtually identical:
PAMELA COURSON: We fell asleep. I didn’t know what time it was when Jim’s heavy
breathing woke me up. He was still asleep, but the poor guy had problems in
breathing. I tried to wake him up but he didn’t react. I panicked and began to
cry and hit him. I hit him hard once, twice, three times; nothing happened. I
slapped him a couple of times. Then, he came to, but he didn’t seem much like himself.
I was very tired but just the same I was successful in dragging him to the
bathtub. FROM ALAN RONAY’S ARTICLE “JIM AND I - FRIENDS UNTIL DEATH”
In her confession to police Courson then stated:
PAMELA COURSON: He headed toward the bathroom and ran his bath.
When he was in the bath he called to me and said that he felt sick and felt
like vomiting. On my way I picked up an orange colored bowl. He vomited food
into the bowl I was holding. I think there was blood in it. I emptied the
content then my friend vomited into the container again, only blood this time
and then a third time blood clots. Each time I emptied the bowl down the
washbasin of the bathroom, then I washed the bowl. My friend then told me he
felt strange but he said “I don’t feel sick; don’t call a doctor. I feel
better. It’s over!” He told me to “go to
bed” and said that he was going to finish his bath and would join me in bed. At
this time it appeared to me that my friend felt better because he had vomited
and his color had returned a bit. I went back to bed and I immediately fell
asleep. I was reassured.
I don’t know how
long I slept. I awoke with a start and I saw that my friend wasn’t lying next
to me. I ran to the bathroom and saw that my friend was still in the bath, a
little blood was running from his nostril. I shook my friend, thinking he would
wake up. I thought he had fainted and was unconscious. I tried to get him out
of the bath but I couldn’t. Then I phoned up Mr. Ronay. He came with his
girlfriend, Ms. Agnes Demy, and they called, I think, the Fire Brigade or the
Police. PAMELA COURSON’S POLICE REPORT
Again,
save for the revelation that the two snorted heroin, Pamela Courson is very
consistent in recounting the sequence of events that unfolded after their
return home the apartment.
Pamela allegedly
told Ronay:
PAMELA COURSON: “I woke up later in a cold sweat. Jim was not in bed with me. I
found him in the bathtub, unconscious. Blood was running down his face, then he
had those red marks on the right side of his chest. Suddenly, he began to vomit
into the tub. Then, I ran tot he kitchen to look for a basin. I went back to
him and in the basin I saw little pieces of pineapple that we had for dinner
and then blood. I had to empty and wash the basin three times. The third time I
noticed a bloodclot. I was so tired and he told me he felt better or something
like that, so I went back to bed and fell asleep again.” FROM ALAN RONAY’S
ARTICLE “JIM AND I - FRIENDS UNTIL DEATH”
Remember,
in her statement to police Pamela had said that they had not eaten dinner
together.
ALAN RONAY: I received a phone call from Pam early that morning saying that Jim
was dead and I was with her almost all the time from then on. Pam didn’t speak
French and Robin Wertle, their secretary, was not in town that weekend, so we
were alone in the apartment most of the time. While Pam was in a shocked sort
of state for a while, she did recover within a few hours. I found her rather
remarkable. She was really a strong person. Though it completely devastated her,
in one sense she also showed enormous strength. PG. 459-460 BREAK ON THROUGH
On the
morning of
ALAN RONAY: “When I had awakened for the second time, I was sure I
heard the telephone ring. Outside the typical sounds of the market day could be
heard. I heard the thump of the mail that fell through the mail slot in the
doors. This meant it was
On the
phone was a Yoga teacher, whom Ronay had contacted on behalf of Jim Morrison.
After conversing for perhaps a minute or so they hung up. Then, according to
Ronay:
ALAN RONAY: “A few minutes later the phone rang again. It was Pam. She usually
spoke in a soft tone, but this time there was a note of fear.…’Jim’s
unconscious and bleeding! Call an ambulance! You know I don’t speak
French…Hurry up!’ Pam was sobbing. Then, she added ‘I think he’s dying!” FROM
ALAN RONAY’S ARTICLE “JIM AND I - FRIENDS UNTIL DEATH”
Because
Ronay was unfamiliar with the French phone system, he had Varda call an
ambulance to Morrison’s apartment. She could not get through immediately but
was successful after several tries.
We
believe that Pamela then called Max Fink, Morrison’s personal attorney, in
There
remains, of course, the question of precisely who actually called the Fire
Brigade. Pamela claimed that the firemen
were called for after Alan Ronay
arrived at the apartment, whereas
Ronay claimed originally that the firemen were already in attendance when he
arrived (Rocco 152). In April 1991 Alan Ronay shared details about what he
encountered upon his arrival in Morrison’s apartment.
ALAN RONAY: The third floor door was flung wide open. I saw Pam standing all
alone at the end of the entrance corridor, but I couldn’t see too well because
of a group of officials standing in the way. They moved out of the way when I
tried to reach Pam who told me that Jim was dead. “My Jim is dead, Alain, he left us, he’s
dead.” She added “I want to be alone now, please leave me alone”.
…He very courteously
replied that they were unable to do anything for him since they had arrived at
least an hour too late. FROM ALAN RONAY’S ARTICLE “JIM AND I - FRIENDS UNTIL
DEATH”
LEUTENANT ALAIN
RAISSON: This morning at 9:20am I went as
commander of my unit to 17 rue Beautrellis, Paris 4th, the third floor, right
hand side of the flat in answer to a report of ‘asphyxiation’. When we reached
the flat, the door was opened by a young woman who could not speak French and
who took us to the bathroom. In this room there was a man in the bath,
completely naked and heavily built. His head was above the water, resting on
the edge of the bath. The bath was full of water, slightly pink in color and
his right arm was resting on the side of the bath. The water was still
lukewarm, as well as the body. Together with my men, I took the body out and
laid it on the floor of the bedroom where I started giving heart massage but I
immediately realized that the victim was
dead and I had the boy placed on the bed. When I went into the bathroom there
was some water on the floor beside the bath and the dressing gown of the person
who opened the door to us was wet. A little blood ran down from his right
nostril when we laid the body on the floor. LT. ALAIN RAISSON’S OFFICIAL REPORT
DR. VASILLE: I note that the body does not show, apart from the lividity of
death, any signs of suspicious traumatism or lesions of any kind. A little
blood around the nostrils. DR. VASILLE’S OFFICIAL REPORT
Despite
the blood that ran from his nostril, and notwithstanding Pamela’s statement
that Morrison had coughed up blood clots, no autopsy was performed.
DR. VASILLE: The history of Mr. Morrison’s condition, such as it was described to
us by a friend present at the scene, can be summed up as follows: Mr. Morrison
had been complaining for a few weeks of chest pains with dyspnoea, it is
evidently coronary problems, possibly aggravated by excessive drinking. One can
imagine that on the occasion of a change of outside temperature, followed by a
bath, these troubles were suddenly aggravated, leading to a classical
myocardial infarction, causing sudden death. I conclude from my examination
that death was caused by heart failure (natural death).” DR. VASILLE’S OFFICIAL
REPORT
Although
the official cause of death as listed by French medical examiner Dr, Max
Vasille was heart failure”, Morrison was not known to have had any problems
with his heart.
DR. ARNOLD DERWIN: Jim was in excellent health before he went to
According to Ronay,
after Pamela Courson confided in him the events of the prior evening, he took a
short walk outside and then returned to the apartment. Moments after returning,
the doorbell rang and there were two men standing there.
ALAN RONAY: “I had hardly closed the door behind me when the two guys rang the
bell. The tall one introduced himself as Jean, the short one as Jean-Lois. They
asked for Pam. I explained to then that Pam couldn’t see anyone and I advised
calling her the next day...“Look, she was the one who called me”, Jean said
aggressively. “I know everything. I really do.”’ FROM ALAN RONAY’S ARTICLE “JIM
AND I - FRIENDS UNTIL DEATH”
According
to Ronay, Varda then appeared and the taller man introduced himself to her:
ALAN RONAY: As his opening line Jean immediately said “I lived with Pam for six
months…[Agnes] would have thrown them out right away if Pam hadn’t intervened
by calling Jean, telling him to come in.
…On the landing,
Jean told me that he was leaving for
Ronay
soon questioned Pamela about the heroin and other drugs.
ALAN RONAY: ‘“Pam, is there any stuff left in the house?’ I asked. ‘No’ she
immediately protested. ‘The first thing I did was to flush everything down the
toilet. There’s nothing left.’
‘Agnes just told me
that Jean [de Breteuil] found a hashish pipe under the carpet in the foyer.’” FROM
ALAN RONAY’S ARTICLE “JIM AND I - FRIENDS UNTIL DEATH”
ALBERT GOLDMAN: [Herve’ Muller] actually phoned [Morrison’s] apartment on the
morning of his death, only to be told by Alan Ronay that the couple had gone
out of town for the weekend. PG. 147 THE
DOORS COMPANION (ROCCO)
By the
time Siddons arrived on
BILL SIDDONS: Once, while alone in the living room, I opened a carved box on the
coffee table and found a white powder in a clear envelope. Pam was in the
kitchen, so I decided to try a little to see what it was. It wasn’t coke. Soon
afterward I became nauseous and felt very sick. It sure was something I’d never
tried before.” PG. 155 THE DOORS COMPANION (ROCCO)
MARIANNE FAITHFULL: [Jean de Breteuil and I] were staying at L’Hotel when he got a call
from Pamela Morrison and he had to leave very suddenly. “Jean, listen to me,” I
told him. “I’ve got to meet Jim Morrison.” “Not possible, baby. Not cool right
now, okay?” “You’re an idiot and a fucking prig!” “Not now. Je t’explique
later, okay? Be right back.” He slammed out of the room. But he didn’t come right back. He returned in the
early hours of the morning in a very agitated state and woke me up. ..I lit a
cigarette and asked him: “So, did you have a good time over there?”...”Get
packed.” “Are we going somewhere?” “
Based on Faithfull’s
timeline, Jean de Breteuil was called away and spent some time before returning
in the early hours of the morning. Also according to her, she did not accompany
him and never went to the apartment.
MARIANNE FAITHFULL: I think I’d remember something like that. I never even met Jim
Morrison. PG. 459 BREAK ON THROUGH
DIANE GARDINER: It’s ridiculous. Pam would’ve told me if the count and Marianne
Faithful were involved. I don’t think that she’d be that detailed in making
anything up about finding him and then talking and talking to him. “Oh c’mon
Jim” she said she kept saying. “You know the way he always had that smile” she
told me. When she realized he was dead she didn’t know what to do so she packed
his body in ice. She got blocks of ice and packed them all around his body PG.
459 BREAK ON THROUGH
Alan Ronay’s story
also places the time in the early morning:
ALAN RONAY: Early the next morning...I woke up with a start with the sensation
that the telephone was ringing. Since I was a guest [of Agnes Vardas’] I never
answered. But I wasn’t sure it was the telephone in the wing of the apartment
where Agnes was slept that was ringing. I hurried across to the living
room...Light was coming in from the garden. It must have been around
The call was from Monique Godard,
a yoga teacher and spiritual healer offering to accept Pamela Courson as a
patient. The conversed for several minutes and then bid each other goodbye.
Then, at approximately
...A few minutes later the phone
rang again. It was Pam [Courson]. She usually spoke in a soft tone of voice,
but this time there was a note of fear...”Jim’s unconscious and bleeding! Call
an ambulance! You know I don’t speak French...Hurry up!” Pam was sobbing. Then,
she added, “I think he’s dying!” FROM ALAN RONAY’S ARTICLE “JIM AND I - FRIENDS
UNTIL DEATH”
ROGER STEFFANS: …I know the people who found his body. One of the people was
Marianne Faithfull, and it’s amazing to me that she has never come out in
public and talked about it. To make a long story very short, I was living in
Marrakesh at the time; a man who is mentioned in [“No One Here Gets Out Alive”]
a great deal, a French count, his name was Jean de Breteuil, was one of
Pamela’s lovers – Morrison’s old lady’s lovers – and when they were all in Paris
together, Pam called Jean and Marianne and said ‘Jim is in the bathroom, the
door is locked, I can’t get him out, will you come over immediately?’ The story
they told me two days later was that they had broken down the door and found
Jim dead in the bathtub. They flew the next morning to
Author’s
note: There is no report by any authority that the bathroom door was found to
be in a state of disrepair, and certainly none that it had been “broken down”.
DIANE GARDINER: [Jim] would never inject himself. PG. 458 BREAK ON THROUGH
PATRICIA KENNEALY – Jim was not a junkie. He scorned skag and those used it (yes, even
Pam), only very exceptional circumstances
- such depression as was evident in his letters to me, perhaps, combined
with Pam pushing it on him, or maybe just one what-the-hell mood too many –
could have made him try it. If he did, which I still do not know for sure, it
would have been a onetime thing, not anything habitual...PG. 339 STRANGE DAYS
KATHY LISCIANDRO: Of course he didn’t O.D. No chance”. PG. 113 THE DOORS COMPANION (ROCCO)
The
official death certificate states that the cause of death was “heart failure”,
and many reputable publications took this as gospel:
And yet
a number of other respected publications claim that Morrison died of a “heart
attack”, which is indeed quite different.
NEWSWEEK: “Police listed a heart attack as the cause after
Morrison was found dead in the bathtub of his apartment in
TIME MAGAZINE: “Although Morrison at times drank heavily, he did not have a
reputation as a drug user, and he died of a heart attack.”
ALAN RONAY: “Pam took off the fur coat and quietly finished her work of research
and destruction.” FROM ALAN RONAY’S ARTICLE “JIM AND I - FRIENDS UNTIL DEATH”
Q. Why was there no autopsy performed?
LINDA ASHCROFT : Pamela was adamant about not wanting an autopsy. She insisted fans
would carry away parts of Jim’s body. PG. 494
WILD CHILD
BILL SIDDONS: Just because we didn’t want to do it that way. We wanted to leave
Jim alone. He died in peace and dignity.” PG. 369 NO ONE HERE GETS OUT ALIVE
JAMES RIORDAN/JERRY
PROCHNICKY: Further investigation has
disclosed that not one but two doctors came to the apartment to examine Jim
Morrison’s body. The first doctor was someone brought in by Pam and Alan Ronay
to sign the death certificate without asking a lot of questions so that when
the police were called there would be no need for an examination. Without an
official death certificate the police doctor would have requested an autopsy
under the circumstances, but once the cause of death had been determined no
further examination needed to take place. PG. 460 BREAK ON THROUGH
Q. WHAT WERE THE EVENTS OF THE DAYS
IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING MORRISON’S DEATH?
JAMES RIORDAN/JERRY
PROCHNICKY: By Sunday morning there were
rumors all over Paris that Jim Morrison had died sometime over the weekend, but
when reporters called Pam’s flat, they reported being told that Morrison was
“not dead but very tired and resting in a hospital.” PG. 453 BREAK ON THROUGH
On July
5th, 1971, a journalist for the NME reached Pamela Courson to
confirm rumors he had heard that Morrison had died in
On the
strength of their conversation with Courson, as late as July 10th
(two days after Siddon’s press release) the NME continued to hold that Morrison
had not really died but rather was holed up somewhere in private.
RAINER MODDEMANN: On the morning of 5th July, an undertaker laid out Jim Morrison's
body in a veneered coffin in the bedroom of the apartment, all according to
Pamela's wishes...to counteract the decay of the body, dry ice was added, and
the coffin was sealed with screws. FROM RAINER MODDEMANN’S “QUIET DAYS IN
PATRICIA BUTLER: By the time all the necessary arrangements had been made, Jim’s body
had been in the apartment for three full days. Because it was July and the
apartment had no air conditioning, the body had been packed in dry ice, which was
delivered to the apartment in great chunks several times over the weekend, to
help delay decomposition. The man delivering the ice warned that the summer
heat would soon make the situation untenable, and particularly discouraged
Pamela from lingering near the body. But the iceman’s warnings couldn’t
possibly dissuade Pamela from spending as much time as possible with Jim,
holding his hand, talking to him, and spending the night next to him PG. 179 -
181 ANGELS DANCE AND ANGELS DIE
BILL SIDDONS: “I finally got Pamela on the phone around
BILL SIDDONS: It was
According to
BILL SIDDONS: [Pamela] sounded upset, so I pressed her a bit…You see, she
perceived the other three Doors as enemies who were keeping Jim from doing what
he really wanted and she considered me part o that circle…I said ‘Look, I’m
calling as a friend, not as a business representative. I don’t want to do
anything but help you. If there’s anything happening I want to know so I can
help. Tell me, please, the truth – is Jim alive or dead?’ She started to cry,
so I told her I was taking the next plane to
The
version told in NO ONE HERE GETS OUT A LIVE differs slightly, in that the claim
is “Pamela answered the phone and told Bill he’d better come right over, as if
Bill only had to travel around the corner. “
After
booking his flight reservation, Siddons called Ray Manzarek, who pressed him to
make sure that this was not just another rumor.
BILL SIDDONS: I went over to the apartment
right away. PG. 454 BREAK ON THROUGH
PATRICIA BUTLER: Siddons arrived in
BILL SIDDONS: Pam was awake and sitting with Robin (Wertle, who was her an Jim’s
secretarial assistant and a fluent French speaker. Neither Jim nor Pam knew any
French. I talked to them for a long time and they confirmed that yes, Jim had
died a couple of days earlier. Pam said that she and Jim had been out for the
evening and had come home. She went to bed and Jim decided to take a bath. She
got up four hours later and found that Jim had died in the bathtub. By the time
I got there the authorities had already been by, put Jim in a casket which was
still in the apartment, and filed a death certificate that said Jim had died of
a heart attack. It was some sort of heart failure complicated by a lung
infection. Blood probably collected from a clot and worked its way up the chest
and blocked a heart valve. And that
caused the heart attack. Jim was very strong but he pushed himself to the
limits. PG. 454 BREAK ON THROUGH
RAINER MODDEMANN: Eventually the rumors reached
RAY MANZAREK: "The telephone rang early in the morning. It was Bill, and he
said that Jim had possibly died. I said that there had often been rumors such
as that before in the past, and that I couldn't believe it without any proof.
However, Bill said that this time it was probably true though, and that he had
already booked his flight to
FRANK LISCIANDRO: "It was July 4th that we heard the news. Babe Hill, probably
Jim's closest friend, was at our apartment, and we were intending to have a
meal on this big American celebration day. Then came the call from Bill Siddons
who told us the news. He talked to Babe, he talked to me, then to Kathy. I was
shocked beyond comprehension. Sometimes you don't internalize news very
quickly, you have the information but not the body reactions to the
information. The emotional and spiritual reaction to the information. That just
developed after a period of time. I was just shocked, speechless."
FROM RAINER MODDEMANN’S “QUIET DAYS IN
Q. What DETAILS do we HAVE about the burial of Jim
Morrison?
Alan
Ronay admits to having reversed Jim Morrison’s first and middle names so as to
throw off the authorities. Ronay allegedly did this in an effort to prevent the
paparazzi from getting involved and making the event more complicated and
difficult than it already was.
ALAN RONAY: “I just gave Jim’s name backwards. I mean I put
BILL SIDDONS: We wanted to avoid all the notoriety and circus-like atmosphere that
surrounded the deaths of Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin…so Robin and I got
together and tried to figure out how to get Jim in the ground without notifying
the media. Basically, we didn’t tell anyone. The police knew, of course, but
some French friends of ours somehow managed to prevent the news from hitting
the police blotters for about three days. Robin and I went down to the funeral
home and arranged for Jim’s burial. We wired for money from the states, paid
for it right there, and bought a gravestone which never appeared, for reasons
I’ll never quite understand. Perhaps it was the language barrier. PG. 454-455 BREAK ON THROUGH
ALAN RONAY: I got him into Pere Lachaise. There are no spaces left and at the
time getting a foreigner buried there was not a particularly easy thing to do.
While I can’t reveal the details, it didn’t prove to be an enormous hurdle,
though, and I was even able to choose between two spaces. PG. 460 BREAK ON
THROUGH
BILL SIDDONS: There were just a few of us at the gravesite. A truck carrying Jim’s
casket drove up to the grave…there was no real service and that made it all the
better. We threw flowers on the grave, said our goodbyes, and that was it. We
got him buried without publicity and sensationalism which I’m sure is the way
Jim would have wanted it. And we buried him where he wanted to be. That
afternoon I flew back to
Here’s what we know
about the actual burial.
Morrison’s
burial occurred at
Pamela
spoke a few words to or about Morrison, her voice so low as to be barely
audible, with no one who was present understanding what she’d said. The parties
apparently tossed some flowers on the grave and quickly departed.
JERRY HOPKINS/DANNY
SUGERMAN: Five mourners were present:
Pamela, Siddons, Alan Ronay, Agnes Varda and Robin Wertle. PG 367 NO ONE HERE GETS OUT ALIVE
PATRICIA BUTLER: Attending at the graveside were Pamela, Bill, Alain, Robin, Agnes
and a friend Agnes had brought along. Included with the funeral package was a
group of “wailers” who accompanied the small funeral procession. As the civil
service was being conducted, these professional mourners, dressed in black and
draped in veils, seemed consumed by abject grief, rocking back and forth,
moaning, wailing, sobbing. Later, Pamela told her mother “I almost wanted to
giggle, it was so absurd. I just knew Jim would’ve gotten the biggest kick out
of that!” PG. 183 ANGELS DANCE AND
ANGELS DIE
Other
than the aforementioned, there was but a single witness to the event: a French
woman by the name of Madame Colinette. In an interview with Rainer Moddemann,
Publisher of The Doors Quarterly, she said:
MADAME COLINETTE: “Everything was done in a hurry. No priest was
present, everybody left quickly. The whole scene was piteous and miserable.” FROM ALAN RONAY’S ARTICLE “JIM AND I - FRIENDS
UNTIL DEATH”
Recounting
everything about the funeral that she had come to learn, Patricia Kennealy
stated:
PATRICIA KENNEALY: The entire burial…took only eight minutes. Two bearers brought the
casket to the site; the attendees (Pam and her merry band, whom I refuse to
dignify with the honorable title of “mourners”) were all dressed in
light-colored clothes, and the impression received by Mme. Colinette, to her
horror, was they the couldn’t get him into the ground and get themselves out of
there fast enough…there was no priest, no service, no private prayers, no
flowers even. [Madame Colinette] goes on
to say that she felt so moved and distressed by the lack of respect and love
shown Jim (of whose identity she was completely unaware) that, after waiting an
hour or so to see if anyone returned, finally realizing no one would (they
never did), she herself went over to Jim’s newly-filled gravemound and left a
single flower upon it.
…The casket (not the
white-oak number alleged in other accounts, but little better than plywood;
Mme. Colinette says she has never seen a
cheaper, shoddier coffin than the one Pam put Jim in) cost all of 366 francs.
And the entire cost of the funeral…was…878 francs. A franc, back then, was
about five to the dollar.” www.lizardqueen.com
RAINER MODDEMANN: [Pamela] for unknown reasons, had chosen the cheapest coffin the
undertaker offered, a so-called cercueil chˆne verni for just 366 (old)
Francs.... The total costs of the funeral were just 878 (old) French Francs...
On 6th July he and Pamela went to Père Lachaise and purchased a double grave
for 4,600 (old) French francs with an indefinite time limit, which, in this
case, means 30 years. FROM RAINER MODDEMANN’S
“QUIET DAYS IN
In other
words, the coffin cost approximately $73.00 US dollars, and the funeral itself
ran approximately $176.00 US dollars.
On
BILL SIDDONS: …I can say that Jim Morrison died peacefully of natural causes – he
had been in
Q. How did The DoorS and
MORRISON’S FAMILY AND FRIENDS find out about HIs presumed death, and how did
they react?
Three weeks after speaking with Morrison on
the phone, Densmore was notified of his death by Robby Krieger.
JOHN DENSMORE: “Jim’s dead,” Robby said to me as I entered The Doors’ office in
“I got a call from Bill [Siddons]
last night” Ray said as he sat down next to me. “He said the European branch of
the record company called and said Jim had died. He doesn’t have any details.”
In his most avuncular manner, Ray went on to say that he had taken the liberty
of telling Bill Siddons, our manager, to get on the next plane to Paris to
check it out and call the minute he had more information. PGS. 8-9
RIDERS ON THE STORM
RAY MANZAREK: I got a phone call from this guy who was, ostensibly., our manager.
Actually, he was our roadie and we promoted him to phone answerer, but wouldn’t
you know it , it went to his head...”Ray, I got some bad news. I just got a
phone call from
Manzarek was
understandably skeptical, as there had been numerous reports of Morrison’s demise
previously.
RAY MANZAREK: So when Siddons told me our singer was dead again, I didn’t believe
him...I thought about how ridiculous it all seemed that night and decided to
dismiss the whole thing – treat it like a thousand other half-cocked legends
I’d heard before...And I sure as hell wasn’t going to Paris...”I think it’s
serious this time, Ray,” Bill said...”I tell you what,” I said. “There’s a
Three days later, he did call. “We
just buried Jim Morrison,” [Siddons] said...”It’s true this time, Ray.” “How
could that be? What...what happened? I mean, was he hit by a car, or was he in
an accident? Or did a fucking building fall on him?”...I was pissed. “We don’t
know.” “...or was he murdered, for cri-sake? Did somebody shoot him, or stab
him to death?” “I don’t know, Ray.” “Ass hole, what do you mean you don’t
know?” “It was none of those things. He just...died.” “Jesus Christ.” I tried
to let that sink in. It didn’t computer. “What?! Where?” “In his apartment. In
the bathtub.” “Did somebody try to drown him or something?” “No,” Bill said.
“The doctor’s certificate says something like ‘his heart stopped.’ It’s all in
French, and I can’t read it. “Oh man, Well, how did he look?” “I don’t know,
Ray.”...And then he drops another bomb on me. “I don’t know. I never saw his
body.” “How could you not see his body?”...”It was a sealed coffin.” “You’re
telling me you never saw Jim’s body? Why didn’t you open the coffin?” I was
livid. His voice got quavery. “I couldn’t.” “Why didn’t you demand to see it?
Why didn’t you say “Let me see Jim Morrison. I’m the Manager and I have to see
his body!” Why didn’t you do that?”...”I was afraid,” he said. “So you buried a
coffin?” “That’s right, Ray. We buried him this morning. “How do you even know
he was in the coffin?” I raged at him. “How do you know it wasn’t one hundred
and fifty pounds of fucking sand?” “Well, uhh, Pam was all broke up, crying and
everything. And, uhh, I mean...he was in there. I know.”...”Bill, I told you to
make sure. And you don’t know squat...You buried a sealed coffin, man. We’ll
never know the real truth now. It’s all gonna be stories and rumors from here
on out.”...I just hung up the phone. There was nothing else to say. I later
found out that Agnes Varda, Alain Ronay, Pam and Siddons were the only ones
there. PGS. 15-17 LIGHT MY FIRE
Q. DID PAMELA EVER ADMIT TO GREATER INVOLVEMENT IN, OR
RESPONSIBILITY FOR, JIM MORRION’S DEATH?
LINDA ASHCROFT : “Baby’s dead,” Pamela Courson’s voice, then silence. My first
thought was ‘she killed him!’...”What happened” I asked, twitching like
electricity had been shot through my body. “He OD’d” she said. “That’s not
possible” I argued. “He’d been drinking, just a few drinks the evening before
and when we got to our flat, we had an argument. Just a tiff”, she assured me.
“He caught me snigging and he did some heroin too...” I interrupted. “You mean
cocaine?’ “He thought it was...” she said quickly. And he got sick and wanted
to take a bath because he felt hot.” That didn’t sound much like Jim....She
went on, “I went out...when I saw he wasn’t in bed, I went to check on him. He
was still in the bathtub. I told him to get his shriveled ass to bed, but he
was asleep. I couldn’t wake him. I couldn’t lift him out of the tub.” When she
paused for a breath I jumped in. “What did the doctor say?” “There wasn’t one.”
...”How do you know he’s dead?” I asked near hysteria. I snapped orders at her.
Go to him. Pull the plug. Get in the tub. Resuscitate him! “Oh,” she cried. “I
did that. I called the fire department. They said he was dead. They said there
was nothing I could have done. He was gone.”...”Could you think of a story?”
she asked in her little girl voice. She complimented my intelligence. “I don’t
want people to think he died like Jimi and Janis. I want him to be remembered
as a writer, like Hemmingway.” PGS. 492 – 493
WILD CHILD
LINDA ASHCROFT : So I asked aloud over whatever [Pamela] was saying, “Is Jim really
dead?” Silence on her end....The longer the silence the more I hoped there was
hope. “He’s really dead” she said at last, sobbing. “I was there.” “What
happened?” I asked. “Another time”, she answered. PGS. 502-503 WILD CHILD
JOHN DENSMORE: “Danny Sugerman recently said that he was around Pam after [Jim
Morrison’s] death and she felt terribly guilty because it was her stash.” PG. 291 RIDERS
ON THE STORM
GILLES YEPREMIAN: “Herve’ (Muller) and I met a girl several months later, her
boyfriend was in jail, and this girl was called Nicole. She told everyone it
was her boyfriend who sold the drug to Jim. But who knows. It is very hard to
believe what a pusher says.” INTERVIEW WITH RAINER MODDEMANN
FOR DOORS QUARTERLY, APRIL 1993
JOHN DENSMORE: “Paul Rothchild said that after Pam returned to
the
LINDA ASHCROFT : “He was so depressed,” Pamela sighed. I’m afraid he killed
himself”...”I spoke to him Wednesday, Pam. He wasn’t suicidal,” I said.... PG. 493 WILD CHILD
DANNY SUGERMAN: “You don’t get it, do you? [Pamela said to Sugerman]. I killed him.
It was my dope”....Pamela took a deep breath and let it out. ..”He’d never done
it before and I gave it to him. Then he said he didn’t feel well, that he was
going to take a bath. I should’ve gone in and checked on him but I nodded out.
I didn’t think it would hurt him” she said, sounding full of remorse.... “When
I woke up at dawn”, she continued, “I went in the bathroom and there he was in
the tub. You know cute little boyish smile he had that was so serene? He was
smiling like that and I thought he was putting me on. Then that’s when I
freaked out and called Bill.” And you only told Bill the part of the story from
Jim telling you he didn’t feel well and going to take a bath?” I asked her. She
nodded in the affirmative. PG. 251 WONDERLAND AVENUE
LINDA ASHCROFT : “Jim recently told me,” she said, “that he trusted you more than
anyone else on earth...Will you support me if I can get a doctor to say that he
died of natural causes?”...”What doctor would do that?” I asked bluntly, too
shocked to couch it more politely. “I thought I might pay someone,” she
suggested, but was concerned about money and went on at length about her
straits...Not knowing if it was the moral thing to do, I said softly “Just so
you don’t say it was suicide.” PG. 494
WILD CHILD
LINDA ASHCROFT : “I killed Jim” she said quietly...He told me the Thursday before he
died that he was leaving [Pamela and going to
LINDA ASHCROFT : Are you going to call the police?”...For the half hour wait for the
plane to
LINDA ASHCROFT : “My condition is that you tell me exactly what happened.” Each time
she told the story she came closer to the truth. “Don’t try to protect
yourself. You told me you were telling people Jim was depressed. Like you were
planning this. That you were going to kill Jim and say he committed suicide.” I
meant to ask every question I had. “No. No. I just didn’t want people to know
Jim was leaving me. It was a horrible accident. I told you. Truly. Except,
well, we didn’t go out. He went out alone. He’d had a bottle of wine. He said
he wasn’t going to drink hard stuff anymore. How many times did he say that? He
was an alcoholic. He would have died from that eventually.” “His doctor told
him his liver was in fine shape. Jim certainly had more time with his drinking,
and time to do something about it, than you gave him.” “Jim always said you
were so nice” she said bitterly. “I always thought you were too. You aren’t
being very nice.” “Don’t expect me to be nice, Pam. I’ve never hated anyone
before. Whatever I do is for Jim, not for you. What was the bathtub story?”
“Well, you see, I ran out and called my friend Jean de Breteuil. I knew he’d
help.” Why didn’t you call from your
apartment? Why didn’t you call a doctor? How many times did Jim call a doctor
for you?” I asked in a voice more bitter than hers. “I know. I know. I wasn’t
thinking straight. I was high. I can’t speak French. And...and I was afraid
they’d trace the call to me.” Truth at last. “You were alone with Jim? This
Jean didn’t force anything on Jim?” “Jim and I were alone. You can ask Marianne
Faithfull. When I called Jean she was with him. “Why didn’t Jean call an
ambulance? Sounds like he could speak French.” Jean said if we involved a
doctor or the cops that we could be charged with murder because he had supplied
the heroin and I was there when Jim took it.” “Why didn’t you tell him it was
heroin?” “Well, he was so mad about my still using it. I didn’t want him to be
mad at me.” I was scribbling everything we said on the phone pad. “You would
rather he died?” “No. No. I honestly didn’t know that would happen. Cross my
heart.”...”Was Jim alive when you got back to the flat?” “No, I swear.” “Why
this lie about Jim dying in the bathtub?” “I knew you didn’t believe that. It
seemed peaceful. That he sort of drifted away.” I didn’t like the hard and flat
sound of my voice. “Instead of dying in pain.” “Do you think he was in pain?”
“Pamela, you said that he clutched his chest.” “I don’t like to think about
that. Jean figured out that if we put Jim in a hot bathtub, it would change the
time of death, so he could get out of
DANNY SUGERMAN: [Discussing a meeting he had with Pam a year or so after Morrison’s
death]: She was very distraught and so vulnerable. If you doubted Jim’s being
dead all you had to do was see the condition Pamela was in. The she started
telling me something about Jim’s death being her fault and that he had found
out she was doing heroin and “You know Jim, of course he wanted to try it”.
Then she looked at me and said “It was my stash – Jim didn’t know how to score.
He knew how to drink.’ She said that later he didn’t feel well and decided to
take a bath and she nodded out. But when I pressed her for details she suddenly
denied the whole thing. Later, she extracted a promise from me never to say anything
to Jerry Hopkins who wanted to interview her for his book. PGS. 458-459 BREAK ON THROUGH
PAMELA
COURSON: “Of
course, I’m the one who keeps it.” FROM ALAN
RONAY’S ARTICLE “JIM AND I - FRIENDS UNTIL DEATH”
ANNONYMOUS: On the night of
DIANE GARDINER: [When confronted with information that an anonymous person claims
Morrison OD’d on Courson’s heroin] Pamela told me a lot about Jim’s death. It’s
true that he got into some of Pam’s drugs and overdosed, but I don’t think Pam
tried to cover it up. She was so…for a log time she didn’t even think he was
dead. You know Jim’s weird sense of humor. She just kept thinking he was
playing dead in the bathtub. She talked to his corpse for so long before it
finally even sunk in. The was her state of mind. She was just starkers. I don’t
think she was capable of any conscious cover-up. PG. 458 BREAK ON THROUGH
POSTSCRIPTS FROM INVOLVED PARTIES
PAUL ROTHCHILD –- Like Sugerman's trying to keep going the myth that Jim might still
be alive! That is pure, total, unmitigated BULLSHIT! If Danny had sat where
you're sitting and listened to Pam after she came back from Paris, he wouldn't
be trying to perpetuate this myth - and that's what it is. Pam and I were very
dear friends. She sat on this sofa night after night and she'd cry, with the
DEEPEST grief, over the loss of Jim. Night after night. It became a mania for
her. She eventually gave up her life because of her love for Jim. Now Ray is
quoted in the book as saying that "none of the Doors saw Jim in the
casket, so who knows?" That's Ray trying to maintain the myth. The Doors
may not have seen Jim dead, but Pam sure as hell did. I saw Pam, in my house
DEVASTATED by her grief. Let me tell you, Jim Morrison IS dead. BAM MAGAZINE –
DIANE GARDINER: Pam found the notebook [containing Morrison’s last words] the next
day [the day after Morrison died]. He’d written “Last words, last words…out.” PG.
458 BREAK ON THROUGH
LINDA ASHCROFT: When Jim went to Morocco, he sent me a postcard with stick figures
lined up (as in a family photograph he had fondly admired) in lieu of a written
message...A long letter followed in which he detailed an opera...He wrote about
searching for a tutor to teach him the wonders of musical composition, because,
he admitted, he misunderstood what a downbeat was and had explained it to me
wrong. ...It was the last day of June. Jim’s calls were infrequent, but long. PGS.
486-487
WILD CHILD
LINDA ASHCROFT : Jim had intentionally annoyed Rothchild into quitting as Producer
for the new album. After a taste of control on Morrison Hotel, he wanted more.
PG. 461 WILD CHILD
PATRICIA BUTLER: He had filled a similar prescription for asthma medication at a
pharmacy in
Although
Lt. Alain Raisson’s Fire Brigade arrived on the scene first, his report was not
filed until
JACQUES MANCHEZ: We are informed by the local police that the police emergency
services bus of the 4th district went today at 9:25am to 17 rue
Beautreillis in Paris 4th Arondissement, staircase A, third floor
flat on the right hand side. The tenant of the flat, Mr. MORRISON, James aged
28, was found dead in the bath by his concubine, Miss COURSON, Pamela. We are
reporting to the head of the department who has asked us to proceed with an
enquiry.
(signed) Jacques
Manchez,
Police Officer
We are going to rue
Beautreillis in
The fire chief
informs us that he took the body of Mr. MORRISON, the tenant of the flat, from
the bath, and that his body was placed on the bed in the bedroom after having
tried, without success, to resuscitate him by heart massage.
We then go to the
bedroom where we find the body of a young man, quite heavily built, lying on
the bed. The body is covered by a bedspread which we removed; he is lying on
his back, completely naked, with his arms by his sides. His eyes are half
closed and his mouth is slightly open, a trickle of blood coming from his right
nostril and his left nostril obstructed by a clot. The body is still supple and
bears no trace of traumatism or lesions of any kind.
We do not notice any
signs of disorder in the room where we are. Continuing on with our observations
we go to the bathroom where we find the bath in which Mr. MORRISON’s body lay
before it was taken to the bed by the firemen. This room is connected with the
bedroom by a secondary corridor which also leads to the kitchen. The bath is
situated on the left hand side in front of a bidet, on the right hand side
there is a wash basin and a little cabinet. The outside dimensions of the bath
are 1 metre 50 x 65 centimetres, inside the bath there is still some slightly
pink coloured water. The bath is 35 cms. Deep and the water is 19 cms. Deep.
The water is still lukewarm. On the floor next to the cabinet we notice a
container, yellow/orange in colour and empty. We leave this room to go to the
lounge where we find three people. Two women and a man, they are all
America; a policeman tells us that it is
Pamela COURSON, Mr. MORRISON’s girlfriend with whom he lived, Mr. Alain RONAY,
compatriot and friend of the MORRISON – COURSON couple and Ms. Agnes DEMY, Mr.
RONAY’s concubine.
In questioning Mr.
RONAY, WHO IS THE ONLY ONE TO SPEAK French, he tells us verbally, that this
morning between 8:30 and 9:00am, he didn’t know exactly, he received a call at
his home, 86, rue Daguerre, Paris, 14th, from Miss COURSON asking
him to come straight away as her friend MORRISON had fainted in the bath and
that she could not call the doctor herself as she was unable to speak French.
Mr. RONAY came immediately, accompanied by his girlfriend, Miss DEMY and when
he saw his friend MORRISON unconscious in the bath, he called he fire brigade.
Through Mr. RONAY,
Miss COURSON tells us that her friend got up this morning around
We request Ms.
COURSON and Mr. RONAY to attend a hearing.
(Signed)
Police Officer
Jacques Manchez
Lt.
Alain Raisson and the Fire Brigade had arrived shortly before the police (note
also the postscript about Pamela Courson’s gown being wet):
LT. ALAIN RAISSON:
"This morning at
(N.B.: When I went into the bathroom, there was some water on the floor beside
the bath and the dressing gown of the person who opened the door to us was
wet.)
(N.B.: A little blood ran down from his right nostril when we laid the body on
the floor.)
(signed) Manchez, Jacques,
(signed) Raisson, Alain.
To the
best of our knowledge the next to arrive on the scene were the Parisian police.
Police Superintendent Robert Berry, following standard protocol, submitted his
report to the State Prosecutor, as follows:
ROBERT BERRY: I have the honour to send a diligent account of the proceedings
according to my investigation concerning the death of the named: MORRISON,
James Douglas, born on 8th December, 1943, at Clearwater (Florida,
U.S.A), an American writer living since March 1971 at 17 Rue Beautreillis,
Paris 4th Arrondissement, Home address 851a Santa Monica Blvd., Los
Angeles (California) 90069.
“On July 3rd
between 8:30 am and 9:00am Miss Pamela COURSON – MR. MORRISON’S concubine –
noticed that her boyfriend who had got up in the middle of the night,
apparently around 4 o’clock in order to have a bath, had not returned to bed.
Miss COURSON went to the bathroom and saw that Mr. MORRISON was in the bath
unconscious, with his head above the water and resting on the side of the bath.
Miss COURSON, who does not speak French, telephoned a couple of compatriots and
friends, Mr. RONAY and his girlfriend Miss DEMY, temporarily in Paris at 86 Rue
Daguerre, who came straight away and called the Fire Brigade and Police.
The Fire Brigade men
took Mr. MORRISON’s body out of the bath, the water of which was still
lukewarm, and tried to massage his heart, without any success. Enquiries
brought to light that Mr. MORRISON had been feeling faint in the middle of the
night; according to his concubine he was breathing with difficulty and decided
to have a hot bath. According to Miss COURSON’s statement he started vomiting
and she collected this vomit in a container which she rinsed afterwards before
going back to bed, thinking that the vomiting would have helped and that he
would return to bed after his bath. She went back to sleep. Nothing suspicious
was noticed on the spot either in the flat or on the body, which bore no trace
of blows, lesions or needle marks.
Dr. Vasille
conducted the medical examination and concluded that death was by natural
causes due to heart failure, which could have been caused by a change of
temperature, following a bath, causing the classical “myocardial infarction”, a
case of sudden death.
It is significant
that Mr. RONAY and Miss COURSON had already noticed the Mr. MORRISON had been
suffering from respiratory problems for several months and that he looked
unwell. Despite the advice given to him, Mr. MORRISON had always refused to see
a doctor.
Consequently, I
submit your burial certificate. The body is at 17, Rue Beautreillis. Miss
COURSON and Mr. RONAY wish to organize the funeral arrangements.
The Superintendent
R. Berry
Jacques
Manchez worked for the Criminal Investigations Department and, in addition to
submitting his personal report earlier in the morning, was also the person to
whom Pamela Courson gave her official statement from 3:40pm to 6:40pm (Alain
Ronay acted as Translator):
|
PAMELA COURSON:
1.
Pamela Susan COURSON,
born 22nd December 1946 at Weed, 8. I don't know how
long I slept. I awoke with a start and I saw that my friend wasn't lying next
to me. I ran to the bathroom and saw that my friend was still in the bath, a
little blood was running from his nostril. I shook my friend, thinking he
would wake up. I thought he had fainted and was unconscious. I tried to get
him out of the bath but I couldn't. Then I phoned up Mr. RONAY. He came with
his girlfriend, Miss Agnes DEMY, and they called, I think, the Fire Brigade
or the Police. Ten minutes
after Pamela Courson finished giving her statement to the police, at ALAIN RONAY:
Born I have known Mr. MORRISON
since 1963, he was one of my friends. Mr. MORRISON came to see me in London
on the 5th June last month, when I was on holiday there. He was
with Miss COURSON. I knew that my friend had been living with Miss COURSON
for several years. This morning around N.B.: My friend MORRISON
was a heavy drinker but he couldn’t really take alcohol. N.B. I am sure that my
friend didn’t use drugs. He often talked about how foolish it was of young
people to take drugs and regarded this as a very serious problem. I was with Mr. MORRISON,
the whole of yesterday afternoon and I left him around I am going to organize the funeral
arrangements with Miss COURSON. (signed) Jacques Manchez, (signed) Alain Ronay BILL SIDDONS: The initial news of his
death and funeral was kept quiet because those of us who knew him intimately
and loved him as a person wanted to avoid all the notoriety and circus-like
atmosphere that surrounded the deaths of Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix."
Siddons, 23, made the statement
on his return from Paris, where he, Pamela, and three friends had attended
the burial, at Pere Lachaise cemetery. So far, no marker has been erected,
and Siddons said there would be no services in "The whole reason I went to
"There was no service, and
that made it all the better. We just threw some flowers and dirt and said
goodbye." There was also no autopsy,
"Just because we didn't want to do it that way. We wanted to leave him
alone. He died in peace and dignity." Rolling Stone Magazine |
RAY MANZAREK: We don’t know what happened to Jim Morrison in