The Final Times of Jim Morrison By Edward Sanders
Feb 12, 2021 10:36:42 GMT -5
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Post by balthazar on Feb 12, 2021 10:36:42 GMT -5
In a way he was an American Rock and Roll Bacchus Link to the poem - www.woodstockjournal.com/pdf/Morrison%27sFinalMonths.pdf
In another he was a canny performer
who used his musical/literary abilities
to please and rouse up a Rebellious Generation
He was apparently inspired by repeated watchings of
the Living Theater’s Paradise Now
in Los Angeles & San Francisco
in Feb of ’69
where the Theater appeared in a near nude mode
on stage
making Morrison consider trying it himself
March 1, 1969, at a Mad-with-Bacchus concert
in Miami
the pud-flash
which caused him much Bacchic trouble
worthy of Euripides
(there’s a question as to whether
he actually did it
several books indicate a Doors crewman
prevented the actual flash)
Flash or not, in a few days a warrant for Jim’s arrest
for pud-dangle
in front of an audience
Forward to 1970
according to Tony Sanchez’s Up and Down with the Rolling Stones
(try around page 213)
Marianne Faithfull and Mick Jagger
parted ways in May of ’70
He told her he was moving to France
because of tax reasons
From early 1964, when she was 17
till the spring six years later
she and Mick Jagger
had had an, uh, turbulent relationship
But now she said she was not going to accompany him
and left 48 Cheyne Walk in London’s
Chelsea District
which she had shared with Jagger since 1968
(Dante Gabriel Rossetti, & Algernon Swinburne
had lived in 16 Cheyne Walk in 1862)
In July of ’70 Pamela Courson, a long time
confidante, friend and lover of Morrison
was living with Jean de Breteuil
at his family’s villa in Marrakesh
at least for a few days
but moved with Jean back to Los Angeles
by the end of the month
where the Count
pushed his heavy-duty possibly uncut horse
upon his “celebrity” pals
(The Doors back in early ’66
had been the house band at a place in L.A.
called the London Fog
a 19 year old redhead from California named Pamela Courson
came to a show
and then another show
& in the coming weeks
struck a friendship with Jim
and a loveship
which lasted over five years)
Jimi
September 18, 1970
the great Jimi Hendrix
choked on his stomach flow
& passed away in London
after too much Too Much
de Breteuil’s Heroin
Jim’s long time girl friend Pamela Courson
in early fall of ’70
was now hooked on heroin
and living in L.A. with young count Jean de Breteuil
in the country illegally
and selling junk to young celebrities
De Breteuil’s family allegedly owned all the French-language
newspapers in North Africa, & after his father had passed away
a few years earlier, Jean inherited the title Comte de Breteuil
a line of counts oozing back 700 years
September 20, 1970
In Miami
Jim was found guilty on misdemeanor counts of
indecent exposure & “open profanity”
The same day, after a Stones concert in Paris
Jagger met a woman from Nicaragua
named Bianca Perez Moreno de Macias
They in fairly short order
became a couple
Janis
October 5
In a session in Los Angeles that day
Janis Joplin had finished the beautiful vocals for
“Me and Bobby McGee”
and in the evening she and her band
recorded a Happy Birthday salute to John Lennon
The session ended around midnight
& she returned to her room
at the Landmark Motel in Los Angeles
where she took a shot of dangerous, un-cut heroin
provided to her by the young Count Jean de Breteuil
who brought in h
apparently
in diplomatic pouches
Janis went out to the lobby
& purchased some cigarettes
chatted with the lobby man
how happy she was with her new record
returned to her room
& fell to the floor
not to rise
uncut dope
tied the rope
Jean de Breteuil
was mightily worried
after his dope killed Janis
He faced a huge prison term if he, an “illegal alien”
were found to have killed through horse
De Breteuil asked Pamela Courson
to flee with him to Paris
She did
leaving Morrison a note
which upon reading he burned
Some time in the several months thereafter
de Breteuil hooked up with
Marianne Faithfull
meeting her in London
while he stayed at Keith Richards’ house
As for Jim Morrison, he was amoil and aboil
with trysts & partying
moving from hotel to motel
in the fall of 1970
The Doors were busy recording L.A. Woman
after long-time producer Paul Rothschild quit
They recorded it in a home-grown studio
set up in their business office
It was a fine, final album
December 8, 1970
Jim’s 27th birthday
he recorded three hours of poetry
at a studio in West L.A. called Village Recorders
reciting from notebooks and typed poems
twenty two pieces in all
(maybe more)
One book lists the following:
“Book of Days”
“Ghost Song”
“White Blind Light”
“The Holy Shay”
He performed “The American Night”
striking chords as he read on the piano
He sang-intoned some poems a cappella
such as “Bird of Prey”
“Winter Photography”
“Under Waterfall”
and “Woman in the Window”
(It’s difficult to list exactly
because the reel-to-reels apparently
reside with Pamela’s parents, and have
never been commercially released)
December 11
the Doors final several concerts
first Dallas
then the next night New Orleans
then back to L.A.
after which they suspended all future gigs
Morrison spent the rest of December
finishing L.A. Woman
Pamela Courson
just before Christmas
returned to L.A. from Paris
apparently urging Jim to quit the Doors
and come back to France with her
In January 1971 the final two weeks
completing L.A. Woman
recorded on 8-track tape
At last they finished the mixes
on what turned out to be the Door’s
most successful album
The Tracks
01 The Changeling
02 Love Her Madly
03 Been Down So Long
04 Cars Hiss By My Window
05 L.A. Woman
06 L'America
07 Hyacinth House
08 Crawling King Snake
09 The Wasp (Texas Radio And The Big Beat) 10 Riders On The Storm
11 The Celebration Of The Lizard
February 14, 1971
Pamela left by herself for Paris
She checked into the Hotel George V
and re-hooked up with
her on and off lover
Count Jean de Breteuil
her source of skag
March 8, before Jim departed for France
Courson called from Paris
saying she’d located a good place
for them to live
Morrison went to Paris on March 12
He brought prints of his two films, Feast of Friends
and HWY
some notebooks
a typed poetry manuscript
two quarter inch reels of his poetry readings
a Super-8 movie camera
a file of photos
plus some books and clothing
Landing, Jim took a cab to the George V hotel
but found it empty
no Pamela Courson
who was now a stone junkie
One of her lovers was the young Frenchman named
Jean de Breteuil
who specialized in peddling strong, even uncut heroin
reportedly brought in through diplomatic channels
perhaps even in diplomatic pouches
(his uncut junk had killed Janis)
Pamela had been hanging out out with the Count’s wealthy junk-batty pals
Through connections of de Breteuil
Pamela located an apartment
for Jim to sublet
which he did in the middle of March
It was a 3rd floor pad on the Right Bank
at 17, rue Beautreillis
not far from the Place de la Bastille
owned by a French “cover girl”
known as ZoZo
While in Paris,
Morrison was carrying around a satchel of texts and poetry
jotting ideas into a spiral bound notebook
plus attempting to get a screening
of his two films
April 10
in a rented Peugeot
Jim and Pam
drove into Spain
on a three week trip
visited the Prado in Madrid
then south to Granada
May 3
they flew from Marrakesh
to Casablanca
& then back to Paris
and moved when returning to the exclusive L’Hôtel
on rue de Beaux-Arts
on the Left Bank
(because ZoZo and pals
were temporarily residing
in her pad)
L’Hotel had 25 finely appointed rooms
Jim and Pam spent around two weeks at L’Hôtel
(Oscar Wilde had passed away there
in late Nov of 1900
when it was a modest place called Maison du Perier,
famously commenting
“Either that wallpaper goes, or I do.”)
De Breteuil in Southern France
Meanwhile, five Stones had moved
to southern France in the spring
where they set up a home-based
recording studio to record what
became Exile on Main Street
Mick and Bianca were married on 5-13
in St. Tropez
she was pregnant
Meanwhile the young pusher named Count De Breteuil
showed up at Keith Richards’ house in France
with a woman’s compact loaded with horse
Richards was grateful
and offered de Breteuil
(also known by the name Johnny Braces)
the use of his house in London
on Cheyne Walk
De Breteuil was soon luxuriating in the luxury
& learned that Paul and Talitha Getty lived
just a few doors away
At their house Jean met Marianne Faithfull
Jean just happened to be there
“He was Talitha’s lover,” wrote Faithfull
in her autobio
“and somehow I ended up with him....
He had a lot of dope. It was all about drugs and sex...
He was with me only because I’d been involved
with Mick Jagger.
In that froggy way he was obsessed
with all that
To him I was très le type rock ’n’ roll.”
She went with Jean de Breteuil
back to Keith’s house on Cheyne Walk
“I lived there with him
for months
& then we went to Paris for a weekend.”
A fatal weekend for Jim Morrison
May 18
Jim/Pam flew to Corsica
where they spent ten days
Then late May Jim moved back into 17, rue Beautrellis
An acetate of L.A. Woman arrived from Elektra
which Jim listened to ’gain and ’gain
(It was around then that Jim wrote
a poem “As I look Back”)
Early in June
Jim and Pam flew to London for a few days
Jean de Breteuil & Marianne Faithfull
were living in Keith Richards’ house
(Richards and the other Rolling Stones
were in southern France)
Back in Paris
Jim was drinking heavily
Sometimes passed out
late at night in strange places
Two weeks before his fatal snorts of uncut
Morrison picked up a two-man band performing in the street
and took them for an impromptu session
at a second floor studio
not far from the Café Flore
and recorded a spontaneous version of Morrison’s tune
“Orange County Suite”
and took the quarter-inch tape with him,
sticking it in a bag he carried
along with his poems and notebooks
End of June ’71
Pamela Courson moved back into the flat
where Morrison was living
at 17, rue Beautrellis
She had been off and on residing at Jean de Breteuil’s pad
but he had shown up from London
with the hooked Marianne Faithfull in tow
Jean and Marianne
moved into L’Hôtel
and de Breteuil
reputedly forked over
“Chinese heroin”
to both Pamela & Marianne
July 2-3
After going to the movies with Pamela
it was a Friday night
they ate some Chinese food
At 1 a.m. they returned to their apartment
That’s the time-track Pamela later laid out
Jim was sipping whiskey
Pam was slicing lines of heroin on a mirror
Jim and she began snorting it
through rolled up money
They watched Super-8 footage of their travels
in Spain, Morocco & Corsica
with a projector on a chair
aimed at a blank wall
where a painting had been removed
In between reels
they honked down strips of the powerful horse
(Why was JM honking horse?
Wasn’t he an alcohol, pot & coke guy
and not a heroin man?
Here’s the truth: Courson later told
a Morrison biographer [Danny Sugarman]
He thought he was honking in lines of coke)
Pam claimed that Jim listened to Doors records
into the night
He began coughing, difficulty clearing his throat
According to Pam, he asked for more junk
before sleep
junk she had purchased from Jean de Breteuil
Pam said that Jim was still awake
when she nodded out in horse-sleep
She came to maybe an hour later
to find Jim, next to her on the bed,
gurgling. She slapped his face, then hit
him a few times, till he began to rouse
Jim somehow made it into the bathroom
where there was a bidet, a toilet
& a narrow, tiled-wall tub
with a hand-held shower nozzle
and placed himself down in the tub
Someone turned on the water
Pamela nodded out again in the bedroom
and then she awakened to the sounds of Jim in the tub
vomiting clots of blood
& chunks of pineapple
After considerable vomiting
She later claimed Jim said to go back to bed
He felt better
(He remained in the narrow uncomfortable tub?)
Around 5 a.m. she slept
Around an hour later, she again awakened
Dawn was devouring the gloom
She further claimed that the bathroom door
was locked from the inside
(unlikely)
& that Jim didn’t respond when she beat on the boards
She called Jean de Breteuil at L’Hôtel
Pamela Courson, Marianne Faithfull, Jean de Breteuil
The Threesome
is the mesh of Death
Faithfull was zonked out (she says) on Tuinols
(but not heroin—possibly a fib)
and asleep in the hotel
when Pamela telephoned
& inform Jean that Jim was gone
(How did she know that
if the bathroom door was locked
from the inside?)
De Breteuil dressed and rushed over to the apartment
dreading and worrying that
he had killed two American stars
Why is it that
de Breteuil’s
hot horse killed Morrison
but not Courson
(& not Faithfull?)
Faithfull’s recollections:
When Pamela called Jean
at L’Hôtel
he prepared to leave at once
Faithfull woke up & said,
“Jean, listen to me.
I’ve got to meet Jim Morrison.”
De Breteuil replied:
“Not possible, baby. Not cool right now, okay?”
Faithfull: “You are an idiot and a fucking prig!”
De Breteuil: “Not now. Je t’explique later, okay?
Be right back.”
Faithfull: “He slammed out of the room.
He returned in the early hours of the morning
in an agitated state and woke me up.
“I was fucked up on Tuinals.
Then, for no apparent reason, he beat me up.....
(After the beating) I lit a cigarette and asked him:
“‘So, did you have a good time over there?
Aren`t you going to tell me why you`re in such a good mood?’
“‘Get packed.’
“‘Are we going somewhere?’
“‘Morocco.’
“‘Very funny. We just got here.’
“‘I want you to meet my mother. Hurry up!
’ “‘Uh-oh...What happened over there?’
“‘Shut up goddammit!’
“‘Oh, shit!’
“‘Yeah. It`s fucked.’
Not very eloquent colloquy
as recounted by Faithfull
on how she learned
an American Bacchus was gone
They manicly packed
and flew to Tangier
where they stayed with his mother
the Comtesse de Breteuil
for a week
Meanwhile at the Finale Tableau
at 17, rue Beautreillis
Phone calls had been made by Pamela
who in the months and years leading
to her own death in ’74
told various versions
of what went down
She called Jim’s friend, filmmaker Agnès Varda
Alain Ronay answered
She said something like “Jim is unconscious, Alain....
he’s bleeding. Can you call
an ambulance for me?.... You know,
I can’t speak French.... Oh, please....
I think he may be dying....”
She was sobbing
Varda was informed
who right away called the Paris fire department
which had the reputation as having
the best rescue squad
She and Ronay sped to Jim’s apartment
(Agnès Varda was one of the screenwriters
for Bernardo Bertolucci’s Last Tango in Paris
and based the final scenes of the movie
on what she had seen and learned
about Jim Morrison’s death)
The fire squad lifted Jim out of the bathtub
but the body was already chilly
and they carried it to the bedroom
and laid it upon it
De Breteuil showed up
conferred with Pam
telling her to flush all the drugs
and that she had the use of Keith Richards’ house in London
or any of his family’s places in Morocco
should she need them
Then the Count fled
before the police arrived
There was no autopsy
The cause of death was listed as a heart attack
& Jim was buried in Père-Lachaise cemetery
Photo by Ed Sanders, 1987, Père-Lachaise, Paris
—Copyright © 2011, Edward Sanders
In another he was a canny performer
who used his musical/literary abilities
to please and rouse up a Rebellious Generation
He was apparently inspired by repeated watchings of
the Living Theater’s Paradise Now
in Los Angeles & San Francisco
in Feb of ’69
where the Theater appeared in a near nude mode
on stage
making Morrison consider trying it himself
March 1, 1969, at a Mad-with-Bacchus concert
in Miami
the pud-flash
which caused him much Bacchic trouble
worthy of Euripides
(there’s a question as to whether
he actually did it
several books indicate a Doors crewman
prevented the actual flash)
Flash or not, in a few days a warrant for Jim’s arrest
for pud-dangle
in front of an audience
Forward to 1970
according to Tony Sanchez’s Up and Down with the Rolling Stones
(try around page 213)
Marianne Faithfull and Mick Jagger
parted ways in May of ’70
He told her he was moving to France
because of tax reasons
From early 1964, when she was 17
till the spring six years later
she and Mick Jagger
had had an, uh, turbulent relationship
But now she said she was not going to accompany him
and left 48 Cheyne Walk in London’s
Chelsea District
which she had shared with Jagger since 1968
(Dante Gabriel Rossetti, & Algernon Swinburne
had lived in 16 Cheyne Walk in 1862)
In July of ’70 Pamela Courson, a long time
confidante, friend and lover of Morrison
was living with Jean de Breteuil
at his family’s villa in Marrakesh
at least for a few days
but moved with Jean back to Los Angeles
by the end of the month
where the Count
pushed his heavy-duty possibly uncut horse
upon his “celebrity” pals
(The Doors back in early ’66
had been the house band at a place in L.A.
called the London Fog
a 19 year old redhead from California named Pamela Courson
came to a show
and then another show
& in the coming weeks
struck a friendship with Jim
and a loveship
which lasted over five years)
Jimi
September 18, 1970
the great Jimi Hendrix
choked on his stomach flow
& passed away in London
after too much Too Much
de Breteuil’s Heroin
Jim’s long time girl friend Pamela Courson
in early fall of ’70
was now hooked on heroin
and living in L.A. with young count Jean de Breteuil
in the country illegally
and selling junk to young celebrities
De Breteuil’s family allegedly owned all the French-language
newspapers in North Africa, & after his father had passed away
a few years earlier, Jean inherited the title Comte de Breteuil
a line of counts oozing back 700 years
September 20, 1970
In Miami
Jim was found guilty on misdemeanor counts of
indecent exposure & “open profanity”
The same day, after a Stones concert in Paris
Jagger met a woman from Nicaragua
named Bianca Perez Moreno de Macias
They in fairly short order
became a couple
Janis
October 5
In a session in Los Angeles that day
Janis Joplin had finished the beautiful vocals for
“Me and Bobby McGee”
and in the evening she and her band
recorded a Happy Birthday salute to John Lennon
The session ended around midnight
& she returned to her room
at the Landmark Motel in Los Angeles
where she took a shot of dangerous, un-cut heroin
provided to her by the young Count Jean de Breteuil
who brought in h
apparently
in diplomatic pouches
Janis went out to the lobby
& purchased some cigarettes
chatted with the lobby man
how happy she was with her new record
returned to her room
& fell to the floor
not to rise
uncut dope
tied the rope
Jean de Breteuil
was mightily worried
after his dope killed Janis
He faced a huge prison term if he, an “illegal alien”
were found to have killed through horse
De Breteuil asked Pamela Courson
to flee with him to Paris
She did
leaving Morrison a note
which upon reading he burned
Some time in the several months thereafter
de Breteuil hooked up with
Marianne Faithfull
meeting her in London
while he stayed at Keith Richards’ house
As for Jim Morrison, he was amoil and aboil
with trysts & partying
moving from hotel to motel
in the fall of 1970
The Doors were busy recording L.A. Woman
after long-time producer Paul Rothschild quit
They recorded it in a home-grown studio
set up in their business office
It was a fine, final album
December 8, 1970
Jim’s 27th birthday
he recorded three hours of poetry
at a studio in West L.A. called Village Recorders
reciting from notebooks and typed poems
twenty two pieces in all
(maybe more)
One book lists the following:
“Book of Days”
“Ghost Song”
“White Blind Light”
“The Holy Shay”
He performed “The American Night”
striking chords as he read on the piano
He sang-intoned some poems a cappella
such as “Bird of Prey”
“Winter Photography”
“Under Waterfall”
and “Woman in the Window”
(It’s difficult to list exactly
because the reel-to-reels apparently
reside with Pamela’s parents, and have
never been commercially released)
December 11
the Doors final several concerts
first Dallas
then the next night New Orleans
then back to L.A.
after which they suspended all future gigs
Morrison spent the rest of December
finishing L.A. Woman
Pamela Courson
just before Christmas
returned to L.A. from Paris
apparently urging Jim to quit the Doors
and come back to France with her
In January 1971 the final two weeks
completing L.A. Woman
recorded on 8-track tape
At last they finished the mixes
on what turned out to be the Door’s
most successful album
The Tracks
01 The Changeling
02 Love Her Madly
03 Been Down So Long
04 Cars Hiss By My Window
05 L.A. Woman
06 L'America
07 Hyacinth House
08 Crawling King Snake
09 The Wasp (Texas Radio And The Big Beat) 10 Riders On The Storm
11 The Celebration Of The Lizard
February 14, 1971
Pamela left by herself for Paris
She checked into the Hotel George V
and re-hooked up with
her on and off lover
Count Jean de Breteuil
her source of skag
March 8, before Jim departed for France
Courson called from Paris
saying she’d located a good place
for them to live
Morrison went to Paris on March 12
He brought prints of his two films, Feast of Friends
and HWY
some notebooks
a typed poetry manuscript
two quarter inch reels of his poetry readings
a Super-8 movie camera
a file of photos
plus some books and clothing
Landing, Jim took a cab to the George V hotel
but found it empty
no Pamela Courson
who was now a stone junkie
One of her lovers was the young Frenchman named
Jean de Breteuil
who specialized in peddling strong, even uncut heroin
reportedly brought in through diplomatic channels
perhaps even in diplomatic pouches
(his uncut junk had killed Janis)
Pamela had been hanging out out with the Count’s wealthy junk-batty pals
Through connections of de Breteuil
Pamela located an apartment
for Jim to sublet
which he did in the middle of March
It was a 3rd floor pad on the Right Bank
at 17, rue Beautreillis
not far from the Place de la Bastille
owned by a French “cover girl”
known as ZoZo
While in Paris,
Morrison was carrying around a satchel of texts and poetry
jotting ideas into a spiral bound notebook
plus attempting to get a screening
of his two films
April 10
in a rented Peugeot
Jim and Pam
drove into Spain
on a three week trip
visited the Prado in Madrid
then south to Granada
May 3
they flew from Marrakesh
to Casablanca
& then back to Paris
and moved when returning to the exclusive L’Hôtel
on rue de Beaux-Arts
on the Left Bank
(because ZoZo and pals
were temporarily residing
in her pad)
L’Hotel had 25 finely appointed rooms
Jim and Pam spent around two weeks at L’Hôtel
(Oscar Wilde had passed away there
in late Nov of 1900
when it was a modest place called Maison du Perier,
famously commenting
“Either that wallpaper goes, or I do.”)
De Breteuil in Southern France
Meanwhile, five Stones had moved
to southern France in the spring
where they set up a home-based
recording studio to record what
became Exile on Main Street
Mick and Bianca were married on 5-13
in St. Tropez
she was pregnant
Meanwhile the young pusher named Count De Breteuil
showed up at Keith Richards’ house in France
with a woman’s compact loaded with horse
Richards was grateful
and offered de Breteuil
(also known by the name Johnny Braces)
the use of his house in London
on Cheyne Walk
De Breteuil was soon luxuriating in the luxury
& learned that Paul and Talitha Getty lived
just a few doors away
At their house Jean met Marianne Faithfull
Jean just happened to be there
“He was Talitha’s lover,” wrote Faithfull
in her autobio
“and somehow I ended up with him....
He had a lot of dope. It was all about drugs and sex...
He was with me only because I’d been involved
with Mick Jagger.
In that froggy way he was obsessed
with all that
To him I was très le type rock ’n’ roll.”
She went with Jean de Breteuil
back to Keith’s house on Cheyne Walk
“I lived there with him
for months
& then we went to Paris for a weekend.”
A fatal weekend for Jim Morrison
May 18
Jim/Pam flew to Corsica
where they spent ten days
Then late May Jim moved back into 17, rue Beautrellis
An acetate of L.A. Woman arrived from Elektra
which Jim listened to ’gain and ’gain
(It was around then that Jim wrote
a poem “As I look Back”)
Early in June
Jim and Pam flew to London for a few days
Jean de Breteuil & Marianne Faithfull
were living in Keith Richards’ house
(Richards and the other Rolling Stones
were in southern France)
Back in Paris
Jim was drinking heavily
Sometimes passed out
late at night in strange places
Two weeks before his fatal snorts of uncut
Morrison picked up a two-man band performing in the street
and took them for an impromptu session
at a second floor studio
not far from the Café Flore
and recorded a spontaneous version of Morrison’s tune
“Orange County Suite”
and took the quarter-inch tape with him,
sticking it in a bag he carried
along with his poems and notebooks
End of June ’71
Pamela Courson moved back into the flat
where Morrison was living
at 17, rue Beautrellis
She had been off and on residing at Jean de Breteuil’s pad
but he had shown up from London
with the hooked Marianne Faithfull in tow
Jean and Marianne
moved into L’Hôtel
and de Breteuil
reputedly forked over
“Chinese heroin”
to both Pamela & Marianne
July 2-3
After going to the movies with Pamela
it was a Friday night
they ate some Chinese food
At 1 a.m. they returned to their apartment
That’s the time-track Pamela later laid out
Jim was sipping whiskey
Pam was slicing lines of heroin on a mirror
Jim and she began snorting it
through rolled up money
They watched Super-8 footage of their travels
in Spain, Morocco & Corsica
with a projector on a chair
aimed at a blank wall
where a painting had been removed
In between reels
they honked down strips of the powerful horse
(Why was JM honking horse?
Wasn’t he an alcohol, pot & coke guy
and not a heroin man?
Here’s the truth: Courson later told
a Morrison biographer [Danny Sugarman]
He thought he was honking in lines of coke)
Pam claimed that Jim listened to Doors records
into the night
He began coughing, difficulty clearing his throat
According to Pam, he asked for more junk
before sleep
junk she had purchased from Jean de Breteuil
Pam said that Jim was still awake
when she nodded out in horse-sleep
She came to maybe an hour later
to find Jim, next to her on the bed,
gurgling. She slapped his face, then hit
him a few times, till he began to rouse
Jim somehow made it into the bathroom
where there was a bidet, a toilet
& a narrow, tiled-wall tub
with a hand-held shower nozzle
and placed himself down in the tub
Someone turned on the water
Pamela nodded out again in the bedroom
and then she awakened to the sounds of Jim in the tub
vomiting clots of blood
& chunks of pineapple
After considerable vomiting
She later claimed Jim said to go back to bed
He felt better
(He remained in the narrow uncomfortable tub?)
Around 5 a.m. she slept
Around an hour later, she again awakened
Dawn was devouring the gloom
She further claimed that the bathroom door
was locked from the inside
(unlikely)
& that Jim didn’t respond when she beat on the boards
She called Jean de Breteuil at L’Hôtel
Pamela Courson, Marianne Faithfull, Jean de Breteuil
The Threesome
is the mesh of Death
Faithfull was zonked out (she says) on Tuinols
(but not heroin—possibly a fib)
and asleep in the hotel
when Pamela telephoned
& inform Jean that Jim was gone
(How did she know that
if the bathroom door was locked
from the inside?)
De Breteuil dressed and rushed over to the apartment
dreading and worrying that
he had killed two American stars
Why is it that
de Breteuil’s
hot horse killed Morrison
but not Courson
(& not Faithfull?)
Faithfull’s recollections:
When Pamela called Jean
at L’Hôtel
he prepared to leave at once
Faithfull woke up & said,
“Jean, listen to me.
I’ve got to meet Jim Morrison.”
De Breteuil replied:
“Not possible, baby. Not cool right now, okay?”
Faithfull: “You are an idiot and a fucking prig!”
De Breteuil: “Not now. Je t’explique later, okay?
Be right back.”
Faithfull: “He slammed out of the room.
He returned in the early hours of the morning
in an agitated state and woke me up.
“I was fucked up on Tuinals.
Then, for no apparent reason, he beat me up.....
(After the beating) I lit a cigarette and asked him:
“‘So, did you have a good time over there?
Aren`t you going to tell me why you`re in such a good mood?’
“‘Get packed.’
“‘Are we going somewhere?’
“‘Morocco.’
“‘Very funny. We just got here.’
“‘I want you to meet my mother. Hurry up!
’ “‘Uh-oh...What happened over there?’
“‘Shut up goddammit!’
“‘Oh, shit!’
“‘Yeah. It`s fucked.’
Not very eloquent colloquy
as recounted by Faithfull
on how she learned
an American Bacchus was gone
They manicly packed
and flew to Tangier
where they stayed with his mother
the Comtesse de Breteuil
for a week
Meanwhile at the Finale Tableau
at 17, rue Beautreillis
Phone calls had been made by Pamela
who in the months and years leading
to her own death in ’74
told various versions
of what went down
She called Jim’s friend, filmmaker Agnès Varda
Alain Ronay answered
She said something like “Jim is unconscious, Alain....
he’s bleeding. Can you call
an ambulance for me?.... You know,
I can’t speak French.... Oh, please....
I think he may be dying....”
She was sobbing
Varda was informed
who right away called the Paris fire department
which had the reputation as having
the best rescue squad
She and Ronay sped to Jim’s apartment
(Agnès Varda was one of the screenwriters
for Bernardo Bertolucci’s Last Tango in Paris
and based the final scenes of the movie
on what she had seen and learned
about Jim Morrison’s death)
The fire squad lifted Jim out of the bathtub
but the body was already chilly
and they carried it to the bedroom
and laid it upon it
De Breteuil showed up
conferred with Pam
telling her to flush all the drugs
and that she had the use of Keith Richards’ house in London
or any of his family’s places in Morocco
should she need them
Then the Count fled
before the police arrived
There was no autopsy
The cause of death was listed as a heart attack
& Jim was buried in Père-Lachaise cemetery
Photo by Ed Sanders, 1987, Père-Lachaise, Paris
—Copyright © 2011, Edward Sanders
