Morrison’s grave, Paris.
Photo courtesy of Mpetro65.

The Rock and Roll Book of the Dead
solves these mysteries and many more....

JIM MORRISON

Morrison had quit the Doors and was trying to resurrect as a poet, but found himself at a creative impasse. Though otherwise an omnivorous drunk and doper, he had always avoided heroin.

• Did he knowingly take a fatal overdose that night in Paris?

• His junkie wife, Pamela Courson, was having an affair with Comte Jean de Breteuil, “the dealer to the stars,” who provided Morrison (and, earlier, Janis too) with his fatal dose of heroin. Did the count do so intentionally before fleeing for Morocco?

• After deceiving the French police and arranging for a hasty burial, did Pamela Courson kill herself two years later out of some unspeakable guilt?

Excerpt from Chapter 3

.... After the gendarmes leave, Pamela [Jim’s common-law wife] flushes the smack and burns Jim’s papers in the fireplace, though Alain [Morrison’s friend] protests, telling her this might arouse suspicion on such a hot Parisian morning.

That evening, Dr. Max Vassille completes a cursory examination. Seeing no evidence of foul play, he records the cause of death as Heart Failure. A mortician is called in to ice the body until the death certificate is issued and the burial arrangements made.  “The heat is against us,” he tells the widow.

Pamela proposes cremation, saying she wants “to disperse the ashes in a wonderful place.” But Alain admonishes, “Don’t even think of it. Here in France, it [cremation] is like admitting you know something about a crime… They would request an autopsy.” He explains that shipping the body back to the U.S. is also out of the question since, by law, “the casket must be opened for inspection.”

But Pamela remains hesitant, telling Alain, “I think perceptions remain in the body after death.” So, if they should bury him, “Jim would feel the earth falling on top of him,” she goes on. “He would even be able to hear what people were saying around his tomb.” Assuring her that no one would say anything to upset him, Alain recommends Pere Lachaise cemetery where Jim might rest with Chopin, Balzac, Proust, Wilde, Modigliani, Moliere, and other kindred spirits.

So, that hot August night and the next, Pamela sleeps with the corpse. She tells Ronay she feels secure lying beside her Jim. She tells him she could “live like this forever.” Jim Morrison is all her own now. Her faithful lover at last.