A new book is claiming not only that Doors frontman Jim Morrison died of a heroin overdose, but that it happened at a Paris club. The book alleges that two drug dealers then took Morrison back to his apartment and put him in his bath in a bid to revive him. Having been unsuccessful in that attempt, they left him there, to be found later by long term partner Pamela Courson.
That version of events contradicts the late Courson's story. At the time of Morrison's death she said that the couple had spent the evening together, before returning to the apartment to listen to records. They fell asleep, but he later awoke feeling unwell and decided to take a hot bath. She later found him in the bathroom dead. French police never conducted an autopsy on the singer because they were satisfied there was no foul play ñ so officially he simply died of "heart failure" - though there have been stories of a heroin overdose for years.
The claims that the overdose happened in the toilets of a Parisian club come in a book by Sam Bernett, who owned the club in question. He says that when Morrison's body was found he got a doctor to take a look at him. He continues: "When we found him dead, he had a little foam on his nose, and some blood too, and the doctor said, 'That must be an overdose of heroin'". Bernett, who went on to become a radio personality, rock biographer and even Vice President of Disneyland Paris, says he has been chased by journalists for his version of events for years, but that he kept silent until his wife suggested he write his own book last year.
Morrison biographer Stephen Davis reckons that both Courson and Bernett's stories maybe true ñ postulating that while Morrison may have OD'd on heroin at Bernett's club, that he survived the incident, though it may have caused the heart attack that later occurred at his flat when he was with Courson. He concludes: "It just seems likely that if he died in the toilet of a nightclub it would have come out before now".