26 Jul 09 Foul play; first Brian Jones, now Hendrix?

In 2005 it was revealed that Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones did not commit suicide but may well have been murdered. Now it emerges that Jimi Hendrix, arguably the greatest guitarist ever also met with foul play.

Jimi Hendrix’s former road manager has claimed that Hendrix was murdered and did not die an accidental death, as has been commonly believed. In the book ‘Rock Roadie’ by James “Tappy” Wright, (a former road manager who worked for Jimi Hendrix’s manager, Mike Jeffery) Wright rejects the widely held notion that the guitarist died accidentally, choking on his own vomit after a drug overdose. He claims Hendrix was murdered by a gang who broke into his girlfriend’s Notting Hill flat in the early hours of September 18, forcing enough sleeping pills and wine down his throat to kill him. The gang, Wright alleges, was organised by Jeffery, a shady character who was heavily in debt and feared that Hendrix wanted to end his management contract.

The Australian doctor who attempted to revive Hendrix, John Bannister, the theory the guitar legend was murdered is “plausible from a medical perspective at least”. At the time of his death, says Bannister, Hendrix was saturated with wine.

“He drowned, no question. His hair and his clothes were full of red wine, his lungs and his stomach were full of red wine. You couldn’t think about mouth-to-mouth because there was so much wine coming out of him.” smh July 25 2009

I personally had no idea that Hendrix was completely soaked in red wine when he died. I’d read he had choked on his own vomit and had always understood that he was so far gone on drugs that he basically forgot to breathe. Tragic, yes, but it fitted Jimmi’s live fast, die young, wild man image like a glove. The current revelations are suspicious on more than one level.

Why did no one question why Hendrix was wine soaked at the time he died? If Hendrix really wanted to get smashed out of his mind, would he have chosen to do it with plain old red wine? Hendrix was certainly ‘experienced’ and was no stranger to illegal substances. He knew the right people and could have got his hands on anything he wanted. According to contemporary accounts, Hendrix had a high tolerance and “had to take as much as the rest of us just to get straight”. It seems very strange that his wine soaked state did not provoke an investigation.

It might also be of interest that John Bannister was deregistered as a doctor in 1992.

“The conduct, which the 1992 Tribunal was considering and which it found proven related to deliberately deceitful conduct involving the Applicant (Bannister) representing to various recipients of his accounts for treatment, that he had personally provided services when he well knew that he had not provided those services.” Medical Tribunal of NSW

If Bannister was found guilty of deliberately deceitful conduct in 1992, is it possible that he did not act completely honestly at the time he treated Hendrix? Was Bannister paid by Jeffery, if not to neglect his duties but at least to hush up any perceived need to investigate suspicious circumstances? Might a better doctor have managed to save Hendrix’s life?  If murder seems a plausible cause of death now, why wasn’t it in 1970?

If Hendrix had survived, just what heights might his inspired brilliance have reached? The greatest tragedy may be that we will never know.

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Tags: Guitarist, hendrix murdered, Jimi Hendrix, John Bannister, Mike Jeffery, murder, Suicide