James Tapper
Last updated at 5:32 PM on 31st May 2009


Rock legend Jimi Hendrix was murdered by his manager as part of an insurance scam, a new book by one of his former aides claims.

Hendrix choked to death on his own vomit when he was 27 – but the exact circumstances of his death have always been a mystery.

Now James ‘Tappy’ Wright, one of the rock star’s roadies, claims that Hendrix’s manager, Michael Jeffery, confessed to killing him. Jeffery is said to have made a drunken confession a year after the star’s death in September 1970.

Rock and roll: Jimi Hendrix's death was murder, claims former roadie

Rock and roll: Jimi Hendrix's death was murder, claims former roadie
An ambulance crew found Hendrix’s body in the Samarkand Hotel in West London, in the room of Monika Dannemann, a girl he had known for just a few days.

Wright claims Jeffery was worried that Hendrix was preparing to find a new manager when their deal was due to end in December 1970. According to Wright, Jeffery said he went to the hotel room and stuffed Hendrix full of pills and wine.

The book, called Rock Roadie, out next month, recalls Wright’s life with various rock stars during the Sixties, including Tina Turner and Elvis Presley.

In it, Wright claims Jeffery, who was married to actress Gillian French, made the confession at his apartment in 1971, two years before he died in a plane crash.

He writes: ‘I can still hear that conversation, see the man I’d known for so much of my life, his face pale, hand clutching at his glass in sudden rage.’

He says Jeffery told him: ‘I had to do it, Tappy. You understand, don’t you? I had to do it. You know damn well what I’m talking about.’

He quotes Jeffery as saying: ‘I was in London the night of Jimi’s death and together with some old friends ...we went round to Monika’s hotel room, got a handful of pills and stuffed them into his mouth ...then poured a few bottles of red wine deep into his windpipe.

‘I had to do it. Jimi was worth much more to me dead than alive. That son of a bitch was going to leave me. If I lost him, I’d lose everything.’

Suspect: Michael Jeffrey, pictured here at his wedding to actress Gillian French is accused of murder

Suspect: Michael Jeffrey, pictured here at his wedding to actress Gillian French, is accused of murder
Wright claims that Jeffery told him he had taken out a life insurance policy on Hendrix worth $2million (£1.2million) with Jeffery as beneficiary.

The official cause of death was ‘barbiturate intoxication and inhalation of vomit’, and the coroner recorded an open verdict.

This was vital for Jeffery.

Had the cause of death been suicide it would have given the insurers an escape clause.

The ambulancemen who found the body said he was discovered alone in the hotel room, lying in his clothes on his back, with a gas fire burning and the door wide open.

There is no record of who called 999.

John Bannister, the surgeon who tried to revive Hendrix at hospital, said he was convinced he had drowned in red wine. Yet Hendrix had very little alcohol in his bloodstream.

In 1992 he wrote: ‘I recall vividly the very large amounts of red wine that oozed from his stomach and his lungs, and in my opinion there was no question that Jimi Hendrix had drowned, if not at home then on the way to the hospital.

‘At the time I felt that he had either been on sedative tablets, to sleep or otherwise, and that he had imbibed copious amounts of red wine prior to going to sleep. I would suspect that he regurgitated the red wine and drowned.’

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1189805/Hendrix-murdered-manager-claims-roadie.html?ITO=1490
:smoking

:Youmakeagrownmancrylikejoey

"You can't really dust for vomit."

http://www.facebook.com/profile/pic.php?uid=AAAAAQAQwgHAfq0u0zU2-oz1MJk1qgAAAArhgDFDlWaqIVBwTOM_05o9

After almost 40 years this is discovered! why wasn't his manager charged with murder in '71, I got a feeling this is just a way to sell books, what next, Janis Joplin murdered?

Heart Of Stone wrote on Jun 1^st, 2009 at 6:10am:

After almost 40 years this is discovered! why wasn't his manager charged with murder in '71, I got a feeling this is just a way to sell books, what next, Janis Joplin murdered?

... Keith was the walrus!

it wasnt until recently that medical examiners were actually able to confirm that Elvis had died from Swine Flu

quite a story.....

Ugh this makes me sick. Somehow there is a ring of truth to it? Could it be possible to drown someone in red wine? Even if the manager supplied the booze and drugs, could he stuff it down Jimi's throat without a fight if Jimi didnt want it? I think Jimi wanted it and didnt know his limitations.  In a case of OD-ing, who is responsible, the dealer or the user? I say its the user. IMO.

You can definitely drown drinking too much water.....it's been rumored for years that Hendrix was murdered. Would like to know once and for all---the same with Brian, of course.

Please no more Brian Jones was murdered conspiracy theories. :willya :willya :willya :howefun

jimi hendrix is dead?

OMG!!!

LOL Pdog!! Great new avatar and the last one was waaaaaaaaaaay cool!

Michael Jeffery was not as bad as Allen Klein but made a lot of mistakes with Jimi and one of them was not letting him make his own music in 1970 when he was more into jazz-blues-rock fussion

How do you or why would you call 999, or is that 666, or of course they meant 911, or did they mean 411 Information.
I'm Confused.

---

I think that maybe 999 in Britain is like 911 here....

Hey, no one has proved how Brian died. I would just like to know---just like with Hendrix. And it was just recently that it came out that Morrison didn't die in his bath--but in a club. And then put in his bath. So.....sometimes all the facts don't come out at first.

I was under the impression that Jimi was alive when the ambulance arrived but died due to negligence of the ambulance drivers who strapped him down before he began to vomit which is why he choked.

it was the builder,
with his hands,
in the swimming pool.

Sioux wrote on Jun 1^st, 2009 at 11:26pm:

I think that maybe 999 in Britain is like 911 here.... Hey, no one has proved how Brian died. I would just like to know---just like with Hendrix. And it was just recently that it came out that Morrison didn't die in his bath--but in a club. And then put in his bath. So.....sometimes all the facts don't come out at first.

My bad, Thanks for the clarification.

If this is true with Jimi, & I know it happened with Brian, they sure didn't investigate their death's very much back then, today this certainly wouldn't happen, but this is the first I heard about Hendrix being foul play, I did hear about what Voodoo mentioned, that he wanted to move his music in a different direction, & I guess his manager wanted him to remain turning out the hit songs, instead of experimenting in a new area, with Jazz/Blues/rock.

Sioux wrote on Jun 1^st, 2009 at 11:26pm:

And it was just recently that it came out that Morrison didn't die in his bath--but in a club.

Was that club called "The Grassy Knoll"?  

Egon wrote on Jun 2^nd, 2009 at 6:04am:

it was the builder, with his hands, in the swimming pool.

Ok, thanks... ;)

left shoe shuffle wrote on Jun 2^nd, 2009 at 5:46pm:

Sioux wrote on Jun 1st, 2009 at 11:26pm: And it was just recently that it came out that Morrison didn't die in his bath--but in a club. Was that club called "The Grassy Knoll"?

Lol, could have been.... ;)

Zack wrote on Jun 2^nd, 2009 at 5:04am:

I was under the impression that Jimi was alive when the ambulance arrived but died due to negligence of the ambulance drivers who strapped him down before he began to vomit which is why he choked.

ambulance blues