David Vance SubstackRead More
Let’s start with what we know for definite. Jimi Hendrix, one of the most influential guitarists of all time, died on September 18, 1970, at the tender age of 27. 27 seems a popular age for rock stars to die. Brian Jones, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain all fall into this age group.
Hendrix was at the peak of his artistic career but he was also under significant stress. He faced legal disputes, financial pressures, and a tumultuous relationship with his manager, Michael Jeffery. His death occurred in a London flat belonging to his then girlfriend, Monika Dannemann, under murky circumstances.
Hendrix was found alone in the room, lying on his back, with the gas fire on and the door open. There was no record of who had called the ambulance. His inquest recorded the cause of his death as barbiturate intoxication and inhalation of vomit, and recorded an open verdict.
However this has been disputed and that brings us to the central figure of Michael Jeffrey. Jeffery, Hendrix’s manager, is a central figure in the murder theory.
The relationship between Jeffery and Hendrix was not always smooth. There were controversies and disagreements over time, particularly regarding financial and contractual matters. Some claim that that he had Hendrix killed to cash in on a $2 million life insurance policy he allegedly took out on the guitarist (though evidence of this policy is disputed).
James “Tappy” Wright, a former roadie for Jeffery, wrote in his 2009 book Rock Roadie that Jeffery confessed to him in 1971 about murdering Hendrix. According to Wright, Jeffery admitted to forcing wine and pills down Hendrix’s throat to stage an overdose, motivated by fears that Hendrix was planning to fire him and start anew with a different team. Wright says that Jeffrey told him in 1971 that Hendrix had been “worth more to him dead than alive.” (Two years later, Jeffrey was killed in a plane crash)
Wright claims Jeffrey 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. 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.
Jeffery reportedly distrusted Hendrix’s growing political activism (linked to the Black Panthers) and his desire to break free from his management contract.
Hendrix’s girlfriend Monika Dannemann was the only witness to Hendrix’s final hours and she gave inconsistent accounts over the years. Initially, she said Hendrix was alive when paramedics arrived, but she later claimed she found him unconscious earlier and delayed calling for help. Some suggest she was complicit or coerced into covering up a murder.
In her 1995 book The Inner World of Jimi Hendrix, she claimed he drank a small amount of wine, contradicting autopsy findings of significant alcohol in his system (though the autopsy didn’t measure blood alcohol levels precisely).
Two ambulance workers, Reg Jones and John Saua, claimed in later interviews that Hendrix was already dead when they arrived and that the scene looked “suspicious.” They described his body as covered in wine and positioned oddly on the bed, though their accounts emerged decades later and could be unreliable.
When you look at all the factors, you would need to be in a purple haze tot to wonder what REALLY happened on 18th September 1970.
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