Mo news on Hendrix death

John Billings · Post by **John Billings** » 20 Jul 2009 3:24 am

http://tinyurl.com/lycqja
Jimi Hendrix murder theory 'plausible' says ER doctor
The doctor who attempted to revive legendary guitarist Jimi Hendrix on the night he died has said it is "plausible" that he was murdered.

By Aislinn Simpson
Published: 10:11AM BST 20 Jul 2009

Jimi Hendrix was allegedly at the centre of a murder plot Photo: Reuters
John Bannister, the on-call registrar at the now closed St Mary Abbots Hospital in Kensington, said in an interview that the patient seemed to have "drowned" in a large amount of red wine.
The account fits with one given by James "Tappy" Wright, a 65-year-old former road manager who worked for Hendrix's manager Mike Jeffrey.
Wright has claimed in a new book that indebted Jeffrey had taken out a $2m life-insurance policy on the star amid concerns about his increased drug-taking, and that he told him Hendrix was "worth more to him dead than alive".
He alleges that Jeffrey confessed to him that he had ordered the killing a month before his death in a plane crash.
The official version of Hendrix's death at the age of 27 is that he died from choking on vomit after a drugs overdose.
Wright's version is that Hendrix was killed on the orders of Jeffrey by a gang who broke into his hotel room and forced wine and painkillers down his throat until he drowned.
Mr Bannister, 67, said he had no idea who Hendrix was when he arrived early on the morning of September 18, 1970, but remembers being perplexed by his height.
“He was hanging over the table we had him on by about ten inches,” he told The Times newspaper.
He said he fought to resuciate him but there was no hope of survival.
"We worked very hard for about half an hour but there was no response at all. It really was an exercise in futility,” he said. “Somebody said to me ‘You know who that was?. That was Jimi Hendrix’ and, of course, I said, ‘Who’s Jimi Hendrix?’.”
He said that Wright's description, in his memoir Rock Roadster, of Hendrix's demise "sounded plausible because of the volume of wine”.
“The amount of wine that was over him was just extraordinary. Not only was it saturated right through his hair and shirt but his lungs and stomach were absolutely full of wine," he said.
"I have never seen so much wine. We had a sucker that you put down into his trachea, the entrance to his lungs and to the whole of the back of his throat.
“We kept sucking him out and it kept surging and surging. He had already vomited up masses of red wine and I would have thought there was half a bottle of wine in his hair. He had really drowned in a massive amount of red wine.”
Bannister now lives in Sydney and worked as a doctor until 1992 when he was deregistered for fraudulent conduct.

Joey Ace · Post by **Joey Ace** » 20 Jul 2009 4:23 am

Sounded 'plausible', until that last line.

David Doggett · Post by **David Doggett** » 20 Jul 2009 10:36 am

It's still higly plausible (meaning: a possible explanation), just a little less convincing. Bannister's later troubles could have nothing to do with his professional behavior at the time of Hendrix's death. There were obviously other people present during the resuscitation efforts. One wonders if they corroborate Bannister's comments. That would greatly strengthen his conjecture, or not.

John Billings · Post by **John Billings** » 20 Jul 2009 10:42 am

Dave,
Here's a link to a story I posted earlier. I just happened to stumble across these while surfin' the net, and found them interesting.
http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopi ... ht=hendrix

Mitch Drumm · Post by **Mitch Drumm** » 20 Jul 2009 10:43 am

Wright was on a radio show within the last week touting his book.

I didn't pay close attention, but as I recall he said something about Jeffrey not being amused when he discovered that Hendrix was having his way with Jeffrey's wife. I think Wright said Jeffrey sold all interest in Hendrix for 100k?

Kevin Hatton · Post by **Kevin Hatton** » 20 Jul 2009 11:17 am

Yeah, and I'm writing a new book called "Monkeys Fly Out Of My Butt".

CrowBear Schmitt · Post by **CrowBear Schmitt** » 20 Jul 2009 11:38 am

right before his death, was'nt Jimi's Experience one of top paid acts ?
140k for madison square garden in 1970 ?

Glenn Suchan · Post by **Glenn Suchan** » 20 Jul 2009 12:46 pm

The Jeffrey allegation for Hendrix' death seems a possibility, especially in light of the way he (Jeffrey) managed the the rock band, The Animals. Early in the career of the band, The Animals unwittingly signed a contract to Jeffrey allowing him to mange them and control virtually all the profits from performances and record sales. It is said that Jeffrey was putting the band's profits into self-serving ventures, to the demise of The Animals. Regarding the death of Jimi Hendrix, Eric Burdon, vocalist of the Animals, has another view. The following is a link to a copyrighted chapter from Eric Burdon's biography Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood. The link starts on page 134, but the whole chapter (about 30 pages) gives a perspective from one of Jimi's closest friends, the person Jimi last performed with, and one of the first people to arrive at the apartment where Hendrix died:

http://books.google.com/books?id=J0zyp_ ... drix+death

Keep on pickin'!
Glenn

John Billings · Post by **John Billings** » 20 Jul 2009 1:33 pm

Interesting reading, Glenn! Thanks for the link.