Jim Morrison’s life and art entailed a continuous dialogue with death, hence, the absurdity of treating his death, as some writers have done, as an unimportant or uninteresting event. The fact is that not knowing how Jim Morrison died is exactly like having a tragedy whose final act consists of nothing but rough sketches for a half dozen possible endings. [Albert Goldman, The End, 1991] (1)
How to get death
On the morning
show
T.V. death
[James Douglas Morrison] (2)
Partnership Agreements
Like the American nation, the Doors rock group was founded on a kind of constitution they called the Partnership Agreement. Essentially the four members of the group agreed that everything should be divided equally between them. That all decisions taken by the group should be agreed unanimously, and each member had a veto. Even more fundamentally, the agreement was that the Doors could only consist of those four members together. Should any one of the four leave the group, the Doors would no longer exist. Not only that, but should any member leave the group, he couldn't use the name of the Doors. It was this esprit de corps that held the group together through its rise to fame and success between 1967 and 1971.
On the 5th January 1971, the Doors attorney Max Fink, formalised the Doors Partnership Agreement on paper, dating it retroactively to 1st Jan 1966. It was now legally binding. But it was thought that there was a flaw in the agreement: should a member of the group die, then the group would be no more - the Doors would die too. Surely this was not the same as a member wilfully leaving the group? Shouldn't an exception be made here? If a member died, the group should be allowed to go on.
To that end, on the day that Doors singer Jim Morrison left to go and take an open ended vacation in Paris, the Doors thought to make an amendment to the Agreement, which would allow the group to continue if a member of the group should become deceased.
Uncannily, Jim Morrison himself would die on July 3rd 1971 in Paris, some four months after this amendment was signed by the group. This then is our first document.
[The Amendment of March 11th 1971 to the Doors Partnership Agreement] (3)
Paris
The Jury is still out on what happened to Jim Morrison on the morning of July 3rd, 1971. Whether he actually suddenly died or disappeared, remains disputed. However, it must be said that on that date he was declared legally dead, and the documents which help maintain the factual grip of a legal death have long been in the public domain. But have these documents been really examined closely? In this article I wish to subject these documents to a careful study.
In so doing, I wish to dispense with all speculation and opinion. I do not want to entertain any hindsight versions, recollections, theories or stories about Jim Morrison's end. I want only to look closely at the contemporaneous facts that have been presented to us as documentation.
Documentation is vital in the search for truth and for the upholding of fact. Documents tend to be dated as a matter of course. The document is dated and timed itself, and to the events referred to in it, a date and time is usually imputed. That is the value of documentation: arguments end where documents begin.
Where?
Map of Paris regions showing the various locations in relation to Jim Morrison's apartment
I made the above map from Google Earth to help me organise my response to the various Paris documents relating to the death of Jim Morrison, and to give an idea of the proximity of the various locations connected to them in relation to his apartment at #17 rue Beautreillis in the 4th ARR, [or district.]
To briefly explain the significance of each location - and thereby take care of the question 'where?':
1) Agnes Varda's House was where Alain Ronay stayed when he wasn't staying at Jim Morrison's apartment. Varda and Ronay [both friends of Morrison] are said to have travelled from her house to the apartment on the morning of Morrison's death
2) 8 rue du Cloitre is the funeral home of the famous Hospital Dieu, Notre Dame. This is where Michel Gagnepain worked, the man who signed the death certificate, filled out the burial permit and the funeral bill.
3) The Town Hall in the 4th ARR is from where the death certificate and the burial permit were issued.
4) The Fire Station, very close to the apartment, provided the first emergency workers to reach the scene of the death
5) Pere Lachaise Cemetery is of course where 'James Douglas Morrison' was buried
6) The City, or Municipal Funeral Home, at 104 rue d'Aubervilliers, organised Morrison's funeral
7) The Police Station, the Arsenal, provided the investigating officers, and was where Pamela Courson and Alain Ronay made their witness statements
8) The American Embassy was where Jim Morrison's death was reported after his funeral
9) Dr Vassille's address as given on his medical report
The Vital Documents
As regards the death of Jim Morrison, the vital documents are the certificates of death, permits of burial, bills of funeral and reports and findings of officials - such as policemen and doctors - and last, but not least, minuted reports made by witnesses. Keeping only to these things, how could we possibly go wrong? Indeed! These documents seemingly include no opinions and contain only the facts of the matter, or so we might think.
The documents then, supply a framework of facts which pertain to Jim Morrison's last day in Paris. Stated briefly they tell us this:
3rd July 1971 [Saturday]
- 0500hrs - Jim Morrison dies in Paris [according to his death certificate and the burial permit]
- 0925hrs - emergency services are called to the apartment - report of a dying man
- 0930hrs - fire brigade arrive at apartment to find deceased. Morrison's girlfriend Pamela Courson is present
- 0940hrs - police arrive at the apartment. Morrison's friend Alain Ronay is now also at the apartment.
- 1430hrs - fire brigade file report
- 1430hrs - death certificate produced
- 1430hrs - burial permit produced
- 1540hrs to 1840hrs, Pamela Courson, only witness to Morrison's death, gives statement to police
- 1800hrs - Dr Vassille examines Jim Morrison's body to determine cause of death
- 1840hrs - police officer Manchez instigates medical report, including Dr Vassille's findings
- 1850hrs - Alain Ronay gives statement to police
These are the recorded events of the day of Morrison's death according to the documents. It will immediately be noticed that they tell us it was more than four hours between Morrison's recorded death and the emergency services being called. Nine and a half hours after his demise, the death certificate and the burial permit are issued. However the body isn't examined by the doctor until 6pm - thirteen hours after the death, and three and a half hours after the death and burial certificates have been produced. And yet, according to French law, a death certificate can only be issued after a medical report is submitted by a doctor. Not only that, a witness statement from Alain Ronay had yet to be given, despite the death and burial permits being already issued.
Even before we examine the documents themselves, we see that the timeline gives rise to serious concerns. And yet, despite what look like suspicious circumstances surrounding the death of a 27 year old in a luxury flat, no autopsy was ordered, the body remaining in the apartment the whole weekend, and into the following week when it was buried on the Wednesday.
Similarly, our documentation tells us this of those following days:
4th July 1971 [Sunday]
- police superintendent Berry makes concluding report of Jim Morrison's death to the Public Prosecutor
- the body of the deceased remains in the apartment on a bed.
6th July 1971 [Tuesday]
- Pamela Courson makes funeral arrangements
-Courson purchases a double grave plot at Pere Lachaise cemetery for Morrison's burial tomorrow
7th July 1971 [Wednesday]
- Funeral of Jim Morrison - burial in Pere Lachaise Paris.
We notice here that the case of Morrison's death goes to the Public Prosecutor, but still the body remains in the apartment and no autopsy ordered. Pamela Courson [telling the authorities that the deceased 'Douglas Morrison' is an unknown American writer] is able to buy a double plot at the Pere Lachaise cemetery at very short notice for the funeral the next day. Two days after the funeral, Courson is back in the USA, applying for a disclosure of Morrison's Last Will and Testament, while the American Embassy in Paris is still waiting to be notified of Morrison's death and its cause. Clearly the death was purposely shrouded in secrecy, while the bare events as laid out above, suggest something very untoward.
Now we need to examine the documents which give us the above string of events in more detail.
The two vital documents - the ones upon which everything else hinges - are the death certificate and the burial permit.
The Death Certificate
The French death certificate needs to contain the following basic information: the date and time the deceased met their end. Where they died, and their name, as well as their place of birth, their occupation and their current address. It should also state what their marital status is and who their next of kin are.
In addition, the date and time of the certificate's issue should be stated, along with the name of the person who is declaring the death, and the official registering it, and their position/address, plus their respective signatures. [French death certificates do not give the cause of death, which is to be found in the medical report supplied by the doctor]. These criteria are met by the death certificate of James Douglas Morrison, seen below.
[Death Certificate of Jim Morrison, with translation into English] (4)
As aforesaid, this bears the signatures of two people: a Mr Michel Gagnepain, and a Mrs Annie Moreno. The latter is a civil servant at the Town Hall's registry office who registered the death, the certificate of which accordingly bears the address of the Town Hall of the 4th District which covered Morrison's apartment in rue Beautreillis. The former signatory, Mr Gagnepain, is the person who declared the death at the local Town Hall. Gagnepain is stated to be an employee at 8 Rue du Cloitre-Notre-Dame, in the 4th District, which is the funeral home of the Hotel-Dieu de Paris - the oldest hospital in France, if not the world.
This hospital is actually located quite near to Morrison's apartment, estimated to be about a 15 minute walk. It would be quite in order if Jim Morrison was taken to that hospital dead or dying, for him to be pronounced dead there by one of the hospital's doctors, and placed in their funeral home - as in this case - in order to present the medical report and the declaration of death to the Town Hall, and so obtain a death certificate and then a burial permit to that effect. Indeed, on the face of it, this is what the death certificate of Jim Morrison tells us happened. This would allow a quick burial within the time strictures allowed in France:
The following tasks should be completed following the death in France of an immediate family member:
1. Within 24 hours
○ Have a doctor make a medical report of the death
○ Contact a funeral service/undertaker to manage the burial
○ Make declaration of the death at the local Town Hall
2. Within six days
○ Make arrangements for the funeral and burial or cremation
(5)
When we check the reference works as regards Mr Gagnepain's funeral home as named on the death certificate, we find the following:
"At number 8 rue du Cloitre was the funeral home of the [hospital] Hotel-Dieu du Paris, where the bodies of people who died in the establishment [i.e., the hospital] or in connection with a medico-judicial investigation are deposited. The body of Jim Morrison, for example, was deposited there after the discovery of his death." (6)
A funeral home or burial chamber is a place where the relatives of a deceased person gather before the burial and the funeral. This place makes it possible to participate in the work of mourning by replacing the funeral vigilis. It is also one of the places where conservation care is practiced with the hospital and the deceased's home.
Not to be confused with a mortuary, which is located in a hospital.
In France
In France, the transport of the body to the funeral home as well as the first three days of it are the responsibility of the State if the body was discovered at home or on a public road by the police.
The funeral parlour should not be confused with the morgue or burial chamber located within a hospital, where the stay of the body is free for the first three days.
Funeral homes are managed by authorised funeral directors, but are a public place. All funeral directors may request the admission of a deceased person to any funeral parlour, without access being refused except for reasons of lack of places. The rate applied is the same for all families.
The deceased rests in a funeral chamber on a refrigerated bed, or in presentation in a coffin.
[ib.] (5)
While the 'official' story is that Jim Morrison died at home, it also says that his body remained in his apartment, from the moment of his death until the morning of his funeral, five days later, when he was buried in Pere Lachaise cemetery. But the death certificate - an official document - tells a different story: Jim Morrison's body was taken to the nearest hospital, being the Dieu de Paris, pronounced dead there, then placed in its funeral home, and a death certificate was issued at the request of that funeral home from the local Town Hall. Indeed, this is the document we have before us now.
With the very first document we observe a completely different scenario to that stated in all the 'official' accounts of Jim Morrison's death, this without recourse to any tendentious opinions or conspiracy theories.
This death certificate links us to the next vital document.
The Burial Permit
[Burial Permit - copy of original, top, with translated version, below] (7)
Just as a death certificate cannot be got without a prior medical report, nor can a burial permit be obtained without a valid death certificate. This burial permit - issued from the Town Hall - echoes the information that is on Morrison's death certificate. It gives the all important date and time of death as Saturday the 3rd of July, 1971 at 5am, and the place of death as 17 rue Beautreillis. The permit has the same issue time too, that of 2:30pm of that same day.
It will be seen that on the original there are two different hands involved in filling the permit out. The first being the original information of the death, as stated at the Town Hall, and the second being that of when the permit is subsequently handed to the undertakers, and accordingly dated at the bottom on the 6th of July when the funeral for the next day was arranged.
However, there seems to be an anomaly in the original issuance of the permit. For instead of the issuer being a 'Mr [name of a] Doctor of Medicine' as the pro-forma insists, rather than a Doctor's name, we have 'Mr Public Prosecutor, Doctor of Medicine'. This cannot be correct. Of course, at a glance, that may look like a proper name with its 'de la' format, but on inspection it is no such thing. The 'signature' at the bottom of the permit doesn't help as it is almost a non-signature, with a too concentrated scribble that makes it invalid as a meaningful signature which cannot be aligned to any name, let alone to a name on the permit, as there isn't one.
The other writing on the left hand column, and the day, date and time above the stamp, is Michel Gagnepain's, of the death certificate and hospital, as he also signed the funeral bill.
The Funeral Bill
[The Funeral Bill, left, from the Municipal Funeral Home [104 rue d'Aubervilliers], is signed and filled out by Michel Gagnepain, who also filled out the Burial Permit and of course signed the death permit - see insets on right which make these comparisons]
(Thanks to Lilith McGregor for helping pointing these out) (8)
The Funeral Bill is made out to Pamela Courson in name, but doesn't bear her actual signature - someone else signed her name in her stead. Her biographer Patricia Butler [1998] stated that the signature was not Courson's, but couldn't decide who actually wrote it. My assumption is that Michel Gagnepain 'signed' her name as it is similar to the rest of the writing on the form, which is his.
It looks, therefore, like Michel Gagnepain was more than instrumental in the three vital documents needed to declare Jim Morrison dead and have him buried quickly, as French law allows.
From another perspective, mention of the 'Public Prosecutor' on the Burial Permit would indicate that the body had been sent to have an autopsy, possibly due to suspicions of the death being due to drug use, for example. That it cleared such an autopsy would have resulted in the issuance of the burial permit. However, all those authorities who have commented on the death of Jim Morrison have been unanimous on one thing: he did not undergo an autopsy. However, it is possible that his body did undergo an autopsy, but this information has been embargoed by the Morrison family - but I promised not to speculate!
Once again, the documents meant to nail the facts offer us some disquiet: a non-name, a non-signature, a substituting of a signature by an official, a confusion about a possible autopsy, and the monopoly of one man's authorisation over documents which are meant to express independent procedures. And all in all, there is the sense of an undue secrecy and obfuscation hanging over the whole affair.
The Police Documents
As the interest in the Jim Morrison case [and in the Doors music] grew during the 1980s, with Hollywood film makers and independent researchers like Bob Seymore and Albert Goldman looking to find out more facts about the mysterious death, a series of documents were published in 1990 which comprised the French Police dossier on the case, including statements from officers, witnesses and the rather late medical report made at 6pm on the 3rd of July for a man who died 13 hours earlier, according to the death certificate.
The documents were first published and translated in Bob Seymore's book [1990], although he didn't provide facsimiles for all of them. I will take them as set down by Seymore with that caveat. The documents are:
A] 3-7-71 9:40am: Report of J Manchez Police Officer
B] 3-7-71 2:30pm: Report of A Raisson Fire Officer
C] 3-7-71 3:40pm - 6:40pm: Witness Statement of Miss Pamela Courson [girlfriend of the deceased]
D] 3-7-71 6:00pm: Medical Report of Vassille, Doctor of Medicine
E] 3-7-71 6:40pm: Requests of J Manchez for a medical report and the Public Prosecutor
F] 3-7-71 6:50pm: Witness Statement of Mr Alain Ronay [friend of the deceased]
G] 4-7-71 no time: Concluding report by Police Superintendent Berry to the Public Prosecutor
Seymore only gives facsimiles of C] and D]. All the others he translates and prints as normal English text in the body of the book.
When examining these police file documents, rather than look at them one by one, it might be more instructive at first to compare them in relation to our guiding principles: Who, When, Where, What and Why?
Who?
It might seem surprising, but the documents vary in identifying the name and age of the deceased.
The death certificate and the burial permit are uniform in naming the deceased as James DOUGLAS MORRISON. This suggests the surname to be 'Douglas Morrison' [as if it were 'Douglas-Morrison'], rather than just Morrison, whereas Douglas was only a middle name. There has been speculation that this was done initially by Courson to obscure the identity of the famous 'Jim Morrison', and present the deceased as an unknown poet called Douglas. This would also mean that the death would be filed under 'D' and not 'M', and may explain why the Doors office were unable to find out any information about the death before the funeral, whereas the Police file generally reports the name as being simply 'James MORRISON'.
This is just one indication that there is not the proper chronological relation between the death certificate and the later police file.
Similarly, while the death certificate and burial permit correctly give Morrison's age as 27, police officer Manchez in [A] states that Morrison is 28 years old, as does the medical report of Dr Vassille [G]. The latter is a remarkable mistake as this is the last report, made some 13 hours after the given hour of death, and after the correct date of birth had been recorded in previous reports. Less important, but still concerning, is that Dr Vassille also spells Morrison's surname wrong, as 'Morrisson', in his report heading. As the death certificate is meant to be based on the medical report, it is puzzling that the medical report gives the wrong age and misspells the surname.
This further emphasises the implication that the death certificate and the burial permit, produced at the Town Hall at 2:30pm, were based on another - earlier - medical report which has been expunged [or hidden] from the record, and that Vassille's medical report, issued after 6:00pm the same day, was not based on the correct identification of the deceased, in terms of his name and age [whereas the death certificate and burial permits were]. Also, Vassille's medical report does not include the time of death, an important entry on any death certificate.
Not only does Dr Vassille not have the exact facts of Jim Morrison's identity to hand, his examination of the body seems cursory, and his concluding that a heart attack in a young male of 27 is a 'natural cause' is unsatisfactory. His mention that there were no "suspicious" "lesions" on the body might imply that the whole reason for this [second] medical report was only to check whether drug use had been involved.
Medical Report of Max Vassille, Doctor of Medicine
[Dr Vassille's medical report with added English translation] (4)
When?
As already asserted: the death certificate and the burial permit state categorically that Jim Morrison died at 5:00am on Saturday the 3rd of July 1971. This is reaffirmed in the American Embassy reports issued after the funeral, Death of an American Citizen: the time of death was 5:00am. And yet this time of death is not mentioned in any of the police file documents, not even in the statement of the only witness to Morrison's death, his girlfriend Pamela Courson.
Generally, while the police file statements corroborate each other, they do not corroborate the death certificate.
The report of the first on the scene, fireman Alain Raisson, said that when he arrived at 9:30am [4 and a half hours after the death], Morrison was in the bath, the water in the bath was warm, and so was the body. And yet, usually, a body starts to become cold 3 hours after death. Even if there are unusual cases where a body can retain heat longer than that, the bath water would not have been warm after that length of time.
The firemen pulled the body out of the bath and took it to the bedroom where it was placed on the bed. Police officer Manchez then reports seeing the body at this point, and reporting it to still be "supple". Again, usually after three hours a dead body starts to noticeably stiffen. Manchez then goes into the bathroom and finds that the bath water is still "lukewarm."
These observations, made between 9:30 and 9:40am do not accord with Morrison's life [and the bath] ending at 5:00am.
Even more, Manchez's statement reports that one of those present in the apartment - Alain Ronay - had been called over to the flat by Pamela Courson between 8:30 to 9:00am, being told that Morrison had "fainted". And that when Ronay arrived at the apartment [after 9:00 but before 9:25am] he saw Morrison "unconscious" in the bath [despite Ronay in [F] saying he "refused to see the body", a peculiar statement in itself].
This all implies that Morrison might still have been alive between 8:30 and 9:15am, and may explain why his body [and the bath water] were still warm - and supple - at 9:30hrs.
Superintendent Berry, in his summing up report made the following day, confirms this course of events: Morrison was discovered unconscious, not dead. He was still thought to be unconscious at 9:30am. It wasn't until he was removed from the bath at that time, that he was then confirmed to be dead, even though the body was still warm and supple.
And yet the death certificate insists he was already dead at 5:00am.
Below is a translation of police Officer Manchez's initial report. I have highlighted areas of particular interest
(9)
And here is the fireman's report:
(9)
Based on these reports, the time of death must have been later than 5:00am.
Dr Vassille was called in later that day by Superintendent Berry to examine the body [as we can see from the map at the top of this essay, Vassille was based just over the road from the police station]. In his medical report he did not even offer an estimation of the time of death, as it seems the doctor was mainly concerned with establishing whether or not there were any "suspicious" "lesions" on the body.
What?
We note that Manchez's statement, made some nine hours before the Doctor's medical report, said the body didn't show any signs of "lesions" too - a strange pre-echo of a later finding. While Superintendent Berry, the head of the investigation, made certain in his summing up report he presented the next day, that the body bore no traces of "lesions", nor - he added - any "needle marks."
[Berry's report translated - my highlights.] (9)
One can only conclude that the main thrust of the police file and medical report is a negative one: to state what Mr Morrison didn't die of, rather than what he did. Paris was swept at that time by a spate of heroin related deaths: Superintendent Berry was determined that he wasn't going to let a heroin overdose victim go under his radar.
As long as Morrison didn't die of a drugs overdose, the case could be closed.
In the statement given by Alain Ronay at the police station, he is asked by police officer Manchez if Jim Morrison ever took drugs. Clearly, this was the over-riding concern of the police investigation.
[Alain Ronay statement to the police translated - note that he says in a response to a question ["N.B."] that Morrison didn't use drugs, and was opposed to their use.] (9)
As we can see, Superintendent Berry concludes his report of the 4th of July with "consequently, I submit your burial certificate." Is this the same burial permit which was issued the previous day? It must be, for it bears the same handwriting as that on the funeral bill. This suggests that the burial permit issued on the 3rd of July at 2:30am was confiscated by the police pending this subsequent investigation and what must have been a second medical examination to determine whether drug use had been involved. Satisfied it hadn't, Berry then "submits" the burial permit to the public prosecutor. This might explain why the burial permit bears not the name of a doctor, but merely 'Mr Public Prosecutor, Dr of Medicine', as we noted earlier.
Soon after Dr Vassille's examination on the 3rd of July, police officer Manchez had filed a report of the case to the public prosecutor which mentions that the death certificate was "prepared at the Town Hall". This must be the one that was issued earlier and which was held back by the police - like the burial permit - pending the investigation and examination by Dr Vassille, which must have been a 'second opinion'.
[translation of police officer Manchez's report to the Public Prosecutor] (9)
Dr Vassille is therefore content to conclude his own sketchy medical report with the diagnosis that 27 year old Morrison died of a sudden heart failure, brought on by drinking too much alcohol, and a too sudden change in body temperature due to taking a bath. He drew this conclusion from the admissions of the only witness to the death - Pamela Courson - who was making her statement in the police station at the same time as the Doctor was in the apartment with the body. Vassille says "as it was told to us by a friend at the scene." But Dr Vassille was not 'at the scene'. He must therefore be basing his assumptions purely on what Superintendent Berry has told him- and what Berry has told him to look for.
Why?
Back at the police station, Pamela Courson is confusedly telling the investigators that, not long before his death, Jim Morrison had often "complained" of "breathing difficulties", but on the other hand he "never used to complain," and he was in "good health." The morning of his death she said he felt ill and told her he would take a bath, which he did, but then called Ms Courson to the bathroom saying he needed to vomit. He vomited up blood, including "blood clots". She wanted to call a doctor, but he told her not to worry as he now felt better, and remained in the bath.
This was possibly around 4:00am, but Courson wasn't sure of the time. She went back to bed and slept for a few hours - again she isn't sure for how long. Awaking, and finding that Mr Morrison wasn't in bed as she had expected, she went to the bathroom and found him still in the bath, "unconscious." Unable to revive him or move him on her own, she telephoned Morrison's friend and colleague, Alain Ronay, who was then living at Agnes Varda's apartment in the Latin Quarter of Paris, urging them to come over quickly as Jim was "unconscious".
Ronay said he received this call at 8:30am.
There is some more confusion here, as Ronay says in his own statement that the police were already at the apartment when he got there, whereas Ms Courson implies that Ronay called them when he got to the apartment. This confusion is probably due to Courson actually asking French speakers Ronay and Varda to call the police on her behalf from their own flat due to her lack of French. Hence the police - being nearer to the flat than Varda - arrived before Ronay and Varda got there. Ronay didn't mention this in his own statement, and said he and Varda left immediately when Pamela Courson called them.
[facsimile of Pamela Courson's statement to the police with translation]
(note that P Courson's signature on this statement is identical to Jim Morrison's own and his signing of her name on cheques - see http://thenietzscheanjimmorrison.blogspot.com/2023/02/) (4)
Conclusion
The story the documents tell us is that the initial death certificate and burial permit, which are largely authorised by Michel Gagnepain [and an unknown doctor - unless Gagnepain was a doctor] of the Hospital Dieu funeral home, are meant to expedite the burial of Jim Morrison as quickly and quietly as possible, as seems to be the desire of his friends Pamela Courson and Alain Ronay.
Police Superintendent Berry, on the other hand, at first appears to be suspicious, and carries out an investigation on Ronay and Courson after the death certificate had been issued, while getting another Doctor [Max Vassille] to examine the body, presumably looking for a possible death by a drugs overdose. Satisfied that this is not the case, Doctor Vassille's report - like the witness statements of Ronay and Courson - suggests that Morrison had what we now call 'underlying conditions', which he had neglected, and he had also ignored the imploring of his friends to get his bad cough, poor breathing and his alcohol consumption seen to. These conditions were therefore 'natural', and Morrison did not touch drugs.
The death certificate and burial permit are re-submitted by Supt. Berry, and Ronay and Courson are in the clear and able to make the funeral arrangements, presumably with the help of Michel Gagnepain as before.
It is interesting to note that five days before the death, Morrison, Ronay and Courson had gone on a sight-seeing trip to a village, Saint-Leu, north of Paris. Being a photographer, Ronay took photos of Morrison and Courson, and of himself with them. In some of the photos, red-haired Courson can be seen using her Super 8 camera - she and Morrison - like Ronay, being keen cinematographers.
Even though Ronay was acknowledged in helping Jerry Hopkins write his biography of Morrison, which he started in 1972 [it wasn't published until 1980], Ronay did not provide these last known photos of Morrison. He only chose to publish them twenty years later in 1991. I think they document a very different impression to the Morrison that comes through the pages of the medical report and witness statements of 1971, including Ronay's own. In the photos, some of which are reproduced below, Morrison looks well, slim and happy, while the behaviour of he, Ronay and Courson seems quite carefree.
Lastly, we need to tie up the last few documented loose ends:
7th July 1971 [Wednesday]
-- Funeral of Jim Morrison
9th July [Friday]
- Courson arrives in the USA after leaving Paris.
- In California, Doors manager Bill Siddons gives the official press release of Morrison's death
-- New York Times reports Jim's death, dating announcement to 8th July, and the death to "last Saturday".
13th July [Tuesday]
- Doors lawyer Max Fink & Pamela Courson apply for a disclosure of Morrison's Will
15th July
- preliminary report of the Death of American Citizen, American Embassy Paris, awaiting doctor's report for cause of death
11th August
- final report of the Death of an American Citizen after Dr. Vassille's medical report received
17th August
- Pamela Courson and Max Fink gain probate of Jim's Will
25th August
- Doors management make creditor claims against the late Jim Morrison's Estate
So What?
Some accounts say that Morrison's passport was returned to the American Embassy in Paris, on the day of his funeral. But the first report of The Death of an American Citizen is not made until 15th of July, and it is marked as 'preliminary', as the cause of death has not been given, as they await the medical report. Nearly a month later the report of Dr Vassille has been submitted and the Final report of The Death of an American Citizen is issued on August 11th. Perhaps this delay is due to the slow wheels of bureaucracy, as Courson, the Doors manager and Ronay had all returned to the USA only two days after the funeral.
[The Preliminary and Final versions of Morrison's Death of an American Citizen report compared] (10)
Max Fink, the Doors attorney, who had made the amendment to the Partnership Agreement as described at the start of this essay, was also named as an executor [alongside Courson] in Jim Morrison's Last Will and Testament, drawn up on February 12th 1969, which he also witnessed.
Pamela Courson was to be Morrison's sole beneficiary, according to the Will, upon his death.
Fink and Courson lost little time in applying for disclosure of the Will and subjecting it to probate.
(11)
Finally, we see that the Doors themselves sued Jim Morrison's estate on the 25th August 1971.
(12)
The above claim against Morrison's Estate is for about $120, 000 - which works out to about $895, 000 in today's money.
These documents may not have got us as close to finding out the truth of what happened on that fateful day of June 3rd, 1971 as we had hoped, but they tell us more than a whole host of unverified personal recollections, made long after the events, ever could. Moreover, it is what these documents tell us in between the lines, that might be most important. For it is from these gaps that we draw our conclusions.
Notes
1) Rocco 1997 p 146
2) Elektra, 1978 'Lament'
3) https://www.christies.com/zh/lot/lot-5865113
4) Autopsyfiles.org - Jim Morrison Death Certificate and Police Report
5) https://www.angloinfo.com/how-to/france/healthcare/death-dying>
6) fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rue_du_Cloître-Notre-Dame
7) http://www.rockmine.com/Doors/Death.html
8) http://mildequator.com/documents/legaldocs.html#funeralbill
9) Adapted from Seymore 1990
10) https://newdoorstalk.proboards.com/thread/1659/morrison-death-american-citizen-report
11) https://newdoorstalk.proboards.com/thread/132/jims
12) https://newdoorstalk.proboards.com/thread/2203/gets-sued-doors-when-dead
DISCOGRAPHY
An American Prayer, Jim Morrison, music by The Doors, Elektra, 1978
BIBLIOGRAPHY
No One Here Gets Out Alive, J Hopkins/D Sugarman, Plexus, 1980
The End, B Seymore, Omnibus, 1990
The Doors Companion, ed. J Rocco, Schirmer, 1997
Angels Dance and Angels Die, P Butler 1998
[Copyright Bill Boethius Osborn 2023, with acknowledgements to Lilith McGregor]
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