Was Pursued the Last Film seen by Jim Morrison?

He escaped into a movie house. 

[Morrison, The Lords] (1) 

The claim that Robert Mitchum's 'Pursued' was the last film Jim Morrison saw derives from the statement made on the day of his death to the French police by his girlfriend Pamela Courson. This statement was made to the Criminal Investigations Department, meaning the police must have regarded Morrison's death as suspicious. (2) 

 The statement was recorded verbatim by the police minutes. Courson describes the deceased as her "friend": 

 "Last night I had dinner with my friend ... I am not explaining myself properly ... I didn't have dinner last night, my friend went out to a restaurant on his own, probably in the area. When my friend came back from the restaurant, we both went to the cinema to see the film La Vallee de la Peur." (ib.) 

These two sentences are interesting, to say the least. She first states that she and the deceased had dinner together, and then changes that to say instead that they dined separately, or rather that Morrison ate out alone, and she "didn't have dinner". We assume Pamela meant she stayed at home while her "friend" dined in a restaurant without her. This sudden change of an alibi would have sounded suspicious to the police; - did she suddenly change it because she wasn't able to say what restaurant it was, or was she concerned that if the police checked the restaurant it would turn out that she didn't dine with Morrison after all? Being a distinctive redhead someone is likely to have remembered her being there or not. 

But in the next sentence she does give a concrete alibi. In the evening, she and Morrison went to see a movie together. Of course, in a darkened cinema no one is going to recall seeing her and Jim Morrison together. But why does Pam - who spoke no French - give the alternate French title for the film, and not the American title 'Pursued', which word ['pursued'] means the same in French anyway. She would have said "Pursued" and it would have remained 'Pursued' in the transcript. Only a French speaker would have said 'La Vallee de la Peur', as recorded in her statement. The film was not dubbed, but only subtitled. She would have watched it and listened to it in English. The title on the screen was clearly 'Pursued'. 

'Le Vallee de la Peur' is an alternative title, and means 'The Valley of Fear'. Presumably there was another French film called 'Pursued', and so it was released in France by this alternate title. However, the fact remains that Pamela would have gone to see the film as 'Pursued', and at a cinema which specialised in showing American movies. This suggests that some French words were put into her mouth - at the very least - by a French Speaker. It seems the French police were suspicious too, and they checked out the alibi. Contrary to what is usually said, the police did make a proper investigation of Morrison's death. 

However, this use of the alternate French title by a non-French speaker is puzzling. Morrison had hired a French-Canadian girl named Robin Wertle in early June to be his secretary at the apartment. Her duties were to see to the running of the flat, hiring cleaners, etc., to answer and respond to any mail, seek out opportunities for Morrison's films to be shown and to type up Morrison's hand written poetry and catalogue it. This means that she would quickly have become used to Morrison's handwriting. While she has been completely elusive since Morrison's death, she was one of the five mourners at his funeral at Pere Lachaise. She also bore an uncanny resemblance to Pamela Courson. 

[Robin Wertle, top, with Pamela Courson, bottom right, bathing Pam's dog Sage in 1972] 

 Being French-Canadian, Wertle spoke fluent French, but her English speech would have sounded American to French ears. Indeed, the French police regarded her as an American when they described the people at the apartment on the morning of Jim's death. Could she have 'forgotten' how to speak French that day and - for whatever reason - given the statement to the police as Pamela Courson? Essentially impersonating the girlfriend of her employer? 

If this were so, it would explain two things: why 'Pam' said La Vallee de la Peur, and not Pursued, and why the signature on that police statement is not Pamela Courson's, but Jim Morrison's version of Pam's signature. To explain, Morrison often signed checks with both his and Courson's names himself. The signature on 'Pam's' police statement is identical to Morrison's version of it as seen on those cheques. As Morrison's secretary, would Wertle have learnt Morrison's signature and signed for Pam in her absence, copying Morrison's version of it? This is the signature she inscribed on the police statement as 'P Courson'. 

[Comparison of signatures shows conclusively that Pamela Courson didn't sign her police statement following Jim Morrison's death] (3) 

Back to Courson's statement, where she goes on to describe where she and Jim had seen the film: 

"The cinema is beside the Metro Station Le Pelletier, I think it is called Action Lafayette." 

 [Above the Action Lafayette pictured close to the time that Morrison went there] 

[Map shows proximity of the Action Lafayette cinema and 17 rue Beautreillis, the apartment shred by Jim Morrison and Pamela Courson, and where Jim Morrison died on July 3rd 1971] 

In her statement Pamela said that she and Morrison "came back from the cinema around 1:00am". (2)

There are two discrepancies here. When the police checked the ticket stub it did correspond to a viewing of Pursued at the cinema, but it was a ticket for one, and it was for an afternoon show. The Action Lafayette was opened in 1966 by two young film buffs, Jean-Max Causse and Jean-Marie Rodon, who were fresh out of business school. Their concept was to show American movies in a theatre setting for other film-buffs to enjoy. They were still owners of the cinema in 1971, and recalled the police contacting them about Pam's alibi. 

 Film fan and Doors enthusiast Lisa Nesslson spoke to the couple in July 1996: 

"We didn't find out about it until a few days later. The police found a ticket stub in Morrison's pocket and traced it to our cinema," said Jean-Max Causse, adding, "But the cashier that day didn't recognise our illustrious customer. Morrison went to the movies incognito. We didn't realise who had come through our door until the police asked us to match up the numbers on the stub - that's how established that he'd been to an afternoon show and that's how we know exactly which film he saw." (4) 

The implication here is that not only did Morrison go to lunch on his own as Pamela said [after correcting herself], he also - contrary to her statement - went to see the film on his own, and in the afternoon, not in the late evening as Pam stated. 

 She said that they both came back from the cinema and got home at 1:00am By car the journey from the cinema to the apartment on the rue Beautreillis is around 15 minutes, by train maybe slightly more. She doesn't say what means of transport they used, and may have mentioned the metro only as a landmark. Perhaps she meant they stopped off on the way home, but even so, the film must have been something like a 10:30pm showing. 

These two discrepancies do throw some further doubt on her side of the story. 

 Ni paranoia ni insouciance ignorant la mort, 

mais une connaissance delicate et senssuelle de la violence dans un present eternal. 

Not paranoia or beyond grave carelessness, 

but a fine sensuous knowledge of violence in an eternal present. 

[Morrison, from Eye] (5) 

 Why the film 'Pursued'? Jim Morrison had by all accounts, felt 'pursued', particularly since the Miami trial which dominated most of 1970 for him, and left him appealing his conviction when he went to Paris, facing jail time on his return, given that he'd effectively skipped bail by going to Paris, and had something like ten brushes with the law before, and even after Miami. These were all listed on his FBI file, and it is said that his lawyer Max Fink was fully aware of the FBI's sinister 'interest' in his client. 

Morrison was deemed by the American State to be an anti-authority figure, hell bent on causing trouble, stirring up riots and behaving in an obscene manner in public. The 'little game' Morrison had played with the authorities in the hippie sixties had now turned seventies serious after Altamont, with the mysterious deaths of certain counter-culture figures and the Manson murders, all painting the rainbow black. Like Robert Mitchum's character, Jeb, in Pursued, Jim was a marked man. (6) 

Pursued is set in New Mexico, an area that permeates Morrison's poetry. It is the turn of the 20th Century, the era known as the Old West, or the Wild West, which was then drawing to a close. Mitchum's Jeb is actually an orphan, and his family was slaughtered in a feud. We are here reminded of Morrison's childhood memory of coming across a family of slaughtered Indians on the road - also in New Mexico. And while Morrison wasn't adopted, he always carried around an outsiders identity, telling the media at the start of his music career that his family were all dead. 

Morrison had noted the similarities between the American Western movie and the Tragedies of ancient Greek drama, where Fate moves inexorably. In Pursued, Jeb is adopted by a relative of the family who had slaughtered his own family, although at first he has no knowledge of this horror. An elder of that feuding family is hunting Jeb down to kill him, and as they get nearer he begins to realise he is being actively pursued. 

 In typically messy fashion Jeb falls in love with his adoptive sister, played by Teresa Wright. Theirs is a difficult relationship, to say the least, and fraught with obstacles, not least their own love/hate attitudes to each other. No doubt Morrison identified with this in terms of his own on/off partnership with Pamela Courson. 

[Teresa Wright & Robert Mitchum 1947 - Pam Courson & Jim Morrison 1967] 

 There is a startling moment in the movie when Jeb comes across some unmarked graves - those of his family, if he only knew. These graves bear a close similarity to the unmarked grave of Jim Morrison in a photo taken just after the funeral, by Pam Courson. 

Jeb kills his adoptive brother in self defence, and , earns the hatred of his lover, Teresa Wright's character. Despite this falling out, Jeb still pursues her. He is put on trial for the killing, like Morrison in Miami, but is acquitted ... for now. Pursuing Teresa, he talks her into marrying him, although she plans to kill him once they are married. There are echoes here of rumours that Pam Courson killed Morrison i Paris, to stop him leaving her. 

 In a scene very similar to that in Oliver Stone's film, The Doors, where Pam threatens to kill Jim Morrison - but can't go through with it, so too here. Jeb and Teresa fall back into each other's arms, and back in love. 

But Fate will not be thwarted. The posse of the feuding family come to kill Jeb, and after a shoot out [where the posse's call to "come out we know you are in there" is also found in Morrison's so-called Hitler poem], he is put on mock trial [perhaps this is closer to Morrison's Miami trial!]. Found guilty, he is hogtied and about to be hung on a tree. The scene here is very similar to the short promotional film the Doors did for their song Unknown Soldier in 1968, which has Morrison hogtied to a tree in a similar fashion. 

[Mitchum, left, in Pursued: Morrison, right, in the Unknown Soldier] 

These could be just amazing coincidences, or else Morrison had seen the movie Pursued before, and might have seen it as something of an omen that it was playing on July 2nd 1971. Did Morrison know that on that very same day his father - now a Rear Admiral in the US Navy - was giving the keynote speech at the decommissioning of his ship, the Bon Homme Richard, in Washington DC - a ship Jim had visited in 1964? 

NOTES

1. Morrison 1971 p. 19

2. Pamela Susan Courson statement to Police Officer Jacques Manchez of the Criminal Investigations Department. .July 3rd, 1971.  Statement given between 3:40pm and 6:40pm at Arsenal Police Station. in Seymore p 55-7, also plates 4-5.

3. Source for signatures and documents is mildequator.com. This issue was explored in a previous blog post: http://thenietzscheanjimmorrison.blogspot.com/2023/02/in-plain-sight-signature-that-denies.html

4. http://www.filmscouts.com/scripts/room.cfm?name=multimed/jim-mo08

5. Muller 1978 p. 218-9

6. Cf., Milton 2012 passim

BIBLIOGRAHY

The Lords and The New Creatures, Jim Morrison, Touchstone 1971

Une Priere Americaine et Autres Ecrits, Jim Morrison, Bilingual Edition, Herve Muller, Christian Bourgois 1978

The End: The Death of Jim Morrison, Bob Seymore, Onibus 1990

We Want The World: Jim Morrison, The Living Theatre and The FBI, Daveth Milton, Bennion Kearny 2012

FILMOGRAPHY

Pursued, directed by Raoul Walsh, starring Robert Mitchum & Teresa Wright. 1947

The Unknown Soldier, directed by Mark Abramson & Edward Dephoure, starring the Doors, Elektra 1968

The Doors, directed by Oliver Stone, starring Val Kilmer & Meg Ryan, 1991

Thanks to Lilith McGregor for ideas and discussions on this subject.

Just Like Oscar: Jim Morrison in Paris

In Reading gaol by Reading town 

There is a pit of shame. 

And in it lies a wretched man 

Eaten by teeth of flame, 

In a burning winding-sheet he lies. 

And his grave has got no name. 

[The Ballad of Reading Gaol, Oscar Wilde] (1) 

Did you know freedom exists 

in a school book 

Did you know madmen are 

running our prison 

w/in a jail, w/in a gaol, 

w/in a white free protestant 

Maelstrom? 

[An American Prayer, Jim Morrison] (2)

[composite image of Oscar Wilde, aged 28, and Jim Morrison, aged 25] (3)

 I 

In his poem 'An American Prayer', Jim Morrison juxtaposes two versions of the word jail; - "gaol" and "jail". The former being the archaic spelling, and associated of course with Oscar Wilde's heart wrenching poem, 'The Ballad of Reading Gaol', referred to above.  'Gaol' is thought to derive from Norman French, and was originally pronounced as 'gahwl', although it had become assimilated to the same pronunciation as 'jail' by Wilde's time. 

And yet, when he reads his poem, Morrison pronounces "gaol" as 'gahwl', differentiating 'jail' and 'gaol' as the words follow in his poem. (4) This therefore is a clear and emphatic allusion to Wilde's ballad by Morrison, who certainly had 'gaol' on his mind in 1970 as he too was facing jailtime. Whereas Oscar Wilde served his sentence - and was broken by it, Morrison sought to evade his, moving to Paris whilst on appeal and dying there. Indeed, both men would die in Paris as exiles from their respective native lands. 

In my view it is clear that Morrison's allusions to Oscar Wilde went beyond influence or identification, and were actually statements of intent in and of themselves.

II 

Steel doors lock in prisoner’s screams 

& muzak, AM, rocks their dreams 

No black men’s pride to hoist the beams 

while mocking angels sift what seems 

To be a collage of magazine dust 

Scratched on foreheads of walls of trust 

This is just jail for those who must  

[from An American Prayer] (5) 

Each narrow cell in which we dwell 

Is a foul and dark latrine, 

And the fetid breath of living Death 

Chokes up each grated screen, 

And all, but Lust, is turned to dust 

In Humanity's machine. 

[from The Ballad of Reading Gaol] (6) 

The parallels between the two men are striking, as they are at times apposite, and at other times, opposite. Just as Wilde was the product of the upper echelons of the old world, so was Morrison of the new world. And while Wilde didn't publish his first collection of poems until he was 27 years old, Morrison had died by that age, publishing his songs from the age of 22 with the rock group, the Doors. Wilde would live on for another 19 years, producing plays and essays, before experiencing the incarceration and subsequent humiliation that Morrison avoided. And yet Wilde would live another three years in that Parisian exile, Morrison would perish in only four months. 

Both were leading figures of exciting cultural and artistic movements which were simultaneously popular and yet condemned widely by the establishment of their times. They were similarly hounded to their graves because they dared to offend and to innovate, while laughing to scorn at the 'straight' world. Their graves were both in Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris, as they accordingly found that city a refuge from the "white free protestant maelstrom" of the Anglo-Saxon world, whether it be Victorian England or Nixonian America. And - as Wilde was his forerunner - we can expect that Morrison's following in Wilde's footsteps was therefore both deliberate and emphatic. Indeed, given that Morrison acquired the grave plot in Pere Lachaise before he died, and that - most telling of all - he stayed in the same hotels that Oscar Wilde was arrested in and died in, we can only assume that when he went to Paris in March 1971 he intended to die in Paris that coming summer, 'just like Oscar'.

III 

Jail 

The walls screamed poetry disease & sex 

an inner whine like a mad machine – 

dropped in a cave 

 of roaches 

 or rodents 

[from Wilderness, by Jim Morrison] (7) 

At six o'clock we cleaned our cells, 

At seven all was still, 

But the sough and swing of a mighty wing 

The prison seemed to fill. 

For the Lord of Death with icy breath 

Had entered in to kill. 

[from The Ballad of Reading Gaol] (8) 

Wilde's ill-advised private prosecution of 1895 against the Marquis of Queensbury [the father of his 'Muse', Bosie, the nicknmae Lord Alfred Douglas] which he lost, incurred huge costs, and led swiftly to him being charged with gross indecency, resulting from the evidence that had emerged in his own libel action. He had been repeatedly advised to leave London, and seek refuge in Paris, but he hesitated, and was arrested, somewhat hoist by his own petard, however unfairly he was treated. 

Likewise, Morrison - who had given a drunken, chaotic, profane and sexually suggestive performance at Miami in 1969, had unwittingly played into the hands of the political 'Campaign for Decency', applauded by President Nixon. He found himself arrested and charged with those very things he had done on the stage as an artistic performance. 

 Morrison echoed Wilde's defence when he said it was really a "lifestyle that was on trial." But that was to be no defence in the eyes of a puritanical establishment which regarded the lifestyles of Wilde and Morrison as criminal in themselves. Like Wilde, Morrison was found guilty, and also sentenced to imprisonment with hard labour. 

[contemporary coverage of the Wilde and Morrison trials] (3)

 IV 

The barns are stormed 

The windows kept 

& only one of all the rest 

To dance & save us 

With the divine mockery of words 

[from An American Prayer] (9) 

Like two doomed ships that pass in storm 

We had crossed each other's way: 

But we made no sign, we said no word. 

We had no word to say 

[from The Ballad of Reading Gaol] (10) 

Despite having a house nearby, Wilde liked to take rooms at the Cadogan Hotel in London, just as Morrison liked to room at a motel near to where he lived in Los Angeles. Wilde was staying at the Cadogan Hotel when he was arrested. At that point he had secured bail of £5, 000, and had a window of opportunity to flee the country for France. Despite the urging of his friends, he decided to stay put, and take on the establishment. 

A thump, and a murmur of voices — 

(”Oh why must they make such a din?”) 

As the door of the bedroom swung open 

And TWO PLAIN CLOTHES POLICEMEN came in: 

“Mr. Woilde, we ‘ave come for tew take yew 

Where felons and criminals dwell: 

We must ask yew tew leave with us quoietly 

For this is the Cadogan Hotel.” 

[The Arrest of Oscar Wilde at the Cadogan Hotel, Sir John Betjeman] (11) 

Morrison was not to make this mistake. On a bond of $50, 000 and appealing his sentence, in March 1971 he slipped quietly over to Paris before the FBI could confiscate his passport. His girlfriend and Muse, Pamela Courson, had gone on ahead a month before to arrange accommodation for them. 

Can it be a coincidence that a few months later, Morrison's close French-American friend, Alain Claude Ronay, had reserved a room at the Cadogan Hotel, where Wilde was arrested, in London for them, after Morrison had fled to France? The reason for this stay in London is not known, and Morrison would return to Paris shortly afterwards. 

If it was only a short break, it was certainly symbolic and further underlines the parity Morrison felt with the life of Wilde. In a later brief article of 1991, the usually reticent Ronay tries to play down the connection between Morrison's movements in Europe, and Wilde's, and yet he mentions Wilde repeatedly. (12)  Some have speculated that Morrison had tried to conceal a gay relationship between himself and Ronay. 

Ensconced in Paris, Morrison, would never go back to the USA to serve the jail stretch waiting there for him. But Wilde had left it too late, and only relocated to Paris after serving his backbreaking two year sentence in Reading Gaol - but neither of them would avoid the final tragedy.

V 

"I can write, but have lost the joy of writing" 

[Letter to his publisher, Wilde, Paris, 1897] (13) 

The joy of performing has ended. 

[As I Look Back, JDM, Paris, 1971] (14) 

Through her contacts in Paris, Pamela Courson was able to rent for the summer an up-market flat on the Right Bank in Paris, and would move in there March 1971. Using this as their base, they would make tourist trips around the Mediterranean. At one time though, in early May, the apartment was not ready for them on their return to Paris, and they chose to stay at another hotel, this time on the Left Bank. 

Morrison's biographer takes up the tale: 

"Their flat was unavailable for a few nights so they moved into L'Hotel, an exclusive Left Bank hostelry whose twenty-five extravagantly appointed rooms were becoming much in demand among visiting rock stars, who were attracted to the one-time residence of Oscar Wilde. Soon after, there were stories of another of Jim's binges and the accompanying fall from one of L'Hotel's second storey windows. He apparently landed on top of a car, bounced once, and dusted himself off as if nothing had happened, walked up the street for a drink." (15) 

[graphic showing the outside of L'Hotel, 13 rue Beaux-Arts - Morrison's stay included his falling out a window!] 

Wilde stayed on the second floor too - in room 14. It is said that Morrison himself stayed in that very same room. Like Wilde, Morrison too toured the flesh pots of that locale: 

"Living on the Left Bank, in St Germain, in a way put Jim back on Santa Monica Boulevards, for here were all the famous bars...." [...] "To the au courant French crowd, the hippest 'underground' clubs were the newly opened Le Bulle, and Jim's favourite, a series of basement caves called the Rock 'n' Roll Circus." [ib.] 

While Wilde died on his death bed in room 14 of L'Hotel, surrounded by friends and a priest, Morrison's death was mysterious and lonely. The death certificate said he died of 'natural causes'. But many reject this view: 

"The Parisians hold out for heroin as the cause of death. Jim had been a regular at the Rock 'n' Roll Circus, the French night spot then known as a haven for the local heroin underground..." (16) 

"Some say he went to the Rock 'n' Roll Circus, so steeped in depression that he bought some heroin and O.D.'d in the club lavatory, only to be carried out the back door and dumped at his flat, in the bathtub." (17)

VI 

But Morrison didn't die like Oscar, at L'Hotel. By the time of his death, Morrison had returned to his Right Bank Apartment at 17 rue Beautreillis - and to a very different neighbourhood. Here he had peace to write and live a life away from the temptations of booze and 'rock n roll'. 

Living at rue Beautreillis throughout June with Alain Ronay who vouched for Morrison's reserved and sober life-style there, it was on Saturday July 3 1971 that Morrison died in the bathtub of this apartment. Therefore I don't think he could have died of a drug overdose in the Left Bank's Rock 'n' Roll Circus as I believe he only frequented that place when he lived nearby, on the rue Beaux-Arts. While he could've been "carried" home from the Circus to the rue Beaux Arts quite easily, it would be impossible for the same to be done from the Circus to rue Beautreillis which was on the other side of the Seine and much further away, as the map below shows. 

[Map showing the proximity of L'Hotel on rue Beax Arts [B] to the Rock n Roll Circus [C]. While at the same time showing the distance from both of 17 rue Beautreillis] (3)

Not only that, while a hotel would be easy to get someone back into and up to their room, the flat at 17 rue Beautreillis presented other obstacles, not just distance. Once into the apartment block there is a large and wide hallway. At the opposite end of this are the stairs to the upper floors. These stairs are by the open courtyard and overlooked by the other flats. Anyone entering carrying a body would be seen, and after going up three flights of stairs, there are other apartments on the same landing as number 17. Once entering that apartment, there is another lobby and another corridor. See pictures below of 17 rue Beautreillis. 

[Features of 17 rue Beautreillis showing the building provides scant cover and lacks ease of access] (3)

[floor plan of a similar apartment to that of 17 rue Beautreillis] 

 As can be seen from the above floor plan, the bathroom is at the opposite end of the floor from the entrance. All in all, secretly carrying a body back from the Left Bank Circus and into the genteel Right Bank neighbourhood of rue Beautreillis, and then negotiating the taxing route to the apartment's bathroom, would seem fairly difficult and fraught with the danger of being observed and discovered.

VII 

He who lives more lives than one 

More deaths than one must die. 

[The Ballad of Reading Gaol, Wilde] (18) 

Which of my cellves will be remember’d 

Good-bye America I loved you 

[As I Look Back, Morrison] (19) 

It was on the third day of July, that Jim Morrison died in the bathtub of 17 rue Beautreillis. His body was not seen by his family. Of his close friends, only his girlfriend Pamela saw him die. The medics and policemen who responded to the calls of an ailing man did not recognise him as being the 'rock star' Jim Morrison. 

Just as Wilde became Sebastien Melmouth when he came to Paris, so was Morrison renamed as James Douglas, an unknown poet with a private fortune. The authorities in Paris did not realise they were to pronounce dead and have buried an unknown "cellve" of the rock star. 

Morrison was buried quickly and quietly while his family, colleagues and public were unaware. Unlike Oscar, he didn't even have a grave stone, but was buried in an unmarked grave. 

Wilde's first resting place was described as a pauper's grave, but in a few short years his friends and colleagues collected the funds for him to be buried in Pere Lachaise beneath a splendid and mighty monument by the sculptor Jacob Epstein. 

No such dignity was allowed Morrison, whose unmarked grave and environs started to be sullied with junk and graffiti by fans of the singer. A bust of Morrison, again provided by a fan ten years after his death, was similarly defaced and eventually stolen. Only 20 years after his passing, did his parents provide a fitting headstone and then visit the grave. 

[The graves of Morrison and Wilde] (3) 

A final comparison between Wilde and Morrison in death shows that Wilde's friends did all they could to get him the respect he deserved, while Morrison's were tardy and grudging. His tiny gravesite hardly merits the attention of the hordes of rock music fans who descend upon it; while Wilde's is an impressive monument to the great man of letters. And Wilde's tomb gets most visits, but with Morrison's grave not far behind. 

This is in itself is fitting though, as Morrison still follows in the footsteps of Oscar.

NOTES 

1) Wilde, 1910 p 37. Originally, in the first edition of 1898, the author was only named as C33. C33 was Wilde's cell number when he was imprisoned in Reading Gaol. By 1900, the author's name was also printed on the title page. The poem narrates the execution of a fellow prisoner. 

2) Morrison, Penguin 1990 p. 7. An American Prayer was first published in summer 1970 as a private pocket book, by Western Lithographers, Los Angeles, and numbered approximately 250 copies. A full mainstream publication of An American Prayer can be found in 2021's release of The Collected Works Of Jim Morrison. 

3) montages by Bill Boethius Osborn 

4) Morrison, Elektra Records, 1978 - track 5 

5) Morrison, Pengun, 1990 p 8 

6) Wilde, 1910 p 33 

7) Morrison, Viking, 1988 p 83 

8) Wilde 1910 p 23 

 9) Morrison, 1990 p 5 

10) Wilde 1910 p 15 

11) first published in 1937, in Murray, 1970, p 18 

12) see Ronay's refs to Wilde in his article 'Jim and I', [and cf. Bosie's memoir similarly titled 'Oscar Wilde and Myself']. Another coindence is that Bosie's surname 'Douglas', was also Jim Morrison's middle name. The substance of Ronay's article can be found in Albert Goldman,' Interviews withAlain Ronay and Agnes Varda', in Rocco, Schirmer Books 1997 

13) Ellmann, 1988, p 52 

14) Harpers 2021 p 558 

15) Plexus 1980 p 356 

16) ib. 

17) ib., p 395 

18) Wilde 1910 p 25 

19) Harpers p 563 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

The Ballad of Reading Gaol, Oscar Wilde, Duffield & Co. 1910 

John Betjeman's Collected Poems, John Murray, 1970 

No One Here Gets Out Alive, Hopkins/Sugerman, Plexus 1980 

Oscar Wilde, Richard Ellmann, Knopf 1988 

Wilderness, Jim Morrison, Viking, 1988 

The American Night, Jim Morrison, Penguin 1990 

The Doors Companion, ed. John Rocco, Schirmer Books 1997 

The Collected Works of Jim Morrison, Harpers 2021

How did Jim Morrison Get a Grave in Pere-Lachaise?

"[Bill] Siddons [Doors manager] arrived in Paris on Tuesday, July 6th [1971]. He was met at the flat by Pamela [Courson, Jim Morrison's girlfriend], a sealed coffin, and a signed death certificate. Funeral arrangements were quickly and secretly confirmed. On July 7 Pamela filed the death certificate with the U.S. Embassy, identifying Jim as James Douglas Morrison, a poet. She said there were no living relatives. The official cause of death was listed as a heart attack. 

"Siddons was efficient, and on Wednesday [July 7th] afternoon the coffin was lowered into the ground at Pere La Chaise, a cemetery Jim [Morrison] had recently visited as a sightseer, seeking the graves of Edith Piaf, Oscar Wilde, Balzac, Bizet, and Chopin. Five mourners were present: Pamela, Siddons, Alan Ronay [Morrison's French-American friend since film school, in 1963], Agnes Varda [celebrated French film director], and Robin Wertle [Robyn was Morrison's secretary - he had employed her since early June 1971 to put some order to his affairs and papers]. They threw flowers on the grave and said their goodbyes." 

[No One Here Gets Out Alive, Hopkins & Sugerman, 1980] 

[My graphic of the five mourners. The pictures of Robyn Wertle and Bill Siddons, are from 1972: the pictures of Ronay and Courson are from June 1971. Only the picture of Varda is a little later, but reflects how she appeared in the early 1970s. The image of Wertle is of poor quality, but there are few pictures of her to be found. But even from this shot we can see that she bore a striking resemblance to Courson] 

[Here I have added Courson's photo of the grave seen just after Morrison was buried]

Cemetery Cold & Quiet 

Nine years after Jim Morrison's death, this was the most detailed description of Jim Morrison's funeral available then. The main author, Jerry Hopkins [a contributor to 'Rolling Stone' magazine, and the author of a biography of Elvis Presley] had interviewed Morrison a few times before the latter's passing, and had travelled with the Doors as an embedded journalist. He gathered the materials for the book between 1971 and 1975, although it was only published in 1980 thanks to the involvement of Doors staffer Danny Sugerman. The book's 'Acknowledgements' states: 

"The year following Jim Morrison's alleged death Jerry Hopkins was sent to Europe as Rolling Stone's roving correspondent. This made it a simple matter for him to research the details of Jim and the other Door's only European tour and of Jim's final months in Paris...." 

 [ib. p 381] 

The 'Acknowledgements' also claim that Hopkins had interviewed Pamela Courson, Bill Siddons, and Robin Wertle, as well as a host of others. However, absent from the two page list of contributors are Alan Ronay and Agnes Varda - two of the only five people at Morrison's funeral, and two people who were at Morrison's apartment on the day of his death. It is hardly surprising then, that the information in this "long awaited biography" is so sketchy when it comes to this pivotal moment: Morrison's death and interment. 

 We are told above that "Funeral arrangements were quickly and secretly confirmed" - what does that really mean? - it sounds like waffle. And, "the coffin was lowered into the ground at Pere La Chaise..." - Just like that - so quickly and secretly, so 'efficiently' and 'confirmedly'. The authors even refer to Morrison's "alleged" death: not only do they tell us little, but what they do tell us seems slightly dubious. 

 While the Morrison and Courson families had been locked in legal combat along with the Doors management over the control and inheritance of Jim Morrison's estate in a long saga, arching over the 1970s and 1980s, a British based American investigative writer, called Bob Seymore, who was not linked to the families or the Doors, sought to do independent research in Paris in order to find out what really happened there in July 1971. 

He had received no response from Bill Siddons, while Agnes Varda, Alan Ronay and Robyn Wertle had all been incommunicado on the subject of Jim Morrison's death throughout the 1970s and 1980s, and of course, Pamela Courson had died in 1974, without making any kind of verifiable statement beyond what she had told the police on the day of Morrison's death, notwithstanding the largely unfruitful contributions she and Wertle are supposed to have made to Hopkins' book. 

In his The End: The Death of Jim Morrison, [1990] the aforementioned Bob Seymore describes a visit he made to the offices of Pere Lachaise cemetery when he was seeking information on Morrison's burial there. He had previously phoned the cemetery, who said they could only answer questions if they were in written form. To that end he faxed over a series of questions to the office, asking when exactly the Morrison grave plot was bought, and who bought it, and other such questions, but no answers had been forthcoming. After a month of waiting, and being given the run-around [the faxed reply had been sent - hadn't been sent, etc., etc.,], he was then told his questions couldn't be answered as the matter was "confidential". 

Making further phone calls, Pere La Chaise relented and told him the grave was purchased on July 2nd [the day before Morrison's death]; they then changed their minds and said it was actually bought on July 7th [the day of the funeral]. They corrected this once more to give their final version: the grave was purchased on July 6th [the day before the funeral, and three days after Morrison's death] and they would fax him a photocopy of the register entry. 

 Not satisfied with this, in his persistence, Seymore went to Pere Lachaise to ask them the rest of his questions in person. While at the cemetery office, the clerk acknowledged the original list of questions Seymore had faxed to them, and set out to answer the questions there and then - faxing the replies, so that Seymore would have them on record. As this was going on, Seymore's French speaking companion, Nadine, noticed that one of the notes the clerk was working from stated that Pamela Susan Courson was Morrison's "cousin". This of course, wasn't true, and contradicts what Pam Courson's report to the police and the American Embassy had always stated: that she was only Jim Morrison 'girl-friend'. 

Seymore indicates the contents of the note, which stated next that Ms Courson's lawyers had requested that 'cousin' be changed to 'wife' in 1977. This was three years after Courson's death, and was also not true, even though Pam was buried as Pamela Courson-Morrison. She never legally married Jim Morrison and at most, could only be viewed as his common-law wife, when he died. The next note following this on the sheet referred to the sculptured bust which was placed on the grave in 1981, to which Seymore also alludes. 

Finding this description of Pamela as 'cousin' - and therefore as a Morrison blood relative, startling, Seymore asked the clerk to stamp the sheet, photo-copy and then fax it with the replies to his questions. Unfortunately, for what ever reason, Seymore did not include a facsimile of this sheet in his book, just as he didn't reproduce all the documents he gathered in Paris. No doubt this was due to limits placed upon him by the authorities and his own publisher. However, a copy of this sheet of notes - along with other documents that Seymore didn't reproduce has turned up, and it is quite revealing. For it suggests strongly that in order to purchase a grave plot for Jim Morrison, Pam Courson [not being married to him] had to pretend that she was a member of the Morrison family, calling herself his 'cousin'. She must have had help in order to convince Pere-Lachaise that this was the case, since she spoke no French.

"They [Pere Lachaise] discovered that the grave was purchased on July 6 and the burial took place the following day." 

[Seymore 1980] 

The Unanswered Question 

But how was it that Jim Morrison [who was being touted only as 'a dead unknown American writer' by Courson] was able to get a double grave plot at such short notice in Pere-Lachaise - and why has this never drawn much suspicion? That Pamela Courson bought the plot from Pere Lachaise on July 6th 1971 became the accepted wisdom and has been reported uncritically ever since, despite the puzzlement as to how this was possible, for even in 1971, the applications to get buried in Pere-Lachaise were exceeding the spaces available. How was the cousin of an unknown American able to get a plot so quickly? Consider that since the 1950s, Pere Lachaise has been fully booked. 

 To be sure of getting a plot at Pere-Lachaise, one needed to 'plan ahead', and make an application in advance, as plots could become available when already acquired graves fell into disuse, and stopped being maintained - or stopped being paid for. Leases ran out on some plots, and if not renewed, any bones could be removed and put into the ossuary, and a new body and grave put into its place. 

How was Pam Courson - a non-French speaker as I've said, able to get a plot a day before the funeral? The answer to this question - which has never before been properly asked - is there in the Pere-Lachaise notes mentioned by Seymore. So interested was he in the false use of the 'cousin' relationship by Pam Courson, he failed to notice the date when Courson 'acquired' the grave. It was not the 6th of July 1971, the day before the funeral, but the 6th of January 1971 - six months before the funeral, and therefore also a good six months before Morrison died. 

 Looking at the date '6.1.1971' on the notes, and after being told that the grave was purchased on the 6th of July, Seymore failed to notice that what he thought was a seven, was in fact a one: it is clearly the 6th of January. 

[The Pere-Lachaise note: The first two lines refer to the date and place of Morrison's death and to the date of his burial. The third line describes the grave plot and its position in the cemetery, while the fourth line refers to acquisition of the grave by his 'cousin'[cousine], Pamela Susan Courson on 6.1.1971. The next two lines indicate that the Courson family's legal team in 1977 request that 'cousin' be changed to 'wife' [epouse]. The remainder of the note, starting with a reference to Rebillon marble, details the bust of Jim Morrison sculpted by Mikulin Mladan and its placing on the grave in 1981] 

[The first section of the note - the word cousin (cousine) I've underlined, and the date, 6.1.1971, encircled in red] 

[The date 6.1.1971 is blown up and compared with other uses of 7s and 1s on the same sheet to show that the 1 is a 1, and that the writer will cross a seven (French 7) to avoid any ambiguity in certain cases] 

This immediately makes more sense and would allow 'cousin' Courson to acquire the plot in advance by putting herself on the waiting list, so to speak. A grave plot could become available any time within that six months. Courson was constantly flying to Europe during 1970-1, as she had a relationship with the wealthy Parisian aristocrat, Jean de Breteuil, know as the 'Count'. She also had the excuse to go on frequent buying missions, to obtain clothing and materials for her boutique 'Themis', which Morrison had bought for her to run in Los Angeles, and which specialised in expensively exotic clothes, and was patronised by the rich and famous. There was also the Parisian couple Agnes Varda, and Jacques Demy - well known new wave film makers, both friends of Courson and Morrison, while Morrison's friend since his college days - the French-American Alain Ronay - was a useful go-between as he was a photographer and film technician who, while living near Courson and Morrison in Los Angeles, often visited Europe and even stayed at times with Varda in Paris. 

 Anecdotal evidence says that Courson was in Paris from October 1970, returning to the US in December for Christmas, and then jetting back to Paris for the new year. She had been repeatedly telling Morrison that he must move to Paris and live there with her permanently, as the Doors recording contract was up, the Miami obscenity conviction loomed, and Morrison needed to strike out as a poet, and stop "wasting his time", as she saw it, with music. She had reportedly made the ultimatum that she would relocate to Paris herself even if he didn't join her. Returning again to the US briefly, she then left for Paris on the 14th of February 1971 to find an apartment: Morrison had finally agreed to go and live in Paris with her - he would follow her out there in a few weeks. 

 Using her network of the wealthy and influential, Courson got the luxury apartment at 17 Rue Beautreillis - near to Pere-Lachaise - for the time being, as its owner, a model friend, was going to be away for the summer. Jim would rent it for 3,000 francs a month. Eventually they planned to convert a derelict church in the south of France into a home. 

So we can establish that on the 6th of January 1971, Courson, calling herself a 'cousin' of Morrison, and a Paris resident, was able to apply for a grave plot in Pere-Lachaise. Interestingly, back in Los Angeles, and the day before this - on the 5th of January - Max Fink, the lawyer of the Doors, and the man who had kept Jim Morrison out of jail despite the best efforts of the Miami courts and the FBI [subsequently FBI files have been released showing that there was a near 100 page dossier on Morrison], formalised the Doors Partnership Agreement. Previously this was a word of mouth understanding between the four members of the group. Now it was set down and legally binding. Ultimately the agreement would make it possible for the Doors to continue as the Doors should one of the group die. This clause would be finalised and authorised by the group the day Morrison left for Paris, on the 11th March 1971. Fink had also warned Morrison that, as he was now appealing his Miami conviction for obscenity, and out on a substantial bond of $50, 000, he needed to move quickly as the authorities were ready to confiscate his passport: Fink was always one step ahead of Jim Morrison's persecutors. 

So we are left with this: Pamela Courson, claiming to be a Morrison cousin, had bought a plot for the Morrison family in the celebrated cemetery Pere-Lachaise, Paris. She had also acquired an apartment near Pere Lachaise, and Morrison himself would visit Pere Lachaise only a week before his death, telling his friend Alain Ronay that he would like to be buried there. While we might speculate as to why this plot was bought in advance, we cannot get away from the evidence that it was, and that Courson lied about her relationship to the Morrison clan in order to buy it. We know that the grave plot belonged to the Morrison family as they had to be asked permission for the marble bust to be placed on it in 1981. We also know that the grave plot was originally bought on a 30 year lease. In 2001, when the lease expired, the Morrison family bought the plot in perpetuity. 

Notes:

1) first edition page 367 - my editorial explanatory additions to the quote are in square brackets. Contrary to what is said here, Rear Admiral George S. Morrison is listed as being Jim Morrison's father on the US Embassy Death of an American Citizen certificate. Also, the funeral did not take place in the afternoon, but in the morning, starting at 8:30am. Documents have come to light since 1980 to show this. However, it still isn't certain on what day the American Embassy in Paris was notified of Jim's death - the first certificate [called a 'preliminary'] from the Embassy is dated 17th July 1971. My point here is that in 1980, Hopkin's book was the 'gospel' in regards to Jim Morrison. It wasn't until Seymore's book of 1990 that many assumptions were challenged.] 

2) page 20

3) thanks to Lilith McGregor for finding this. 

Bibliography:

No One Here Gets Out Alive, Jerry Hopkins & Danny Sugerman, Plexus Books, 1980 

The End: The Death of Jim Morrison, Bob Seymore, Omnibus Press, 1980

Documenting the Death of the Doors/Jim Morrison

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]