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This Is NOT The End? Is Jim Morrison Still With Us?

Mighty_Emperor

Gone But Not Forgotten
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Mad? Cheap publicity stunt?

'Jim Morrison Is Alive'


TONY CASTRO, Columnist 12.JAN.05


In West Hollywood, you can now light his fire overnight at his last U.S. residence

Officially, Jim Morrison, the pop culture icon of the 1960s and the lead singer of The Doors, died July 3, 1971 in Paris of a probable drug overdose.

Unofficially, in the past 34 years, Jim Morrison has had more reported sightings than UFOs.

In Los Angeles, a woman who describes herself as a former actress, former Hollywood madam and former jailbird is perhaps the latest claiming that Morrison not only lives — having faked his death with the help of the FBI — but that she talks to him regularly by phone.

“Jim Morrison really is alive,” says Cheri Woods. “He is living with his girlfriend in the middle of nowhere. He still smokes pot and drinks beer. The last time I talked to him, he told me he wanted to meet Billy Idol and that he liked the way Val Kilmer portrayed him in the film The Doors.”

Yes, Cherie Woods is a longtime Jim Morrison fan, whose worship today is highly motivated because she now owns an extremely valuable piece of Morrison memorabilia.

Fifteen months ago, Woods bought the West Hollywood apartment building where Morrison and longtime girlfriend Pamela Courson lived in 1970 and 1971, until four months before his reported death.

“Their two-bedroom apartment is known among The Doors fans worldwide as ‘Jim Morrison’s last known U.S. residence,’” says Woods.

Last summer, after finally moving the last occupants to another unit, Woods began offering overnight stays at the apartment at $200 a night to Morrison fans, who have come from as far away as Italy for the ultimate Jim Morrison roadside attraction.

Last fall, an English production company even brought in some psychics for a seance at the apartment, which is adorned with Doors and Morrison posters — and which Woods has tried to furnish to match the period of the early 1970s.

Morrison himself was a no-show at the seance, says Woods, but they heard the sound of a dog barking outside when one of the psychics asked Jim’s spirit if he had a dog.

“It was the only time we heard a dog barking the entire evening,” says Woods.

For Woods, who won’t give out her age but admits to being a baby-boomer, the Morrison apartment is a godsend when all she was looking for was a home for her 19-year-old daughter, Tiana, an aspiring blues singer.

Woods herself is the ex-wife of Atlantic recording artist Stevie Woods, who had the hit “Steal The Night” in 1981 and who is the son of jazz legend Rusty Bryant.

When the marriage ended, Woods says her life took a downward turn that ultimately led to becoming a Hollywood madam. When she was busted, through a series of jailhouse quirks, she found herself temporary housed on Death Row with some of Charles Manson’s disciples.

It led to a self-published book on her life, Death Row Madam, that she has been trying to sell to Hollywood.

There has been enough income from all her ventures to an investment in real estate, her own real estate license and a condo that she sold to buy the Morrison apartment building — at 8216 1/2 W. Norton — for a low-ball price of $700,000.

In her eyes, the building — which she has named Cheri Amour — is priceless. She has applied for historic designation and is not shy about latching her star to Morrison’s.

Authentication, unfortunately, resides among Morrison and music buffs. Ben Fong Torres, the Rolling Stone rock writer, recalls having interviewed Morrison just months before his death at an apartment belonging to girlfriend Courson on Norton.

A couple of longtime residents at the rent-control building also remember Morrison. One of them even claims to have the coffee table from the Morrison apartment.

The previous owners, however, were not helpful. They refused to turn over old leases to Woods, who is convinced the former owners had no idea who they had living on their property.

“There was one time that Jim and Pamela were late on the rent,” Woods recalls a story she was told by another occupant, “and the owner gave them a three-day [pay rent or leave] notice.

“It was addressed to Mr. Jim Morris.”

Source
 
In the uncut version of Stephen King's "The Stand" Stu Redman claims to have met Jim Morrison in the American South West desert in the late 70's or early 80's . . .

Interestingly Stu claims he felt something vaguely evil on Morrison and says he thinks that if he outlived the virus that he would be living in Vegas with the other ne'er-do-wells . . .

I always thought that was interesting, and would love to ask Mr. King what made him write that about Morrison.

-Fitz
 
Weird that you say that Fitz. A friend and I sometimes used to play fantasy casting, like we were making a movie of something and we could have anyone we wanted playing the parts, and we thought Morrison would be great as Flagg.
 
There's a fairly balanced overview of the whole thing here:
In all likelihood, rock and roll legend Jim Morrison is buried in Paris's Pere-Lachaise cemetery. That fact, of course, hasn't inhibited numerous "sightings" of the Doors' lead singer since his would-be death in 1971. Chalk it up, if you will, to the rock icon's prodigious mythology - like Dead Elvis's perpetual loitering or the Virgin Mary's fondness for making cameo appearances on tortillas.

Still, the circumstances of Morrison's death were quite mysterious and confusing. It's not surprising that a crop of postmortem rumors sprang up insinuating that by the good graces of assorted conspiracies - from the political to the supernatural - the Lizard King lives. Indeed, the official version of Morrison's death is in some respects even less believable than the surreal myths.

Officially, Morrison died at about 5 a.m. on July 3, 1971, of a heart attacks, a rather improbable fate for a twenty-seven-year-old man - although somewhat less so for a rock star prematurely weathered by a decade of gut-flushing bacchanalia. As his longtime girlfriend, Pamela Courson, told the story, Morrison decided to take a bath in the Parisian flat one evening. Courson went to bed and the next morning discovered Morrison's corpse in the tub.

Bizarre rumors began to surface almost immediately, undoubtedly nursed along by Courson's puzzling attempts to screw a lid on the news. Courson initially told reporters that Morrison was "not dead but very tired and resting in a hospital." Nonetheless, word began to wend through Paris that Morrison had died of a heroin overdose in the sleazy underground nightclub, Rock 'n' Roll Circus. (Another popular rumor had it that Morrison OD'd on cocaine, a drug that he was known to binge on.) Rumor had it that Morrison was hustled home and deposited in the bathtub in an attempted revival. Of course, there were no witnesses.

Although Courson was claiming that Morrison was still alive days after his demise, in fact, a Parisian doctor had already signed the death certificate, listing the deceased as "James Morrison, Poet." The coffin was sealed before either the American Embassy or Morrison's family had been notified. No autopsy was performed. Only a full six days later, after Morrison's quiet burial at Pere-Lachaise, did Doors manager Bill Siddons hold a press conference announcing the news that the "Young Lion" had died of a heart attack brought on by a blood clot and possible a lung infection.
The Los Angeles Times stirred doubts when it headlined a story, WHY MORRISON DEATH NEWS DELAY? Inevitably, there was talk of a cover up. After all, only Courson, a couple of French medical examiners, and unknown police officers had actually seen Morrison's corpse. Not even Siddons (who jetted to Paris after Courson denied Morrison's death over the phone and then broke down crying) thought to open the casket when he arrived at the flat.

There were other improbable details in the official scenario, which subsequently fueled bizarre lore: How had an American rock star like Morrison finagled his way into Pere-Lachaise, the historic French cemetery were luminaries like Balzac, Chopin, Moliere, and Oscar Wilde are entombed? For some unexplained - ergo, suspicious - reason, the headstone didn't appear for several months, and the grave remained unmarked. When Doors drummer John Densmore later visited the cemetery, he announced, "?the grave is too short!"
The full article is pretty long, the above a small extract.



           
 
I think there is a conversation reported in 'No-one gets out alive' by Jerry Hopkins where Morrison is talking to Ray Manzarek (I think) and mentions an intention to disappear and return under the code name "Mojo Rising". Whether this was true or a post death attempt to mythologise the man I have no idea.

Or to quote Denis Leary "We need a two and a half hour movie about the Doors? Folks, no we don't. I can sum it up for you in five seconds, ok. "I'm drunk. I'm nobody. I'm drunk. I'm famous. I'm drunk. I'm f**cking dead." There's the whole movie, ok!? Big fat dead guy in a bath tub, there's your title for you."
 
Oh God, please no. I couldn't handle it if Jim Borrison were still around. I always felt that he off-handedly (and single-handedly!) influenced Elvis to go to Vegas and schlock it up thanks to the Doors' hoorible album The Soft Parade. You know, Jimmy used that pork rind/bourbon voodoo on ol' EP, sending him subliminal messages through peyote trances telling him to hit the Vegas trail and play for the dinner crowds while hopped up on 'ludes and placidyls. Hey, it could have happened.
 
I'm going to admit that I don't mind the Doors mostly . . . I could do without ever hearing Lover Her Madly again in my life, but I certainly think there's worse out there . . . so I need to ask - why does Jim Morrison get such a trashing?

Is it because he seemed to take himself so seriously? I agree, he seemed to . . . but I can't help wondering why so many people who deserve dirision seem to be ignored.

John Sebastian of the Lovin' Spoonful is a complete tool, IMO . . . I'd love to break his autoharp playing fingers. Does nobody else share my opinion? Is nobody else tormented by the gut-wrenching Spoonful catalogue?

What about Alice Cooper? I like Eighteen and School's Out and No More Mister NiceGuy, but has anybody ever heard the rest of his music? It's terrible. Even the Muppets seemed embarrassed when he went on their show.

Ok, I need to go take my meds now . . .

-Fitz
 
I like some of the Doors' stuff, especially the Morrison Hotel and L.A. Woman albums, but the guy is overrated as this master "poet", and to me was always nothing more than a drunken blowhard. The Soft Parade is a horrible album, though.

Can't say I have the same reaction to either Sebastian or Cooper. I like quite a bit of Alice's work, and own everything from Love It To Death through Dada (I'm especially fond of the underrated new wave album Flush The Fashion). After that, I don't care for anything he's done.

But thanks to that goofball Doors flick, I can now never separate Jim Morrison and Val Kilmer. To me they're both king dorks, so it's probably not such a bad thing in the end.
 
I like Alice Cooper :oops: and one reason is that he *doesn't* take himself very seriously. I read an interview with him last fall in which he said people who took political advice/guidance from rock stars were ridiculous. He's always struck me as (believe it or not) very down-to-earth and level-headed.

I'm not as familiar with the Lovin' Spoonful although what I *have* heard of their music sounds like the usual hippie tweeness. Zal Yanovsky, of TLS, settled here in Kingston and opened a restaurant. He seemed like an OK guy. He died last year or possibly the year before.

Edited to add: I *am* thoroughly sick and tired of this baby-boomer deification of the 1960s and all of its icons. I feel like I've lived through the 1960s and I wasn't even born until 1970, dammit!
 
Is it just me, or does Cheri Woods come across as desperately clinging onto the hope that the Lizard King is still alive and well, to this day? She sounds rather batty to be honest.
 
I love Alice Cooper! He's kweel an sexy and yer just jealous Fitz!
I also am very ready and willing to believe the Mr Mojo Risin is alive and kicking.
But I do love a good conspiracy theory, me.
 
Post self-censored to contain nothing controversial nor interesting...
 
The claims are still doing the rounds:

Thursday, May 19, 2005


Filmmaker Claims Jim Morrison Is Alive In Oregon


NEW YORK (Wireless Flash) – Here’s news that will light the fire of Jim Morrison fans: A filmmaker claims The Doors’ frontman is alive and raising horses on a ranch in southern Oregon.

Rodeo photographer Gerald Pitts insists Morrison didn’t die in July of 1971 and he has current photographs and film footage of the rocker to prove it.

Pitts, who met Morrison in 1998, says the rocker staged his death because of a French conspiracy to kill him, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix with narcotics because they were all Vietnam war protestors.

These days, Morrison isn’t the drug user he once was, although Pitts says when he goes over to Jim’s house he’ll “maybe have an occasional beer.”

Now Pitts claims that Morrison is announcing he’s alive, in part, to promote his recent agreement to star in a rodeo shoot-out movie based on events that actually happened to Pitts.

Pitts’ whole story airs on A Current Affair tomorrow (May 20).

www.flashnews.com/news/wfn1050519J26226.html

Jim Morrison lives, TV show reports

May 20, 2005

How weird is this? Today's "A Current Affair" (6:30 p.m., WJBK-TV, Channel 2) airs video that allegedly shows Jim Morrison of the Doors is very much alive -- despite his reported 1971 demise -- and living in cowboy country in the Pacific Northwest. (Coincidentally, tickets for the Doors of the 21st Century show -- presumably without a very special added guest -- June 26 at DTE Energy Music Theatre went on sale today!)

Says filmmaker Gerald Pitts: "In 1998, Jim Morrison had showed up at our rodeos, here in southern Oregon, and we discovered him living on a ranch, raising show-quality Arabian horses and paint horses. And I shot some footage of my friend." Pitts says he offered Morrison a contract to act in one of his movies.

Banging the drum for the video is Cherri Woods, who owns the Hollywood apartment building where Morrison last lived.

Woods told the TV show: "I was given Jim's telephone number and address and the alias that the FBI gave him that he's been living under. I have all of the information. Pages and pages of notes, of information I have verified that has shown me that this" the video "in fact is Jim Morrison."

Pitts, however, says his real evidence is in a photo -- one that doesn't much look like Jim Morrison. Pitts says: "I did a Mylar match print of Jim Morrison over the picture that I took of him 30 years later ... you'll notice I lined up the pupils ... the jaw line and his nose has a little jag to the right ... that matches the one before 1971 perfectly." At least, it didn't match up with Elvis.

www.freep.com/entertainment/namesandfac ... 050520.htm
 
Emperor said:
The claims are still doing the rounds:

Thursday, May 19, 2005

May 20, 2005

How weird is this? Today's "A Current Affair" (6:30 p.m., WJBK-TV, Channel 2) airs video that allegedly shows Jim Morrison of the Doors is very much alive -- despite his reported 1971 demise -- and living in cowboy country in the Pacific Northwest. (Coincidentally, tickets for the Doors of the 21st Century show -- presumably without a very special added guest -- June 26 at DTE Energy Music Theatre went on sale today!)


:_omg:

I think we might need an option added to this poll: http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=21763

:D


Edited to add: Fitz, yes John Sebastian is a great example of the same nonsense.
 
Have done :D. Well spotted that man!

edit - someone's voted for it already!
 
Okay, now this is creepy . . . I'm re-reading The Stand, last evening read the passage with Stu's possible sighting of JM . . . and wake up this morning to find this thread. Hmm . . . coincidence? I think not! ;)
 
most dead rock stars/ film stars have that "are they still alive" cliche attached to them.


Elvis/ Kurt Cobain (its been suggested he was murdered too) / Richey Edwards/ Jim Morrisson, people just can't let go ...


one question, why would the FBI help someone fake their death, whats would be the advantage/ purpose of that? :roll: :lol:
 
witness protection at its most extreme would be my guess, not that i believe our government would do anything that shady. :roll:

but then again andy kaufmann did it for whatever reason, and resurfaced recently, so who knows.
 
IS Jim Morrison REALLY DEAD????

IS IT POSSIBLE HE IS STILL WITH US ??? http://www.rodeoswest.com/
Peter F. writes: I took the supposed photo of an older Jim Morrison from Gerald Pitts' website and superimposed a photo of the singer over it. The resemblance is uncanny.
AND IT GOES ON!!
 
dilligaf said:
but then again andy kaufmann did it for whatever reason, and resurfaced recently, so who knows.
Actually, no, he didn't:
...on 16 May 1984, a 35-year-old Andy Kaufman died of lung cancer at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. His remains were returned to New York for interment at Beth David Cemetery. His death certificate and his gravesite are viewable on-line.

The 20th anniversary of Kaufman's death has provided the occasion for some "Andy Kaufman is alive!" rumors, fueled primarily by a blog and a press release (widely distributed via Yahoo!) proclaiming that he has emerged from hiding two decades after faking his death — accounts supposedly confirmed by his having given an interview to ABC and submitted to (and passed) DNA testing. And all of this screams of being a very un-Kaufman-like publicity stunt....The releasing agency, PRWeb, is a free wire service that will distribute anyone's press release, about anything, free of charge...

...(Note that the putative Andy Kaufman blog now disclaims that, contrary to details provided in the press release, he was not interviewed by ABC, and the alleged DNA testing was not conducted by the auditing firm of Ernst & Young. This seems rather transparently indicative of someone's having to backpedal after receiving complaints from companies disgruntled at having their names associated with a hoax, or at the very least of having to explain away why no one else has been able to confirm the same information.)

The supposed recent photographs of Andy (appearing as Tony Clifton, his abusive lounge singer character) displayed in the blog were taken from a May 2004 Andy Kaufman tribute event, during which Kaufman's friend and writing partner, Bob Zmuda, played Tony Clifton. Zmuda himself said, during a 1999 interview:

"The hoax and the practical joke are lost art forms." But did Andy Kaufman pull one last stunt on his deathbed at age 35? No, says Zmuda. "Andy Kaufman is dead. He’s not in some truck stop with Elvis." While Kaufman tinkered with the idea, tells Zmuda, he never brought it up again.

If the real Andy Kaufman were back, his story would be picked up by every major news service in the U.S. and a good many abroad, not merely a single "anybody can submit a story" free publicity service. And if the real Andy Kaufman genuinely wanted to demonstrate he was still alive, just one public appearance would serve that purpose far more convincingly than an unverifiable DNA test.
 
blah. i need to do more fact checking.
i remember the "story", possibly from the frontpage here or rotten, but never thought to check snopes.
thanks for setting me straight!
 
43 years later, Marianne Faithfull steps up to the plate with some information on the death of Morrison.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/p...-mean-im-sure-it-was-an-accident-9650224.html

Marianne Faithfull alleges her ex-boyfriend killed Jim Morrison: 'I mean I'm sure it was an accident'

The singer and actress claims that Jean de Breteuil was behind The Doors musician’s death

The Independent. Ella Alexander, 05 August 2014


Marianne Faithfull has accused her ex-boyfriend Jean de Breteuil of accidentally killing Jim Morrison of The Doors.

It was rumoured that the late drug dealer had been involved in the musician’s death, although this has never been confirmed. Morrison was found dead, aged 27, on 3 July 1971.

A doctor's report stated the cause of death was heart failure aggravated by heavy drinking. No autopsy was ever performed because the French medical examiner stated that there was no evidence of foul play, giving rise to numerous conspiracy theories.

However, Faithfull has reiterated a much-circulated, but never confirmed, rumour that he died of a heroin overdose.

The singer and actress was staying at a Paris hotel with her then-boyfriend de Breteuil, who was known for supplying heroin to famous circles, when he went to visit Morrison at his apartment.

“I could intuitively feel trouble,” said Faithfull. “I thought, ‘I'll take a few Tuinal [barbiturates] and I won't be there.’ And he went to see Jim Morrison and killed him. I mean I'm sure it was an accident.”

“Poor bastard. The smack was too strong? Yeah. And he died,” she continued. “And I didn't know anything about this. Anyway, everybody connected to the death of this poor guy is dead now. Except me.”

...
 
The sad thing is that Jim and Elvis even if they faked thier deaths have probably died since or will die soon due to old age. I mean Elvis would he be alive today even if he hadn't died?

The myth of rock stars faking their deaths even with Kurt and Ritchie is sadly a dying instituation.

The "stars" ain't big enough and there's no mystery due to everything being filmed or tweeted, there's just no mystery.

We really need to get off the planet before everything just gets too old.
:glum:
 
There is an old crazy-haired homeless guy that I intermittently see pacing the streets near my apartment - which is located equidistant from Rue Beautreillis and Pere Lachaise - who looks a lot like Jim Morrison would, IMO, were he in his 70s and had been living rough for a good number of years.

Fairly confident it is not him but I do always wonder when I see him. :lol:
 
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