July 12, 2007 11:37

The Doors - Jim Morrison death theory questioned

Did he really die of heart failure?

The way in which The Doors singer Jim Morrison died has been called into question.

A nightclub manager challenged the belief Morrison died of heart failure in a bath.

In a new book Sam Bernett claims Morrison died in a toilet cubicle in his Paris club in 1971 after what he believes was a heroin overdose.

Two drugs dealers then took Morrison’s body back to his apartment and dropped it in his bath in an unsuccessful bid to revive him.

However, Paris prosecutors said they were unlikely to re-examine Morrison’s death.

In Bernett’s book ’The End: Jim Morrison’, the nighclub manager says he asked a doctor to examine The Doors singer in the toilet of his Rock And Roll Circus nightclub on July 3, 1971.

He writes: "When we found him dead, he had a little foam on his nose, and some blood too, and the doctor said, 'That must be an overdose of heroin'."

Bernett says he was pestered for years by reporters investigating Morrison’s death, but kept his story quiet until his wife suggested writing a book last year.

Morrison’s late girlfriend Pamela Courson told the police a different story.

She said that the couple went to the movies and out for dinner on the night of the singer's death before they listened to records and fell asleep. According to his testimony, Morrison awoke in the night feeling ill and took a hot bath. Courson said she found him dead in the tub.

However, Stephen Davis, author of the book 'Jim Morrison: Life, Death, Legend' believes that while Morrison overdosed at Bernett’s nightclub he survived the experience.

He told BBC News: “It just seems likely that if he died in the toilet of a nightclub it would have come out before now."