Janis, Jimi, Brian and Jim
“Has anyone heard from my old friend Jim? Can you tell me where he’s gone?”
-attributed to Dion DiMucci
“My destination is a profound secret. I shall disappear as if the earth had swallowed me and shall reappear in an unexpected quarter within eight years. Meanwhile I shall accomplish my task.”
The Scourge of the Empire
Ignatius Trebitsch Lincoln 1915
Notes for the day: Eider Chess’ Journal:
So much for the social amenities. It’s a lovely day today. We have just decided to create a new team- its about time. Things have been going slow or fast –its hard to tell. But we all got really nice cars today from GM –a big thanks for that import legislation cock block. Verrry nice work when you can get it.And you can get it when you can! But the situation is well in hand operendi is becoming naive to say the least. We have feet on the ground in SEA but that is going to happen any way. Texas- John is secure all obstacles to the Texas man are vapor. So the complex is firm and reality must be examined. We can not assume they are just having fun out there. It’s the kids. They want to change the world and change is not apparent. There things to do places to go people to see -for you and me – that supersede youth. When did this teenager thing happen- it didn’t for us. I think we should have paid attention to that Elvis goon instead of allowing him to join the army when we should have taken action. IT WAS THE SPIRIT OF THE THING not the man. SO when I finally got the go it was that stupid plane in North Dakota. Great 5 for the price of 1 –but then the fucking outlaw walked. He will come back to haunt. Ignaz’ big mistake was that German Parker. He was supposed to limit growth. But Germans are so efficient- its their greatest failing in the end. This music thing is ACTIONABLE ACTIONABLE ACTIONABLE ACTIONABLEACTIONABLE. FINALLY Build a team/set objections/enter the field/cultivate relationships/take action. We have the first group prospects selected. They will be better than that bungled Texas job. Who could believe it could have become so complicated. That’s what happens when you work with perverts. We don’t have any Jack here. That was sweet but we do have that pathetic Jeffries. Ignaz would love a player like that. And I will hit him with a plane! Where does the line between Dr. Moriatity and Gary Francis Powers meet-ha hah ha ha never!
The never ending Backstory
The History of the OSS is as old as the secret agreement to help Hitler break the back of the German Labor Movement in 1926. There the seeds of U.S. covert interests first tested the waters and found them “delightful.” By the end of World War II the loosely controlled and highly effective OSS was disbanded and became the CIA. It was said the disbanding took place only to protect over 50 operatives from having to explain their entanglements with the Nazi’s. Meanwhile the family business evolves,. The Walkers, Dulles and other founding families continue to this day protecting us from our greatest enemy -ourselves.
From 1950 until 1965 the country was more united than it has been at any time. In any case, the myth did manage to hold firm for a few more years. It powered on through civil rights legislation and war on poverty. But a rapid succession of events after 1965 — the escalation of the Vietnam War, and the government’s attempts through programs like Cointelpro to spy on and repress its own people. Basically the spirit of the old OSS was still at play as decisions to simply disassemble the process of dissent in the old simple way. The means and persons are and will be intangible –the results are predicable.
a simple actionable memo:
Dept of Navy RE/Eider Chess
OF INTEREST/US INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES;
ex-US Army Paratrooper currently gathering unprecedented attention in London as a musician. James Hendricks/US Army/”among others”. :ACTIONABLE
And the simple truth was:
If an ex-paratrooper could become the one black voice 20 million white middle class hippy kids would hear or a nearsighted ex-Baptist College Coed would be their dream fuck there was a need for an intervention. Black ops would learn to use sensitive sources, money, drugs and sex to infiltrate and the artists so identified as threats who whether wittingly or not, played active roles in determining their own respective fates.
September 18, 1970- Within a week of his London premier as the Experience, Jimi was signed to a management deal with ex-member of the UK Band the Animals, Chas Chandler. That provided rock credibility. But Chandler was as indigent as his ex-manager Mickey Most could leave him. To even start representing Hendrix he was forced to seek financial backing. He couldn’t have done worse as is typically the case. His cold as ice new money man partner was an ex MI5 op named Michael Jeffries., and predictably the Jimi Hendrix Experience soon grew into an international phenomena. But over the 4 year ultimate ride of the decade the “Experience” had actually become an intolerable nightmare. It almost seemed like Korean War brainwashing techniques were exercised on the artists against themselves. Creativity was blatantly discouraging and that could not have had any other purpose other than breaking the spirit of the Experience. It was the same songs every night, the same hotel rooms, an endless parade of girls, fighting over the girls, hitting the girls, beatings, harder drugs and harder drugs. Only one thing became easier – the ability to control Hendrix through the use of all of the above. The impossible part of the project was – to control the popularity of the band which had no boundaries. Noel Redding the original bass player was beginning to understand the truth. He began to openly question management. There was no money for any of them and Hendrix as a man had been compromised. One day virtually overnight Redding was fired and replaced by an old Hendrix Air Force buddy -Billy Cox. It made no sense. Redding was part of what made the Experience so accessible to the fans. Eventually this new- Band of Gypsies simply imploded. One day Cox just left mysteriously and daily Hendrix was personally embarrassed on stage by the antics of other new band mate- Buddy Miles. Had Jimi Hendrix simply been compromised painlessly? A European Tour commenced and Hendrix was now with a new mysterious woman-Monika Dannemann who was so unlike his old girl friends Devon and Kathy who loved him so much.
One night between shows Jimi hooked up with old friend Eric Burden of the Animals. After jamming with Burden, Hendrix returned to a flat he was staying in -in London with Dannemann. Supposedly Hendrix went to sleep as Monica stayed up in another room.
But other sources say that numerous visitors came and went including 3 strangers who came with an ex band mate. The story was one named Eider throws a packet down on the floor where all sit. In time Hendrix & the 4 men are the last remaining and party on. Later that morning Hendrix is taken dead to a hospital by Dannemann. The emergency room physician stated his hair and shirt were covered with over a half of bottle of wine. Another half a bottle was pumped out of his stomach along with a cocktail of barbiturates. Dannemann said she was there all night alone and he was asleep the whole time until she finally checked on him and found him in that state.
3 July 1969- Previously in England the Rolling Stones are the top of the pop and why?- it’s because of a musical genius named Brian Jones, Perhaps no one person of his time had a stronger influence on men’s personal style, appearance and attitude. But he would become the butterfly on the wheel.
Supposedly Brian was intolerant of drugs and liquor. A little bit went a long way –especially because of his predisposition to asthma. The incredible respect he earned as a multi-instrumentalist in the Rolling Stones was wearing thin as the Jagger- Richard song writing duo didn’t need his arrangement and A&R skills any more to assure hits. Initially Brian was encouraged to write –and he couldn’t. This was his downfall. He began to lose interest in his band mates’ pop- direction. This gets compounded by his girl problems. They all seemed to end up leaving him making him morose and difficult. It was eventually decided by his band mates, that he should take leave of the Stones at least temporarily. He agreed and thought he might just start again with a new crew. So he moved into a rustic home – Cotchford Farm to recoup. He got a new girl friend the demure Anna Wohlin – an unusual choice for the flamboyant Brian. She came from Sweden and was not remarkable as had been Marianne Faithfull and Anita Pallenberg- to name just two earlier companions. And the only real crew he assembled was an unusual group of completely incompetent construction workmen. These men were hired to repair and modernize the house. But they seemed more like a bunch of military types on R&R. They enjoyed the amenities of the home, partook in random women guests, the drink or drug of the day and took great pleasure in demeaning and physically challenging Brian. It made no sense. What Brian was doing with them. And to say the least, nothing was built or fixed. All that had transpired was that he had been mentally separated from his mission as an inspirational musician and rendered to a game playing macho situation of which he had played a major role in determining his own fate. On what became the evening of question once again everyone of accountability seems to have dissapeared. The girl friend has even conveniently left the immediate scene. Brian has moved the party to the pool. He is acknowledged as a strong swimmer. He has not taken a lot of drugs or drink.. Several of the workmen are his only companions at the pool. They eventually all leave. In a short while a woman guest goes from the house to the pool to find a now drowned Brian at the bottom. And no one knows how it happened. In short order the workmen disappear permanently and are untraceable and no one knows who they were. The girl friend disappears off the face of the earth and appears to have come from nowhere. She was not heard of for over 30 years. “Death by misadventure.”
October 4, 1970- The Big Ball Express is a disaster. The Band and Grateful Dead join with Janis Joplin’s Full Tilt Boogie Band and others for a festival tour across western Canada by train from city to city. Somehow the tour is compromised by a terrible political situation. There is a campaign to “make the music free”. This cry mysteriously erupts in each city as if there are covert operators out to sabotage the event. The concerts aren’t free to implement. There are extensive expenses in mounting the shows and moving the bands from city to city. Everyone tries to keep a good attitude and there is drunken commaderie on the long train rides by the musicians and promotion team. But this issue is throwing a damper on the on the series of events. The Janis Joplin persona/character is a strong well defined icon to both the performers and audience. She is known to be a provocative and sexually outspoken woman with a serious attachment to Southern Comfort. Unlike most of the California or “Hippie Bands” she is unique as her persona is not strongly associated with drugs, although a back story posthumously appeared of her depression -fueled by heroin. Up until then -she is a person strongly associated with alcoholic “abuse”. At any rate she is not considered a druggy as almost all the other tour mates are. Although when one sees the films of the performances on the tour –it is not the Janis from films in Port Arthur Texas or filmed shows of Big Brother. On those occasions she appears as a trim and perky young woman in the most revealing outfits of the era- maybe not the prettiest but certainly very desirable. On this tour she seems swollen andis dresseed modestly. More importantly this was a new Janis trying to pick up where she left with Big Brother. This tour was important to her career as a next step. But other forces are at play, more important than negating an artist’s career. It was the beginning of the “Secret” China White Heroin Plague which decimated the S.F. and associated Bands over and over again in the next few years. The train was almost like the Orient Express. There were all kinds of hangers on and “unusual types” arm and arm with the very wasted rock stars. They were a captive audience. Well eventually the train makes it way to a gruesome end in Western Canada and the bands return home. Janis never really jump started her career again. She did make a new male friends on the tour and in the next few months there was a parade of unfamiliar faces in her life. But one day late fall Janis is found dead in her hotel room of what is called a hot-shot, enough heroin to boil the blood and organs in your body. There were descriptions of self inflicted body desecrations due to the pain she experienced before dying. Again there are accounts of strange unknown visitors, a mysterious lover, comings and goings and once again a lonely death.
July 3, 1971 And the last story is of a bang and a whisper. All the others were either fresh off success or still part of the scene. But then all were less pop stars than counterculture icons. Jim Morrison was a pop star and the Doors were a pure mainstream pop band. As fate will have it- Electra’s big money maker was the Doors. It was Jim Morrison who caught the imagination of a generation of music fans. The biggest sex god of the 60’s was Morrison. He is credited with the quote: “Id rather die young and leave a well preserved corpse”. Well by 1970. Morrison was a bearded, fat and physical nightmare to behold on stage. The last albums Morrison Motel and L.A Woman showed no signs of musical decline. But the beautiful Jim was over and it wasn’t ever about the music as much as it was about “the Jim”. He eventually just quit the band and moved to Paris with his long time junkie girl friend Pamela Coursen. Morrison was depressed and doing all kinds of things to “just get through the day. He may have just simply died from a misadventure with heroin but there is another story. It is of Jim going to a seedy Paris night spot to find heroin for Pamela. There he met mysterious drug dealers and died at the club as “he supposedly took the heroin”. He was then unceremoniously taken to his flat and left dead in the bath. This version the evenings events kind of rings of the other tales.
So what connects the stories? Well they all seem to follow the same method. All are littered with comings and goings of unknown characters and all the tales typically took a long time to unwind- aand suffer from revisionism. But all suggested a similar almost planned scenario with lots of similar twists. Usually some survivor profits from the premature death or creates a cottage industry around the victim. Most interestingly when one follows some similar short success stories the value of the estate clearly diminishes simply because the one time star lives to play another day (under less bright lights). I saw one time arena rockers Badfinger playing in Lodi NJ to 6 people in 1991 and Gracie Slick and “Jefferson Airplane” appeared at Kroges Bar in Sparta NJ in 1996 playing to an audience of 40.
So what happened next
This all took place between July 1969 and July 1971. All died at age 27.
Mike Jeffries was killed in an unusual midair plane collision in 1973 after collecting on Jimi’s life insurance. The other plane landed safely. The Jeffries estate continued to sell Jimi Hendrix cds and records until 2004 even though the Hendrix Estate owned rights to all of his recordings.
Monika Dannemann took Jami’s black strat at the time of his death. It was last seen in 1996. She committed suicide that same year but her paramour Ulli Roth feels she succumbed to foul play. Jimi didn’t drink wine.
Anna Wohlin disappeared for many years and mysteriously reappeared to write a book about her short time with Brian Jones in 1999. All of Brian’s belongings were looted from the farm by –someone within hours of his death. The watch he was wearing when he died –which disappeared was sold at Christies in 2006. There was an alleged deathbed confession by one of the workers who said they were paid to kill Brian.
Joplin has almost no loose ends. 3 relatives attended her funeral- there was no public service. The lover simply ceased to exist.
Neither the FBI nor the Intelligence Corps has any record of this program. Both OSI and CIA have denied conducting it. The report is not in their files. But their operative name for not interfering with the counter culture was “Our Gamble With Destiny’.
As the youth movement grew so did the intelligence community interest in following it to a deadly trail.
Post script.
The lesson was learned. It became very easy to control these fragile personalities. You didn’t have to kill them you only had to place enablers in their midst. They would gladly handle the whole deal on their own. The secret was to make their preferred life style incredibly available to them. Too much of anything is a given. And the long term introduction of China White Heroin into the international music community clearly diminished the spark of creativity and genius. After the time of Janis’s death the use of heroin accelerated among the San Francisco groups as the quality of their music and more specifically their recording rapidly degenerated. Many will argue this but this list of deaths –in the day is notable.
Grateful Dead
Keith Godchaux, Donna Godchaux, Jerry Garcia,
Quicksilver Messenger Service
Dino Valenti (disputed), John Cippolina (Denied), Skip Spence(disputed) .
The Band
Richard Manuel, Rick Danko
A Short list of Others
Paul Butterfield, Gram Parsons, Rick Gretch, Chris Wood, Danny Kirwan, Paul Kossoff
Jim Morrison lives!