Jimi Hendrix was murdered by his manager because the rock'n'roll legend was worth more dead than alive, claims a former Hendrix roadie in a new book.
According to a Mail on Sunday report, James "Tappy" Wright states in Rock Roadie that Hendrix's manager, Michael Jeffrey, drunkenly confessed to killing the guitarist by filling him full of pills and several bottles of red wine, all due to the manager fearing Hendrix was about to leave him for a new deal.
Wright says Jeffrey made the confession in 1971, a year after Hendrix's death, explaining that the manager had taken out a life insurance policy on the musician worth about two million, with himself as the beneficiary. Two years after supposedly sharing the dirty secret, Jeffrey was killed in a plane crash.
Wright quotes Jeffrey as saying: "I had to do it, Tappy. You understand, don't you? I had to do it. You know damn well what I'm talking about.
"I was in London the night of Jimi's death and together with some old friends... we went round to Monika's hotel room, got a handful of pills and stuffed them into his mouth... then poured a few bottles of red wine deep into his windpipe.
"I had to do it. Jimi was worth much more to me dead than alive. That son of a bitch was going to leave me. If I lost him, I'd lose everything."
The official cause of Hendrix's death was "barbiturate intoxication and inhalation of vomit." John Bannister, the surgeon who dealt with Hendrix at the London hospital, said that he believed the musician had drowned in red wine, even though he had little alcohol in his bloodstream.
"I recall vividly the very large amounts of red wine that oozed from his stomach and his lungs and in my opinion there was no question that Jimi Hendrix had drowned, if not at home then on the way to the hospital," Bannister wrote in 1992, reports the the Independent.
According to a Mail on Sunday report, James "Tappy" Wright states in Rock Roadie that Hendrix's manager, Michael Jeffrey, drunkenly confessed to killing the guitarist by filling him full of pills and several bottles of red wine, all due to the manager fearing Hendrix was about to leave him for a new deal.
Wright says Jeffrey made the confession in 1971, a year after Hendrix's death, explaining that the manager had taken out a life insurance policy on the musician worth about two million, with himself as the beneficiary. Two years after supposedly sharing the dirty secret, Jeffrey was killed in a plane crash.
Wright quotes Jeffrey as saying: "I had to do it, Tappy. You understand, don't you? I had to do it. You know damn well what I'm talking about.
"I was in London the night of Jimi's death and together with some old friends... we went round to Monika's hotel room, got a handful of pills and stuffed them into his mouth... then poured a few bottles of red wine deep into his windpipe.
"I had to do it. Jimi was worth much more to me dead than alive. That son of a bitch was going to leave me. If I lost him, I'd lose everything."
The official cause of Hendrix's death was "barbiturate intoxication and inhalation of vomit." John Bannister, the surgeon who dealt with Hendrix at the London hospital, said that he believed the musician had drowned in red wine, even though he had little alcohol in his bloodstream.
"I recall vividly the very large amounts of red wine that oozed from his stomach and his lungs and in my opinion there was no question that Jimi Hendrix had drowned, if not at home then on the way to the hospital," Bannister wrote in 1992, reports the the Independent.
