Speaker 1: The twenty seven Club is the production of I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio and Double Elvis Media. Jimmie Hendricks died at the
Speaker 1: age of and he died under mysterious circumstances. I can
Speaker 1: give you twenty seven reasons why that statement is true.
Speaker 1: Three would be the number of theories that armchair detectives
Speaker 1: would bandy about for years after Jimmy's untimely death. Another
Speaker 1: two would be the number of hitmen Michael Jeffrey, Jimmy's manager,
Speaker 1: sent on a covert mission to drown Jimmy with booze
Speaker 1: and pills, if, as one theory goes, Michael Jeffrey killed
Speaker 1: Jimmie Hendrix. Two more would be the number of white
Speaker 1: paramedics who refused to revive and treat the famous black
Speaker 1: rock star as they drove him to an undignified death
Speaker 1: at St. Mary Abbott's hospital, if, as another theory goes,
Speaker 1: the neglectful paramedics really did kill Jimmie Hendrix. Twenty is
Speaker 1: the number of the recommended dosage of vesper x, a
Speaker 1: powerful barbiturates that would be fund in Jimmy's body. Twenty
Speaker 1: times the recommended dosage all totally on this our final
Speaker 1: episode of season one, covert hitman, neglectful paramedics, twenty times
Speaker 1: the recommended dose, and Jimmie Hendricks. I'm Jake Brennan in
Speaker 1: this cosy. James Tappywright wished he could unhear when he
Speaker 1: just heard. It's shocked him. It shall olenged everything he knew.
Speaker 1: It rocked his world, and it scared the ship out
Speaker 1: of him. Michael Jeffrey had just confessed to Jimmie Hendricks's murder,
Speaker 1: not in so many words, that is, it was strongly implied.
Speaker 1: He had no choice. He told Tappy he was out
Speaker 1: of options. He had to do it. Tappy and Michael
Speaker 1: Jeffrey were at Jeffrey's apartment in February discussing the upcoming
Speaker 1: American leg of the Jimmy Plays Berkeley Tour. They had
Speaker 1: just finished touring the documentary film around the UK and Europe,
Speaker 1: where they had sold out venues and continued to spread
Speaker 1: the gospel of Jimmie Hendricks. His death was still fresh
Speaker 1: in the minds of many. The movie could give fans
Speaker 1: the thing that they would never be able to experience again.
Speaker 1: A live performance by Jimmie Hendricks delivered on a thirty
Speaker 1: ft tall movie theater screen, and they had a few
Speaker 1: drinks and a few more, and Jeffrey was relaxed, but
Speaker 1: also a little drunk. Tappy had noticed a change in
Speaker 1: Jeffrey's recent daily to meet here. He was no longer
Speaker 1: under pressure, no longer under the gun, and Tappy would notice.
Speaker 1: He had been working for Jeffrey since the days back
Speaker 1: in Newcastle, running clubs and bringing up the animals. A
Speaker 1: respected roady, a doer. Tappy was there through it all,
Speaker 1: did what needed doing, helped here, help there. Tappy was everywhere,
Speaker 1: rubbing elbows with everyone, from the Beatles and the Rolling
Speaker 1: Stones to kN Tina Turner to Elvis Presley. And he
Speaker 1: was there as Jeffrey took on more responsibility with Jimmy
Speaker 1: and the studio, took on more debts, new debts to
Speaker 1: pay for old debts, even newer debts to pay for
Speaker 1: the new debts to pay for the old debts. Tappy
Speaker 1: was the one who would drive Jeoffrey out to New Jersey,
Speaker 1: who was secluded suburban mob house. He'd sit in the car,
Speaker 1: tap his fingers on the steering wheel as he listened
Speaker 1: to the Archie's the Foundations, to Tommy James and the
Speaker 1: Shawn Dells while Jeffrey was inside doing his business, shaking hands,
Speaker 1: making deals, signing his life away. Jeffrey would walk back
Speaker 1: to the car, suitcase in hand, loaded up with fresh
Speaker 1: bills handed to him by mafia kingpins, the guys who
Speaker 1: could afford to live in these ostentatious and Jersey mansions.
Speaker 1: Tappy was there too when the calls started coming in,
Speaker 1: when Jeffrey couldn't pay the mafia back. Jeffrey was over extended,
Speaker 1: ambitious and greedy. Michael Jeffrey was fucked. Where's the money, Michael,
Speaker 1: The heated mob voices would say from the other end
Speaker 1: of the phone, Where's the fucking money? Ship in. Tappy
Speaker 1: started living his life by looking around every corner, checking
Speaker 1: underneath cars before getting inside, screening phone calls, Remaining extremely
Speaker 1: wary of strangers. He lived his life every day like
Speaker 1: someone was coming for his boss, Michael Jeffrey's head. And
Speaker 1: now sitting in Jeffrey's apartment reminiscing on a wildly successful
Speaker 1: documentary film Tour, things seem more relaxed. Tappy was no
Speaker 1: longer on edge. Jeffrey had paid off the I R S,
Speaker 1: paid off the Mob. He was even able to buy
Speaker 1: out Jimmy's interest in electric ladies studios from Jimmy's father,
Speaker 1: Al Tappy wanted to know where did Jeffrey get all
Speaker 1: that money? Why was everything coming up roses, And that's
Speaker 1: when the mood of the room changed. Jeffrey tensed up.
Speaker 1: It had obviously been weighing on him all this time.
Speaker 1: The secret he had. He had many secrets, all collected
Speaker 1: through many years of his life, but this one, this
Speaker 1: one may have been the hardest to keep inside, because
Speaker 1: even though Jeffrey was a great keeper of secrets, this
Speaker 1: one felt different. I had no bloody choice, Jeffrey told Tabby.
Speaker 1: The implication hung there in the air like a thick
Speaker 1: fog of Dunhills smoke. The look in Michael Jeffrey's cold
Speaker 1: eyes filled into blanks. The look said a lot. Mostly
Speaker 1: it said, I'm a survivor. When the ship house starts
Speaker 1: to go up in flames, I'm the motherfucker with the
Speaker 1: fire extinguisher. I'm Michael Jeffrey. I do what needs doing
Speaker 1: to get myself undone, my man, qualified man. The look
Speaker 1: filling in the space around Jeffrey's last comment, I had
Speaker 1: no bloody choice. It also said it was the payout
Speaker 1: and the two million dollar insurance policy took out on
Speaker 1: Jimmy's head. And it was the insurance policy that rescued
Speaker 1: Jeffrey from certain ruin or even death from his debtors.
Speaker 1: The mob again, according to James Tappy, right, Michael Jeffrey
Speaker 1: had no bloody choice. Tappy could believe it. Michael Jeffrey,
Speaker 1: former agent of the Special Forces for the British Intelligence
Speaker 1: Michael Jeffrey mobbed up. Michael Jeffrey, professional badass, Michael Jeffrey,
Speaker 1: trained killer, or so he told Tappy. Jeffrey sold that
Speaker 1: image hard, and guys like Tappy bought it hook line
Speaker 1: and sinker. Tappy put two and two together Jeffrey's vague
Speaker 1: confession and the reports from the attending doctors about the
Speaker 1: red wine that had been in Jimmy's mouth and throat
Speaker 1: but not in his stomach, and now Tappy was burdened
Speaker 1: with this bombshell, one of a handful of people who
Speaker 1: knew about it. He wished he didn't. He'd been on
Speaker 1: the sidelines for most of his life on a need
Speaker 1: to know basis, and now he was privy to the deepest,
Speaker 1: darkest secrets. He sat across the table from Jeffrey in
Speaker 1: the apartment and picked up what was being put down.
Speaker 1: Tappy was convinced that Jeffrey had offered Jimmy. Convinced that
Speaker 1: Jeffrey had sent a couple of goons to that apartment
Speaker 1: in Nodding Hill and it was there that they forced
Speaker 1: the red wine down Jimmy's throat until he drowned. James.
Speaker 1: Tappy right sat on his bar stool in a near
Speaker 1: empty seaside Whitley Babe pub Convinced Michael Jeffrey killed Jimmie Hendricks,
Speaker 1: his imagination went into overdrive. He could see it all,
Speaker 1: how it all could have come together, and it was
Speaker 1: moving fast. When Michael Jeffrey got the news that Jimmy
Speaker 1: had taken meetings with Chaz Chandler and Alan Douglas, it
Speaker 1: was the last straw. Tappy knew this. He knew Jimmy
Speaker 1: meeting with Chaz again would have flipped out his boss Jeffrey.
Speaker 1: So Tappy knew that if Jeffrey did what he thought
Speaker 1: he did, they need to have the idea circling around
Speaker 1: in his head for a while before moving on it,
Speaker 1: Before taking it from just an annoying thought to an idea.
Speaker 1: He needed to execute on. Michael Jeffrey's days as manager
Speaker 1: to the greatest guitar player in the world were numbered.
Speaker 1: If Jeffrey lost Jimmy, Tappy figured, then he would have
Speaker 1: no way out from his mob debts. So Jeffrey moved quick.
Speaker 1: If he was going to survive avoid being clipped by
Speaker 1: the mafia, then Jimmie Hendricks had to go. It was
Speaker 1: the only way for Michael Jeffrey. It was never a
Speaker 1: question of if he could do it, It was a
Speaker 1: question of how. In his rampant imagination, Tappy could see
Speaker 1: Jeffrey going into full James Bond Boat total Mission Impossible
Speaker 1: waking fantasy. Tappy saw Jeffrey tightening his cuff links, smoothing
Speaker 1: his pressed white shirt, donning his black jacket, punching his cuffs,
Speaker 1: methodically cleaning the lenses of his dark prescription glasses with
Speaker 1: the pocket square from his suit jacket, the theme from
Speaker 1: Peter Gunn playing in a loop in his head on
Speaker 1: Max Volume. Tappy knew the training from Jeffrey's days laid
Speaker 1: dormant inside of him, and that Jeffrey thought of it
Speaker 1: as an ace up as sleeve. It was in part
Speaker 1: what gave him the balls to deal with the mafia types.
Speaker 1: He's so casually borrowed money from that training coiled inside
Speaker 1: of him like a sleeper sell ready to be activated,
Speaker 1: covert deep cover. No more. Now it was alive, ship
Speaker 1: was on. Warner Brothers weren't the only ones with half
Speaker 1: a fucking clue. Mike Jeffrey knew how thin the mortal
Speaker 1: coil was being stretched by his client, Jimmy Hendricks, so
Speaker 1: he took out a two million dollar life insurance policy
Speaker 1: on his star attraction as well. And now, after all
Speaker 1: the bullshit, after the arrest in Toronto and the subsequent trial,
Speaker 1: the kidnapping at the Salvation Club, the shakedowns on the
Speaker 1: streets of Harlem, the drugs and the girls, and the
Speaker 1: constant deviation from the master plan, after Jimmy collapsing on
Speaker 1: stage and barely escaping an island on fire, after coming
Speaker 1: out from under a recording studio that was hell bent
Speaker 1: on sinking no matter how hard they tried to keep
Speaker 1: it afloat, After the back alley fist fights and threatening
Speaker 1: phone calls and claims of illegitimate children, after all the
Speaker 1: other fame hungry hangers on who wanted a piece of
Speaker 1: Jimmy's pie. After all of that, at this time, finally
Speaker 1: for Michael Jeffrey to cash in on his Voodoo child
Speaker 1: cash cat to quit while he was ahead. Jimmy wasn't
Speaker 1: gonna listen anymore. Jeffrey had resorted to keeping Jimmy as
Speaker 1: preoccupied and disoriented as possible. He controlled his mind by
Speaker 1: dosing him with drugs. He controlled his location by buying
Speaker 1: him that swank house outside of Woodstock. He controlled his
Speaker 1: creativity by giving him the recording studio of his dreams.
Speaker 1: He did all of this just so he could minimize
Speaker 1: the amount of not listening that Jimmy would do. Tabby
Speaker 1: knew that Jeffrey knew that. The simple truth was that he,
Speaker 1: Michael Jeffrey could not carry on with Jimmy Hendrix. If
Speaker 1: Jimmy's behavior didn't drive him to the point of no return,
Speaker 1: then his debt to the mob to keep him and
Speaker 1: Jimmy happy and on the charts certainly did. Jeffrey had
Speaker 1: no other artist in his stable that was enough of
Speaker 1: a moneymaker. He wasn't going to bring him the bacon
Speaker 1: with soft machine, no offense. He was losing his grip,
Speaker 1: and he was too smart to not know the Chaz
Speaker 1: Chandler wasn't too far behind. Chaz was always there when
Speaker 1: it came to Jimmy, never quite out of the picture,
Speaker 1: waiting in the cut, about to strike and steal Jeffrey's
Speaker 1: voodoo child right out from under him, cut him down
Speaker 1: to size. Tabby heard the rumors, Ship. They weren't even rumors,
Speaker 1: they were more like public declarations. Jeffrey was a cheat,
Speaker 1: a scoundrel, and opportunists. Eric Burden flat oled accused Jeffreys
Speaker 1: stealing money from the animals, and Burden let anyone who
Speaker 1: would listen know that he thought Michael Jeffrey was a
Speaker 1: dirty thief, that he set up an offshore tax haven,
Speaker 1: funneled skim and earnings from his bands into it to
Speaker 1: avoid heavy UK taxes, move money around from country to country,
Speaker 1: island to island, suitcase to suitcase. Good fellow and a
Speaker 1: good fellow. Tappy knew that if Jimmy didn't know what
Speaker 1: Burden knew, that he would know soon enough. And he
Speaker 1: fucking a knew that Michael Jeffrey would have known this too,
Speaker 1: known this that if Jimmy Hendricks cut Michael Jeffrey loose,
Speaker 1: then Jimmie Hendricks was a fucking dead man. No Jimmy,
Speaker 1: no money, no money, no more yank with the boys
Speaker 1: from Jersey. It was a death sentence for Jeffrey. And
Speaker 1: if the mob didn't get on and the I R
Speaker 1: s would they take the studio, his houses, his fancy clothes,
Speaker 1: his fancy drugs. They take every last thing and leave
Speaker 1: him with barely the shoes on his feet. He'd have
Speaker 1: to take the subway or the tube to work in
Speaker 1: some downtown shipole or worse, to the unemployment office like
Speaker 1: some ordinary joe. Fuck that. He wasn't gonna let that happen.
Speaker 1: He got in the zone, he got a character, and
Speaker 1: he moved with the quickness. Tappy can see it all happening.
Speaker 1: Michael Jeffrey is Michael Caine and funeral in Berlin, doing
Speaker 1: what had to be done to save his ass. A
Speaker 1: qualified man smashing her motherfucker's face him with a vase
Speaker 1: of roses without thinking twice if need be. But but
Speaker 1: he wasn't about to get his own hands dirty in
Speaker 1: the process. Jeffrey was too smart for that. Tappy knew
Speaker 1: it best for Jeffrey to stay on the sidelines, call
Speaker 1: the shots from behind his dark prescription classes don't risk
Speaker 1: that two million dollar life insurance paym the goon is
Speaker 1: listened intently, and Michael Jeffrey spoke, this is what you're
Speaker 1: gonna do. Jimmy and his old lady are powering around
Speaker 1: town today. Go sweat the Sammer kid. She's got a
Speaker 1: room there. Wait till he's alone. Even if you have
Speaker 1: to wait all night. Wait, he'll be watching. You'll be
Speaker 1: waiting when he's alone. That's when you can't do it.
Speaker 1: Tappy could see them in his mind's eye, the goons.
Speaker 1: They're peering inside the Samarkan flat window, hiding undercover in
Speaker 1: the small gardens and wrought iron fencing out front. They
Speaker 1: watched while Monica made Jimmy the tuna sandwich, their own
Speaker 1: bellies rumbling. They just needed to get this over with
Speaker 1: so that they could go eat. They were starving. The
Speaker 1: sun was coming up. Monica's eyes were going down. She
Speaker 1: passed out. Jimmy absent mindedly grabbed a fistfull of sleeping
Speaker 1: pills Monica's vesper x and slugged them back with another
Speaker 1: swig of wine from the glass next to the bed.
Speaker 1: It felt like he hadn't slept in days, and at
Speaker 1: this moment it was all he needed the pills to
Speaker 1: do the trick. Little did he know he was making
Speaker 1: the job for the goons waiting outside all the more easy.
Speaker 1: The goons stood quiet, watching, whispering, waiting. A few hours
Speaker 1: later Monica woke, walked drowsily around the apartment, and then
Speaker 1: she left, took a hike on up the street. Left
Speaker 1: Jimmy passed out cold in bed. It was time the
Speaker 1: goons tried the front door unlocked. They were in easy.
Speaker 1: They swept into the flat like a gust of wind,
Speaker 1: closed the door behind the dead bull blatched. They spoke
Speaker 1: in hand signals, blinks of the eye, head nods. They
Speaker 1: were in all black, black pants, black shirts, black beanie hats,
Speaker 1: and they moved swiftly. Tappy could see them in his mind,
Speaker 1: and now he thought of another Michael Caine reference gambit.
Speaker 1: The goons would have been tall, one routon the other sickly,
Speaker 1: a real young yang thing, one lanky, one short stacked.
Speaker 1: The sickly goon spied the bottle of red wine on
Speaker 1: the kitchen counter waiting for them, just as Jeffrey had said,
Speaker 1: Jimmy's crypt tonite, and Jeffrey called it the fellow should
Speaker 1: use it to their advantage. Jimmy was laying in bed,
Speaker 1: fully closed on top of the sheets, his black strap
Speaker 1: nestled next to him. The two stood over sleeping Jimmy
Speaker 1: Hendrix and the sickly Goon pulled the cork from the
Speaker 1: half empty bottom for red wine. It made a startling
Speaker 1: popping sound, loud enough that Jimmy was roused. He started
Speaker 1: mumbling something about Brian Jones, something about rotis reading, like
Speaker 1: he was talking to them. The sickly goon with the
Speaker 1: wine bottle motioned to his partner, who grabbed the front
Speaker 1: of Jimmy's shirt and lifted his head slightly from the pillow.
Speaker 1: Jimmy's eyes fought to open up, but the pills were
Speaker 1: fighting him. He just kept mumbling Ryan, Ryan, Ryan, like
Speaker 1: a tick, like it was on a loop in his brain.
Speaker 1: And the sickly goon squeezed Jimmy's prone cheeks with his
Speaker 1: left hand and shoved the wine bottle into Jimmy's mouth
Speaker 1: was his right. The bottle was turned upside down and
Speaker 1: the red wine came out like it had busted through
Speaker 1: a floodgate. Jimmy's eyes still weren't fully open as he
Speaker 1: started to guzzle the Bluese that was being forced on him,
Speaker 1: and the bottle smacked against one of his front teeth.
Speaker 1: He started to choke, made wretching noises, sending SIPs of
Speaker 1: wine splattering onto the sickly goon's black jacket. Two held
Speaker 1: him there, made him take it, made him taste it,
Speaker 1: made him swim in it, drowning it. After the last
Speaker 1: drop was out of the bottle, they dropped Jimmy's head
Speaker 1: back down onto the pillow. He was unconscious again, seemed,
Speaker 1: but his chest was still heaving. The goons split fast.
Speaker 1: The empty wine bottle was recorked, put back on the
Speaker 1: kitchen counter, and they could hear sputtering and wretching coming
Speaker 1: from the bedroom, and then silence. They left up the
Speaker 1: front door, closed it behind them. They had done Michael
Speaker 1: Jeffrey's bidding, and now they were getting something to eat,
Speaker 1: and they were fucking starving. And James Tappy right sitting
Speaker 1: on his bar stool, but a year after his boss's
Speaker 1: most famous client up and died, was thirsty as fuck.
Speaker 1: The thought of it, all, the why, the how, the
Speaker 1: who is shook Tappy with fear. He pushed the who
Speaker 1: done into the back of his mind, straightened himself out
Speaker 1: on his stool, shrugged, and ordered another pint. It could
Speaker 1: have happened that way, but Tappy wouldn't know for sure.
Speaker 1: The only thing he was sure of was that Jimmie
Speaker 1: Hendricks was dead and that Michael Jeffrey was a bad,
Speaker 1: bad and we'll be right back after this word were were?
Speaker 1: Monica Danemon spoke calmly as she told her attorney the
Speaker 1: same story she'd been telling the world for over twenty years,
Speaker 1: the same story she told the day Jimmie Hendricks died,
Speaker 1: The same story she told in the Inner World of
Speaker 1: Jimmie Hendricks, the book she had just published. The same
Speaker 1: story she was now being taken to court over charged
Speaker 1: with libel against Cathy Etchingham, another of Jimmie Hendricks's former girlfriends.
Speaker 1: But Monica didn't see herself as just another girlfriend. She
Speaker 1: told the attorney. Monica Daneman hadn't known Jimmie Hendricks for
Speaker 1: that law. The connection she felt was strong, and who
Speaker 1: were they to tell her that her connection wasn't strong,
Speaker 1: she didn't feel the way she felt, or that Jimmy
Speaker 1: wasn't as true blue as she believed him to be.
Speaker 1: The haters were just jealous they wanted what she had
Speaker 1: and they couldn't have it. Who fucking who for them?
Speaker 1: When she first met Jimmy in a bar and Dusseldor
Speaker 1: if it was all over all downhill, She left Germany,
Speaker 1: left her job as an ice skating instructor, and went
Speaker 1: where Jimmy went. Sometimes she'd get his attention, other times not.
Speaker 1: And they had a few nights together here, a few
Speaker 1: nights together there, and then those last days in London
Speaker 1: at the Samarcan she had his complete attention in the garden,
Speaker 1: he told her he loved her, He told her that
Speaker 1: he would marry her. Didn't matter if he said those
Speaker 1: same things to other girls on other days and other gardens.
Speaker 1: He belonged to her now and she wasn't about to
Speaker 1: let go. And Kathy Etchingham I thought Monica was offered,
Speaker 1: not deluded, that she had casually met Jimmie hendrickson a
Speaker 1: bar and Dooseldorf and almost instantly concocted a fantasy where
Speaker 1: she and Jimmy were the leading roles. And furthermore, she
Speaker 1: would say whatever she needed to say to push other people,
Speaker 1: people like Kathy further out of the picture. No one
Speaker 1: was going to write her out of history, least of
Speaker 1: all a delusional ice skater. Monica had been accused of
Speaker 1: a lot of things in Jimmy's death. Accused of neglect, lies,
Speaker 1: accused of poisoning him, used of waiting too long to
Speaker 1: call an ambulance. But she stuck to her story. She
Speaker 1: sat across the table from her attorney and spoke her truth,
Speaker 1: the things she believed. Others called them conspiracies, fantasies, falsehoods,
Speaker 1: meant to benefit no one but Monica Daneman, but she
Speaker 1: stood her ground. She told her attorney that she thought
Speaker 1: the paramedics were neglectful. The paramedics refused to give Jimmy
Speaker 1: the help he needed because he was black. It was
Speaker 1: so fucking obvious, she thought, I could see it in
Speaker 1: her mind, see how the whole thing played out. It
Speaker 1: was obvious because Jimmy's life was full of more than
Speaker 1: his fair share of racist encounters. He had told her
Speaker 1: about the time that the cops had stopped Jimmy and
Speaker 1: Cathy as they walked on the streets of London. Jimmy
Speaker 1: dressed in that antique royal vet core jacket, guilty only
Speaker 1: of walking while black, or perhaps more accurately, walking while
Speaker 1: black with a white woman on his arm. Jimmy had
Speaker 1: also told her stories about touring with the experience in
Speaker 1: the States, about the restaurants in the South where he
Speaker 1: would begrudgingly eat with the rest the tour crew, and Jimmy,
Speaker 1: the only black man in the joint, he managed to
Speaker 1: sit through an awkwardly quick meal, all white eyes in
Speaker 1: the place on him the entire time. The tour made
Speaker 1: its way to Seattle, where a cop pulled a gun
Speaker 1: on Jimmy, a cop who was hired to protect him
Speaker 1: because he was walking hand in hand with a white woman.
Speaker 1: Other cops pulled their guns too. The whole situation turned
Speaker 1: into a standoff of extremely ignorant proportions and ended with
Speaker 1: hired cops walking off the job simply because they couldn't
Speaker 1: stomach Jimmy, a black man walking with a white woman.
Speaker 1: Monica was convinced that the day he died was the
Speaker 1: same thing that a couple of white paramedics walked into
Speaker 1: the flat, saw a white woman with a black man,
Speaker 1: and their inherent racism flared to the surface. Monica closed
Speaker 1: her eyes and envisioned the whole scenario clearly in her head.
Speaker 1: She could see Jimmy's life slipping away inside the ambulance.
Speaker 1: Every bump in the road that the ambulance hit, he
Speaker 1: felt it in his bones. His stomach went into revolt
Speaker 1: with every sharp turn, each breath he took, it felt
Speaker 1: like it could be his last. He was sitting up
Speaker 1: in a stretcher, his shirts soiled with vomit and wine
Speaker 1: spots dried red wine threw out his hair, his eyes
Speaker 1: swarming around in his head. He felt his pulse quicken
Speaker 1: and then suddenly dropped down to a dribble, and then
Speaker 1: it quickened again. He was just as surprised as anyone
Speaker 1: that he was actually conscious in the back of this ride.
Speaker 1: He could have sworn he felt dead there for a
Speaker 1: few minutes earlier in the morning, and the paramedics both
Speaker 1: sat in the front of the ambulance, one driving, another
Speaker 1: riding shotgun. Shouldn't one of them be back here with me,
Speaker 1: Jimmy thought, fighting the ways of pain and nausea. Why
Speaker 1: wasn't someone taking his vitals, monitoring his pulse, making sure
Speaker 1: he remained in this world. I'll meet in the next one,
Speaker 1: don't be late. And they passed the first hospital. Through
Speaker 1: his half masted eyes, he watched the hospital come and
Speaker 1: go through the ambulance window. He raised his arm, pointed
Speaker 1: out the window, mumbled some words something to draw ten
Speaker 1: into the fact that they had just driven by a
Speaker 1: fucking hospital. His mumbling seemed to fall on deaf ears,
Speaker 1: and the paramedics weren't any rush to get to their destination.
Speaker 1: They weren't in a rush period. The two paramedics had
Speaker 1: arrived at Monica's rented flat about ten minutes after she
Speaker 1: made the call, and they took their time, didn't bust
Speaker 1: down the apartment door, didn't scatter and make up for
Speaker 1: lost time. They walked patiently into the bedroom, found Jimmy unconscious,
Speaker 1: and gradually got him up on the stretcher and packed
Speaker 1: into the ambulance. They slapped his face, attended to and
Speaker 1: rustled around for some medical instruments in their bag, and
Speaker 1: within seconds, Jimmy's eyes had fluttered open slightly. He was
Speaker 1: still there, still inside that body, still with it. When
Speaker 1: they left, Monica remembered that they didn't turn the siren
Speaker 1: back on, just merged into traffic like any other vehicle
Speaker 1: driving on any other Friday. Jimmy wheezed, spattered some more,
Speaker 1: felt another wave of wretching coming on. It was burning up.
Speaker 1: One of the paramedics clicked the stereo on and the
Speaker 1: chairman of the boards, You've got Me Dangling on a
Speaker 1: String rolled through its giddy yet mournful chorus, and the
Speaker 1: paramedic writing shotguns snapped his fingers. Now this is music,
Speaker 1: truth be told. This is my kind of black music.
Speaker 1: It's calm, catchy, strings are nice, boy, Too much of
Speaker 1: you give. People's music is loud and political. Paramedic driving
Speaker 1: chimed in, say it loud. He's black and he's almost dead.
Speaker 1: And as you shared a laugh while the song played on,
Speaker 1: You've got Me Dangling on a string. Please don't let
Speaker 1: me trapping because everything I've gotten Back in the stretcher,
Speaker 1: more reclined than upright, Jimmy began choking some more. He
Speaker 1: felt his airway clog up again, tasted the Vombit there,
Speaker 1: lodge tight that your girl back there at the apartment.
Speaker 1: Shotgun writing paramedic yelped towards Jimmy and the stretcher, twisting
Speaker 1: his neck just enough so that his voice would carry
Speaker 1: into the back. How many white women does that make
Speaker 1: for you? Oh, it's the problem. You don't like black ladies.
Speaker 1: Jimmy's face went flush as he lost more ability to breathe.
Speaker 1: He was too tired to move. He was slipping under again.
Speaker 1: He could feel it. He'ld come up for air only
Speaker 1: to be humiliated and ignored by these racist assholes, and
Speaker 1: now they were just gonna let him die here. He
Speaker 1: knew it, looking down at his feet in the back
Speaker 1: of the shot bus ambulance, listening to the chairman of
Speaker 1: the fucking board on this goddamn slow boat to China.
Speaker 1: When the ambulance pulled into St. Mary Abbott's Hospital in Kensington,
Speaker 1: Jimmy was under again, and the paramedics flung open the
Speaker 1: back doors, pulled the stretcher out, and went to wheel
Speaker 1: him into the emergency room. And they didn't check any vitals,
Speaker 1: They didn't take stock of the situation, and they didn't
Speaker 1: look back as they casually walked away out of the
Speaker 1: hospital and back to their ambulance. They didn't give two
Speaker 1: ships because it didn't really matter to them at all.
Speaker 1: Jimmy Hendricks didn't matter to them at all. They got
Speaker 1: him there, it was someone else's job to care. The
Speaker 1: doctor's noted the unusual amounts of red wine residue on
Speaker 1: Jimmy's clothes, in his hair, in his throat, in his lungs,
Speaker 1: if not necessarily in his stomach, it was coming out
Speaker 1: of his nose, in his mouth. When one of the
Speaker 1: nurses saw Jimmy on the stretcher and shouted and shocked, Oh,
Speaker 1: that's Jimmy Hendrix. Who's Jimmy Hendrix, the attending doctor responded.
Speaker 1: Moments later, the same doctor called it confirmed Jimmy's long
Speaker 1: running premonitions that he, James Marshall Jimmy Hendrix was dead
Speaker 1: at just months away from his twenty birthday. With Jimmy gone,
Speaker 1: it was just Monica's story against the world in the
Speaker 1: world had questions, The world had doubts. The world wasn't
Speaker 1: buying her story about the death of the most famous
Speaker 1: guitar player on the planet, not buying it at all.
Speaker 1: Not one. The theory about Michael Jeffrey's better dead than
Speaker 1: alive goonish takedown of Jimmy Hendrix and the theory about
Speaker 1: incompetent racist paramedics are arguably far fetched. They seem more
Speaker 1: like attempts to explain the sudden death of a unique
Speaker 1: musical talent that Jimmy's death couldn't have been so blah,
Speaker 1: so pedestrian, so clich that some sinister force must have
Speaker 1: taken him down something fantastical. He was just too unique,
Speaker 1: too special, too immortal to die so predictably. The truth
Speaker 1: may have been less pulpy than the twin theories positive
Speaker 1: by Tabby and Monica, but the truth was tragic. Nonetheless,
Speaker 1: the truth about Jimmie hendricks death goes like this. Jimmie
Speaker 1: Hendricks took nine of Monica Daneman's vest Direx pills. That's
Speaker 1: nearly twenty times the recommended dosage. It was enough to
Speaker 1: take down a goddamn rhino. The autopsy concluded that he
Speaker 1: died from inhalation of vomit due to barbituate intoxication and
Speaker 1: phetamines plus wine plus second all and then a ship
Speaker 1: ton of vesper x. He chugged the booze, he chugged
Speaker 1: the pills, He fell asleep on his back, and he
Speaker 1: didn't wake up when his body rejected the leaf of cocktail. Intentional,
Speaker 1: probably not a dumb move made by a guy who
Speaker 1: was running on fumes and just wanted the world to
Speaker 1: stop for a moment so his body and mind could
Speaker 1: catch up. That's most likely what happened, but we'll never
Speaker 1: really know. Jimmie Hendricks was buried at Greenwood Cemetery in
Speaker 1: rent In, Washington, a Seattle suburb. It was the first
Speaker 1: day of October in n It was cheaper to bury
Speaker 1: Jimmy in Renton than in Seattle. Between the naughty mess
Speaker 1: that was his estate and the paltry salary that his
Speaker 1: father Al earned his landscaper, it just made fiscal sense
Speaker 1: to bury him there. Plus, his mother, Lucille, was buried
Speaker 1: there too. The funeral took place at the Dumblap Baptist Church.
Speaker 1: Only one reporter and one photographer gotten the door. Hundreds
Speaker 1: of fans lined the streets outside. Jimmy's family was intended
Speaker 1: says were Michael Jeffrey No Reading, Mitch Mitchell and Buddy Miles,
Speaker 1: Johnny Winter, Alan Douglas, Miles Davis, and Devin Wilson. Devon
Speaker 1: flung herself at the open grave. A short time later,
Speaker 1: in February of one, she took another dive. This time
Speaker 1: it was from a ninth story window of the Chelsea
Speaker 1: Hotel in New York City. She was dead as soon
Speaker 1: as she hit the pavement on twenty third Street. The
Speaker 1: whole thing was shrouded in mystery. Was Devin Wilson pushed
Speaker 1: or did she jump? And there wasn't much of an investigation,
Speaker 1: Devon being devon. As far as many were concerned, it
Speaker 1: was the jump kup her nose and in her arm
Speaker 1: that did her in. Jimmy's dark shadows snuffed out, case closed.
Speaker 1: The tragic deaths of people in Jimmy's life didn't end there.
Speaker 1: It was only three days after Jimmy's funeral that Janis
Speaker 1: Joplin checked out in Hollywood heroin overdose. Jim Morrison followed
Speaker 1: a short nine months later, supposedly heart failure and a
Speaker 1: bathtub in Paris. Like Jimmy, they too were only twenty
Speaker 1: seven years old. In March of nineteen seventy three, Michael
Speaker 1: Jeffrey was traveling from ma Yorker to London to attend
Speaker 1: a trial on UK royalties for Jimmy's music. Depending on
Speaker 1: the verdict, he was looking to add another layer of
Speaker 1: lining to his already well stuffed pockets. The Iberian Airways
Speaker 1: d C nine he was on collided with the Span
Speaker 1: Text Coronado and mid air over France. All forty seven passengers,
Speaker 1: including Michael Jeffrey, were killed. Noel Redding was one of
Speaker 1: the few who called bullshit on the plane crash. They
Speaker 1: never identified Jeffrey's body in the wreckage. Surely must be
Speaker 1: hiding on one of these islands with one of his
Speaker 1: many suitcases of money, dead and loving it. Most certain
Speaker 1: not true. But Jeffrey was, to paraphrase Winston Churchill, a
Speaker 1: riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. Anything's possible.
Speaker 1: In April of n Monica Daneman was found guilty of
Speaker 1: contempt of court. She had been lying to reporters about
Speaker 1: Jimmy's death when Cathy Etchingham had the coroner's inquest, reopened.
Speaker 1: Her fantasy world about a relationship with Jimmy took on
Speaker 1: a life of its own after his death, and she
Speaker 1: remained consumed by his memory. The walls of her house
Speaker 1: were filled with paintings of Jimmy that she had created.
Speaker 1: She held on to Jimmy's black stratocaster that he had
Speaker 1: been playing that last day. She wrote a book about
Speaker 1: her brief time with her supposed fiance, The Inner World
Speaker 1: of Jimmie Hendricks, which contained a lot of photos she
Speaker 1: took on her last day together. Two days after she
Speaker 1: was found guilty of contempt. She parked from Mercedes bends
Speaker 1: in her garage, closed the garage door, rolled her windows down,
Speaker 1: breathed in, d filled her lungs with carbon monoxide, and
Speaker 1: they were the last breaths she would take. She was
Speaker 1: fifty years old. Chas Chandler was fifty seven when he
Speaker 1: died in his sleep at Newcastle General Hospital in July.
Speaker 1: He had been admitted to undergo tests for a new
Speaker 1: ordic aneurism his heart gave out. Noel Redding had a
Speaker 1: rocky relationship with the Hendricks estate following Jimmy's death in
Speaker 1: the seventies. He first sued Warner Brothers for hundreds of
Speaker 1: thousands of dollars and damages plus royalties, and then sued
Speaker 1: both Warners and chas Chandler for a cool three million.
Speaker 1: In a few thousand three, he sued the Hendricks estate
Speaker 1: for another five million in royalty zone. A few months later,
Speaker 1: he was found dead by his manager at his home
Speaker 1: in Ireland, unknown causes, and he was only fifty seven.
Speaker 1: Mitch Mitchell died in a Portland, Oregon hotel room in
Speaker 1: November two thousand and eight. He was on the last
Speaker 1: stop of a US tour with the experienced Hendricks show
Speaker 1: attribute show to his former group featuring high profile musical guests.
Speaker 1: His death was due to natural causes and he was
Speaker 1: just sixty one. Over the years, all these musicians and
Speaker 1: more were wrapped up and tied up in the ongoing
Speaker 1: legacy of Jimmy Hendricks, his music, his legend, his place
Speaker 1: in the nineteen sixties, and in the pantheon of rock
Speaker 1: music architects. Though he only released three studio albums, one
Speaker 1: live album, and one compilation album during a short lifetime,
Speaker 1: his postumous catalog continues to grow. There have been releases
Speaker 1: galore of live shows and studio outtakes, but also lawsuits galore.
Speaker 1: Record companies, bandmates, family members. A lot of hands have
Speaker 1: dipped into the Hendricks pie. Jimmy remains the ultimate archetype
Speaker 1: for rock guitarists, for psychedelic music makers, for left handers
Speaker 1: and freak flag waivers, and for those who like their
Speaker 1: fashion sense to raise a few eyebrows. If Jimmy had
Speaker 1: stopped searching along the way, stop trying to find that thing,
Speaker 1: that thing that clicked, the right thing with his left hand,
Speaker 1: searching for something that made sense, the right band or
Speaker 1: right song, or right girl. If he stopped searching that,
Speaker 1: he wouldn't have been Jimmy. He would have been just
Speaker 1: another dude from Seattle with a guitar and a head
Speaker 1: full of illicit drugs. He would have done what Little
Speaker 1: Richard told him to do. Remained in the shadows, but
Speaker 1: there was always something new to seek out. Sometimes, like
Speaker 1: the music he made with Band of Gypsies, the results
Speaker 1: of the detour were great. Other times, like that last
Speaker 1: Faithful night with Monica, they were deadly. But it was
Speaker 1: always Jimmy's move. Jimmy made it happen, and there was
Speaker 1: no way he wouldn't. People don't realize as he wants,
Speaker 1: say that a plastic cage is so easy to break.
Speaker 1: Jimmy hendricks Stone free to do what he please. He
Speaker 1: can't stay, He's gotta get away. I'm Jake Brennan and
Speaker 1: this is the seven col. Twenty seven Club is scored
Speaker 1: and co written by me Jake Brennan. Zeth Lundi is
Speaker 1: the lead writer, editor and co producer. The twenty seven
Speaker 1: Club is mixed and engineered by Sean kaal And and
Speaker 1: Matt Bowden, both of whom lent their considerable music talent
Speaker 1: to the scoring of this series, as well additional music
Speaker 1: and score elements by Ryan Spreaker. The twenty seven Club
Speaker 1: is produced by myself a Double Elvis in partnership with
Speaker 1: iHeart Radio. Sources for this episode are available at Double
Speaker 1: Elvis dot com on the twenty seven Club series page.
Speaker 1: The twenty seven Club is released weekly every Thursday. Season
Speaker 1: one features twelve episodes on Jimmy hendricks In season two
Speaker 1: will feature twelve episodes on Jim Morrison. If you'd like
Speaker 1: what to hear, please be sure to subscribe to the
Speaker 1: twenty seven Called on Apple podcast the I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: Apple wherever you get their podcasts. Then if you'd like
Speaker 1: to win a free twenty seven Club poster designed by
Speaker 1: the man himself, Nate Gonzalez, and then leave a review
Speaker 1: for twenty seven Club on Apple podcasts or hashtag subscribed
Speaker 1: to twenty seven Club on social media and we'll pick
Speaker 1: two winners each week and announce them on the Double
Speaker 1: Elvis Instagram page that's at Double Elvis. You're gonna want
Speaker 1: to give that a follow, so get out there and
Speaker 1: please spread the word about the part. As always, you
Speaker 1: can find me blabbing a route other crazy rock stars
Speaker 1: on my other podcast disgrace Land, and you can talk
Speaker 1: to me per usual on Instagram and Twitter at graceland
Speaker 1: pot one way or another. I hope to talking to you,
Speaker 1: Sue until then. What's up for your ears?