Secret and Suppressed: Banned Ideas and Hidden History (20 page)

A record called “Phantom’s Divine Comedy” was released in 1974. This was rumored to be Jim Morrison singing with an anonymous band with the names of “drummer X, bassist Y, and keyboardist Z”. The music reportedly resembled Jim Morrison’s sound quite well. All this again added and sparked the rumor mills, and stirred public fascination.

However, in a 1992 press released from the Zeppelin group, it is revealed that Morrison pal Iggy Pop was actually doing all the singing and helping the “hoax” along. This added more fuel as to how many people were actually involved in maintaining his “death hoax.” Up until the 1992 press release, the record company that had released Phantom had refused to divulge the names on the LP, or the singer’s name — which was indeed Iggy Pop.

Regarding all these rumors, Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek stated: “If there was one guy that would have been capable of staging his own death — getting a phony death certificate and paying off some French doctor… And putting a hundred and fifty pound sack of sand into a coffin and splitting to some point on this planet — Africa, who knows where — it is Jim Morrison who would have been able to pull it off.” Jim Morrison’s best friend Tom Baker, writing in
High Times
(June, 1981) had this to say: “I was very tempted to believe the rumors that Jim had faked his own death.”

A group of fans actually went so far as to try to get Morrison’s dental records, apparently to try to get permission to dig up his body and match the records to the remains. This was immediately blocked both by Morrison’s parents and their attorneys — at least for the time being.

It is known that Jim Morrison had repeatedly planted the seeds which would lead to this sort of speculation — that he had somehow faked his own death and dropped out into a new identity. At the Fillmore in San Francisco in 1967, Jim started suggesting that he should pull a “death stunt” to bring national press attention onto the band. This was when he came up with the “Mr. Mojo Risin” anagram which would be used after he “split to Africa” and wished to secretly contact friends.

Morrison also told Danny Sugarman and Jerry Hopkins on more than one occasion that he could see himself “radically changing careers, reappearing as a suited and neck-tied businessman.” Jac Holzman’s assistant Steve Harris even remembers Jim Morrison asking what might happen if he were to suddenly “die”… how might it affect business, record sales, the press, and would people believe it? With confidant Mary Francis Werebelow Jim “entertained long conversations about how the Disciples had stolen the body of Christ from the crypt, jokingly calling it the ‘Easter heist,’ etc.”

In a
Rolling Stone
article for September 17, 1981, author Jerry Hopkins recounts many other Morrison sightings: “The first one I remember was a beaut… He surfaced in San Francisco shortly after Morrison’s death and began cashing checks in Morrison’s name. He was not writing bad checks, mind you; it was his money he was spending. It was just that he was dressed as Jim would in his ‘leather period,’ and that he told everyone that he was indeed the ‘dead singer.’

“The telephone operator asked: ‘will you accept a long distance collect call from Jim Morrison?’ It was an interesting conversation… Our conversations were unsettling. He told me to go to Paris and dig up the corpse, but that you would need permission from ‘twelve Catholic Bishops’ to do it… A visit to his home was more jarring. There at the end of one room was a Morrison ‘shrine,’ converted with posters, flowers, religious icons — the works!”

Years later, I actually got the chance to visit and interview the shrine’s owner, who claimed to be Jim Morrison. He told me matter-of-factly details about Hopkins, as well as that other reporters had actually burglarized the shrine in an attempt to get a scoop. Another surreal sighting involved “Donny” of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He described Jim Morrison at Morrison’s home in 1978. Donny told his friend “Larry” about it, as Larry was trying to break in to the world of rock and roll: “I remember Larry telling me about the whole wall of one room lined with books all across it. Every one of the books were about Satan, or had something to do with him. He also told me about a large chair that looked like a throne, on which this man sat and watched over his nude children running around… I guess that you can probably guess who that kinky old weird man was — Jim Morrison, The Lizard King!” — Sugarman, pp. 33

Another person named Rhea (the Greek goddess of fertility) claimed she was living with Jim Morrison in 1979 with their son “Jesse Blue James”. She matter-of-factly claimed that Morrison had “evolved into a state of pure energy… And can materialize and dematerialize at will.” She and Jim were also in direct telepathic communication and in “electromagnetic synch.”

Rock icon Jim Morrison’s father was an admiral in the United States Navy, privy to intelligence and counterintelligence information. His name is Steven Morrison.

During the first few years after Jim Morrison’s “death” a number of interesting articles surfaced. These cited references showing various intelligence interests either in Morrison’s underground activity; his “death” or that intelligence had even masterminded Morrison’s death itself! One of the more explicit appeared in the Scandinavian magazine
Dagblatte.
This article detailed French intelligence efforts to assassinate Jim Morrison in Paris.

Author Bernard Wolfe writing “The Real Life Death of Jim Morrison” for
Esquire
(June 1972) related the story of, “Sherry, a Pasadena girl who knew Morrison well: “…I couldn’t make sense out of the stories in the papers. Suppose he had a heart attack exactly as they reported, is that what he died of? My God, you might as well say that Ernest Hemingway died of “extensive brain damage”. If you want to know the cause of Jim’s death — not just the physiology of it — ask what triggered his heart to stop… And whose finger was on the trigger.” — Wolfe, pp. 106

In the first few years after Morrison’s “death” the owner of B of A Communications, named James Douglas Morrison, claimed to be operating as an intelligence agent for a number of domestic and international groups including the CIA, NSA, Interpol, Swedish Intelligence and others. There are also connections between James Douglas Morrison and various occult groups with probable intelligence connections. [Author’s note: from here on the B of A Morrison will be referred to as JM2.]

JM2 also claims to be the “dead” rock star and former singer for The Doors. The new JM2 dropped the old JM1 rock and roll identity to become a “James Bond,” wearing the suit and tie that Morrison predicted when he was with The Doors.

This author has in fact seen what appear to be stacks of official-looking documents and letters between the CIA, various government agencies, national news groups like CNN and NBC and JM2, involving what looked like personal meetings, projects and ephemera. Of special interest is that when I viewed parts of the files, all the reports had a paper-thin metallic band affixed to them with colored UPC bar codes. There is no way for me to authenticate the claims of JM2, but everything looked extremely official and very elaborate.

From about 1972 through 1992 JM2 has left a surreal trail of paper and appearances all over the world. These include letters to and from Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards and CIA Director William Colby, through the Washington, DC law firm of Colby, Miller and Hanes.

A courtroom transcript which I have seen implicates the FBI and CIA in several coverups regarding JM2’s intelligence career. These show that there seems to be a systematic destruction of files relating to JM2’s spy activities. An enclosed plate also shows JM2’s Swedish Intelligence ID card, obtained from the FBI through the Freedom of Information Act. Unfortunately the only copy I have is obscured in the facial area, but the ID numbers are intact. Also in my possession are files concerning JM2’s rogue financial activities with the Bank of America, and news reports regarding lawsuits by and against JM2 for bank fraud and espionage, which he claims was done under intelligence auspices as part of financial experiments to destabilize foreign currencies and exchange rates.

There also appear to be hundreds if not thousands of miscellaneous files — both classified and declassified — regarding one James Douglas Morrison, dated after his “death” in 1971. These also refer to “WBC,” a nom de plume of JM2. These look like real letters, documents, and court transcripts involving intelligence circles. These involve the CIA, Danish intelligence, and others. There is also an active passport and banking IDs under the name James Douglas Morrison.

Like the “multiple Oswald” theories of Kennedy assassination buffs, there also exist rumors and urban legends describing the “multiple Morrison” theory.

The idea that Jim Morrison was in fact several different people and actors, or intelligence agents has been going on for some time. Besides the “Morrison” singing on the Phantom (now shown to be Iggy Pop) there also exist rumors that a Louisiana banker as well as Richard Tanguay — a close friend of Mick Jagger — perpetuated the hoax. Even
High Times
ran and old news story about someone claiming to be Jim Morrison (post 1971) running for governor of Louisiana! Supposedly Richard Tanguay (related to vaudeville legend Eva Tanguay) took the Morrison persona on, on several occasions, and even sang with The Doors when they toured Europe with the Rolling Stones. Is this possible?

In fact JM2 has claimed publicly that there have been numerous James Douglas Morrisons, and that they all knew one another and met from time to time to work it all out. The impersonations were part of CIA sociological experiments like Artichoke or MK-ULTRA.

Is this all for real or is this an elaborate hoax? It is not the scope of this work to determine the truth — or lack of truth — or the consequences of such activities. The important thing to note that someone or some group is actively pursuing and setting up a mass “urban legend” regarding James Morrison. Whether this is a hoax or not is not as important as the fact that a lot of official-looking information is being generated surrounding the myth and legend of Jim Morrison, his life and his supposed “death.”

How very much I’ve tried my best to give you a good life. In spite of all that I’ve tried, a handful of people, with their lies, have made our lives impossible. There’s no way to distract ourselves from what’s happened today.

Not only do we have a compound situation … The Betrayal of the Century… Some have stolen children from mothers and are in pursuit now to kill them because they stole their children. I mean we are sitting here waiting on a powder keg and I don’t think that is what we want to do with our babies. I don’t think that is what we have in mind to do with our babies.

It was said by the greatest of prophets from time immemorial: “No man may take my life from me. I lay my life down…” So just to sit here and wait for the catastrophe that’s going to happen to that airplane — it’s going to be a catastrophe — it almost happened here, it almost happened, the Congressman was nearly killed here. But you can’t steal people’s children, you can’t take off with people’s children without expecting a violent reaction.

If we can’t live in peace, then let us die in peace. I’ve been so betrayed. I’ve been so terribly betrayed. We’ve tried, and what he said right this minute was that he said if it was only worth one day it was worthwhile…

What’s going to happen in a few minutes is that one of the people on that plane is gonna, is gonna shoot the pilot. I know that. I didn’t plan it but I know it’s gonna happen. They`re gonna shoot that pilot and down comes that plane into the jungle and we had better not have any of our children left when it’s over cause … I never lied to you. I never have lied to you. I know that’s what’s going to happen. That’s what he intends to do and he will do it. He’ll do it.

I’ve been loaded with many pressures seeing all these people behave so treasonous. It was just too much for me to put together but I now know what he was telling me and it’ll happen … if the plane gets in the air, that is. So my opinion is that you be kind to children and you be kind to seniors and take the potion like we used to take in an ocean breeze and step over quietly because we are not committing suicide — It’s a revolutionary act. We can’t go back, we won’t … we’re not going back to tell more lies which means more Congressmen, there’s no way, there’s no way we can survive….