New questions about Jim Morrison146;s death

The official story goes like this: On the last night of Jim Morrison's life, the rocker went to a movie in Paris, listened to records...

The official story goes like this: On the last night of Jim Morrison8217;s life, the rocker went to a movie in Paris, listened to records, fell ill and died of heart failure in his bathtub at the age of 27. But rumors have always swirled around the death of The Doors frontman and, 36 years later, a former Paris nightclub manager is telling a different story.

In a new book, Sam Bernett says that Morrison died in a toilet stall of his club after what he believes was a heroin overdose.

He writes of his shock on finding Morrison8217;s body: The flamboyant singer of The Doors, the beautiful California boy, had become an inert lump crumpled in the toilet of a nightclub.8221; Bernett, whose French-language book is called The End: Jim Morrison, says he believes two drug dealers brought Morrison8217;s body back to his apartment.

Bernett, who was in his early 20s when Morrison died in 1971, went on to become a prominent radio personality, rock biographer and a vice president of Disneyland Paris. Though he was pestered for years by reporters investigating Morrison8217;s death, he kept his story quiet until his wife suggested writing a book last year.

8220;For me it8217;s a very bad memory,8221; said Bernett.

Rumours have long suggested that Morrison died of an overdose and that he had fallen ill at the nightclub, but witnesses did not come forward.

Patrick Chauvel, a noted war photographer and writer, sometimes helped run the bar at the club. He recalls giving a hand to men who were carrying Morrison in a staircase there. 8220;I think he was already dead,8221; said Chauvel, who considered putting the episode in a 2005 book before his publisher cautioned against it. Chauvel said he thought an ambulance would have been called if Morrison were still alive.

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8220;I don8217;t know,8221; he said. 8220;It was a long time ago, and we weren8217;t drinking only water.8221;

An official at the Paris prosecutor8217;s office said it was very unlikely the case on Morrison8217;s death would be reopened or that anybody could be prosecuted in the affair, because the statute of limitations8212;the time limit on legal proceedings8212;had run out.

Stephen Davis, the author of Jim Morrison: Life, Death, Legend, says he would not rewrite history because of the new book. Based on his reporting, he believes Morrison did overdose at the club, but that it was shortly before his death8212;not the same night8212;and that he survived the experience.

8220;It just seems likely that if he died in the toilet of a nightclub, it would have come out before now,8221; Davis said.

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Morrison came to Paris in March 1971. At a 1969 concert in Florida, he was accused of exposing his genitals to the audience. He was convicted of indecent exposure and profanity, and the episode led to promoters cancelling concerts.

Morrison left for Paris with his appeal pending. There, he lived in a Right Bank apartment with his girlfriend, Pamela Courson.

Morrison spent 8220;practically every night8221; at the Rock and Roll Circus, the hip Left Bank nightclub that Bernett managed, Bernett said.

At around 1 am on July 3, 1971, Morrison went to the club and was joined by two men8212;drug dealers who sold him heroin for Courson, Bernett said. At one point, Bernett noticed that Morrison had disappeared. Later, the bouncer broke down the door of a locked toilet stall, and they discovered Morrison unresponsive, Bernett said.

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Bernett says the two drug dealers insisted Morrison was just unconscious and carried him out of the club. Bernett believes the dealers brought Morrison8217;s body home and dropped it into the bathtub, a last attempt to revive him.