Jimi Hendrix was murdered

At least according to James “Tappy” Wright’s new book, Rock Roadie. Wright, a former aide, says that Hendrix’s former manager, Michael Jeffrey, drunkenly confessed to shoving sleeping pills into Hendrix’s mouth, and then pouring several bottles of wine down Hendrix’s throat. That’s not a very good manager. Independent reports:

In his book, Rock Roadie, Mr Wright says Jeffrey told him in 1971 that Hendrix had been “worth more to him dead than alive” as he had taken out a life insurance policy on the musician worth $2m (about £1.2m at the time), with himself as the beneficiary. Two years later, Jeffrey was killed in a plane crash.
Hendrix died in September 1970, aged 27. An ambulance crew found his body in the Samarkand Hotel, west London, in the room of a woman called Monika Dannemann, whom he had known for only a few days.
Hendrix was alone in the room, lying on his back, with the gas fire on and the door open. There was no record of who had called the ambulance. His inquest recorded the cause of his death as barbiturate intoxication and inhalation of vomit, and recorded an open verdict.
Describing the night of Jeffrey’s confession, Mr Wright wrote: “I can still hear that conversation, see the man I’d known for so much of my life, his face pale, hand clutching at his glass in sudden rage.”
Wright claims Jeffrey told him: “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.”
John Bannister, the surgeon who dealt with Hendrix at hospital, has said he was convinced the star had drowned in red wine, despite having very 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,” he wrote in 1992.

Eh, kinda skeptical. I still havne’t decided if it’s just a coincidence that Mr. Wright decided to wait almost 40 years to tell the world, and just when he has a new book about Jimi coming out. I’m guessing that’s just good timing on his part, but I’m still not sure.