Odd, and only coming out now because of the book.
Jimi Hendrix was murdered by his manager, according to a new book by one of the guitarist’s former roadies. James “Tappy” Wright has claimed that manager Michael Jeffrey confessed to making Hendrix swallow sleeping pills, because he hoped to collect on his client’s life insurance policy.
Jeffrey feared being replaced with a new manager, Wright writes in his book Rock Roadie, and decided Hendrix was “worth more to him dead than alive”. Jeffrey was allegedly the beneficiary oo the guitarist’s $2m life insurance policy (worth around £1.2m in 1970).
According to Wright, Jeffrey told him about the crime in 1971 – a year after 27-year-old Hendrix was found dead in a London hotel. “I had to do it, Tappy,” Wright claims the manager said. “You understand, don’t you? I had to do it. You know damn well what I’m talking about … We went round to [his] 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.”
[From Jimi Hendrix murdered by manager, claims roadie | Music | guardian.co.uk ]
Probably a lie, but who knows. There have been all sorts of allegations about Michael Jeffrey controlling and manipulating Hendrix, so there could be truth here. And of course, Jeffrey allegedly died in a plane crash in 1973, so nobody can refute the tale. It wouldn’t hold up in a court of law, but in the court of public opinion, hearsay is admissible evidence.
Jeffery has received almost unanimous criticism from biographers of Hendrix. Several have alleged that Jeffery siphoned off much of Hendrix’s income and channeled it into off-shore bank accounts, that Jeffery had dubious connections to US intelligence services (it has been reported that insiders often claimed that he worked for MI5, British Secret Intelligence and that he had connections to European organised crime). When Experience bassist Noel Redding inquired as to where Jeffery was going with briefcases of the bands money, he was asked to leave [the band].