Did This French Aristocrat Have a Hand in the Deaths of Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin and Other '60s Icons?
- by Jordan Runtagh
JIM MORRISON’S DEATH SPAWNED A DIZZYING ARRAY OF CONSPIRACY THEORIES, BUT COUNT JEAN DE BRETEUIL FEATURES IN MANY
Twenty-seven-year-old Jim Morrison was found dead in the bathtub of his Paris apartment in the early morning hours of July 3, 1971. Beyond those few facts, little else is agreed upon. A French medical examiner ruled that a heart attack ended the life of the Doors frontman, but no autopsy was ever performed. Half a century later, fans continue to question the official story. Morrison's death has become the rock 'n' roll equivalent of the JFK assassination, spawning a dizzying array of legends that mix fact and myth. Finding the truth at the heart of these wildly divergent tales becomes less possible with each passing year, but amidst the confusion and misinformation, one man's name appears with startling regularity.
Count Jean de Breteuil is a shadowy figure about which little is known. To some, he was a handsome jet-setting playboy who squandered his life of luxury. To others, he was the snake that slithered into the '60s Garden of Eden. By most accounts, the self-styled "dealer to the stars" pandered to the vices of the rich and famous, enabling the addictions that cost many their lives. Despite his oversized role in rock history, he's been reduced to a footnote due to a code of secrecy that surrounded music's elite and the premature demise of many key players. His own death in 1972 at the age of 22 marked the end of a truly unusual life — simultaneously charmed and cursed.
