Part 9 in a series on “The 27’s” – notable musicians who have passed away in their 27th year.
His death, though clouded in supposed conspiracy, is somewhat straightforward. On the evening of September 17, 1970, Jimi had been at a party and was picked up by girlfriend Monika Dannemann. The two drove to her flat at the Samarkand Hotel where he died a few hours after midnight. Dannemann said that after they returned to her flat that Jimi had, unknown to her, taken nine of her prescribed Vesperax sleeping pills. The normal medical dose for Vesperax was half a tablet, but Hendrix was unfamiliar with the medication and unintentionally overdosed.
Dannemann's comments about that morning were often contradictory, varying from interview to interview. Dannemann would claim that she had discovered Jimi unconscious and unresponsive sometime after 9 a.m. and that Hendrix was alive at 11:30 a.m. when he was placed in the ambulance. She would also say that she rode with him in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. Later she claimed that former road managers Gerry Stickels and Eric Barrett had been present before the ambulance was called and had removed some of Hendrix's possessions, including some of his most recent messages.
Police and ambulance statements show that there was no one but Hendrix in the flat when they arrived at 11:27 a.m., and that he had been dead for some time. The ambulance crew as well stated that Jimi was dead and that they were unaccompanied when they transported his body. According the doctor who initially attended to him, Hendrix had asphyxiated in his own vomit, mainly red wine.
Dannemann continued in her claims and following a libel case brought in 1996 by Hendrix's long-term English girlfriend Kathy Etchingham, Monika Dannemann committed suicide.
Almost as tragic as Jimi’s death was the disposition of his estate following his passing. Jimi died without a will and for nearly 20 years after his death a California attorney managed his estate. In 1995 Jimi's father, Al, sued and won the rights to Jimi's music. Al created the corporation, Experience Hendrix, LLC to manage the rights to Hendrix’s music.
Things got more complex when Al died of congestive heart failure in 2002. At the time the Hendrix estate was worth about $80 million. Al’s will stipulated that Experience Hendrix, LLC was to exist as a trust designed to distribute profits to a list of Hendrix family beneficiaries. Upon his death, it was revealed that Al had signed a revision to his will, which removed Hendrix's brother Leon Hendrix and other family members as beneficiaries. The revised will left the estate almost entirely to Al's adopted daughter Janie who was not a blood relation to Jimi. Al had divorced Jimi's mother in the late 1950s and adopted Janie when he married her mother in 1968. At the time of Jimi’s death Janie was only 9 years old and had met Jimi just once as he passed through Seattle on tour. Janie, whose birth name was Janie Jinka later changed her name to Janie Wright and then to Janie Hendrix.
Jimi's brother, Leon, alleged that Janie manipulated Al into writing Leon and his children out of the will, and sued to be written back in. A 2004 probate lawsuit merged Leon's challenge to the will with charges from other Hendrix family beneficiaries that Janie Hendrix was improperly handling the company finances. The suit argued that Janie and a cousin, Robert Hendrix, paid themselves exorbitant salaries and covered their own mortgages and personal expenses from the trust while the beneficiaries went without payment and the Hendrix gravesite in Renton went uncompleted.
Janie and Robert's defense was that the company was not profitable yet, and that their salary and benefits were justified given the work that they put into running the company. Leon charged that Janie had convinced Al, then old and frail, into signing the revised will and sought to have the previous will reinstated. The defense argued that Al willingly removed Leon from his will because of Leon's problems with alcohol and gambling.
In the end, Judge Jeffrey Ramsdell of the King County Superior Court in Washington State didn't believe that Janie preyed on Al's weakened state and coerced him to remove Leon from the will. Instead, Ramsdell noted that Leon's drug use, demands for money, and threats of litigation provided reason enough for Al to change his estate plan. According to Judge Ramsdell, "Janie was the family member Al trusted the most."
Currently, Leon has been clean for over twelve years and lives with his girlfriend who is a doctor in Los Angeles, California. His band named “The Leon Hendrix Band” has released one album to date called “Keeper of the Flame.” Leon has toured the last few years performing large venue concerts. His wish is to keep his brother Jimi's legacy alive by dedicating his songs to him when he performs.
Those who had been closest to Hendrix during his life, particularly relatives on his mother's side, never benefited at all from his body of work.
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