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Around midnight on July 3, 1969, Brian Jones was found in his swimming pool. Common consensus suggested the Rolling Stones founder get high and fell in. The coroner called it "death by misadventure," a common cause of death for rock stars. (See Bonham, John; Scott, Bonn.)
Then the rumors began. Actually, Jones lived in Sussex, so the rumours began. Mick and Keith had him rubbed out by the Krays. Jones was sacrificed by devil worshipers. The pool had it in for him. (Okay, that one only makes sense with a chemical assist.)
Then in the early nineties, a worker renovating Jones's house confessed on his death bed that he killed Jones over money. Frank Thorogood claimed to have argued with Jones of the fee for some construction on the property. Thorogood said he wanted more. Police reopened the case, but decided the original death ruling stood.
That leaves two questions. If Jones was some random guy found in his swimming pool, wuld anyone believe he was murdered? Second, if Thorogood murdered Jones, why was his confession simply tossed aside?
There is the possibility Thorogood, dying of cancer in 1993, might have wanted the notoriety before he died. The confession appeared close enough to his own death that authorities couldn't do anything about it. Getting away with murder even if you didn't commit it.
The other piece is celebrity. Read any Stephen King novel and you see how rumors spread just through small towns. The Stones are still iconic. Drummer Charlie Watts died with the press covering his illness. At this level of fame, a few rumors can become gospel all over the globe. Jones famously bolted the Stones, so Mick Jagger and Keith Richards could become the top suspects for the conspiracy minded.
Jones was replaced by Mick Taylor and when he quit the band Rolling Stone wrote an article calling him "the only person who ever left the Stones... and lived."
ReplyDeleteMy understanding is that Jones was booted from the Stones because his drug habit was so serious that he was missing rehearsals, maybe even performances (?). Mick Taylor had already replaced Eric Clapton in John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, so he clearly had the chops and the love of blues that was the foundation of the early Stones.
ReplyDeleteActually, considering the extreme level of drug use in the 1960s, 70s, etc. (and I remember some of it... through a haze...), it's amazing that there were only 4 megastars who died of it: Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison. The one conspiracy theory I tend to agree with is that Jim Morrison faked his own death (no autopsy, no open casket, etc.), and took off for Asia (India, Tibet, Thailand, who knows).
ReplyDeleteYes, and the cemetery in Paris where Jim Morrison was supposedly buried, digs everybody up after 30 years unless other arrangements are made!
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