It was 49 years ago today (July 3rd, 1971) that Jim Morrison was found dead in the bathtub of his apartment in Paris, France by his longtime companion, Pamela Courson. The local coroner ruled the official cause of death for the 27-year-old Doors frontman as “heart attack induced by respiratory problems.” Morrison was buried in Paris's Pere Lachaise Cemetery on July 9th of that year. James Riordan, the co-author of Break On Through: The Life And Death Of Jim Morrison, told us that relocating to France was a natural progression for Jim Morrison — artist: “So, when he went to Paris it was the idea of, 'Here is a new place. A place for artists, a place I can work on my poetry. I mean, what better place to write poetry than Paris? And I can explore new avenues in my thinking.' And in his mind, I think, get himself together.”
The rock world has forever been fascinated by the mysterious circumstances surrounding Jim Morrison's sudden and early demise. Steve Harris, the senior VP at the time of the Doors' record label Elektra Records revealed what he knows about Morrison's death: “It was heroin. So they bring Jim home and he's dead. And they put him in the bathtub and there's a knock on the door. Pam goes and opens the door. Y'know who it is? Marianne Faithfull. She saw what was going on and she split.”
In December 2010 Florida's outgoing Governor Charlie Crist cleared Morrison's name just one day after what would've been his 67th birthday (December 8th) for his 1969 indecent exposure conviction in Miami. The then-surviving Doors — Ray Manzarek, John Densmore and Robby Krieger — who have long maintained that Morrison did not expose himself, said in a statement that Morrison had nothing to be pardoned for in the first place. They also said that an apology — not a pardon — would have been more appropriate “40 years after the fact.”