1 August 2009

Monika Dannemann - Witness? Accomplice? Or Just A Nut Job?



Update: You can now read all my Hendrix Posts in one article, click "Check Out My Lens" to see the whole thing.


This is one of a series of posts I have written on Hendrix's mysterious death, there are links to the other posts at the end of this one.

Monika Dannemann was a figure skater and painter from Germany and the daughter of a wealthy German industrialist. She certainly isn’t popular among friends and fans of Hendrix, I’ve seen her referred to as “The skater from hell” “that Bitch” and simply “That Blonde Chick”.

She claims to have been engaged to Hendrix and to have had an 18 month relationship with him, but many people dispute this. After Hendrix she became romantically involved with The Scorpions guitarist Ulrich Roth who she collaborated on several songs with and painted the art work for some of his albums. She also painted many pictures of Hendrix, some have described her house as some kind of eerie shrine to him and she wrote a book about him that went unpublished because of a legal battle over slanderous claims she made about Cathy Etchingham (Hendrix's real girl friend for 2 years) in it.

Monika Dannemann's account of what happened the night before Hendrix died and at the time of his death is the most commonly heard version of events. The media have touted it for years and I believed it, until I started to look into what other people, like the medical professionals who performed the autopsy and the Ambulance men who picked him up say. The two versions of events are alarmingly different and raise a number of questions about who Dannemann actually was and what her intentions toward Hendrix really were.

First let me introduce you to Monika’s chain of events the Night Hendrix died:

I’ve read the location of Hendrix’s death described as a “Squalid Flat” and “Hotel Room” it was actually the basement apartment of the Samarkand Hotel, 22 Lansdowne crescent London, which was being rented in Dannemann's name as far as I can ascertain. One account says Hendrix went to see Devon Wilson that night, but Dannemeann claims she drove him there and he only stayed a few minutes and they were back at her flat by 8:30pm. She says she made him eat a meal and they drank White Wine, he then had a bath and washed his hair. They then spent a couple of hours talking an listening to music. At 1:30am Jimi rang Chas Chandlers Office and left a poignant message of “I need help bad, man”, but Dannemann never mentions this and others have tried to say it happened on a different night.

Then at 1:45 am Dannemann claims Hendrix suddenly told her he wanted to go and see some people at another flat she says he said “They were not his friends and he did not like them but he wanted to show them he could cope. He told me he didn’t want me to go with him so I dropped him off there and picked him up an hour later about 3am”. He smoked some grass while he was there and when he came home she made him a tuna fish sandwich.

Then there is a sudden divergence from her original account (I believe taken from her unpublished book), she says at 6am that something is wrong, that Devon has “slipped him an OD”. Then by his own free will he took a handful of sleeping pills (9 vesperax to be exact, those are a type of seconal, I’m going to write another post on just how lethal those babies were) the normal dose was half a pill, Hendrix normally took 2 as he had a notoriously high tolerance to drugs like barbiturates. He then apparently urged her not to commit suicide (which seems like a weird thing to say, but seconals were hypnotic so they possibly could have made him start saying weird shit). He then carried on talking to her until she was asleep. But in another account she doesn’t mention this at all she just says she took one sleeper 6:45 and fell asleep at 7am.

Sometime after 10:00am Chas Chandler apparently called Hendrix having received his message and Hendrix says “call me a bit later man”. At 10:20 Dannemann wakes up finds Hendrix asleep and goes out for cigarettes. When she returns she finds Hendrix still asleep but has been sick, so she rings Eric Burdon from the Animals (which again seems strange) to ask for advice. He apparently initially hung up on her but then called back and told her to call and ambulance, she thought about it for another 40 minutes, apparently in case he woke up in hospital angry because he was fine really. She didn’t call an ambulance until 11:00am for whatever reason, the ambulance men arrive and put him in the ambulance sitting up with his head unsupported, she claims she rode with him in the Ambulance and he was pronounced DOA at St Mary Abbots Hospital having choked on his vomit.

But here is what the medical evidence says happened:

At the inquest Doctors stated that Hendrix had been dead at least 7 hours before the ambulance arrived, Dr Rufus Compson at the department for forensic medicine at St George’s medical school started his own investigation and discovered rice remains in Hendrix’s stomach. He explained it take 3 to 4 hours for the stomach to empty and he reasoned that since Hendrix had eaten at a dinner party hosted by Pete Cameron between 11:00am and 12:00pm (which Dannemann never mentions, she says Hendrix didn’t go out until 1:45) he placed the time of death no later than 4am. Dr Bannister the surgical registrar reported the “inside of Hendrix’s mouth and the mucus membranes were black because he had been dead for some time”. He also told the London Times “Hendrix had been dead for hours rather than minutes when he was admitted to hospital”.

And Here’s what the Ambulance Men say they found when they got to flat:

The two men arrived to find the flat empty except for Hendrix lying in a mess on the bed already dead with a scarf or some other article of clothing knotted around his neck. They say they tried to revive him as is standard procedure then wrapped up the body put it in the ambulance and drove to the hospital where he was pronounced DOA.

So Danneman wasn’t even there when the Ambulance arrived let alone riding in the Ambulance with him, and all this nonsense about his death being something to do with how the Ambulance men laid him down are untrue as he was already well dead by the time he was even in an Ambulance.

The big question is what was Dannemann hiding? If Jeffrey and his mobsters really did come round and kill him she must have witnessed it or even been involved. I notice too she kept feeding him, could she have been lacing this food with the barbiturates they found in his blood? They normally came in capsules filled with powder so it would have been easy to do. Also where did she go before the Ambulance arrived? And why did she claim she was still there? And why have the media swallowed her version of events so readily for so many years?

I’d like to ask her but unfortunately she’s dead, she was found in her fume filled Mercedes a couple of days after losing her court battle with Cathy Etchingham I mentioned earlier. The verdict was suicide, but was it really? or was someone afraid she would finally start telling the truth after all these years?

Or the more boring truth could simply be Hendrix stayed in her flat alone that night and she was simply a bit of a delusional woman who invented this whole story to draw attention to herself. She did make quite life for herself out of giving interviews about the 18 months she claims she spent with Hendrix and he was subject of many of her paintings. Anyone could have made the 999 call for an ambulance no one really knows for sure it was Dannemann we only have her word for it. And as we can see her word was never really very reliable.

Monika's Previously Unpublished Book about her time with Jimi Hendrix Available On Amazon now.

See Monika's book The Inner World of Jimi Hendrix on Amazon UK by clicking on the link. Or buy The Inner World of Jimi Hendrix on Amazon USA here. There was legal battle mounted by one of Jimi's other girlfriends called Cathy Etchingham to stop this book being published as she calls her a liar in it. I imagine the book has been edited to remove those parts and released now Monika is dead.
My sources for this post were "Jimi Hendrix Death, Drugs and rock and roll" By Jim McClusky, "It's like trying to get out of a room full of mirrors" researched by Bill Henderson and chapter seven of "The Covert War Against Rock" by Alex Constantine (interesting book I'm currently reading and will review shortly.)

This is one of a series of posts about Hendrix's death I have written the others are:

Was Hendrix Murdered? More On Hendrix, The Prime Suspect -Michael Jeffrey.

16 comments:

Anji said...

I haven't had time to read your post yet, but I've put a little surprise for you on http://anjipatchwork.blogspot.com

Anji said...

it is fascinating that there is so much mystery. Hope you don't uncover something which puts you into danger

Anonymous said...

Your entire post is based on assumption. Perhaps you're the one who's a bit delusional. There are a few pictures of Monika Dannemann with Jimi Hendrix if yiu just google her. Jeez!

Unknown said...

Actually my post is based on medical evidence, and trust me I've done more than google Monika Danneman, and there aren't as many photo's of her and Hendrix as you'd expect for someone who's supposed to have dated him for 18 months, not like there are photo's of him and one of his real girl friends like Cathy Etchingham for example. Believe it or not Google does not contain the answers to everything.
And nice to see you had the guts to leave your real name and web address when you leave your dubious opinion on the Internet.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

I have heard a recording-- though I could never remember the details-- where Hendrix is asked about Dannemann and responds flipantly that she is his Yoko Ono. This was probably concerning the race issue, but quite ironic nontheless.

Unknown said...

That's interesting and proves there was some kind of relationship with her. And John Lennon was married to Yoko Ono, so maybe by saying that he was suggesting he might marry her.

Exiles800 said...

I doubt Dannemann mixed any pills into Hendrix's food. The Vesparax barbiturate were hard sleeping tablets. If you tried to hide them in food they would taste nasty and be detectable. Hendrix's New York doctor said Jimi called him a few days prior telling him about his inability to sleep. The doctor said he would try to contact a London doctor for a prescription but Jimi told him no "there are some Tuinols here". So (as far as I know) Jimi was unaware the pills he was referencing were 3 times stronger than he imagined. I suspect those powerful sleeping tablets did not get into Hendrix's reach by accident. Barbiturate murder was a common intel tactic of the day and Jeffery was MI5.

There's no doubt Dannemann was involved and her crazy stories would normally be automatically considered a sign of guilt in any other case. The rice stomach contents forensically narrow the time of death down to the critical period just after arriving back at the Samarkand, which fits Michael Jeffery's alleged confession perfectly.

Eric Burdon admitted to a Hendrix author that Dannemann called him around "daybreak". He mentioned the delay in summoning the ambulance was because they wanted to clean the flat of drugs lest Hendrix's death be used as an excuse to crack down on the London rock scene. I suppose none of the involved could admit this because lying to a death Inquest is a serious offense. Perhaps they should offer Burdon immunity if he tells all.

Monika Dannemann told a complete set of lies about her trip to the hospital and the things she did there. If her lies were made-up in order to cover the flat cleaning then why would she incriminate herself by making-up a whole fantasy about her hospital visit? The hospital visit was hours after the flat cleaning, so why would she need to lie about it? To me the answer is because Dannemann was in a complete state of shock not because she witnessed an accidental death but because she witnessed and knew about a serious murder and was in a state of mental disturbance because of it. This kind of thing made her invent a total story to cover the extent of what she was involved in. If Hendrix died just because of an accidental drug combination she wouldn't have needed to lie about the hospital visit.

Jimi Hendrix was waterboarded to death. His MI5 manager was trained in such methods. That tells you right there who killed him. The pure wine spilled on the bed, clothes, and hair was spilled during the act of waterboarding. It was meant to look like a fatal alcohol/barbiturate combination (classic intel method).

His manager Michael Jeffery was keeping the money he stole from Hendrix in some notorious CIA/mafia Bahamian banks. The CIA had a deal with the mob. If they helped keep communism out of the Caribbean they would be allowed to operate and CIA would take a cut. CIA's cut was kept in the exact same banks as Jeffery's loot. CIA was using the money to fund dirty operations away from government accounting. When Hendrix threatened Jeffery with court he also threatened scrutiny of those banks. So much more than just a crooked manager was threatened here.

Jimi Hendrix was on the FBI's "Security Index". I have no doubt CIA probably listened-in to his phone call to his New York doctor from London. Once the threat was determined it was probably an easy decision for them to defend themselves against it.

There's no doubt Hendrix was waterboarded because you can't have lungs full of wine, as Doctor Bannister witnessed, and only have a 5mg/100ml blood alcohol content.


Who are the only people who waterboard?

Exiles800 said...

So there's a motive here I hadn't pondered which covers the confusion over why Jeffery would confess? Being a wickedly shrewd and trained MI-5 operator Jeffery was confessing a partly false story because he feared for his own life. Jeffery wasn't stupid. He knew the CIA/intelligence pattern for this kind of thing was to then murder the covert operator who carried out the operation. In fact, that likely happened in 1973 with the mid-air plane crash no one would suspect (classic CIA). I wouldn't doubt that Jeffery's setting-up a cover story that would exonerate any intelligence agency involvement by setting-up a plausible business-related motive would be something Jeffery might think would take the heat off him from the people who really threatened him. Being an MI-5 insider who had already gotten away with it and wasn't being investigated he knew he had nothing to fear from the law, so he covered himself against the people he really did need to fear. Hence the confession. Knowing there was no proof or potential legal consequences (since MI-5 was protecting him) he knew he would never have to answer to the charges. So this red herring about murdering Jimi for the insurance money would, once again, be an intel "limited hang-out" that would steer people away from the real murderers. Jeffery knew he had nothing to fear legally. He had planted the intel information with Tappy Wright. The 'confession' was an intelligence operation. Why do you think Tappy Wright has not been interviewed or subpoena-ed by the authorities? Why do you think that to this day no one has produced any insurance policy Jeffery collected on Hendrix? Why do you think, with so much screaming evidence, Scotland Yard refuses to re-open the case?


The picture comes into focus...

Exiles800 said...

If Tappy Wright did run collection for Jeffery some of that money might have been Hendrix proceeds but some of it might have been CIA underground money from Europe. If you read Michael Collins Piper the CIA also had a deal with European mobs to control communism. The Marseilles "French Connection" heroin cartel was allowed by CIA and European Intelligence as part of this deal. Some of that money might have been Jeffery's Hendrix proceeds but some might have been heroin/mafia kickbacks going to the Bahamian fund. It would make sense that Jeffery, being MI-5, and being directly involved with the mafia would be a prime candidate for being a facilitator. Not only that he had the cover of the money being Hendrix money if he ever got caught. But he never would get caught and never did, and I think we know the reason why. You can see the fingerprint on this is exactly how CIA would do it. Watch the movie 'French Connection'. The narration at the end complains that nothing was really done to the main players and they got away (you think maybe the movie's maker was fully aware of why they let the main players get away?) It is this filthy network in which Jimi found himself, with his main go-between being Michael Jeffery. The CIA very much did imitate the pattern of their drug smuggler cooperators. Jeffery had the perfect cover of running around with lots of Hendrix cash. He was the perfect profile for CIA drug nexus secret black ops funding facilitator.

If Jeffery was feeding the CIA secret fund it would be perfect for him to send Tappy Wright and Bob Levine to borrow money from the New Jersey mafia in order to embroil Hendrix in mafia debt as part of operations CHAOS and COINTELPRO. Jeffery had done this to the Animals as well - not because he was a crook as much as being an intelligence operator and part of this overall anti-communist program from the get go, right from his MI-5 service before he touched any rock bands. The Animals and Hendrix took off and became popular not because Jeffery was such a good manager but because they were designed as cover from the start for Jeffery's involvement in this program. I have no doubt CIA sought to cooperate with the mafia to tap the rock movement as a funding source. Jeffery's treatment of Jimi was nothing other than intelligence tactics.



I think this is all starting to fall into place. I suspect Jeffery made up the part about stuffing pills down Hendrix's throat because he was trying to cover for Monika. Monika said she gave Jimi the Vesparax but they were weak so she gave him more. This matches the autopsy evidence because Hendrix had a 3.9mg barbiturate level - which means the pills had time to be ingested and absorbed by the blood. We know Jeffery's alleged claim that he stuffed pills into Hendrix followed by wine is wrong because the pills would have been vomited right back up.

Jeffery would need to cover for Monika and make up this version because he needed to hide the fact Hendrix's murder was an intelligence assassination where Dannemann could have been a witting or unwitting accomplice. Jeffery could be partly telling the truth about "stuffing the pills down Hendrix's throat" but only in the way of setting-up those super-strong pills within Hendrix's reach as part of the operation and then springing on him after he had taken them and passed-out. You see Jeffery had to lie about the pills because once it became obvious Monika was used to get the super-strong Vesparax into Hendrix's reach it would become obvious that Jimi Hendrix was killed by an intelligence operation.

Unknown said...

In his book James Tappy Wright does talk about delivering mysterious suitcases of cash to Jeffery in the middle of the night. And he does talk about Jeffery owing money to people who he was afraid of. One thing I found interesting about Wright is that he married a Polish princess he met while touring with the Animals. Because of the political situation they were constantly watched and Tappy was approached by MI5 (Britain's answer to the CIA/FBI) and asked to join but he says he refused.
This makes me wonder if Wright himself is CIA of in fact did join MI5, or was all along. It seems strange he waited so long to talk about the circumstances of Hendrix's death. And he leaves out a lot of things he must have known. He was very close to Eric Burdon so he must have known about the earlier phone call to clear the place of drugs etc.
I was actually talking to James on facebook and was going to talk to him on the phone but he stopped responding to my messages and I won't ring him unless he says it's OK too as he's probably changed his mind. While I was talking to him he did confirm that Monika Danneman's story is bull though.

Exiles800 said...

So you see Nancy that every time you scratch the surface of this Hendrix murder it reveals some very suspicious things. Things that have no reason to not be investigated. I personally don't think Wright was CIA from the start because of his background. If he was CIA he would never come out with the murder story (unless it was to head-off the real COINTELPRO reason). But even if he was it doesn't matter, he's just another wrinkle in an ugly tapestry of intrigue.

Bob Levine, a co-manager under Jeffery in his New York office, also said he was used to go to Europe to bring suitcases of cash back to the Bahamas. Levine also mentioned that Jeffery made many trips to Europe and returned with suitcases of cash as well. He commented in McDermott's book 'Setting The Record Straight' that no one in the office could figure out where that cash came from?

You can tell a real conspiracy by the way the public suddenly shows no interest in it.


If Tappy Wright were given a lie detector test it would show he heard Jeffery mention waterboarding with wine in 1973. Since Bannister never mentioned anything about drowning in wine until 1985 (or was it 1990?) that means there were two separate references to the unusual manner of death made years apart which is normally considered confirming evidence. You see Wright didn't came out with his story until 2009, so Bannister couldn't possibly have heard of waterboarding from him, therefore you have two independent sources corroborating the murder.

Exiles800 said...

If you examine how Jeffery died it was about a month after he confessed to Tappy Wright. Jeffery was told there were electrical lighting problems at his nightclub in Majorca and was flying there to fix them. I'm sorry, but to me that sounds an awful lot like Jeffery was talking so he was lured onto a jet in order to get him into the air. This whole things stinks of a CIA-level operation. CIA (or some other covert group) was capable of creating the French Air Traffic Controllers strike that put the French military in charge of air traffic that day. They were capable of creating the electrical problem pretext that lured Jeffery onto that plane. And they probably had the technology to steer the two planes towards each other. And, perhaps, were capable of setting-up a blond German infiltrator.

If Jeffery was exposed as being Jimi's murderer his background and contacts would be investigated. It wouldn't be long before his intelligence background and Bahamian CIA banks connections were figured out.

Now you see why the British Government can't honestly investigate this. If they did they would uncover a very dirty underground assassination operation.

Exiles800 said...

I couldn't figure out why Jimi was making on the fly marriage proposals during the last weeks of his life. One to Kristen Nefer and the other to Monika. I thought maybe Jimi had become slightly unhinged by the pressures on him and maybe some influence of drugs - and perhaps even a want to get married. However it dawned on me that Jimi might have been trying to use a ploy to escape some of his contracts by getting a spouse and using that as a means to divert money away from where others could get it.

We know Jimi used the claiming he was gay ploy to get out of the army. So in that example we have evidence that Jimi was prone to taking advice on loopholes from others and acting on it. Perhaps the sudden impromptu marriage proposals during his final days were actually Jimi, once again, taking advice on a loophole and acting on it. Anyone who knows Jimi's situation during this time would know he had strong reason to do something like that. This would also explain why friends of his said it wasn't like Jimi to seriously propose marriage.

Jeffery was a shrewd bastard and Jimi was at war with him. Jeffery, being a sharp businessman, would probably have gotten wind of what Jimi was doing and it would have only added to his murderous anger. Jimi didn't propose to Devon because not only could he not trust her, but she was working for Jeffery.

Heather said...

Monika D. Was a groupie, nothing more. She was pissed at Jimi for ignoring her. She manhandled him all night on the 17th of Sep in front of many people. She wanted to be something more in his life and when she did not achieve that, she created a fabricated relationship after his death. Jimi was not discharged because of claim to be gay. He was discharged at the convenience of the Army; He did not adjust to Army life very well. He had legal battles looming that involved his old contract in NY, his management and paternity. He was tired but, prepared to take care of business. The only official engagement was to Kirsten N. Shortly before he died.

Exiles800 said...

Dingley,

I believe Jimi's claim to be gay came out of his uncovered army psychiatrist records. Back in 1961 claiming to be gay would get you out of the army quick. Jimi wanted out and someone obviously told him a way to do that. Unless, of course, you are alleging the army psychiatrist made it all up and entered it in Jimi's records.

Monika had a much more complicated relationship with Jimi than you describe. If you read her book she spoke of Jimi's inner most mystical secrets in a way that could only occur if Jimi had spoken of them to her. Jimi was also complex and had an African king type 60's mentality where he had many "wives". I don't doubt for an instant he pulled that proposal rap on Monika and she took it seriously. As a matter of fact it probably explains exactly why Monika had those fits and manhandled Jimi. Jimi was talking soulmate stuff and then turning around and pulling other chicks right in front of Monika. Hendrix fans love to demonize Monika but I daresay she's not the only woman who would react that way under the circumstances. As far as an "official engagement" to Kirsten, Jimi's marriage flirtations were even weaker than the serious descriptions of Jimi's 'Inner World' he gave to Monika. I think what we are looking at is Jimi needed the protection of someone who would fight for him instead of working against him like a tool. He was emotionally exhausted exactly because everyone was fighting him with some kind of agenda that worked in conflict with his well-being and interests. I don't doubt it was a combination of Jimi needing this reliable support and being told he could legally shield his money with spousal loopholes. No, if you read Monika's book 'Inner World' you'll see Jimi told her things that put her much higher than an ambitious groupie. It's complicated.

If you do deep research you'll understand Monika's role may have been much deeper and more sinister than you realize. Jeffery was known to have hired Hendrix girlfriends to spy on Jimi. Monika was from Germany and the Samarkand was only 2 blocks from Stickells' flat. It makes sense to me that being unfamiliar with London Monika went to Jeffery's office and got help arranging the Samarkand. They lied about it afterwards because they couldn't admit their knowledge and participation in Jeffery's murder of Jimi. If you fathom the potential intel possibilities Monika could become even more sinister and could have been used by government intelligence agencies to help set-up Jimi.

Keep watching this because Caesar Glebbeek is putting-out a new publication with new revelations concerning how Jimi died. Caesar says he has "debunked the murder nonsense once and for all", and has disproven many commonly-believed stories. In about a month this topic is really going to get busy.

FYI:

I believe Jimi was murdered in the way Tappy Wright claimed and Monika knew it. The forensic evidence shows Jimi died this way.