'Jimi Hendrix: A Perfect Murder?': Who is Monika Dannemann? Jealous girlfriend may have had a hand in his death
Jimi Hendrix was arguably the world's most famous musician when he died on September 18, 1970, in London at the age of 27. The deaths of Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Brian Jones between 1969 and 1971 fueled the notions of the "27 Club" where a scientifically disproven theory claims that musicians are likely to die when they are 27. The club has since expanded to include other musical legends like Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse.
Hendrix's death at the time was publicized as a drug overdose, used by governments to dissuade youths from partaking in the growing popularity of the drug culture at the time. When Hendrix died, he was with Monika Dannemann, a German figure skater he met in January 1969 in Germany after a concert there. According to Dannemann's claims, she next spent time with him when she traveled to London in April 1969 and spent some time together over a few days.
The two would part but would meet again in September 1970, after Hendrix had completed his 1970 European tour and retired to London for some well-deserved break. According to Dannemann, Hendrix met up with Dannemann on September 15 and spent the next four nights at her flat at the Samarkand Hotel in Notting Hill Gate. The reunion ended in tragedy when Hendrix was declared dead on the afternoon of September 18.
Reelz's latest special, 'Jimi Hendrix: A Perfect Murder?' dives into the mystery of Hendrix's death and all the various accounts surrounding it. Over the years, many conspiracies came up regarding his death and potential suspects. One of them was Dannemann.
Two separate investigations were conducted on Hendrix's death who was found to have a vast amount of barbiturates in his system and large amounts of red wine in his lungs. According to Danneman's accounts, Hendrix had taken nine of her sleeping pills before going to sleep that morning. When she woke up later, she noticed him still sleeping and went to get cigarettes.
Upon her return, she claimed she had noticed that he had thrown up and was not responding. She called the ambulance and then rode with him to the hospital, claiming that he was still alive when they reached the hospital. Over an hour later, the hospital officially declared him dead.
After his death, Dannemann was a tabloid darling — everyone wanted to know what happened during Hendrix's final hours and how he died. Danneman would go on to claim that she and Hendrix were secretly engaged and that they were to wed the following month. She also claimed that she was to become his "creative partner". Dannemann would make a career out of claiming to be Hendrix's fiancee, writing the book 'The Inner World of Jimi Hendrix' and doing endless newspaper, documentary and book interviews.
However, Dannemann's statements were later claimed to be "fantasies" and one of Hendrix's former girlfriends, Kathy Etchingham, was particularly unconvinced by Dannemann's statements which were shown to be inconsistent. Etchingham launched her own investigation into Hendrix's death to find out what really happened. To do so, she contacted the ambulance drivers who said that the house was empty when they went to pick up Hendrix and that she did not ride in the ambulance. Etchingham also found out that Hendrix had probably died before the ambulance call itself.
The ambulance drives also stated that Hendrix was dressed — which Etchingham found odd since Dannemann claimed that they had gone to bed and lain awake till 7 am talking — and that there was red wine all over his clothes.
While Dannemann claimed that she and Hendrix were happy, Etchingham also unearthed many reports that Dannemann had multiple fights with Hendrix in the day before he died, fueled by jealousy because he was spending more time with adoring fans than with her. At another party, later on, Dannemann claimed she collected Hendrix an hour after she dropped him off. But Etchingham discovered that Hendrix went unwillingly.
According to Etchingham, she believed that Hendrix only returned to Dannemann's flat to pick up the guitar he had left there earlier, out of fear that Dannemann would destroy it. In the special, Etchingham stated that Danneman potentially knew that if Hendrix left her flat then, he would never return — so Dannemann somehow got Hendrix to ingest the sleeping tablets.
Later, when Dannemann realized that Hendrix was not waking up, she panicked and called friends to come to clean her apartment of the drugs before she called the ambulance, Etchingham claimed.
Etchingham's findings have not been proven but it was certain that the report had infuriated Danneman. In Dannemann's book, she claimed that Etchingham was the one who introduced Hendrix to drugs and that was what killed him. She was found guilty of contempt of court for repeating a libel against Etchingham in 1996 and two days later, Dannemann was found dead, in an apparent suicide, in her car in the garage that was full of carbon monoxide fumes.
'Jimi Hendrix: A Perfect Murder?' airs on Reelz on Saturday, September 19, at 8/7c.