Morrison death theory challenged

Morrison (right) is widely believed to have died of heart failure in Paris

A nightclub manager has challenged the belief that Doors singer Jim Morrison died of heart failure in a bath.

In a new book Sam Bernett claims Morrison died in a toilet cubicle in his Paris club in 1971 after what he believed was a heroin overdose.

Two drug dealers then took Morrison's body back to his apartment and dropped it in his bath in an unsuccessful bid to revive him, according to Mr Bernett.

Paris prosecutors said they were not likely to re-examine Morrison's death.

In his book The End: Jim Morrison, Bernett says he asked a doctor to examine the 27-year-old singer in the toilet of his Rock and Roll Circus nightclub on 3 July 1971.

'Felt ill'

He writes: "When we found him dead, he had a little foam on his nose, and some blood too, and the doctor said, 'That must be an overdose of heroin.'"

Bernett went on to become a radio personality, rock biographer and vice president of Disneyland Paris.

He said he was pestered for years by reporters investigating Morrison's death but kept his story quiet until his wife suggested writing a book last year.

The death of Morrison (third from left) is unlikely to be re-examined

Morrison's late girlfriend, Pamela Courson, told police a different story.

She said the couple went to the movies and out for dinner on the night of the singer's death, before they listened to records and fell asleep.

According to her testimony, Morrison awoke in the night feeling ill and took a hot bath. Courson said she found him dead in the bath.

Stephen Davis, author of biography Jim Morrison: Life, Death, Legend, said he would not rewrite events because of the new book.

Davis believes Morrison did overdose at Bernett's nightclub but that he survived the experience.

"It just seems likely that if he died in the toilet of a nightclub it would have come out before now," Davis said.