One night I received a call from Coast to Coast asking me to comment on the possibility of Jim Morrison being alive in Oregon. The night before Gerald Pitts, a promoter for Jim in Oregon, had appeared on the show detailing that Jim Morrison was indeed alive and living in Oregon as a rancher. I have to admit, this did get my attention. I’m very familiar with the legend. Jim faked his death in Paris to escape the public spotlight; Jim was a victim of a government agency hit just like Jimi and Janis; Jim was now living in Africa and since he had an IQ of over 150 would certainly be able to pull this off. Right?
Ok, I was now interested. I was given Gerald Pitt’s phone number from Coast to Coast and made the call to his cell phone. He was extremely nice and at I became convinced that he believed the story and was passionate about bringing the “truth” out to the public. I was sent a video tape, actually two, to convince me by a few morphing photographs that the Oregon rancher was indeed James Douglas Morrison of the Doors. The only problem was that I have investigated “morphing photo phenomena” in the ever going “Paul is Dead” evidence. I know by my contact with experts in the field that it is rather easy to distort the evidence with a small sample. No. It was going to take much more that this to convince me.
I made a call to my good friend Tom Dansheimer, a Coast to Coast executive, and presented the idea that we, Tom, George and I, fly to Oregon to get the “TRUTH,” but we wanted access to “Jim.” There was the rub. Gerald could not guarantee that the Oregon rancher and his wife would even see us. Gerald stated that he would drive us to “Jim’s” home and that he felt certain that with us coming all that way that surely Jim would give us an interview and answer our questions. Gerald said that all he could promise was that he would give us each a ham sandwich!
While I was discussing all of this with Gerald I received an email from a South American journalist telling me that we should be concerned for our lives. Accusations of individuals serving prison times and weapon convictions were mentioned in the email. Now, the plot has thickened! All we wanted was proof that Jim was in Oregon and it appeared that we were given very little chance of proving the story there. Gerald told me that he setting up an account with the funding from the sale of the “Jim is Alive” video tapes to film the story of Gerald Pitt’s life with a shoot out and a miraculous out come. I was told that “Jim” had agreed to appear in the film. (As far as I know, the film has not been made at this time.) Oddly enough, the cell number I had for Gerald has been disconnected and I haven’t been in touch with him in over a year.
If you had a chance to listen to the Doors on “Coast to Coast” with me over a year ago you heard some great stories. The Oregon story did not come up. It also appears that Ray is now convinced that Jim is dead and buried at Pere la Chaise. Robbie has always believed that Jim died in Paris in 1971. Now, how Jim died and the events of his death are still questionable. At one time, the French government was planning an exhumation of Morrison’s body in July, 2001. Needless to say this did not happen. I remember being the consultant for VH1 Confidential and hearing Ray Manzarek state that he would be in Paris on that day with Doors’ fans from across the world yelling ,“Open the box! Open the box!” I suppose with it being forty years since the Doors started their careers attitudes change and we rush to acceptance.
My next stop on the Morrison tour took me to a very flamboyant Alan Graham. Alan was once married to Jim’s sister, Anna. Their son, Dylan, is Jim Morrison’s nephew. Though Alan and Anna are now divorced, Alan still takes on all comers concerning the belief that there are imposter Morrisons and Jim’s “supposed” illegitimate children waiting for recognition from the estate. Alan was once fooled by an imposter so it is not easy to get him signed on as a believer. Alan was very aware of the Oregon story and had already made a series of calls trying to expose it in his words as a “scam.’ With this information I haven’t had any luck to conclude my search.
What would it take to make me a believer? Give us the interview with no restrictions. I can’t promise that the Morrison family would agree to DNA testing but there are other ways to get to the truth. Just because the Doors have not acknowledged the case through the media is not evidence that they believe. Giving time lines to speak out or accept the story as true is also not evidence. Even letters to the FBI saying someone is alive really doesn’t prove anything either. Now, if you faked your death and cashed in a life insurance policy and then announced you were alive you would spend some time in prison. This is where the FBI would be interested. To make this happen we would like to produce a television documentary explaining the story talking with both sides. We would like to get the Morrison family’s involvement and support but we first need that one interview that will lead us to the right path. Besides, if Jim Morrison is living in Oregon he would be owed millions of dollars in back royalty payments. This would be much more than what it would take to pay off three ham sandwiches and make a small independent film.