Great Expirations: Top Five Deaths Under Suspicious (Or Nefarious) Circumstances

By Emily Carney

5. Jimi Hendrix: Rock star

Manner of death: Victimized by his own vomit

On September 18, 1970, Jimi Hendrix joined the Great Rock Supergroup in the Sky when he died at age 27. It was initially assumed he probably died of a drug overdose, since he was a casual abuser of drugs; suicide was even bandied about as the probable cause of his death. However, the doctor who attended to him at the death scene concluded he had died because his lungs had filled with red wine vomit.

What death story wouldn’t be complete without a conspiracy theory, though? A former Hendrix roadie eventually claimed that he was killed because he wanted to get out of his contract with his manager. This story has never been qualified with any actual evidence, though, and the original hypothesis of death by vomit stands to this day. For all of Jimi Hendrix’s rock star craziness, he died alone in a puddle of puke. Death is a great leveler, one can guess. . .

4. Michael Hutchence and Paula Yates: Rock star and TV personality, respectively

Manner(s) of death: Autoerotic asphyxiation; heroin overdose

Michael Hutchence was the frontman of Australian rock combo INXS throughout the 1980s and 1990s. By the mid-1990s, Michael was embroiled in a controversial relationship with British TV host Paula Yates, who he infamously flirted with on her TV show (in bed, even!). This affair was obviously not welcomed by Paula’s husband, who just happened to be Bob Geldof, self-aggrandizing Midge Ure-hater extraordinaire. Some nasty pictures of the two engaged in sexual congress were allegedly found and publicized (maybe planted by a jealous Geldof). After this incident Michael and Paula were harangued by the tabloids, which dubbed Paula “Porna Yates.”

Michael was found dead in late 1997 with large amounts of drugs in his bloodstream, having strangled himself. The cause of death was believed to be a suicide, since Michael had gotten into a heated, upsetting argument with Geldof via phone hours before over the custody of Paula’s children. However, Paula Yates maintained that Michael was into some freaky sex shit, and had, in fact, not committed suicide; in fact, she theorized that he had died by engaging in autoerotic asphyxiation. (If you don’t know what this is, Google it; I won’t go into detail explaining it.)

As if this hadn’t been tragic enough, Paula Yates went into decline herself, slipping further into drug abuse and depression following Michael’s death. In 2000, she was found dead of an incautious heroin overdose. Her daughter with Hutchence was apparently in proximity to her body, trying to wake her up. But there’s always a silver lining—Paula Yates had fulfilled Courtney Love’s wildest fantasies of overdosing in front of one’s own children. Paula’s legacy can be seen by her Paris Hilton-esque offspring with Geldof, Peaches and Pixie, who are in the British tabloids more than their mother ever was.

Pages: 1 2 3