JIM MORRISON and PATRICIA KENNEALY MORRISON and PAMELA COURSON : WHO WAS THE DOORS SHAMAN - ROCKSTAR'S MISTRESS?

NOTE IN AUGUST 2018  I'm still receiving the equivalent of hate comments about Patricia, without focus on JIM and his responsibility in all the relationships he was carrying on.  One person mentioned Mary Werblow...  please send a link or more information so I can find out how she fits into the combinations.  As for Patricia, I personally don't think she's as bad as so many people seem to think.  But I also believe we are all responsible for our own souls.  Let's remember that she too was young, and think about all the things you did for love that might not make sense to anyone else!  Missy

NOTE: IN NOVEMBER 2017 I decided to put this month back up after a pause.  Basically I feel many months that are just as worthy of reading were being ignored over this month.  Right away people were chiming in on the question I suppose I posed using the title than I have.  So please hear me out on this.  There is so much focus on the women and in particular, because Patricia wrote a deeply personal memoir, a focus on if she's truthful or not.  BUT THE REAL ISSUE FOR ME IS MORE ABOUT JIM MORRISON and HIS ABILITY TO HAVE MULTIPLE RELATIONSHIPS, SOME SIMULTANEOUS.  I don't think he felt any guilt over triangulated relationships, making women compete over him, leading women on, or any of it.  He was assuming a male privilege, I think, especially because he could, being famous.  So this is a popular month and popular post and as a result, I would like more COMMENTARY on how JIM was conducting HIS RELATIONSHIPS!  Missy 

Missy UPDATE February 2017  
Just finished reading this very short e-book, which repeats a chapter from Patricia's earlier memoir, focusing on the engagement and marriage ceremony.  The book has a forward that is honestly opinionated against Pamela. Easily available through many libraries as an e-book, you might want to read it.  Patricia says that she holds Pamela responsible for Jim's death, that he had told her, as well as others, and his attorney that he was going to use the time in Paris to break with Pamela, and that he was disgusted with Pamela's heroin use and had not been a user himself!

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Patricia Kennealy Morrison is called Jim Morrison's widow.   She's also called THE LIZARD QUEEN.

Patricia Keannealy in her twenties about the time she was with Jim.

UPDATE APRIL 2016  A New Documentary/ Independent Film About JIM MORRISON

coming soon!  BILLBOARD - JIM MORRISON DOC - EARLY YEARS (2013 announcement of the project by Filmmakers Jeff Finn and Jess Finn looking for kickstarter funds.)  I heard about it on Coast to Coast AM the other night (sleepless!  My dog barking at cats fighting in the backyard!) and let's just say that maybe... just maybe Jim did fake his own death!?)

It's titled BEFORE THE END: THE SEARCH FOR JIM MORRISON

If you've seen the Oliver Stone film THE DOORS, or read around this subject, say for instance Patricia's enthralling book, pictured below, STRANGE DAYS - MY LIFE WITH AND WITHOUT JIM MORRISON, you know that she and Jim married in a Celtic-Pagan witch ceremony called a handfasting.  They knew it wasn't legally binding without a Civil marriage, which never took place, but it was spiritually binding and for Patricia that meant for as long as she loves him and she still does. 

You may also know that Jim Morrison died in Paris in 1971 and that there is still some mystery attached to his death.  In his will he left everything to Pamela Susan Courson who had been introducing herself as "Mrs. Morrison," for years.  What you may not know is that Pamela's parents, who inherited the Jim Morrison estate when she died a few years later, went to court to have her relationship with Jim declared a common law marriage. 

According to Patricia, Jim told her that he and Pamela had lived with each other on and off and that he was ending his relationship with Pamela by going to Paris; He pretty much stayed in motels.  He said he was coming back to the states and wanted them to live together in the fall in New York.

Jim knew that Pamela called herself his wife.  He told Patricia not to mind Pamela's declarations since it wasn't true.  Even Pamela admitted to Patricia that there was never a legal marriage. (I'll get to the revealing discussion the two women had later this month!)

Is the fact that Jim Morrison was living in Paris with Pamela when he died and that his will left everything to her the most telling about who he really considered to be his "life partner" ? 

Pamela Courson in her twenties about the time she knew Jim.

She was Jim's girlfriend for at least a couple years before he met Patricia. 

Both women were aware and accepted that the shaman-rock star

JIM MORRISON 

also had affairs and groupies.

When a rock star has so very many women interested in him, women willing to do things his way, he gets spoiled.  At the time of Morrison's death it is rumored that at least 20 women were filing for support for children they said were his.  (These days with DNA testing it would be more interesting!  Haven't heard anything more about this, have you?)  Yes, I read this on the internet, one of many sites including Patricia's blog that I read before I wrote this article!   I also read a newish book that just came out by another writer, Judy Huddelston's LOVE HIM MADLY, about her dysfunctional relationship with Morrison.  (Was there any other kind?)


Personally, I don't think I could give a man like Jim Morrison more than a few minutes!  He seemed to not just triangulate his relationship with Pamela and Patricia, but butt women against each other with himself as the prize!

Is a woman calling him her husband, telling the world that there is a marriage there, her way of holding on to him or competing with other women?   Does the woman consider herself to be the wife because she is OK with his other women so long as she's his number one woman/wife?

How much of these women's attitudes about their relationships - Jim's multiple relationships - was part of the Hippie era ethic?  Love The One You're With?

Is the true test of being a wife or a mistress about money? ... Pamela got thousands of dollars from Jim while he was still alive to open a clothing boutique which she was ultimately not interested in.  She may have never fully supported herself financially and needed Jim's money.  He felt she needed him. Patricia was self supporting and didn't expect or ask for any support - except for the money for an expensive late term abortion.

I've long loved the movie, THE DOORS.  I thought it captured the excitement and controversy of an era.  I also didn't know that it wasn't completely accurate until I read Patricia's book.  She needed to clarify the exaggeration of the blood letting scene.  Her apartment living room was tiny and there were only ritual nicks and just a few drops of blood to seal the marriage oath - not a blood bath!

It was a courageous book, especially her honesty about that late saline abortion she endured way back when New York was a rare state that allowed abortions.  It was horrific, what women suffered.


I think you have to think about the Hippie Era to try and wrap your mind around these women's attitudes, because while each was claiming to be his wife, they also knew he had other women, from Groupies, to other relationships.   I think the right term for all these relationships is "Open." 


I think what these women put up with is much more than most modern mistresses put up with!  - or should!


In the book I found some passages that reveal that Patricia too wondered about Jim conducting relationships with both of them at the same time.  The two women actually managed to have some confrontations as well as conversations with each other in New York and in Los Angeles.   Patricia dared ask herself "What does he see in her?"

You have to know also that all three used a lot of drugs, his being mostly alcohol, but still drugs that altered moods, reduced inhibitions, and could have set all three on the path to self destruction. 



It's Patricia who survived though it seems clear if you read her book, written years after Jim's Death, or even her more current blog, that she's never gotten over Jim Morrison.   I feel for her.  If he is not her ghostly lover, than through the years other men have felt they couldn't compete with him!



Patricia has been a professional writer since her recent college grad days in the mid 1960's and was a rare woman editor of a music magazine when she met Jim but it took more than writing expertise to do this book. 


Now if you take a quick look at the cover, you might think to yourself - hey there's Pamela on Patricia's book cover.   Well, actually Pamela and Patricia, while not identical, had some things in common besides relationships going with Jim Morrison at the same time.  Yes, they were both light skinned, red haired beauties, though physically and intellectually dissimilar. (Patricia's long dark auburn hair reached 3 feet long! and she was a member of Mensa, while Pam, according to Patricia, was ditzy.) 



Could it be that the two of them were like one whole woman to Morrison, each supplying something the other could not ? 

Today Patricia is in her 60's and the writer of a successful series of fantasy books.  She has continued her occult studies and is a High Priestess as well as a minister in the Universal Light Church and can conduct a marriage ceremony for you!  She has also been Knighted in Scotland.

Pam didn't live all that much longer than Jim, having finally gotten through all the estate hassles of being his only heir, and then dieing of a heroin overdose.   Patricia speculates that because the Jim Morrison she knew wasn't into heroin that Pamela may have had more to do with his death than she admitted to or was held responsible for.  Could she have administered a fatal dose of drug because she knew she was loosing Jim to a serious rival - Patricia?  One witness years later said that Jim had died in a toilet at the Rock and Roll Circus club and his body had been moved to the apartment bathtub.  Pamela was never the writerly type and is not around to speak for herself.

Part of my question here is the one I've been asking since the beginning of this blog.  HOW DO YOU DEFINE MISTRESS IN A TIME WHEN SO MANY PEOPLE ARE SKIPPING MARRIAGE?  When people keep separate residences but consider themselves to be a committed couple?  When each is self supporting so being a mistress is not about being supported?  Is the definition financial?

Stick with me as I provide you the telling quotes from Patricia's book, and try to figure this one out myself, using the work of DR. TONI GRANT!

C 2014 All Rights Reserved Mistress Manifesto/Missy Rapport 

P.S.  It's 2016!  This post has been featured on many Internet search engines due to its great popularity, but let me explain to you that MISTRESS MANIFESTO is a blog about Mistresses, and alternative relationships that are not traditional marriage between just two people, and over the years I've covered - and still cover - many other interesting people and related subjects.  I invite you, now that you're here, to go to the top of this blog, or to go through the archives, and choose one or more TOPICS to read before you leave us!  This year I've covered the Silent Screen actress CLARA BOW, and the Mother of Modern Dance, ISADORA DUNCAN, and am planning a number of surprises in the coming months! I love reading, researching, and writing this blog!  Thanks for your visit!  Missy

P.S. It's May of 2017.  I was just reading over Comments, some which I haven't published, about this post.  I'm aware that some readers feel the need to take sides here between Patricia and Pam so let me clarify some things.  First I read Patricia's memoir, which is very emotional as well as very detailed.  I took notes.  I read it again. When I read Comments taking vicious slings and calling her delusional, I have to say READ HER BOOK COVER TO COVER.  Do you really think that a respected film director like Oliver Stone would risk having her as a consultant on the film THE DOORS, risk all that Hollywood money, his own reputation, if HE thought she was delusional?  The other problem is that in such a complicated situation - and she admits everyone including she was using drugs or alcohol for some or all of it - no two person are going to have the very same perception, opinion, or experience, and the only thing she can do as a writer is SPEAK HER OWN TRUTH.  Jim isn't here to give us his side of the story and neither is Pamela, and there were other women too. I'm convinced she did.  I'm also sure that as the years have gone by she may have a different perspective about those times and her life than when she was living them. Hers is not an easy story to tell.  Ultimately, it is her KARMA. Haven't you looked back at a relationship you once had and retell yourself a story about it?