Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, and the Laurel Canyon Conspiracy

In the 1960s, a new musical revolution emerged from Laurel Canyon, California. Bands like The Beach Boys, The Doors, and Crosby, Stills & Nash sang hit songs protesting the Vietnam War. However, while these tunes spoke to war protesting "hippies," some believe that they were created by the very people they spoke out against: the US government. Help us reach 10k followers on Instagram! @⁠theconspiracypod⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

• 0:06Speaker 00

  August 4th, 1964. Onboard the USS Bonham Richard, Captain George Stephen Morrison watches the seas. He's stationed in Vietnam as part of the United States' growing military presence along the coast. Two days ago, his crew was attacked by Vietnamese forces. Four enemy soldiers were killed in the resulting battle. There were no American casualties, but the captain can't rest easy. Who knows when they'll be attacked next? Especially since tonight, the storm rages over his command. It probably makes it hard to scope out his surroundings, but at least he has a radar system.

• 0:48Speaker 00

  And at 7:40 PM, it reveals an incoming attack. Multiple Vietnamese ships are swarming in. George orders his crew to fire. Again, luckily, there are no casualties on either side. Weird. George probably wonders, did we even hit anything? Well, as it turns out, due to the weather, George's radar was on the fritz. His men were never under attack. However, this doesn't matter to President Lyndon B. Johnson. He uses the mistaken attack as an excuse to escalate and officially start the Vietnam War.

• 1:32Speaker 00

  It's referred to as the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, and George becomes a key figure in the conflict. But some believe that George Morrison isn't the only member of his family involved in President Johnson's deceit. According to a conspiracy theory popularized by author David McGowan, the rear admiral's son, James, may have his own military mission. First, he needs to grow out his hair, then put on some leather pants, get in front of a microphone, and tell everyone he's against the war his father played a role in starting. And most importantly, sing his heart out.

• 2:17Speaker 00

  All under a new persona, lead singer of The Doors, Jim Morrison. Jim, along with a new musical scene starting in Laurel Canyon, California, is about to revolutionize rock and roll. And if David McGowan's research is correct, these rising counterculture stars are part of a government psyop meant to delegitimize anti-war sentiment before it spreads. Welcome to Conspiracy Theories, a Spotify podcast. I'm Carter Roy. New episodes come out every Wednesday. We would love to hear from you, so if you're listening on the Spotify app, swipe up and

• 3:01Speaker 00

  give us your thoughts, or check us out on Instagram at the conspiracy pod. This episode contains discussions of suicide, murder, substance abuse, and overdoses. Consider this when deciding how and when you'll listen. If you or someone you know is struggling emotionally or feeling hopeless, visit spotify.com/resources. Stay with us. This episode is brought to you by Petivity. Every cat has a few unsolved mysteries. Why the 3:00 AM zoomies? What's so fascinating about that one empty box? And at mealtime, are they actually eating differently, or does it just seem that way?

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• 5:22Speaker 00

  Young men, some barely old enough to drink, carry assault weapons through the jungles of Vietnam. Explosions surround them. They may have bravely accepted their American duty when they were drafted, but for many, their resolve fades into horror in the face of combat. Some may even think the Vietnam War is pointless, yet they are forced to keep fighting. Back home, their families see them on TV. The battle goes down in history as the Living Room War, since news crews are given unprecedented access to the front lines. The reporters beam footage of the actual warfare straight into everyone's houses.

• 6:04Speaker 00

  For the first time, American civilians are seeing an uncentered, no-holds-barred view of war. In response to these broadcasts, the 1960s anti-war movement begins. You may have a pretty specific idea of what this looks like. Dudes with long, unruly hair, everyone wearing tie dye, a protester putting a flower in a soldier's gun. And if you had to put a soundtrack to the image, you'd probably pick some good old rock and roll. Janis Joplin, The Mamas and the Papas, The Birds, "This Goes On."

• 6:42Speaker 00

  Well, these so-called hippie musicians all get their start in Laurel Canyon, California. The canyon becomes a breeding ground for a burgeoning rock and roll scene, creating music that protests the man. The musicians and their adoring fans refuse to be pawns to the military-industrial complex. The scene practically scores the entire 60s counterculture era. However, some believe that this movement fueled by the Laurel Canyon musicians isn't a counterculture at all.

• 7:22Speaker 00

  It's all a US government psyop, a secret military plot to get to the enemy psychologically. If I was right before and you did picture a bunch of hippies when I mentioned anti-war protesters, then guess what? The government's plan may have been a success, because in the beginning, the actual 1960s anti-war movement looks a lot different. Throughout the Vietnam War, young men across the US fear the draft. If they're called up, they'll be forced to join the hundreds of thousands of troops overseas and to possibly die in a war not everyone believes in.

• 8:04Speaker 00

  Not being drafted doesn't completely spare you from the reality of war, though. The men who stay home watch their friends fight on TV, and they start to rebel. Protesters gather on college campuses. Their professors join them, notably William Sewell of the University of Wisconsin, who says America did not have any business in the war. In April 1965, William hosts one of the first Vietnam Teach-Ins. It's on his campus and is well-attended. But it's nothing like the protests that follow nationwide. Six months later, 25,000 people gather in DC.

• 8:46Speaker 00

  Then, a month after that, according to some estimates, 35,000 surround the White House with picket signs. As these anti-war groups grow, the government realizes that they have a bit of an image problem. And right now, college students and professors are leading the charge. Academics in tweed blazers hailing from institutions like Harvard and Yale, they make the movement seem, well, smart, trustworthy, perhaps like protesting the war is the right thing to do. And the government can't have that. Now, just because the movement starts with a college crowd doesn't mean the hippies

• 9:29Speaker 00

  aren't around, or at least starting to move into California. From Haight-Ashbury up in San Francisco, down to Laurel Canyon in Los Angeles. Now, the canyon is a quiet community within the woodsy, winding Hollywood hills. It attracts the likes of Joni Mitchell, Frank Zappa, and the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson. As protests erupt on college campuses, these musicians bombard the tranquil hills of Laurel Canyon with music, almost like the woodlands have to surrender to the new community.

• 10:05Speaker 00

  Laurel Canyon is the epicenter of the Southern California hippie movement. Officially, they naturally gather in the canyon and go on to become rock and roll gods. It seems like musical destiny just brings them all together in the same location at the same time to make history. But is it really destiny? I mean, it seems like practically all of these musicians become superstars.

• 10:35Speaker 00

  What are the odds? Enter author, journalist, and political critic David McGowan. In 2008, he starts investigating the Laurel Canyon scene for his blog. He later publishes his research in a book, Weird Scenes Inside the Canyon: Laurel Canyon, Covert Ops, and the Dark Heart of the Hippie Dream. His findings become the crux of today's conspiracy theory. David questions the impossible luck it takes for all of these musicians to make it big, and he starts to think, maybe it wasn't luck at all, or even talent.

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  In the course of his research, David unearthed the lineage of the most famous anti-war hippie musicians and discovers it's a lineage rooted in the American military. There's Frank Zappa, who David calls Laurel Canyon's father figure. Frank is a prolific musician blending rock and roll with blues and jazz. While other musicians looked for influences, Frank was often the influence, even for The Beatles album Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. When a struggling musician comes to the canyon, Frank often houses them until they can make

• 11:58Speaker 00

  ends meet. Despite being a father of this new music scene, his dad couldn't be more different. David McGowan finds that Francis Zappa is a chemical warfare specialist working at Edgewood Arsenal. Edgewood is a notorious military testing site. It's where the US administers chemical attacks on their own soldiers to study the effects. One of these tests involves giving soldiers LSD. And Frank isn't the only resident of the canyon with a high-ranking officer for a dad. There's Jim Morrison of The Doors, the Lizard King. It's no secret that Jim is a staunch critic of Vietnam,

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  especially after penning the top 40 hit "The Unknown Soldier." The song portrays children watching their soldier parents being shot dead on TV. Throughout his career, Jim claims he's an orphan, but that's a lie. As we discussed earlier, Jim's dad is alive and is actually US Navy Rear Admiral George Morrison, the man in command during the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, the event that started the very war Jim's music is protesting. There's also David Crosby. While he later becomes a household name as part of Crosby, Stills & Nash, his big break is singing backup vocals for The Byrds.

• 13:29Speaker 00

  They are often credited as the beginning of the folk-rock hippie Laurel Canyon sound. Well, David McGowan claims that David Crosby is the son of an intelligence officer. Actually, he makes the case that Crosby's whole family is highly decorated. There's Supreme Court justices, Civil War generals, and even his distant cousin, Alexander Hamilton. In his book, David McGowan outlines the dizzying family trees of several Laurel Canyon artists, many of which feature some kind of army connection. Not only is it against the odds that everyone from the same area becomes famous,

• 14:13Speaker 00

  but they also all have military families? David suggests it's all a bit suspicious, like perhaps these musicians had a shadowy hand guiding them to stardom. McGowan argues The Byrds' live performances are documented as being terrible. Reportedly, he says, "None of them could actually play their instruments." By the way, if you're thinking, "They know how to play their instruments, Carter. Have you heard their cover of "Mr. Tambourine Man"? It is great." Well, there's a simple answer for that. According to David McGowan, The Byrds aren't actually playing on that track.

• 14:54Speaker 00

  And this part is true: many musical acts' debut albums are actually recorded by studio musicians, very talented studio musicians, notably a band called The Wrecking Crew. They recorded albums for not just The Byrds, but also The Beach Boys. But I also want to mention that another big part of David McGowan's theory is not true. David Crosby's dad wasn't a hotshot intelligence officer. He was a Hollywood cinematographer. He shot the classic Western High Noon, and he even won an Oscar for this work.

• 15:37Speaker 00

  Still, some conspiracy theorists see David McGowan's research as a solid jumping-off point. They believe he's right, that the '60s counterculture isn't the organic result of war protests. Perhaps it's not built off of peace and love, but out of the government. They employ their soldiers' children, give them the music to sell to the masses, and create the hippie movement. Why would they do this? It goes back to those anti-war protests on college campuses. Like we mentioned, these are attended by smart, reputable students and professors,

• 16:22Speaker 00

  people the public would listen to. According to the theory, the government wants to discredit these protesters. Otherwise, the public may be more willing to join in their revolution. So the plan is to fill the movement with hippies, people they consider dirty and wild-looking, who they assume just take drugs and don't go to work. That's the perfect unsavory image the government wants people to associate with anti-war protesters. Who would trust those guys? And the theory goes, their plan all starts with the music.

• 17:06Speaker 00

  Laurel Canyon would be a perfect location for their musical home base, because it's already churning out tons of military media. As David McGowan notes, literally above the canyon, suspiciously close to Frank Zappa's house, is a place called Lookout Mountain, a top-secret military facility decked out with recording equipment. Established in 1947 by the United States Air Force, Lookout Mountain is primarily a film studio, a 100,000-square-foot complex with sound stages, audio mixers, and anything else filmmakers need, including a bomb shelter.

• 17:48Speaker 00

  Lookout Mountain's 19,000 films aren't meant for the public's eyes, though. Officially, they produce a lot of classified recordings of atomic bomb tests. The bombs are detonated out in secluded areas like the Nevada desert, and then the footage is brought to Lookout Mountain for processing. Though that doesn't explain why Hollywood's biggest stars came to the studio. According to David, Marilyn Monroe, Jimmy Stewart, Ronald Reagan during his acting career, and even Walt Disney all worked there. What they filmed, no one knows. Perhaps these stars are just appearing in training films,

• 18:30Speaker 00

  a familiar captivating face to liven up what I assume are boring training videos. And the studio also has an animation department, so maybe Walt Disney is there just to consult. If the studio is hiring Hollywood's best, David wonders why they wouldn't also be working with the neighboring rock stars. Perhaps Jim Morrison and Frank Zappa are saying hi to their parents at Lookout Mountain and then recording their tracks, or even just picking them up already recorded by bands like The Wrecking Crew. It all just seems too convenient for David. A military production studio in a literal mountain, overlooking and operating in the

• 19:12Speaker 00

  epicenter of hippie culture, surrounded by rock music monoliths, many of them from military families. David asks, exactly how many coincidences does it take to make a conspiracy? Okay, let's zoom out for a second. Maybe it's not weird that many of these musicians come from military families. The Department of Defense is the top employer in the world. Perhaps the odds aren't all that unbelievable. Plus, David McGowan doesn't spend much time on musicians without army backgrounds, like Carole King, for instance, as far as our research can tell. The point is, David could have cherry-picked his data.

• 19:58Speaker 00

  However, if we're talking about military data, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention one thing: the army is also the country's top employer of musicians. Well, they mostly play in official ceremonies or in concerts for troop morale. Who's to say that there aren't musicians employed in secret missions? There is another strange detail we have to consider, too. The hippie movement began in the '60s. If Laurel Canyon was a military mission, then the mission probably ended in the early '70s as the movement largely petered out. And the '70s is also when many of these musicians die under mysterious circumstances.

• 20:48Speaker 02

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• 21:15Speaker 00

  In the 1960s, anti-Vietnam war protesters gather at colleges across the country. At the same time, musicians in Laurel Canyon also protest Vietnam, but do so with unkempt beards and LSD. Author David McGowan theorizes that many of these musicians are government psyops. Their mission: become rock stars and delegitimize the anti-war movement. That's only a theory, but this is true. As the hippie movement fades away in the 1970s, many of the era's musical titans die tragic deaths.

• 21:57Speaker 00

  There's Janis Joplin, who dies of an overdose in October 1970. Ronald Pigpen McKernan of the Grateful Dead dies of a gastrointestinal hemorrhage in March 1973. Cass Elliot, one of the mamas of the mamas and the papas, dies in July 1974 of heart failure. Now, the death toll grows each year. David McGowan dedicates a whole chapter of his book to just listing deceased performers. We should point out that, yes, while these deaths are tragic, they're not totally out of left field. These were rock stars, partying during the rise of psychedelic drugs. But again, as David says, how many times can we brush everything off as a coincidence?

• 22:41Speaker 00

  Especially when some of these high-profile deaths are shrouded in mystery? Like the death of one of the most prominent musicians of the scene, Jim Morrison, the Lizard King. Before forming The Doors, Jim is, according to David, a preppy film student. Jim allegedly isn't interested in music, barely even listens to it. He can't read or write it, nor can he play any instrument. He admits that he "never even conceived of singing." Yet, when he does come to the canyon around 1965, his image completely changes. He adopts long hair and eventually his signature leather pants.

• 23:25Speaker 00

  And he says he brings something with him to Laurel Canyon: a prolific catalog of poems. Many of them become songs featured on The Doors' first three albums. Officially, he wrote all of these in a three-year stupor of LSD. But David questions how all of Jim's drug-fueled poetry is good enough to become rock and roll classics. We do know that the other members of The Doors helped make them into great songs, but David insists they aren't particularly good musicians either. David quotes their producer, Paul Rothschild, as saying, "The Doors were not great live performers musically.

• 24:09Speaker 00

  There was too much bad music. Robbie would be horrendously out of tune with Ray. John would be missing cues. There was bad mic usage, too, where you couldn't hear Jim at all." By the way, some say that the first song Jim ever wrote was in fact co-written by his father. It's unclear if this song was ever recorded for The Doors, but it makes you wonder. Calling The Doors superstars is no understatement, but by 1971, Jim is done with celebrity. He just wants to get away and write poetry. Allegedly, he has repeatedly tried to leave the band, but this year, his dream comes true. He moves to Paris and leaves The Doors behind.

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  Which raises a question: was music just a brief, successful phase in the artist's life? Or, by 1971, did the government just not need The Doors anymore, so they let him go? Jim seems to thrive after the move. Before his move, he's gained weight and started drinking heavily. Once he's in Paris, though, photographs show a slimmer, clean-shaven Jim. He writes poetry every day, just like he dreamed of. In short, life is so much better away from fame. July 2, 1971 seems to start off as a picture-perfect example of that better life.

• 25:36Speaker 00

  Officially, Jim and his longtime girlfriend Pamela see a movie, have some dinner, and then listen to music for the rest of the night. Around 3:30 in the morning, after they've gone to bed, Pamela wakes up to a strange sound. Jim is breathing heavily. He's in distress, unable to catch his breath. He tells her not to call a doctor. Jim has asthma, so maybe this isn't totally out of the norm. He draws himself a bath. But before he can jump in, he starts vomiting blood. Again, he refuses to see a doctor. It's unclear how long this goes on, but he does eventually start feeling better, so he gets into the bath, and Pamela goes back to sleep.

• 26:21Speaker 00

  Later, around 9:00 AM, Pamela wakes up, and Jim's not in bed. He's still in the tub. There's blood in the water and near his nose, and he's unconscious. Pamela tries to wake him up, but it's too late. When police arrive shortly after, they confirm that Jim Morrison is dead at 27 years old. The cause of death is determined to be heart failure. The responding officers theorize that it could have been caused by sudden temperature changes in the bath. That is the official story of his death, and also the beginning of some strange circumstances.

• 27:03Speaker 00

  For one thing, days later, Pamela allegedly tells people Jim's still alive and in the hospital. The press and even his family don't find out about his demise until after his funeral, which for some reason is in France, not back home in the US. And once the news does reach America, Jim's manager says that he died from a heart attack brought on by a blood clot and possibly a lung infection. It's a legitimate cause of death, but it's unclear how the manager knows that. Pamela allegedly tells the French authorities not to do an autopsy.

• 27:45Speaker 00

  Like so many celebrity deaths before Jim, these details naturally propel theories of a cover-up. But what exactly is being covered up? Well, some believe that Jim actually died of a heroin overdose. When the police come, Pamela doesn't want to get busted for drugs, so there's a theory that she comes up with a story that he had trouble breathing. It could also explain why she refuses the autopsy. However, at this time in France, only suspicious deaths receive one. Since the cops say Jim died of a heart attack, an autopsy isn't needed. It's protocol, not Pamela's paranoia. But there could be another explanation.

• 28:30Speaker 00

  Some believe that Jim was killed by the US government. Either because his mission was done, in line with David McGowan's psyop theory, or just because he was a hero to the anti-war movement. The government may have thought his influence was too dangerous. Stranger still, Pamela dies three years later of a drug overdose, and many wonder if her death is connected to Jim's. That is, if Jim even died at all. We questioned why Jim is buried in France and not back home. It could be because his French tomb is empty and Jim's still alive.

• 29:15Speaker 00

  Allegedly, according to founding Doors member Ray Manzarek, Jim always talked about faking his death. He wanted to escape fame that badly. A 2025 docu-series, Before the End, explores the theory that Jim is living in Syracuse, New York as a maintenance worker. Even so, there remains no definitive proof that Jim is still with us. Not that the government would let there be any proof. Some people who subscribe to David's overall theory think that perhaps Jim was secretly repurposed. Maybe as the Laurel Canyon mission ended, Jim was allowed to go back to civilian life,

• 29:59Speaker 00

  or maybe even start a new mission under a different name. If that's true, and Jim was decommissioned, his father may have secretly admitted it. On the same day Jim dies, or the day before, depending on your source, Jim's father is at a military ceremony. He's giving a speech, officially decommissioning the ship he was on during the Gulf of Tonkin incident. Some wonder if the ceremony is also meant to decommission Jim.

• 30:34Speaker 00

  If that's true, hopefully Jim did get to live a new life. It would allow him to officially quit stardom, something he was never really interested in. Some do believe the more grim ending, though, that Jim was killed by the government. And if that's true, then Jim may have not been the only counterculture rock star on the government's hit list. In 1969, the FBI is surveilling perhaps the greatest rock guitarist of all time, Jimi Hendrix. When he tours in Toronto, Canada, he's allegedly busted for drugs. Jimi's bandmates believe the contraband was actually planted.

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  You see, Jimi is a double threat to the government. The anti-war and hippie movements coincide with the rise of black activist groups like the Black Panthers. According to former Air Force Secretary Townsend Hoops, one of the government's greatest fears was the fateful merging of anti-war and racial dissent. Jimi, being a black guitarist at the center of rock and roll, is seen as a bridge between both. And just like Jim Morrison and other Laurel Canyon musicians, the government could have manufactured Jimi's presence in both spaces.

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  While Jimi may not be the first rock star you'd associate with Laurel Canyon, but David McGowan spells out the connection. In 1968, Jimi lives near Frank Zappa. He interacts with all of the big names there, all under the watchful eye of the Lookout Mountain Studio. More importantly, though, Jimi also has a military connection. He served in the 101st Airborne Division, jumping out of aircraft. He enlisted as part of a plea deal. If he didn't join the Army, he was going to go to jail for car theft. Jimi's sergeant notes that Private Hendrix will never come up to the standards required of a soldier, but maybe that's in part due to his extreme dedication to guitar.

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  Once his father ships his beloved acts to the Army base, Jimi often skips training to play. He soon finds a few other Army musicians and forms the band, The Casuals. The group spends their weekends playing at bass clubs, likely for the other cadets. Then, Jimi is discharged. Depending on your source, it's either after he breaks his ankle or after he starts pretending to be gay. David McGowan wonders how Jimi didn't suffer any sort of disciplinary measures for his discharge. He seems to think that if everything was on the up and up, Jimi would have had to serve the jail time he was initially trying to avoid. Instead, Jimi gets a check.

• 33:29Speaker 00

  He's paid out for his unused leave, something that isn't always given to dismissed soldiers, unless maybe he wasn't actually let go. What if during his shows with The Casuals, the Army realizes what we all know today, that this soldier is a genius guitarist? Perhaps they faked his discharge to make better use of his talents, sending him to California to infiltrate the anti-war movement as a rock star. Until they didn't need him anymore. On September 18th, 1970, around 11:00 a.m., Jimi's girlfriend Monica Deniman wakes up

• 34:14Speaker 00

  next to him in their London hotel room. Perhaps at first, she thinks nothing of Jimi being asleep. They were out until 3:00 a.m. partying. She may even be grateful that Jimi finally got some shut eye. He's been overworked and stressed over the decision to fire his manager. Plus, he took an amphetamine while they were out, so he was wired all night. That is, until he took some of Monica's sleeping pills. Monica lets Jimi sleep in while she heads out to get a pack of cigarettes. When she returns a short time later, Jimi's restful sleep has taken a dark turn. He's no longer sleeping. He's completely unconscious.

• 34:56Speaker 00

  Monica is unable to wake him, so she calls the ambulance. Paramedics arrive to find the door already wide open. But strangely, Monica is gone, and inside, on his back, lies Jimi Hendrix. The paramedics know that there is nothing that can be done to save him. They do try to resuscitate him, but the doctor at the hospital says it was all done as merely a formality. Officially, Jimi dies at the age of 27 from inhalation of vomit following barbiturate intoxication. Some accounts add that he drank alcohol as well, and the senior doctor who examines

• 35:41Speaker 00

  Jimi at the hospital, Dr. John Bannister, says there is red wine in his stomach and lungs, which sounds consistent with the official story, sort of. See, Dr. Bannister also finds something very odd. Jimi is reportedly covered in wine. It's enough to soak through his clothes. It's matted into his hair, but the autopsy finds very little alcohol in Jimi's bloodstream. And reports say Jimi didn't drink to excess like that, not enough to explain the red wine all over him.

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  Some authors have theorized that these findings point to someone meddling in Jimi's death or even causing it.

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  But who would do this? Well, we mentioned how, leading up to his death, Jimi wants to fire his manager, Michael Jeffrey. Michael hails from England and is said to be a ruthless man with alleged ties to the mafia. He wrings his clients dry for anything he can get out of them, including Jimi, who believes Michael is stealing money from him. That doesn't seem to ever have been proved, but in hindsight, music historians seem to believe Jimi's right. When Jimi dies, suspicion falls directly on Michael. People think that he knew his cash cow wanted to fire him, so he decided to kill Jimi for

• 37:13Speaker 00

  a life insurance policy, especially as, according to some sources, Jimi did successfully fire Michael two days before his death. But Michael being the killer has always been just a theory, until 2010. That year, James "Tappy" Wright publishes Rock Roadie: Backstage and Confidential with Hendrix, Elvis, Tina Turner, and an all-star cast. The book outlines Tappy's 30-year stint as a roadie for the biggest bands of the 60s, and it makes headlines with a startling claim. In 1970, Michael, in a rage, allegedly says, "I had to do it, Tappy.

• 37:58Speaker 00

  We went round to Jimi's hotel room, got a handful of pills, and stuffed them into his mouth, then poured a few bottles of red wine deep into his windpipe." According to Tappy, if Jimi was going to fire Michael, then he was worth more to Michael dead than alive, all thanks to that insurance policy. One of Jimi's other managers confirms that a policy did actually exist. However, while Michael signed it as Jimi's representative, the beneficiary was actually the record label, not him. It's actually standard procedure for music superstars, and there's no confirmation that

• 38:39Speaker 00

  Michael ever received a check from the policy once Jimi died. But that doesn't mean Michael isn't still suspicious, even without his confession to Tappy. It's a documented fact that he served in the British Army's Intelligence Corps. Reportedly, Michael constantly brags about being a secret military agent, and some of his clients and colleagues theorized he'd moved up the ranks of MI-6. According to author John L. Potash, Michael may have also been working with the CIA or FBI at some point. Again, it seems like this is based on Michael's bragging.

• 39:23Speaker 00

  I guess he doesn't care too much about the whole secret part of being a secret agent. For a moment, let's say Michael is working with the FBI and CIA. Let's also say that David McGowan's theory is correct, and the government is trying to discredit the anti-war movement through rock and roll. Suddenly, some of Michael's behavior seems to fall right in line. According to Jimi's girlfriend Monica, Michael often pushes drugs on Jimi to, quote, "get him addicted." Allegedly, he even drugs Jimi during a political benefit concert. If we're following David's theory that the government wants to make hippies seem like

• 40:07Speaker 00

  drug addicts, having their virtuoso guitarist walk up on stage to stone to play drives the point home. And, just like with Jim Morrison's girlfriend Pamela, those closest to Jimi suffer mysterious ends as well. Now, Monica always had a conflicting account on the timeline of Jimi's death, whereas the paramedics say she was absent from the crime scene. Monica claims she was there. She stayed by Jimi's side all the way to the hospital. Most importantly, she denies that he was found dead. According to her, he was still alive for the ambulance ride.

• 40:49Speaker 00

  In 1996, Monica's planning to do a TV interview about Jimi's death. It would likely include her disputes with the paramedic's account, as well as supposedly the truth. Whatever she meant by that, however, we'll never know, because before she gets a chance to do the interview, she dies by suicide.

• 41:13Speaker 00

  Michael Jeffrey, Jimmy's manager, dies in 1973. He's on a flight heading to London when his plane suddenly crashes with another, killing everyone onboard his flight. The tragedy occurs during a French air traffic controller's strike. To sub in for the striking workers, the French military helms air traffic control. These are highly-trained controllers, so people wonder how they'd let two planes collide. To top off all of the suspicious details, Jimmy's death is grimly similar to Jim Morrison's. They were both found by their girlfriends, both of whom also die before their time. The rock stars are said to have overdosed on drugs, but really, the circumstances of

• 41:58Speaker 00

  their deaths aren't entirely clear. And both of them, of course, died at the age of 27, along with Janis Joplin, another Laurel Canyon musician. Maybe these similarities are all just the MO for decommissioning the Laurel Canyon infiltration plot? Or they're just more coincidences? And these were true artists who believed in their anti-war cause, not army plants. This is all just a paranoid conspiracy theory. Well, what if I told you that there are two documented, proven, government operations

• 42:39Speaker 00

  that set out to do the one thing David McGowan theorizes: to infiltrate the anti-war movement? And one of these covert operations is discovered by a group of young activists who break in to the FBI.

• 42:56Speaker 02

  If you're building AI agents, you should check out Strands Agents. It's an open-source SDK for Python and TypeScript. The idea is simple: give a model some tools, let it decide what to call and when, and loop until it's done. No chain convicts, no graph orchestration, and works with any model provider. It's also open-source and built and tested for production agents. Get started at strandsagents.com.

• 43:23Speaker 00

  In the 1960s, the Laurel Canyon music scene makes history with songs protesting the Vietnam War. However, many believe that these musicians are all part of one large government psy-op meant to discredit the growing anti-war movement. Some may think the idea is a bit paranoid. If there were no government agents hanging out in Laurel Canyon, those squares would stick out like sore thumbs. Well, there's one young woman who isn't so sure about that. Around March 1971, Bonnie Rains walks into the FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania. She's a college student innocently asking the FBI agents about career opportunities.

• 44:05Speaker 00

  They gladly welcome her and show her around, and they're likely excited about a bright-eyed youngster showing interest in their line of work, especially since at the time, anti-war groups are protesting the FBI being in town. But little do they know that Bonnie isn't just asking questions. Her eyes are on the exits and the security cameras. And Bonnie isn't actually a student. She's a daycare director and part of a real-world Ocean's Eleven-like plot. Pulling the strings is William Dabidon, a college professor and anti-war activist. For the past year, he, Bonnie, and six others have been planning a seemingly impossible

• 44:50Speaker 00

  heist: breaking into the FBI. They call themselves the Citizens Commission to Investigate the FBI. They believe the Bureau is illegally spying on American citizens, particularly those protesting Vietnam, in order to squash dissent. And today, Bonnie is undercover casing the joint. Bonnie finds the security is surprisingly lax, and they might be able to pull this off. To be extra sure, they pick March 8, 1971, as the day of the heist. Everybody in town, including the police, should be busy watching Muhammad Ali box Joe Frazier on TV.

• 45:34Speaker 00

  That night, Bonnie and her friends pick the FBI's locks and use a crowbar to get through the deadbolt. Once they're in, they fling open all the filing cabinets. They practically pour the contents—pages and pages of confidential files—right into their suitcases. And perhaps thanks to the big fight on TV, they're able to successfully escape in their getaway car. They then race back to their rendezvous point, a farmhouse an hour away. When they comb through the files, they find something world-shaking: details about COINTELPRO.

• 46:12Speaker 00

  Created by the FBI in 1956, COINTELPRO, short for Counterintelligence Program, is a top-secret operation meant to infiltrate, discredit, and undermine groups fighting against the status quo. Originally, its focus is catching communists, but it later includes the anti-war movement. Most importantly, it proves the Citizens Commission right. The FBI is illegally spying on law-abiding US citizens.

• 46:50Speaker 00

  They're doing it specifically to "enhance the paranoia endemic in the leftist protesters." The Bureau infiltrates groups and spreads rumors about who can and cannot be trusted. They want protesters to think that there is an FBI agent behind every mailbox. Eventually, the groups will turn against their own members, bringing them down from within. Bonnie's crew sends these files to the press, and it makes front-page news. It triggers a full-scale government investigation into the FBI. And surprisingly, the government never catches any members of the Citizens Commission.

• 47:34Speaker 00

  They all manage to remain anonymous until they voluntarily unveil their identities in 2014. While they were in hiding, others were picking up their fight against COINTELPRO, including author Tom O'Neill. He's an investigative reporter who spends 20 years researching how the government infiltrated, amongst other things, the hippie anti-war movement. His findings also partially back up David McGowan's suspicions about the Laurel Canyon scene. Tom looks into two government operations: COINTELPRO and the CIA's operation CHAOS.

• 48:15Speaker 00

  CHAOS begins around 1967 under LBJ, and Richard Nixon expands its scope. Both operations run mostly concurrently with the same overall goal: to make the movement look horrible, evil, effectively making hippies the boogeyman. The government's efforts begin simply by discrediting the students and teachers who protest Vietnam. J. Edgar Hoover, head of the FBI at the time, tells people that some are communists. And of course, the plan goes all the way to the top. In the White House, President Lyndon B. Johnson worries the movement will lead to a coup.

• 48:57Speaker 00

  So as part of the operations, he opens a Marine Corps base in Virginia with a surprising lesson plan. While other military bases order you to wear your Marine uniform, the agents here have a completely different look. They're instructed to stop bathing, grow an unruly beard, take some LSD, and become indistinguishable from a hippie. Their mission is to get into the counterculture movement and see what they're up against. If David McGowan is right, perhaps they learn to play a couple of songs as well. As far as Tom O'Neill can tell, at least one of these informants did break into the

• 49:41Speaker 00

  Laurel Canyon scene: a man named Reeve Witson. Tom uncovers that people who knew Reeve at the time call him a "mystery man." However, Reeve's close friends and family tell Tom the truth: he was CIA. One of his first missions was to go undercover as a journalist in New York and infiltrate communist groups. Later, he grows his hair out and heads to California. Now, we don't know for sure if he was on any official mission, but he does befriend the Beach Boys, who hung around Laurel Canyon, and Reeve is also said to hang out with Charles Manson.

• 50:25Speaker 00

  As any true crime trivia fan will tell you, before he's "the" Charles Manson, he tries to make it as a musician. He's not completely untalented. He even records some songs with the Beach Boys' record label, and Neil Young calls him an "improvisational genius." Tom O'Neill theorizes but can't confirm that Reeve, along with other government agents, provide the drugs that propel the notorious Manson murders. It's also worth mentioning that some consider those tragic deaths as the end of the hippie movement. After that, drugs are no longer the path to peace and love, but to crazed murder sprees.

• 51:10Speaker 00

  It's a big win in the government's plot to discredit hippies. Allegedly.

• 51:17Speaker 00

  Okay, we have proof that the government infiltrated some of the anti-war movements. Is there any proof that Laurel Canyon musicians were secret agents or informants? Not that we can tell. But apparently, Operation Chaos was so classified that even CIA Director William Colby barely knew anything about it. Who knows if there will ever be any new whistleblowers or government break-ins that prove David McGowan right? Unfortunately, if that day comes, he's not around anymore to see it. David has a long career researching conspiracy theories such as the moon landing and 9/11.

• 52:01Speaker 00

  On April 20th, 2015, a video of him is posted online in which he talks about the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. Under the video is an ominous comment. With all the elitist feathers David's ruffling, he's likely to come down with a spontaneous case of hitherto undiagnosed cancer. A short time later, well, that's essentially what happens. David is diagnosed with an incurable form of lung cancer. After a short battle on November 22nd, 2015, he passes away. To other conspiracy theorists out there, the date may sound familiar.

• 52:42Speaker 00

  It's the anniversary of JFK's assassination. According to David's daughter, David himself did not think his illness was the result of foul play. Rather, it was probably due to a lifelong love of cigarettes and possibly exposure to asbestos. But until any real documented proof of a Laurel Canyon mission is released, eh, do me a favor. Next time you listen to Hendrix or The Doors, remember David's research. Are you listening to the artist's true feelings? Or something manufactured? And maybe, most importantly, ask yourself, does it matter? If you say yes, maybe switch genres.

• 53:27Speaker 00

  After the hippie movement dies down in the 1970s, another musical revolution is born: punk music. Those are the real anti-establishment musicians. No way the government is infiltrating them. Wait, actually, according to David, members of the Ramones, Sex Pistols, The Clash, and others are associated with the Copland Clan. Who are they? Oh, just another everyday family that's deeply entrenched in the CIA. Thank you for listening to Conspiracy Theories.

• 54:12Speaker 00

  We're here with a new episode every Wednesday. Be sure to check us out on Instagram @TheConspiracyPod. If you're watching on Spotify, swipe up and give us your thoughts. Our sources for today's episode include Weird Scenes Inside the Canyon, Laurel Canyon, Covert Ops, and The Dark Heart of the Hippie Dream by David McGowan, and Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties by Tom O'Neill. Until next time, remember, the truth isn't always the best story, and the official story isn't always the truth. This episode was written and researched by Brandon Rizzuto, edited by Miki Taylor and

• 54:54Speaker 00

  Justin Sales, fact-checked by Sophie Kemp, and engineered, video edited, and sound designed by Alex Button. I'm your host, Carter Roy.

• 55:14Speaker 02

  If you're building AI agents, you should check out Strands Agents. It's an open-source SDK for Python and TypeScript. The idea is simple. Give a model some tools, let it decide what to call and when, and loop until it's done. No chain convicts, no graph orchestration, and works with any model provider. It's also open-source and built and tested for production agents. Get started at strandsagents.com.