Fact #101020
When:
Short story:
Jimi Hendrix is kidnapped from The Salvation Club in New York City, USA, by a group of men described as young 'Mafia wannabes'.Full article:
THE KIDNAPPING OF JIMI HENDRIX
The following account is compiled largely from interviews conducted by Johnny Black, and first published in Classic Rock magazine.
Jon Roberts (aka John Riccobono) : When you run a nightclub (The Salvation Club), you will always get heat from the cops. The liquor license gives them an automatic reason to come into your place and snoop. Within a year of getting into the business, Andy and I started to draw real heat – not from the New York cops, who could always be bought, but from the FBI. Two incidents made them nosy about us.
The first was the kidnapping of Jim Hendrix. Jimi and I were never great friends. He was so far gone, I don't think he was truly friends with anybody. Jimi was a bad junkie. Jimi had people around him all the time, too. He was suffocating from these hangers-on. After we met at Salvation, he came to our house on Fire Island so he could get away from it all. We'd make sure nobody would bother him except for his real friends. Jimi really liked [blues guitarist] Leslie West, and one night the two of them played our living room all night long. Jimi had to shoot speed in his arm to keep up with Leslie. That's how good Leslie West was. A few times, we took Jimi water-skiing off the back of my Donzi. He liked getting out and doing things physically, even when he was stoned.
(Source : the book 'American Desperado' by Jon Roberts and Evan Wright)
Trixie Sullivan (Hendrix management staff) : The music business in those days was like the Wild West. What it was, the 'junior' Mafia was always trying to move into the music business. The 'older' Mafia wasn't really interested. And Jimi was kidnapped by some guys that were holding him for ransom to get his contract.
Jon Roberts : I got involved in Jimi's so-called kidnapping after he was grabbed by some guys out of Salvation. Later on some people accused me of being involved in kidnapping him. They said I was involved with kidnappers who tied Jimi to a chair and forced him to shoot heroin. Please. Nobody would have had to force Jimi to shoot anything. Just give him the heroin and he'd inject it himself. It was Jimi going out searching for drugs that got him into trouble. Andy and I were the ones who helped get him out of it.
Jimi had people who would usually buy dope for him. But sometimes he'd get so sick, he'd come into our clubs looking for drugs on his own. One night two Italian kids at our club – not Mafia but wiseguy wannabes – saw Jimi in there looking for dope and decided, "Hey, that's Jimi Hendrix. Let's grab him and see what we can get."
Jimi Hendrix : Before I realised what had happened, I found myself forcibly abducted by four men. I was blindfolded and gagged and shoved rudely into the back of a car. I couldn't understand what the fuck was going on as I lay there sweating with someone's knee in my back.
Jon Roberts : These guys were morons. They promised Jimi some dope and took him to a house out of the city.
Jimi Hendrix : I was taken to some deserted building and made to believe that they really intended to hurt me. They never did tell me why they abducted me. The whole thing seemed very mysterious because, after a while, I realised that if they really had intended to hurt me, they would have already done it by this time.
Jon Roberts : I don't know if they wanted money or a piece of his record contract, but they called Jimi's manager demanding something.
Jerry Morrison (Hendrix staff) : It was serious. When Jimi called, he told Bob (Levine) that he was being held by guys who wanted Jimi's management contract. Jimi said that if Mike didn't turn it over, the guys were going to kill him.
Bob Levine (Hendrix staff) : It wasn't a hostile kidnapping. It was a 'house arrest'. Jimi was missing and we couldn't find him. Fortunately, this happened during a lull, when we didn't have any dates scheduled. The 'boys' sent word down that he was being treated comfortably and would be released in a couple of days.
Jim Marron (Hendrix staff) : Jeffery was incensed that someone would actually steal his artist and question his power. It was a show of force against him. Though the entire affair was really about (night club owner) Bobby Woods and cocaine, Jeffery was determined to back them down rather than accept any of their terms.
Trixie Sullivan : Mike had his contacts in the music business, which could be quite heavy too. Mike found, or was given an introduction to, people who would go with him to sort it out.
Jon Roberts : Next thing I knew the club manager called me and said Jimi had been taken from our club by some Italians.
It took me and Andy two or three phone calls to get the names of the kids who were holding Jimi. We reached out to these kids and made it clear, "You let Jimi go, or you are dead. Do not harm a hair of his Afro."
Jim Marron : He (Michael Jeffery) had developed his own connections, and his were much more powerful than theirs. It cost Jeffery a favour but, once his brutes arrived, the people who had been keeping Jimi under house arrest put their guns away and left.
Trixie Sullivan : Mike was teamed up with these guys in limousines, they were taken to where Jimi was being held. When they realised who Mike was with, they let him go.
Jimi Hendrix : The whole thing seemed even more mysterious when I was rescued by three men supposedly sent by the management. They really effected a story-book rescue.
Jon Roberts : They let Jimi go. The whole thing lasted maybe two days. Jimi was so stoned, he probably didn't even know he was ever kidnapped. Andy and I waited a week or so and went after these kids. We gave them a beating they would never forget.
Claire Moriece (Hendrix housekeeper) : He told me about how he was kidnapped in some place in New York and then his management came and mysteriously found him, and it made him very paranoid.
Monika Danneman (Hendrix girlfriend) : What Jimi told me was that Mike Jeffery, his manager, told him if they hadn't rescued him, he would be dead and he should be grateful, but Jimi started to think, and he thought the whole thing was strange, how they just came in and freed him. He figured out that the whole thing was a setup by his management.
Stefan Bright (sound engineer) : Hendrix was so totally fucked up by that time that I think it put a damper on his creativity. He seemed consumed by insecurity and paranoia, not knowing what Jeffery was doing for him or to him.
Bob Levine : Jeffery had backed them down, but Jimi saw right through that. Though Jeffery had flexed his muscles and proved his own power, he had no control over Hendrix.
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The following account is compiled largely from interviews conducted by Johnny Black, and first published in Classic Rock magazine.
Jon Roberts (aka John Riccobono) : When you run a nightclub (The Salvation Club), you will always get heat from the cops. The liquor license gives them an automatic reason to come into your place and snoop. Within a year of getting into the business, Andy and I started to draw real heat – not from the New York cops, who could always be bought, but from the FBI. Two incidents made them nosy about us.
The first was the kidnapping of Jim Hendrix. Jimi and I were never great friends. He was so far gone, I don't think he was truly friends with anybody. Jimi was a bad junkie. Jimi had people around him all the time, too. He was suffocating from these hangers-on. After we met at Salvation, he came to our house on Fire Island so he could get away from it all. We'd make sure nobody would bother him except for his real friends. Jimi really liked [blues guitarist] Leslie West, and one night the two of them played our living room all night long. Jimi had to shoot speed in his arm to keep up with Leslie. That's how good Leslie West was. A few times, we took Jimi water-skiing off the back of my Donzi. He liked getting out and doing things physically, even when he was stoned.
(Source : the book 'American Desperado' by Jon Roberts and Evan Wright)
Trixie Sullivan (Hendrix management staff) : The music business in those days was like the Wild West. What it was, the 'junior' Mafia was always trying to move into the music business. The 'older' Mafia wasn't really interested. And Jimi was kidnapped by some guys that were holding him for ransom to get his contract.
Jon Roberts : I got involved in Jimi's so-called kidnapping after he was grabbed by some guys out of Salvation. Later on some people accused me of being involved in kidnapping him. They said I was involved with kidnappers who tied Jimi to a chair and forced him to shoot heroin. Please. Nobody would have had to force Jimi to shoot anything. Just give him the heroin and he'd inject it himself. It was Jimi going out searching for drugs that got him into trouble. Andy and I were the ones who helped get him out of it.
Jimi had people who would usually buy dope for him. But sometimes he'd get so sick, he'd come into our clubs looking for drugs on his own. One night two Italian kids at our club – not Mafia but wiseguy wannabes – saw Jimi in there looking for dope and decided, "Hey, that's Jimi Hendrix. Let's grab him and see what we can get."
Jimi Hendrix : Before I realised what had happened, I found myself forcibly abducted by four men. I was blindfolded and gagged and shoved rudely into the back of a car. I couldn't understand what the fuck was going on as I lay there sweating with someone's knee in my back.
Jon Roberts : These guys were morons. They promised Jimi some dope and took him to a house out of the city.
Jimi Hendrix : I was taken to some deserted building and made to believe that they really intended to hurt me. They never did tell me why they abducted me. The whole thing seemed very mysterious because, after a while, I realised that if they really had intended to hurt me, they would have already done it by this time.
Jon Roberts : I don't know if they wanted money or a piece of his record contract, but they called Jimi's manager demanding something.
Jerry Morrison (Hendrix staff) : It was serious. When Jimi called, he told Bob (Levine) that he was being held by guys who wanted Jimi's management contract. Jimi said that if Mike didn't turn it over, the guys were going to kill him.
Bob Levine (Hendrix staff) : It wasn't a hostile kidnapping. It was a 'house arrest'. Jimi was missing and we couldn't find him. Fortunately, this happened during a lull, when we didn't have any dates scheduled. The 'boys' sent word down that he was being treated comfortably and would be released in a couple of days.
Jim Marron (Hendrix staff) : Jeffery was incensed that someone would actually steal his artist and question his power. It was a show of force against him. Though the entire affair was really about (night club owner) Bobby Woods and cocaine, Jeffery was determined to back them down rather than accept any of their terms.
Trixie Sullivan : Mike had his contacts in the music business, which could be quite heavy too. Mike found, or was given an introduction to, people who would go with him to sort it out.
Jon Roberts : Next thing I knew the club manager called me and said Jimi had been taken from our club by some Italians.
It took me and Andy two or three phone calls to get the names of the kids who were holding Jimi. We reached out to these kids and made it clear, "You let Jimi go, or you are dead. Do not harm a hair of his Afro."
Jim Marron : He (Michael Jeffery) had developed his own connections, and his were much more powerful than theirs. It cost Jeffery a favour but, once his brutes arrived, the people who had been keeping Jimi under house arrest put their guns away and left.
Trixie Sullivan : Mike was teamed up with these guys in limousines, they were taken to where Jimi was being held. When they realised who Mike was with, they let him go.
Jimi Hendrix : The whole thing seemed even more mysterious when I was rescued by three men supposedly sent by the management. They really effected a story-book rescue.
Jon Roberts : They let Jimi go. The whole thing lasted maybe two days. Jimi was so stoned, he probably didn't even know he was ever kidnapped. Andy and I waited a week or so and went after these kids. We gave them a beating they would never forget.
Claire Moriece (Hendrix housekeeper) : He told me about how he was kidnapped in some place in New York and then his management came and mysteriously found him, and it made him very paranoid.
Monika Danneman (Hendrix girlfriend) : What Jimi told me was that Mike Jeffery, his manager, told him if they hadn't rescued him, he would be dead and he should be grateful, but Jimi started to think, and he thought the whole thing was strange, how they just came in and freed him. He figured out that the whole thing was a setup by his management.
Stefan Bright (sound engineer) : Hendrix was so totally fucked up by that time that I think it put a damper on his creativity. He seemed consumed by insecurity and paranoia, not knowing what Jeffery was doing for him or to him.
Bob Levine : Jeffery had backed them down, but Jimi saw right through that. Though Jeffery had flexed his muscles and proved his own power, he had no control over Hendrix.