Originally published in the Guardian on 8 July 1969
Brian Jones, the former Rolling Stone, drowned in the swimming pool of his farmhouse in Sussex "while under the influence of alcohol and drugs," a coroner said yesterday. The East Sussex coroner, Dr Angus Sommerville, recorded death by misadventure.
Miss Janet Lawson, a state-registered nurse and a friend of Jones, said she knew him through her friend, Mr Frank Thorogood, a builder who was modernising Jones's farm. At 10 30 on the night he drowned, Jones had gone to Thorogood's flat and asked them to join him, Miss Lawson said. "He had been drinking and he was a bit unsteady on his feet."
They joined Jones and his girlfriend, Miss Anna Wohlin, at the farmhouse. Both Jones and his girlfriend were drinking spirits. "I attempted conversation but it was a little garbled. Jones said it was because he had had his sleepers," Miss Lawson said. She understood these to be sleeping tablets.
Jones told them he was going to swim and mounted the springboard. He had difficulty, but Frank Thorogood tried to assist him. "Despite his condition he was able to swim. However he was rather sluggish," Miss Lawson said. She then left the pool thinking that Jones was all right.
Miss Lawson went on: "Frank then returned to the house and asked for a towel. I immediately went to the pool and saw Brian at the bottom, quite motionless. I sensed the worst and shouted to Anna and Frank."
Miss Lawson said she and the others got Jones out of the pool and laid him on his back. She began pumping water out of him - "but I got very little out." She gave him heart massage for about 15 minutes and Miss Wohlin tried mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
Anna Wohlin, aged 22, told the inquest that she had only known Jones for two or three months. She told the coroner they had wine at dinner. Jones occasionally had brandy.
Dr Albert Sachs, a pathologist, said he found no evidence in the lung to suggest Jones had had a recent attack of asthma, but it was evident that he had some form of chronic bronchial trouble. "For a man of his age, his heart was a bit larger than it should have been. It was fatty and flabby. His liver was twice the normal weight."
His blood contained 140 milligrammes per cent of alcohol, but there was no evidence of barbiturates. It was obvious, on examining his blood, that Jones had consumed a large quantity of drugs.
Mr Thorogood said that on the night Jones died he had gone, at Jones's request, to buy bottles of brandy, wine, whisky, and soda.
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