Janis Joplin's Autopsy Report Is Seriously Tragic

Janis Joplin's death in October 1970 made her an unfortunate member of the so-called 27 Club. Five decades on, the Queen of Rock 'n' Roll's loss is still felt by fans worldwide. Given Joplin's well-documented struggles with substance use disorder, her passing wasn't exactly a bolt from the blue. Still, that didn't make it any less tragic, especially considering the autopsy report.

People are often shocked by what killed some celebrities, but sadly, the cause of Joplin's demise was little surprise. "I ascribe the death to acute heroin — morphine intoxication, due to injection of overdose," the Los Angeles chief medical examiner-coroner determined.

The circumstances of Joplin's death were sad beyond belief. She was discovered alone on the floor in room 105 of the Landmark Motor Hotel in Hollywood, California. The musician, who was in town to lay down some new tracks for Columbia Records, had been dead for an estimated 12 hours when she was found by her guitarist, John Cooke. According to the coroner's report: "The end of a balloon or rubber glove was found in a wastebasket in the decedent's kitchen containing a white powder." Meanwhile, "an apparent hype kit" that included a plastic syringe with clear liquid, a teaspoon, and a wrap of "brownish-white powder" was discovered in the bedside cabinet along with a bag of what was presumed to be weed and another containing "4 ½ small white tablets." Gauze and a paper towel dotted with dried blood were also present in the room.

Janis Joplin isn't the only star who's suffered from substance use disorder. However, unlike many other celebs who struggled with addiction but managed to bounce back, her battle ended in tragedy. Given the history of heroin and alcohol use, Joplin's cause of death, albeit sad, was far from astonishing. Still, conspiracy theorists argue otherwise.

They believe the U.S. government was behind the death of Joplin, along with two other 27 Club members: Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison. Apparently, as depicted in the 1984 movie "Down on Us," shadowy forces were threatened by the musicians' counter-culture message, so they ordered a squad of elite assassins to slay them and then orchestrated an elaborate cover-up. The trio's deaths have also sparked a musical urban legend that persists to this day. "The Curse of the White Lighter" cautions stoners against owning a white plastic BIC lighter as they're supposedly cursed and may result in an untimely demise, such as that of Joplin, Hendrix, and Morrison (in addition to Kurt Cobain). "All four were left-handed, and they all died at the age of 27. The coincidence was that all four of their autopsies showed that when they died, they had White Bic Lighters in their pockets," a 2013 High Ideas blog post claims.

Not surprisingly, it's totally baseless and factually incorrect. BIC didn't start selling colored lighters until 1973, three years after Joplin and Hendrix's deaths and two years after Morrison's.