“Jean wаѕ a horrible guy, ѕоmеоnе who had crawled out from
under a stone. Sоmеhоw I ended uр with him…it wаѕ аll аbоut drugs аnd sex.” –
Marianne Faithful
“The devil hath power to assume a pleasing shape.” -
Shakespeare
Jean
de Breteuil. As a drug dealer/addict, he was in the right business. He
just wasn’t good at it. Jim
Morrison. Jimi Hendrix. Brian
Jones. Janis Joplin. Talitha
Getty. Pam Courson. Keith Richards. All clients, all dead – except for Keith Richards –
for as we all know, what doesn’t destroy Keith only makes him
 |
| Jean de Breteuil: Jet-setting |
Maybe along the way, Jean’s self-loathing somehow
metastasized into homicidal fantasies. Likely he didn’t care. Perhaps his spirit was cast at Altamont.
He himself overdosed at the age of twenty-two. 1972.
 |
| Devil assumes a pleasing shape |
The devil hath power to assume a pleasing shape.One could argue that taking out Morrison and Joplin changed the course of rock music, however subtly. His involvement with Hendrix and Jones was more tangential.
.
His family owned French-language newspapers in North Africa.
On the death of his father, he inherited the title of 'Count de Breteuil'. A
debauched aristocrat if ever there was. Became a Eurotrash, drug-addled playboy.
A rock n’ roll celebrity drug enabler.
 |
| A few of his customers |
What to make of it? ‘Heroin Dealer to the Stars’ isn’t a
typical career choice. Who knows his passions. But when so many of your
customers become young corpses, one may question a professional
aptitude.
Jean de Breteuil. The soundtrack of his life should include
The Pusher, People Are Strange, and
for this jet-setting junkie, Hank Williams’ Angel of
Death. “The Angel of Death/ Will come from the sky/ And claim up your soul/
When the time comes to die.” RIP.