A tantalizing clue to the great Doors make-out mystery emerges
 

I’ve finally got the name of the "mystery co-ed" from the Doors’ infamous New Haven Arena show. But she remains an elusive butterfly.

Two weeks ago I wrote about my obsessive search for the unidentified woman who was necking backstage with Doors’ singer Jim Morrison just before a policeman sprayed him with the chemical Mace.

Morrison, outraged, later told the audience he was Maced by "this little man in a little blue suit" while the singer was getting acquainted with the woman in a shower room.

Police stopped the performance and arrested Morrison for "performing an indecent and immoral exhibition."

It seems virtually everybody connected with those events on Dec. 9, 1967 (excepting the deceased) has contacted me with leads, stories or the supposed name of that young woman.

Everybody, that is, except the woman herself.

I thought I had hit the jackpot when Gary Deleone of East Haven called. He said he had a copy of the police report about that crazy night, written by New Haven Police Lt. James Kelly.

I had been informed the police department no longer had this document, so I was excited as I drove over to Deleone’s house.

Deleone has the report because his father, Joe Deleone, worked at the Arena.

Kelly’s report said Officer Arthur Baker received a complaint from Thomas Janette about "two subjects in a shower room." Kelly said Janette had personal belongings there.

"Officer Baker went into this room and observed two subjects, later identified as James Morrison, 24, of Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, Calif. and Sandy Spodniak, 18, of 1590 Blvd., a So. Conn. College student, standing inside the shower room embracing and kissing," Kelly wrote.

"Officer Baker advised both subjects that he had received a complaint about them and asked them to leave," Kelly reported. "Morrison then became belligerent and refused to leave. A scuffle followed and a shot of Mace was used to subdue Morrison."

Kelly said police decided not to arrest Morrison because they feared "the audience would react in a violent manner."

But Kelly said near the end of the show, Morrison "began to use vile and filthy language."

Kelly said this "caused unrest" in the crowd. He quoted a mother, Mrs. Doris Heath of North Haven, complaining her 13-year-old daughter was hearing "those filthy statements."

"I went up on the stage and notified the group that the show was over and to leave the stage," Kelly wrote.

After Morrison shouted "Turn off the lights!" and an obscenity, Kelly said, "Morrison was then placed under arrest and had to be forcibly removed from the stage."

The police report is from a carbon copy, so it is partially blurred. Deleone and I eyeballed the young woman’s name and we think it is Sandy Spodniak, although it could be Sandy Spodnick.

But when I asked Southern Connecticut State University officials to check both names, they couldn’t come up with any record of her.

Did she lie to the police about being a Southern student? Did she make up a name? Maybe because she wasn’t arrested the police let her run off without seeking formal identification.

Baker is dead. So is Kelly. So is Morrison.

Two other people who said they were there gave me different names of the mystery necker, but neither checked out.

Janette himself contacted me. He confirmed he was there with his opening act Tommy and the Rivieras and did complain to the police about Morrison because the Rivieras had their wallets stashed near the shower room.

Janette said he saw Morrison in the shower room with "a pretty brunette." He also saw him get Maced.

A man who asked not to be named told me he too was backstage that night and saw Morrison with "a brunette with shoulder-length hair."

This man recalls seeing Morrison being arrested. "His head was bouncing on the stairs."

Now: Will the real "Sandy Spodniak" stand up?

Randall Beach can be reached at rbeach@nhregister.com or 789-5766.