I typically donāt discuss this topic much, preferring to stick to the manās music and art, but itās gotten so much attention over the last year with its 20th anniversary, a whole new generation discovering his extraordinary music and life, and new evidence being released to the public, I felt I should weigh in. I used the question on Quora,Ā āAre there any suspicious circumstances surrounding the death of Kurt Cobain?āĀ as an opportunity to share what knowledge I have. Here is my response:
Many. There are so many conspiracy theorists and people who believe that Kurt Cobain was murdered and his suicide staged because there are heaping piles of evidence pointing that way as well as people close to Kurt who strongly believe that he was not suicidal and did not kill himself. For ease of reading, I'll run through some key points (some of it factual, some of it objective speculation) in bullet point format.
The Motive
Nearly everyone in Kurt & Courtney's circle knew that Kurt was very unhappy with their marriage and intended to divorce her. If he did that, she stood to inherit half of his possessions at best - with him dead, she got everything, including the rights to his music and name which kept her very well taken care of for decades. Kurt Cobain has recently become the highest grossing dead musician in history, surpassing Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, and John Lennon, and Courtney Love has benefitted extraordinarily from this, not only financially but career-wise, as the wake of his death left her in the center of the spotlight.
The Alibi
Rosemary Carroll, Courtney Love's own attorney and godmother to her and Kurt's daughter Frances Bean, believes that Courtney was involved in a conspiracy to murder Kurt. Courtney had accidentally left her handbag at Carroll's house, and after Kurt's death, she decided to look inside. She found two pieces of paper: one was a note Courtney wrote to herself that read "GET ARRESTED." In the days prior to Kurt's death, she was indeed arrested for possession of narcotics - however, she allegedly designed it as such that she only had narcotic paraphernalia and no actual drugs, so she was released from jail a couple days later. This was supposedly her alibi. However, Kurt's body had not yet been discovered, at which point she hired private investigator Tom Grant to locate him (more on his investigation later), then called an electric company to install an alarm system on the greenhouse (the room in which Kurt died) as soon as possible. The electrician who got the job was the one who discovered Kurt's body. Many believe this was her new alibi she manufactured.
The Questionable Suicide Note
The second, more disturbing note in Courtney's handbag was a handwriting practice sheet. Kurt Cobain's suicide note has been analyzed by handwriting experts who unanimously agree that the first portion, the bulk of the letter in which Kurt is addressing his fans and discussing why he's choosing to quit Nirvana and the music industry, is written in Kurt's own handwriting. The very bottom portion - the only part of the note that alludes to suicide - is written differently and has the look of someone trying to copy Kurt's handwriting style. Handwriting experts analyzed this portion of the letter alongside the "practice sheet" found in Courtney Love's handbag, and they found that the form & shapes of the letters match almost identically. In addition, she repeatedly wrote specific letters and phrases that showed up in the part of Kurt's note that identifies it as a suicide letter. Many people believe it was not a suicide note at all and that these four closing lines were added on to make it look like one.
The Accomplice
A local Seattle musician who went by the stage name El Duce came forward after Kurt's death and claimed that Courtney Love offered him $50,000 to murder Kurt and stage it as a suicide. He turned her down at the time, thinking she wasn't serious, but after Kurt's death, he came forward and spoke out about this. He even passed polygraph tests attesting to it. In 1996, he died in mysterious circumstances, allegedly passing out on railroad tracks and being run over by a train. Another local Seattle musician who goes by the stage name Allen Wrench is believed to be the hitman that Courtney Love wound up hiring. He is known in that scene as a very temperamental, violent person, and had extensive training in martial arts and handling guns. Shortly after Kurt was murdered, he suddenly began living far above his means, buying two new cars and a house for himself.
The Botched Investigation
Seattle PD did a poor job on the case - the chief of police at the time even admitted so himself and stated that it merits being reopened. They assumed suicide from the start, so any evidence suggesting homicide was dismissed. There were many errors in the official report (for instance, it was written that the greenhouse door where Kurt's body was found was locked from the inside making it impossible for anybody but Kurt himself to have been in the room during his death - this was false, as the door had no deadbolt, just a "push" lock that could be locked on the inside by someone before exiting). The lead detective in the case was a corrupt cop who quit the force years later when threatened with being charged with evidence tampering. Also, the crime scene photos were not even developed until earlier this year - a whole 21 years after Kurt's death, which is extremely unusual for a death investigation.
The Inconsistencies
The amount of heroin in Kurt's system was so high (three times the lethal dose) that even a heavy user with a high tolerance such as himself would not be able to inject it, remove the syringe, place it back in his "works" box, roll down his sleeve, pick up a shotgun and use it on himself. He would simply be too incapacitated, as intravenously injected heroin takes effect within mere seconds. In addition, the prints on the shotgun weren't legible and appeared as though someone wiped it down - if Kurt handled this gun, loaded it, and shot himself, his prints would be all over it. The fired shotgun shell was also on the wrong side of his body - forensically, given the position he was found in and the way he allegedly used the gun on himself, the shell casing should've been on the opposite side of his corpse. Also, think about this - why would Kurt shoot himself in the head and leave that horrible image for his daughter, the love of his life, to grow up with when he could simply inject a lethal dose of heroin and peacefully drift off to his death?
The Private Investigator
Tom Grant, the private investigator Courtney Love hired to locate Kurt days before his body was found, believed that the entire situation was very suspicious. He felt that Courtney's behavior was odd and that she knew much more than she was letting on. He felt so strongly about this, he conducted his own investigation using his own money and resources long after Courtney stopped paying him for his services. He eventually started up a website, CobainCase.com, in which he posted a variety of evidence (including the pieces of paper Rosemary Carroll discovered in Courtney's handbag which she told him about, breaking attorney-client privilege) that points toward a murder conspiracy. Grant is an ex-police officer with decades of experience in homicide investigation, and he so strongly believes that Kurt Cobain's suicide was staged that to this day he continues to fight for the case to be reopened and investigated properly.
The Possibly Related Case
It's rumored that Kristen Pfaff, the bassist in Courtney Love's band Hole, was in love with Kurt and that they wanted desperately to get away from Courtney and the Seattle music & drug scenes (which were unfortunately intertwined and inescapable for them). After Kurt's death, Pfaff was devastated - she quit Hole and moved back to her hometown in Minnesota to get sober and recuperate. Two months later, she returned to Seattle for a couple days to pick up the last of her belongings and say goodbye to some friends, but she never left - on the day of her scheduled departure, she was found in her bathroom overdosed on heroin and with narcotics paraphernalia scattered all over the room. Prior to Kurt's death, Courtney had noticed her interest in him and publicly threatened her in front of numerous people on numerous occasions. If El Duce's mysterious death alone wasn't suspicious enough, this certainly is.
There is even more evidence I haven't mentioned here. If you're interested in reading into it further, look up Tom Grant's website I posted a couple paragraphs up as well as the websiteĀ Justice For Kurt Cobain. Both go into great detail from the position of a murder conspiracy implicating Courtney Love and at least one other accomplice who committed the crime. There are also several movies and books on the subject (Who Killed Kurt Cobain?,Ā Love & Death, Kurt & Courtney,Ā Soaked In Bleach) that further explore this topic. Kurt Cobain was one of the most legendary & mythologized figures of the 20th century as well as one of the greatest artists & musicians who ever lived, so naturally, his untimely, unnatural death was bound to cause quite a stir. As for my personal stance on his cause of death...I prefer to keep my beliefs to myself and stay neutral until some definitive evidence surfaces. Besides, people speaking out on this topic have a long history of not turning out well.
