The Suspicious Demise of Kurt Cobain

Before I get started, I just want to make it clear that I was not in Cobain's greenhouse on April 5th, 1994-- the purported date of his 'suicide' (shocking, right?). He may have killed himself, he may have not. The fact of the matter is that this topic is highly speculative, and people will never truly know what happened to the man who was hailed as the spokesperson of a generation. In other words, it is unreasonable to say that he definitely died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, just like it isn't reasonable to allege that his death was unequivocally precipitated by foul play. Since we didn't witness Cobain's death, we can only hypothesize...

It is no secret that Cobain was a troubled person. He used heroin, suffered from mood disorders and even attempted suicide as a teen. Knowing his tumultuous past, not many people were surprised when they learned of his death. Just one day after the discovery of his corpse, the coroner attributed his passing to a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Mind you, the doctor made that declaration prior to viewing toxicology reports. Police Officers didn't bat an eye when investigating the matter; they thought it was just another depressed, drug addict who couldn't take another day on this rock we call Earth. On the surface, the crime scene was consistent with that of a suicide. A note, a shotgun, ammunition and drug paraphernalia were all recovered from the room. Cobain was found on his back, and despite popular belief, his head was not blown off, nor severely damaged. In fact, the electrician who discovered his corpse initially thought he was asleep due to the fact that he couldn't see any physical trauma when peering into the window of the greenhouse. Just like that, Cobain's death was ruled a suicide and his body was cremated shortly after..... case closed.

Despite the Seattle Police Department's ruling on the matter, countless people--including Tom Grant, a private investigator hired by Courtney Love to find Cobain-- believe that his death involved foul play. EVEN LOVE'S FATHER BELIEVES HIS DAUGHTER PLAYED A ROLE IN KURT'S 'SUICIDE'. Now one might ask: why would Courtney arrange her beloved husband's death? Money. Towards the end of Cobain's life, they became increasingly dysfunctional and he allegedly wanted to remove Courtney from his will. Some theorize that Courtney put a hit on Kurt before he could do so. While being pure conjecture, this notion does make sense, considering he had an estimated net worth of $100 million, and that according to friends and family, their relationship was at a weak point during the time period. Oh, not to mention, a man known as El Duce claimed that Love offered him $50,000 to "blow his fucking head off" and to "make it look like a suicide". Now, you might be questioning the credibility of these statements, and you have every right to do so. I found myself asking the same exact inquiry: why would anyone listen to some drunk, especially considering the magnitude of his claims? Surprisingly, El Duce passed a lie detector test, which was administered by a leading polygraph examiner (Look it up if you do not believe me). While these types of tests aren't entirely accurate/conclusive, they certainly do appear to hold water to some extent. Now if that wasn't sketchy enough, here are some other red flags that have surfaced over the years...

1. A handwriting practice sheet was found in Love's bag around the time of Kurt's death. The writing appeared to be very similar to Cobain's handwriting. Maybe she was just brushing up on her English composition skills, or perhaps preparing an elaborate plot to kill her husband in an effort to lessen the possibility of losing millions ;).

2. The 'suicide note' didn't appear to discuss the topic until the end, where the handwriting changed significantly. Up until the bottom four lines, the note seemed as if it were announcing Kurt's retirement of the music industry. He wrote that he didn't enjoy writing and playing music the way he used to, and that the manic roar of the crowd didn't effect him the way it did Freddie Mercury. Towards the end, the note gave implications that he felt suicidal, stating, "Frances and Courtney, I'll be at your altar." Not only was this sentence in entirely different handwriting, the ink was not the same type as the one used in earlier segments, and the letters were written in a way that nearly matched those found on Courtney's practice sheet. Maybe Kurt started the note one day and finished another time, which could explain the discrepancies. Nonetheless, the suicide note is very suspicious.

3. A letter which appears to be chastising Courtney was found in his wallet. It reads, "“Do you Kurt Cobain take Courtney Michelle Love to be your lawful shredded wife, even when she’s a bitch with zits and siphoning all [your] money for doping and whoring. “Will you promise to fuck her at least once a week, O.K.”Oddly enough, Love confessed that she was the one who wrote that excerpt; her motives for doing so remain to be unknown. Although the note doesn't point to Cobain being murdered, it does exemplify how odd the circumstances were. Now maybe Love had a valid reason for doing so, but from any other perspective , it seems quite odd that a note of that nature would be found on Kurt's person at the time of death.

4. Kurt had 3x the lethal dose of heroin in his blood. He was a heavy user, but medical doctors found it highly unlikely that he was able to inject the drug, put the paraphernalia back in his humidor, roll his sleeves down, and ultimately, put the barrel of a Remington shotgun against the roof of his mouth and pull the trigger. The theory is that he would have been incapacitated almost instantly after shooting up, and therefore, incapable of committing suicide. Does the fact that he had a lethal level of heroin in his system negate the authenticity of the suicide? No, it just abnormal, but abnormal does not always translate to impossible.

5. It's purported that Cobain committed suicide by holding the barrel of a shotgun in his left hand, and using his right to pull the trigger (this was done in a matter that had the side of the gun with the trigger facing away from him). From Kurt's perspective, the component of the gun which ejects shells was to his right. An alarming piece of evidence--which investigators either ignored or failed to identify-- was the shells's proximity to the site of the ejection chamber. Rather than being found on the right sight of the body, it was found to be on the left--the opposite side of the ejection chamber.
   The location of the shell is extremely dubious; however, it is not exclusively indicative of a murder, due to the fact that, we were not there during his final moments and cannot say that the shell didn't somehow bounce to the left. Again, the evidence is highly suspicious, but not conclusive to the point where one can unequivocally say that Cobain was murdered.

Whether KC was murdered or committed suicide, his death was a significant loss. We'll never know the events that led up to his demise, or the dynamic between him and Courtney. In essence, this article is pointless for that exact reason, but it does give a different perspective on what may or may not have happened on April 5th, 1994. Since there isn't a definite right answer, being that there is no forensic evidence of a suicide, I'll leave it up for you to decide: What do you think happened to Kurt Cobain?

MY TOP TEN NIRVANA SONGS

1. Pennyroyal Tea
2. Downer
3. Aneurysm
4. Drain You
5. You Know You're Right
6. Sappy
7. School
8. Come As You Are
9. Stay Away
10. Scoff