Was Kurt Cobain Murdered?
by Vinni
From Rock N' Roll Reporter

Los Angeles based Private Investigator Tom Grant was originally hired by Courtney Love to investigate the disappearance of her husband, Nirvana leader Kurt Cobain. Cobain had checked out of a Los Angeles substance abuse treatment center and had not been heard from.
It was not long after when the father of Grunge rock was found dead of an apparent suicide- or was it? Tom Grant doesn t think so. Although no evidence has yet come to light implicating anyone as the murderer, Grant believes inconsistancies in the investigation done by the Seattle Police Department warrant the re-opening of the case. He goes even futher, offering the suggestion that Courtney Love is somehow involved in a conspiracy to keep the truth from the public. In fact, according to Grant, Courtney Love may have actively participated in the murder of her husband.

Motive
Kurt Cobain had come to the conclusion that the record business was swallowing him up. He no longer felt joy at the prospect of playing his music- at least at a professional level. He wanted out but he knew it would not be easy. For starters, he was one third of a band that had the potential to make millions upon millions of dollars for those whose livlihood depends on commercial success in music. He was offered- and was prepared to turn down- the headliner slot at Lollpalooza. That one tour was reportedly worth $9.2 million to Nirvana. That s a lot of money and it is no secret that Courtney Love wanted Kurt to take the deal, telling him she would be damned if she was going to let him miss out on that kind of money. After all, he had Frances Bean, his new daughter, to think about.
And therein was the crux of the matter. Kurt Cobain was no more ready for parenthood than he was for sudden stardom and he knew it. He was also no longer interested in staying with Courtney. Evidence suggests both he and Courtney had sought the advice of an Attorney in the matter of divorce, suggesting a further motive for Courtney Love; she had signed a pre-nuptiual agreement. A divorce would probably mean a long court fight and a smaller return on her investment. A suicide on the other hand, before any divorce preceedings could take place, would leave her in control of everything. And it would have to occur before the public got wind of a potential split. Of all those who profited from the career of Kurt Cobain, Courtney Love is the one who had the most to gain from his death. Not only would his death leave her in control of his finances, it would generate a great deal of press for her at a time when her band was about to release a new CD. That may seem cold but murder is the coldest act of all. After all, the record companies, management, etc., would make far more money off a living Cobain in the long run. Several people who know Courtney Love personally have said they believe she is capable of such an act.

State of Mind
Was Kurt Cobain suicidal? Although he was certainly burnt out on the music business, and not too happy about his personal life, there is no real evidence to suggest he was ever contemplating killing himself. Remember the overdose incident in Rome? It was only after Cobain s death that it was referred to as a suicide attempt. An idea promoted by Love, even though the doctor in Rome who treated Cobain said he saw nothing to suggest Cobain was suicidal. Dr. Galleta said, The last image I have of him, which in light of the tragedy now seems pathetic, is of a young man playing with the little girl. He did not seem like a young man who wanted to end it all. Of course there is the note.
We have reprinted the text of the note found at the scene so you can decide for yourself if it sounds like it was written by someone who was about to kill themselves. Read it for what it is, not what you ve been told to think it is.
One must remember that Cobain was a heroin addict so his state of mind was questionable but think about it: heroin addicts never commit suicide- especially rich ones who can afford their habit. They prefer the slow death of addiction and are always thinking of their next fix.
Besides, death would interfere with getting high. They are very selfish when it comes to drugs. If a heroin addict dies, it is usually from an overdose. And wouldn t that have been just as easy? A mega-blast from the old hypo and then the big sleep.
Evidence suggests Cobain was actually planning to go East and stay with some friends- a sort of cooling off period. He knew the media would go wild when he announced his early retirement. Do suicidal people plan vacations?

What About The Gun?
Cobain had bought the shotgun found at the scene prior to checking in to the rehab center. He told his best friend he wanted to have some protection at home. Certainly a celebrity of his status had sercurity concerns but the strange part is how the story leaked that he bought the shotgun after leaving the rehab center, lending creedence to the suicide story. Someone who is heading off to rehab is far from suicidal. They are in fact attempting to reclaim their life when they enter rehab. Perhaps Kurt was depressed at having left rehab without a successful conclusion but there is no reference to his drug habit in the note so one must conclude that it didn t bother him, at least not enough to kill himself over it. Besides, he bought the gun before going into rehab- was he planning to fail, go home and kill himself? An elaborate bit of planning for a guy who Courtney Love once described as being unable to hail a cab by himself. Something else that is strange about the gun: There were no legible fingerprints! The Fingerprint Analysis Report for the shotgun reads: The above item was processed for prints on 05/06/94 by Sr. ID Technician T. Geranimo, #4466. Four cards of latent prints were lifted. The four cards of lifted latent prints contain no legible prints. How could someone, in this case Cobain, handle a gun on more than one occassion without leaving any fingerprints at all?

The Scene
Again, inconsistancies abound in police reports. The report says the door to the greenhouse room (above a garage) where Cobain s body was found was locked from the inside, but the report did not mention that the lock was a simple push/twist type lock that could easily have been locked and closed by someone leaving the room. Original reports, later proved incorrect, had a small stool wedged against the door.
The stool was in fact sitting on the other side of the room, nowhere near the locked entry. When Grant requested photos of the scene, he was told by S.P.D. that there were none. He was told that the only film of the scene would probably never be developed. It was later discovered that there were in fact 23 polaroids taken besides the undeveloped film that the police could have shown Grant. Although police and P.I.s seldom get along well, it seems like the police would want to affirm their conclusions and end any controversy.

More Clues
Although there are several other points of contention between Grant and police, these above mentioned points were the ones that I found to be of the most interest. I did not want this article to get bogged down with too much information but there are a couple of other points to be raised, the first being the seeming addition of a line to the note. Handwriting analysts seem to be divided as to whether or not the last line of the note - which will be so much happier without me - was written by someone other than Cobain. If it was added by someone else, that would certainly be conclusive in proving there was foul play as the line definitely added weight to the suicide note theory. People will decide for themselves whether or not it fits in with the feel of the rest of the note. Even if Cobain did write the line, it may have simply meant that he felt that he was not a good influence on his child- who he obviously loved and was concerned for. Certainly killing himself would not be a real good influence on his daughter.

For The Record
The Seattle Police Department spokesperson basically told me that they would re-open the case if any evidence came to light that warranted it but that to date, no such evidence exists. They would not go into specifics.
I spoke with Dr. Hartshaun, the Medical Examiner who investigated the scene. He stated with great certainty that, everything about the scene was completely consistent with a suicide. And he went on to say that although he supports Tom Grant s right to continue investigating the matter, he feels that Mr. Grant is waiting his time, and is perhaps motivated by potential personal gain, a point that others have raised and a question I felt I must ask Mr. Grant. This is what he has to say; "Yes, there have been several financial opportunities, all of which I ve turned down in order to keep my credibility intact. If, in fact, my profile has been raised here, it certainly has not affected other areas of my business. Believe it or not, I haven t gotten one single case from anyone who was aware of my involvement in the Cobain investigation. You may have noticed I don t advertise my business on the Internet and I don t do anything to promote my business on the Cobain Investigation web site.
The fact is, there have been very few paying cases lately. I m struggling just to keep the phones connected. I m very busy with projects I m working on in relation to the Cobain case, but there s not much cash flow right now. Financial hardship was anticipated from the beginning.
I ve always been a horrible businessman because I m not a money-oriented person. I m used to financial struggles. I ll deal with it. It won t effect the outcome of the work I m doing. I m far from perfect, but I ve tried to maintain some integrity here so that what I have to say will be taken seriously. I can t help but be amused when skeptics accuse ME of profiting from Cobain s death, while the person who exploits and profits the most, literally making millions off the murder of her husband, is simply accepted as a victim by a somewhat naive public."

And Courtney says...
After an intitial outburst from Courtney Love (including taking out full page ads in several newspapers threatening to sue anyone who wrote about this investigation), she and her lawyers have been silent. Grant says he believes her silence is due to her reluctance to appear on a witness stand. Of course, it is just as conceivable that Love is innocent of any wrongdoing and is simply not concerned about Grant s accusations, preferring to let him say whatever he likes. (Remember, Love was in Los Angeles when Cobain died and beyond rumors and the words of questionable sources, there is absolutely no hard evidence to link Love to the death.) And to be fair to Love, if she did have nothing to do with this death, it is unfair to not allow her grief to be silent.
That said, there are some very obvious inconsistencies in the facts of this case that perhaps merit the re-opening of the case.
Perhaps we re all just contributing to Oliver Stone s next movie...