When one thing unhealthy occurs, our pure response is to ask why. It’s additionally pure to search for one thing or somebody guilty for this misfortune. And this could typically lead us into the world of conspiracies.
I used to be on the air on Friday, April 8, 1994. In the pre-internet, pre-social media period, radio was how everybody stored up with information in actual time. The afternoon went like this.
alancross · Kurt Cobain’s Death: Minute-by-minute bulletins from April 8, 1994
For the primary few weeks, there was no query Kurt had died by suicide. But little by little, doubts started to creep in. Eventually, there was a full-blown Kurt-was-murdered narrative that prolonged to speak exhibits, books, and documentaries. There are nonetheless those that imagine that Kurt couldn’t have taken his personal life and can level to an infinite checklist of inconsistencies within the official story together with “evidence” that exhibits nefarious actions by shady individuals.
Stop it. Just … cease.
Having adopted this story from the very starting — and having spoken to individuals closest to Kurt many occasions over time — I’m satisfied that he did actually kill himself. Let’s deconstruct the conspiracy theorists’ proof. Yes, there are some unfastened ends, however life isn’t like a 44-minute episode of CSI. On the entire, although, the rational conclusion is inescapable.
1. Kurt was killed as a result of he was threatening to interrupt up Nirvana
THEORY: Tom Grant, a detective employed by Courtney Love to seek out Kurt when he bolted from rehab — and a significant proponent of a homicide angle — claims that Kurt was prepared to interrupt up Nirvana and be part of Courtney in Hole. This is a quote from an interview Kurt gave to a French TV journalist in August 1993:
“It’s a nice thought (collaborations with Courtney). I’d like to, but to tell you the truth, I would rather just quit my band and join Hole, you know, only because when I have played music with them, there’s a level of connection that’s a little bit higher than with anyone else I ever played with. It’s amazing,” he stated.
“It’s totally satisfying for Courtney and me, but completely unrealistic because we’re already so intertwined with each other,” he continued.
“Most people don’t think of the band Nirvana, they think of Kurt and Courtney, and it gets in the way. People would just overlook the music and look into other things. It’s such a sad situation. I wish we could just join bands … (but) it wouldn’t be considered a real band.”
REALITY: The insinuation is that as a result of Kurt was going to kill off Nirvana, then he wanted to be killed off, too. This is apparent foolish. Calling an finish to Nirvana may annoy his bandmates, his administration, and his document label, however bands break up on a regular basis. Nirvana had been in a precarious state of affairs for years, so the thought of every little thing exploding at any second was a lifestyle for everybody.
The concept of an artist eager to make music with their important different isn’t uncommon, both. Hello, John and Yoko. Hello, Paul and Linda.
Breaking up the band so he might work with Courtney? I might see it. But as a motive for murdering some of the well-known rock stars on the planet on the time? Hardly.
2. The divorce risk
THEORY: It’s no secret that Kurt and Courtney had a tumultuous relationship. There have been home disputes requiring police visits, their drug use, and anecdotes concerning the couple from individuals who knew them. Courtney was reportedly indignant that Kurt had refused an invite for Nirvana to headline the 1994 Lollapalooza Festival.
There is a few veracity to all this. In January 1994, Kurt informed Rolling Stone that he and Courtney have been considering a break up with each contacting attorneys about drawing up the mandatory paperwork. There was additionally discuss of adjusting wills and pre-nups. And was Kurt having an affair with an unnamed lady?
REALITY: Look, each Kurt and Courtney had large personalities. Put them in a relationship collectively, add in numerous cash and loads of medicine, and you’ve got a recipe for drama and catastrophe. Things shall be stated within the warmth of the second. And sure, generally issues escalate to disagreeable ranges. But turning to homicide? And on the time when Kurt is considering to interrupt up Nirvana and be part of Courtney in Hole?
Breaking information from Canada and all over the world
despatched to your e-mail, because it occurs.
And let’s not overlook {that a} month earlier than his demise — and hours earlier than his suicide try in a Rome lodge room — Kurt had gone out and acquired Courtney every kind of pricey items. (He additionally stole some candlesticks from The Vatican for her). And about that suicide try: If Courtney actually wished Kurt lifeless, why didn’t she simply let him die when he took all these tablets in Rome?
3. The unknown enemies
THEORY: In the months main as much as his demise, Kurt gave the impression to be very afraid of somebody or one thing. It may need been the medicine inflicting paranoia, however the worry was actual. Kurt had a stockpile of weapons and ammo in the home. A brand new safety system was being put in on the home on the time of his demise.
Theorists imagine that somebody wished retribution for Kurt turning down Lollapalooza. And why have been three shells loaded into the Remington shotgun that Kurt used? Did Kurt load the gun or did another person?
REALITY: Kurt did cling round with some shady drug individuals, all of whom knew he was a heavy person with some huge cash. Everyone in Seattle knew the place he lived, too. Having weapons for cover? Not a shock.
The presence of additional shells within the gun has been introduced as proof that one thing was fishy. I’d theorize that as a result of Kurt was extraordinarily excessive on the finish, he wasn’t precisely in the most effective mind-set. Maybe the gun had been loaded a lot earlier. Anything on the contrary is pure hypothesis.
4. The bank card
THEORY: Kurt used a MasterCard to guide his ultimate aircraft experience residence from Los Angeles to Seattle. Around the identical time, Courtney, who knew Kurt had gone lacking, had his card cancelled. Yet somebody stored attempting to make use of the cardboard to get money advances. There was an try and get $5,000 on April 4 over the telephone with a name to MasterCard. There was one other request for $2,500 after Kurt died. And there was a ultimate try and safe $1,000 shortly after that. And then on the morning of April 8, the day Kurt’s physique was found, somebody tried to make use of the cardboard to by $43.29 price of flowers.
Who was doing this? Unknown. But it should have been the assassin who stole Kurt’s bank card, proper?
REALITY: There’s no proof that it was Kurt attempting to get the money advances. Remember, these have been requests remodeled the telephone and have been all declined, in all probability as a result of whoever was calling didn’t have the appropriate PINs or safety data. Maybe Kurt misplaced his card. Maybe he gave it away to a drug buddy. And I’ll guess that whoever tried to purchase the flowers on the day Kurt died was seeking to lay them someplace in tribute to him. This is a unfastened finish however by no means does it level to homicide.
5. The suicide notice
THEORY: Why the distinction within the handwriting all through Kurt’s suicide notice? Why using completely different colored ink? Based on his examination of the notice, detective Tom Grant believes Kurt didn’t write the entire thing (two handwriting analysts apparently agreed). To him, the notice seemed like a press release of retirement, not a ultimate notice to the world. Why no point out of Frances, Kurt’s daughter? Why no correct signature? The notice ends with “Kurt” spelled out in small letters.
And what about an alleged second notice? There’s a narrative that Courtney discovered one other notice months later in a sealed enveloped in her bed room that apparently detailed how Kurt was going to depart each her and Seattle. More grist for the homicide mill?
REALITY: This is admittedly one other unfastened finish, however Kurt was hardly in a very good place on April 5, 1994. He could have already been fairly excessive when he wrote the notice. Kurt was a visible artist in addition to a musician, so the completely different colored ink could be a part of that. Maybe in his altered state he simply wished the notice to look fairly.
As for the second notice, its existence has by no means been verified.
6. The toxicology report
THEORY: In brief, conspiracists imagine that Kurt injected a lot heroin into his system that there was no means he would have been capable of goal the gun and pull the set off. They level to the toxicology report —which was solely partially launched on the time however leaked with somewhat extra element in 2024 — which indicated Kurt had loads of medicine in his system together with diazepam (used for treating nervousness and alcohol withdrawal), codeine (a gentle opioid painkiller), nordiazepam (a muscle relaxant and anticonvulsant), and 1.52 milligrams of morphine per litre of blood. That’s a lot. (Heroin turns into morphine as soon as injected.)
How might Kurt have that many medicine in his system and nonetheless handle to neatly pack up his syringe equipment, goal the gun, and fireplace. Impossible! Someone should have both (a) helped or (b) did all this to Kurt. Murder!
“It’s highly unlikely that he would shoot himself up in both arms, put the needle away in his little kit, and then have the mental capacity to sit there and manipulate this shotgun and shoot himself,” Tom Grant informed High Times journal. “If he wasn’t unconscious, he was at least to the point where he wasn’t aware of what was going on. Anyone could have done anything to him.”
Oh, and Grant believes that the notorious picture of Kurt’s head is a faux, a inventory post-mortem picture of somebody who had an unlucky encounter with a lawnmower.
REALITY: There aren’t as many unfastened ends right here because it seems. First, Kurt was an skilled junkie with a particularly excessive tolerance for heroin, giving him simply sufficient time to finish all the mandatory duties after he injected his final dose. Perhaps he injected himself in levels, in search of the appropriate stage of euphoria to perform what got here subsequent.
More doubtless, although, is that the outcomes of the toxicology take a look at have been misinterpreted and brought out of context.
If you learn that quantity — 1.52 milligrams of morphine/litre — a technique, it seems that Kurt had almost 12 occasions the deadly stage of morphine in his blood on the time of his demise. But we’re unsure if this quantity represents “free morphine count” or “total morphine count” — and there’s an enormous distinction.
A free morphine rely measures the quantity of medicine injected right into a physique at a particular second. A complete morphine rely measures traces of the drug over an extended time frame. As a long-time common heroin person, it’s extremely doubtless that the toxicology report features a quantity that describes the cumulative buildup of medicine in Kurt’s system over weeks and months, not hours. (See this text from the National Library of Medicine. This article additionally appears on the potential discrepancies.)
In a case like Kurt, a recognized longtime drug person, it’s extra widespread for a medical expert to go together with the entire morphine rely take a look at, which is cheaper, sooner, and doesn’t require the identical specialised tools as measuring a free morphine rely. Was Kurt’s final injection deadly and rendered him incapable of taking pictures himself? Based on the toxicology methodology and outcomes, no.
7. The crime scene
THEORY: No clear fingerprints on the shotgun? Someone should have wiped it clear. Who? The assassin, in fact. Who had barricaded the door of the greenhouse? Why didn’t Kurt simply give himself a deadly overdose and never hassle with the entire messy gun factor? Who organized the physique simply so and maybe even combed Kurt’s hair after he died?
The forensics report reads like this: “The 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.”
REALITY: I can think about Kurt’s palms being sort of sweaty in these final seconds, can’t you? In April 2014, Mike Ciesynksi, a retired 20-year vet of the Seattle PD with loads of chilly case expertise, opened the Cobain file. He dove deep into the case and went by way of 35 mm movie that was shot of the crime scene. This helped him reconstruct how the gun was fired. Consulting with a firearms professional, it was decided that there was nothing bizarre about the place the spent shell landed, the place of the gun associated to the physique, or the physique itself. His conclusion: “The investigation on the death of Kurt Cobain, which was conducted 20 years ago, reached the correct conclusion that the manner of death was [suicide].”
In 2021, the FBI made their Cobain case file public. It was all of 10 pages lengthy and contained completely nothing new aside from two extremely redacted letters from a few followers asking them to look into Cobain’s demise.
8. The El Duce allegations
THEORY: Eldon Hoke was the frontman of a noxiously obscene group known as the Mentors, buying and selling underneath the title El Duce. He claimed that Courtney Love provided him $50,000 to kill her husband throughout a dialog exterior an Los Angeles document store. “Off the old man before he files for divorce,” was the plan. Before El Duce may very well be formally commissioned, Kurt was lifeless. The implication is that Courtney discovered another person to do the job.
REALITY: If you realize something about El Duce and The Mentors, I’d name Eldon Hoke an unreliable narrator. Yes, he took a lie detector take a look at on nationwide TV and handed, however that’s not admissible in courtroom. We’ll by no means get to grill El Duce any additional on the matter as a result of he was decapitated when he was hit by a practice on April 18, 1997. He was very drunk strolling residence from a gig.
There are a number of extra conspiracy angles, however I’ve coated all of the essential ones.
Finally, think about this. Dave Grohl believes Kurt killed himself. Krist Novoselic believes Kurt killed himself. So does Kurt’s mom and father. So do two of Kurt’s former managers and I’ve spoken to them instantly. And having hung out private time with Courtney, I don’t imagine any of the allegations in opposition to her. You could disagree, which is your proper. But you’re mistaken for those who assume Kurt’s demise was something however a depressed, determined, drugged-up younger man taking his personal life.
Life is messy and demise may be even messier. But as a result of we’ve got this pathological characteristic of the unknown, we’re at all times going to search for any rationalization that may quiet our minds. In the case of Kurt Cobain, we’ve got our solutions.
—
Alan Cross is a broadcaster with Q107 and 102.1 the Edge and a commentator for Global News.
Subscribe to Alan’s Ongoing History of New Music Podcast now on Apple Podcast or Google Play
