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HOME :: ESSAYS :: Was The Death of Kurt Cobain SUICIDE OR MURDER?
Was the Death of Kurt Cobain
SUICIDE or MURDER?
By Windy Stewart

       The late Kurt Cobain was the front man, and founder of, what is seen by many to be one of the most influential bands in music history, ‘Nirvana’. Cobain’s death, contrary to the popular belief of suicide, is clouded by many questionable circumstances suggesting that he was conspired against, and probably killed. The individual who has collected the majority of this information is Private Investigator Tom Grant. He has continued to inform the public over the years since Cobain’s death, causing many to believe this case is deserving of a second evaluation by authorities. Grant has since been pushing for the case to be re-opened.

       Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain met in Portland, Oregon, 1990, but they did not start seeing each other exclusively until May of 1991. “We bonded over pharmaceuticals,” Courtney later told Hot Press. Kurt would recall, “she [Courtney] had a completely planned way of seducing me and it worked.” “She was really into sex and she pleased me that night like no other woman had in a while.” (Halprin/Wallace 1999; p.61) Judging from many sources, the beginning of their relationship was based on sex and drugs. The couple separated for a few months because Kurt said he was confused. He told her he needed space to concentrate on making the “Nevermind” album. “I was just getting out of another relationship that I didn’t even want to be in, and I found Courtney was becoming too possessive.(Halprin/Wallace 1999)

“[I noticed that] Courtney would encourage Kurt to do heroin,” said Dylan Carlson, Kurt’s best friend. “Actually, she is very smart. She knew that the more drugs Kurt did, the less chance that he’d be in a state to get up and leave her.” “[After the performance on SNL], Kurt nearly collapsed, and his bandmates were concerned because they had never seen him in this bad a state,” says Carlson. “It was at this point that they realized that Courtney was the one who was responsible.” It was around this time that Courtney found out she was pregnant, and she was more than anxious to tell him. Hank Harrison, Courtney’s father, said, “This was what gave her the security she wanted with Kurt. She knew it would only be a matter of time before he left her, so she needed something to put a stranglehold on him.” At first, Kurt did not believe her because she had joked about it in the past, but once it was in fact confirmed, he proposed marriage. They were married on February 24th, 1992, in Waikiki, Hawaii. Eventually, Cobain had told friends that he wanted to leave her. They were not getting along, and there was talk of divorce. Many saw him as trapped, which was mentioned by him to their own entertainment lawyer, Rosemary Carroll. Carroll even expressed doubts about Kurt’s death during recorded conversations with Grant. Divorce would not work out in Love’s favor considering the pre-nuptial agreement they both signed, prior to getting married.

Her demands of him started to get very heavy. She wanted him to sign a 9.5 million dollar contract to headline the ‘Lollapalooza’ tour. Kurt had told her many times that he did not want to perform anymore, and ultimately wanted out of the music business altogether. This, among other things, made Courtney very angry. This may be around the time when she started to conspire his murder, and her media- manipulation campaign to cement the idea that Kurt was suicidal. She understood that media intervention on her part would make his murder much easier to cover- up, and be a diversion. Since Love is a relentless businesswoman, she was able to persuade others to go along with it because they would profit more from Cobain’s earnings if he were dead, rather than alive.

Courtney Love hired Grant on April 3rd, 1994. She claimed that her husband was missing, but on April 1st, after Cobain left Exodus Rehabilitation Center (in Los Angeles), he called to leave a message at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills, where she was staying. The message on the hotel log reads, “Elizabeth’s phone number is (213)_______.” Why would she consider him missing when he left contact information to find him? Love never mentions this message to the media, or anyone else. She also called the rehab 13 times that day, but later told Grant that she only spoke with him once.

Tom Grant began his crime- fighting career in 1969, at the age of 22. He joined the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and stayed on for seven years. During that time, his above average investigative skills attracted enough attention to be hand- selected for an elite ‘Specialized Crime Activity Team (S.C.A.T) (Halprin/Wallace, 1998; p.109). He later obtained his Private Investigator’s license and opened his own firm in Beverly Hills, Ca., where he specialized in criminal investigations (cobaincase.com). Grant’s client list includes some of Hollywood’s biggest names.

       While working for Love, Grant has come to believe that she is the main conspirator behind her husband’s death, with Michael ‘Cali’ Dewitt (male nanny for the child of the Cobain’s, who is also her best friend) as the co- conspirator.

       On March 30th, 1994, Kurt and his best friend Dylan Carlson purchased a shotgun. Kurt told Dylan that he feared for his life, mainly due to his desire to walk out on the contract with ‘Lollapalooza’. This business decision would cause many executives within the music industry to lose a great deal of money. Kurt may have been intimidated into believing his life would be in danger if he failed to do the tour (cobaincase.com).

       After leaving Los Angeles, Kurt arrived in Seattle early Saturday morning, April 2nd, and was taken to his Lake Washington home from the airport by a hired driver. That same night, in Los Angeles, Courtney had a friend (that she paid) plant a phony story with the Associated Press that she had overdosed on drugs (not true) and was in the hospital. Why would she plant a story like this about herself? She had several plans going simultaneously, and one of them was to make it appear to be a ‘suicide pact’, like the famous punk- rock couple, Sid and Nancy.

       When Courtney initially called Grant on April 3rd, she also wanted him to track Kurt’s credit card because it had been stolen. This appears, to me, to be some sort of diversion, to send him on a wild goose chase and keep him away from Kurt. It seems she only hired Grant in the first place to make herself look concerned to her public, because she knew of his whereabouts the whole time! Her best friend/nanny had even told her that he saw and spoke with Kurt that same Saturday morning, after Kurt arrived from LA! This is one of the reasons he is the other suspect. He was the last person to see Kurt. Even after Courtney was told exactly where Kurt was, she never told Grant to check the Lake Washington home. She had him stake out a local drug dealer’s apartment, which was a huge waste of precious time.

       Courtney continued her legal- friendly paper trail by filing a missing persons report, pretending to be Kurt’s mother, Wendy O’Connor. After that, she told Grant that Kurt is suicidal. “Everyone thinks he’s going to die.”

       Kurt arrived at Sea-Tac airport at 12:47, April 2nd, 1994, where he was seen signing autographs. After leaving, he mentioned to his driver that he feared for his life. He spoke briefly with DeWitt at the Lake Washington property, shortly following his arrival. That would be the last time anyone saw or heard from him.

       Tuesday, April 5th, Courtney makes a call to a Seattle electrician to check on the home’s security system. She made a specific request for him to check the “greenhouse”, a large storage room above the garage, where the contractor found Kurt’s dead body. Many people, including Grant, say that she did this to get his body discovered. Courtney has a very close relationship with many powerful members of the Seattle Police Department, so when they arrived at the scene, they went into it biased. They turned away the homicide investigation team, and admitted that they were only doing paperwork “for show”.

       The information gathered by Tom Grant is compelling. This is an injustice overlooked and tossed aside because of possible financial gain and dirty politics within the music industry. This also is one of the elements that influenced the mishandling of the investigation by the Seattle Police Department.

Bibliography and special thanks:

  • “Who Killed Kurt Cobain?” by Ian Halprin and Max Wallace

  • justiceforkurt.com

  • cobaincase.com
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