At Eastertime, 1994, Kurt Cobain was found in a storage room, a gunshot hole in his head, a heroin hypodermic hole in each arm.
Suicide or murder?
After 16 years of heated argument, authorities and amateur sleuths are no less divided on the question.
Supporters of the Seattle Police Department’s suicide ruling include Cobain biographers, Charles R. Cross and Christopher Sandford, as well as journalists Charles Rawlins, Bradley Spears, and many others. Supporters of a murder conspiracy include biographers Max Wallace and Ian Halperin, as well as Courtney Love’s private detective, Tom Grant, her father, Hank Harrison, journalists Richard Lee, Roger Lewis, and many others.
Let’s look at the major issues between these two camps.
With 1.52 ml of heroin in his system – said to be three times the amount for a fatal overdose -- murder proponents insist “dead men do not pull triggers.” But suicide advocates challenge the magnitude of the dose, make a distinction between free and metabolized morphine, and assert that a hardcore addict could indeed maintain consciousness and pull a trigger.
The second bone of evidentiary contention is the note left behind. Suicide supporters claim that it was a suicide note. Murder conspiracy theorists, however, believe it was Cobain’s letter of retirement from Nirvana and an apology to his fans. Furthermore, they say it was forged in part, a claim supported by a prominent handwriting expert (though not by all those consulted).
A third issue: police found no legible fingerprints on the .20 gauge shotgun, or on the pen with the note. The murder camp concludes that they were wiped down by an assassin. Their opponents assert that such “latent” unreadable prints are commonplace and innocuous.
Next, the issue of “Cadaveric Spasm.” Cobain’s hands were reportedly locked around the gun barrel. The Seattle medical examiner called this an unmistakable sign of suicide. Other coroners disagree, suggesting an assassin may have gripped his own hand around Cobain’s and pulled the trigger.
Then, there was Elton Hoke, who claimed that Courtney Love offered him $50,000 to kill her husband. Suicide advocates dismiss the LA punk rocker as an alcoholic bottomfeeder hungry for attention. How was it then, demand conspiracy theorists, that he scored 99% on a polygraph test (which Ms. Love allegedly refused to take), and that, after making his claim, he was run over by a train?
Finally: was Cobain indeed suicidal? He declared that he had “suicide genes,” he posed for photos with guns in his mouth, and he had wanted to call his last album “I Hate Myself and I Want to Die.” But the conspiracy camp quotes the many who insist the star was not at all suicidal: his closest friends, his Rome doctor, his managers, and his attorney, Rosemary Carroll.
Both factions agree Cobain’s marriage was in trouble. Conspiracy theorists claim that Kurt was filing for divorce and writing Courtney out of his will, thus giving her motive for murder. Had he lived, she would have been a disinherited, disgraced divorcee; as a widow, she inherited the entirety of his estate plus future earnings ($20 to $30 million annually) and bolstered her own career.
