Who Killed Kurt Cobain? Essay, Research Paper

Often the truth forces us to confront what we would rather not know. It is especially difficult when it regards those we admire. Kurt Cobain was one of the most powerful voices of a generation and many questions surround his tragic death. I, too, believed the suicide theory for the last five years, until I watched the movie Kurt and Courtney, a documentary by Nick Broomfield, and did some investigating on the web. This brought to light of several facts that turned my thoughts around one hundred and eighty degrees. Kurt Cobain did not commit suicide he was murdered.

Kurt Cobain was one of the most powerful voices of a generation, my generation. A generation that recited the Pledge of Allegiance everyday in public school; ?with justice for all?, even if the person is a heroin junky who didn?t wash his hair and often goofed on authority figures. But just because most people over thirty think that Kurt was the scum of the earth this tragedy has been ignored. At the time of Kurt?s death, Rush Limbaugh called him ?a worthless shred of human debris.? Unfortunately, he was probably speaking for more than just himself.

The suicide theory makes perfect sense on the surface. Kurt?s band Nirvanas? anguished music was full of suicide references. One month earlier than his suicide, Kurt overdosed on Rohypnol (a powerful sedative) and champagne. Many people thought this was an attempt to end his life; even though only Courtney Love characterized him as suicidal. Was he trying to quit his life or just his marriage and band?

Every murder needs a motive, and Kurt?s wife Courtney Love had plenty. Kurt had just turned down nine and a half million dollars to head the Lollapalooza Tour. Courtney openly and publicly disagreed with Kurt; insisting he do the tour and take the money. Before his death Cobain asked Rosemary Carroll, the Cobains? entertainment attorney, to start drawing up divorce papers and to remove Love from his will. Love heard this and wanted ?the meanest, most vicious divorce lawyer [Carroll could] find.? At that time Cobain was worth about thirty million dollars, but they had a pre-nuptial agreement and Love wouldn?t have gotten more than one million plus child support. But he died and instead she got all of his money along with a launching pad for her own career, which before Kurt was non-existent.

Tom Grant is a private investigator who was hired by Courtney Love on Sunday, April 3, 1994 to locate Kurt. His investigations and findings have been put on a web site, which I visited, and it provided some convincing evidence. Courtney wanted Grant to find who was using a missing credit card that was in her husband?s name. On April 1 Kurt had checked out of a drug rehab in Los Angeles. April 2 he was in his house in Seattle. April 4 Courtney filed a false missing person?s report pretending to be Wendy O?Conner, Kurt?s mother. The report reads, ?Mr. Cobain ran away from the California facility and flew back to Seattle. He also bought a shotgun and may be suicidal.? This sounds like he just bought the shotgun, but actually Kurt with his best friend purchased it for safety reasons on March 30. His friend Dylan Carlson said Kurt was nervous about intruders in his home, and he bought the shotgun for this purpose for when he got out of rehab. The report also fails to mention he was seen in his Seattle house on the second. At this point the credit card was still being used. Grant flew to Seattle to find Kurt on the sixth, while Courtney said she had business and had to stay in Los Angeles. Grant met up with Dylan Carlson Wednesday April 6 to try and find Kurt. That day was spent looking for Kurt at all of his hangouts. Around two fifteen a.m. Thursday morning they arrived at the Cobains? Seattle house. Dylan went to the house and came back five minutes later saying no one was home. Grant then wondered why did it take so long? They then called Courtney from a pay phone and had her turn off the alarm to the house. They searched the entire house, except for the greenhouse above the garage, which Carlson failed to mention existed. Courtney that night called 911 from her hotel room, reportedly overdosing on drugs. She was later arrested. Grant and Carlson returned to the Seattle house around ten in the evening on Thursday. The house was still empty and no signs of Kurt. The next morning Friday April 8, 1994, Kurt?s body was found in the greenhouse with a shotgun wound to the head. According to the credit card company someone was still using the card up until hours before Kurt was found, but we now know that he was dead for two days at this point.

Cobain was found with intravenous puncture marks in both arms and three times the lethal dose of morphine (1.52 mg/L; heroin turns into morphine when it enters the system) in combination with Valium in his blood, yet was found with his shirt sleeves rolled down and buttoned and his needle and heroin neatly put away in his cigar box about three feet to his right. With such a dose of drugs it is amazing that he had the mental clarity and coordination to roll down and button his sleeves, put his heroin away, and then pick up and place a twenty gauge semi-automatic shotgun in his mouth and discharge it. There were no fingerprints on the shotgun found with Kurt, nor on the pen found with the suicide note, or the box of shotgun shells found beside Kurt.

I have read the ?suicide? note. One line says ?I have it good?, not had, but have, implying he wasn?t suicidal. He does not once write that he wants to kill himself just that he doesn?t want to make music anymore. The last four lines allude to suicide, they say ?Please keep going Courtney,

For Francis,

For her life will be so much happier

without me. I LOVE YOU. I LOVE YOU.?

That sounds pretty suicidal, but these lines are written so much larger than the rest of the note it doesn?t even seem to match. When the note was give to two independent, professional handwriting analysts, they both determined that the writing was not Kurt?s.

Even if it is all Kurt?s writing, it still seems as though it is a retirement letter and not a suicide note.

The conclusion that I draw from all of this is that he was murdered. Courtney Love is a pathological liar who would stop at nothing to help her own career, even if it meant taking her husbands life. I?m not sure why this hasn?t been looked into further it seems obvious Kurt didn?t kill himself. This case should be reopened and further investigated. The truth over time will prevail.