Who Killed Nirvana? Miranda Mueller

    Who killed Nirvana? On April 8, 1994, the body of Kurt Cobain was discovered by the Seattle Police Department, five days after he had been reported missing by his wife, a fellow musician, Courtney Love. The medical examiner concluded his death as a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head as well as having lethal amounts of Heroine in his bloodstream. Many fans, researchers, and even Courtney’s father all believe, have theories and evidence that Kurt did not commit suicide. Let's examine the case and the conspiracy theories of his death and the likelihood of homicide or suicide.
 

                                         Courtney Love Character Analysis: 

 Courtney Love, a young woman musician of the band Hole, had a tough life beginning at a young age. Let’s explore who Courtney Love is by looking into her background. Her parents divorced at just five years old, and she had a mother who routinely moved from the United States to New Zealand and would often leave Love behind to live with family friends or ship her back and forth when she wanted her or was tired of her presence (Kennedy 1). Drugs became a part of her life at a young age as well, after being known as a drug addict and party girl for many years “she also became the poster child for drugs and plastic surgery” (Courtney Love Biography 1). Drugs became a factor in her life at the age of four, when her own father Hank Harrison gave her LSD. And just one year later Love’s mother, Linda Caroll won custody of her after she had testified during their divorce proceedings that her husband, Love’s father had been giving their daughter drugs such as LSD (Kennedy 1). 

 After repeatedly moving in and out of New Zealand, Love and her mother made a commune their home, this is where Love lived and grew up (Biography 1). She was then entered reform school during her early teens due to shoplifting, and at the age of sixteen she became a stripper (1). Courtney did not have a safe nor respectable relationship with her birth father, but, however, she also did not have an outstanding relationship with her step-father. It was safer but not loving or normal in any way. Another quote from Love’s friend Robin Bradbury recalls and describes of the time Love’s step father gave her a toothbrush as a reward; “I don’t think she got the normal things kids got from their parents. I mean, to get so excited about a [F—cking] toothbrush” (Kennedy 1). Courtney Love had many things to hold her back in life from early childhood trauma with drugs to parental issues, making her hopeless.  

              Courtney Love was a drug addicted young girl and continued this into her adult life and her career, according to magazines, reporters, fans, and even friends of Courtney (Kennedy 1). Her friend, Robin Bradbury recalls of a time when she and Love had been visiting Love’s father, Hank Harrison. She says he gave the girls a baggie which contained the drug LSD (1). According to a reformatory report when Love was just thirteen years old, she returned from her father’s home smelling and reeking of Marijuana. She claimed her father had given the drug to her (1). Courtney has been mentioned as “Living in the land of the dead for a long time” by an old fan of Love when describing her nasty drug habit and music career in a post on Answers.com. Love’s daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, has said that her mother's drug addiction has killed two of her pets and puts others and herself at risk. Frances even went as far as to file a restraining order against her mother and gave the court a detailed deposition of the Hole rocker’s addiction with narcotics in order to have security with the court and their approval of her restraining order against her mother (NME 1).  

         Frances Bean Cobain also begun to fear for herself and her own safety after learning that her mother was the reason that her beloved dog died after it had swallowed some of Love’s sleeping pills (NME 1). The young daughter of Love also claims that her mother has been taking drugs for as long as she can remember; Frances also describes her mother as “She basically exists now on, Xanax, Adderall, Sonata and Abilify, sugar and cigarettes” (NME 1). Courtney Love’s drug habit began as a young girl, and it quickly absorbed into her adult life, career, marriage, etc. Courtney Love has a disease, known as addiction.    

The first conspiracy theory of Kurt Cobain’s death is that he committed suicide by shooting himself in the head with his 20-gauge shotgun. This theory is supported and was the verdict decided by the Seattle Police Department and forensic scientists at the scene and after the initial autopsy (Fisher 1). His body was found just four days after his wife, Courtney Love, reported him missing. His body was discovered in the living quarters/ greenhouse above his garage at his Lake Washington Boulevard East house by an VECA electrician, Gary Smith, who was there in order to install security lighting (Dower 1). Gary smith told a CBS news reporter that “there was a shotgun leaning across, pointed to his neck and there was a suicide note stuck in a potted plant that had been dumped out” (News 1). Kurt's body was found next his heroin kit, complete with syringes and other paraphernalia, which was kept in a cigar box and with his suicide note which was on top of a planter with a pen stuck through the middle of his note (Fisher 1).  He was also found with his wallet, which contained his Washington state drivers' license, a cigarette lighter, a winter hat, cigarette butts, and sunglasses were laid around and upon his heroin kit (1). 

 Kurt has been reported and said to have unsuccessfully attempted suicide before his initial death by his wife and his friends just a little over a month before his death (Conjure 1). The unsuccessful attempt of suicide by Kurt was on March 3rd & 4th, 1994, in Rome, Italy, it is also known as, The Rome Incident (1). Kurt’s wife, Courtney Love, had taken Rohypnol which is known as a “date rape drug” which caused her to fall asleep (1). When she woke up from her deep sleep, she found Kurt slumped over a table, and in his hands, there was a note and a wad of cash (1). Kurt's nose was bleeding, and he was unresponsive and passed out (1). The time that Courtney woke up to find Kurt in this state is unknown, but she had called the front desk of her hotel claiming Kurt to be unresponsive and needing an ambulance, March 4th, at 6:30 AM (1). Kurt was rushed to the hospital and later Courtney reported to the media that “Kurt’s stomach had been pumped, and the outcome was about 50 pills” (1). Kurt later recovered was released from the hospital. At the time, Courtney, Kurt, and his doctors all claimed the overdose as an accident, but Courtney now claims the incident as a failed suicide attempt (1).  

Kurt had a tough early life and his later life which consisted of his marriage and his career in the band punk rock band “Nirvana” was filled with drugs, partying, and his addiction to Heroine. An old friend of Kurt from his youth and teen years stated that “I think he was embarrassed by the fame and the trappings of fame” when asked to describe how Kurt felt about his life in the spot light (Dower 1). She believes that his fame, spotlight, money, and mental state during the peak of his career are what caused him to take his own life, in April of 1994. The father of Courtney, Hank Harrison, though has another claim and theory of what happened to Kurt and believes that Kurt was murdered (1). He has written two novels and has also stated “His suicides were fake, he wanted attention from Courtney, she was having affairs and he just wanted her to love him again” in which he elaborates in his books Kurt Cobain beyond Nirvana and Who killed Kurt (1). But, Hank’s claims of homicide have been disproved by Kurt's own suicide note, who Kurt addressed to his childhood imaginary best friend, Boddah, who only Kurt or someone who knew him in his young and early life would know who Boodah was (1).  

The second conspiracy around Kurt Cobain’s death suggests that he was murdered by his wife, Courtney Love who possibly hired a hitman. This conspiracy revolves around the fact that Kurt was planning on leaving and divorcing Courtney. If he was to divorce his wife, Courtney would lose much of her fame and fans. She would also only get half of Cobain and her assets and possessions at best and would lose much of her fortune (Little 1). Courtney’s father, Hank, states that “They were definitely going to get a divorce, that’s correct” after being asked of Courtney and Kurt's status at the time of Kurt’s death (Dower 1). Kurt had also changed his then living will, so he had removed Courtney as the beneficiary upon his death. But he never had it signed and put into effect before he had passed away. This suggests that Courtney would have the perfect motive to kill her husband before he had the chance to leave or remove his wife from his life. Courtney had reported her husband as a missing person to the Seattle Police Department on April 3rd, 1994.  She also hired a private investigator, Tom Grant, to investigate his disappearance and to find Kurt (Parco 1). This was just five days before his body was discovered in the greenhouse above his Seattle home’s garage (1). The Seattle Police Department's medical examiner after completing Kurt’s autopsy stated that he died the day was reported missing on April 3rd, 1994. His body had laid in the greenhouse for five days undiscovered.  

At the scene of Kurt’s death laid his body, a cigar box filled with heroine and other drug paraphernalia, a pile of Kurt’s belongings, and the suicide note. The Remington Model eleven, twenty-gauge shotgun, that was used to end Kurt Cobain’s life contained no fingerprints from Kurt Cobain or another person. The bullets to the shotgun also did not have fingerprints from Kurt (Little 1). This meaning that someone had to have wiped the gun and bullets. How could Kurt wipe the gun and bullets of all fingerprints after shooting and killing himself? Kurt's body had also been established and was reported as suicide before his blood toxicology report returned to the Seattle Police Department (Parco 1). Kurt’s blood contained 1.52 milligrams per liter of blood of black tar heroine, which is four times the lethal amount (Dower 1). Kurt would be physically unable to stand or move with these amounts of Heroine in his bloodstream (1). If had Kurt committed suicide how would he be able to put away all his heroine paraphernalia away in the cigar box in which he kept it, then load a and fire the shotgun into his head, initially killing himself? The now former police chief of the Seattle Police Department who was the chief at the time of Kurt’s death, Norm Stamper, now twenty-five years later says “"If we didn't get it right the first time, we damn well better get it right the second time. And I would tell you right now, if I were the chief of police, I would reopen this investigation." he believes that the Seattle Police Department should have investigated and tested other theories such as homicide which they had not previously investigated” (Conti 1). The fired shotgun shell that had ultimately taken his life was also on the wrong side of Kurt’s body (Little 1). Forensically, given the position his body was found in a way that the way he allegedly used to shoot himself, the shell casing should have been on the opposite of his body (1).  

A man named Eldon Hoke, who goes by the name El Duce, has admitted to being offered money by Courtney Love if he was to kill her husband. He claims that Courtney approached him at the Rock Shop in the last few weeks of Kurt’s life and offered him $50,000 to kill Kurt Cobain before he could divorce Courtney or change his beneficiary in his living will. (Chaos 1).  When interviewed, El Duce confessed that he had not killed Kurt himself, but that his acquaintance, Allen Wrench, had in fact killed Kurt (Dower 1). El Duce had told British Film maker, Nick Bloomfield, “Let the FBI catch him” after admitting that Allen Wrench had murdered Kurt (1). After his interview two days later, El Duce’s body had been discovered on the railroad tracks of Los Angeles after he had been mysteriously hit and killed by a train (1). El Duce was not a suspect of any kind by the Seattle Police Department when investigating Kurt’s death in the fact that the police department had concluded his death as a suicide and that El Duce was and alcohol and drug abuser and would only converse and admit to knowing who killed Kurt, when offered compensation and money for interviews and information on the Kurt’s homicide and that he had mysteriously died. El Duce had willingly complied when asked to take a polygraph test, in the chance that he was lying in order to gain more fame for his band The Mentors. El Duce passed the test with a 99.91%, meaning he was certainly telling the truth (1). 

After asking twenty-five random people “Do you believe Courtney Love was involved or behind the death of her husband Kurt Cobain?” 20% of the people believed she had not been involved, but 80% of the people when asked had in fact believed she was involved in his death. The best possible solution to Kurt Cobain’s death after analyzing and examining the evidence, would be that he was murdered by Courtney Love or that he hired someone to the job for her. 

The lead singer, song writer, and guitarist of Nirvana, Kurt Cobain, died at the early age of twenty-seven. The young twenty-seven-year-old musician’s death developed into two conspiracy theories: 

1.  Did Kurt Cobain commit suicide in the greenhouse in the greenhouse of his home? 

2. Was Kurt Cobain murdered in the greenhouse of his home? 

Although substantial evidence points to Allen Wrench as the murderer of Kurt Cobain. His death which happened twenty-five years ago remains a mystery to the family, friends, and fans of the young music
.                                                 Work Cited 

 S Azerrad, Michael. "Nirvana: Inside the Heart and Mind of Kurt Cobain." Rolling Stone, 16 Apr. 1992, www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/nirvana-inside-the-heart-and-mind-of-kurt-cobain-103770/.  

 S Chaos, Chris. "Did Courtney Love Use El Duce to Kill Kurt Cobain of Nirvana?" All Things Weird, 28 Oct. 2015, allthingsweird88.blogspot.com/2015/10/did-courtney-love-use-el-duce-to-kill.html. 

 S Cobain, Kurt. "The Actual Text." Kurt Cobain's Suicide Note, 8 Apr. 1994, https://kurtcobainssuicidenote.com/kurt_cobains_suicide_note.html 

 S Conjure, Doc. "March 3-4, 1994 - The Rome Incident - Kurt Cobain Death Timeline." The Demoniacal, thedemoniacal.blogspot.com/2012/09/march-3-4-1994-rome-incident-kurt.html. 

S Conti, Allie. "Why Did Seattle's Former Police Chief Say Kurt Cobain's Suicide Case Should Be Reopened?" Vice, 6 July 2015, www.vice.com/en_us/article/jmappp/why-did-seattles-former-police-chief-say-kurt-cobains-suicide-case-should-be-re-opened-630. 

T “Courtney Love Biography.”  Machine, A&E Television Networks, 2014, www.biography.com/musician/courtney-love 

P Crugnale, James. "Kurt Cobain Mocks Courtney Love in Letter Released by Seattle Police: 'She's a Bitch With Zits'." TheWrap, 4 Aug. 2014, www.thewrap.com/kurt-cobain-letter-courtney-love-released-seattle-police/. 

 T Dower, John. "Kurt & Courtney (1998)." IMDb, Strength Ltd., 27 Feb. 1998, www.imdb.com/title/tt0138563/. Accessed 1 July 2019. 

T Fisher, Greg. "Cops: New Photos Show Kurt Cobain Suicide Gun." Live, Breaking News Today: Latest National Headlines, World News and More from CBSNews.com and Watch the CBSN Live News Stream 24x7, 17 Mar. 2016, www.cbsnews.com/news/kurt-cobain-suicide-shotgun-seen-in-new-pictures-released-by-seattle-police/. 

S Kennedy, Dana. "Book Review: 'Courtney Love: The Real Story'." EW.com, 10 Oct. 1997, ew.com/article/1997/10/10/book-review-courtney-love-real-story/. 

S Little, Dylan. "Why Do Some People Think Courtney Love Killed Kurt Cobain?" Quora - A Place to Share Knowledge and Better Understand the World, www.quora.com/Why-do-some-people-think-Courtney-Love-killed-Kurt-Cobain 

P News, ABC. "Video: Electrician Describes Kurt Cobain Death Scene." ABC News, 4 Apr. 14, abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/video/electrician-describes-kurt-cobain-death-scene-23194697. 

S NME. "Frances Bean Cobain Says Courtney Love's Drug Addiction Killed Her Pets." NME, NME, 2 Feb. 2012, www.nme.com/news/music/courtney-love-74-1268755. Accessed 2 Feb. 2012. 

S Parco, Nicholas. "Courtney Love's Former Private Investigator, Tom Grant, Calls Hole Singer a 'psychopath,? Suggests She's Involved in a 'conspiracy? in the Death of Kurt Cobain." Nydailynews.com, 8 Apr. 2016, www.nydailynews.com/news/national/expert-courtney-love-conspired-kurt-cobain-death-article-1.2593397.