He's reaching out,
really, for the downtrodden
Of society, for the average
Joe on the street who wants
To look up to his lyrics
and his music and say,
"Hey, this man's talking my language. "
You guys don't like explaining anything
To do with your music...
There's nothing to be said,
It's all in the music, man.
It's all in the music.
If there was a John Lennon-type figure
For the so-called "Generation
X," it would be Cobain.
The body of Nirvana leader Kurt Cobain
Was found in a house in
Seattle on Friday morning,
Dead of an apparently
self-inflicted shotgun blast
To the head.
An electrician hired
to work on Cobain's home
Walked up to this room
above Cobain's garage
And made the shocking
discovery this morning.
A suicide note was found.
This is a puzzling case,
A very disturbing case.
It first got reported
that Kurt was missing
And Courtney Love hired
private investigator Tom Grant.
I had been involved in
Missing persons cases before.
Some red flags started
popping up immediately,
So I began recording every
conversation I had with Courtney
During the entire period
that I worked for her.
My name is
It could be made to look like a suicide.
People that I had do this, I paid.
I've walked into cases that looked
Like they were suicides that
turned out to be homicides.
Cobain's wife, singer Courtney Love,
Was in England on
tour with her band Hole
When the body was discovered.
As it is, she has inherited an estate
Worth tens of millions of dollars.
That's motive.
Did Courtney Love kill Kurt Cobain?
Did she have a hand in
any kind of conspiracy?
These are favorite topics of fanatics.
There's nothing in
the medical examiner's
Report or coroner's reports
that could not have easily
Have been duplicated by a murderer.
It's entirely possible
that a police officer,
No matter how well-trained,
may not see or notice
A particular item of evidence.
Kurt Cobain was not barricaded
Inside the room.
He did not leave his
driver's license out.
No one would believe
that was a suicide note.
Kurt Cobain was
injected with three times
The lethal dose of heroin.
The media was getting this wrong.
Are you sure he's not in there?
I knocked for at least five minutes.
If he's there he would have answered.
Alright, I just don't wanna end up
On the wrong end of a shotgun.
Let's go.
Careful.
Kurt?
Kurt!
If we find it we're gonna have
To take it, right?
Yeah.
Which I can legally
do since I bought it.
It's in my name, so...
Not here, could it be under the bed?
Might be.
No. Alright, let's move this.
Alright, what is this?
This mean anything to ya?
Rohypnol, that's where they are.
What?
He kept saying someone stole 'em,
But they've been sitting there.
These are what he OD'ed on in Rome.
Well she didn't want us to take those.
Yeah.
Uh, wait a minute.
Would she be okay if you keep 'em?
Yeah.
Are they legal here?
Yeah, they're completely
legal, they're like...
What are they used for?
They're sold as a sedative for
Sleeping ailments, and sometimes
they're given to people...
And if we get pulled over, you're not
Gonna get arrested for havin' those?
No, they're fine.
Well it's obviously
not here, the shotgun.
No, and I dunno where it would be.
Is there anywhere else?
No.
Okay.
My name is Tom Grant.
I was hired by Courtney
Love to find her missing
Husband, Kurt Cobain, in April of 1994.
My father was a schoolteacher,
And this is a man I
never caught one time
In my entire life telling a lie.
He was the best role
model anybody can ask for.
By the time I became a
junior in high school,
I definitely wanted
to be a police officer.
Graduating from the L.A.
County Sheriff's Department
Was a very proud day
for me and for my family.
My first assignment
was a patrol division
At West Hollywood Sheriff Station.
When I quit the department,
I quit in very high standing.
From there I moved on, took the test
And obtained my own private
investigator's license.
I believe what makes me a good
P.I. is that I always apply
Logic and common sense
to everything that I do.
I've seen a lot of
suicides, a lot of murders,
And I don't try to
pre-determine anything.
And if I feel that my
client, that's coming to me
For help, is in the wrong based
on what they're telling me,
I'll let them know,
"This could be a pretty"
"Dangerous trip for you. "
Scratch the surface of most
P.I.s and you don't find a clean
Record, you find a lotta skeletons.
And then we met Tom Grant.
It turned out he had
an exemplary record.
He was respected, he
was a stand-up guy.
There was a consensus,
and that went a long way
To convincing us of his credibility.
The word conspiracy is
actually a legal term.
It simply means two
or more people plotting
Or planning to commit a crime.
Even committing shoplifting
with another person
Can actually be charged with conspiracy.
When somebody refers to me
as a conspiracy theorist,
I take it as an insult because
I know what they mean by it.
Hiring me is not like
hiring an attorney.
It's not to protect you, it's
not to keep you outta jail.
My job as a private investigator
is to find the truth.
It's simply to find
the truth in the matter
That you're hiring me for.
On Easter Sunday, I was in my office
With a private investigator
who worked for me
Named Ben Klugman, and we were dealing
With a client when the phone rang.
Now who calls on Easter?
Would you excuse us for just a second?
The Grant Company, how may I help you?
And it was a woman's
voice on the other end,
Kind of a raspy, low voice.
Now if someone is unlawfully
using your credit cards,
Maybe the police are the
better people to call.
And then she said,
"My husband and I are"
"Kinda famous, and we need
to get this done right away. "
And your husband's name?
Are you kidding me?
No, no.
I was about 47 at the time; Ben Klugman,
My investigator, was 29.
He immediately knew who they were
And what had been going on, even in Rome
Just a few weeks earlier.
Because it was a holiday, of
course, there were very few,
If any, other private
investigators working, so she went
Through the Yellow Pages
and she found our ad
And I was probably one
of many that she called,
And I think she was probably surprised
To have the phone picked up.
What room number?
It's not very often that
a private investigator goes
Against his client, so I'm
sure she regrets hiring me.
When we were available to meet Courtney
At the Peninsula Hotel,
first thing she said,
And this is her words, they're not mine,
You leak this to the press,
I'll sue the fuck out of you.
Well, hello to you too.
How ya doin'?
Kurtis came from rehab
a couple days ago.
He bought a ticket back to
Seattle, but nobody's seen him
Since he got back.
When I first entered
the room, she was wearing
A negligee nightgown,
totally see-through.
She might as well have
had nothing on whatsoever.
I called the credit card companies
And told them that the card was stolen
And that they should cancel it.
Was it?
What?
Stolen.
No.
Courtney eventually told
us that Kurt's credit card
Actually wasn't stolen,
that she had called the
Credit card company and
canceled it so that nobody
Could use it.
She felt that that would,
essentially, cut him off
From any funds.
I'm sure your husband has
another way of getting money.
Are you kidding me?
Kurt is helpless, he
doesn't have any friends.
Again, in her words,
"You don't understand. "
"This guy can't even catch a... "
Fucking cab by himself if he wanted to!
Hey.
Hey.
That's my drug dealer.
I didn't know at the time
that this was supposed
To be an in-house rehab.
I learned that later, but a total farce.
Most of the time I was
with her, she was either
On drugs or doing drugs.
There was nobody overseeing
what was going on there.
Listen, Kurt escaped from rehab,
He bought a shotgun, and I
just feel like something bad
Is gonna happen, okay?
In the middle of all this
conversation, she keeps talking
About how suicidal he is,
and how everybody thinks
He's gonna commit suicide.
Everybody knows it, everybody thinks
He's gonna die.
Hold on a second.
If he bought a shotgun
and he's suicidal,
Then dealing with this
credit card problem,
That's the least important
thing we could help you with.
Okay, well that's where
I want you to start.
She started off with a lie
when we first talked to her
On the phone, saying why
she wanted to hire us,
Which wasn't true, and
then she starts telling us
These other things
that just didn't add up.
They weren't logical,
they didn't make sense.
So all kinds of red
flags started popping up.
I dunno what's gonna
happen with this case,
But we are gonna document everything.
Looking back on that day,
it turned out to be a day
That really changed my life forever.
The name Kurt Cobain
goes through my mind,
Probably three or 400
times a day, at least,
And it has for the last
20 years, by necessity,
Because of the e-mails
I get, the letters I get,
And all the other stuff,
because he was so famous,
And it gets a little
bit old after a while,
Just thinking Kurt Cobain,
Kurt Cobain, Kurt Cobain.
Kurt Cobain, Kurt Cobain, Kurt Cobain,
Kurt Cobain, Kurt Cobain.
Growing up in Aberdeen,
Basically not a whole lot to do.
Nine months out of the
year is very dreary,
Very overcast, lots a rain.
It's kinda hard living in this
area and not being depressed.
Employment opportunities in Aberdeen,
There's not a whole lot.
For the most part, we
were lower-middle class.
I don't think we would
be considered poor,
We certainly didn't go hungry.
The first two weeks of
the month, everybody gets
Their welfare check,
the bars are packed.
The last two weeks of the
month, the bars are empty
And that's pretty much
the state of living.
Kurt used to live across the street,
And his mother and him,
they'd sit out there and argue
For a half hour or 45 minutes,
and the wife and I slept up
In the upstairs bedroom,
so we used to hear it.
I knew Kurt Cobain from the high school.
He ran around with my two oldest sons.
The couch I'm sitting
on now is the couch
That Kurt slept on.
He stayed for a few days,
and then a few days more,
And it just sorta stretched
out to be about a year.
It's a depressing
atmosphere, but I also think
At the same time, that's
why we have so many bands
From all over Washington State.
There was nothing to do.
It rained constantly,
so what you had to do was
You had to improvise.
People tended to pick
up instruments and play,
And I think that just affected the music
For this whole region in general.
In our neighborhood,
we lived a block away
From the group that became the Melvins.
Metal Church lived in
the house next door.
We had examples of people who made it.
I used to see him with
his drum sticks beat
On the stop signs, on the
fences, and his dad had
A old Ford pickup, he
used to beat on that.
When he first saw the Melvins
live for the first time,
He just knew that that
was what he wanted to do.
The day that changed his life.
Before Nirvana, we were called Skid Row,
And then we went from
Skid Row and we played live
On the radio, a midnight show on Chaos.
The very next day, I showed up at Kurt's
And Kurt had his easel
and he was paintin'
This picture, and I
looked at it and I go,
"What the hell?"
It was a painting of a giant pen
With its cap all chewed up.
From that day on, we
were called Pencap Chew.
We did some shows as Pencap Chew,
And Kurt tired of that,
so we're Ted Ed Fred.
They don't like that no
more, so we're gonna be Bliss.
The fourth name was Bliss,
And then the fifth name was Nirvana.
I didn't see him as being particularly
Different emotionally from any of us.
I think people tended to read him wrong,
Just because he was a quiet person.
I don't see Kurt as
being depressed at all,
I see him as being optimistic.
He gave me a lotta hope,
To hopefully, some
day, get outta this area
With my music.
Nirvana, Mudhoney and the
Melvins was doing something.
It was proactive.
To me, that takes courage,
and he had that courage,
And that was the big difference.
He had so much talent
and tremendous amount
Of creativity to give,
so it's unlimited,
What he could've done.
It would be nice to,
eventually, start playing
Acoustic guitars and be
thought of as a singer
And a songwriter rather
than a grunge rocker.
Because then I might be able
to take advantage of that
When I'm older and sit down on a chair
And play acoustic guitar
like Johnny Cash or something,
And it won't be a big
joke, but who knows?
My last real memory of Kurt
And it's not a good thing
for me, but I was on my way
To work and I had to get gas.
I stopped in at one
of my former employers
And I was gettin' gas for
my car, and they actually
Had the radio playing.
They overheard it on
the radio and stuff,
Standing, paying for my
gas, and it was like...
I can't forget that day.
I called the credit card company
Like you said, and
They told me he also bought two tickets
On United Airlines.
Where to?
They don't know, or they won't tell me.
All they told me was
how much he paid for 'em.
So, I dunno.
Maybe he's going to hang
out with Michael again.
Michael.
Stipe.
Lead singer of R.E.M?
Anyway, I figure he
flies up, gets his guitar
From Seattle and then
he flies down to Atlanta,
But he has two tickets.
Did he buy a ticket for someone else?
I think Kurt wants a divorce.
Why would you say that?
He left me a note in Rome,
he said he's leaving me.
The subject of divorce
came up almost every time
We talked after that.
Whenever Courtney referred to divorce,
She would usually say something like...
The only way that a
divorce is gonna happen is
If I bust him for infidelity.
Has he been unfaithful?
Yes! Yes, I think so.
Courtney, on several occasions,
mentioned that she thought
Kurt might be having an
affair with Kristen Pfaff,
Her bass player.
She was very jealous, and
she also felt like he might
Be having an affair with Caitlin.
His drug dealer.
If Kurt's in Seattle, he's with her.
She seemed to be very jealous of anybody
That got near Kurt, and wanted
to know every little move
That he made.
So I planted a story
in the news yesterday,
Saying that I had OD'ed and
that I was in the hospital,
Thinking that Kurt would
get scared and call me.
I dunno, it's like...
I've got this record
coming out in a week,
And so I know the value of
this, but I didn't think about it
When it first happened, but
Anyway, what do I tell this
guy from the Associated Press?
Should I call and confirm
it, and so the story goes out,
And say I was there?
I tell you what, and this
is just my gut instinct
Yeah.
That way there's no drugs involved
And the sympathy goes to me.
The press always perceives
me as just completely
Tragic and fucked up
anyway, so I don't know.
Thank you very much,
that's a lot of information,
And we'll go do our job.
We were already convinced
that Tom was sincere,
That he believed what he was saying.
He certainly wasn't lying.
He brought us into
this office with a safe,
Opened the safe, and there was
this trove of cassette tapes,
Just hours and hours of tapes.
And then he starts playing us the tapes.
And the facts were there.
She's just, coming
across as very controlling
And very angry.
Something was going on
that was outta the ordinary,
And there was more to this
than what I was being told.
I called Seattle Police,
Filed a missing person's report.
Did they ask when you were comin' back?
She filed it in the
name of Wendy O'Connor,
Kurt Cobain's mother.
If I filed it under my own name.
So all the media that
went out after that
That said Kurt's mother filed
a missing person's report
Was totally false.
On April 4th, Kurt Cobain's
mother, Wendy O'Connor,
Filed a missing person's
report on her son
Because he reportedly fled a
Quote end quote, "facility. "
She did not clarify whether
that was a drug treatment center
Or not, but that's what
people are speculating.
She was worried about Kurt
because he had a shotgun
In his possession.
She considered him suicidal.
That should get things going, right?
Right.
What about Caitlin?
I know that they're together.
I've got someone watching her apartment.
He hasn't showed up.
I wanna put someone on your house too,
Because sooner or later
he's gonna come home.
But if Kurt's still in Seattle,
He's hiding out, he's
not gonna be at the house.
He likes to stay in hotels,
fancy hotels downtown.
He uses the name Simon Richie.
Mm, mm, or Bill Bailey.
You should check that out.
The next day, on Monday,
when we hadn't had
Any success with the really
nice hotels in Seattle,
We began calling some of
the other smaller motels,
And we located a motel, and there was a
Bill Bailey registered there.
I wanna send one of our guys over there
To see if it's Kurt.
No no no no no no, I
don't want Kurt to know
That I'm looking for him.
Send somebody over there,
Just have them watch the hotel, okay?
Okay.
I dunno, 15 or 20 minutes went by.
What do you mean you called the hotel?
I thought that you said that
you didn't want Kurt to...
No! I, Tom...
Okay, listen, if he's not there,
Then I think we need to set up a team
At the Lake Washington house.
It's a waste of time, Tom.
You know what, he's not gonna be there.
Is there a reason that
you don't want surveillance
On your house?
Yes, because we don't need it.
Cali's there, he'll
tell me if Kurt shows up.
Earlier in the day in a conversation,
Courtney told me she didn't trust Cali,
And she said he's one of the
best liars she's ever met.
But now, all of a sudden, she tells me
He won't tell anybody.
I'm not as effective for you here
As I would be up there.
I'd like to move the
entire search up to Seattle.
I know I got guys on the
ground there, local guys,
And if I were there I could
move 'em along a little.
That's fine, you can go.
That's great, that's great.
Why don't you go up there, Courtney?
Because I can't!
I have business to take care of here.
Look, I'd appreciate it
if you didn't tell anyone
I was traveling up there.
If anyone knows, they might tell Kurt,
And then he could flee.
Absolutely, I think
it's a really good idea.
Okay, I'm gonna get goin'.
Save the American icon, Tom.
As I was getting ready
to fly to Seattle,
Courtney told me about Dylan Carlson.
Dylan knew all the
hangouts, he knew the house
Really well.
Kurt's best friend was Dylan Carlson.
So what are you
thinkin', is he suicidal?
No, not at all.
He's been under a lotta
pressure but he's been handling
Things pretty good.
I know he and Courtney have been having
A lotta troubles lately, but...
I don't know why Kurt married her.
They don't get along, they
don't agree about anything,
They're always fighting,
that type of thing.
This thing in Rome, did anybody say
That that may have been
him tryin' to kill himself?
No, it was an accident.
Everybody knows that.
I asked him several times
about whether Kurt was
Suicidal or not, and it
was almost a joke to him.
It was like, "No, of course not. "
'Cause I'm thinkin'
if he was as suicidal
As she says he is, why would
she let him buy a shotgun?
He's not suicidal.
We bought that shotgun
the day he went to rehab,
Been a burglary at the house recently.
The police had just
confiscated his other gun,
So I registered it in my name.
Trust me, if he was suicidal,
I would never let him
Get a shotgun.
Singer Courtney Love says
Cobain had first written
A suicide note to her
which said, in part,
"It's not fun for me anymore,
I can't live this life. "
There was a mythology that, "Oh yeah",
"Everybody knew he was suicidal,"
"That was just obvious,"
So it was no big surprise
when he finally killed himself.
And then you go to those closest to him,
The people that knew him best,
And none of them
believed he was suicidal.
I've never heard Kurt talk
about suicide or anything,
He always seemed happy around me.
Quiet, shy, but definitely happy.
Never hinted to me
that he was depressed.
His music and his lyrics
portrayed a darker side
To some of his emotions, but
I think that was glorified.
People start to analyze
the lyrics and look at some
Of the things that he wrote and say,
"Of course, look at what he wrote here. "
"Obviously he's talking about suicide. "
I'm tired of people
thinking, trying to put
Too much meaning into my lyrics.
A lotta times when I
write lyrics, which is
At the last second
'cause I'm really lazy.
And then I find myself having to come up
With explanations for it.
There may be one or two lines
in a song here and there,
But I swear to God,
brother, it's really not
As much as it seems.
The pain in his stomach,
this was a big thing
This stomach pain that he'd
been suffering for years
Was so severe that it made
him wanna kill himself.
He did talk like that,
there's no question,
And once that was
diagnosed, it was treated,
And the pain went away.
How's your stomach?
Have you found anything to...
It's gone.
- Yeah?
- Yeah.
I finally have been prescribed
the right stomach medicine
After six years of being
in constant pain, finally.
I haven't had a stomach
problem for over a year now.
The stomach pain and the
outlook and his disposition
Seem to be very closely linked.
He had given an interview
to Rolling Stone,
Where he said he was
happier than he'd ever been.
Is this your idea?
When you hear Courtney
spinning this whole
Elaborate timeline about how
he tried to commit suicide
Before and he was talking about suicide
To everybody he knew, that
just seems to be fiction.
Rather chillingly, Love
says that three of Cobain's
Uncles had also committed suicide.
She calls it the Cobain curse.
As far as the suicide
history in the Cobain family,
Leland Cobain's father,
he was a Monte Santo
Police officer, and he
went into a bar one day
And he sat at a bar stool.
This was back in 1938.
His gun somehow dislodged
from its holster,
Hit the ground, and
according to the report,
He looked around in the
bar and asked if everybody
Was okay, and then
immediately collapsed.
He just fell dead.
From what Leland has
told me about his brother,
His brother was drinking
and he fell down a staircase
And died from complications of that.
Neither Kurt's great-grandpa
Or his great-uncle were suicides.
One of the important
elements in the case,
And in convincing the
world that it was suicide
Was the so-called
"Rome suicide attempt. "
Nirvana front-man Kurt Cobain,
Who slipped into a coma
and was hospitalized
In Rome, Italy, at about 6AM
this morning, was in a state
Of what his management
calls "complete collapse. "
His condition was apparently aggravated
When he consumed champagne on top of a
Prescription painkiller called Rohypnol.
At the time, the word
suicide was never used
By the media, by Courtney, by Kurt.
It was portrayed as an
accidental drug overdose.
He recovered from the
coma, and his publicists
Said the incident was an
accident, not a suicide attempt.
As soon as Kurt died, first
interviews that Courtney gave
She started talking about
previous suicide attempts,
Rome was a suicide attempt.
Courtney started telling people
That Kurt had swallowed 60 pills.
You swallow 60 pills,
that's not an accident.
That's a suicide attempt.
So we decided to contact
the doctor that treated Kurt
In Rome, Doctor Galletta,
and he categorically denied
That there were 60 pills in his stomach
And that it was a suicide attempt.
At the time, Kurt and
Courtney both said it was
An accident, and the
doctor confirmed that.
So there's just no evidence
that he had ever tried
To kill himself before.
No anecdotal evidence,
nobody else close to Kurt
Ever said that he
tried to commit suicide,
But the world just took
Courtney's word for it.
While I was in Seattle with
Dylan and we were driving
Around, I mentioned to
him that Courtney said
That Kurt only stays in the best hotels,
And he was almost incredulous.
He practically laughed and he said,
"That's ridiculous!"
"He hates fancy hotels, he
stays in really cheap places,"
"Mostly along the Aurora strip. "
Have you seen him or not?
Okay, come on.
I'm gonna call Courtney and check in.
I dunno what's goin' on.
Dylan told me that when they
did stay at those motels,
They usually stayed
for two or three weeks,
Basically living off of
Coca Cola and potato chips
And doing their heroin.
Courtney always wanted
to go through Dylan,
She wanted to talk to Dylan on the phone
And have Dylan give me the instructions.
Courtney's had some trouble,
she was in the hospital
And she got arrested.
What?
She said that it was all a
big mistake and she's fine.
She wants us to go back
to the house and look
For the shotgun again.
She thinks it might be
in the hidden compartment
Of the bedroom closet.
Hidden compartment?
She hadn't mentioned that to us before,
But she said, "That's where
Kurt keeps the shotgun",
"So if it's there, that's
where it's gonna be. "
Let's go.
Remember this from last night?
No.
The note that was
apparently written by Cali
Didn't make sense.
"Kurt, I can't believe you
managed to be in this house"
"Without me noticing. "
"You're a fucking asshole
for not calling Courtney"
"And at least letting her
know that you're okay. "
"She's in a lot of pain,
Kurt, and this morning"
"She had another
accident, and now she's"
"In the hospital again. "
We looked in that little
hidden compartment.
There was no shotgun there.
"She's your wife, she loves you,"
"And you have a child together. "
"Get it together to at
least tell her you're okay,"
"Or she is going to die. "
"It's not fair, man. "
"Do something now. "
Later when I talked to
Rosemary Carroll about it
And I told her I was suspicious of it,
She jumped in right away, and
she knows Cali real well, too.
Dylan and I headed out
to the town of Carnation,
Just outside of Seattle.
Kurt and Courtney
owned two cabins there,
And we were curious to see
if there had been any evidence
Of Kurt being there.
We got about halfway there
when we stopped to get gas,
And Dylan made another phone call.
I got a phone call from our electrician,
Gary Smith, and he was
doing some security lighting.
We had a house above.
We just knew it was a
rock star in Seattle,
We weren't sure, didn't know who he was.
He literally just stumbled across it.
He looked through a
doorway, a glass door,
A locked door, and he saw a body.
And he said, "I think he shot himself. "
I called a radio station,
told 'em what happened.
So I answered the call and there's a guy
On the end of the line,
and he's goin', "I have got"
"Some incredible news here. "
Anything?
A friend of mine said he
just heard they found a body
At Kurt's house.
What?
Rock group Nirvana is dead.
An electrician discovered Cobain's body
In the singer's Lake
Washington home this morning.
The electrician tells KOMO
news that emergency crews
Told him that the dead
man is Kurt Cobain.
When I heard that the body was found
In a room that was called
the Greenhouse, I turned
To Dylan and I said,
"What's the Greenhouse?"
And he said, "It's just
a dirty little room"
"Above the garage. "
They stored lumber
or something in there.
It sounded to me like this was just
Some kinda broom closet or something.
So do you think he intentionally
Did not tell you to check that room out?
Again, I hope the listeners bear in mind
We're having to skip over
an awful lotta stuff...
I glanced down on the floor and I saw
Something that looked like a mannequin.
I can see blood in
this ear, and long hair,
And immediately got a little shaken.
The French doors were locked.
I was first in and right away could see
That it was a fatality.
The shotgun lay in his lap,
a significant pool of blood
By his head.
There was nothing we could do for him,
So we didn't touch the body.
We'll check for mail or
somethin' with a name on it.
The officer said, "Do
you want the name?"
Knowing I needed it for my log book.
He said, "It's Cobain, Kurt Cobain. "
A couple of second delay
and my head snappin' around,
I said, "You mean the rock star?"
The developing story
shocks the music world.
A man found dead this morning
is rock star Kurt Cobain.
Cobain's body was found about a...
Apparently it was a suicide...
Was so severe that his body could only
Be identified by fingerprints.
Police can't release the details found
In Cobain's suicide note,
but over the past couple
Of years, Cobain has
had some tough times.
Cobain was 27.
He joins a growing list of
rock stars who burn bright
Then burn out tragically.
When we arrived at the property
It was broad daylight and
the Greenhouse stuck out
Like a sore thumb.
You could see it from the
street above the bushes,
It was so tall.
I just didn't understand why
he didn't point that out to me.
That's Entertainment Tonight.
He's Rolling Stone.
Dylan didn't like the press
and he said Kurt didn't
Like the press.
Current Affairs; stay away from them.
Ho ho ho.
I'm Tom Grant, how are you?
Fine.
I was hired by Courtney
Love to investigate
The disappearance of her husband.
I've got information I
think would be helpful.
Could I speak to the
detective in charge?
Wait here.
He said he's too busy
to speak with you now.
Call the station after 3PM;
you can talk to him then.
I was dumbfounded by that.
If I were a police officer
investigating the dead body
And somebody told me
there was somebody outside
That had been in the
house the night before,
I'd tell them, "Hold him. "
"If they say they need
to leave, handcuff 'em,"
"And keep 'em there until we
get a chance to talk to 'em. "
You don't let somebody like that go,
You don't take a chance until
you've fully investigated
A case and determined
positively how this person died.
The Seattle Police Department claimed
They were investigating
this as a possible homicide.
If they were, they certainly
wouldn't allow somebody
To leave when they'd been
in the house the night
Before a dead body was
found on the property.
I'm Norm Stamper.
I was a police officer for 34 years,
And last six from 1994 to
2000 as Seattle's police chief.
I wouldn't pretend that
there aren't police officers
Who are cynical and
suspicious and skeptical.
That was the case in
the Kurt Cobain death.
John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King,
Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe.
Over the past 50 years as a
Medical-legal forensic
pathology consultant,
I've been involved
in thousands of cases,
About 18,000 autopsies,
and I have reviewed,
Signed off or supervised, and evaluated
About 38,000 other autopsies.
I have personally
investigated, supervised,
Consulted and researched
on over 8,000 homicides.
I wrote Practical Homicide
Investigation because there was
A need for a standard protocol
to approach all death scenes.
From the very beginning,
everything that the detectives
Encountered indicated to
them that this was a suicide.
The decision to rule the
case by police the same day
And to make a public
pronouncement that this was
A suicide is not the
way good police agencies
Would function today.
As a homicide commander,
I would not be making any proclamations
That the case was a
suicide without the evidence
the victimology,
The medical-legal process, toxicology.
It's a death investigation.
They knew nothing about the drug level,
They knew nothing about fingerprints,
They knew nothing about
anything else at that time
Except that they had
found him with a shotgun.
The reason we call things
death investigations is
That we don't wanna
prematurely make them
Homicides, suicides or accidents.
It's a death investigation.
Cases that involve prominent figures,
These cases usually take
more time because you know
That there are gonna be more questions.
People are gonna wanna know every single
Thing about it.
In the Philip Seymour Hoffman case,
They found him with a needle in his arm.
They found 50 bags of heroin right there
In his apartment, and
yet they did not make
Any announcement beyond that.
They knew that they
should not be commenting.
Official statements as to
cause and manner of death
Do not come from police or
even homicide detectives.
They do not.
I've never believed that
the police were involved
From the beginning in
any kind of a conspiracy
Involving Kurt Cobain's death.
I think they were set
up by Courtney Love
From that missing person's report,
And everything that it said in it.
If my officers heard or were made aware
That Kurt Cobain had
left rehab, had purchased
A shotgun, was suicidal,
that's of course going
To affect them.
They, what I call assumed
the suicide position,
Which to me means cut
corners, not do this,
Not do that, because it's
a suicide, no problem.
I have to admit, there's
been a lot of inconsistencies
In this case.
Really?
The reports that were
coming out in the media said
Kurt Cobain was barricaded
inside the Greenhouse.
Look at this photograph.
Is that the lock you're talking about?
I dunno where this picture's from,
So I couldn't say.
Well, it's from the Greenhouse.
I've been over the place inside and out,
And trust me, that is the only lock.
If you say so.
Presuming I'm telling you the truth,
Why would you say that
he locked himself in?
Because the door was locked.
Look at the picture.
It's not a deadbolt, it's a twist lock.
Anybody coulda twisted that
lock and pulled the door shut
Behind 'em when they left.
Look, the lock doesn't matter.
There was a stool wedged
up against the door.
Now how do you wedge
a stool against a door
After you've already left the room?
The police reports plainly
states that the stool
Was simply sitting in
front of the two unlocked
French doors at the
other side of the room,
But on one of the reports,
it was added that the stool
Was blocking the entrance.
Someone reported that there was a stool
Blocking the door.
That wasn't the case.
I dunno where that came from.
If you could just
show me the photographs
Your officer took at the
scene, we can put that issue
To rest once and for all.
Well the photographs
haven't been developed,
Probably never will be.
We don't develop
photographs on suicides.
I have never heard of that.
Every case I've been
involved, with the crime scene
Photographs were developed.
Why not release 'em to other experts?
I can't answer that question.
It was something that the
Seattle Police department did.
In hindsight, they
probably shouldn't have.
But that's what they did.
Nothing you've said
convinces me this is anything
But a suicide.
Now do you got any other pearls for me?
Not at this time.
Detective Cameron
resigned when he learned
I was preparing to fire him.
He had colluded with
one of his own detectives
To replant evidence that had been stolen
By a homicide detective
at a homicide scene.
And it was for that
reason that I was preparing
To fire him.
I'm just giving you
the information I have,
I don't care what you do with it.
I understand that, but I
think your investigation
Is into things that our
investigation doesn't apply to.
You don't allow a patrol officer
With no homicide
investigative experience
To determine whether a
scene is a suicide or not.
My opinion is, in 1994,
They just didn't look at anything.
If it appeared to be a
suicide, it was a suicide.
Case closed.
The news media do poison the atmosphere,
And I have been involved
in cases in which
It was impossible, almost,
to overcome the beliefs
That had been created
within the community
Because of the way in
which that particular death
Had been reported.
Judging by the evidence at the scene,
Love says, Cobain
apparently drew a chair up
To a window looking out
on Puget Sound, sat down,
Took some more drugs,
picked up his shotgun and,
Using his thumb, it seems,
shot himself in the head.
The physical damage was so
severe that his body could
Only be identified by fingerprints.
I was a bit surprised.
Normally a shotgun wound to the head,
The ones I've seen,
are pretty devastating,
Often making facial
features unrecognizable.
His head was not grossly
deformed or badly damaged.
I think I certainly
would've recognized him.
I don't see any reason
why anyone wouldn't have,
Who knew what he looked like.
Seattle's own police reports indicate
That Officer Lavendowski
found Kurt Cobain's wallet
Lyin' on the floor.
He opened it up and removed
his driver's license,
And he put it on top of Cobain's wallet
To take a photograph for evidence.
Most of the media
reported that Kurt left
His driver's license
exposed, and a lot of 'em went
Into a lotta detail:
That he did that so that
everyone would recognize him.
But it was completely false.
Love, who, contrary to
rumor, says she and Cobain
Hadn't broken up, says
Cobain had first written
A suicide note to her
which said, in part,
"It's not fun for me anymore. "
"I can't live this life. "
News media play a great
role in these matters.
John Kennedy, incidentally, pointed out
The need for integrity
within the news media.
This has been something
that was commented
Upon going back to our founding fathers,
Because sometimes
pressures from news media
Can be very, very significant.
I don't have the right
to make an opinion
On anything that I read
or see on television
Until I go to the fuckin'
source myself, personally.
The toxicology report
from Kurt Cobain's autopsy
Indicated a heroin blood level
of 1.52 milligrams per liter.
Five milligrams will produce a level
Of 0.035 milligrams.
Most users, even heavy users,
Only use up to 40 to 60
milligrams in one hit.
So you can see, to reach
1.52 milligrams per liter,
You're talking about an
amount that would have
Certainly have exceeded 200
milligrams that were injected
Into Kurt Cobain.
Three times the amount that
would be considered lethal.
I think very legitimate
questions have been raised
About the level of heroin.
We have not, in 18
years, found a single case
Where somebody could
have the level of heroin
In their body that Kurt did
and still remain conscious.
For the average person,
triple the lethal dose
Even for the most severe heroin addict.
It would have incapacitated him,
He would have been unconscious.
And then roll down their sleeves,
put away their heroin kit,
Pick up the shotgun,
position it backwards
And pull the trigger.
That deals with coordinative functions.
How about the emotional aspects of this?
Why would he then shoot
himself before the drug
Has had a chance to take effect?
No study that I know
of has correlated use
Of heroin with suicide.
I cannot think of a case
in which I have had someone
Inject himself with a
large amount of heroin
And then proceed to kill himself.
It just doesn't make
sense, and it doesn't fit in
With these kinds of
situations involving heroin.
These are questions that
I think deserve answers,
And in fact, require answers.
Many of the questions could be answered
If the medical examiner's
office would make public
The autopsy report.
I haven't been able to
see the toxicology report
Or the autopsy report
because I haven't had access
To review the actual
documentation from the authorities.
The autopsy report is public record.
Apparently in this
jurisdiction, it is not.
In the case of Kurt Cobain,
they should've made them part
Of the release with the
Freedom of Information.
Why they didn't do that, I dunno.
In hindsight, maybe they should've.
We wouldn't be having
this discussion today.
There was a documentary
made about 1997, I believe,
Called "Kurt and Courtney. "
I cooperated with the
producer and director of that,
Nick Broomfield.
Tom Grant's assertion
that 1.52 milligrams
Of heroin per liter of blood
would have incapacitated
Kurt were discounted
by Doctor Colin Brewer,
Formerly director at
Westminster Hospital.
He gave us this color slide
of a patient balancing easily
On one leg, who had taken the equivalent
Of over twice the amount taken by Kurt.
The problem is that this
man had taken methadone,
Not heroin, and he had
swallowed the methadone.
Methadone is a pain medication.
It's also used to
treat heroin addiction,
And because it's taken orally,
it's absorbed much slower.
It takes time to get into
the blood, so it can take
Up to an hour or perhaps
two before it reaches
Its highest concentrations.
Heroin, on the other hand,
injected directly into the vein,
Is immediately available to circulation,
Immediately available to the brain.
Comparing oral methadone
to intravenous heroin.
What's the trade expression,
apples and oranges?
It's much worse than apples and oranges.
It might be peaches and
asparagus that you're comparing.
I'm surely amazed that a
competent forensic scientist
Would have made that kind of comparison.
Seattle police reports indicate
That Kurt Cobain was found
with a shotgun upside down,
With his left hand grasping the barrel
In a vise-like grip,
known as a cadaveric spasm.
Cadaveric spasm is a form
of muscular stiffening
That only occurs in death.
This occurrence is indispensable
to forensic investigation,
As it clearly shows the precise
orientation of the deceased
At the exact moment of death;
In this case, Cobain's left hand
Gripping the barrel upside
down, as he was found.
This all seemed straightforward,
until you take into account
The shotgun shell was
found to Cobain's left side,
Opposite of where we'd
expect to find the shell:
On Cobain's right side.
The exit chamber is clearly
on Cobain's right side
If it was fired upside
down, as it was found,
And as the cadaveric spasm confirms
Seattle P.D. explained
the illogical trajectory
Of the shotgun shell by
concluding that the shotgun
Was fired right side up by Cobain,
The shotgun flipped upside
down, expelling the shell
To his left, to finally
rest in the position
That it was found.
This proposed scenario
is impossible, not only
Because shotguns do not
flip upside down when fired;
It completely ignores
the cadaveric spasm
That locks the grip, dictating
the precise orientation
Of the shotgun when fired.
In order for the scenario the
Seattle police stated occurred
Cobain's wrist would
have to bend at an angle
That is anatomically impossible.
The cadaveric spasm shows
the precise orientation
Of Cobain's hand at the
exact moment of death.
The only way that the shell
could end up in the opposite
Side of the room is if,
when the shell was expelled,
Hit an obstruction
on Cobain's right side
And ricocheted to Cobain's left
side, to land on the jacket.
The crime scene clearly shows
there was no such obstruction,
Which then puts into question
if Cobain truly was alone
In the Greenhouse when
the trigger was pulled.
Kurt was not suicidal.
Have you been watchin' TV?
Readin' the paper?
They're all saying
that he's been suicidal
For a long time, and Courtney
said that this overdose,
The one that was in Rome, she said
That was a suicide attempt.
That's not true.
It was Rosemary Carroll's involvement
That really pushed me
forward, because if somebody
In Rosemary Carroll's
position was telling me
The things she was telling me,
Then I wasn't off base, I wasn't crazy,
I wasn't a lunatic.
She called me a couple of weeks ago,
Said Kurt was leaving her and
asked me to find the meanest,
Most vicious divorce
lawyer I could find.
She even asked me if there was any way
To avoid their prenup.
And she said about that same time,
Kurt had called her also
and asked her if she could
Have Courtney's name
taken outta the will.
Does it seem strange
that Courtney didn't go
Up to Seattle, not even
once, to look for him?
Absolutely.
When I offered to go up,
she said she couldn't go
With me because she had some
business down here in L.A.
She didn't have any business in L.A.
What I don't understand
is how you didn't see him
In the Greenhouse the
first night you were there.
Wait a minute, I didn't
even know the Greenhouse
Existed until the day
I heard it on the radio.
But Courtney told Dylan to check it.
When he called Courtney at
my house Wednesday night,
I heard her tell him
to check the Greenhouse.
A lotta people mock him
for being at the house,
On the case, looking for Kurt.
Kurt was lying dead 20 feet
away and he never found him.
What does that say about
his abilities as a P.I?
I went back on a rainy night.
He claims it was dark and
just didn't know it was there.
Nobody told him, Dylan
certainly didn't tell him.
Dylan must have known that it was there.
Is there anywhere else?
No.
So I went and tested
that, and sure enough,
You really couldn't see
it if you weren't looking
For it specifically.
I asked Courtney to see the
note when I was in Seattle,
And she refused.
Courtney apparently
had let Danny Goldberg,
Her husband, see the
note, but she wouldn't let
Rosemary see it, so
that mystified her too
And made her more suspicious.
And it made me more suspicious, too.
To hear Courtney's own lawyer,
Kurt and Courtney's entertainment
lawyer, Rosemary Carroll,
The godmother of Frances Bean,
Somebody that knew them
better than almost anybody,
Telling Tom that
They were in the middle of a divorce,
That Kurt was drawing up a new will,
And most importantly, I think the tape
That really had me reeling,
Was hearing Rosemary Carroll
looking at the suicide note
And immediately concluding
that it's a forgery.
I believe Courtney never
thought the public was gonna
Ever see that note.
If I hadn't have tricked her
out of a copy of the note,
They wouldn't have seen it.
I heard you read the
note on TV the other day
And I'm just a little
confused about something.
It sounded like the note
said, "I'm lying on the bed. "
If Kurt was lying in the
bed when he wrote the note,
Why was the bed so neat when
I came here the other night?
It looked like nobody
had been on the bed.
I was lying on the bed,
recording the message
For Kurt's fans.
Are you sure that's what you said?
Because I was under the
impression that Kurt was lying
On the bed.
Look, I'll show you, okay?
It's just a copy, but the
cops have the original.
I can't read this without my glasses.
I'm gonna take it down, make
a copy in the fax machine.
I'll read it later.
Yeah, sure.
That I never thought to look at at all,
Quite honestly, until last night.
She left it after she
came over to my house,
The night of the 6th.
Rosemary Carroll was working
with me behind the scenes,
Privately, giving me information.
She did it out of a good conscience.
What do you think that is?
conference on your phone,
And that way you could...
You've promised me things before,
And it didn't come through.
Almost immediately
after Kurt Cobain's death
Was announced in the
media, this phenomenon
Of copycat suicides began.
Kids started killing themselves:
Kurt Cobain fans, Nirvana fans.
This was happening all around the world.
Now I'm a dad myself, and it's just,
Absolutely breaks my heart.
I talk to a lotta the families.
When you read their suicide
notes and read their journals,
It really drove home the importance
Of Kurt on this generation.
The thought of losing a
child is just horrific.
I was relieved that I was
gonna go forward with this,
Because I thought,
"Maybe it'll help stop"
"Some of these copycat suicides. "
That would help too, to be analyzed.
We could determine whether
Kurt wrote that whole thing.
The fact that the handwriting looks,
To my untrained eye,
different at the bottom
Of that note than it
does during the body
It certainly does suggest
that putting that note
In the hands of a questioned
documents examiner,
Somebody who really understands
a lot more than we do
As cops, that would be a good idea.
A forensic document
examiner examines documents
For the purposes of authenticity.
I examined a handwriting
sample that was found
In Courtney Love's backpack,
and it was a practice sheet
Of different letters, the alphabet.
I examined that in comparison
to the suicide note.
What I did find interesting
about the practice sheet is
That it did have letter
combinations and specific letters
That are found in the bottom
portion of the suicide note.
It is possible that
somebody else with some skill
Could indeed imitate his writing,
Especially those last few lines.
One of the, perhaps
surprising, characteristics
Of this note is that the
largest section of the note,
Or the initial part, talks
so much about his relationship
To music, and it's only the
very small part of the note,
The last four lines, that
talks about his relationship
To his family.
But there's another
linguistically interesting thing
About the second or final
four lines of the note,
And that is that that is
what most of us would consider
A stereotypical suicide note.
"I love you, someone will
be better off without me,"
"Keep moving forward. "
Those are the kinds of
things we expect to find
In suicide notes, or even in overkill,
To make it very stereotypical
so that people couldn't miss
What it was.
There are a lotta questions
I have for Dylan and Cali,
Especially Cali, who spent
more time here at the house
Than anybody last week.
Cali is, he just left for rehab.
He's in El Paso, or
Georgia, I think.
No no no, he's in L.A. with friends.
I'll get Dylan over here.
After probably a half an
hour or so, I walked out
And I asked, "Is Dylan here yet?"
"I haven't seen him," and
I just assumed that somebody
Would let me know when he showed up.
They said, "Yeah, he's
upstairs with Courtney,"
Which I thought was strange.
He was supposed to be
coming in the house to talk
To me, not go upstairs and do
a pre-interview with Courtney.
So there's just been a
couple things that have been
Eating at me in the last few
weeks, and I wanted to sit here
And I wanted to talk to you about them.
Did you just shoot up?
Hm?
Did you just shoot up?
Yeah.
What?
Yes.
Why did you do that?
I told you I was coming
up here, I told you we had
To have this conversation.
Dylan.
Hm?
I told you we had to
have this conversation.
I'm ready.
You're ready?
- Mm hmm.
- You're not ready.
I felt, "Why would Courtney do this?"
She knew I had some serious
questions to ask him,
And she's sending him down
to me in a drugged state
Of mind, where he could hardly talk?
You check the front door or the back?
Did you check the front
door or the back door?
Yeah.
Which door?
Both.
Both doors. Did you check the side door?
No.
You didn't go to the side door?
I don't remember.
You don't remember.
Did you go to the Greenhouse?
No.
You didn't go to the Greenhouse?
Dylan, Dylan, I wanna talk about...
I wanna talk about the Greenhouse.
Dylan.
Dylan was a heroin addict,
And he needed a source for heroin.
Once Kurt Cobain was dead, his
source became Courtney Love.
His loyalty became Courtney Love.
He was very dependent on her.
We've since learned
that she paid his rent
For many, many years, supplied the money
For his heroin, and almost
everybody around Kurt.
They were dependent on Courtney,
They were dependent on Courtney's money.
It's a waste of time, waste of time.
I felt it was my duty
to notify my client
That I was starting to
dig into some directions
That she may not want
me to be looking into,
But I was determined
to do it and I thought
That she deserved to know
that I was going to do this.
She got the message,
I'm sure, from that.
I was insinuating that I suspected her
Of being involved in this.
A few days after that letter was sent,
I got a phone call from Courtney.
She wasn't livid, she wasn't even angry.
She didn't mention the letter, in fact.
I basically said I'm going to
continue with my investigation
With or without your cooperation.
Here's all you have to do to bring this
To a quick end and solve
all of your problems.
Yes, hi, I'm looking for Kurt.
Hello?
Hello?
Yes, hi. Someone's gonna get
really fucked up over there
If I don't talk to Kurt.
Hi, this is Julie Bernstein.
I really need to speak
to my client Kurt.
Get him on the fucking phone!
Yes, yeah, thank you.
No, no problem.
Yeah, Delta's fine.
with the 20th anniversary approaching,
Detective Mike Ciesynski
re-examined the case files
Of an assignment early
in his fledgling career,
The investigation into
the death of Kurt Cobain.
You can never really realize what type
Of conspiracy theorists
are gonna come out
Of the woodwork.
The amount of heroin that
he injected was 10 times
What, normally, anybody would've taken,
Even a heavy heroin user.
I believe he gave himself a
fatal dose of black tar heroin.
Detective Mike Ciesynski
found four rolls
Of undeveloped crime scene photos.
Two of those photos were released,
Taken the day his body was found.
In hindsight, I think I
would've developed the film.
Did you find anything different
That made you believe
it's anything but suicide?
No, nothing.
What are people gonna
gain from seeing pictures
Of Kurt Cobain?
How is that gonna benefit anybody?
It wasn't gonna change my
decision that this was a suicide,
And actually I'm the one who
makes the decision finally,
Do we go forward or not.
There is never one item
that I said definitely
That this actually
was suicide, but um...
Any re-examination should
not even be actively
Participated in by the
Seattle Police Department.
To expect them to conduct
an objective, detached,
Unbiased investigation,
come back 20 years later
And say, "Hey man, we blew it?"
It flies in the face of common sense.
The Kurt Cobain death
demands a re-opening
By an objective set of
experts, and until that is done,
Then one cannot feel
comfortable in saying
That Kurt Cobain's death
was a clear-cut suicide.
For me, the most
compelling piece of evidence
That convinces me,
almost to a certainty,
That Kurt was murdered, was
the level of heroin in his body.
There's never been a
documented case in the history
Of law enforcement
where somebody could have
The level of heroin in
their body that Kurt did,
Still remain conscious,
and still led to a suicide.
We talked to an FBI expert, and he said,
"If you wanna get away with murder,"
"You kill a junkie. "
It's very easy to make a murder look
Look like an accidental
overdose or a suicide.
It's the perfect crime,
and it happens all the time.
We know that Kurt and Courtney
had a prenuptial agreement.
They were in the process
of getting a divorce.
This was confirmed, they were divorcing.
He was leaving her.
If the divorce had gone through,
She would've received
a very small settlement
As a result of the prenuptial agreement.
When he died, she
co-inherited an estate worth
Possibly more than a billion
dollars in future royalties.
Police immediately look at motive.
Here's the motive.
No matter what anybody
believes, this happened
Far too quickly for the kinds
of things to be accomplished
That need to be done in this
kind of death investigation.
We should, in fact, have
taken steps to study patterns
Involved in the behavior of
key individuals who had a motive
To see Kurt Cobain dead.
This would be in fact, a
classical example for how
An investigation should not be done.
If, in fact, Kurt Cobain
was murdered, as opposed
To having committed
suicide, and it was possible
To learn that, shame on
us for not doing that.
That was, in fact, our responsibility.
Should the case be re-opened?
My answer is unequivocally,
unhesitatingly,
"Yes, the case should be re-opened. "
It's about right and wrong.
It's about honor, it's about ethics.
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 that if I were the
Chief today, I would
re-open this investigation.