What do I think of Iman’s Interview with Elliott Smith through a medium posted here yesterday?
As Iman mentioned, I don’t believe in the supernatural, ghost stories make me laugh and I can’t stand all the James Van Praagh, Sylvia Browne and other John Edwards. But this is not the point, this woman did not charge anything and I just want to talk about the credibility of the story Lisa came up with.
Funny how ghosts have desires in contradiction with those of the livings. Why would Elliott the ghost like to be Steve/Steven again? I mean his real name is Steven Paul Smith but he could not stand it, he thought it sounded too jockish, bookish.
From an interview:
‘I didn’t like that my first name started with the same letter as my last name. That really irritated me. And also, like, there’s no good version of it, ya know like there’s, Steven … Steven is like sort of too … hard to say, and kind of like, bookish. Steve is like … like jockish, sorta. Big handsome Steven, big shirtless Steven, ya know, like football playin’ blond haired Steven. Ya know? I didn’t like it.’
This is a minor detail, but I had to say it, why do ghosts change their personality?
Next, about the part that there is a lot to the story of the day of his death that did not come out, I completely agree. Many things as we know don’t add up, I have talked about it before and especially I have talked about the fact that there are many circulating rumors which are in contradiction. For example, she said she locked herself in the bathroom, but there were some hearsay she was on the phone with her therapist, she was taking a shower, she stormed out of the house,…
It is not difficult to affirm this when you look at all the contradictions of this case.
Then there is the affirmation he did not kill himself, the other possible alternative being of course that he was murdered.
‘If Elliott had killed himself he wouldn’t have stabbed himself -that is a stupid way to do it. He would have used pills and alcohol’
Sure this method of suicide has always seemed suspicious because very rarely used (less than 2% of all suicide cases) and extremely painful. Furthermore, if you read the December 2004 Spin article ‘Mr. Misery’ it is widely reported Elliott tried to kill himself with drugs when he was recording ‘From A Basement in the Hill’ in David McConnell’s studio. Elliott was for the ‘slow method’ alcohol and drugs, but he had become ‘immune to drugs’ as McConnell put it. So it is difficult to imagine him using such a violent method especially because he had no drug or alcohol in his system on October 21st.
Then, there is the big revelation, the love triangle, which leaves me completely clueless. First of all, I don’t know anyone in his immediate entourage named Patty, then Elliott did not have a formal band, he was playing mostly acoustic shows with only one friend Robin Peringer. Robin was friends with Jennifer Chiba and became her roommate for a while after Elliott’s death. Who knows, were they more than just friends? Patty, Robin… it’s difficult to understand what Linda had in mind when she used this name. Robin was sure a very good friend for Chiba, helping her to go in the middle of the night cleaning up the studio, defending her against the rumors of murder in interviews, cleaning up the blood throughout the house (Filter magazine) and even saying to Mary Lou Lord to stay home during the All Tomorrow’s parties memorial because Chiba was ‘afraid’ of her (anonymous source). For a long time I had a hard time to imagine him being a traitor to Elliott because they had such a good time together on stage. Elliott and him were rehearsing every day in October for the ATP show and if Elliott had known anything about an affair with Chiba, this would not have been possible. So may be Patty is another person or a pure invention.
But yes I heard Elliott wanted to leave her, and she claimed publicly he had asked to marry her, I don’t know where is the truth.
One sure thing is that she sued the family after his death, so she thought she was entitled to get some money, and she did not get any because they only had a verbal agreement. So the part about the papers she wanted him to sign sure makes sense
According to some hearsay, she called someone on October 21st before calling 911, but I heard it was a female. Unfortunately, we have no information regarding her condition when the police came. Did they find them with blood all over her clothes, or not? And Iman is completely right, of course, if she removed the knife, you would expect to find blood on her. May be she took a shower because she was a little bit too bloody, may be she was afraid the police would have suspected a physical fight? The police never revealed anything about how she looked when they arrived.
With all the holes in the investigation and mishandling of the case, there is almost no hope the LAPD will be able to solve the case without a big breakthrough.
It’s certain his life was interrupted when he was on a upside, it’s certain it was not premeditated one way or another. It is also sure he was really isolated, he was not surrounded by true friends, and his supposed friends at the time were more interested by using his fame or sharing drugs when he was still using. I heard one of this ‘friend’ who had borrowed one of his guitars, did not return it to the family when he died, although he may have done it by now.
I have never really understood the attitude of his family, I am well aware of the abuse story but this concerns only one side of the family and I am amazed that no one is apparently interested by the truth.
Overall this story is plausible like many others. As much as I would like contacting Elliott Smith in an “afterlife” to be possible, I don’t believe for a minute someone can speak with a dead person, so this is just a credible scenario based on many things we already know.
Now I want to speak with this Patty, Lisa can you get his last name please?
Now I want to speak with this Patty, Lisa can you get his last name please?