Just like we have made a Facebook group ‘Justice for Elliott Smith’, there is one called ‘Justice Cobain’, as the death of the Nirvana’s frontman has always been under suspicion. As a matter of fact, private investigator Tom Grant (and ex Los Angeles County Sheriff) has been on the case since 1994, and has always claimed that Kurt Cobain had not committed suicide but was murdered.
After numerous TV appearances, Tom Grant is about to publish a book with Matthew Richer, 'Murder at Lake Washington, ‘No Escape’ next month, a book which is advertised as an abundant collection of true stories never released to the public before, all connected to the circumstances surrounding Kurt Cobain’s death, and illustrating the incompetent investigation into Cobain’s death.
I didn’t know much about the case but Grant’s website gives you all the details you want, and the irony in the story is that he was hired by Courtney Love herself to locate her husband on April 3rd 1994. After several months of intensive investigation, Grant concluded that Love and Michael Dewitt (the male nanny) were involved in the murder of Kurt Cobain. However, she has never been arrested, and Grant pretends that this is due to the fact that Love had wealthy and powerful friends and attorneys who worked very hard at hiding the truth from the public. This is what he says on his page:
‘Courtney's attorneys have consistently threatened those in various media outlets with "potential lawsuits" if these journalists were to give me a platform from which to discuss my investigation of the Cobain Case.’
I haven’t read enough about the case, Grant was ridiculed and insulted, but you have to admit there are a long list of troubling facts like these ones:
– Kurt was in the process of leaving Courtney Love when he died, and a few weeks before, she has asked one of her attorneys to get the ‘meanest most vicious divorce lawyer’.
– Kurt’s credit card was missing when his body was discovered, and someone tried to use it after his death.
– The gun found on the scene was purchased BEFORE Cobain left for rehab in LA, and was fully loaded. Grant thinks he was used for protection and so that Cobain was in fear of his life.
– The police said they didn’t find any fingerprints on the gun, but it wasn’t checked for fingerprints until May 6th, one month after Cobain’s death!
– The suicide note, or supposedly suicide note, wasn’t addressed to his wife and daughter (there is only a short footnote about them) and says nothing about killing himself. It was addressed to his fans telling them he was quitting the music business.
– Love had a second note she kept in secret, but the info about this note slipped out during an interview with Rolling Stone. This second note clearly states that he was leaving her and Seattle.
– Kurt Cobain’s blood level was three times a lethal dose of heroin, which is hard to swallow even for a heroin addict. This would have made him totally unable to pull the trigger. And if he had three times the lethal dose, why did he need to shoot himself?
– Kurt Cobain wasn’t barricaded inside the room, and he didn’t leave his driver’s license out as it was falsely reported. His ID was just pulled out of his wallet by the first officer who arrived on the scene.
And, beside the fact that they were two musicians having battled with depression and drug addiction, there are obvious parallels between Kurt's sad story and Elliott’s:
– According to a source close to Elliott, the morning of their fight, Elliott had said to J. Chiba he wanted to leave her.
– J. Chiba reported that Elliott was ‘paranoiac’ the few weeks before his death, we don’t know if it is true, but Caroline, the studio owner wrote: ‘What I do know for sure is that Elliott was afraid of someone in the last two weeks, I know he changed the locks,…’
– The police couldn’t find any fingerprints on the knife.
– Elliott’s supposed suicide note is very vague and short and doesn’t talk about killing himself either,… and it was J. Chiba who found it and gave it to the police.
– Elliott hadn’t any drug in his system but J. Chiba insisted she thought he would jump from the balcony after he had stabbed himself… kind of the same ‘overkill’ idea than for Cobain.
– It was reported at many occasions that the suicide note was signed Elliot, and not Elliott, whereas it was a mistake done by the police on their report. and it is probably not the only false information reported about this case.
It is very weird, and someone once posted on the Elliott Smith’s board that J. Chiba was Elliott’s Courtney Love, and honestly it wasn’t the first time people had drawn comparisons between both women.
Recently, the person behind Justice Cobain, tweeted that Frances Bean Cobain is asking questions about her father's death, that she wants to know the truth. And I totally see why… Tom Grant hasn’t given up after 18 years, that’s why Elliott’s story, just like Kurt's, isn’t over.