The Science of Conspiracy Theories

Kurt Cobain conspiracy

Kurt Cobain conspiracy

Thanks to @awesomesauce82 for this suggestion. He's my favorite rant author. He's also writing poetry now.

Kurt Cobain was the lead singer for the rock band Nirvana who was found dead from an apparent suicide in his home at 171 Lake Washington East in Seattle, Washington on April 8, 1994. His death created conspiracy theories. The authorities listed his death as suicide because he shot himself with a shotgun. He had a high concentration of heroine and trace of diazepam in his blood.

Kurt's life was chaotic to say the least. The fact that he used drugs and was alcoholic is not surprising. Most rock stars had that problem. Whenever a celebrity like this dies under suspicious circumstances it generates conspiracy theories.

The question is: did Kurt Cobain kill himself or was it a murder covered up his wife, Courtney Love, who was a celebrity in her own right? This is a tough question to answer because the events are confused and buried in a botched police investigation. The other problem is that Cobain was a drug user and alcoholic and had health problems.
Kurt was a heroin addict going back to 1966. This is one of the worst drugs ever. It usually results in overdose and death. He tried rehab more than once, especially when he found that he would be a parent, but like most celebrities that have drug problems, he soon fell back into his addictive habits.

He was also an alcoholic and had messed with solvent abuse. I'm amused when I hear about solvent abuse. People who like to sniff solvents should become a chemist. They'd get all the solvent sniffing they would ever want.

Cobain also suffered from chronic bronchitis and a stomach condition, possibly from LSD. You wonder how he functioned, and yet he was the lead singer and songwriter for Nirvana, one of the more prominent rock bands of the late 80's.

Gary Smith, an electrician who had come to Cobain's home to install a security system, discovered his body on April 8. Supposedly, Gary thought that Cobain was sleeping but when he spotted the shotgun pointed at his chin, he knew that it was bad.

What added to the conspiracy theory is the fact that the in March of 2014 Seattle police developed four rolls of 35mm film that were taken for evidence at the time of Cobain's death. The pictures show scenes taken at the death scene, and show the shotgun and shotgun shells. They also show the hospital bracelet from the drug rehab facility that he had just checked out of.
So, the question comes down to: was there some sort of conflict between Cobain and Love? That's difficult to tell. Courtney Love was also into drugs, including Heroin. Seattle child services removed their baby daughter, but they soon negotiated a return. Did this cause a split in their relationship?

The photos show a suicide note with a pen stuck through it, the box of shotgun shells at his feet, his driver's license, heroin paraphernalia in a cigar box, smoking paraphernalia - a lighter, pack of cigarettes, various shots of around the house and the room, and officers at the scene. None of these photos show much blood.

This is a tough case to break through. Cobain had a history of suicide attempts and drug addiction, good reason to believe that his death was a suicide. The only problem I can see with the suicide idea is that there was little blood; although, a shotgun blast in the mouth could result in less blood, but I don't know if that's a reasonable concept. The other problem is that there was so much heroin and Valium in his bloodstream I doubt that he was physically able to commit suicide. Courtney Love made a photocopy of Cobain's suicide note that some say is a desire to leave Love. No fingerprints were lifted from the shotgun or the suicide note. That's strange. There is also a dispute about whether the writing on the note was Cobain's.

The bottom line is that it's entirely possible that Courtney Love engineered a fake suicide. Unfortunately, more than twenty years have erased much of the evidence and proof for such a crime so the conspiracy theory won't go away.

Thanks for reading.