Kurt Cobain died on April 5, 1994. But was his death the result of suicide or murder? Many people, including those who wrote up the Seattle police report for his death, firmly believe that the pressures of being "so young and suddenly so rich with so much attention focused on [him]" and the "sense of suddenly being superhuman" led Kurt to take his own life (Hammer). I, on the other hand, like so many others, including his close friends, cannot accept suicide as the truth when so much evidence in support of murder and so many discrepancies for suicide exist.

A note, written by Kurt and considered a suicide note in police reports explaining to his wife, Courtney Love, and his daughter, Frances Cobain, why he was ending his life, was found at the scene of his death. The note, though, was not written to his family nor mentions anything about killing himself but was written to "Boddah" and explained why he was leaving Nirvana (Grant). Only the last four lines, after Kurt signed his name, contain apologies to Courtney and Frances (Cobain Murder): "Please keep going, Courtney, for Frances, for her life, which will be so much happier without me. I love you. I love you (Cobain's Note)." But the last four lines of the note are not in Kurt's handwriting (Picture). Even experts have confirmed that the handwritings are not "consistent" (Who Killed).

In December of 1994, eight months after Kurt's death, when she accidentally revealed information during an interview, Courtney came forward with a second note from Kurt that she had kept in secret (Grant). The note was from his first "suicide" attempt in Rome on March 4, 1994. Instead of being a "suicide" note, it turned out to be an insulting attack against Courtney, mentioning divorce and plans to leave Seattle (Reasons), and "clearly defines" the note found at the scene of Kurt's death as not being a "suicide" note (Grant).

Does "media manipulation" have anything to do with Kurt's death being labeled as suicide (Reasons)? When his body was first found, the police and coroners assumed "suicide" (Cobain Murder), but without substantial forensic evidence (Grant). Nothing had ever been said about Kurt being suicidal until after his death. Kurt was very moody and sometimes depressed as are most people. He was also extremely sarcastic, but everyone who knew him was completely surprised by the claims that he was suicidal. In fact, Kurt never displayed any behavioral patterns for suicide. He had been forming new friendships, making dates with his family, and planning on seeing one of his favorite bands. A man who is preparing to end his life does not make such plans for the future. Not even the two notes suggest that Kurt was suicidal; they actually suggest quite the opposite and raise questions of whether Kurt's first suicide attempt was truly a suicide attempt (Reasons).

Kurt did not use Rohypnol, a drug that was both known as a "date rape drug" and was prescribed to Courtney at the time of Kurt's Rome "suicide" attempt. But Kurt was "suddenly hospitalized with [Rohypnol] in his body". Both Courtney and Michael Dewitt, a friend, were in the hotel room with Kurt when he overdosed on the colorless, odorless, and quickly dissolving drug. After waking from a coma, Kurt told everyone, including the doctors, that he had not attempted suicide but could not remember what had caused the coma. One common side effect of Rohypnol when abused is amnesia, which accounts for his loss of memory (Reasons).

At the end of March, Kurt went to Los Angeles for drug rehab (Grant). Before he checked himself in, though, he and his good friend, Dylan Carlson, bought the Remington 20-gauge shotgun (Who Killed) that would later be found "[resting] between [Kurt's] legs, pointed toward his head" at the scene of his death (Cobain Murder). Why would Carlson help Kurt buy a shotgun if he knew his friend was suicidal (Who Killed)? In reality, Kurt was "in fear of his life" and had purchased the gun for protection before he entered rehab, not after he fled the center as "reported by misinformed media sources" (Grant).

In order for anyone to commit suicide using a gun, at least one fingerprint would be present: on the trigger of the gun. Not only do police reports reveal that no "legible" fingerprints were found on the pen found with the "suicide" note or on the box of shotgun shells also found on the scene, but none were found on the trigger of the Remington 20-gauge shotgun (Reasons) that supposedly "inflicted the fatal wound to [Kurt]" (Cobain Murder). How could Kurt have shot himself without leaving a fingerprint on the trigger of the gun? In fact, the investigating police officers admitted that no markings were present on Kurt's hands to indicate that he had fired the weapon. Some believe the lack of fingerprints proves the gun and other articles were wiped clean by another unknown party (Reasons).

How does a dead man, overdosed on heroin, pull the trigger of his gun? The police report of his death indicates that Kurt had three times the lethal dosage of heroin in his system along with intravenous puncture marks in both arms (Reasons). Such a large amount of heroin would leave even a "hardcore heroin addict" immediately incapacitated (Grant) and comatose within seconds if not dead before the needle could be removed. How could a dead man pull a needle from his arm, neatly replace his drug paraphernalia into its appropriate cigar box, roll down and button his sleeves, and then pick up a shotgun and end his life? Not only was Kurt overdosed on heroin, but Diazepam (Valium), a drug that "aggravates heroin making an overdose that much worse", was also found in his blood system. Medical experts agree that an aggravated triple overdose of heroin would have killed Kurt instantly making a subsequent self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head impossible (Reasons). Why, too, would a man who "injected himself with a deliberate heroin overdose" also "shoot himself in the head with a shotgun" instead of "just [going] to sleep on the overdose and never [waking] up" (Grant)?

Life is full of questions without answers. Some people feel Kurt was just another rock star who killed himself, just another "middle-class [kid] whose dreams [came] true too soon", just another "very reckless and self-infatuated [person] trying to become [an angel]" (Hammer). Whether Kurt took his own life or not may never be known for certain, but I choose to believe, due to the discrepancies behind his death, that Kurt Cobain, the "voice of a generation", died, not under his own hand, but under the hand of someone else.

Grant, Tom. "The Kurt Cobain Murder Investigation." 21 Mar. 2003. <http://www.cobaincase.com/main.html>

Hammer, Steve. "John Updike On Kurt Cobain's Death." Nuvo. 23 Mar. 2003. <http://www.nuvo.net/archive/032599/032599_ahammer.html>

"Kurt Cobain Murder." 2001. PageWise, Inc. 21 Mar. 2003. <http://www.allsands.com/Music/Bio/kurtcobainmurd_ar_gn.htm>

"Kurt Cobain's Suicide Note." 23 Mar. 2003. <http://www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/santana/158/note.html>

"A Picture Of Kurt's Suicide Note." 23 Mar. 2003. <http://www.angelfire.com/ga/insidesorce/note.html>

"Reasons Why This Case Should Be Reopened." Justice For Kurt. 21 Mar. 2003. <http://www.justiceforkurt.com/investigation/reasons.shtml>

"Who Killed Kurt Cobain?" 23 Mar. 2003. <http://www.geocities.com/nereid_babe/kurt_cobain.html>