Cobain was killed by
a round from his Remington
M-11 shotgun.


Goodbye, Cruel World

"Just because you're paranoid/
Don't mean they're not after you."
--Kurt Cobain, "Territorial Pissings"

When determining whether a suicide is truly what it appears to be, the vehicle of death demands close examination. According to the Seattle Police Department's report, Kurt first shot himself with something other than a shotgun; both arms were pierced by hypodermic syringes. (The toxicology report that would prove the use of drugs at the time of death has never been released to the public.) He then placed the barrel of his shotgun, inverted for easier access to the trigger, in his mouth and injected himself with a lethal dose of lead poisoning.

But the story of the shotgun doesn't begin and end between Kurt's lips. The weapon -- a 20-gauge Remington M-11 semi-automatic shotgun -- was actually purchased by Kurt's best friend, Dylan Carlson, on March 30, 1994. Cobain told him he was concerned about intruders at the house, and bought the weapon under Carlson's name because he didn't want the police to confiscate it, as they had with his other firearms during a previous domestic disturbance call that resulted from a little quarrel with Courtney Love, his wife and mother of his daughter.

Suicide or not, the shotgun Kurt purchased is ideal for home defense, packing a maximum whallop while reducing the chances of a shot penetrating a wall and wounding someone in another part of the house. And he may very well have had reason to fear for his own safety, suggests private investigator Tom Grant, who was originally hired by Courtney Love to search for Kurt after he went AWOL from a Marina Del Ray rehab center days before his body was found.

Shortly before his death, Cobain did the unthinkable by walking out on a $9.5 million contract to headline Lollapalooza. Courtney was enraged, but she wasn't the only one. "Walking out on the Lollapalooza tour was a business decision that would cost others a great deal of money also," according to Grant. "Kurt may have been intimidated into believing his life would be in danger if he failed to do the tour."

A mafia hit in retaliation for turning down a gig? Not very likely. But that doesn't mean Kurt wasn't concerned for his safety, whether his reasons were justified or not. Regardless, the shotgun was fully loaded with three shells when the brutal deed was done. Was Kurt planning to do something with the other two shells after blasting the first one into his brain? Or was this just part of some master plan to make his suicide look like a murder?

The police crime lab failed to lift any legible fingerprints from the shotgun. As anyone who's ever buffed a firearm to a polished gleam can tell you, guns pick up fingerprints like a lint brush picks up dandruff. Perhaps Kurt carefully wiped the firearm down before blowing himself away, but you wouldn't expect such tidiness from someone a hair trigger away from suicide.

But so what -- they found a suicide note with his body, didn't they? Doesn't that prove it was a suicide?

Sure it does -- if it's really a suicide note, and it was actually written by the person who assumed room temperature. In Cobain's case, however, there are reasons to doubt intentions of self-termination, in spite of the hype.

(c) Copyright 1996 ParaScope, Inc.

Next: Cobain's farewell letter to Boddah.
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