Gary James' Interview With Kurt Cobain's Father-In-Law
Hank Harrison



Kurt Cobain: Suicide or Murder? His Father-in-Law Talks

It's a story that's been whispered about almost from the beginning. Did Kurt Cobain commit suicide or was he murdered? In the Underground there have been all kinds of theories, conjectures and hypotheses thrown around. There is however, one man who should know. That man is Hank Harrison. Mr. Harrison is the father of Courtney Love (Kurt Cobain's wife). He was also the first personal manager of The Grateful Dead. What you're about to read will change the way you view the death of Kurt Cobain and the music world forever.

Q - Mr. Harrison, where were you when you heard the news that Kurt Cobain was found dead, and did you initially believe foul play was involved?

A - I was writing a book. I was sitting at my computer. A friend of mine called me. He heard it on the radio about 10, maybe 11 in the morning. I immediately felt very, very bad. I knew there was some kind of foul play. There was no doubt in my mind.

Q - Why would anyone want to kill Kurt? Did he owe money to someone? Did he burn someone on a deal?

A - I don't think he burned anybody. I think he was getting out of the business. If you read Michael Azzarad's book you'll see he had a fantasy for a long time of doing what The Sex Pistols did and that was signing a contract, taking the money and then cutting out. He wanted to do that to Geffen I think. He wanted to get out of the Geffen contract I assume, although I'm not one hundred percent sure of that. I've also been told by other people, and also the private investigator, that Courtney has made statements that there was $9 million dollars on the table for the Lollapalooza concert tour and Kurt didn't want to do it. Somebody might've shot him 'cause he turned down the Lollapalooza gig. It put the whole Lollapalooza tour in jeopardy, because Lollapalooza without a big act in the front of it wasn't going to make as much money as Lollapalooza with a bunch of small acts. Kurt had a problem with the guy who was promoting the Lollapalooza tour and the whole concept of it. The first year he did Lollapalooza the promoter had a Marine recruiter come in and Krist Novoselic especially took umbrage to that. They didn't want to go and do it. They didn't like the guy's approach to multi-media. Who knows what all the details were. But, Kurt was tired. He didn't want to go on a big tour. I don't think they actually announced he was going to do it. There was some speculation that he might. But, somebody didn't like it. Courtney told the private investigator that she especially was upset about the $9 million dollars.

Q - Has Courtney contacted you since Kurt's death?

A - I've spoken to her two or three times. We're on the outs right now and I suspect we'll always be from now on, because of the way she treated me and the things she said about me in the press are not at all forgivable, especially since she's paranoid and panicked. But, I saw right through her scams way back in October of '93 or November of '93 when I went to see her. My version of what happened and her version of what happened are very different. The things she told me there didn't make sense to me until after Kurt died, which I'm not gonna go into detail right now. The first question you asked was did I suspect any foul play when Kurt died. I started to get worried with some of the things she was saying in the Fall of '93 about how they were getting along and what was going on with the baby. I sensed there was a crack in the dam. That was before the Rome tour and before the New Year's Eve Concert in Oakland.

Q - What was the deal with Kurt in Rome, was he trying to kill himself?

A - He apparently was in very, very good spirits as far as I've been told from people who were on the tour with him, fans, and people in the hotel. An international reporter who was in Rome and went to the hotel, interviewed one of the maids, who said they were fighting in the room. A radio station in Rome reported they were having fights. The show went very, very well and apparently he was not suicidal at all. Courtney says that he came in, she was tired, and she didn't want to have sex and he did, and threw a temper tantrum. Because she denied him sex, he went out and tried to kill himself. There was a prescription drug taken called rupinol, which is a synthetic narcotic tranquilizer type of thing. With booze it causes a great deal of reaction. For some reason or another, she claims she woke up and found him laying around, took him to the hospital and had his stomach pumped. I don't know. She also claims that he left a note, a note that nobody's ever seen. For all we know, the note that he left at the house in Seattle, was the note he left in Rome. The notes weren't dated. Courtney is the only one who had access to the paperwork. When the handwriting analyst came by and asked Courtney for the handwriting sample, they based their conclusions on the information Courtney fed them. We don't know what handwriting samples the handwriting analysts had. We don't know what Kurt's handwriting looked like. We don't know whether it was a suicide note or whether somebody added to it.

Q - There's a writer, talk show host out of Seattle who claims the suicide note was not written by Kurt. Is there any truth to that?

A - No. I don't know where he got his information. The public assumed that he said the note itself was written by Kurt. My impression, having talked to him on two or three different occasions, is that he never said the note itself was not written by Kurt. He's saying that parts of the note were not written by Kurt. It's important to realize that somebody probably fiddled with the note. I have a copy of the note. I have a number of samples of Kurt's handwriting. I have a number of notes from Kurt that I found at the Carnation house in a box, filled with his books. I have a number of his notes written in the margin, called marginality, from his school days. I have a note I received from some other person that knew Kurt, a xerox. Then of course, I have his suicide note. I also have a note taken from the pages of Michael Azzarad's book. They're all samples of his handwriting. There are certain distinct handwriting aspects that look like the suicide note was in fact written by Kurt, except there are portions of the note, especially the latter portion of the note, which makes it not a suicide note. I think by calling it a suicide note we are defeating our argument. It was really just a letter that he left behind with somebody adding the last three or four lines that made it look like a suicide note. At no time did he actually mention he was gonna kill himself in the note. At no time did he actually leave a note and say it was a suicide note. The handwriting was very small and pointed in different directions. At the bottom there's some larger lettering that doesn't match up. I've blown it up 200 per cent to look at it in detail. Unfortunately all we have right now is a copy taken from Courtney's fax machine. A fax copy. That would be a xerox of a fax or a fax of a fax. But, you get the general idea.

Q - Aren't we really just talking about a matter of interpretation here? Kurt wrote, "Thank you all from the pit of my burning, nauseous stomach for your letters and concerns during the last years." Couldn't that have been his way of saying goodbye cruel world?

A - It could also have been a letter written to some people at another stage of his life when he was really depressed and held back for months, even a year, and then used as a suicide note, to make it look like a suicide note. You see what I'm saying? There was nothing in the note that was dated. There was nothing internally in that note that let us know it was that day and he wrote it on that day. So, we don't know what the hell it is. I would probably not use the note as much of anything. By focusing on the note you miss the point. The note is almost like a red herring put in there to make it look like a suicide to cover up a lot of evidence that was laying around that is very, very mysterious. ======================================================================= =======================================================================

Q - Is it true that the Seattle Police were not sure at first whether they had a suicide or homicide on their hands?

A - No. They were almost completely convinced it was suicide from the very beginning but they took two months to get the reports back from the handwriting analysis people of the suicide note. There were a number of different stories about how the suicide note got where it was, what was said on the suicide note and who wrote the suicide note. So, the note itself became very significant in terms of their investigation. They couldn't really close the case. But, for all intents and purposes the case was closed within 3 or 4 days. They gave the body back to Courtney and cremated the body immediately. There was no autopsy. The pictures that were taken on the scene were destroyed. That was before the handwriting analysis came back. The main reason they thought he was suicidal is because the cops had been called to the house on 3 or 4 occasions since January ('94) when they first moved in. They were living there earlier, but first bought the house in January. I think they were renting it for awhile. Incidentally, Nancy Wilson's name is on the deed, from Heart. She's one of the people that loaned them the money or co-signed the loan.

Q - That's odd. I clearly remember the Wilson sisters (Ann and Nancy) being asked on the syndicated radio show Rockline if they knew Kurt and they said no. That show aired very shortly after his death. Is it possible the Wilson sisters never met him?

A - I doubt it. Lawrence Nathan and Nancy Wilson are both on the deed. I've seen the deed. I did a lot of research on it. Also, Nancy Wilson's name is on the deed to the Carnation property (another house the Cobains lived in) twenty-two miles outside of Seattle.

Q - The shotgun that was found near Kurt's body, he didn't buy this gun by himself did he?

A - He drove down with Dylan (Carlson - Kurt's friend) to buy it. Kurt was interested in loading up a shotgun to protect himself against burglars, or whatever perceived threat, real or otherwise he may have had. Carlson begged to stay with him, and he said no. He wanted to be by himself and that he'd be o.k. as long as he had the shotgun. Now, if Dylan is telling the truth about that, and he probably is, it clearly shows that Kurt was a real idiot. By that time I would be out getting my pit bulls going and I'd have 3 or 4 people standing guard for me. And, it's possible he did. Maybe he hired somebody that was trusted, to stand guard for him and then that person turned on him. You see what I'm saying? Remember, when the shotgun was found, it was belly up, with the breech up and in a position it couldn't possibly be in - with no fingerprints on the gun. Bear in mind, the gun was handled by the guys in the shop whose fingerprints are on record, Dylan Carlson whose fingerprints are on record, Kurt whose fingerprints are on record. Who knows who else handled it? There wasn't one fingerprint. In other words, it wasn't that there was Kurt's fingerprints on the breech, or a few fingerprints, there were no fingerprints of any kind of the gun. It had been wiped clean, after the fact. Therefore, somebody was there fooling with the gun. Maybe Kurt did shoot himself. Maybe somebody came in, picked up the gun, and wiped the fingerprints clean because they didn't want anything to do with that suicide. I don't know. But, dead men don't wipe their shotguns clean. That alone, is enough to open the case again. Nobody's fingerprints were on the gun and the gun had been handled by at least 5 people. There were 3 cartridges in the shotgun, the full load. Now, if you're gonna kill yourself, how many shots are you gonna take? In other words, they took the gun that was loaded for defensive purposes and got the guy so drunk that he couldn't function and dragged his body wherever they wanted and shot him on the spot. It's possible that he was already dead on drugs when they shot him in the mouth. They made it look like a suicide. The shotgun is very important. Forget the suicide note. The shotgun is important in this whole deal.

Q - Police say that Kurt killed himself on April 5. Yet there are two people who saw Kurt alive on April 6. We have yet another problem. When did Kurt's death occur?

A - That isn't necessarily valid information. That information was printed in a newspaper about a week after Kurt's body was found. The truth is, nobody who's been involved in researching the case on a first hand basis has been able to come up with the people that say they saw Kurt after April 5. Truth is, nobody saw Kurt after April 5. They may have seen a blond haired guy driving Kurt's car. But, they didn't see Kurt. Nobody can attest to the fact they saw Kurt after April 4, let alone April 5. Easter Sunday he's gone. Nobody knows where he was on April 4 or April 5.

Q - Are the homes a good distance apart in the neighborhood Kurt lived in?

A - Oh yeah. They're very well insulated. They're very large houses and it was pouring rain the whole 3 days with wind and thunderstorms and lots of noise. You couldn't hear a gunshot. If it was a bomb that went off, nobody heard it.

Q - Is it possible that Kurt was placed in this greenhouse, but died elsewhere?

A - Absolutely. He was overdosed somewhere else in the house, probably in his room and the body was then prepared and dragged in a half comatose state or kept on ice for a couple of hours. In a half comatose state he was taken into the greenhouse and the gun was used on him. There was no blood found anywhere else in the house. I don't know if they did photo luminescence tests. The police were not thorough. They assumed it was a suicide and it took place right where it did. They didn't bother to look throughout the rest of the house for clues to any other kind of foul play.

Q - The police noted that Kurt's driver's license was carefully placed on the floor so there would be no mistake about his identity. Doesn't that seem strange?

A - The cops did that to take a picture. The police photographer pulled it (the driver's license) out of the pocket of his jacket which was across the room and laid it out on the floor and took a close-up shot with a real close Macro lens of the driver's license. It's a common thing they do in murder scenes. He failed to put the thing back in Kurt's pocket. However, the contents were inventoried, and at least three, possibly 5, bank credit cards and ATM cards were found. The impression was that someone was running around town using one of Kurt's credit cards and that Kurt couldn't get money any other way. Actually had at least 3 credit cards on him. He had $160 in his pocket. He was never broke. He always had pocket change. He always had a couple of hundred dollars around the house.

Q - Do we know who was trying to use his credit card on Friday, April 8 at 1:35 a.m.?

A - Well, it's not so much as who was gonna use it, but why were they using it? Was somebody hired to use the credit card to make it look like the killer was out using the credit card? Was it made to look like Kurt was still alive and out using his credit card and then died another day? The number of screw-ups involved in this case is unbelievable. For example, Courtney called the credit card people to have the card cancelled. She didn't realize, or maybe she did realize that she wouldn't be able to trace out the whereabouts of the card after she shut it down. If somebody was really smart, they'd go to Seattle, go through the bank records and find the photographs that were taken at what ATM's and find out who was using the card. The police never went out to look at the photographs of the cards. Not all the things were at ATM machines. Some of the attempted charges were at flower stores. There was a whole series of charges and a kind of weird diminishment. The first attempt was for $4,000 and then went to $1,300. The final attempt was for $49.97 for flowers. It almost made it look like the person who had the card found out that Kurt was dead, used the card one last time to try and buy flowers, then just gave up and threw the card away. I don't know if it was somebody who found Kurt's card laying around or if somebody gave one of Kurt's cards to somebody and told 'em to use it. I don't know. If the police are correct and he did die on the fourth or the fifth, and the charges were made on the seventh, who was doing the charging? The cops didn't bother to find out. There's a definite reason to open the case right there - to find out who was using the credit cards.

Q - I definitely see a pattern with the deaths of Kurt Cobain, Elvis Presley, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Bobby Fuller, and Sam Cooke. Do you see the pattern as well?

A - Yeah. You can also add Mike Bloomfield and Kristen Pfaff. Here's the pattern: if you weave through all of those people, you'll find that the one thing all those deaths have in common is that they were going to split. They were leaving one company and going to another company or they were gonna stop cooperating with the people who had the contracts and go to somebody else who had contracts. In every one of those cases, when they died, the people who had the contracts were favored by the deaths. So, it's the old rule of homicide investigation; follow the money and you'll find your murderer. If you look and see who had a motive for Kurt dying... if Kurt was threatening to leave Geffen, then somebody at Geffen would have to answer for it. If Kurt was threatening to leave Lollapalooza, then somebody at Lollapalooza. There's more than one person involved, so you take your pick. Janis was rumored to be upset about the contract with (manager) Albert Goldman. Suddenly Janis dies of a hot shot that everybody knew was an overdose. Kristen Pfaff, who was Courtney's bass player in 'Hole' died of an overdose in her bathtub in Seattle 2 months after Kurt. There are people that are investigating that right now too. Kristen's family is very eager to find out what was involved in that case, because Courtney's lead guitarist Eric was over there the day she died. So, there's a connection there. Courtney had given her money to split town. Courtney gave her money to take a vacation, and actually she was splitting town for good. She said she was terrified of Courtney. Kristen was found dead, and her diary was on the bathroom floor. Pages had been ripped out of the diary. The cops didn't even bother to read the diary. People are saying that the pages missing were a condemnation of her role in the band. I happen to have met Kristen and I liked her a lot. She was a really wonderful person.

Q - . So what are we to make of all of this?

A - Rock 'n' Roll is a real dangerous gig. You might as well wear a hard hat everywhere you go. You might as well be hauling nitroglycerin across a bridge on a hot day than be a Rock 'n' Roll star. The only thing that gives you a blessing in Rock 'n' Roll is if you're poor, and you never make it. Heaven forbid if you should make it big. Then, the big guys come in and take you out.

© Gary James. All rights reserved.

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