Within hours of Courtney Love and Michael DeWitt joining Kurt in
Rome, hours in which Kurt argued with Courtney, and finally decided to leave her, Kurt was fighting for his life in a hospital
in Rome.
Courtney's response to this was to tell Select magazine: "If he thinks
he can get away from me that easily, he can forget it. I'll follow him through hell."
She said this not within the context of a failed suicide, but within
the context of an argument in which he told her he was leaving her. It is reminiscent of a recorded threat by Courtney to
Victoria Clarke" I will haunt you to hell, for the rest of your life."
Tom Grant believes that this overdose was an attempt by Courtney
to murder Kurt. The overdose was due to his ingesting Rohypnol and champagne,
which Grant believed Courtney administered to Kurt without his knowledge.
Wallace and Halperin mention this in their book and then ask why
Courtney would have called the ambulance whilst Kurt was unconscious, rather than leaving him to die?
In an interview with Robert Hilburn on April 4th 1994, Courtney talked about the overdose in Rome. Hillburn
reported: Love had flown to Rome early last month to spend a few days with Cobain after he cancelled part
of a European concert tour, caused by illness. She woke in the hotel room to find him unconscious, having taken some of her
prescription tranquilizers and alcohol, she says; " He was dead......legally dead, he was in a coma for 20 hours...on life
support. They thought he was never going to come out of it." (L.A. Times April 10th 1994).
Maybe Courtney did leave him until she thought he was dead. Her
above statement looks to me like amazed disbelief that he was not dead. Maybe the answer is that obvious.
Reports came through that Cobain had been moved from the Umberto
Prima Hospital - allegedly at Courtney Love's insistence - to the American Hospital. Many thought that, in the state he was
in, Cobain would not be moved anywhere unless doctors at the Umberto had said they could do nothing more for him. A doctor
at the Umberto Prima said: "Cobain was in a grave condition when he left here." (Melody Maker's March 12th 1994 edition).
How wise was it to have Kurt transferred at this point? Could
this have been a desperate attempt to set-back/prevent his recovery? I know it was supposed to be for security reasons, but
I question this excuse.
On March 3rd, just a few hours before she met Kurt in Rome, Courtney
did an interview with Select magazine, the writer said that during this interview Love was popping Rohypnol: There is a box
of Rohypnol on the big mahogany table in the middle of Courtney Love's London hotel room, among the scattered papers and cigarette
boxes. "Look, I know this is a controlled substance," she smiles as she empties one of those fizzy stomach upset powders into
a tumbler of water and washes back a Rohypnol. "I got it from my doctor. It's like Valium. You know, forget that Prozac
stuff. I'm not a depressive, I tried it for like five or six days, and by the sixth day I started seeing tracers like when
you're on acid..." (Select's May 1994 edition).
In Melody Maker's March 12th 1994 edition there was a two page
article on Kurt's overdose. Everett True had reviewed that weeks singles with Courtney just prior to her flying to Rome. True
reported that during this review, Courtney said: "This reminds me of when I take those dihydrocodeines I get over here in
London, with Rohypnol and champagne." Everett True ended his article by saying: "If Kurt Cobain wants to take Rohypnol, drink
champagne and go into a coma, it's up to him (and his wife, presumably,) and no-one else."
So, Courtney had the Rohypnol, and experience of
that method of using it, at a time that was crucial. Everett, where is your compassion?
But was it up to Kurt? It is possible that he wasn't
aware that he had been administered it. Rohypnol is tasteless when dissolved in drink, that is why it is called the date-rape drug. One tablet in a drink
is enough to confuse and disorientate a person.
It was claimed that Kurt ordered champagne and requested for a bell boy to fill a prescription for Rohypnol, the prescription
was Courtney's. How do we know Kurt ordered them? Contrary to Brite's claim that Jackie was the Nanny in Rome, it was reported
at the time that Love, Frances Bean and Cali joined Kurt in Rome. If these were ordered by phone, then DeWitt, aka Cali, could
have ordered them, and Kurt could have been oblivious to it.
The story as it unfolds in the Rossi & Brite books is that Kurt was acting the romantic, ordering champagne,
providing flowers, sending out for a prescription. Courtney fell asleep. She woke up between 3-4 in the morning and found
Kurt unconscious, with blood coming from his nose. He had a wad of cash in one hand, and a note he had written in the other,
he was wearing a brown corduroy jacket. (Queen of Noise page 187 / The "Real" Story page 164).
This does not make sense at all. We know Kurt wrote a note,
nearly all sources agree on that. The only example I can find of Kurt's explanation of this note is in Cobain by the editors of Rolling Stone, page 90, where a Gold Mountain employee said: "Kurt insisted
it was not a suicide note. He just took all of his and Courtney's money and was going to run away and disappear." In the article
as it was originally published in Rolling Stone's June 2 1994 edition it reports that this Gold Mountain employee was Janet
Billig.
There seems to be a problem here. I will always accept Kurt's
reasons and doubt Courtney's. On that basis then, why would Kurt write a note, prepare to leave, get the cash together, and
then take an overdose? The two actions are contradictory. The other point is that Brite wrote that Courtney woke up between
3-4 in the morning and found him unconcious - but the ambulance wasn't called until 6:30am.
This incident was described at the time as an accident/mistake/inadvertant
overdose. A convenient mistake/accident/etc, which just happened when Kurt was leaving, running away. A mistake which involved
Rohypnol and champagne, substances Kurt did not use but that Courtney was in the habit of using in combination and had at
her disposal, substances notorious for their use to incapacitate victims. I don't believe this was a mistake for one minute.
And I believe Kurt's reasons, so I can only consider the possibility that Grant is right, and it was attempted murder.
It was only after Kurt's death, that it was claimed
this was a suicide attempt. |
|
The
accounts are a mess, we only have slivers of information which come from reliable sources. Courtney's and DeWitt's can be
discarded. All I can do is try to piece together what might have happened using the facts I have. So the following is hypothetical,
a possibility, an opinion.
Kurt wasn't attempting suicide. The note Kurt wrote was a note saying
he was leaving Courtney, running away. On these foundations Kurt didn't take any Rohypnol
that he was aware of.
1) Kurt argued with Courtney, he told her he was leaving, both her,
and the tour he was on.
2) Someone ordered champagne and for the prescription to be delivered.
But this might not have been Kurt. Kurt might not have known about this.
3) Kurt didn't drink alcohol, this is witnessed by people who toured
with him. Just one Rohypnol was dissolved in a small amount of champagne, which was then diluted with water, maybe in Kurt's
famous bottle of Evian water.
The perpetrators of this act have enough experience of using Rohypnol
to know what they are doing. They provide just enough of the drug to render him incapable of leaving. Safe in the knowledge
that Kurt won't get very far, they leave the room, possibly to decide what to do next.
According to Rossi, page 186, the suite Kurt had in the Excelsior Hotel had an extra bedroom
for the nanny. Maybe they go there.
4) Because Courtney wasn't in the room, Kurt wrote a note saying
that he was leaving. He got ready to leave.
5) The drug took effect before he could get away.
6) The perpetrators then returned.
7) Kurt was incapacitated. Why did he have a bloody nose?
8) The perpetrators forcefully administered Rohypnol and champagne,
Kurt struggled, and in the process he injured his nose. When a person is forcefully administered liquid, their noses are pinched
to force them to gulp air/liquid to breathe.
"She saw the top of Kurt's blonde head whipping furiously back
and forth", (Poppy Brite, page 169). This was Courtney's description of Kurt supposedly being
man-handled into an ambulance. Are you sure you aren't getting confused, Courtney? You obviously saw this somewhere, are you
playing with the truth?
9) The perpetrators wait until 6.30 am before they raise the alarm,
by this time they believe that he is dead.
This is hypothetical, but it shows a sequence of events which makes
sense. Provides answers to the contradictions that otherwise stand. Tom Grant doesn't have the answers to everything, and
neither does he claim to. He does have an informed opinion though, and many people believe him. This will not go away. There
are serious and legitimate reasons to reopen this case.
Rome was never investigated as attempted murder, it should have been,
maybe it still can. Kurt's death must be re investigated. The patterns evident in Rome/Lake Washington Blvd cannot be ignored.
Kurt survived. Dr. Galletta who was responsible for Kurt's treatment, issued the following statement: "Cobain doesn't know
what happened to him. He hasn't gained complete control of his memory. When he emerged from the coma, he was very hungry and
asked for a strawberry milkshake!" (Melody Maker March 12th 1994.)
Victims of Rohypnol
often don't remember what happened to them, and their memory comes back at different rates, sometimes remaining lost
for years.
In Dave Thompson's book, Never Fade Away, published 1994 (page 11), Thompson mentioned an internet posting by
Kurt, where he said: "I'm still pretty freaked over the Rome thing, and need some time to rest and get over it. You'd think
they could make a good milkshake, but no."
I would be freaked if my intended plans suddenly came to a halt,
and I ended up in hospital for no reason that I could fathom. In Rome, Kurt was on the verge of running away, next thing he
finds himself in hospital and he doesn't know why.
Sandford mentions this same posting (page 323), but he omitted the above section,
maybe by 1996 (when Sandford's book was published) it wasn't convenient to include the above, Kurt had a healthy propensity
for milkshakes and breakfasts, not really in keeping with a suicidal man, a bit inconvenient.
The fact is that as time passes certain bits of information which
pertain to Kurt are lost whilst facts/evidence supporting Courtney's claims are constantly evolving, miraculously appearing.
These unnamed/Courtney claims are an insult to Kurt Cobain