The Federal Bureau of Investigation last month quietly released its file on the late Kurt Cobain, the lead singer for Nirvana who died 27 years ago.
The FBI periodically releases its archival files on politicians and entertainers. In April, the FBI made Cobain’s file public for the first time, Rolling Stone reported.
The 10-page file has two letters of interest. The authors of the correspondence, whose names were redacted, urged the Bureau to investigate Cobain’s death on April 5, 1994, at his Seattle home, Billboard reported.
Cobain’s death was ruled a suicide by the Seattle Police Department, which concluded the singer had died by a self-inflicted shotgun wound. A suicide note had been discovered at Cobain’s home, according to Billboard.
For decades, the FBI kept a file on conspiracy theories about Kurt Cobain's death. Here's what's in the newly released documents. https://t.co/SUQKMQjD7X
— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) May 7, 2021
“Millions of fans around the world would like to see the inconsistencies surrounding his death cleared up once and for all,” reads one typewritten letter, dated Sept. 24, 2003. That letter also cites director Nick Broomfield’s 1998 documentary, “Kurt & Courtney,” as evidence of similar skepticism.
The second letter, dated Nov. 20, 2006, pointed to so-called evidence from the lack of fingerprints found on the shotgun to different handwriting used in a portion of Cobain’s suicide note, Billboard reported. The letter also referenced the 2004 book, “Love and Death: The Murder of Kurt Cobain.”
“The police who took up the case were never very serious in investigating it as a murder but from the beginning insisted on it being a suicide,” the letter reads. “This bothers me the most because his killer is still out there.”
The FBI issued a standard response to each letter, Esquire reported.
“In order for the FBI to initiate an investigation of any complaint we receive, specific facts must be present to indicate that a violation of federal law within our investigative jurisdiction has occurred,” the FBI wrote. “Based on the limited information you provided, we are unable to identify any violation of federal law within the investigative jurisdiction of the FBI.
“We are, therefore, unable to take any investigative action in this case.”
The file also includes portions of a Jan. 30, 1997, fax sent to the Los Angeles and D.C. offices of the FBI from Cosgrove/Meurer Productions, the Los Angeles documentary company that is home to the “Unsolved Mysteries” series, Rolling Stone reported. The fax includes a summary of theories about Cobain’s case involving “Tom Grant, a Los Angeles-based private investigator and former Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputy.”
The fax also echoed Grant’s suspicions that the suicide ruling was “a rush to judgment,” Rolling Stone reported.
CMP co-founder Terry Meurer told the magazine on Friday that, “We reach out to the FBI for various stories and try to get information on them. We still do that -- we were just talking to the FBI yesterday about a request. We’re in constant contact with them. So that was a typical communication.”
Read the entire file from the FBI vault here.
Cox Media Group
