‘Love And Death’ Discussed On ‘Paula Zahn Now’

Max Wallace and Ian Halperin were on CNN’s ‘Paula Zahn Now’ to discuss their new book ‘Love and Death: The Murder of Kurt Cobain’, which alleges that the Nirvana frontman did not commit suicide 10 years ago, but was murdered. While not directly accusing Courtney Love of being involved, Wallace provided motive saying, “One of the pieces of new evidence we discovered is that Kurt, about an hour before he left the rehab center on April 1st, a week before he was found dead, he booked two tickets out of Seattle, for himself and a mystery woman who Courtney believed to be Kurt’s new girlfriend. She was obsessed with this woman. You hear her on the tapes asking Grant to bug this woman’s apartment, to hire a hacker to hack into United Airlines to find out who he was flying with, who this other woman is. So you can see she’s obsessive, very, very jealous.” Read on for the complete transcript.

ZAHN: Max Wallace and Ian Halperin lay out their case in that new book
called “Love and Death: The Murder of Kurt Cobain.”

They join us now along with Tom Grant, a former private investigator,
who was the source of some of the evidence cited in this book. Good to
see all of you.

So, Max and Ian, forever there has been speculation that Kurt Cobain’s
death was not as a result of suicide but murder.

What new evidence do you have that actually supports that?

IAN HALPERIN, CO-AUTHOR, “LOVE AND DEATH: THE MURDER OF KURT COBIAN”:
Well, we have a lot of stuff in the book “Love and Death.” What we outline
specifically that it is impossible that Kurt Cobain committed suicide.
If you look at the forensic evidence, he had three times a lethal dose
of heroin in his system when he died. Forensic pathological experts say
it is literally impossible for someone to — with that much heroin to pick
up a shotgun and try to blow their head off.

ZAHN: We have talked with experts who suggest that by that time of his
life Cobain was using a lot of heroin. And you can actually build up a
resistance to it. So, they say it is plausible he could have done it and
not only that, we’re on the phone today with the King County Medical Examiner’s
Office, they maintain today that the manner of death was suicide, as a
result of a contact perforating shotgun wound to the head.

MAX WALLACE, CO-AUTHOR, “LOVE AND DEATH: THE MURDER OF KURT COBAIN”:
That seems to be the case. He was killed with a gun, not with the heroin.
We have never said the at the heroin is enough to kill someone immediately.
The forensic pathologist we have spoken to say that that kind of a dose
would have incapacitated him within seconds, yet he rolls down his sleeve,
put await heroin kit, picked up the shotgun, put it in his mouth and pulled
the trigger. They always say tolerance, the medical examiner said it is
tolerance, heroin addicts have a higher tolerance, which is true. Yet they’ve
never been able to find a single case in American history where somebody
has ingested this dose of heroin and not been unconscious within seconds.
So if it is possible, show us.

ZAHN: Who do you think would want him dead?

WALLACE: Well, here is what is new in our book. We have obtained access
to the exclusive case tapes of Tom Grant who tape all his conversations
with Courtney, with Courtney’s lawyer, with the police medical examiner,
Kurt’s friends from the moment he was brought on to the case by Courtney
to find her missing husband. We have the tapes where her own lawyer Rosemary
Carol (ph), her entertainment attorney, the godmother of her child, of
Kurt and Courtney’s baby, is telling Grant that she believes there was
murder, she believes the suicide note was forged, urging him to look into
the investigation. Grant’s been vilified as a conspiracy theorist. Perhaps
we have too over the years. Yet it is her own attorney that is telling
him that Kurt wasn’t suicidal, that Kurt — that they were divorcing, they
were in the middle of a divorce, she revealed. Kurt had approached her
and asked her to take Courtney out of the will that she was just preparing.

TOM GRANT, FORMER PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR: There was a separation going
on and a divorce in the works. Kurt was in the process of leaving Courtney.
She had an album coming out pretty soon. Kurt was loved and adored by millions
of fans. Right at the time that Courtney was going to make her big move,
with her new album coming out.

WALLACE: One of the pieces of new evidence we discovered is that Kurt,
about an hour before he left the rehab center on April 1, a week before
he was found dead, he booked two tickets out of Seattle, for himself and
a mystery woman who Courtney believed to be Kurt’s new girlfriend. She
was obsessed with this woman. You hear her on the tapes asking Grant to
bug this woman’s apartment, to hire a hacker to hack into United Airlines
to find out who he was flying with, who this other woman is. So you can
see she’s obsessive, very, very jealous.

ZAHN: She vehemently — and they didn’t give a statement today — but
in the past, she’s vehemently denied having anything to do with the death
of her husband.

HALPERIN: I would love to sit here with Courtney Love and get her side
of the story.

GRANT: Having anything to do with what?

ZAHN: Having anything to do with his death.

GRANT: Oh, of course.

WALLACE: And we don’t actually accuse her of having anything to do with
the death. All we ask is that she open up the medical examiner’s report,
release it. What has she got to hide? Medical examiners report will reveal
suicide or murder. It can be examined by forensic experts. There is no
reason for her to block that. But she’s put up every obstacle of getting
at the truth.

ZAHN: All right, let me ask you this finally tonight. There are people
out there who actually believe what the police department is saying, that
this thing was a suicide and they feel that you’re just trying to make
money off this book.

(CROSSTALK)

HALPERIN: We’re just doing our job. For the hours we worked on this,
we worked years and years on this case. It’s — the money is not the reason
why we’re here. The fact is that one of rock’s true great icons, one of
the greatest rock stars ever possibly was murdered, and we want to get
to the bottom of it. It’s ode to Kurt’s fans, and especially on the anniversary
of his death, they want to know how their hero dies.

WALLACE: It isn’t about money, it is about justice.

ZAHN: Mark, Ian, Tom, thank you for joining us tonight. Appreciate it.

HALPERIN: Thank you.

WALLACE: Thank you.