25th Anniversary of a Tragic Suicide & a Multimorbid Conspiracy Theory (Update)

[updated May 6th, 2025 - added new Vernon Geberth interview about "Soaked in Bleach";

updated February 4, 2025 - added Vernon Geberth interviews / a new book about him]

by Silvia K.

Anniversaries are usually there to celebrate. But when it comes to Kurt Cobain's 25th anniversary we are not talking about his birthday, we are talking about a musician who died by suicide 25 years ago. Should this be celebrated? Definiately not. Should his music celebrated and suicide be discussed? Yes, absolutely! Should a murder plot be discussed? No! It's a bottomless pit... Human fantasy & opinions know no boundaries.

Over three years ago the filmmaker Benjamin Statler released the docu-drama "Soaked in Bleach" to the public. The movie details the events leading up to the death of Kurt Cobain as seen through the perspective of the former private investigator Tom Grant (license no. 16603). Grant was hired by musician and actress Courtney Love in a hurry to find her suicidal husband Kurt who quit rehabilitation for his Heroin addiction in the Exodus Recovery Center near Los Angeles after only one day.

The anterior intervention by his management, friends and his wife didn't succeed and Kurt flew back to Seattle. From there on conspiracy theories arose as to what exactly happened with Kurt until his lifeless body was discovered in a room above the garage of his own home on April 8th in the year 1994.

A clear case for Tom Grant & Benjamin Statler: Kurt Cobain was murdered. Was he? Not according to some experts in Statler's own movie. A year later they were interviewed about their involvement in the making of the fictitious film "Soaked in Bleach". [1, 2, 3] The, by conspiracy theorists glorified, movie suddenly appeared to be a great disservice to the general public and especially to Suicide Prevention, Mental Health Awareness and also to Heroin Addiction Awareness.

Vernon J. Geberth

[retired as the Commanding Officer of the Bronx Homicide Task Force; New York; has over 40 years law enforcement experience]

Geberth's conclusion in Cobain's death case was that Cobain died by suicide after he reviewed the Seattle Police Department's homicide information and after he interviewed one of the investigators who was in service at the time of the Kurt Cobain incident. His expert opinion is also based on his own experience with suicide cases. Geberth made his homework before he went to the "Soaked in Bleach" filming and responded to some 40 questions by the film producers. They repeatedly asked him questions about proper police procedures and basic death investigation in an attempt to show him that he agreed that Cobain was assassinated. He never agreed to such a thing but Statler's final cut makes it appear as if Geberth agreed. After Geberth was interviewed about his involvement in the movie, he again made clear, in a Facebook post and on his own website www.practicalhomicide.com, that he was not happy with the edited part of his interview. Geberth has worked his entire life for the community and his lifelong work can be purchased as a book "Practical Homicide Investigation" for educational purposes. The book text is used in most police academies, including the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia. It is a very interesting, disturbing and also very enlightening and heavy in weight book that Statler entirely missed to study before he invited Geberth to speak about the Cobain case.

Screenshots of Geberth's own written words:

 Screenshot from www.PracticalHomicide.com by Vernon Geberth - Research Material

Screenshot from the Facebook Site "Practical Homicide Investigation" by Vernon Geberth

Screenshot from the book "THE GODFATHER OF HOMICIDE SECOND EDITION: VERNON J. GEBERTH A COP'S COP" by Vince Cardillo (published October 16, 2024)

The 'Godfather of Homicide' Vernon Geberth's interview with TallboyRadio on April 30, 2025

Interview of (Ret) NYPD Lieutenant Commander Vernon J. Geberth "The Godfather of Homicide" (January 30, 2025)

Carole E. Chaski

[Forensic Linguist]

Carole Chaski is another professional who did not exactly remain silent about her involvement in the making of "Soaked in Bleach". The forensic linguist stated that she was not happy with how her opinion about Kurt Cobain's suicide note was used to influence the murder narrative.

In correspondence with the California licensed attourney Kurt F., Chaski described how she utilized linguistic software known as SNARE ("Suicide Note Assessment Review"; formerly known as "Suicide Note Assessment Research") as part of her evaluation of the Greenhouse note discovered near Kurt Cobain’s body. The two-step procedure of suicide note authentification consists of

(quote:)

1. an evaluation and classification by SNARE of a questioned document 

[Screenshot of the SNARE-Kurt-Cobain-Document the filmmaker Benjamin Statler is in possession of; Update July 10, 2019],

SNARE Kurt Cobain Note

followed by

2. an analyst performing qualitative assessment of the questioned document to ensure SNARE's classification is not in error. 

[Screenshots of Chaski's Review-Document of the Kurt Cobain Suicide Note the filmmaker Benjamin Statler is in possession of; Update July 10, 2019]

Chaski Kurt Cobain Note Review 1

Chaski Kurt Cobain Review 2

These documents alone confirm a major deception and betrayal of audience trust being committed by the director Ben Statler with regard to the Kurt Cobain greenhouse note.

In an interview on October 9, 2017 with Alan Warren from the NBC News affiliate "House of Mystery Radio Show", Chaski explained her involvement with "Soaked in Bleach" by herself and pointed out that "There was a struggle going on among the producers [...]" and that they "would ask questions in one way and talk in another way off camera [...]". Listen to this [~ 56 minutes long]:



Snippet:

Forensic Linguist Carole Chaski talks about the movie drama "Soaked in Bleach" from Silvia K. on Vimeo.

Another Snippet:

Carole Chaski exposes making of Benjamin Statler's hybrid movie "Soaked in Bleach" from Silvia K. on Vimeo.

John Fisk

[Paramedic Lt.; Medical Service Officer of the Seattle Fire Department]

Screenshot from "Soaked in Bleach"

John Fisk was yet another person briefly involved in Kurt Cobain's death case in 1994. Fisk took the emergency call during a normal shift as a first responder paramedic and went for a run to the Cobain property. He was the first person to enter the Greenhouse by breaking a glass panel on the locked French door. It was immediately evident to him and his colleques that the person found was a case of DOA (Death on Arrival; "fatality") because there was a recognizable gunshot wound to the head with a "significant pool of blood" at the floor by Cobain's head.

Fisk recalls his involvement with the docu-drama "Soaked in Bleach" in an interview on April 6, 2016 with the Mercer Island Reporter, who wrote that 

(quote:)

• "he reiterated to the producers that he still believes the case remains a suicide"
• "Fisk calls himself a bit of a skeptic when it comes to conspiracy theories, and says conspiracies seem to come up with any celebrity death."
• "In a case of an obvious suicide, which from my limited experience with a crime scene, it looked like every other suicide I’ve seen."

Nothing of what he told about his experience with suicide cases to the reporter was mentioned in the film.

Norman H. Stamper

[retired as Chief of Police of the Seattle Police Department (1994 - 2000)]

Screenshot from "Soaked in Bleach"

In an E-Mail response to the author from October 13, 2016, an assistant for Norman Stamper noticed that, Mr. Stamper "doesn't want to focus on Kurt Cobain anymore". Maybe it is because Norman Stamper was Police Chief at the time Kurt Cobain died and was updated on the case which is backed up by the case files, involving another conspiracy theorist with the name of Richard Lee, who approached Mr. Stamper many times. It is impossible that Norman Stamper had no clue about Lee's efforts to get the case reopened.

Read and educate what went on at that time:

>>> SPD Blotter (Case Files) <<<

Reaction from filmmaker Benjamin Statler II

To this day, filmmaker Benjamin Statler II avoids to answer questions publically and professionally about his artistic efforts to change the narrative to Homicide. And of course he did not release uncut versions of certain expert's interviews.

In a Facebook comment that I spotted by accident, Benjamin Statler stated the following about the interview editings:

Facebook Screenshot

Needless to say that Benjamin Statler II had the great opportunity to interview independent experts about Kurt Cobain's death case but paints the expert opinions as invalid at the same time. If an independent expert's opinion does not mean anything to Mr. Statler, then to open a new investigation would be pointless, wouldn't it? 

With the help of Statler's movie, the Conspiracy Theory has become multimorbid and sounds like fingernails scratching on a chalkboard over and over again. It won't vanish but it will trigger discussion about suicide, mental health and addiction.

Krist Novoselić (former bassist for the Grunge music band NIRVANA) about "Soaked in Bleach" in his own words

Twitter Screenshot

Facebook Screenshot

The Aftermath of "Soaked in Bleach" - Part II

by Frank E.

The Ben Statler helmed docu-drama Soaked in Bleach presents the events surrounding Kurt Cobain’s missing days before and after he was found dead from an apparent self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head. The film relies heavily on information provided by Tom Grant, the California based Private Investigator who was hired by Cobain’s wife Courtney Love to locate her husband who had walked out of an LA drug rehabilitation facility days earlier. 

 

The case has turned many into amateur detectives with the film adding fuel to the murder theory. However, information presented in the film may not be as it seems. Along with the heavily debunked claim that Cobain was injected with a 3x lethal dose of heroin it’s apparent that some of the experts interviewed for Soaked in Bleach may not be happy with how their opinion was used to influence the murder narrative. 

 

Screenshot from "Soaked in Bleach"

Carole Chaski is a renowned forensic linguist and Executive Director of the Institute for Linguistic Evidence, a non-profit research organization devoted to research and development in linguistic evidence. She was asked to analyse Cobain’s suicide note. Viewers watched her describe the ‘linguistically interesting’ aspects of the final lines of the note and how they appeared to be from a ‘stereotypical suicide note’ in comparison to the rest of the note. What the creators of Soaked in Bleach failed to mention however was that Chaski agreed with the official suicide verdict. When asked her opinion on the film and her involvement in it she stated,

“What I did say is that the note had typical variation of real suicide notes with the top half being one kind of suicide note and the bottom one being another  (more stereotypically-conceived) kind, both real suicide notes. My results do not support the conspiracy theory that Courtney Love authored the bottom portion to make it look like a suicide note”. 

 

Screenshot from "Soaked in Bleach"

Another expert interviewed for the film was Heidi Harralson, a Forensic Document Examiner. Her interview is played out while animation of letters from the practice sheet appear to be placed perfectly over the letters at the bottom of the suicide note. Harralson watched a small part of Soaked in Bleach and stated “Because I haven't seen the entire film, I can't critically evaluate it other than to say that I think what I said was mischaracterized through editing and taken out of context”. 

 

Watching the film it is clear to see that neither experts are actually on film agreeing with the suicide verdict or the murder verdict but it is implied that they question the authenticity of the Cobain suicide note. The animation featured during the interviews appears to manipualte the viewers. Having these experts featured in the film does add validity to the claims of the film but not providing the viewers a full picture of the experts claims makes their decision making somewhat cloudy. One fears that Statler's intention for viewers is to watch the film without questioning the information provided. Unfortunately, when researched the claims made by Grant and Statler, those seem empty and without merit.