It’s been 20 years since Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain ended his life and shocked the world. So why not celebrate the 20th anniversary of his death by releasing the death scene photos? Not the best exercise in judgement, Seattle PD. Via Loudwire:
A total of 18 pictures have been released to-date, the most recent of which showcase parts of Cobain’s actual body. In a strange twist, Seattle police are now being hit with a lawsuit by self-described investigative journalist Richard Lee.
Richard Lee, 50, is widely seen as a conspiracy theorist who has made “groundless” assertions that Kurt Cobain’s death was not caused by suicide. Lee has run for Mayor of Seattle several times and once hosted the public access television show ‘Kurt Cobain Was Murdered.’
According to Seattle PI, Lee is suing Seattle police for not releasing the Cobain death scene photos shortly after the Nirvana frontman’s actual death. Lee will be representing himself in the suit.
“Self-described investigative journalist”? Yeah, that basically paints a cheesy picture about this guy, not to mention that he’s representing himself in court. A private investigator/fake lawyer? Man, this guy needs his own reality show if he doesn’t already have one.
Interestingly enough, there may be a legitimate basis for Lee’s lawsuit. In Washington state, law requires that government agencies that fail to disclose releasable records pay between $5 to $100 per day, per document, for the delay. Add that up over 20 years… that’s a hell of a lot of money. The city of Seattle has yet to respond to Lee’s suit and has reportedly refused to provide Lee with copies of the already-released photos of Cobain’s death scene.
“Lee has dealt with these SPD units many times in the past, and says that they are characteristically uncooperative, dilatory, and non-compliant with his requests for records and information,” Lee says in the lawsuit.
I looked at the photos and they were pretty sad. I’m not sure why it’s permitted to release photos from someone’s death scene, but it happens all the time. If you’re famous, you’re run the risk of this happening, I suppose. The whole Sharon Tate murder scene is burned into my eyes. I read all that stuff, not because I have some weird thing for crime scenes, but the insanity in which those acts happened was unbelievable and hard not to read about.
This, however, isn’t interesting. Cobain was a troubled person addled by drug addiction AND he was married to Courtney Love. He couldn’t take it anymore so he ended it by putting a shotgun to his head. No need to see pictures or start lawsuits, dragging it through the mud of conspiracy 20 years after the fact.
