ELDON HOKE, AKA EL DUCE

References:
1   High Times April 1996.
2   Nick Broomfield's film Kurt & Courtney.
3   Loser The Real Seattle Music Story by Clark Humphrey, published by Feral House.
4   Wallace and Halperin's Who Killed Kurt Cobain? (WKKC?) Published by Birch Lane Press p
131-134.

The April '96 edition of High Times featured an article called  "Who Killed Kurt Cobain?" written
by Tim Kenneally and Steve Bloom. In this article the authors aired the views of Tom Grant, El
Duce and Hank Harrison (Courtney's father.)

El Duce was a first degree beer gut. He was the singer for a notorious band called the Mentors,
who, strangely enough, played their debut gig at a club called The Bird in Spring Street, Seattle,
on March 4 1978.  Courtney met El Duce in the late 80s.

A founder member of her band Hole was Caroline Rue who was going out with Eric Carlson, aka
Sickie Wifebeater, who was the Mentors guitarist.

The fact that El Duce had some knowledge of/connection with Seattle would be useful.

During the High Times article El Duce claimed that in the last day's of December 1993, Courtney
Love pulled up outside The Rock Shop, a Hollywood record shop, at 1644 Wilcox Ave, Hollywood,
and spoke to him. The conversation went:

C Love:   "El, I need a favour of you. My old man's been a real asshole lately, I need you to blow his
fucking head off."
El Duce:   "Are you serious"?
C Love:   "Yeah, I'll give you $50,000 to blow his fucking head off."
El Duce:  "I'm serious if you are".
CLove:    "Where can I reach you"?
El Duce:    "You can reach me here".

They then went into the store and he handed her a business card. The manager of the shop,
Karush Sepedjian remembers the visit. He said:

"El was kicking it out on the bench in front of the store and she came up. I overheard her saying, "Can
you handle doing this? Can you get this done? What do you want for it"? They were talking about
knocking off Kurt Cobain. Then El brought her inside and said to me quietly, "She offered me $50,000".

Love then took a business card and left. Sepedjian then went on to say that in March 1994 Love
contacted the shop asking for El Duce, who at the time was on tour. Courtney was screaming:

"That son of a bitch, we made  an agreement. What am I going to do"?
Sepedjian replied: "I don't know, I've got a business to run. Goodbye."

Ten days later Kurt's body was found. This would imply that she spoke to Sepedjian around
March 30th 1994. Could this be the "business"  she told Carroll and Grant that she had to
attend to, rather than going back to Seattle to look for Kurt?

Sepedjian went on to say:

"I was like Whoa! I wonder if she actually did pay some sucker to blow off his head"? El Duce said:
" Maybe she got somebody else. I think Kurt was getting ready to divorce her for adultery charges. She
had to have him whacked right away so she could get the money."

Wallace and Halperin provide a section on El Duce. It is along similar lines as the High Time's
article.  Sepedjian described Courtney as screaming when she called The Rock Shop to speak to El
Duce, in WKKC? Sepedjian used the word "frantic"

"She was frantic".

This is similar to the way Joe Mama described her. Joe Mama saw Courtney on April 1st 1994. He
also saw Kurt just before Kurt left the rehab on April 1st.  Joe Mama said of Kurt:

"I was ready to see him look like shit and depressed. He looked fucking great!"

He then said of Courtney when he saw her on April 1st after Kurt left:

"She was really freaked out, so we drove around looking for him at all the places he might have gone. She
was really scared from the beginning. I guess she could tell."(Cobain by the editors of Rolling Stone p 83).

The important question here, in the light of the El Duce and Sepedjian information, information
Courtney has tried  hard to suppress but not by legal means, but by intimidation, is, was she
scared  and freaked because of her concern for Kurt? Or was she in this state because her plans
were in imminent danger of collapsing?

And as Kurt was AWOL, she had no control over him, he could sign his new will and file for
divorce on the grounds of adultery.

Do I go with Joe Mama's possible misinterpretation of Courtney's behaviour, and let's face it, Joe
thought Kurt looked "fucking great!"  Or do I go with El Duce who has passed a polygraph test?  
I have to go with El Duce, it's not like he gained anything by his claims, he just ended up dead,
like Kurt.

And another possibility which springs to mind is this, when Courtney and Joe were driving
around looking for Kurt, was she actually trying to locate El Duce, or maybe find someone else to
take care of business? unbeknownst to Joe who really was trying to find Kurt. Joe,how do you
reconcile your perception of Kurt looking so great, with Courtney's claims that he was suicidal?

Tom Grant, when he heard of El Duce's claims, was sceptical. He said:

"Why didn't they come forward sooner? At first I thought maybe Courtney put them up to it to set me up.
I could start talking about these guys as proof and then they would come out and say they made the
whole story up. I would then be discredited and have no more credibility."

On March 6th 1996 El Duce underwent and passed a lie detector test administered by Dr E Gelb a
leading polygraph examiner. He administered a polygraph test to O J Simpson two days after the
murder of his wife and said that O J failed the test quite badly. According to Dr. Gelb, El Duce's
story is completely truthful.

To the question "Did Courtney Love ask you to kill Kurt Cobain?" Duce's positive response
showed a 99.91%  certainty that he was telling the truth, which falls into the category "beyond
possibility of deception". Duce also score the same when the question was repeated. When asked
the question "Were you offered $50,000 by Courtney Love to kill Kurt Cobain? " Duce scored a slightly
less impressive 99.84% score.

Following these tests Duce contacted the Seattle Police Department's Homicide Division and also
the Los Angeles police dept. Both he and Sepedjian have offered to take similar tests for the
police but both departments have declined to persue an investigation.

Why? Why do the Seattle Police constantly deny that there are legitimate reasons to reopen this
case?  I think it must be for the reason that their initial investigation was so  completely inept,
that it would be a major embarrassment.

During the Green River Murders in Seattle, in the 80's the Seattle Homicide dept ruled out
suspects on the strength of their polygraph results.  Why, then, do they choose to ignore El
Duce's pass on the polygraph test? See The Search for The Green River Killer by Carlton Smith
and Tomas Guillen published by Signet True Crime.

To anyone who ever gained, on any level, from the work of Kurt Cobain and who want to see his
death treated with the respect and dignity that he deserves, rather than the lies and farce
bestowed by Courtney, I would suggest that they actively become involved in pressuring for a new
independent investigation into the circumstances of his death.

Love and her legal representative's have refused to confirm or deny whether she was in Los Angeles
during this period, despite Wallace and Halperin's repeated requests. They told them that if they could
provide concrete evidence that she wasn't in LA at the time of Duce's claim, they would dismiss the story
as a fabrication.

Nirvana did a gig at The Great Western Forum Inglewood, CA on December 30 1993 (Cobain by
the editors of Rolling Stone p 142). Inglewood is no further than 10 miles from Hollywood and it is
well known Courtney travelled with Kurt, so the chances are pretty high that she was in LA on
December 30th 1993, which would support El Duce's claims.

Love's lawyers refused to provide information on her whereabouts at this time but have tried to
discredit other parts of Duce's claims. Her attorney Seth Lichtenstein pointed out El Duce said in
one interview that he was seated on a bench outside the Rock Shop when Courtney approached to
make the offer. Lichtenstein correctly asserts that there was no bench outside the store and
concludes that El Duce must therefore be lying.

W & H replied to this with:
"Both Hoke and Sepedjian claim that Hoke actually said he was sitting on a bench inside in the front of the
store, not outside in front of the store, and that he may have been misquoted?  In an interview El Duce
gave to W & H they say Duce made no mention of sitting on a bench outside the store.

There is a discrepancy with regards to a bench being either inside the front of the shop, or
outside in front of the shop. Maybe this is a misquote, I don't know, but it is Sepedjian who is
possibly misquoted, not El Duce.  When you take into consideration the following:

1   Courtney could well have been in LA at the time stated by El Duce.

2   El Duce passed a polygraph test proving he wasn't lying.

3  The undeniable fact that Courtney knew El Duce quite well.

4  The overall description of both El Duce and Sepedjian's claims and how they fit into the
framework of a planned murder, and that they also go a long way in explaining Courtney's
otherwise illogical and contrary behaviour during the time Kurt was missing.

All of these things go some way in substantiating  their claims, and to throw out a whole
possible lead in an important case purely on the ground of a misquote/misunderstanding would be
appalling folly.  Especially when one of the men making those claims eventually died in murky
circumstances.  Would Courtney agree to  take a polygraph test stating that she didn't offer
money to have Kurt killed?  Hank Harrison offered to cover the expense of doing just this. His
offer was declined.


NICK BROOMFIELD'S INTERVIEW WITH EL DUCE:

Source: Broomfield's film Kurt and Courtney as shown on BBC 2 October 31 1998:

Scene: Broomfield is taken to meet El Duce at his abode in Riverside, L.A. by Divine Brown's pimp, who
is a close personal friend of El Duce.

Pimp:  "There he is, El Duce."

Broomfield:   "Where? Oh yes."

Pimp:   "There he is right there. This is him, El Duce."

El Duce:   "Yaaargh. Where's the booze?"

Pimp:   "He's just perverted!"

El Duce:   "Yeah, a warped er, intoxicator, most of the time."

Broomfield:   "So you er, did some deal with Courtney right?"

El Duce:   "Yes."

Here Broomfield interjects the interview explaining that under British libel laws he was forced to
cut these allegations. It was impossible to substantiate any of El Duce's allegations.

Broomfield:   "That's a fact is it?"

El Duce:   (laughs.)

Broomfield:   "people might think that you are not the most reliable witness."

El Duce:   "Well, that's too bad. You may not be the reliable witness your own self, now think about
that !" (laughs.)

Broomfield again interjects with:

" El Duce, I found out was well known in the L.A. music scene. A wild man with a strong following. He
claims to have known Courtney over the years and that she came to the Rock Shop and made him an
offer. Unfortunately it is this offer we were unable to substantiate. An offer that El Duce claims was very
extreme. And that there was no way that it could be reproduced without having hard evidence that it was
true. And under British libel laws as they stand  today, that would be impossible."

El Duce:   "I just didn't think she was serious. (laughing.)

Broomfield jumps in with:

"Unfortunately he was just a bit too wild and brilliant for the English libel laws. But she didn't say anything
about making....."

El Duce:   cuts him off with, "Make it look like a suicide."

Broomfield:   "Well, yeah, but if you just blew his brains out like you said, it wouldn't look like a
suicide, it would look like you blew his brains out."

Come on Nick! It was widely and hastily reported that this was a suicide. It has been widely
accepted by the press and Seattle Police Dept that it was a suicide. All this acceptance whose
foundations are built on a flawed investigation, and dubious information supplied by none other
than Courtney Love and unnamed sources.

There are at least two photographs published of Kurt holding a gun to his head, one of which was
taken by Youri Lenquette who, according to W & H, later admitted asking Kurt to strike that
pose (W & H's WKKC? p 87).

Kurt has even been in print saying about blowing his brains out. So, of course, this plan for
murder would perfectly match the "suicide" story.

The photos and quotes could easily have been used as the blueprint for murder. How many times
have I/you held two fingers to my/your heads pretending it was a gun and that I/you were going to
pull the trigger? As a joke!

Unfortunately for Kurt these actions appeared in print and were later used as examples of his
suicidal nature.  Used one must say, by a widow who stood to inherit a fortune from his death by
"suicide".

And remember, Kurt was in the process of writing a new will which was to exclude Courtney, and
was going to leave her, divorce her.

Many people contemplate and talk about suicide, but that doesn't make it inevitable that they will
die by suicide.

El Duce:   "Right, but er, I told  Alan, (looks up sheepishly towards Divine Brown's pimp)- I mean er, my
friend who (starts laughing) aah, I'll let the FBI catch him, but er, (laughs, that's just the way it's done.
End of Story (laughs again). Hey 50 grand does a lot of talking. You buy me a beer I might do some more
talking, (laughs, looks into the camera, and after a short pause-) Yaaaaargh !"

Broomfield:   "and that seemed to be the end of the interview. I didn't know quite what to think. El Duce
had passed a polygraph test, even though his main witness (Sepedjian,) had nodded off before its
completion."

The polygraph was completed before Broomfield started making the film so Broomfield could
have treated the interview  from the standpoint of an informed documentor rather than the
slightly bungling fool.

Why didn't you question the police's choice to ignore this test, Nick? I would like to know what
ended up on the cutting room floor,  I'm sure that you kept all the footage eh, Nick?  It will
probably be used as evidence at a future date.

About a week after El Duce's interview with Broomfield, on April 19, 1997 El Duce was killed by a train
in Riverside, LA The events surrounding his death are murky.

Rather like the events surrounding Kurt's death.

W & H report that at 5 pm Duce arrived at his house with a man he said he had just met. After a while
they left the house to go to the liquor store saying that they would be back shortly. They never returned.
At 9pm Duce was hit by a train and died instantly. There were no witnesses. Police were unable to locate
the man seen with Duce that afternoon. Music journalist and friend of Duce, Al Bowman said: "There is
something very, very strange about his death. Anybody who knew El knew that you could make friends
with him by offering to buy him a drink. He had a problem with alcohol." When asked if he thought El
Duce was suicidal he replied "No way. He was all exited about his upcoming tour. He was in good spirits.
He didn't kill himself. I'm convinced this has something to do with Kurt Cobain."

There are remarkable similarities between the way Kurt died and the way El Duce died.
Bowman did not think El Duce was suicidal, look at his above quote again, it sounds like what
Dylan Carlson, Kurt's best friend, said when he was asked if he thought Kurt was suicidal:

"Kurt was facing lots of pretty heavy things, but he was actually pretty upbeat. He was prepared to deal
with things facing him. He was making all kinds of plans for when he got back from rehab."

Kurt and El Duce shared several constants in their lives:

1   Both of them got on the wrong side of Courtney Love.

2   Both of them were a threat to her.

3   Both died under mysterious circumstances.

4   Neither of them was suicidal.

W & H report that Grant still remains sceptical of the El Duce revelations and is unwilling to speculate on
the death of Duce, saying he doesn't have enough information. (WKKC?)

But for Grant no one would be aware of the real circumstances going on at the time.  He has  
recorded conversations with Love and Carroll.  Courtney and her lawyers have threatened many
times to sue their detractors, but never have.

In 1995 Courtney finally admitted to Request magazine that she had taken heroin during her
pregnancy,

"or else I would have sued her (Hirschberg's) ass off".

That must be why she won't sue Grant, Wallace, Halperin, Broomfield et al, because if she did she
would find her self in deep trouble.

As she refuses to defend her reputation in a legal way she cannot be surprised when people
choose to believe Grant, everyone has the right to an opinion.

It's not surprising that Grant doesn't wish to speculate on El Duce, this is a part of the puzzle he
has no direct experience of.  

El Duce does, however, seem to be a part of the puzzle that Courtney Love created.

It is up to the police to investigate suspicious deaths, not a private investigator.

The police can no longer substantiate the theory that Kurt's death was a suicide.  It is becoming
increasingly obvious that this verdict was contrived.  Until a new independent investigation is
opened, possible witnesses will appear "evasive", "reluctant". They don't want to wind up dead,
like El Duce, Kristen Pfaff and Detective Antonio Terry.

There is too much evidence of foul play.

This case must be reopened/investigated.  Public opinion is not illegal, and it can pressure to this
end.

Most importantly though is that justice is done for Kurt Cobain.