Recent Media Attention Has Seattle's
Police Department Scrambling for Answers
DETECTIVE CIESYNSKI'S
INDIVIDUAL E-MAIL TACTIC
A silly waste of time by a desperately flailing Detective.
Police Department Scrambling for Answers
DETECTIVE CIESYNSKI'S
INDIVIDUAL E-MAIL TACTIC
A silly waste of time by a desperately flailing Detective.
This rather weird e-mail from Detective Ciesynski was forwarded to me by
a friend who had been communicating with the detective online.
From: Ciesynski, Michael
To: j__l@live.co.uk
Subject: Re: Cobain investigation
Date: 01 May 2014 19:40:17
"I have no opinion on Mr. Grant. He was wrong on every matter he raised in critiquing my interview."
"I do not believe the movie will be distributed based on what I was told from people in the industry. Cheers"
Item A. "I have no opinion on Mr. Grant," but then he adds, "He was wrong on every matter he raised in critiquing my interview."
Apparently Mr. Ciesinski doesn't understand the word "opinion" since he just gave us one that he said he didn't have!
Let's examine some of the other matters I critiqued in regards to Detective Ciesynki's interview:
Many of my YouTube comments which are posted at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8NTb2Prd28&feature=youtu.be) were certainly expressions of my own personal opinions. However, as you may have already gathered, my opinions are based on my experience as a Sheriff's detective and private investigator with an above average working knowledge of how an investigation involving the discovery of any dead body should be conducted.
But for the purpose of refuting Detective Ciesynski's claim that I was "wrong on every matter..."I'm going to stick to just a few of the documented statements made solely by Ciesynski.
Keep in mind that Detective Ciesynski was assigned to be the official spokesperson for the Seattle police department for this televised interview about the investigation into the death of Kurt Cobain. In essence, Detective Ciesynski spoke for the entire Seattle Police Department. There were even Seattle Police Department logos on the wall directly behind where Detective Ciesynski was sitting during this TV interview.
DETECTIVE CIESYNSKI'S - TELEVISED STATEMENTS
(Some of what you read here may appear to include typos or misused words and phrases. However, they are the actual words and phrases used by Detective Cysinski as he spoke on-camera. We felt that attempting to correct his grammar could possibly misrepresent what he actually said).
Detective Ciesynski: "What I believe happened was that Kurt went up there for one purpose was to commit suicide... and I believe he did not want to be found and be revived, or um... so he wanted to make a sure way to kill himself... and I believe Kurt went upstairs, and I believe he may have been under some narcotics at the time, then he came back up to the greenroom, uh, finished off his note, walked, set it up on top of the, uh, pottery or some potting soil... and when he was done with it he took his pen and plunged the pen... nailed the pen right through the potting soil... he walked back, sat down..."
Grant: We have to ask here; how would Ciesynki know this? It sounds like he reaches his conclusions in the same manner as Courtney Love's well known friend and fiction writer, Charles Cross.
Detective Ciesynski: "uh, he loaded the shotgun,"
Grant: When you watch the complete interview on YouTube and put it in sequence with what he said before and after, it's clear that he's claiming Kurt loaded the shotgun, with three shells, (as noted in all other Seattle police reports), just prior to allegedly killing himself.
Detective Ciesynski's statement here is absolutely absurd!
I've always said the shotgun was loaded for protection, not suicide. I was told that by the person who purchased the shotgun for Kurt, his best friend, Dylan Carlson, and... here's what Kurt had to say about his various firearms:
Kurt Cobain interview
January 27th, 1994 issue of Rolling Stone:
(Just months before he was found dead)
Interviewer: "Without getting too PC about it, don't you feel it's dangerous to keep them in the house, especially with your daughter, Frances, around?...
Kurt: "It's protection. I don't have bodyguards. There are people way less famous than I am or Courtney who have been stalked and murdered."
"It could be someone by chance looking for a house to break into. We have a security system. I actually have one gun that is loaded, but I keep it safe, in a cabinet high up on a shelf where Frances can never get to it."
"And I have an M16, which is fun to shoot. It's the only sport I have ever liked. It's not something I'm obsessed with or even condone. I don't really think much of it."
Interviewer: "How does Courtney feel about keeping guns at home?"
Kurt responds: "She was there when I bought them."
"Look, I'm not a very physical person. I wouldn't be able to stop an intruder who had a gun or a knife. But I'm not going to stand by and watch my family stabbed to death or raped in front of me. I wouldn't think twice of blowing someone's head off if they did that. It's for protection reasons.
And sometimes it's fun to go out and shoot¦ [Pauses] at targets. I want to make that clear [laughs]."
So is it reasonable for Detective Ciesynski to assume that Kurt, (who clearly purchased that shotgun for protection), loaded three shells into the shotgun magazine just before putting it in his mouth and pulling the trigger? Was he thinking he might need a second or third round?
Of course not.
What this statement by Detective Ciesynski proves is that his investigation included careless speculation that reached far beyond the bounds of reasonable and logical analysis.
Detective Ciesynski: The amount of heroin that he injected was, like, ten times what normally was what anybody would have taken, even a heavy heroin user, and so, I believe he gave himself a fatal dose of black tar heroin"
"he killed himself because of the shotgun blast, but the heroin would have did the trick also"
"I asked the King Courtney Medical Examiner's office some questions that I don't think were addressed earlier um, in the initial investigation, um, one was the amount of heroin that Kurt inges, that he gave himself, was extreme amount of heroin, um, I don't think they'd seen they'd seen anybody with an overdose, in our county at least, that had that much of heroin inside of em,"
Grant: We've been saying the heroin/morphine blood levels revealed in the toxicology report during the autopsy was a fatal dose for nearly 20 years. This is the first time the Seattle police department has publicly admitted the amount of heroin/morphine in Kurt's blood system was a fatal dose, even for Kurt Cobain.
But again, Ciesynski claims my critique was wrong on every matter I raised.
I'm curious as to how I could be wrong about his statements regarding critical medical evidence that he mentioned during his televised interview.
I didn't say it this time. He did!
If you watch the entire interview at the link above, you'll find that I criticized Detective Ciesynski for his highly speculative opinions about exactly what happened with Kurt inside the greenhouse just prior to his death.
Yes, it is my opinion that Ciesynski was recklessly speculative as he described, with so much detail, what he claims Kurt's intentions and actions were while Kurt was in that greenhouse. And no one can refute the fact that these statements were pure speculation because Ciesynski even begins by saying this was his opinion.
There was no forensic evidence that gave this detective that kind of insight into what Cobain was thinking or the sequence of any Kurt's actions prior to his death. Ciesynski was put in a position where he was forced to defend the SPD findings of "suicide." He was finally backed into a corner with the press, so he had to speculate about how it all happened. What else could he do, tell the truth?!
According to some of the most respected pathologists in the country, it would have been virtually impossible for Kurt to have ingested a triple lethal dose of heroin, ("even for a hardcore heroin addict," as Detective Ciesynski agrees), then roll his shirt sleeves down, place the plastic caps on the tip of the syringes, put the items used neatly back into his drug kit box, then, somehow still managed to pick up and manipulate that shotgun in order to shoot himself, especial while still sitting up, (as Dr. Hartshorne told my undercover investigator during a recorded telephone conversation in 1995).
The scenario of Kurt's activities in that greenhouse must have been completely different than the scenario described so confidently by detective Ciesynski's blind speculation!
Since the real medical evidence in this case indicates Kurt could not have killed himself, something else happened that Detective Ciesynski obviously left out of his interview and his police report.
Kurt was not alone.
Item B. "I do not believe the movie will be distributed based on what I was told from people in the industry."
Yes, Mr. Ciesynski, the big bad wolf is trying to huff and puff and blow our house down. Actually, it's trying to knock our house down by tossing paper at it. I recall it trying that many times before, but the unusually tough looking paper it used only caused a few chipped bricks which have since been repaired and reinforced. Our house is now stronger than ever.
But I'm rooting for the wolf here. If it succeeds, our house will fall right on top of it, tearing off that fake wolf costume, revealing it's true identity and exposing more than it could have ever imagined!
You need to put down your Charles Cross novels Detective and read up on the Big Bad Wolf sequels. If you do, you'll discover that nothing will stop this film from being released. Nothing will prevent more revelations about the incompetence of your departmentally sanctioned work and the work of your former partners in your department's cover-up.
And while most animals learn from past mistakes, thankfully, this wolf seems to have a short memory. As always, in the end, the good guys remain standing and the frustrated wolf shoots itself in the foot.
So I'm sorry to spoil your day detective, but maybe you'll have time to rewrite your e-mail campaign and heal your wounded pride—before it's too late.
Sometimes people are afraid of the truth.
Sometimes people try to convince others that they have private knowledge of something based on rumors and hearsay from "people in the industry."
I'm not concerned about whether "Soaked in Bleach" will be released and distributed or not. It will.
I'm more troubled that a Seattle Police officer seems to be overly concerned about the release of a film that will help serve to expose the truth about the mishandling of the original investigation into Kurt Cobain's death.
Shouldn't we all be after the same thing here?
Shouldn't we all just be after the truth?
DETECTIVE CIESYNSKI'S WRITTEN POLICE REPORT
SEATTLE POLICE DEPARTMENT
Case Investigation Report: 94456500
Type of Crime: Suicide
Date of Incident: 4/8/1994
Submitted by: Detective Michael Ciesynski
Cobain, Kurt Donald
W/M/02-20-1967
(The date this report was written is not listed. However, we do know it was a short time after Detective Ciesynki's televised interview with Seattle's King 5 Television).
THE OPENING STATEMENT OF THIS POLICE REPORT - WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
Ciesynsk: "Having been assigned to 'take a taped statement' in 1996 from someone"
Grant: This detective was asked to take a statement from someone whose name he neglects to mention. He also neglects to mention the purpose of taking that statement. Why would Ciesynski be asked to do this, two years after Cobain's death?
Because even two years after Cobain's death, the homicide investigators still had no conclusive proof that Kurt Cobain committed suicide. Otherwise, why would they continue interviewing others and now recently reviewing newly developed photographs?
The most obvious blunder here is that since my first meeting with Sgt. Cameron in April of 1994, they have never once contacted or interviewed me, the one person who was in the middle of this whole mess while Kurt Cobain was still alive and a person with detective experience who was very close to the case and the "players" during the months after Cobain's death!
Were they ever after the real facts and details of this case, or were they just looking for ways to save face?
As I continued to question the diligence of their initial investigation, Detecive Sgt. Cameron referred to my work on the Cobain case as a "dog and pony show."
But here, two years after Cobain's death, the Seattle homicide detectives were still putting on their own "dog and pony show" as they were forced to cover their butts following their sloppy investigation. After all, they had already allowed Kurt's body to be cremated. They had also allowed the greenhouse to be torn down and they had allowed the shotgun to be destroyed.
Oops!
Yes, they've had to put on quite a show, and it continues 20 years later with more and more pages being added to the original police reports, along with Detective Ciesynski's public and highly transparent statements, contradicting his and other SPD official police reports on the Cobain investigation.
Ironically, the most critical pieces evidence, Detective Ciesynski's TV interview and written police report, only confirm what I've been saying since december of 1994.
THE HEROIN/MORPHINE BLOOD LEVEL
An excerpt from Detective Ciesynski's latest police report.
Autopsy Report: The blood test results indicate Morphine level, 1.52 mg/L (milligrams per Liter). Blood Ethanol was negative. Dr. Harruff advised that this was a large amount of Morphine (heroin), and that tolerance is extremely important when evaluating opiate levels. With tolerant individuals, very high levels can be achieved far more than a non-tolerant person.
Grant: Although I have been reporting that Kurt Cobain's heroin/morphine blood level was 1.52 milligrams per liter, for nearly 20 years, the Seattle authorities have maintained that it would be illegal for them to release or even confirm that dosage because the autopsy report in the State of Washington is considered to be a medical record. The 1.52 mgs. per liter figure was leaked to a Seattle newspaper, but many have questioned it's accuracy, asking me how I know that figure is accurate.
I have never been entirely dependent on the leaked information to the Seattle newspaper. We had done our own investigation, including an undercover tape recorded conversation with Dr. Hartshorne during which he apparently violated the law as he was also attempting to use to keep that "medical information" from the being made public.
So now, after 20 years, we finally have an official written police report verifying that 1.52 mgs per liter amount. Did Detective Ciesynski violate the law by revealing this or was their a statute of limitations in play here? If so, they should have no problem releasing the rest of the autopsy report to the public. If not, this Seattle police detective has, once again, violated the law!
After definitively claiming, (in his televised interview), that this was a lethal dose of heroin, even for a hard core heroin addict, and that "he killed himself because of the shotgun blast, but the heroin would have done the trick also," it appears that the Seattle police department suddenly went into damage repair mode.
Of course, this is speculation on my part, but having worked for a law enforcement agency I've observed how these things work, so it seems likely to me that Detective Ciesynski was called into a conference meeting with his superiors, (the same ones who were foolish enough to put him in front of the TV cameras to begin with). I'm guessing that he was asked something like, "Why did you say that? Now you'll have to write a report to explain what you meant something different than what you said!"
The final report did nothing to explain what he meant. His written report only served show the transparency of another attempted cover-up, since it merely contradicted what he had just stated during his televised interview.
MORE CONTRADICTIONS
In his televised interview, Detective Ciesynski said that after speaking with the Medical Examiner's office, they said, "they'd never seen anybody with an overdose, in our county at least, that had that much of heroin inside of him,"
Wow! That's pretty definitive, isn't it?
Doesn't that make the point that this was certainly no "textbook suicide" as the Seattle authorities have so often claimed?
But Detective Ciesynski now writes on page 2 of this new report, that Dr. Harruff advised him, "this was a large amount of morphine (heroin) and that tolerance is extremely important when evaluating opiate levels with tolerant individuals very high levels can be achieved far more than a non-tolerant than a non-tolerant person."
I'd like to say, "Nice try" here, but it wasn't. This detective and his superiors apparently think the public is just too stupid to compare what Ciesynski says one day as opposed to what he wrote another day as he tried to spin his public statements and confuse the public about his already televised comments.
Yes, the original investigation took place 20 years ago, but reading all of the most recently released documents indicate it has continued to be investigated during the past 20 years. Now if this was a "textbook suicide" one must wonder why the SPD investigation has continued for so long?
THE MIRACULOUS FLIGHT OF THE EXPENDED ROUND
Another excerpt from Detective Ciesynski's latest police report.
Weapon: "When I first looked at the 35 mm crime scene photos, I noticed that the Remington 20 gauge shotgun was lying on victim's chest with the receiver facing up. I also observed a spent yellow shell casing lying on a coat at the right side of the photo. In the magazine I could observe a yellow round not fully chambered, that appeared to have malfunctioned."
"I was aware that for the spent casing to have landed to the victims left, the weapon would have had to been turned 180 degrees from what it was found. It appeared evident to what had happened when the weapon was ï¬red, but I requested assistance from SPD Range Armorer Curt Wilson."
"I showed Officer Wilson a photo of victim holding the weapon, but I did not identify the victim. Officer Wilson stated that the fired round would have ejected in the direction where it was found and the second round probably malfunctioned due to victim holding the barrel, which prevented free movement of the barrel."
"The weapon probably pivoted when fired, and fell to the present position. Held in this manner, the fired round would have ejected to where it was depicted in the photo. The ammunition was Winchester 20 gauge, target load."
Grant: It's good to know that Detective Ciesynski sought assistance from one of his own SPD officers to help him put the right spin, (no pun intended), on this glaringly critical item of evidence.
The original SPD homicide investigators did not address this gravity defying "miracle", but then, why should they? Suicide was apparently so obvious to them that they weren't concerned about silly little things like clear evidence of possible foul play.
And why should Ciesynski seek the opinion from an expert outside of his own brotherhood when there's no indication of bias or "one directional thinking" within his own department? (It's just impossible not to get a bit sarcastic here).
It's stunning to watch a grown man, especially one with the authority and responsibility of a police officer, as he attempts to force a large, square peg into a small, round hole.
My dose of reality: I test fired an identical shotgun as the one used in Kurt Cobain's death. I fired that weapon over 30 times with the same light load shells as those found at the scene of Kurt's death. I easily held the shotgun with just my right-hand as I fired off each of those many rounds.
Because of the automatic action of the retracting barrel, which allowed the next round to load, the "kick" of this particular shotgun was extremely minimal. And, most important, it had no tendency, whatsoever, to "pivot" or twist when it was fired.
The idea that this shotgun would have rotated 180 degrees while in the process of automatically reloading the next shell, then return to it's original position is absolutely ludicrous, to say the least. And the fact that the reloading mechanism jammed had nothing to do with any alleged rotation, since the round that was fired had already been expended... to the left instead of the right, where it should have been!
Challenge: I challenge anyone who has access to a Remington M11 20 gauge shotgun or a Browning 5, Semi-automatic 20 gauge shotgun, (identically the same weapon because Remington bought the rights from Browning to rename and manufacture this shotgun), to do a test under lab conditions, where the shotgun is simply rig the shotgun on top of two stands, such as sawhorses, with the barrel on the front sawhorse and the butt of the shotgun on the rear sawhorse, then fire it by pulling the trigger from behind the resting shotgun using a string or wire, and video tape what happens.
Keep in mind, the Cardaveric spasm which caused Kurt's left hand to grip the barrel so tightly that the police had to pry his hand loose. This alone would have also prevented the shotgun from pivoting 180 degrees then falling back to it's original position from which it was fired.
But here, if rigged properly, we would have a free sitting shotgun, with no resistance to keep it from twisting or pivoting. However, I'm confident that a slow motion video of the firing of this free sitting shotgun, will show little or no pivoting or twisting, and if there is any, it would certainly not pivot 180 degrees as Detective Ciesynski would have the public believe.
If readers will just go to YouTube and watch some of the videos of people firing any semi-automatic shotgun of all types and sizes, you'll see that the automatic reload action happens so fast, it's barely noticeable, unless you're focused on the ejection port. And you will notice no tendency for the shotgun to pivot, even when observing a more powerful 12 gauge shotgun.
The Seattle Police department won't admit this. If they did, their investigation would fall apart. But if placed under enough pressure, they're stuck with trying to explain how the ejected, expended round ended up on Kurt's left side when it should have been found somewhere in that room, to his right side.
Was this a miracle?
Or did it that expended shell bounce and rebound off of someone who was kneeling next to an incapacitated Kurt Cobain's right side, as his murder was being staged and executed?
Is it just me, or does anyone else find it truly amazing that this issue was not even addressed by the Seattle police department until 20 years after Cobain's death. I believe the original detectives knew they couldn't explain it in light of their findings of "suicide." So believing no one would notice, question or care, they pompously ignored this "elephant in the room" until it finally stomped on them!
And at the end, Detective Ciesynski writes in his most recent report: "Based on my experience from reviewing the evidence, reports and interview transcriptions, the investigation into the death of Kurt Cobain, which was conducted 20 years ago, reached the correct conclusion that the manner of death was suicide."
As Radio talk show host, Gil Gross once responded, on-air, after being threatened by Courtney Love's attorneys because he had me on his show in 1994,
"Yeah, sure."
We'll have much more to add towards the end of the last of our three book series, "Murder at Lake Washington, The Hole truth," regarding Detective Ciesynski and the Seattle Police Department's continued efforts to deceive the public. "The Hole Truth" will be sent to the printer and readied for release very soon.
Please keep in mind that the film "Soaked in Bleach" is not my film as many online refer to it. I was hired as a consultant and I appear in the film. Other than that , I've had no say about the production, distribution, trailer release or final release date of this film. I do promise, however, that I'll let you all know the release date is as soon as I know and have been given permission to give out the release date.
As you can see, there have been many distractions which have caused the delay in the release of the last book of this series. There are many more bumps in the road that we aren't discussing publicly at this time.
Things may seem to be moving slow much of the time, but there's a lot more going on behind the scenes than what we can discuss at this time. Overall, everything is going very well.
Thank you for your patience!
Tom Grant