Kurt Cobain death-scene note disparages Courtney Love

Seattle police have released a previously unrevealed note found in Kurt Cobain's wallet at the time of his death. The letter, apparently written by Cobain, accuses his then wife, Courtney Love, of "siphoning all my money".

This and other documents related to Cobain's suicide were released to CBS News following a public information request. The note in question, discovered at the scene, is undated; it was penned on stationery from San Francisco's fashionable Phoenix Hotel.

"Do you Kurt Cobain take Courtney Michelle Love to be your lawfully shredded wife," the letter reads, "even when she's a bitch with zits and siphoning all yr money for doping and whoring."

Without a fuller understanding of the context, it's impossible to know whether these lines are sarcastic or sincere. In his official suicide note, Cobain refers to Love as "a goddess of a wife who sweats with ambition and empathy". He calls on his widow to "please keep going" and to look after their daughter. "Frances and Courtney, I'll be at your alter [sic] … [Frances's] life … will be so much happier without me."

Seattle police recently reviewed their internal files relating to Cobain's death on 8 April 1994 and released their original detective report. While conspiracy theorists have suggested Cobain was murdered, officials roundly rejected that premise, and despite the review the Nirvana singer's death is not being reinvestigated. According to cold-case detective Mike Ciesynski, police were right to withhold the note that seems critical of Love. "There were so many conspiracy theories out there, it was good judgment … to hold [on] to this," he told CBS.

Earlier this month, Love appeared on Cobain's behalf at Nirvana's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. "I just wish Kurt was here to do this," she said.