Courtney Love accused of plot to kill ex son-in-law
Courtney Love has been accused of plotting to have her daughter’s ex-husband killed in a bid to retrieve a guitar that belonged to Kurt Cobain.
Isaiah Silva, a musician, was married to Frances Bean Cobain, the only child of Love and Cobain, from 2014. Cobain filed for divorce in March 2016.
Under the terms of their divorce, Silva was entitled to keep a highly valuable 1959 Martin D-18E guitar that the Nirvana frontman played during an MTV Unplugged performance in 1993. During the divorce proceedings, Cobain had argued that the guitar should remain in her family, but Silva successfully claimed it was his, as Cobain had given it to him as a gift.
At the time Nirvana fans were critical of the guitar being awarded to Silva, who is the frontman of The Eeries.
Now Silva, 33, has alleged that Love, her manager Sam Lutfi, Britney Spears’ former manager, and a group of men attempted to kidnap and kill him in June 2016 to get the guitar back.
He filed a 329-page civil suit in a Los Angeles court seeking unspecified damages.
In the complaint he claimed: ‘‘The primary objective of their conspiracy was to locate and take possession of a guitar believed to be worth millions of dollars, which was gifted to Silva, by Frances, on January 8, 2014, six months prior to their June marriage.’’
He alleged that Lutfi and two other men ‘‘did burglarise, rob, assault, batter, sexually batter, kidnap, and attempt to murder’’ him at his house in West Hollywood.
Silva alleged he was in his bedroom with a fellow member of his band when he heard noise downstairs and the house’s alarm system went off.
According to the complaint, men at the door shouted: ‘‘Police, open up.’’ and ‘‘LAPD, open the door.’’ Silva claimed that once inside, Lutfi grabbed his genitals through his clothes and accused the three men of ‘‘terrorising’’ his mother, who was also in the house.
He claimed the men were going to kidnap him from his home to end any legal claims he was making for spousal support, and to get the guitar back.
The trio allegedly forced him out of his home and into a black Cadillac Escalade while his friend called the police. When they arrived, Lutfi ‘‘hurriedly concocted a false story intended to prevent LAPD from arresting them’’, Silva claimed in his complaint.
Love and her co-defendants are yet to comment on Silva’s allegations.
But a source told The New York Post that they were prepared to fight all the way in court over the guitar.
The source said: ‘‘Kurt would not want this and Courtney will not allow any of it. Frances and the family are prepared to fight with a fury of unprecedented legal force and they will prevail.’’
‘‘He [Silva] will stop at nothing to try and gain possession of Kurt’s belongings, as witnessed in this baseless lawsuit in which he completely made-up absurd, unimaginable and somewhat laughable allegations.’’
The divorce between Cobain and Silva took over a year to be finalised amid legal wrangling, including over the guitar.
At the time Love, the actress and former Hole singer, described the relationship between her daughter and Silva as ‘‘toxic’’.
Silva made a claim for US$25,000 ($NZ35,000) a month spousal support.
According to the eventual settlement Silva got the guitar and Cobain kept a house they had bought. Court documents at the time suggested Cobain was worth around US$100 million ($NZ143m) from her father’s estate. She was a one-year-old when Kurt Cobain took his own life on April 5, 1994. – Telegraph Group