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You may have heard the story. It appeared in a number of magazines. The typical headline read something like this; “Grizzled punk rocker’s shocking claim:

‘Courtney Love offered me $50G to kill Kurt Cobain.’”

Eldon Hoke, also known as “El Duce,” recently told his story to High Times writers Steve Bloom and Tim Kenneally. What follows is an excerpt from the High Times article appearing in the April 1996 issue.

“Courtney Love, who met El Duce in the late ‘80s through Hole’s original drummer, Carolyn Rue (who was going out with the Mentors guitarist, Sickie Wifebeater), According to El Duce, Love showed up at the Rock Shop, a Hollywood record store at 1644 Wilcox Ave., a few days before New Years eve in 1993 at approximately 8:30 PM. As El Duce waited outside for a friend, a limousine transporting Love pulled up in front of the store. Love then allegedly made El Duce an offer he couldn’t refuse.”

“El, I really need a big favor of you” she said, “My old man’s been a real a**hole lately. I need you to blow his f**king head off.”

“Are you serious?” El Duce asked.

“Yeah, I’ll give you fifty thousand dollars to blow his f**king head off,” Love confirmed.

“I’m serious if you are,” El Duce said. “I wasn’t really sure she was serious. And then she said, “Where can I reach you?”

“At the time I didn’t have a phone, but I got my messages at the Rock Shop, so I said, ‘You can reach me here.’ They went into the store, and he handed her a business card.

“I think Kurt was getting ready to divorce her for adultery charges,” El Duce theorizes. “She had to have him whacked right away so she could get the money.”

It’s not uncommon in high profile cases for some jerk to come forward with a phony story in an attempt to get some attention. Of course, that’s exactly what I’ve been accused of doing by my critics.

When I first heard Eldon Hoke’s story in 1995, I was extremely cautious about how I was going to handle the information. I had to be careful about being sucked into some scam, only to be told later that this guy made the whole thing up! I also needed to be sure I wouldn’t be accused of setting this story up just to bring attention to the case.

At the time Hoke’s story was revealed to me, I advised my informant, (an alleged acquaintance of Hoke’s), to have Hoke report the incident to the police. We needed to see what they’d do with it. If they blew him off, then we’d see about getting him polygraphed. I made it clear I didn’t want to be connected to Hoke until he could be checked out.

On Wednesday, March 6, 1996, NBC’s HARD COPY hired an examiner to do a polygraph, (lie detector), examination on Mr. Hoke. I had no input in the decision about who would be used for the examination. No one asked me and I made no suggestions. As it turned out they hired the very best, Dr. Edward Gelb.

Several test questions were asked along with the key question which was presented in different forms... “Did Courtney Love offer to pay you fifty thousand dollars to kill her husband?” Hoke answered “yes.”

Dr. Gelb scored the test. Hoke passed the polygraph examination with flying colors! The possibility of deception was .01%. It doesn’t get any better than that!

I met with Dr. Gelb shortly after the exam was given to Hoke. “Is there any way he could have practiced to pass, psyched himself up, or somehow fooled the machine?” I asked Gelb.

“Not this guy!” he responded confidently.

So, who is Dr. Gelb and why should we trust his expertise?

Dr. Geld is the polygraph examiner used by O.J. Simpson’s defense team to administer a secret polygraph to O.J. He’s a long time friend of F. Lee Bailey, so if Gelb’s integrity could be compromised, he would want to help his long time friend by “helping” Simpson pass.

As you may have heard, Simpson failed the polygraph conducted by Dr. Gelb. It appears Gelb’s credibility and integrity was not for sale.

Dr. Gelb is one of the foremost polygraph examiners in the country, possibly even the world. He’s more than just an expert in polygraph examinations. His resume includes:

• Bachelor’s degree in Political Science, U.C.L.A.... • Master’s degree in Psychology, LaSalle University... • Doctorate in Psychology, LaSalle University...

• Past President, Executive Director and Chairman of the Board of the American Polygraph Association...

• Former detective with the Los Angeles Police Department... • Adjunct Professor of Psychology at LaSalle University.

Dr. Gelb utilizes the state-of-the-art computerized Axciton to conduct forensic polygraph examinations. In addition to the above qualifications, Dr. Gelb has conducted over 30,000 polygraph examinations since 1969, with specific criminal incident examinations conducted for Fortune 500 companies, criminal defense attorneys, and governmental agencies, and 400 polygraph examinations conducted for the Los Angeles Superior Court to effect settlement of two class action suits.

Dr. Gelb is one of the few experts whose testimony is accepted by the Los Angeles Police Commission. He is presently conducting examinations for at least 100 defense attorneys as well as District Attorney’s offices and police agencies.