If true, there's a Coen brothers movie here somewhere. Courtney Love’s former son-in-law, Isaiah Silva, is accusing Love and two others of attempting to murder him to get Kurt Cobain’s 1959 Martin D-18E guitar, reports Billboard. The guitar was used by Love’s late husband at Nirvana’s 1993 MTV Unplugged in New York performance and is the last one he ever played, per Slate. Silva contends that Love’s daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, gave him the guitar shortly before they married; they divorced in 2016. Silva alleges that Love, former Britney Spears manager Sam Lufti, actor Ross Butler, and chauffeur Yan Yukhtman tried to kill Silva and make it look like a suicide, which would have conveniently freed up the guitar and other shared assets. Silva claims that on June 3, the four broke into Silva’s home and forced him into a car by threatening him with rape and other physical harm.
A friend of Silva’s who was in the house at the time called the police, who intercepted the car. Lufti told police the call had been a prank, and Silva did not speak up because he feared for the safety of his 7-year-old daughter, whom Lufti had allegedly threatened to kill if Silva said anything. The alleged attackers then drove Silva back to his house and tried for several hours to get him to sign away his rights to the guitar, other assets, and spousal support. Silva filed a police report five days later. A civil complaint filed in Los Angeles County accuses Love, Lutfi, and Butler of criminal conspiracy to commit trespass, burglary, home invasion, robbery, assault, battery, kidnapping, and murder. "Frances and the family are prepared to fight with a fury of unprecedented legal force, and they will prevail," says someone close to Love's family. (Love has also been in some hot water recently over her taxes.)