(Short biography about El Duce) El Duce, whose real name was 'Eldon Wayne Hoke', was a member of the band 'The Mentors' as well as other acts, including: 'Chinas Comidas' and 'The Screamers.'
The Mentors are an American punk rock band formed in 1976, known for their provocative lyrics and outrageous stage presence. El Duce was a drummer and vocalist primarily known for his work with the punk rock band 'The Mentors'. The Mentors gained notoriety for their provocative and often explicit lyrics, focusing on themes of sex, drugs, and rebellion. Their music style is characterized by fast-paced, aggressive punk rock with elements of heavy metal.
Band poster for the Mentors
El Duce was infamous for his outrageous stage persona, which often involved wearing a Viking helmet and goggles, as well as his confrontational and often offensive behavior both onstage and off. He was known for his crude sense of humor and willingness to push boundaries. The Mentors and El Duce himself were controversial figures within the music industry due to their explicit content and provocative antics. Despite this, they developed a dedicated following, particularly within the underground punk scene.
He passed away in 1997 under mysterious circumstances
El Duce being rebellious Punk
Casette tape from the 'Mentors'. Overall, El Duce and The Mentors were emblematic of the rebellious and confrontational spirit of punk rock, challenging societal norms and pushing the limits of what was considered acceptable in music and performance art.
Picture of El Duce
Kurt Cobain and El Duce
El Duce had come forward to the Los Angeles Police stating that he was offered, by Courtney Love, $50,000 to "whack" Cobain. The unthinkable proposition came in front of an LA record shop called the "Rock Shop" when Courtney Love allegedly exited a limo on December 30, 1993, and walked to El Duce. According to Duce, she came into the store with him and made a deal for him to kill Kurt, which was all witnessed by the shop manager, Karush Sepedjian, who gave Courtney a business card as a contact number to reach Hoke when the job needed to be done.
Eldon Hoke, aka El Duce, is three sheets to the wind, propped against the door of the Rock Shop on Wilcox Ave, a punk vinyl dive in West Hollywood. It's a balmy evening, December 30, 1993.
At approximately 8:30 PM, a white limo pulls up, the chauffeur opens the door, and a gloriously disheveled platinum blonde emerges. She meanders over to the shop window, blowing smoke to the sky. She knows Duce through Hole's drummer, Carolyn Rue, who had a thing with his guitarist, Sickie Wifebeater, back in 1989.
Courtney: "El, my old man's been a real asshole lately," she tells him. "I need you to blow his fucking head off." The front man for the Mentors, who has more experience singing about this kind of gig than doing it, asks if she's serious. "Absolutely", she replies. She offers him fifty grand and a plane ticket to Seattle.
El Duce who would always find his way to support his alcohol and pharmaceutical needs said: "Fifty grand?" "Up front?" Courtney Love smiles, then offers him a bonus. But El Duce is a man of principle: "Forget it , just gimme the fuckin' bread." He hands the blonde a business card. She says she'll be in touch.
"El Duce was kicking it out on the bench in front of the store and she came up. I overheard her saying "Can you handle doing this? Can you get this done? What do you want for it"? They were talking about knocking off Kurt Cobain said Karush Sepedjian, the owner of the store Then El brought her inside and said to me quietly, "She offered me $50,000".
According to Wallace and Halperin, Karush Sepedjian, the owner of the store tells that Courtney called the Rock Shop in March 1994. (A week before Kurt's death)
This is similar to the way Joe Mama ( artist Joe Mama, one of Love's best friends since 1982) described her when he saw Courtney on April 1st 1994, after Kurt left, "She was really freaked out, so we drove around looking for him at all the places he might have gone. She was really scared from the beginning. I guess she could tell." Was she scared and freaked because of her concern for Kurt? Or was she in this state because her plans were in imminent danger of collapsing?
Courtney was screaming: "That son of a b****, we made an agreement! What am I going to do"? Sepedjian replied: "I don't know, I've got a business to run. El Duce is on tour with the Mentors and can't be reached. Goodbye". "She was all frantic," recalled Sepedjian. "She says, 'I need to talk to him. He's got a job to do!"
'A week after the phone call, Kurt was dead'
This would imply that Courtney spoke to Sepedjian around March 28th/30th 1994, the very same time she was in California! Could this be the "business" she told Carroll and Grant that she had to attend to, rather than going back to Seattle to look for Kurt? ( At the hotel later that afternoon, Tom Grant volunteered to go to Seattle and search for Kurt. Someone in the room said, "Why don't you go up there, Courtney?" To which Courtney replied: "I can't, I have business I have to take care of here," Rosemary Carroll later told me, "She didn't have any business in L.A." Sepedjian went on to say: "I was like Whoa! I wonder if she actually did pay some sucker to blow off his head"? El Duce said; "Maybe she got somebody else.
I think Kurt was getting ready to divorce her for adultery charges. She had to have him whacked right away so she could get the money."
That is until early 1997, when El Duce came forward to the Los Angeles police and told his story. El Duce and Karush Sepedjian later took lie detector tests, conducted by Dr. Edward Gelb, professional in the field in the country, and El Duce passed "with flying colors." Expect Sepedjian. Sepedjian had nodded off before its completion. At this point in time, the film, "Kurt and Courtney" was being made by Nick Broomfield, and when he heard of El Duce's spectacular claims backed up by a lie detector test he just had to go investigate this for his film. El Duce was drunk when the crew of Nick Broomfield arrived and during his interview he let the name Allen slip, causing him to become red-faced and flustered, he was obviously very worried that he had said that. Seven days later El Duce was dead, mysteriously.....
El Duce's body is found by police
El Duce didn't have the change to say the full name of Cobain's killer on tape. The night before his death he gave an interview to the "Rocket" Magazine before he was to go on stage with his new band titled "Courtney killed Kurt." He told the interviewer, "you see I actually know the real killer who murdered Cobain." At which point the interviewer eagerly asked, "Who it is?" Hoke answered, "His name is Allen Wrench." And he headed to the stage for his last show.
The next morning, April 19, 1997, witnesses, and Allen Wrench himself, claim that Wrench showed up at El Duce's ranch furious. After Wrench manhandled Hoke into a bedroom and screamed at him for a while for giving him up, the two told witnesses that they were going to get some beer and Wrench drove. That was the last time anyone saw at El Duce alive.
The next moment El Duce ended up hit by a train less than a block away from the liquor store that they were supposedly headed off to. Allen Wrench on the record said that he dropped El Duce off and then never saw him again. However, in the book "Love and Death" by Wallace and Halperin, Wrench gives a different version of events (Where he claims El Duce was suicidal) (We don't know if El Duce was suicidal) where Wrench heavily insinuates that he is responsible for the death of El Duce and straight out admits, if only "off the record" that he killed Kurt Cobain.
Music journalist and friend of Eldon, Al Bowman said: "There is something very, very strange about his death. Anybody who knew El knew that you could make friends with him by offering to buy him a drink. He had a problem with alcohol." When asked if he thought Eldon was suicidal he replied: “No way. He was all exited about his upcoming tour. He was in good spirits. He didn't kill himself. I'm convinced this has something to do with Kurt Cobain."
There are remarkable similarities between the way Kurt died and the way Eldon died. Bowman did not think El Duce was suicidal, and the above quote sounds remarkably like what Dylan Carlson said when asked if Kurt was suicidal: "Kurt was facing lots of pretty heavy things, but he was actually pretty upbeat. He was prepared to deal with things facing him. He was making all kinds of plans for when he got back from rehab."
Kurt and El Duce shared several similarities in their lives:
1. Both of them got on the wrong side of Courtney Love.
2. Both of them were a threat to her.
3. Both died under mysterious circumstances.
4. Neither of them was suicidal.
El Duce's lie detector results:
On March 6th 1996, El Duce underwent and passed a lie detector test administered by
Dr. Edward Gelb, a leading polygraph examiner. He administered a polygraph test to O.J. Simpson two days after the murder of his wife.
Concerning the results of a lie detector test:
To the question "Did Courtney Love ask you to kill Kurt Cobain?" Duce's positive response showed a 99.91% certainty that he was telling the truth, which falls into the category "beyond possibility of deception". Duce also scored the same when the question was repeated. When asked the question "Were you offered $50,000 by Courtney Love to kill Kurt Cobain?"
Duce scored a impressive 99.84% score.
El Duce's Polygraph test
Tom Grant met with Dr. Gelb shortly after the exam. “Is there any way he could have practiced to pass, psyched himself up, or somehow fooled the machine?” he asked Gelb. “Not this guy!” the doctor responded confidently.
Eldon Hoke's story made sense and Eldon certainly believed himself. Since the alleged “offer” occurred in Los Angeles, LAPD homicide detectives were notified.
Someone contacted the Seattle Police Department on March 7 1996 and spoke to Officer Mike Ciesynski who recorded the conversation. The result of the polygraph test and subsequent Ciesynski police report looked promising, it was enough to get Seattle Homicide Detective Sgt Cameron to send a memo to Lieutenant Al Gerdes dated March 7th 1996 stating that they would have to look into the matter further and that Gerdes was to make himself familiar with all aspects of this investigation.
The Seattle Police knew about El Duce's story and his polygraph results
Screenshot of the notes made by Seattle Police Department. They had recieved information about El Duce's polygraph results
Notes from Seattle Police Department
Notes from Seattle Police Department: Interview with Briggs. The person who had more information about El Duce and his polygraph test results.
Of Karush Sepedjian’s polygraph test: Sepedjian had nodded off before its completion.
Max Wallace and Ian Halperin reported: In fact, Sepedjian, an admitted junkie, took a polygraph as well but, according to Gelb’s office, he kept dozing off -a common symptom of heroin addiction- and the results were dismissed as “inconclusive”. In June 2004, Dr. Gelb was asked about Wallace and Halperin’s report and said that Sepedjian had been questioned twice, once on March 1st 1996, and once after El Duce had completed his polygraph test. Dr Gelb stated that the questionaire Sepedjian had filled in was written in a firm hand, and that Sepedjian had stated that he’d had 10 hours sleep and hadn’t used drugs or medication for 12 hours prior to the test. When Tom Grant asked Dr Gelb if Sepedjian’s results would be classified as “inconclusive” or “deceptive” he replied that they were, in fact, “deceptive.” This deception specifically relates to the question as to whether Sepedjian was in earshot when Courtney Love made the offer of money to El Duce, to murder Kurt. Dr Gelb stressed, though, that El Duce’s test results were without deception.
Kirkland of the Seattle police says “As you well know, if Courtney Love offered $50,000 to somebody in Los Angeles to kill somebody, then that is a crime which took place in Los Angeles and the Seattle Police Department has no jurisdiction there.” In Wallace & Halperin’s second book on the subject, published in 2004, the above timeline of events following El Duce’s polygraph test, was reported as: The results of Hoke’s polygraph exam were too compelling to ignore!
On March 6 1996 one of Hoke’s friends took it upon himself to call the Seattle Police Department and report the test’s findings. For once, it seems, the SPD paid attention.
We received a call a few days later from a source in the Seattle Police Department telling us that the Cobain case had been reopened for the first time in two years. Hoke’s claim had caused a “flurry of activity,” our source said, adding that if the story could be proven, it might be enough to have Courtney charged with conspiracy to commit murder - the usual charge for attempting to hire a hitman. Curiously enough, Sergeant Cameron denied the Cobain case had been reopened when a reporter asked him about it the same week..
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