Murder Rap: The Untold Story of the Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur Murder Investigations

Copyright © 2011 by Greg Kading

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Scanning, uploading, and electronic distribution of this book or the facilitation of such without the permission of the publisher is prohibited. Please purchase only authorized electronic versions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

Some names have been changed to protect the privacy of certain individuals connected to this story

Published in the United States by One-Time Publishing LLC

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

eBook conversion by 1106 Design, LLC

Kading, Greg.

Murder Rap: The Untold Story of the Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur Murder Investigations/Greg Kading.

ISBN for Kindle/Mobipocket: 978-0-9839554-4-3

www.MurderRap.com

First Edition October 2011

To Afeni Shakur and Voletta Wallace

Whenever human justice fails, rest assured that God’s prevails

CONTENTS

Part One

1. Hit ’Em Up

2. Incident #7068000030

3. Mad Dogging

Part Two

4. The Call

5. The Conspiracy

6. Wrongful Death

7. The Team

Part Three

8. Clearing The Rubble

9. Fishing Expeditions

10. Ballistics

11. Keffe D

12. The Sit Down

Part Four

13. Who Shot Ya?

14. 662

15. “That Wasn’t Us”

16. “Was That Us?”

Part Five

17. “Cleared Other”

18. Sugar Bear

19. The Impala

20. Stutterbox

Part Six

21. Theresa

22. Starbucks

23. The Shooter

24. The Ruse

25. Reckless Disregard

26. Perception

27. Policy and Procedure

Epilogue

Acknowledgments

PART

ONE

CHAPTER
1

“Hit ’Em Up”

T
HE MIRACLE MILE
is one of the most famous and familiar addresses in Los Angeles. An imposing strip of high rises, museums and landmark buildings, it runs down Wilshire Boulevard straight from the heart of Beverly Hills. Along the broad six-lane thoroughfare, the cream of L.A. society — movie stars and sports figures, politicians and tycoons — come to see and be seen, in an endless round of gallery openings, charity events and nightclub photo ops.

The Petersen Automotive Museum is a late but prestigious addition to the Miracle Mile, and one of the city’s premier venues for high profile partying. Located on the southeast corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue, its parking structure running another block down Fairfax, the Petersen’s stylized tail fin facade faces directly across the street from the Art Deco-style May Company department store, the gold-plated new addition to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Together the two guard the western gateway of the renowned boulevard, and it’s hard to imagine a more prime piece of real estate than that occupied by the four-story, 300,000-square-foot showcase of automotive history.

The museum, opened in 1994, features five rotating galleries spotlighting a priceless array of vintage cars, a state-of-the-art showcase for auto design and technology, and a glass-walled penthouse conference center. But it is the second floor of the museum, the Grand Salon, that makes the Petersen ideally suited to the kind of celebrity-studded events for which the Miracle Mile is best known. The polished onyx floor, auto-inspired décor, and displays of one-of-a-kind luxury and concept cars are the perfect setting for galas, receptions, and black-tie functions. From almost the moment it opened its doors, the Petersen was the setting of choice for L.A.’s most prestigious social occasions.

The evening of March 9, 1997, was one such occasion. The night before, at the downtown Shrine Auditorium, the Eleventh Annual Soul Train Music Awards had spotlighted a new generation of black music superstars. Although the show’s hosts included the sixties R&B great Gladys Knight, and the program included a Heritage Award to the legendary soul singer Curtis Mayfield, it was clear to everyone in the house that the torch was being passed.

And among the more significant new torch bearers was a 6'3", 360-pound Brooklyn-born rapper named Christopher George Latore Wallace, aka Biggie Smalls (after a character in the 1975 film
Let’s Do It Again
), aka Frank White (the hero of the 1990 film
King of New York
), aka the Notorious B.I.G., or aka, simply, Biggie.

Although he had not been nominated in any category, there was no doubt that Biggie Smalls represented the future of music. His second album, a double-disc set titled
Life After Death,
was two weeks away from its highly anticipated release and already the intentionally leaked track “Hypnotize” was a huge radio hit. It was easy to hear why. With a hook based on a sample from the Herb Alpert instrumental “Rise,” the song was a perfect showcase for Biggie’s trademark loose and easy flow and his compelling, autobiographical rhymes. Within days of its official release “Hypnotize” would rocket to number one.

Biggie had been invited to the awards to present the trophy for Best Female Vocalist. Sharing the podium with him that night was Sean “Puffy” Combs, riding high with his own chart-topping single, and recording debut, “Can’t Nobody Hold Me Down.” Combs, a multitasking musical entrepreneur, was a major player on the exploding rap scene. With his own string of aliases, including Puff Daddy and P. Diddy, Combs was most commonly known simply as Puff for his childhood habit of “huffing and puffing” when he got angry. The Harlem native, son of a murdered drug dealer, Combs began his meteoritic ascent as a concert promoter before breaking through with his own label, Bad Boy Records, in 1993. The company’s first signing: Biggie Smalls.