Original subtitles

- That's Biggie, man. - Shut that, get down.

- That is Biggie, man. - Somebody's got shot up.

Y'all keep down. We're at the curb.

March 9th, 1997, 12:45 a.m.

Biggie Smalls, one of the most famous rappers in the world,

has just been shot four times outside a party in Los Angeles.

911 emergency, what are you reporting?

Yeah, we need an ambulance

on 5th back to Wilshire,

please, Los Angeles.

We got a man shot. We have a man shot.

Wilshire Boulevard.

Okay, hold on, I'll get that...

Right on the corner of Wilshire and Fairfax.

Fire Department are there?

Yeah, we need it on Wilshire and Fairfax.

- What? - Fairfax!

Straight on Fairfax. Let's go, let's go. Fairfax.

I can't hear what you're saying.

Do you know where this is? What's wrong?

A man is shot in our car right now.

We're in the car right now.

We're going to the hospital right now.

I don't know. I'm not from here. I'm from New York.

Listen, is the party

- that was shot in your car? - No.

Okay, you're going to the hospital?

Car right in front of me.

What hospital are you going to?

Don't know. I don't know. I'm not from here.

Let's go. Let's go, man. Get going!

Cedars-Sinai is the closest. We're on Cochran right now.

We're gonna have to go west, are we?

Has a fire engine

or anybody just passed you?

Yo, listen. Yo, you got to go back.

You got to turn around, Jimmy. You're going the wrong way.

Nigga, what the fuck is wrong with y'all, man?

What's going on?

Jimmy, what you doing?

What kind of car was it?

I seen the nigga, man.

I don't know.

I don't know which street I'm on.

The new shit.

I seen the motherfucking car, man.

All right, relax, dude.

He's hit, man. He's hit.

He's fucking hit, man.

Do you know where he was hit at?

I don't know. I don't know.

- We're on Beverly right now. - You're?

Beverly and Fairfax, going up.

We just queued, we just...

They're probably going to Cedars.

We can't, we can't do that!

Fuck!

Oh, fuck! Oh, fuck!

Fuck.

If you want your friend to live,

we're gonna send the paramedics so you can pull over.

I can't. I can't do that.

We're on La Cienega and Beverly right now.

Going to Cedars-Sinai?

Yeah, they're going to Cedars.

All right, we're going to Cedars-Sinai.

Okay.

Sir, how many people are hurt?

It's one. One shot.

Okay, they drove up next to us

and they shot at the car on the passenger side.

- Okay. - Make a left, man

Yo, just go ahead, man.

Go straight, yo.

Doctors will later estimate

that Biggie died shortly after being shot.

In just six months,

the music world has lost two of its biggest stars to murder,

leaving fans to wonder, who shot Tupac and Biggie?

It's a question the LAPD will ask Greg Kading

and a federal task force to answer nearly a decade later.

Los Angeles Police Department,

Operator 239. What are you reporting?

Yes, this is the Petersen Automotive Museum

and we need to get a car out here

to clear out these people in front of our museum.

How can I help you? 911 emergency.

There's been a shooting on Wilshire and Fairfax.

You see anybody down?

I did see...

911 emergency, Operator 639.

Hi, I just heard several shots

and a woman screaming.

One, two, three, four, like, five.

And a woman screaming?

I heard a woman scream and I heard a car tear off.

Wilshire, responding

to Wilshire and Fairfax.

The victim is on route to Cedars-Sinai Hospital.

Suspect's vehicle was an aqua blue Impala.

Additional 10/30.

In the 1990s,

Suge Knight and his LA-based record label, Death Row Records,

found themselves at the center

of the infamous East Coast-West Coast rivalry,

pitted against Sean "Puffy" Combs

and his New-York based Bad Boy Records.

This showdown between Suge Knight and Puffy Combs

would culminate in the murders of Tupac Shakur

and Biggie Smalls,

two of the most famous rap artists in the world.

There were several key moments

that led up to that deadly conclusion.

First, in November of 1994,

before Tupac was signed to Death Row Records,

he was beaten and shot during a robbery

at a New York recording studio.

By coincidence,

Puffy and Biggie were in the same building

when the robbery went down,

leading Tupac to conclude that his former friends set him up.

Tupac would eventually find out

that Biggie and Puffy didn't have anything to do

with setting him up at the Quad Studio.

However, by that time the damage was done.

The day after Tupac is shot at the Quad Studios,

he's required to show up at the local courthouse

because he's facing sexual assault charges

from a year before.

He ends up getting convicted and then sentenced to prison.

Nine months later, in August of 1995,

Suge Knight attends the Source Awards

in New York City, Puffy's turf,

and disses Combs on stage,

with Puffy sitting in the audience.

Any artist out there wanna be an artist

and wanna stay a star

and don't wanna have to worry about the executive producer

trying to be all in the video, all on the record, dancing,

come to Death Row.

A few weeks later, September of 1995,

Suge Knight and Puffy Combs

wind up at the same nightclub in Atlanta,

where a confrontation breaks out between their two entourages.

As Suge is trying to leave,

his close friend and bodyguard, Jake Robles is shot

and ultimately dies.

Suge blames the shooting on Puffy

and his bodyguard, Anthony Wolf Jones.

Meanwhile,

Tupac has been languishing away in prison for months,

unable to come up with the money to post bail

while his case is appealed.

This prison, Clinton Correctional Center,

was not Club Med.

This was for badass convicted felons.

And there were rumors

that Tupac had actually been raped in prison.

And he denied it,

but he wanted out of there in a big way.

His attorney was appealing it, but appeals take forever.

And Suge Knight approached him.

Suge Knight recognizes this business opportunity.

He approaches Tupac Shakur and they cut a deal

for him to do three records for Death Row

in exchange for getting him out of prison on bail.

A lot of people thought that Tupac sold his soul

to Death Row Records and to Suge Knight.

And Tupac was with a guy who handled business differently

than, say, people like Sean Combs.

And that is where the thug image really came to be,

was when he hooked up with Suge Knight

and Death Row Records.

At a Christmas party in December of 1995,

an associate of Puffy's, named mark Anthony Bell,

claims he was taken upstairs and beaten By Suge Knight, Tupac

and other members from Death Row.

According to Mark Anthony Bell's statement

to the LAPD and the FBI,

Suge Knight was trying to find the whereabouts

of Puffy Combs' family residence in Los Angeles.

As a result of this incident,

it's clear now that Suge Knight is going directly after Puffy.

After signing with Death Row Records in LA,

Tupac ramped up the rivalry through his music.

Biggie had already released a track called "Who Shot Ya?",

which was widely interpreted

as taunting the shooting of Tupac in New York.

In retaliation, Tupac released "Hit 'Em Up",

one of the most infamous diss tracks in rap history,

where he bragged about sleeping with Biggie's wife

and threatened to kill members of Bad Boy Records.

In July of 1996,

seven months after the alleged beating

of Puffy's friend in Los Angeles,

a group of South Side Crip gang members

encounter a group of rivals, the Mob Piru Bloods,

at a mall south of LA.

The Mob Piru Bloods were associated with Suge Knight

and in their group at the mall is a guy named Travon Lane,

a close friend of Suge's,

and he's wearing a Death Row necklace

that Suge Knight only gave out to his inner circle of friends.

One of the South Side Crips, a guy named Orlando Anderson,

sees his coveted medallion around Travon's neck

and steals it.

According to at least one confidential informant,

Puffy was offering $5000

to any Crip that could bring him a Death Row medallion.

September 7th, 1996,

the day of Tupac Shakur's murder.

Tupac and Suge Knight are attending a Mike Tyson fight

at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Tupac has just recorded a new song for Tyson

called "Let's Get It On"

which is played as Iron Mike enters the ring.

Tupac Shakur and Suge Knight,

they're sitting ringside in their $1,000 seats.

For Tupac Shakur, it can't get any bigger than this.

He's the most prominent rap star in the world.

His friend's, you know, in the ring,

fighting to a song that he wrote

and Tupac is the center of the attention.

During the fight,

an FBI witness reported seeing an altercation

between Suge and Tupac's entourage,

and some rival Crip gang members.

One of the Crips told Suge Knight

that he thought he was untouchable,

to which Knight responded that he was untouchable.

The Crip responded, "You can be touched."

As Suge and Tupac's entourage

are leaving the arena after the fight,

they're walking through the MGM Grand

when they encounter Orlando Anderson,

the Crip who stole Travon Lane's Death Row medallion

a couple of months earlier.

Travon Lane just happens to be with Tupac

when they spot Orlando Anderson loitering in the crowd.

Travon Lane whispers something into Tupac's ear,

and immediately Tupac runs over and attacks Orlando Anderson.

The rest of the entourage jump on.

It's now just a big gang assault.

Unbeknownst to them,

the whole thing is being video taped

on MGM surveillance cameras.

As the security starts to intervene,

they all high tail it out of there.

Now you have the most famous rapper in the world,

who's all pumped up over the fact

he'd just gotten into a fist fight,

he'd just watched his friend Mike Tyson knock somebody out,

and he's speedily trying to get out of the casino.

Suge Knight is closely behind him,

this hulking, 300 pound, six foot five individual.

Tupac, you can tell, is very pumped up.

He's hyped out about what had just happened.

As he's making his way out of the casino,

he's getting the attention of all these people

and they start following in the crowd.

He creates somewhat of a, like a human vacuum,

and this large crowd begins to follow him

out of the casino.

Afterwards, Tupac returns to his hotel,

where he meets up with his girlfriend, Kidada Jones,

who's the daughter of music producer, Quincy Jones,

and the sister of actress, Rashida Jones.

Tupac explains what just happened

in his fight with Orlando Anderson

and that he doesn't want Kidada coming out with them

because it's too dangerous.

So she decides to stay behind in the hotel.

Tupac was not a real gangster,

but he's just started a fight

with a member of the South Side Crips.

It's potentially a fatal mistake.

Tupac and Suge decide to drive together that night

in a 750 black BMW,

putting the security personnel in separate cars,

in anticipation of going to the 662 club,

which is Suge's Las Vegas nightclub,

where there's going to be a charity event.

Tupac is supposed to perform,

and they've got this big night planned ahead of them.

And everybody and their brother knew

that he was going to be there.

It was advertised on the radio station

and everything else, flyers everywhere.

Even Mike Tyson

is supposed to make an appearance at the club

to watch Tupac perform.

The entourage following Tupac and Suge

will consist of at least six vehicles.

As their caravan is making its way

towards the 662 Club on these busy Las Vegas streets,

Suge Knight has his music blasting.

Tupac is in the passenger seat.

They're having a great time,

making the best of the heavy traffic.

Suge Knight is ultimately pulled over by Las Vegas Police

for having his music too loud.

During that moment,

some girls who were in Vegas for the weekend

recognized Suge standing outside of his car.

They decide to join the caravan.

Like, and they were...

The police were going through his car or something or another.

And then the traffic was stopped and then they got in the car.

As Suge is pulling away,

the girls fall in behind them, cutting off his security.

And these guys pulled up

and was, like, "Let us in front of you."

Lauren said, "That's security, you have to let them in front."

The caravan continues down Las Vegas boulevard

until they reach Flamingo, where they turn toward the club.

We were kind of arguing about it

because I was, like, we're in this big entourage,

with all these people.

And I was, like, this isn't really us.

We're not entourage or groupie kind of girls.

- It's not our scene. - It's not our scene, at all.

So I was like, okay, we'll go. I know where the club is at.

- We can get there. - Yeah, we'll go check it out.

As they reached the intersection

of Flamingo and Koval,

the girls decide to get out of the caravan

to go to the club ahead of them.

They come to a stop

just in front and to the right of Suge's car.

And as soon as we pulled past them,

that's when all hell broke loose.

A white, newer model, four-door Cadillac

eases up alongside Suge's BMW,

just outside of where Tupac is seated.

A male in the back of the Cadillac

leans across

and discharges a firearm nine times,

hitting Tupac with four.

The girls who are stopped,

just in front and to the right of Suge,

hear the shots ring out.

I remember it was a white Cadillac.

And then Lauren was like, "That was Tupac.

I know he got shot. I know he got shot."

Instinctively, they try to pull away from the situation.

As they're doing that,

the white Cadillac is also lunging forward.

The two vehicles almost collide

and both vehicles then make a right onto Koval.

Frank Alexander, Tupac's bodyguard,

jumps out of the vehicle that he is in

and runs up to try to render aid.

Suge immediately pulls away, does a U turn,

effectively leaving Frank Alexander

standing there alone in the middle of the street.

As he's leaving the location,

he hits a median and blows out a couple of tires

and ultimately comes to a stop down on Las Vegas Boulevard.

Two members of the Mob Piru, who are also in that caravan,

they attempt to chase down the white Cadillac.

Gunfire is exchanged between those two cars

until the white Cadillac gets away.

Tupac is then transported to a local hospital,

where he'll fight for his life for the next six days.

Throughout the week,

crowds are showing up at the hospital,

hoping to hear about Tupac's condition.

Some notables include Reverend Al Sharpton,

rapper MC Hammer

and Tupac's mother, Afeni Shakur.

Also amongst these people

is an off-duty Compton school police officer from Los Angeles,

named Kevin Hackie,

who worked for Death Row's Right Way Security.

He creates such a scene at the hospital,

claiming to be an FBI agent there to investigate the case,

he is ultimately escorted out and banned from the location.

Hackie would play a major role

in several of the big conspiracy theories,

with various claims about what he'd seen

and what he'd heard.

But when he was ultimately asked to testify,

he was deemed unreliable,

claiming memory loss and other issues.

On September 13th, 1996,

Tupac Amaru Shakur succumbed to his injuries

and passed away.

People would immediately theorize

that Tupac had been shot by Orlando Anderson,

the Crip he'd got into a fight with

just two hours before he was shot.

But with Suge and his friends refusing to cooperate,

Las Vegas police couldn't build a case.

For Suge Knight,

the loss of Tupac is devastating.

Not only has he lost yet another close personal friend to murder,

he's also lost one of his biggest money makers.

Adding insult to injury,

Suge finds himself with a parole violation

for his involvement in the fight with Orlando Anderson

and is sent back to prison for the next five years.

The day after Tupac died, September 14th, 1996,

the Mob Piru Bloods,

who are associated with Suge Knight,

meet at a park in Compton called Lueders Park.

They discuss the murder of Tupac in Vegas,

and the potential involvement

of rival South Side Crip gang members,

like Orlando Anderson.

As a result, the Mob Piru Bloods give the green light

against the South Side Crips.

A gang war has now ensued on the streets of Los Angeles

as a result of Tupac Shakur's murder.

Within months after Tupac's death,

Biggie Smalls and his Junior Mafia entourage

begin coming back to California

to shoot video and to produce his album.

Now security is less of a concern.

Tupac is dead, Suge Knight is in jail.

They get a false sense of security.

They don't realize they're coming to hornets' nest.

On March 7th of 1997,

Biggie and Puffy attend the Soul Train Music Awards

in Los Angeles,

and present the award for Best Female R&B Soul Single.

Driving home in the volatile atmosphere in LA,

they are met with a rowdy mix of cheering and booing

and shouts of "Westside."

What's up, Cali?

Backstage at this same event, there's a minor confrontation

between members of the Bad Boy security detail

and members of the Fruit of Islam.

Apparently the conversation goes something to the effect of,

"Hey, you're disrespecting the brothers in the east",

in reference to Bad Boy Records.

Puffy Combs, who's also present,

looks over at Mustapha Farrakhan,

the son of Louis Farrakhan,

and says, "Hey, we're cool, right?"

And Mustapha Farrakhan quells the incident.

The following day will be Biggie's last day alive.

He has a phone conversation with his mother, Voletta.

She expresses concern about his security in Los Angeles,

but he comforts her by saying he has LA cops protecting him.

That night, Biggie and Puffy head to a party

at the Petersen Auto Museum, put on by Vibe Magazine.

The party at the Petersen will eventually grow out of control.

Twice as many people show up as expected,

with only about ten security guards on site.

Plus, there are numerous celebrities there,

like Missy Elliott, Vivica Fox, Chris Tucker,

the Wayans Brothers, Whitney Houston, NBA stars,

and, of course, Puffy and Biggie.

As all the people who weren't able to get in

begin to crowd outside the main entrance,

things start to get rowdy.

Among them are known gang members.

Inside the party,

they repeatedly play Biggie's new hit, "Hypnotize".

Just like Tupac in Vegas, Biggie is on top of the world.

At approximately 11 pm,

the onsite fire Marshall puts in a call

to have the LAPD respond

as the crowd is too big

and the people stuck outside are getting out of control.

Near midnight,

the fire Marshall finally shuts the party down.

After being there for nearly four hours,

Puffy and Biggie are ready to go anyway.

However, it will take them nearly 40 more minutes

to get to their vehicles.

911 emergency, operator 412.

Hi, 52, next door.

We have an inspector on scene there, er.

I guess over, with an overcrowding.

Wilshire and Fairfax, the Petersen Museum.

They got shots fired there

and these people have guns and everything.

At approximately 12.05 a.m.,

witnesses report gunshots fired

at the corner of 8th and Orange Grove,

which is the south-east corner of the Petersen Auto Museum.

They would provide a license plate

and a description of a black Ford Bronco fleeing the area.

Many would later believe

that this was part of a diversion

in the conspiracy to kill Biggie Smalls.

Approximately half an hour later,

Biggie and Puffy are finally outside

and ready to go.

One member of the entourage

notices a suspicious person across the parking lot

is "mad dogging them", staring them down.

While waiting for their vehicles to be brought around,

Puffy's bodyguard, Eugene Deal,

who would become a key witness in the case,

notices another suspicious-looking individual.

Just prior to pulling away,

Biggie's sitting in the front seat

speaking to his friend, Damien Butler,

standing just outside the window.

They're elated.

Damien's bragging, "We're back, Biggie.

We're back."

Biggie's last words:

"We'll see you at the next party."

In the entourage were three SUVs.

In the first one, a green suburban,

Puffy Combs was in the front passenger seat.

In the back were three bodyguards,

including Eugene Deal.

The second SUV, another green suburban,

was being driven by Gregory "G-money" Young.

Biggie was in the front passenger seat

and in the back was his cousin, Lil' Cease, and two others.

The third and last SUV was a black Chevy Blazer.

It was driven by an Inglewood School Police officer

named Reggie Blaylock.

In the passenger seat

was Bad Boy head of security, Paul Offord.

As the first SUV with Puffy is pulling away,

they're looking over their shoulders,

waiting for Biggie to finish loading into his suburban.

Meanwhile, the third SUV is in the street behind Biggie,

blocking traffic so he can pull out.

As Biggie is ready to go,

Puffy's vehicle accelerates northbound

to make the light at Wilshire.

Biggie's vehicle is attempting to catch up

and the security team in the third vehicle

is jumping into their Blazer.

At that moment, a white SUV pulls in front of the third SUV,

momentarily cutting off security

from Biggie's vehicle in front of them.

The driver of the third SUV lunges his vehicle forward,

cutting the white SUV out of the caravan.

A lot of people would later theorize

that the white SUV was involved in the shooting.

As this is happening,

a dark newer model Chevy Impala pulls up beside Biggie's vehicle

and the driver begins firing into Biggie's door.

The shooter was described as an African American male.

He was seen holding a semi-automatic pistol

across his body,

with his left hand on the steering wheel.

After firing his weapon,

the shooter makes a quick right onto Wilshire Boulevard.

The security team in the Blazer attempts to give chase,

but the Impala gets away.

Meanwhile, Biggie's vehicle has come to a stop,

and Puffy's vehicle has made a U-turn

and rushed back to see what has happened.

Puffy runs to Biggie's door

and recognizes that Biggie's been shot.

He opens the door, but Biggie's unresponsive.

It takes the entourage about five minutes

to get to Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Beverly Hills.

At approximately 1:15 a.m.,

doctors notify Puffy Combs and Faith Evans

that Biggie Smalls is dead.

The autopsy report revealed he had been shot four times.

The fatal shot had entered his torso

and traveled in an upward trajectory,

hitting his heart and his lung.

Doctors would conclude that Biggie Smalls likely died

moments after being shot.

The next morning,

the world awakens to the news of Biggie's murder.

Conspiracy theories run wild,

with people naturally connecting Biggie's murder to Tupac's

just six months earlier.

On March 18th of 1997,

a massive funeral was held in New York.

Fans lined the streets

as a procession traveled through his Brooklyn neighborhood.

Puffy would give the eulogy and Faith Evans would sing.

One week later,

Biggie's Life After Deathalbum is released.

It will be nominated for three Grammy's

and sell over ten million copies in the United States.

Biggie's murder was originally investigated

by a detective named Kelly Cooper.

However, the case was transferred

to a new team of investigators

that included a detective named Russell Poole.

When they inherited the case,

the department was about to be hit

by one of the biggest police corruption scandals

in LAPD history,

in the form of the Rampart Scandal,

and this was just five years after the Rodney King riots.

It was in this atmosphere

that Russell Poole would develop a theory

that dirty LA cops working for Suge Knight

had murdered Biggie Smalls.

Specifically, this theory pointed a finger

at an officer named David Mack,

and his friend, Amir Muhammad.

After Poole fails to find support for his theory

from the LAPD,

he suspects that there's a cover up.

Eventually Russell Poole is transferred off of the case,

further adding to his suspicions of a massive cover up.

In 1999, he'll resign from the force.

However, Russell Poole would collaborate

with author Randall Sullivan

and help to write the book Labyrinth.

He also appeared in the documentary,

Biggie and Tupac.

Because of these two projects,

Poole's theory about dirty cops killing Biggie

would become widely accepted by the general public.

Based on his theory,

Biggie's mother and his estate file a lawsuit

against the city of Los Angeles.

The wrongful death lawsuit would wind its way

through the courts for years.

At one pre-trial hearing,

a judge indicated if LA city were to lose the lawsuit,

the damages could be as much as $400 million,

which was Biggie Smalls'

estimated lifetime earning value.

With a $400 million lawsuit looming over their head,

they now need to solve this case.

On May 1st, 2006,

I receive a phone call from Robbery Homicide Division.

I'm asked to join a new task force,

looking in to the nine-year-old cold case

murder investigation of Christopher Wallace.

I spent a majority of my career as a gang investigator.

I was a court qualified gang expert.

I was assigned to our Major Narcotics Unit.

I was a member of a DEA task force

where I was cross designated as a Federal Agent.

I was also a Homicide Investigator,

investigated over 200 cold cases.

The majority of my time,

majority of the investigations I was involved in

took place in the south-central region of Los Angeles.

The task force's first job

was to get the case files back from Internal Affairs.

It was 92 four-inch binders,

a massive amount of investigative material,

encompassing Russell Poole's investigation,

plus all the work done before him,

and in the nine years since.

A lot of good

investigative work had been done

by these previous detectives.

They had composites. They had vehicle descriptions.

They had done dozens and dozens of witness interviews.

There was a lot to build the case on.

They decided to federalize the case,

forming a task force that included agencies

like the FBI and the DEA.

This kept it from being a LAPD-only investigation,

gave them more resources,

allowed them to pursue suspects who were gang affiliated,

using federal recall laws to compel them to talk.

They looked into Russell Poole's theory

that officer David Mack and Amir Muhammad

had murdered Biggie Smalls.

However, this theory would be quickly dismissed.

Poole's theory started with rumors

that Death Row Records was hiring LA cops as security,

and was reinforced by two major incidents

involving LA police officers.

First incident was a shooting that Russell Poole investigated

before joining the Biggie murder case.

On March 18th of 1997,

an off duty LAPD officer named Kevin Gaines

was shot and killed by an undercover LAPD officer

after a road rage incident that Gaines had instigated.

While investigating the shooting,

Russell Poole found out about Gaines' personal life

that seemed to connect him to Suge Knight

and Death Row Records.

Gaines was dating Suge Knight's estranged wife

and was driving her car when he was killed.

He also frequented a steak house

that was a suspected Death Row hangout.

This seemed to reinforce the rumors

that LA cops were connected to Death Row Records.

The other incident that backed this theory

was a bank robbery committed by an LAPD cop named David Mack.

In December of 1997,

Mack was arrested for robbing a bank

near the USC campus a month earlier,

which had netted him $722,000.

A subsequent search of David Mack's house

revealed that he had a makeshift shrine to Tupac Shakur.

He also drove a black Chevy Impala.

A photograph was found

where David Mack is wearing a red crimson suit,

indicative of the Bloods gang.

So far, this evidence against Mack was circumstantial.

But when the task force got to the hard evidence,

things started to fall apart.

First, when the FBI raided David Mack's house

after the bank robbery,

they supposedly found Geco ammunition.

Geco ammunition was used to kill Biggie Smalls

and there was an FBI report

claiming that this ammunition was very rare.

However, the FBI report got it wrong

because they only focused on wholesale dealers,

of which there were only two in the United States.

But at the retail level,

there were over two dozen stores in Southern California

that sold this ammunition.

Half of them were in the LA area.

More importantly, the ammunition seemed to be very popular

with gangs in south-central Los Angeles,

turning up many times in raids on gang members' houses.

The next major clue in Russell Poole's theory

was the connection to David Mack's alleged accomplice,

Amir Muhammad.

Within weeks of Biggie's murder,

a jailhouse informant named Michael "Psycho Mike" Robinson,

had told police that Biggie shooter's name

was either Kenny, Keeky, Abraham, Ashmir or Amir.

Okay, you told me yesterday the name of...

Amir?

While David Mack was in custody, he received a visitor.

The individual that signed in on the visitor's from

used the name Amir Muhammad.

Russell Poole would conclude

that this was the same Amir

that Robinson had told them about.

Amir's non-Muslim name is Harry Billups.

And he had used a fake social security number

when he signed into the jail's visitor log,

which seemed suspicious.

However, when he was interviewed by the police

and the Biggie Estate's attorneys,

he had a very simple explanation.

His explanation was, that he was aware

that inmates and other people would be able to view that log

and he didn't want his identity stolen.

The book, Labyrinth, claimed that Amir

had also put down a fake home address

and an out-of-service telephone number.

However the address on the form

matched the one on his driver's license

and there was not even a place on the form

for a telephone number,

so he hadn't even listed one.

We also saw that he had listed

his correct driver's license number

and his birth date.

So if he's trying to hide his identity,

why does he use his correct address,

his correct driver's license number

and his correct birth date?

This hardly sounds like a professional killer.

Next, they went back and looked at Michael Robinson,

the informant who had given up

the name, "Amir", in the first place.

Labyrinth and the Biggie and Tupac documentary

had only told people that Robinson gave the name Amir.

What they had failed to mention

was that Robinson had given a ton of other information

about who this Amir was.

But none of that information matched Amir Muhammad,

aka Harry Billups.

Do you know what kind of car

this Ashmir drives?

Bodyguard?

Harry Billups had no gang affiliation,

was a college educated mortgage broker

and lived in San Diego.

He was not a Crip bodyguard

rolling around in the city of Compton

in a stretch white limousine.

Robinson also admitted that he was in jail

at the time that Biggie Smalls was killed,

and that he had gathered his information

from other jailhouse informants and from people on the outside.

He also admitted

that he didn't even know where Biggie had been killed

and that he thought Biggie was killed with a machine gun.

The only thing Robinson said that matched Harry Billups

was the name Amir.

Everything else he said was just ignored

in order to keep the Poole theory alive.

Michael Robinson had also picked Amir Mohammad

out of a photo lineup.

But he picked two other people out as well,

so he had circled half his options.

You have to understand something, erm.

During the first,

I'm gonna say first three or four days of this case,

we were getting phone calls for all kind of inmates

who had all the answers to everything.

They'd witnessed although they was in prison.

They knew everything.

There was very far-fetched information coming in

that Oprah had Tupac killed.

Jay Z had Biggie killed, and Tupac killed Biggie.

I don't care if they're informers,

they're inmates or whatever.

They got access to the media.

And a big case like this, everybody is watching this.

So when my lieutenant get out there

and talk about the bullets,

the type of car, what the guy looked like,

all you're doing is telling, even everybody in the world.

Instead including inmates, "Hey, this is what we have."

Now you've got to run over there and interview this inmate

who just got the information from the media.

So you're running in circles.

But once you realize what he said is garbage,

it's garbage, just let it go.

You don't pursue garbage. You're wasting your time.

Based on this limited information,

the LA Times had published an article

that named Amir Muhammad, aka Harry Billups,

as a suspect in the murder of Biggie Smalls.

However, five months later, they had to print a retraction

after the LAPD told them that he was not a suspect

and that their story was based on an old theory.

Billups tells the LA Times, "I'm not a murderer."

"I'm a mortgage broker."

Complicating things more, Eugene Deal,

Puffy's bodyguard the night that Biggie was shot,

identified Harry Billups in a six pack line up.

However, Eugene Deal

didn't make this identification until 2001.

By this time Billups' name and photo

had already been featured in the LA Times twice,

making Deal's ID-ing of him completely tainted.

On top of that,

Eugene Deal had been shown a different photograph line up,

years earlier,

and picked out an entirely different individual.

The icing on the cake is when the FBI took this informant,

Michael Robinson, down to San Diego

to set up an encounter with Harry Billups.

Of course, the whole thing went sideways

when the informant knocked on the door

and neither did he recognize Harry Billups,

nor did Harry Billups recognize him.

And it just led to this very awkward situation.

- I need to talk to you. - Need to talk to who?

- Are you from LA? - No, man.

If you ain't gonna tell me who you're looking for

- then you need to leave. - So based on the stranger

- standing on his front porch, - I'll be back!

Acting very nervous,

Harry Billups himself called the police.

Ultimately, years later,

Robinson recanted his statement.

The LA Times even ran a story about it,

where Robinson and another informant admitted

the information they had given was based on hearsay.

That they had contradicted their own stories.

In conclusion, the theory this mortgage broker

was moonlighting as a South Side Crip hitman

was beyond nonsense,

and almost ruined the man's life.

The last of the major cornerstones of Poole's theory

was the fact that David Mack owned a black Impala,

and they knew that Biggie's killer

had driven a dark-colored Impala.

There were two witnesses

that identified the Impala as being black.

But they were not close up witnesses.

Reggie Blaylock, who was part of the security personnel,

was in the trail vehicle, the last vehicle in the caravan.

He believed the car was black.

And also there was a bus driver

who'd seen the vehicle fleeing the scene

and he was looking in his rear view mirror.

But keep in mind,

these are dark, at-night conditions.

However, the witnesses

that were in the best position to see the car

were adamant that the vehicle was greenish in color,

not black.

I don't know.

I don't know which street I'm on.

How many people were in the vehicle?

I don't know.

You described the car as a green car?

Okay, could it have been dark,

I say, a dark car.

I can't tell the name

The fact that David Mack owned a black Impala

was relatively meaningless

because it was the wrong color.

It's also important to note

that when Mack committed the bank robbery,

he and his accomplices used a van stolen from near LAX

as their getaway vehicle

before Mack switched to his own car to drive home.

Now if David Mack is not willing to use his own vehicle

in the bank robbery,

it stands to reason that he's smart enough

not to use that same vehicle

in the assassination of a celebrity

on a crowded street,

outside of a party with hundreds of witnesses.

In the mid-1990s,

Chevy Impalas were extremely popular in Los Angeles.

In fact, they were so popular,

that we identified a half a dozen individuals

associated with the case that drove Chevy Impalas.

DJ Quick's bodyguard had a dark-colored Impala.

Suge Knight had a dark-colored Impala.

David Mack had a dark-colored Impala.

Kevin Hackie had a dark-colored Impala.

A South Side Crip by the name of Keffe D,

that was at the party that night,

also had a dark-colored Impala.

There were Impalas all over the place.

The approach our task force

was taking was to look at each individual theory

as if it could be true.

Unfortunately for Russell Poole,

his theory was the first one that we were able to disprove.

The next task was to look into the black SUV

whose occupants had fired a gun into the air

at the south-east corner of the Petersen Auto Museum.

Some conspiracy theorists believe that this incident

was part of a well-coordinated diversion tactic,

even though it happened more than half an hour

before Biggie's murder.

As it turns out, it was determined that incident

was completely unrelated to the murder of Biggie Smalls.

What had actually happened was,

the occupants of the black Bronco,

as they were entering the car,

the driver dropped a handgun onto the ground.

As he picked it up,

he thought it'd be a good idea to shoot it into the air

to ensure that it was still working.

Considering the enormous crowds that were nearby,

this obviously created chaos,

not to mention several 911 calls from the neighbors.

Later on that evening,

the same guy in the black Bronco decides he's gonna drive around.

Of course, at this time,

there's a crime scene investigation

related to Biggie's shooting.

He wants to know what happened.

So as he pulls up,

the officer at scene recognizes

this black Bronco from the 911 calls

and arrests the driver.

He came back to the scene. He had the gun in the car.

We took everything.

But if you're gonna kill a big celebrity,

and then you going to leave the scene,

come back to the police station, bring the gun with you.

I mean, come on. He's not going to prison.

He's going to an insane place because he's crazy.

Let's be real.

So as far as their involvement in a conspiracy,

we knew who these guys were.

They were arrested and it was ultimately determined

that they had nothing to do with anything

other than their own stupidity.

There was one more piece of evidence

that played a major role in the various Biggie murder theories.

And that was the composite sketch of the shooter.

There were actually two sketches,

both created with input from Biggie's driver,

Gregory "G-money" Young,

and Biggie's cousin, Lil' Cease,

who was in the back seat during the shooting.

Unfortunately, these two witnesses weren't sure

about what they had actually seen.

The car was gone, okay.

And they would say,

"Okay, I know you didn't see anything,

but was his nose like this big, or was it like that big?"

And I'm like, I don't know. You know, I really don't know.

They didn't look alike.

So now you've got two composites of one suspect.

If I'm doing a case, I always think ahead.

What will happen when I go to court?

For instance, you come over two composite,

for two different witness,

your credibility, as far as the jury see,

they're not sure, you're not sure.

If you're not sure, then you can have some problem

with getting a conviction on that case.

It bears mentioning that in 1998,

both Lil' Cease and "G-money", Gregory Young,

were shown a six pack photo lineup,

where one of the photographs in that line up

was of Harry Billups, Amir Muhammad.

And neither of them identify Harry Billups as the suspect.

The only thing the witnesses seem to be sure of

was that the guy appeared to look like a Muslim.

You even hear this on the 911 call from Biggie's car.

Sir, are you still seeing...

This led Eugene Deal to conclude

that it must have been the same guy

he saw standing at the garage

when they were loading up to leave.

I heard, Lil' Cease says,

"The guy was dressed like the Nation of Islam."

And I say, oh, the kid with the blue suit on?

He had a blue suit, white shirt with a blue or gray tie?

He says, "Yeah."

I said, that nigga came directly towards our van.

He had a white handkerchief in his hand.

However, Eugene Deal could only speculate

because he never saw the shooter behind the wheel.

Could you, from where you were seeing,

see who that was in the car?

Moving forward with their investigation,

the task force identified five new potential witnesses

that they believed had information

about the murders of Biggie and Tupac.

One of them was Orlando Anderson.

The individual that Tupac had jumped in Las Vegas

just before his murder.

Unfortunately though,

Anderson had been dead for nearly eight years.

The next guy on their list was Travon Lane,

a Death Row employee who was with Tupac

right before he attacked Orlando Anderson.

It is widely believed

that Tupac's assault on Orlando Anderson

was in retaliation for Orlando

beating up Travon earlier that summer.

Unfortunately, the interview with Travon went nowhere.

He maintained his street code,

which meant not cooperating with police.

Next we interviewed Michael "Little Owl" Dorrough,

a South Side Crip, and friend of Orlando Anderson's.

On the day that Anderson was killed,

he and Michael Dorrough confronted two men

at a car wash in Compton concerning a debt.

The confrontation escalated into a shooting

during which Orlando Anderson and the two men were killed.

As a sole survivor,

Michael Dorrough was convicted for all three murders,

was now serving a life sentence in Pelican Bay State Prison.

When we interviewed Michael Dorrough

in Pelican Bay Prison,

he told us that Suge Knight had hired the South Side Crips

to kill Biggie Smalls.

However, when we started monitoring

Michael Dorrough's mail and phone calls from prison,

we discovered that he was scheming with his cousin

to provide this fake story to the police

in hopes that he would be moved out of Pelican Bay

into a lesser secure prison.

Another guy on their list of potential witnesses

was an alleged South Side Crip named Corey Edwards,

who was known to have been in Las Vegas

when Tupac was shot,

and who was at the next party that Biggie was heading to

when he was shot.

The task force had trouble finding Edwards

because he had been on the run for five years

after a Drug indictment out of Ohio.

Through their own efforts, the task force located Edwards

and arrested him.

Unfortunately, he decided to take his chances

with the drug charges rather than cooperate.

The last name on our short list of witness

was Duane "Keffe D" Davis.

"Keffe D" was a shot caller

for the South Side Crips,

and the uncle of Orlando Anderson.

It was determined that "Keffe D" had been in Las Vegas

along with his nephew, Orlando, the night Tupac was shot.

Additionally, Keffe D's name had come up

in the original Biggie investigation,

when it was discovered that he was at the party at Petersen,

and he had access to a Chevy Impala.

After Tupac was shot,

there was rumors on the street that Bad Boy Records

owed the South Side Crips a million dollars.

Some thought the debt was for concert security,

while others believed it was for the hit on Tupac.

In fact, I believe when Robinson gave the name Amir,

and also identified the shooter as Kenny or Keeky,

he was meaning to say Keffe, as in "Keffe D"

and repeating the rumor

that the South Side Crips had killed Biggie.

As a result of this million-dollar rumor,

Keffe D had been interviewed by Biggie murder investigators

back in 1997.

Eleven years later,

we still believed that Keffe D

was an enormous person of interest,

who could break the case wide open.

Our first run at Keffe failed.

He immediately lawyered up,

and we realized we needed to find a way

to compel him to cooperate.

Because the case had been federalized,

we became aware that the DEA

was already investigating Keffe D

and other South Side Crips

for interstate narcotics trafficking.

We used this information

against one of Keffe D's drug couriers

in order to convince him to flip against Keffe D.

We then used that drug courier to set up Keffe D

in a big drug sting involving cocaine and PCP.

The operation took months.

Involved wire taps, surveillance and undercover narcotic buys

to ensure that we had an iron clad case

with a life sentence

that we could hold over Keffe D's head.

So with this, we went to Keffe's house

and confronted him with the evidence

that we had built against him.

Later that day,

Keffe and his attorney met with us

at the US Attorney's office in downtown Los Angeles.

Keffe D has a serious dilemma on his hands.

He either comes clean about what he knows

about the murder of Biggie Smalls,

or he goes to prison for the rest of his life.

Now, our drug investigation of Keffe D

didn't stop with Keffe D.

There were several of his close associates.

In fact, there were close family members of his

who got caught up in this investigation.

Keffe D's decision to cooperate wasn't just to save himself.

He was trying to save his family.

Keffe agrees to cooperate with the government

and that it will be a proffer session,

in which nothing he tells us can be used against him

unless we find out that he's deliberately lied to us.

At our next meeting with Keffe,

we explain to him we needed to know everything he knew

about the murder of Biggie Smalls.

Keffe D began by telling us

that on the day that Biggie was killed,

Puffy had invited him to the Vibe party

at the Petersen Auto Museum

after attending a celebrity basketball tournament

earlier in the day.

So Keffe and some members of his crew attended the party.

This claim was backed by Keffe's friend,

Corey Edwards.

Keffe D?

While inside the party,

Keffe said he had approached Biggie and Puffy's table.

Did you see either of them at the party?

Lil' Cease confirmed that he had seen Keffe D

and several of the other South Side Crips

at the Petersen.

He sees them walking up towards Biggie

when the security intervenes.

Biggie waves them off, saying, "I know these guys.

They're cool." Specifically Keffe D.

"Let them through."

Where do these guys

from Compton approach you

and ask you did you want them to provide security?

Did I want security, erm?

At that place.

- At the party? - Yeah.

- At the museum? - Yeah.

Yeah.

He talk to him?

About what?

Puffy's bodyguard, Eugene Deal, had also confirmed

that the guys who he referred to as the "guys from Compton"

had approached them at the party.

What did they say?

Did they come over and speak to you guys?

Did they speak to Puffy and Big?

"You want some of this bottle?" Like that. You know, you know.

You know, like that.

This, among other things,

establishes what Keffe D is already telling us,

is that he knows these guys on a personal level

and can approach them at any time.

Keffe offers Combs extra security at that point.

Combs rejects, telling Keffe, "Hey, the Feds are all over me."

Obviously not wanting to be seen

publicly with these gang members.

- Combs? - Yeah.

Keffe D warns Puffy

about the presence of Death Row personnel

and Blood gang members at the party.

Keffe D's instincts are telling him

that something is about to go down.

And a short time later, Biggie is killed

while driving away from the party.

At this point in the conversation,

Keffe D looks squarely at us and says, "That wasn't us."

He knows that we think

that he's potentially involved in the Biggie Smalls murder.

So when he says, "That wasn't us,"

it begs the question, well, then what was?

When Keffe D said, "That wasn't us,"

he added to it.

"But what I do have to tell you

is gonna blow your fucking minds."

At this point we concluded

that Keffe D's big bargaining chip

was Tupac, not Biggie.

People had always suspected

that the murders of Tupac Shakur

and Biggie Smalls were connected.

But now we were certain of it.

With Keffe D's confession,

we knew that if we could solve one murder,

we would likely be able to solve the other.

In their next meeting with Keffe D

he would be forced to tell them exactly what he knew

about the murder of Tupac Shakur.

Keffe, today what we're going to do.

We're just going to go over with a fine-tooth comb,

the Las Vegas incident

because we're gonna draft up our report

as regarding that specific thing.

And then we're going to cover a few other things,

but we do have to emphasize to you,

that everything in this report has to be right on.

Because if down the road,

it's determined some of these details are incorrect,

then everything's off the table.

So everything in this report cannot be like that before.

I feel, like I said that day,

don't bullshit me and I won't bullshit y'all.

You know what I'm saying?

What this ultimately comes down to,

is how valuable your life is, your family.

And when I say your family,

I don't mean your extended family.

I mean your brothers and your sisters,

and your wife and your kids. That's it.

Man, well, I feel I can still

go to jail with them, dude.

Because this is federal and that's...

What is said right here

cannot be used against you, Keffe.

We also knew that we had to reconcile

what Keffe D was telling us now

with what he had told the FBI a decade earlier.

Back then,

Keffe claimed that after his nephew,

Orlando Anderson, was stomped by Tupac and his entourage,

that he had warned Orlando not to retaliate

and to just let it go.

He'd also told the FBI

that he believed Suge Knight had killed Tupac

because Tupac was planning on leaving Death Row Records.

That had been a popular conspiracy theory for years.

There's some people who claim

that Orlando Anderson was a pawn of Suge Knight.

That he was planted there in the MGM Grand

to get beat down

and Suge Knight used him pretty much.

I think it was in Russell Poole's book

or Labyrinth, or one of those.

Yeah, it's ridiculous also.

If he wanted Tupac killed,

he could have had him killed

and he's surely not gonna sit next to him in a car,

and say, "All right, come up beside my car"

"and shoot nine times in and hope you don't hit me."

"And I'm sitting right next to him."

We could have had him killed anywhere.

That we are that smart,

to have something like that calculated

or planned to happen on Vegas strip,

after spending $100,000

when you're trying to get $2 million venture

off the ground

that Suge had just invested into Club 662.

And you know this is one of the most important nights.

This is gonna be the night they're gonna say yeah or no,

to if you're gonna get a permit or not.

Also, everybody forget.

If you needed to control Tupac, what do people do?

What do the government do when they wanna control you?

They do two things.

They break you, or they institutionalize you.

We still had the attorney, David Kenner,

handling his appeal, his freedom.

But you sure could have made him lose that appeal

if you wanted to take all his money.

Break him down

and then see where he's at two or three years later,

after he finishes his tail that he had still riding.

When confronted with the fact

that he had originally denied

having any involvement in the Tupac murder,

Keffe D said, in his words, that that was all bullshit.

- What do you say? - The whole...

Next Keffe D began to fill in the back story

of his association with Puffy Combs.

He told us that he had met Puffy in 1993,

through a mutual friend, a guy named Eric "Zip" Martin,

who was a New York based drug dealer.

Was it like a high school field?

Like a local field?

We just played for like cases of champagne.

Do you know why, what brought Zip out here

because he's originally from New York?

Yeah.

What was he out here for?

He just came out here to party,

and have one, you know.

When you're out in New York is that when you...

Did they see themselves as relatives

or anything like that, like that was his nephew or...?

Is that how he act towards him?

Which car was that?

What color was it?

Brown.

- Greenpatch? - Greenblatts.

- Okay. - That was it, yeah.

For his part,

Puffy Combs denies having any association with Keffe D

or hiring Crips as his security.

However, a slew of witnesses confirmed

that Puffy Combs and Zip and the South Side Crips

were all connected.

He was just somebody that was cool with him and everything

Okay.

Keffe D's childhood friend

and fellow South Side Crip, Terrence Brown,

also confirmed that Puffy, Zip and Keffe D

all knew each other quite well.

You know what I'm saying?

Corey Edwards,

another South Side Crip friend of Keffe's,

also confirmed these connections.

Zip's from New York?

Death Row insider, Henry "Hen Dog" Smith,

also told police that he had heard

that Bad Boy used South Side Crips as security

and that Keffe D was the main contact

between Bad Boy Records and the Crips.

I knew that they were South Side Crips,

were affiliated, or supplying security services.

Homeboy Security Services,

er, for the Bad Boy crew when they came inside.

You know, they see things coming up from a street perspective,

where they... Also they, you know, me as a cop,

I'm not gonna go approach a young lady

and say "Hey, Tupac, or Suge wanna holler at you."

Where they'll go do that.

I'm not gonna go and walk up to a guy

and say, "Hey, you got some weed on you?"

Where they'll go do that.

Even Biggie's cousin, Lil' Cease,

admitted to seeing Keffe D backstage

at a Bad Boy concert in Anaheim,

along with Puffy's friend from New York,

who we now believed was Zip.

In fact that's how Lil' Cease recognized Keffe D

at the Vibe party

because he'd seen him before at the concert in Anaheim.

Not only did Lil' Cease say that this Crip was the same person

that he had seen backstage at Bad Boy concerts,

but he was able to pick him out of a photo lineup.

In the picture?

So you saw that guy

when you was on the tour?

- Same guy? - Same guy.

Yep.

That face is Keffe D.

- BET Tour. - Where was it?

Puffy's bodyguard, Eugene Deal,

also admitted to seeing these guys rolling with Puffy

at Bad Boy shows.

These guys from Compton

that you said were involved with the Tupac thing.

Were they at any of the other concerts on that tour,

other than Las Vegas?

I don't know if it was Irvine or San Diego or whatever,

But I know I met them first at the California show.

Eugene Deal also confirmed Keffe D's claim

that he had seen Puffy handing out 40 to 50 concert tickets

to the South Side Crips.

And it was like...

Next, we ask Keffe D the million dollar question.

On all four of those occasions,

so San Diego, Anaheim, Irvine and Vegas,

which one's do you actually talk to Puffy at?

Every one of them?

After a concert in Anaheim,

Keffe D claims that he had tended a party

with Puffy in a hotel suite.

And what? Puffy makes kind of an announcement?

Yeah,

Okay, okay.

We were a bit taken back by this information.

These are very bold claims being made

against a very powerful person.

It was not something that we took lightly.

Claims like these need to be corroborated on multiple levels.

Yeah, you know as soon as it goes up the chain of command,

they're gonna squash the case.

Because nobody wants to do business at that level.

Because it's just lawsuits and lawsuits and lawsuits.

A few months later, at Greenblatt's Deli,

Keffe D claimed that Puffy Combs furthered the solicitation.

What happened that made it something

other than just him frustrated and boasting?

"Man, I'll give you guys anything."

I mean, what made it a specific, like "Hey, I'm serious."

I want you guys to kill these guys."

How does it go? How does the conversation go?

I mean, "Okay, I'll do it, but I need $500,000."

Or, you know, "I've got somebody who will do it, but I need."

I mean we need specific details regarding that.

Yeah, we...

Erm, you said you walked downstairs,

did he say, "Come meet me downstairs?"

So in your opinion the specific reason

he asked you to come downstairs and talk to him

was about that thing, not about liquor or anything?

- It was about that? - Well, yeah.

He's telling 'em, "We'll do it for a million"

and he's like, "Okay, I'll do it for a million"?

He agrees?

You shake on it or something like that?

Yeah.

Shit.

You know what I'm saying? Shit.

If Keffe D is to be believed,

this second solicitation for murder

is more serious than the first,

that could have been discounted as boasting

because now he takes Keffe D aside

to have a private conversation to discuss this matter.

All the other things Keffe D told us,

we could corroborate with other witnesses.

But this particular matter just leaves Keffe and Puffy alone.

The one piece of corroborating evidence that we did have

came in the form of a witness statement,

from a South Side Crip informant who had advised the police

that there was a standing one million dollar contract

between Bad Boy Records and the South Side Crips.

Chuck Phillips wrote this article based on this clue.

And he writes this article in the LA Times,

saying "There's a million dollar bounty put out by Biggie Smalls"

but the truth was, that clue said Puffy Combs,

ten years before Keffe D ever brought it up.

This is what Keffe D says happened

the weekend of Tupac's murder.

The day before the Mike Tyson fight,

Keffe D eats at Greenblatt's Deli.

He then caravans to Las Vegas with his crew,

including Zip Martin.

Zip is driving his Mercedes,

while Keffe goes out in a rented Buick Century.

On Saturday, the day of the fight,

Keffe D's nephew, Orlando Anderson,

with friends, Terrence Brown and Deandrae Smith,

all drive out to Las Vegas to meet up with Keffe D.

Guess what they're driving? A white Cadillac.

They came up, I remember

it was a white Cadillac

and then Lauren was like, "That was Tupac.

I know he got shot. I know he got shot."

Who was driving the Cadillac?

They came on Saturday?

Yeah.

After the Tyson fight,

Keffe D hooks up with Zip and they go to dinner.

Unbeknownst to them,

Keffe's nephew, Orlando Anderson,

has just been attacked by Tupac, Suge Knight and their entourage.

In the epitome of bad timing,

Tupac Shakur has just attacked the nephew of the individual

who claims to have been hired to kill him.

Unlike in his interview with the FBI in the late 1990s,

where he had claimed that after Orlando Anderson was beat up,

he just simply tried to calm him down.

Now he told us they immediately planned a retaliation.

And then he came and said,

And we was in the hotel, near...

You guys aren't out in Vegas

then with that intention.

That's not why you're in Vegas?

No, we just...

So you're all geared up to go to Vegas.

Y'all was going anyway?

Not even knowing who else was going to be down there

Zip, who knows about Puffy's offer to Keffe,

says, "This is a good time to take care of that thing."

Zip offers Keffe D the 40 caliber Glock

that he has stashed in his Mercedes

out in the parking lot.

- Some what? - Er, the Jimmies.

Backing up Keffe's story, we had a cooperating witness

who was present at the MGM that night

after Orlando Anderson was beat down.

He testifies to the fact

that he sees Orlando Anderson bleeding from the head

and sees the group get together to plan their retaliation.

In fact, he heard one of the guys say,

"Fuck that shit, what Tupac think this is?

We gang bang out here."

The witness also confirms that he overheard Zip say,

"We have artillery out here," meaning guns.

You tell Zip, "We're gonna handle this shit,"

or whatever?

Yeah, we're gonna...

Then you jump out of the car

and then what happens?

Know what I'm sayin'?

Keffe D, Orlando Anderson

and half a dozen of the other Crip gang members

get in to two vehicles and drive directly to the 662 Club,

where Tupac Shakur is expected

to be performing later that night.

They park in the parking lot

anticipating Tupac's arrival and simply lie in wait for him.

You know,

"Police kill the motherfuckers and all that.

Man, you crazy."

According to Keffe D,

some of the guys are getting nervous,

so he jumps in the Cadillac with three other guys

and decides to handle it on their own.

The Cadillac is being driven by Terrence Brown.

In the front passenger seat is Keffe D.

Behind the driver is Deandrae Smith,

and in the right rear passenger seat

is Keffe's nephew, Orlando Anderson.

In addition to Keffe D's statement,

we had other evidence

confirming that the four people he said were in the Cadillac

were in fact in Vegas that weekend.

Orlando Anderson, of course, was on tape at the MGM,

and Keffe D, his uncle, admitted to being there.

T-Brown, however, for his part,

denied that he was in Vegas that weekend.

However, he was arrested less than a month later

with Las Vegas postcards in his possession

and Deandrae Smith confirmed

that both he and Brown were in Vegas

the night Tupac was shot.

With Keffe D and his crew ready to do this,

they set out to find Suge Knight and Tupac Shakur.

And, ah, shit.

Keffe D claims that the girls,

who are riding alongside Tupac and Suge Knight,

are what drew their attention to the BMW.

They were screaming out his name.

"Tupac, Tupac."

So what directed your attention to them

was some girls shouting at Tupac?

Due to traffic conditions

and the configuration of Suge and Tupac's caravan,

the white Cadillac is forced to pull up

on the right side of their BMW.

Keffe D, who's seated

in the right front passenger seat of the white Cadillac,

and who has the gun,

realizes that he's not gonna be in a position to shoot

because he's going to have to shoot across the car

and across the face of his driver.

Keffe D turns around to hand the gun to the back seat,

attempting to give it to Deandrae Smith,

who would be in the best position to shoot.

Deandrae resists,

puts his hand up and says, "No, no thanks. Not me."

Orlando Anderson,

who's in the right rear passenger,

reaches forward and says, "Give me that motherfucker."

Leans over Deandrae Smith,

out the back window of the Cadillac

and began shooting rapidly into the BMW.

So Orlando would have had to

lean over the top of Dre, right?

Yeah. He did. He...

He looks right at you?

Why do you think he recognizes you?

Backing up Keffe D's claim he and Knight knew each other

was a witness who was in Las Vegas,

part of the Death Row entourage

who was present during the shooting of Tupac Shakur,

who said that Knight stated he knew who the shooters were

and that they were South Side Crips.

Yeah.

Keffe D has now identified his own nephew

as the murderer of Tupac Shakur.

Bolstering Keffe D's claim was an informant in 1997,

who told investigators

that Puffy had hired the South Side Crips

to kill both Suge and Tupac,

and that the Crip who was jumped at the MGM

was in the group that had done the hit.

And that they originally were going to do it

at Suge's Vegas nightclub.

But then decided to do it right away

instead of waiting.

This was exactly the same story Keffe D told us a decade later.

Very few people know

that immediately after Tupac is shot

and that white Cadillac is fleeing,

one of the Death Row entourage,

a guy named Alton McDonald, known as "Buntry",

chases after the Cadillac

and a second shooting takes place

between the two vehicles.

Alton McDonald's car is struck.

In fact, within the Las Vegas murder files,

there's a document indicates that Alton McDonald's car

had been struck by a bullet that night.

As a result, Alton McDonald gives up the chase

and the white Cadillac disappears into the night.

This also counters the claim

that Suge had set up the Tupac murder.

Why would Suge's main enforcer

chase after the suspect's vehicle

and exchange gunfire

if they were all part of the same conspiracy?

For his part, Keffe D affirms in his interview

that a second shooting does take place.

However, he misidentifies the car that's following them

as the girls in the green Sebring.

Stupid bitches.

Somebody started shooting this way,

they're shooting that way.

So we're in the midst of all of this gunfire

and the only thing we could think of is, get out of there.

Coincidentally, Suge Knight's BMW

had come to a stop on Las Vegas Boulevard near Harmon,

which is only about a block

from where the shooters had ditched the Cadillac.

Who? You guys were on the street...

I couldn't see.

We was ready to...

The following day, they return to the Cadillac,

recover the murder weapon

and ensure that there are no discarded casings

left inside the vehicle.

Then Keffe D and the rest of the Crips

return to Los Angeles.

After Tupac was shot,

the New Yorkers went home

and told Puffy's bodyguard, Eugene Deal,

exactly what had happened in Las Vegas.

In his police interview, he got all the details right.

You know what I'm saying?

And Pac stepped to them saying,

"Those are those muck ass niggas."

"They've been fucking with them niggas from New York."

That's what we're saying.

- Where you there for this? - No, I wasn't there for this.

You were told this?

I was told this, I said it was

You know,

a long time ago, or something like that.

You know, this fight broke out, you know what I'm saying?

And that's how that incident happened.

Who was a head...

We also found an informant who was a South Side Crip,

an associate of all these guys, who confirmed Keffe D's story.

Erm, okay, erm...

Orlando,

Keffe, erm,

T-Brown,

erm, Dre.

More importantly, this informant claimed

that he had personally seen Orlando Anderson

and Deandrae Smith in a white Cadillac in Compton

the day after Tupac was shot

and that Deandrae, not Orlando,

had bragged about shooting Tupac.

Man, I let off on Tupac.

They was nervous when they got back.

Talking, you know,

The informant also confirmed

what Keffe D had said

about the Cadillac being a rental car.

We now had evidence that pointed to Orlando Anderson

as the killer of Tupac Shakur.

With the benefit of hindsight, it now seemed obvious.

If, prior to our interviews with Keffe D in late 2008,

I'd been asked to put together a list

of the most likely suspects,

he'd have been at the top of the list.

Knowing that didn't make us great detectives,

it was just common sense.

I had a person I was talking to,

who told me that she was related to Orlando Anderson

and she told me that at a family gathering

Orlando Anderson would brag about killing Tupac.

Orlando was so committed to boasting

about the shooting of Tupac,

that even his uncle Keffe D had to scold him,

tell him to keep his mouth shut and quit talking about it.

But instead, Orlando Anderson goes on CNN with his attorney.

I mean, I've been thinking, you know,

maybe I'm a scapegoat or something.

I just wanna let everybody know, you know what I'm saying,

you know what I'm saying, I didn't do it.

Immediately after the murder of Tupac Shakur,

Compton Police knew that Orlando Anderson was involved.

They knew this because of their confidential informants.

South Side Crip informants who were telling them so.

In fact, they conducted search warrants

and even arrested Orlando Anderson.

Unfortunately though, for Las Vegas police,

there wasn't enough evidence for prosecution.

Orlando Anderson lawyered up

and everything else was just circumstantial.

Not enough to get a criminal filing.

There was one more piece of evidence

tying Orlando Anderson to this case

that shocked the task force when they discovered it.

Going back to the murder of Suge's friend

and bodyguard, Jake Robles,

at the nightclub in Atlanta,

the incident that took the feud between Death Row and Bad Boy

to the next level.

They found an interview that Russell Poole had conducted

with the nightclub security guard,

who was an off duty Atlanta police officer,

named deputy Howard.

In this interview from 1997,

they showed Howard

the MGM Grand security video of Orlando Anderson,

and a photo of Keffe's friend, Corey Edwards.

Deputy Howard was absolutely positive

that both Orlando Anderson and Corey Edwards

were at the club

and they were among the suspects in the Robles shooting.

Deputy Howard also stated

that the altercation that took place inside of the club

was between Robles and Suge

and a guy in a powder blue jacket.

At one point, Suge told the guy in the blue jacket,

"I know your family. I know your momma.

I know your family."

He also told Robles, after he was shot,

"Hush, I'll take care of this

when we get back on our own turf."

Now why would Suge Knight say, "I know your family"

or "we can take care of this when we get back to Los Angeles"

to a person that was a member of Bad Boy from New York City?

Making that connection for us,

Deputy Howard confirmed

that the person that was in the powder blue jacket

was none other than Orlando Anderson.

Within a month of returning from Las Vegas,

after the Tupac murder,

Suge Knight is arrested for a parole violation,

for his participation in the stomp down

of Orlando Anderson.

Desperate to get himself out of his predicament,

Suge Knight then offers Orlando Anderson

upwards of $16,000 to testify on his behalf

that he wasn't actually attempting to assault Orlando.

But was trying to help him.

So, Orlando Anderson,

who has just shot and killed Tupac Shakur

and struck Suge Knight in that hail of gunfire,

is now being summoned and solicited by Knight himself,

to perjure himself on Knights' behalf in court.

The mindset of doing business with him

was to try to stop him from doing nine years

and keeping the, er, fall of Death Row from happening.

Keffe D accompanied Orlando Anderson

to the attorney's office when this deal was made.

He wasn't happy about it.

He thought that Orlando Anderson was selling out.

Some might wonder,

well, why didn't Suge go after Keffe D and kill him?

But there are a lot of variables and a lot at play here.

Suge Knight was now in jail

and was going to be serving the better part of eight years.

While he's in jail Keffe D then goes to jail.

Suge Knight also knows that

Keffe D wasn't the actual shooter,

that it was his nephew, Orlando Anderson.

All of those things come in to play

in the weird dynamics of the gang life.

Keffe D claims that after returning to LA

following Tupac's murder,

he meets with Zip at a hot wing spot Near Hollywood.

You guys go over there, Zip shows up.

You guys, what happens after?

When you're at the

hot wing place talking to Zip...

On Zip's phone, or your phone?

What does Zip say? I'm gonna go back home and have...

Approximately six weeks later, Keffe D hasn't been paid yet,

so he meets with Zip to ask about the money.

And Zip tells him that he hasn't

received the money from Puffy yet.

Keffe D claimed to have run into an associate of Puffy's

named Darius "D-Mack" Rogers.

According to Keffe,

D-Mack claimed that Puffy had given Zip $500,000,

but that Zip had never forwarded that money to Keffe.

I'm like, what? He like, "Yeah, man."

you know what I'm saying?

As part of our investigative strategy,

our next step was to use Keffe D against Zip,

the same way that we had used Hammond against Keffe D,

essentially as an informant,

in which we could use Keffe D against Zip

and set him up in a sting operation.

Using our federal funding and resources,

on June 17th of 2008,

we escorted Keffe D back to New York.

We had identified the nightclub that Zip owned

called the Zip Code in Harlem.

We waited until the opportunity presented itself

to introduce Keffe back to Zip.

On the second attempt, we succeed

and Zip shows up at the club.

Keffe D is there

and the two of them unite after many years.

After some small talk

and reacquainting themselves with one another,

Keffe suggested they resurrect their prior drug relationship.

Zip says, "Listen, I've got cancer."

I'm struggling. I'm too old for this.

However, let me introduce you to my nephew.

"He's in the position to help you out."

According to the Drug Enforcement Administration,

this nephew of Zip's is actually a lieutenant

in Zip's narcotic organization.

We believe that Zip is merely testing Keffe D

to see what his true intentions are.

Zip's no amateur at this game.

He's going to be harder to set up than Keffe D was.

With the Tupac investigation making good progress,

The task force still had to focus on their original goal

of solving the Biggie Smalls murder,

which they had been investigating simultaneously.

After disproving Russell Poole's David Mack theory,

and now ruling out Keffe D and Crips as Biggie's killers,

they were left with one prevailing theory,

that Suge Knight had members of the Mob Piru Bloods

murder Biggie Smalls.

With Tupac dead

and Suge Knight in prison for his parole violation,

Death Row Records began to crumble.

On top of that, bodies had started falling.

In 1997, one of Suge's bodyguards,

Aaron "Heron" Palmer

was gunned down at a Compton stop light.

Another bodyguard of Suge's, Alton "Buntry" McDonald,

and Death Row employee, Henry "Hen Dog" Smith,

had also been killed.

McDonald and his passenger, Neck Bone,

were the ones who had exchanged gunfire

with Tupac's killer in Vegas,

and "Hen Dog" was the one who had designed

the Death Row logo.

In 2003, Suge Knight's close friend

and confidante, Wardell "Poochie" Fouse,

was shot ten times in the back and killed

while riding his motorcycle through Compton.

In 2005, Suge Knight lost a 107 million dollar lawsuit

to a man named Harry O,

who had vested start-up money in Death Row Records.

This, and a huge IRS bill,

led to Suge Knight filing for bankruptcy.

Suffice it to say, by the time we caught up with Suge Knight,

he had lost Death Row Records

and was a shadow of his former self.

The task force learned that the FBI

had launched a racketeering investigation

into Death Row back in the 90s, but had ultimately abandoned it.

They decided to resurrect that case,

hoping to find witnesses who would flip against Suge.

Unfortunately, the racketeering case went nowhere,

but it would lead to the one witness

that would break the case open.

In 1996, prior to Tupac's murder,

Suge Knight had commissioned for a 1961 Chevy Impala

to be customized as a gift for Tupac.

The cover art for Tupac's album, All Eyes On Me,

was airbrushed across the trunk.

Unfortunately, Tupac didn't live long enough to receive the gift.

After changing hands several times,

the Impala ended up in front of a body shop

in El Monte, California.

Supposedly, Suge found out about it

and some of his associates went to the body shop

to pressure the owner into giving it back.

After locating the Impala at a Long Beach pawn shop,

the task force discovered

that the person who had taken it there

was one of Suge Knight's long time girlfriends.

Suge's most trusted girlfriend,

who we're going to refer

to under the alias of Theresa Swann,

was the mother of one of his children.

She was also criminally complicit

in some of Suge's nefarious business activities.

Theresa Swann had a long history of fraud and perjury,

with a half a dozen fake identities.

Our big break with Theresa Swann came

when her name came up

in the middle of an auto theft ring,

where the thieves were using fraudulent loan applications

to purchase vehicles

and then in turn selling them at a discount price.

In addition to the evidence

of her involvement in this auto theft ring,

we discovered that she was involved

in Suge Knight's bankruptcy fraud.

So we now had two very serious things

to hold over her head.

We were about to ask Theresa Swann

to do something against her every instinct.

Drop the dime on Suge Knight.

On March 17th of 2009,

the task force had its first meeting

with Theresa Swann,

at a Starbucks in Santa Fe Springs.

To evaluate the initial extent

of her cooperation,

and what she was willing to tell us,

we decided to focus on the subjects

of the auto theft investigation and the bankruptcy fraud.

In fact we brought with us an IRS agent

to further that deception.

We outlined what she was facing in those charges,

and she responded, "Listen, you've got to understand."

I only did what he told me. That's all I ever did.

"I got kids. I got to look out for them."

Since that first meeting went relatively well,

we arranged a second meeting with Theresa Swann,

at another Starbucks in Pasadena.

This time we got down to brass tacks.

My homicide partner, Darren Dupree, asked Theresa,

"Do you know why we're really here?

Do you know why we're really here?"

And I told her, we're homicide detectives.

We want to know who killed Biggie Smalls.

Now she begins sobbing,

so Darren and I excuse ourselves from the table momentarily,

leaving her with an FBI agent working the case with us.

He walks over to us a few minutes later,

with an ear to ear smile, saying, "She knows."

With that, we knew that a Starbucks

was not the setting for full disclosure.

So we elected to set up another meeting,

under more stringent circumstances

at the DEA Headquarters.

In preparation for their third meeting

with Theresa Swann,

the task force scoured the case files.

They notice that one name kept popping up,

Wardell "Poochie" Fouse.

Poochie was Suge Knight's friend who was killed

while riding his motorcycle in Compton in 2003.

An FBI informant had claimed that Poochie

was one of the Suge Knight's shooters.

One particular incident involving Poochie

was the murder of an individual named William Ratcliffe,

who was a bounty hunter

in the Nickerson Gardens housing project,

who had threatened Suge.

William Ratcliffe was run to ground

on the streets of Compton and executed.

Suge allegedly said in regard to Poochie's actions,

"He doesn't fuck around, that's how I want him to do it."

We also discovered prison letters

from a Blood named Roderick Reed,

written in 2004.

Communications between him

and the discredited FBI informant, Kevin Hackie.

In Roderick Reed's letters, he mentions on several occasions

he knows Poochie is the one who killed Biggie Smalls.

Considering Roderick Reed's Blood background,

and the fact that his co-defendant on the case

for which he is in prison

was none other than George Williams,

one of Suge's trusted friends and enforcers.

This gave Roderick Reed's information

considerable credibility.

We wanted to go and question Reed,

but because his case was on appeal,

United States Attorney's Office precluded us from doing that.

But what we do have is these letters,

further corroborating Poochie's involvement

in the murder of Biggie Smalls.

In the meantime, we decided to approach Reggie Wright Jr.

The owner of Wright Way Protective Services.

They provided all the security for Death Row Records.

When we met with Reggie Wright Jr.,

the most interesting thing he had to say

was when he described the unique relationship

that Suge Knight had with Wardell "Poochie" Fouse.

He described it as a very secretive relationship.

That they would always go off to the side to talk.

That Poochie didn't hang out like all the other gang members.

Very different.

They had a relationship where they knew each other

and he would come around.

But to be honest, they kept their relationship private.

Er, it would be Suge and maybe a girl and myself,

when they would meet.

Er, it wasn't like all the homies.

Down low would maybe be a bad word,

but, erm, that would be the word

that you would probably best describe it.

For their third meeting with Theresa Swann,

the task force created a ruse.

They drafted fake documents,

including a drivers license with Poochie's photo,

under the name of Darnell Bolton,

one of Poochie's known aliases.

They also created a fake confession letter,

appearing to have come from Poochie before he died,

signed under the same alias of Darnell Bolton.

This authentic-looking fake confession letter

detailed the murder as we believed it happened.

Specifically, Poochie's fake confession stated

that Suge Knight had hired him

to kill Biggie in retaliation for the murder of Tupac.

The letter listed Theresa Swann as a co-conspirator

to make her believe that Poochie

had dropped the dime on her years earlier.

To make it look more authentic,

we put a fake law firm letterhead

and redacted out certain sections.

Lastly, the fake confession letter

was dated April 1st, 1998.

April Fool's Day.

It was a calculated risk we took

in introducing that fake confession letter.

If the information in that letter wasn't true,

then Theresa Swann would know that.

And call our bluff

and the whole strategy would be upended.

On May 28th of 2009,

we sat down with Theresa Swann at police headquarters.

At the very beginning of our meeting, it's very tense.

Theresa Swann is crying uncontrollably.

She also says, "If Suge ever finds out about this",

dot, dot, dot."

Clearly indicating

that if Suge ever finds out that she's cooperating,

there'd be a price to pay.

Understanding her predicament,

we assured her that we could protect her.

You know we'll do our best to handle the situation.

She looked at us sarcastically, saying...

How are you gonna handle Suge?

Some people may take issue as whether or not

they think it's an ethical approach

to essentially lie to witnesses.

We call it conducting a ruse.

It's completely a standard that's used

in law enforcement investigations all the time.

It's much like in that scene from L.A. Confidential,

where the detective is playing two suspects against each other,

that are in different interrogation rooms.

Said they called you Sugar

because you gave it out, so sweet.

Louis gave it up at Casitas, man.

And I was the fucking boss jock in my dorm.

Lewis was the sissy.

Ray Collins just ratted you off.

He said the Night Owl was your idea.

I think it was Ray's idea.

If you talk, I think I can save your life.

It was essentially the same thing,

except in this case

one of the suspects was speaking from the grave.

Since they'd mentioned

Theresa Swann by name

in Poochie's fake confession letter,

She was led to believe that she'd already been exposed

and that now was the time to deal with it.

So after she gains her composure,

we show her this fake sheaf of documents,

which she reviews, and pauses,

looking up at us and says,

"What Poochie said that's what happened."

Now that we'd broken the ice,

Theresa Swann goes on to say

that after the shooting of Tupac Shakur in Las Vegas,

and Suge Knight going to jail,

that he was as mad as she'd ever seen him.

He was enraged.

Theresa Swann further explains

that Suge Knight's attorney drafted a letter

instructing the LA County Sheriff's Department

to allow Theresa Swann into the attorney/client privileged area.

So now we have Theresa Swann

meeting with Suge Knight at the County jail,

under the false pretenses

that she's part of his legal team.

This of course allows her to have conversations with him

that cannot be monitored or overheard.

On Suge's orders,

Theresa had a couple of meetings with Poochie

at a Denny's in Lakewood.

Poochie asked her how he was gonna get paid for the hit,

and she assured him that once it was done,

she'd get him the money.

The only thing about the...

that ever made me raise any type of eyebrows

regarding the possibility

of someone being involved in the Biggie, er, assassination...

would be, erm, a request from Norris Anderson,

who was the General Manager of the company at the time,

to think of a way, or did I know of a way

to get $25,000 cash, er, to one of Suge's female friends.

When Suge Knight had bought his 1995 Chevy Impala,

he had also purchased a Chevy Impala for Poochie.

There were rumored to be

that Suge and he bought Impalas at George Chevrolet

in Bellflower, California, at the same time.

Theresa Swann herself attends the Vibe party

at the Petersen Auto Museum.

But claims she left prior to the shooting,

and did not see Poochie there.

She says that she didn't see Poochie again

until a couple of weeks after Biggie's murder,

when he called her to ask for some of the money.

She notices his Impala appears to have been recently painted.

Theresa explains that she made two payments to Poochie.

The initial one was for $9,000.

However he comes back later to collect an additional $4,000

so that he can get out of town.

Now, when we do the math,

there's $13,000 doled out to Poochie.

The contract was supposedly for $25,000.

So, assumedly,

the remaining $12,000 was retained by Theresa Swann

for her role in the conspiracy.

Now, with Keffe D's confession and Theresa Swann's confession,

both these parallel investigations

are really starting to fall together.

The murder of Tupac Shakur in Las Vegas

and the murder of Biggie Smalls in Los Angeles.

We have Keffe D

ready to make another run at Zip in New York,

and I'm writing an affidavit to wire-tap Suge Knight's phone

to solicit incriminating statements.

We have accomplished,

in these three years of investigative work,

more than had been accomplished in the previous decade.

We're right at the threshold of solving both of these murders

and then the rug gets pulled out from under us.

In hindsight, it appears that we accomplished exactly

what the LAPD had wanted all along.

Gather enough evidence to disprove Poole's theory,

and get out from under that potential $400 million lawsuit

that Biggie's family had waged.

Perhaps it was the LAPD's opinion.

The shooters in both of these murders are dead.

And although the co-conspirators are still walking free,

maybe it's best just to let sleeping dogs lie.

On the one hand, we had vindicated the department

from those false allegations

about being involved in the murder.

But on the other hand, it was very disheartening

having gathered the evidence that we did,

and the LAPD not having the fortitude

to continue forward.