- Today on Buzzfeed Unsolved we're covering the mysterious deaths of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls, starting with Tupac. Right now we're on our way to Las Vegas and eventually Los Angeles to cover some of the spots where this all went down. As always, I'm Ryan, that's Brent, and we brought along our friend Daysha because it felt wrong to cover Biggie and Tupac without bringing a true superfan.
I'm more of a Tupac fan, but you know, Biggie's cool. - Irrelevant. - You're irrelevant.
- Anyway, let's get into it. - On September 7th 1996 at the MGM Grand Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, Tupac Shakur attended a Mike Tyson boxing match. After the match, Tupac left with Suge Knight, who at the time was C.
E. O. of the west coast record label Death Row Records, the label that Tupac was signed to.
However, on their way out, Tupac and his bodyguards got into a fight with Orlando Anderson in the lobby of the MGM Casino. - [Brent] In the lobby? - [Ryan] In the lobby of the MGM.
Orlando Anderson was a member of the Compton-based Southside Crips gang. After the brawl, Suge Knight and Tupac left in Knight's car with Tupac's entourage following in cars behind them. While stopped at a traffic light at the intersection of Flamingo and Koval, a white Cadillac pulled up on the passenger side of Knight's car and shot out of the window, hitting Tupac four times and grazing Knight in the head with a bullet fragment.
In 2014, 18 years after the shooting, Chris Carroll, a now retired Las Vegas Police Department sergeant came forward to say he was first at the scene. - According to Carroll, when he opened the car door, Tupac fell out of the car covered in blood, and Carroll asked, quote, "Who shot you? " and states that Tupac took a breath to respond and said, quote, "Fuck you" before slipping into unconsciousness, making those Tupac's last words.
- [Daysha] Since we're right here, there's no way. - [Brent] What time is it right now? - 11:56.
- [Ryan] Look how many cars right now at 11:56. On a Friday that's not nearly as busy as a Tyson fight. - There's no way, if I heard those gunshots, it would just be like, hmm.
- [Ryan] You'd look where it was, right? - Yeah. - [Ryan] Tupac was taken to the university medical center and placed on life support in a medically induced coma.
And on September 13th 1996, six days after the shooting, Tupac died due to his injuries at the age of 25. - [Brent] Whoa, 25? I didn't realize he died so young.
- [Daysha] Both of 'em died super young. - [Ryan] Yeah, he died at 25, Biggie Smalls died at 24. - [Daysha] I think that's what was so heartbreaking about it is that they were these two young black males on the rise, and they just got snatched up.
- This is where it happened, this is where he died. One strange fact is that the Las Vegas police never arrested anyone in connection with the murder. They also failed to follow up with Yaki Kadafi, a member of Tupac's entourage who was there that evening who claimed he could identify the assailant.
However, Kadafi was unfortunately murdered two months later on November 10th 1996 before he could be interviewed. - [Brent] Wow. - [Ryan] A Las Vegas homicide detective who oversaw the case claimed it got "the same treatment "as any other homicide here.
" - [Ryan] All right, let's get to some of the main theories. The first theory is from former LA Times journalist Chuck Phillips, who believes that Orlando Anderson, the Crips gang, and none other than Biggie Smalls are responsible for the murder. Chuck Phillips and the LA Times investigated the murder over the course of a year and came up with the following conclusions based on anonymous sources.
Conclusion one, members of the Southside Crips were involved in the shooting as retaliation for Tupac's beating of Orlando Anderson. Conclusion two, Orlando Anderson was the shooter. Conclusion three, Biggie Smalls paid $1 million for the murder of Tupac and supplied the gun.
Speaking of Biggie, let's go over his potential motive for wanting Tupac dead. Biggie's year-long feud with Tupac was well known and at the forefront of the east coast, west coast rap rivalry including a reported verbal altercation and diss tracks. In one track titled Hit 'Em Up, Tupac claimed he had slept with Biggie's wife, Faith Evans.
- How does that one go? Is that ♫Hit 'em up, hit 'em up ♫ or is that a different one? (Daysha laughing) I'm actually curious.
- I think you should just never do that again. - No no no. - [Ryan] Strangely, according to Phillips, neither Biggie nor anyone connected to Biggie was questioned by the police.
As for Orlando Anderson, the believed shooter, he was shot to death in May 1998. Up until his death, Anderson denied responsibility for Tupac's death and was never charged. The second theory is from former LAPD detective Russell Poole, who believes that Suge Knight set up the murder.
Despite Suge Knight also being hit in the shooting, detective Poole believed Suge Knight had motives. Motive one, Suge Knight apparently owed Tupac a lot of money, by some accounts $3 million, a theory corroborated by the fact that Afeni Shakur, Tupac's mother, sued Death Row and Knight in 1997 for mishandling funds and taking millions of dollars away from Tupac. Motive two, Tupac intended to leave Death Row Records, Suge Knight's label.
Tupac had recently fired his lawyer David Kenner, who, in addition to being Suge Knight's lawyer, also wrote up Tupac's agreement with Death Row Records. And sure enough, a week after the firing, Suge Knight invited Tupac to the fateful boxing match. Here's some other things that don't look good for Suge Knight.
Shortly after their brawl in the MGM lobby, Knight stopped to make a phone call while everyone else was fleeing the scene. Knight also insisted that Tupac ride with him in his car after the boxing match. - [Ryan] Orlando Anderson, the man who Tupac fought with in MGM also contradicted his initial testimony, at first saying Knight was part of the MGM brawl, but then later saying that Knight was trying to break up the fight, stating, "I seen him pulling people off of me.
" Many people believe this turnaround happened because of a payoff by Knight. Detective Poole also claims the bullet wound Knight says he received that night was never verified by the hospital, the police, or any other witnesses. This contradicts the 2014 report from former Las Vegas police sergeant Chris Carroll, who stated that Knight's head was "gushing blood" and that he had "clearly been hit in the head.
" Carroll also mentioned that Knight showed legitimate concern and that "it wasn't acting. " "This is not the guy who had him killed, it's ridiculous. " - [Ryan] The third theory is from LAPD detective Greg Kading, who believes that Sean Combs, a.
k. a. P.
Diddy or Puff Daddy and C. E. O.
of the east coast record label Bad Boy Records orchestrated Tupac's death. Detective Kading got a Crips gang member named Keith Davis to confess on tape that P. Diddy paid him $1 million to carry out the murder of Tupac and Suge Knight.
Keith Davis confessed that Orlando Anderson, who was Davis' nephew, was the one who pulled the trigger, and Davis also admits to being in the car when he recounts the night that Tupac was shot. Keith Davis claims the motive behind P. Diddy's hit was due to fear that Suge Knight would strike first, and that Tupac was only included in the hit because P.
Diddy was pissed off about Tupac's song Hit 'Em Up. Furthermore, before Tupac was killed, he was shot multiple times on November 30th 1994 at Quad Recording Studios in New York City. Tupac repeatedly stated that he suspected people associated with P.
Diddy were the perpetrators, a suspicion corroborated by a 2011 confession from Dexter Isaac, who claimed he was hired by a P. Diddy associate to rob Tupac that night. However, P.
Diddy has denied involvement in the murder, stating, And for what it's worth, Keith Davis was reportedly looking at 25 years to life due to unrelated activities if he didn't reveal his secrets. - [Ryan] The next theory is that the Jewish Defense League, The next theory is that the Jewish Defense League, and extremist pro-Israel group, killed Tupac. The FBI had files of alleged death threats on Tupac from the Jewish Defense League, which has been classified as a terrorist group by the FBI.
Other than that, there's really not much to see here. The last theory I'm gonna go over is pretty silly. Some believe that Tupac is in fact still alive and faked his own death.
In 2015, some news outlets reported that a man named David Myers claimed he helped Tupac fake his death and that Suge Knight, among others, helped as well. However, this story seems to have originated from a fake news site, so take it with an enormous grain of salt. Some believe Tupac is alive and well in Cuba.
It seems clear to me why it's unsolved. There's a lot of holes, there's a lot of eyewitness and a lot of people who aren't talking. - [Daysha] Who would have enough power to get all of these people to not say anything?
- [Ryan] Who killed Tupac? That'll do it for today. We're gonna stay the night in Vegas, and we'll pick it back up tomorrow when we're gonna drive to Los Angeles and discuss the death of Biggie Smalls.
So, see you then. - Cheers. (dissonant music) - I've lost $14.
- I won three bucks! - Fuck. Fuck!
