The killers of Biggie and Tupac have been identified in Murder Rap: Inside The Biggie & Tupac Murders, which was released Monday (February 1).
Available on iTunes, The film showcases the work of retired LAPD detective Greg Kading, who led a special task force to investigate the murders.
Kading’s findings led him to conclude that Puff Daddy hired Crips gang member Duane Keith “Keffe D” Davis to kill Shakur and Suge Knight. The bounty was $1 million. According to Kading’s work, Keffe D’s nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, shot Tupac in Las Vegas on September 7, 1996. The rapper died September 13.
Kading says that Knight hired Bloods gang member Wardell “Poochie” Fouse to kill The Notorious B.I.G. as retaliation. Biggie Smalls was shot to death in Los Angles March 9, 1997.
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The retired detective refers to a quote from Perry Sanders, the attorney of Voletta Wallace, Biggie’s mother, regarding the status of the Biggie case.
“It’s not that the case is unsolved,” Kading says during an exclusive interview with HipHopDX. “It’s merely unprosecuted and because of a variety of circumstances, the cases are unprosecutable. But that doesn’t mean they’re unsolved. So internally, we realize that we’ve solved the cases but perhaps the public, by not having gone through a trial process, doesn’t understand how they can be solved and not prosecuted.”
Kading says there are several reasons prohibiting these cases from going to trial. For one, several of the key witnesses are dead, including both Baby Lane and Poochie. Another problem is that the confession from a participant in the crimes is Keffe D, a convicted drug dealer and documented gang member making a claim against a powerful music icon, namely Puffy Combs.
“Any good district attorney is going to realize the fallibility of trying to put a case in court against the kind of defense that Puffy Combs could mount in easily discrediting somebody such as a Compton gang member with his history,” Kading says. “It comes down to a matter of a DA looking at it and going, ‘What is the probability of success in this prosecution?’ And when there’s not high probability they elect not to prosecute. The same set of circumstances goes for the Biggie Smalls case.”
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Murder Rap director-producer Dorsey echoes that sentiment.
“I think if it had ended at Keffe D and Orlando Anderson and the Crips and it just stayed in the street level thing, maybe this would be a solved case now,” he says. “Looking at where else it led, they didn’t want to go down that road with Puffy and Suge both.”
Biggie & Tupac Cases Likely To Remain “Cleared Other”
As the 20-year anniversary of Tupac’s death approaches, Dorsey says he believes the cases will remain as “cleared other” internally, meaning that they have been cleared under other circumstances and will not go to trial.
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“I think because these are such high profile murders that they will never declare these ‘cleared other’ [to the public] because it would really upset people and open up a whole other can of worms,” Dorsey says, “and they would have to explain why they’re basically closing these cases down without having prosecuted anybody.”
Not having an official resolution to these cases does not serve the public, Kading says.
“It’s not a service to the public,” he says. “It’s a self-preservation, protective [tactic]. The LAPD’s motto is, ‘To protect and serve.’ But the LAPD’s motto also means ‘To protect and serve itself,’ and so unfortunately the police department does what’s in its self best interest instead of what’s in the public’s best interest.”
Regardless, Kading says that his work as presented in Murder Rap: Inside The Biggie & Tupac Murders should be taken as fact.
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“We’re not espousing a theory,” he says. “We’re espousing the truth based on empirical evidence. We’re claiming this is the truth. We’re not promoting a theory that could be true. That’s the difference. We have a completely fact-based investigation, an evidence-based investigation.”
The Murder Rap: Inside The Biggie & Tupac Murders trailer, in which the killers of Biggie and Tupac have been identified, is as follows:
