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Controversial rapper
and actor Tupac Shakur
has died in a Las
Vegas hospital.
Rap star Biggie
Smalls, The Notorious B.I.G.,
was shot today by
a drive-by gunman.
Someone had had
enough of seeing this and
there was an anonymous letter
sent to law enforcement
saying these guys are
living like drug dealers.
Y'all can't wait
til he's just gone for good
so they can fully
breathe a sigh of relief.
He's dead.
That person's dead.
And everybody feels comfortable
with the fact of that.
When I say everybody, I
mean whoever set it up.
They're not going to
rest until Suge Knight
is dead or in jail.
It was a set-up.
Could you please state
your full name for the record?
Yes.
Tupac Amaru Shakur.
I started off with
poetry, writing poetry.
But.
Like, junior high, high school?
Yes, junior high, high school.
And...
Poets, I saw,
were like looked
on as like wimps.
So I did that personally,
but then I started turning
the poetry into songs.
From the moment
that I met Tupac,
at the age of 17,
he was one of the most startling
individuals I've ever met.
He was, and still is,
just one of the
most amazing voices.
I loved Pac instantly.
It's how you're raised.
We weren't raised barricaded,
although the FBI was always
lurking around and all of that,
but you still went
about your business.
The kids still played outside.
When they came upstairs, they
came upstairs and ate dinner.
The only lock on the door was
your police bar in New York
and your little
lock but you weren't
standing at the
window with guns.
That's not what his life was.
It may have been others,
but it wasn't his.
He became like my
little brother, actually.
I work with many
different artists,
but he's the guy who invites
you to your home, you know,
who you talk to late at night.
He was just very
easy to know, for me.
I kind of feel like he was
that way with many more people
which is why he's so missed,
because when people met him,
they really got a chance
to get a piece of him.
Months and months, I
kept talking about needing
a young artist that had a voice,
that could translate and
cross all boundaries.
Tupac was one of those guys
who said what was on his mind.
Plenty of days and nights,
the brother, he kept a
smile on us, we kept joking.
He was one of those guys
that had a personality that
he wasn't always
serious, you know.
Man, he could be going through
the worst things in court
and things like that, facing
the worst things in his world
but he always kept a smile
on his face, he always,
you know, he always
kept us laughing.
It is of my opinion
that I was rapping
while I was writing poetry.
Okay.
So, I was into rap,
I guess you could say,
from junior high when
I wrote my first poem.
I fought a lot of people
around me because Pac,
when he was so young, he
was already a contradiction
in so many ways,
externally and internally,
and he lived out loud.
So, nothing surprised me.
He was so in your face.
Pac really down-to-earth.
He was a good dude.
He had good intentions,
you know what I mean?
It's just that, unfortunately,
sometimes in the streets,
it can mislead us and have us
going the wrong way, you know?
A lot of people nowadays
like to say Tupac was loyal,
but Tupac was really
only loyal to Tupac.
He was loyal to what he wanted.
What my and Pac's
friendship and love was about,
was about making shit happen.
If you could ride with
that, he was fine with it.
But, if it was something
you couldn't ride with,
he would move on or if you
did something he didn't like
or if you didn't give
him the attention that he
thought he needed at
that particular time,
he was done with you.
He might just be done
with you for the night,
but he was done with you,
at least for that night
and then he may reconsider
the next morning and
you guys would be fine.
But that's just how Tupac was.
And after I heard on
the radio that there were
other poets who made records
and they were selling
and they was working,
then I decided to change
the method of my poetry.
He had Los
Angeles police officers
working within the organization,
Compton police officers working
inside the organization.
Their badges stopped us
from getting to the truth.
No one is above the law.
This is a fundamental
principle in our society
and when it is violated,
it's the job of the Department
of Justice to step in
and hold individuals
accountable.
The 51-year-old
deputy chief is now
facing federal charges
of selling drugs,
three drugs in particular:
Oxycodone, heroin and marijuana.
In a three year investigation,
the San Francisco police
officers have been indicted.
All the officers were put on
administrative assignment,
taken off of any street.
Certain officers,
because of the seriousness of
the allegation, were disarmed.
And unfortunately, in
this particular case,
we had to take three police
officers who were sworn
to uphold public
safety off the street.
You know, from my point of view,
I'm battling the Mexican
cartels in Chicago,
now I gotta worry about this.
Now I gotta worry about this,
now I gotta worry about this.
Turn it off.
Turn it off.
I just enjoyed the
fringe benefits
that came with the credential.
Night life, the party life,
the rubbing elbows
with the powerful
in Juarez and Chihuahua.
When I was with the Feds,
there was this one guy.
This happened after the
Pablo Acosta incident.
We were doing a job.
One of the other
agents had a case
and we were called
in to help him.
We went into his house,
a real nice house.
I turn around, there's a bag,
a paper bag, a grocery bag.
I look into it and there
were piles of money and
inside the sealed bag there was
many bags of ounces of cocaine.
If I would have been smart
I would have kept it.
But that wasn't my, you know,
that wasn't my thing,
it was share alike.
So I gave that money to
the person in
charge of that job.
And some other agents were
San-Ra-ck-ing, taking everything.
They were stealing everything.
And the person I gave the
money to stole the money.
He never reported it.
So I came back home that night.
I get a knock.
And I walk out and it was two
of the commandant's right hands.
Commander found out
about the money,
and they turned around
and blamed me for it.
I was tortured.
The same thing we did to the
criminals was done to me.
And the one pointing
the finger blaming me
was the same guy that was taking
everything from the house.
As I was, the first
time as they were.
They bounded, they
tied my hands, my face.
Gave me water shocks.
When they started beating me up,
the commander was accusing
me of being a DEA agent,
working in Mexico.
That was the only time
I had that problem.
This was a commander talking.
The first night I went in there,
they asked me,
where's the money.
I gave the money to him.
The guy I gave the money
said, no, no you didn't.
And since he was the
commander's right hand,
you know, he believed
him more than me.
So they took me into his office.
They handcuffed my hands.
They tied my legs, they
put me on the ground.
They shoved a rag up my mouth.
They put a handkerchief
on my face.
And gave me the water treatment.
Mineral water with
a pepper powder.
My father gave 20 some
thousand dollars to them.
They called me, they
pulled me out of the cell.
And they took me into an office,
and the commander turned around,
and he cursed at me for a while,
and he turned around
and told my father,
you know, I tortured him.
Ain't shit he can do about it.
I was pretty messed up.
It was after 30 days
my face was swollen,
my body was hurting.
I had a beard, my hair
was all messed up.
I remember crossing the
bridge and the guy at the
port of entry just looked at
me, and said, are you okay?
No, what's wrong with you?
Nothing, kept walking.
In the mid 1980s,
the cocaine trade
had sort of shifted from Miami,
because a lot of the law
enforcement there, to Los Angeles.
As the volume of cocaine
cases, and frankly,
the volume of cocaine per
case started to grow and grow,
the sheriff's department
selected some of
their best narcotics
officers to be
what they called
their majors crews,
to go after the
big, significant,
large-scale narcotics
distributors.
The majors units at the
LA Sheriff's Department were
Majors-I, Majors-II,
Majors-III, and Majors-IV.
Operation Big Spender
was an epic announcement
to discover and ferret
out and punish corruption
by elite law
enforcement officers.
It started because some
of these sheriff's deputies
who are putting their lives
on the line every day,
as they would seize money,
they at some point came up
with the idea of taking
a little bit of the money
to try to get better equipment
to help them do their jobs.
Over time it morphed into,
maybe people were going to
lunch that day from the unit,
so they would take some of
the money from the kitty,
as they called it, and
they'd use it for lunch.
And then a little later on
it might be the weekend,
and they were all going
out, and it's like,
hey, let's take a little money
from the kitty for
when we go out.
Here's a good example.
The time we took
the Iranians down,
and we have a million
dollars in cash
in fives, tens, and twenties,
spread through all of our desks.
They wouldn't let us
use the money counter,
so we had to do it by hand.
We ordered pizza, and so we're
all digging in our pockets,
trying to come up with
enough to pay the pizza guy,
and he's looking at
us like we're crazy,
because here's a million dollars
spread out all
over these tables.
And then before you know
it, as time progresses on,
and certainly by the
time of the majors teams,
forget the kitty.
When we seize money,
let's just take some.
The predication came
from drug dealers.
Later on we find out
that not only had they
been planting drugs on my guys,
but they had been planting drugs
and lying on the witness stand,
and fabricating search warrants
for a lot of other people.
Too many drug dealers
came forward and
spoke to officials,
and created a buzz
where similar, if not
identical, scenarios of,
hey, I don't, it's all the same
to me, but just so you know,
they reported $50,000
seized from me,
I had $100,000 in cash.
Basically they put
away the gang thing,
and became people that
had organizations,
and like Whitey's World,
the Way Out World,
the World on Wheels,
Cobra Enterprises.
These were all African-American
gang members that had
narcotic organizations that
made millions of dollars.
Bunch of my guys
had been getting
drugs planted on them when
they didn't have no drugs,
when they wasn't selling
drugs, and I wanted to find out
who these cops were
that was doing this.
Ricky Ross was a
legendary drug dealer,
but so were a lot
of people in LA.
They was taking the drugs
from one person, planting
'em on another person,
and selling 'em to
this person, and just,
you know, just a
criminal enterprise.
Sometimes it happened
invisibly to the drug dealer,
but sometimes it happened
right out in the open,
where a seeming
confidence had developed
among the detectives, nobody's
gonna believe this person.
At some point in, I think, 1988,
someone had had
enough of seeing this
and there was an
anonymous letter
sent to law enforcement saying
these guys are living
like drug dealers.
You need to check 'em out.
They're spending money
like drug dealers,
they have money
like drug dealers.
And they're living the
life of drug dealers.
That led to a lengthy and
exhaustive investigation
culminating in a sting,
where they actually had
a wired-up,
videoed-up hotel room
with plant, alleged drug
money in, I think, 1989.
And they actually caught
members of the Majors-II
sheriff's unit stealing money.
Thieves doing the thieving,
live before your eyes.
Yeah, taken a 20 and
nobody'd have ever known,
but it was something
that, you know,
in me, that I would've
never been able to sleep.
I would have been
waiting for them
to come and knock on my
door and take me away
for taking $20 from a dirtbag
dope dealer with a million.
The sergeant on that
crew, a guy named Robert
or Bob Sobel, wound up
flipping, or cooperating,
and then he testified
in the first trial.
And because of the
information he gave,
and later, others, the
investigation spread
to the other major
narcotics crews.
You didn't have to do
very much persuasion
that there was
something rotten here,
because you can see it.
As well as study
financial records.
You could see thievery occur.
On the one hand, you
have Operation Big Spender,
and the Los Angeles County
Sheriffs being prosecuted,
and on the other
side of the fence
you have the city of Compton.
Of course it's not uncommon,
you can take any large
city or medium city
or relatively small
city, like Compton,
with a population of
approximately 100,000,
and you're gonna
be able to identify
in its historical record
there was corruption.
There are no lines that
people with power in Compton
were unwilling to cross
to defend their power.
No legal lines, no moral
lines, no ethical lines.
I just found that it
was the wild west.
Virtually every town
that has 19th century origins
in southern California
started out as small
agricultural colonies.
But Compton was unique
in that it was early on
the settlers decided
to incorporate.
Los Angeles at the turn of the
century is an emerging city.
It's still not even
in the top 100 cities
in the United States
in terms of population,
but it's on the make.
And just south of
Compton is Long Beach.
These families have been
here 40, 50, 60 years.
And so everyone knows everyone.
You know, if you got caught
breaking into somebody's house,
in the neighborhood,
you got a problem.
If you stole from somebody
in the neighborhood,
you got a problem.
And if you were from
outside of the neighborhood
they gonna check you out
and tell you leave here.
So for African-Americans
coming from
South Central Los Angeles,
which was increasingly congested
and deteriorated housing,
for those middle class
African-Americans,
they viewed Compton as nirvana,
and whites are moving
en masse so quickly,
I refer to it rather than
white flight as white exodus.
By 1970 Compton is an
African-American majority community,
and by the early 70s
the first community
this side of the Mississippi
River entirely run
politically and administratively
by African-Americans.
So that's not a neighborhood
that we're gonna go into.
Be it Crip or Piru,
that if they see my face
they're not gonna stop
and say, Omar, Omar.
Compton, through the
70s and 80s and 90s
enters a really trying,
challenging, difficult era.
You had whites move out,
and they took their
businesses with them.
So the tax base, with
all of the banks gone,
in fact, downtown
Compton is bulldozed.
As that happens,
the infrastructure
of the city begins to decline.
Now these rough streets are
because I'm no longer mayor.
Now, you introduce a
cheap drug, crack cocaine.
That, with a rudimentary
gang structure,
that if it expands and becomes
business-oriented in
an underground economy,
can make a hell
of a lot of money.
I was captain of the
fucking football team,
A/B student, magnet.
I should, I'm, we
out there gettin' it.
Fuck with this nigga.
Call my brothers so, we'd
have a super long ring,
it's ridiculous.
I ain't have no problem.
450 I sell, niggas
in the 10th grade.
And for kids that can't
find jobs otherwise,
and schools that
are deteriorating,
they're having trouble
staying in school.
You can make quick
money, a lot of money
if you do the selling of
drugs connected to gangs.
I sold drugs 'cause I
was running from poverty.
I didn't like being poor
and broke, you know.
I didn't like not having
food in the refrigerator.
I didn't like for the light man
to be talking about cutting
my mom's lights off.
Suge Knight was
a very powerful individual.
He had connections
with the Compton mayor,
and he had access to just
about the entire Blood gang.
Death Row Records.
Death Row Records.
Death Row.
Death Row.
Death Row Records.
Death Row.
Death Row.
Death Row Records.
This is Michael Harris.
A man drug agents describe as
a major cocaine trafficker.
Yeah, I knew Michael Harris.
Yeah, he was trying to put
together his wife's album,
and uh, matter of fact we
was cellies at the time.
Harris, identifying
himself as original organizer
and owner, names him as an
equal partner in Death Row.
I told him that he should have
Dr. Dre produce a song for him.
And that's how his thing with
the Suge and the Dre and
all started transpiring.
I met Suge in a MDC.
Harris' complaint also names
criminal defense
attorney David Kenner
as the company general
counsel and organizer.
Harry-O and a couple
other guys in there
that was running
for David Kenner.
You know, that was their game.
You hire David Kenner
then they get a kickback.
I was there when he
first told Kenner
about the music
business as well.
Harry-O told David
Kenner that he would,
he would make him more
money in the music business
than he ever made doing law.
What's up, boy?
No work.
What's goin' on, homie?
All right, what's up, Omar?
Doing a documentary.
Corruption exacerbated things.
As prominent political
figures were identified,
often with a federal
investigation
of corruption on a
variety of charges.
They had some
high-ranking people,
like US Representative Tucker,
taking some bribes
from a company,
thinking it was a
rubbish company,
or reclaim, reclamation company
that was coming into Compton
and given favored status, and.
And the FBI investigated.
And then over a course
of time, found guilty.
Did City Council meet in August?
No.
And yet our producer
found that you were
being paid in August.
Probably so.
Why so?
Tradition.
I was, I mean, just to be
honest, I was really naive.
I have worked in politics at
a lot of different levels.
I have worked in
the White House.
I've worked on five
Presidential campaigns.
I'd been a deputy mayor.
I'd been on state
board of education.
I worked on a number
of mayoral campaigns
and gubernatorial campaigns.
I had never, never
encountered politics
like I encountered in Compton.
Ben Austin worked
in the White House,
so he's seen politics
of all kinds.
They've gotta be pretty bad.
Our research shows in 2012
that City Council
members earn $39,000 each
for serving on four commissions,
which met for a
total of 26 hours.
That shakes out
to $1500 per hour.
Compton was just the wild west,
and there were simply no rules.
There were no lines
that people with power
in Compton were unwilling to
cross to defend their power.
No legal lines, no moral
lines, no ethical lines.
I just found that it
was the wild west.
What commissions are you on?
Um, all of them.
Do you have a favorite?
A favorite? No.
Well, which one...
I'm just serving on the
ones that's on the books.
So that's, well, CRAA.
Public finance.
You caught me by...
At nearby Huntington Park,
council members make
less than $15,000 a year.
Ditto over in Maywood,
the politicians there
make about $6700 a year, and
in affluent Huntington Beach,
council members
earn about $16,000.
And the rules of engagement.
The normal rules of
engagement do not apply.
Do they do anything?
Well, they listen to
the audience comments.
And then they may
comment on that.
And then they decide something?
There's nothing to decide.
So, the people
that came into power
hired their cousins, and
their uncles, and others
into the jobs, especially in
the school district, right,
which was the largest
employer for city residents.
But in 1993, the state does
something unprecedented.
It takes over the
Compton school district.
State had never
done that before.
School board president announced
during a debate about this that
we just need to accept
that all children
are not going to succeed.
All kids are not
going to make it.
That's just the opening salvo.
That was their basic premise
from which they were operating.
And everything else
flows from there.
And the board.
Sometimes we don't even
know what's going on.
I mean it, the words that
were spoken in Compton.
I gave you your five minutes,
there will be no more speaking.
And the actions
that were taken were
in my mind, in an
alternate universe.
And like I said, I had
come there having worked
in the White House and on
five Presidential campaigns.
All kids are not
going to make it.
And I had never seen
anything like this.
Adult issues are important.
So you have, in that
period of the late 80s
through the late 90s,
this mountain of scandals.
In the school district,
and in City Hall,
in the representatives there,
the two are to
Congress from the city.
I was at an education
conference in San Diego.
And I saw across the hall
a former Superintendent
of Compton.
He just happened to be there.
I remember it like
it was yesterday.
He turns to me, and he says,
you're a crazy motherfucker.
And I said, well,
what do you mean?
And he said, well, when I was
Superintendent of Compton,
the mayor called
me one day and said
that I needed to
sell a parcel of land
to a developer friend of his.
And, and he said.
You know, that he refused.
That he wasn't gonna do it.
So soon after that a
school caught on fire.
And a couple of
days, a week later,
another school catches on fire.
And then it happens again.
And so he called the fire chief.
Or the police chief, I
don't remember which.
And he said, when
is this gonna stop?
What's going on here,
we got a huge problem.
And he said, the fires will stop
when the mayor says
the fires will stop.
They were essentially
doing this eyes wide open.
They had done a
report on themselves,
they learned that the schools
were not performing well
because of affirmative
decisions they were making,
and didn't make any changes.
And that was, for me,
a real poster child
for an educational system
that is fundamentally designed
to serve the needs of adults,
not the needs of children.
Adult issues are important.
Kids in McKinley are
50 times more likely
to drop out of school
than to go to college.
I mean, that's a huge concern,
and especially for these parents
that want their kids to
succeed like any parent does.
And so, the first thing,
they want to get their kids
out of this school district.
I founded an organization
called Parent Revolution.
And we invented a new law
called the Parent Trigger Law,
the law says that if half the
parents at a failing school
sign a petition, they
can bring in new staff,
they can bring in
new leadership,
they can convert their
school to a charter school.
Or they can use the law
as leverage to bargain.
But it wasn't until we
turned the petitions in
on December 7th that the
blowback really began.
They mapped the
networks of the school
and figured out the children of
the parents who
signed the petition.
And for the children of the
parents who signed the petition,
and these are
elementary school kids.
They wouldn't let the children,
when they were at school,
they wouldn't let them
go to the bathroom.
And they forced the children
to pee in their pants.
And when they did, they were
sent to the nurse's office.
And the nurse was in
charge of the recissions.
And so the nurse
would call in the mom
to bring clean underwear in,
and as the mom was changing
their child's underwear,
the nurse would ask her to
sign a recission petition.
And I just wanna
make this statement.
When Omar had the
city with a surplus.
Had the murder rate
dropped from 100 a year
down to 20 by bringing
in the sheriff
and getting rid of the
corrupt Compton PD.
And now we see
that the corruption
that's passed from
the city government
and the corruption that's
infected the schools is now
passing its way down to the
Compton Police Department.
But you have to ask
yourself this question.
The entire Compton Police
Department was disbanded.
What does it take to disband
an entire police department?
In order to disband an
entire police department,
things have to be so
bad and so corrupt
that there's no
other alternative.
You know, such as maybe
bringing in a new police chief.
New police administration,
or something of that nature.
They envied Compton streets
when I was mayor.
I used to get on the
radio and laugh at 'em.
'Cause they couldn't
figure out my formula.
It has happened
on occasion where
the entire municipality
has been dissolved.
The bottom line is
things have to be
pretty bad before that happens.
I had personal
interaction with them
working the gang
detail from '84 to '90.
We didn't share a lot
of information with them
because of the, the city
government was known
to be corrupt and the
police department had a
stigma of not being
on the up and up.
It was like shoveling
sand against the tide.
You'd hear over and over again
that the Compton cops were
on the payrolls of the gangs.
Initially when
the word that cops
were working for
Suge was out was that
basically they were
providing intelligence.
But he, also when
cops, you know,
when there'd be a clear street
and there wouldn't
be any cops around.
Now one of the things that the
former mayor of Compton,
Omar Bradley told us
was that there actually
wasn't a difference
between Death Row Records
and the city of Compton.
They've always
been the same entity.
That's what you don't get.
The city attorney's nephew,
or cousin, is Snoop Dogg.
The city manager's
son is A and R.
The head of homicide's son
is vice-president,
head of security.
The other chief of police that
I bring in to replace Hourie,
his daughter got a million
dollar contract with them.
They reached out to the
Los Angeles County Sheriffs
to see if the sheriffs would be
interested in policing Compton.
In police work,
in law enforcement,
there is so much
duplication of services.
You know, they overlap.
And a lot of times,
eliminating a police department
really doesn't harm the public,
because another department can
come in and take care of it.
The way this actually
worked was the FBI
walked into Omar
Bradley's office one day
because a Long Beach police
officer had been shot
with a gun that had
flowed through the Compton
police evidence
locker, and so the FBI
wanted to know if Omar
Bradley was in on it.
And Omar Bradley said,
I don't know what
you're talking about.
And that led to an investigation
into the Compton corruption
that was happening.
When they start
this investigation,
they come in and they find the
evidence locker is just a mess.
The inventory hasn't been done
in years and years and years.
And Chief Hourie
Taylor is suspended.
A group of those cops, sort
of an elite group of those
cops were doing, were
actually like a criminal gang.
And we're not talking about just
casual trips down to the locker,
we're talking about 172
unaccounted for visits.
And they ask Hourie
Taylor if they can start
looking into the lockers,
and Hourie Taylor
is pacing back and forth, oh,
I don't think I have a key,
and I don't think
the key's around.
And he seems like he's
nervous, and he's upset.
And so the investigator
pulls out bolt cutters
and just cuts off the lock
to Hourie Taylor's locker.
And inside they find
two kilos of cocaine
in the police chief's
personal locker.
And Hourie Taylor,
all of a sudden,
decides he doesn't
wanna be there,
and he leaves the
police station.
And Hourie Taylor
gestures to his attorney
as he's running out the back
stairs to follow him up there,
and that's the last they
see of Hourie Taylor.
Cases were being
rejected by the D.A.'s office.
And the Compton police were
actually keeping the evidence.
And a lot of that
evidence wasn't
being kept in the evidence
locker, and then when they
actually go to look for
the evidence, it's missing.
Compton was a very corrupt city,
and the police were
trafficking narcotics.
Using the evidence locker
as their warehouse.
So then that's how they pay him.
But you gotta understand.
We give you the dope, you
give us a business deal.
So our money looks good because
our money's coming off
this business deal.
But where's that
money coming from?
Coming from the dope coming
out the evidence locker.
And the guns, 2300 guns missing.
140 gallons of PCP.
I mean, money laundering
is if you take drug money
and you go buy a car, and you
just laundered that money.
If you go buy clothes, you
just laundered that money.
That's a small scale.
They started calling
people in one at a time.
Nobody was taking the rap
for what was happening
and all the corruption, and
they were blaming other people.
There was an awful lot
of finger pointing.
They were also trafficking
in stolen guns.
And a lot of those guns were
going into the evidence locker,
and then finding their way
over to a gun shop in Compton.
City clerk, he owns,
part owner of the gun shop.
ATF, FBI, Homeland Security.
And Baca.
Baca, oh.
About 400 people went in there
to get all them guns out.
They had to bring up a big rig
to get all the
shit they had out.
There's no coincidence
that the Compton
police corruption
report happened
at the exact same time that
we had the Rampart scandal.
And so you have this
pattern that includes
actually, the DA's office
in the missing cocaine,
but nothing ever happens.
And you have an Assistant
District Attorney
who refuses to
prosecute Hourie Taylor.
But then turns
around and is the one
that was pursuing Omar Bradley
the entire time Omar Bradley
had his corruption trial,
which was eventually overturned.
But even after it
was overturned,
the Assistant District Attorney
kept pursuing Omar Bradley.
Within three years
after Omar Bradley
is defeated as Mayor and
Eric Perrodin takes over,
fellow prosecutor Terry Bork
presses charges against
Omar Bradley for corruption
as it applies to
credit card charges.
Yet when those same credit
card charges that are made
by Eric Perrodin are
presented to Terry Bork,
with the question
as to whether or not
that's actually corruption,
Terry Bork says that even if
he found that those credit
card charges were corruption,
he would not prosecute
Eric Perrodin.
Reggie Wright Sr. Is
in charge of narcotics
at the Compton
Police Department.
And so they bring him
in for questioning.
And Reggie Wright Sr. Immediately
starts talking about how,
even though he's the
man that's in charge,
and the responsibility
really stops with him,
that he doesn't ever
make any decisions,
and so they really
shouldn't be looking at him,
they should be looking
at the guy under him,
and the guy over him.
Everybody is pointing to
other people to blame for
the malfeasance that was
going on in the department.
Now it looks like the time
in the Compton police report
that Reggie Wright Sr.
Was actually in charge
of both the narcotics and the
gang units, was about a year.
But prior to that he had
been in charge of the gangs.
And who deals the drugs?
The gangs.
The Compton Police Corrution
Report is a 95 page document.
So when it was decided that
they were going to shut down
the Compton Police Department,
a lawsuit was filed.
One of the things that
struck us immediately
was that there was
a handful of people
in the Compton Police Department
that were just
not satisfied with
the Compton Police
Department being closed.
It was heard before a judge.
They tried to do
everything they could
to block this from
being shut down.
And the judge heard the case,
they had their day in court.
And the judge allowed them to
shut down the Compton
Police Department.
Even though Omar Bradley
had been successful in
shutting down the corrupt
Compton Police Department,
what do you think was
the first priority
on Eric Perrodin's agenda?
Restarting the Compton PD.
The whole notion of, I
am my brother's keeper.
Doesn't exist over here.
This is dog eat dog.
So what you had here
is a real dilemma for the
Compton Police Department, because
it's sort of like a vise.
On the one hand you have
the Operation Big Spender,
and the sheriffs,
and everybody that's
surrounding the city of
Compton being investigated
for corruption as it
relates to the drug trade.
And on the other
side of it you have
the Justice Department and
the Drug Enforcement Agency
coming down on
Death Row Records,
and looking at Death Row
Records for money laundering,
as it relates to drug sales.
So where is in the middle?
The Compton Police Department.
I was approached by
the F.B.I. and A.T.F.
about a year and 1/2,
about a year afterwards,
while I was working
with Death Row Records
in regards to racketeering
within Death Row Records,
and also the, at that time,
the mayor of Compton,
Omar Bradley.
Of some other things that
occur within the city.
I didn't know that the F.B.I
at that time was
following Reggie,
Suge, the homeboys.
And that's how things
started out with the F.B.I.
He really was
not that street person.
He didn't understand
the streets value.
At 24, Tupac Shakur was a
platinum-selling
artist, the movie star,
and an inmate at the Dannemora
jail in upstate New York.
By the time that Tupac
Shakur had gone to prison,
he had already shot two
cops in the city of Atlanta.
The charges were
dropped against him,
but he still shot cops.
So he was no favorite
with law enforcement.
That's just plain
out, period, don't come to jail.
I'm telling you straight
up, this ain't the spot.
It's dirty, it's filthy,
it's like you an animal.
And this is not the spot.
No man don't wanna be here.
No man or woman
wants to be here.
Pac is now in Dannemora.
Everybody is visiting
back and forth.
Before the records, after
the records, Dannemora.
After Dannemora, I visited
him, I took a trip.
I just one day I was like,
I gotta go to New
York and see Pac.
And I think also that
Tupac got it in his mind
that he needed someone
to protect him.
Now.
That again isn't true.
That he needed someone
to protect him,
because Watani had
a group of people,
had always put a group of people
around him to look out for him.
The reason things
happened to Tupac
is Tupac would step
outside of that group.
If you, if people
put a group of people
around you to look out for you,
you need to stay
inside that group.
You don't need to
step out and create
new alliances with people
that you don't know.
I got a phone call that Death
Row had went to visit Tupac,
and that, I think he's
signing with Suge.
The whole, kinda,
Death Row thing.
It's, Tupac wanted
to go to Death Row.
What he told me.
Face to face, as close
as we are sitting.
Was I want to go to
Death Row because
I want to record
with Dre and Snoop.
He said to me, you
can make a phone call,
or I'll have someone
make a phone call.
And I think Watani
and I were both
down at Dannemora talking
to him at the time,
and told him you
don't need to do that.
There's no reason to do that.
You're number one on the charts.
Your record's outselling
anybody at this particular time.
All Death Row is is Interscope.
You don't need to
go to Death Row.
Clockwork, 24/7.
Because I knew he
was gonna end it.
This was just a means.
He had to get out of jail.
And he wanted his
mom to have a house.
And he would do
those three albums,
and after those three
albums were done
the house is paid for,
what is he gonna do?
'Cause he had other ambitions.
At the time, Suge
wasn't letting anyone
work with Dre or Snoop unless
they were part of Death Row.
In those months, in those
last nine months of his life,
he had a kind of desperation
that I talked about earlier.
The only thing that mattered
was to make a difference.
Thug life is
like the 12th grade.
Some people graduate
from high school,
and don't seek to
do anything else.
His lifestyle on
video and on tape
and even on song
looked like a party.
It wasn't a party, it
wasn't a gangster party.
It wasn't a party at all.
You have to remember,
Tupac was out on bail.
And the reason
that he was rushing
to get as many songs
done as he could
was because he wasn't
sure that that bail
wouldn't be revoked
at some point,
and that he may actually
go back to prison.
He was not a gangster.
Not one day in his life.
Not even the day in
the MGM when he stomped
whoever the hell that
was on the floor.
I was in the limo.
Me and Tupac, Outlaw Immortalz,
we were driving around
in Harlem, and the radio
came on with Snoop Dogg
saying that he had no
beef with New York.
Which sent Pac into a rage.
And at that time.
The artists, the height of that
whole forefront, was Snoop.
How the fuck did that feel?
'Cause I am the LBC.
I'm the king of
Long Beach, nigga.
I made it fashionable for
niggas that bang the dub.
I made it universal,
motherfucker.
I'm the nigga that took the
set around the whole globe.
23 year old Calvin Broadus,
AKA Snoop Doggy Dogg,
the man who made
gangsta rap mainstream,
stands accused of murder.
Los Angeles police
announce that 21 year old
Calvin Broadus, better known
as rap star Snoop Doggy Dogg,
had turned himself in
to police on Friday,
along with two other
young black men,
all accompanied by an attorney
in connection with the
murder on August 25
of a man named
Phillip Woldermariam,
in what police believe was
a gang-related shooting.
We the jury in the
above entitled action
find the defendant,
Calvin Broadus, not guilty
of the crime of murder
in the first degree.
Only if David Kenner just
would have had love for me
on that level, and
just did it for me,
just, not for the paper,
just doing it for the love,
'cause I know that's
how he is about me.
He's not concerned
with the money issue,
you know what I'm
saying, and I knew that
when he did his
closing argument.
You know, we beat a
murder trial for him,
but then he's on probation.
Then he got caught with
two ounces of marijuana.
Then he got caught with guns.
And each time it's nothing,
they're not gonna violate him.
Because for the street guys,
street guys know what
I'm talking about.
There's no puzzle.
I mean, if you get a guy that
constantly getting in trouble
and never gonna go to prison,
that's because he's an
informant, he's a rat, a snitch.
You know, it was
Suge, and his guys,
and Tupac, and myself,
and there was Snoop Dogg,
and Dre, and Tha Dogg Pound.
That's how it was on
the personal side.
Well.
You know, that was Pac, man.
You cross him.
There's no gray area.
There's black and white.
You cross him, you do something,
you screw up, you're out.
Now since he's not
around, everybody claims
that they was great friends.
Everybody do a show.
Some artists knew him,
but like, Pac and Snoop,
they hated each other.
And you could tell that
by the simple fact that
when Snoop did Doggfather,
Pac was not on not one song.
And Pac didn't like Dre.
That would change
the Death Row camp,
because of the
jealousy of Tupac.
Because Tupac was
all of a sudden now,
he's this major star, and
he getting all the light,
he getting all the attention.
I didn't feel nothing
for nobody at first.
I mean, especially Snoop.
Snoop, Snoop and Pac
came up together.
You know, like Thug
Life and Dogg Pound,
we like came up together.
And you know, Thug Life,
Murder Was the Case,
and I Get Around
was the same time,
we'd see each other, traveling,
yeah, you know what I mean,
and keep it moving.
That might have changed
over time because
that group of people hadn't
been around Pac like we had.
So they didn't know
how, how Pac is
as a celebrity, as a star,
to actually deal with him
requires more attention,
more time, 'cause he's Pac.
And here's the irony.
Tupac left to go to
Death Row Records,
because he wanted to record
with Snoop and with Dre.
But when he got there,
by the time he was done,
he didn't like either of them.
Tupac looked at me, and said,
man, is that how my
shit gonna sound?
And I'm like, naw, man.
But he's ready to kick
a hole in the wall.
Told the guy no man,
they kicked us out
of Can-Am six
o'clock this morning,
this is the best that Kevin
Lewis could do for us.
And he picks up the phone,
he calls the office.
He says Snoop was corny,
take all day doing one song.
He says, I'm paying Nate
Dogg's child support.
Rage.
Y'all kicked my
engineers out the studio,
so that that Rage
could continue working
on a record that she's been
working on for two years.
That's pretty fucked up.
I am paying for this.
Why aren't you guys kicking
them out the studio,
when my record is the number
one record on Billboard?
Stuff like that,
you know I'm saying?
So, you know, that
to me, you know,
was childish on their part,
but they can never fill
the shoes that Pac filled
if I walk in the
door, like he would.
But in the city of New
York on September 4th of 1996
there was a big problem,
and that had to do
with a radio interview
that Snoop Dogg did.
Because she asked me on the air,
how do you feel about
Puffy and Biggie?
And I said what I felt.
They're my homeboys, I love 'em.
Pac of course
had big beef with New York.
Pac had a beef with
New York because he got
attacked in 1994 and
there was a shot fired,
and unfortunately it
was self-inflicted.
Snoop was basically saying, hey.
I don't have beef with them.
That set Tupac off.
And we immediately
spun the limo around,
and we went back to the
hotel to confront Snoop.
We couldn't find him.
But we found Mr.
Knight, and that's who
Tupac confronted about
what was going on
on the radio while
we were in New York.
I think Mr. Knight had me
stay for the safety of Tupac.
Because I think Mr. Knight,
with me not being there,
he would have put
his hands on him.
He was that upset.
And Pac's words were, I'm
gonna cut out Makavelli,
and when I cut out Makavelli,
I'm the hell up out of here.
You got your money, I
don't want nothing else
to do with Death Row, I'm out.
And after the major fallout
between Suge and Tupac,
suddenly Snoop walks
back to the hotel.
When I got back to the hotel,
it was a whole 'nother
atmosphere, like.
Perpetuating this,
so it could be drama.
Which, I still love MTV,
but when it all go down,
don't look at me and
Biggie and be like,
why is there a big beef,
East Coast/West Coast war.
So when we got on the plane
to go back to LA the next day,
Suge didn't let none of
my security ride with me.
I had to ride on the plane
with him, his homies, and Pac.
And it was the
most uncomfortable
ride I ever had in my life.
Back, put the
blanket on my head.
Knife in my hand,
fork in my hand.
And just sleep the
rest of the ride.
'Cause I feel like they fittin'
to try to do something to me.
So I walked down the
steps, we meet right here.
I'm like cuz, you
going to Vegas?
Why was somebody that
wasn't going to Vegas anyway
asking Tupac, are
you going to Vegas?
He do me like this.
Went his way and he went my way.
Apparently the Long Beach Crips
had put out a DVD with
a bunch of diss songs
and some music
videos that dissed
the Death Row organization
and dissed Suge Knight.
The DVD was all about
killing Death Row people.
You feel me?
Now, the DVD was predominantly
Long Beach people in it.
You feel me, I'm
from Long Beach.
My whole time that I was
on Death Row I lived it,
right here in Long Beach.
You always saw Pac and
Suge hanging together.
You always saw these
niggas everywhere together.
They was like big brother,
little brother and shit,
and the thing is,
that relationship
was dangerous for
the powers that be.
'Cause I remember that.
Not the West
Coast that got backlash
from Suge Knight,
Tupac and Death Row.
And them was our last days hanging
out before he got killed.
So we ended on a
kind of foul note.
The tension between
Death Row Records
and the Long Beach
Crips and the Snoop Dogg
Dogg Pound camps was palpable.
To the point where Snoop
Dogg went to the point
of making an entire music video
that showed total
disrespect for Suge Knight.
Bully got checked, you
know what I'm saying.
You know how when you in
school and you got a bully.
And he's scaring everybody,
and everybody going
the other way.
Scared, putting
their lunch money up,
hiding their gold chains.
Well this day at school
the bully got checked.
He had to put his gold chain
in, he tried to light a cigar.
You know, but the
media didn't want to
bring it off like that, 'cause
they was scared that Suge
was gonna do something to
'em for telling the truth.
Shit, go ahead, why?
Were you in Vegas?
No, we heard about it.
'Cause they was trying
to get us to go to Vegas.
And we was like, Dogg
Pound, we was really on
our fuck Death Row shit, really,
you know what I'm saying,
we was already feeling.
At, by that time.
We was already
saying fuck Death Row.
You know what I'm saying?
Okay.
'Cause we know everybody.
And now we have opportunity.
The people that need to be in
Las Vegas are in Las Vegas,
and the people
who don't wanna be
seen in Las Vegas
have cleared out.
'Cause I am the LBC.
I'm the king of
Long Beach, nigga.
I made it fashionable for
niggas to bang the dub.
I made it universal,
motherfucker.
I'm the nigga that took the
set around the whole globe.
Yeah, that's me.
Tupac hated
people, and we was supposed to
hate people because
Tupac hated 'em.
In most law enforcement
investigations,
you find that the first suspects
that are looked at
are generally wives,
girlfriends, significant others.
People that would normally
have a natural relationship,
and you'd actually
try to figure out
if they were the
most logical suspect,
and in this case it
doesn't seem to happen,
yet you're looking at,
she had plenty of motive.
She was managing
Snoop in the very beginning,
but Snoop wasn't
happy with that.
Knightlife Management,
which Sharitha Knight owned,
which was Suge Knight's wife.
By Suge owning
Death Row Records,
it would be a
conflict of interest
of him managing his artists too.
So he had that in
his wife's name.
And not only did she manage
every artist that was
on Death Row, she also managed
Caution, she managed us.
I think that he gave her the
Knightlife entertainment to
give her some experience,
get her experienced,
'cause she was young.
Anything goes down with Suge,
you know who's gonna
run this company?
Reggie.
Nope, wrong.
That's pressure
Reggie can't handle.
Let me tell you, something
goes wrong with Suge,
who's gonna run the company?
Common sense, Mike, Sharitha.
Sharitha.
Sharitha is on the thing.
Sharitha's on the paper.
Reggie would carry
most of the burden.
They're tighter than you think.
They're tighter than you think.
Even though
she was young, you know,
she had a baby,
and so that kinda,
that kinda gave her the
edge over a few people.
I knew what he did when we
were outside Death Row Records,
but he, as soon as Sharitha
found out about it,
something had happened,
he's sitting at home.
It was never done.
He didn't play that one.
It was like, I guess
it was like okay,
either me or them, and I'm not
giving up the child checks.
She had a cheating husband.
She was, had
financial ties to him.
She could definitely
gain from him being dead.
So in all of those
circumstances,
there might be good motive.
I mean, murder is pretty simple.
The first person you
go after is the spouse,
or the person closest
to the victim.
He just changed.
His ego, his temper.
The women started
flocking, the money.
That was basically the
demise of our marriage.
Suge got out of control.
She went with the flow.
It didn't bother her.
A lot of times, she got
herself into situations too.
And actually, by the
time she said that,
she was suing Snoop,
and trying to get money
'cause she said her
husband was gonna kill him
at any moment and she
wanted to get her money
while Snoop was still alive.
But more than just
Suge, we wondered if
maybe Tupac was a
threat to Sharitha.
When Tupac came
in the picture of Death Row,
it all just crumbled.
It would have been
easy for her to take over,
but I don't think she had the
experience that was necessary
to keep a multi-million dollar
record company
running like that.
You couldn't reach
Sharitha except
through intermediaries
who were lawyers,
but I had documents, and
she knew I had those.
I basically knew about her
relationship with Kevin Gaines,
so it was, how far
in Kevin Gaines was.
Was it, you know, was he
just involved with you?
Or was he really
working for Suge too?
And.
She basically claimed
that he did work for
Death Row Records, but it was
at her behest and through her,
and that, you know, the only
time he was ever around Suge
was the time she thought
Suge was gonna kill him.
He worked briefly
for Suge Knight just as,
approximately 100
other officers.
Officers were paid $75 an
hour to work for Suge Knight.
I was asked to work for Suge
Knight, which I declined.
But a lot of officers did,
and they weren't
all black officers.
And they weren't all from LAPD.
When they took the drive,
and Gaines and she
both got scared.
But according to the stories
that roam the halls
of Death Row Records,
Kevin Gaines was
taken out to the
middle of the
desert as a warning.
He was stripped naked and
left to walk back to the city.
'Cause Suge was
being very menacing,
and she basically backed him off
by saying, you know, this
man's a police officer,
he's got a gun, you wouldn't
dare kill a police officer.
According to the FBI documents,
Kevin Gaines was in Las Vegas
from two days prior to
the shooting of Shakur
until two days after
the death of Shakur.
So we know that Kevin
Gaines was already
Snoop Dogg's bodyguard,
and apparently his muscle.
And that Kevin Gaines had a
relationship with
Sharitha Knight.
So what exactly was
Kevin Gaines doing
out on that special
assignment in Las Vegas?
We came across a
letter that was called,
we call it the
confession letter.
That was given to us by
Chris Blatchford at Fox News.
And this letter was given
to him in 1998, okay,
by a gentleman who
is now in prison.
But at the time he was
a confidential informant
for Fox News for Chris
Blatchford, and he was reliable.
He'd helped him,
actually tipped him off
to a couple of really big
burglaries that had happened.
CHP's offices got
burglarized, and he helped
Fox catch the people that
did it, and this letter
was alleged to have been written
by Danny and Malcolm Patton.
And the Patton brothers
were Piru, Pirus.
And.
It's a gang in Los Angeles.
Yes, there's a gang in Los
Angeles, I should say that.
That the Blood gang.
Yeah.
And that they had
mapped out this entire,
not only confession,
that they were involved
with the shootings, but
why the shootings happened.
What was all involved
with it to begin with.
And in that letter, not only
were the Pattons the ones
who were alleged to
have written the letter,
but they named a rapper by
the name of Lil Half Dead.
You have to be pretty hard
core, know the Dogg Pound
to know the player,
to know who he is.
So his name came up,
but it was immediately
kind of the scoff, because
nobody ever heard this before.
You don't need to
look any further
than the album cover
that Lil Half Dead did.
In this album cover he features
a picture of a dead Tupac
Shakur slumped over a console
at Can-Am Studios, along
with a picture of what
arguably looks like Yafeu Fula,
the second victim right
after the shooting,
as a victim as well
being shot in the head.
Lil Half Dead himself
is dressed up as
none other than the Terminator.
Dogg Pound, we was really
on our fuck Death Row shit,
really, you know
what I'm saying.
We was already feeling.
At that time.
We was already
saying fuck Death Row.
And the story
goes that they owed
Freeway Rick Ross some money.
At that time Fox News was
paying a lot of money,
and if they thought you could
break a story that would
get the kind of OJ ratings,
you solved Tupac and Biggie.
That kind of ratings
back in '97, '98.
Well, maybe it was
worth giving this to.
We've also heard that it
was an insurance policy,
because people were dropping
like flies during those days.
Sometimes you can give
the press a letter,
and you say, if
anything happens to me,
you're free to put this out.
Several different points
that the letter brings out.
We narrowed it down to
four basic benchmarks
that we could look at to see
if there was any legitimacy.
The first one was demo stealing.
The letter mentions
the fact that
there was a problem
with demo stealing.
At the time there was a
problem with demo stealing.
There were a lot of
people ripping off albums.
Yeah, I saw that all the time.
Still you'll see it to this day.
When people would
come to Death Row
to play their tracks for us,
if it was a good
track after they left,
we might just make
something that
sounded like what we just heard.
Now, there's a song by
Tupac called "Toss it Up",
which is really, started
out from "No Diggity".
One day, all of a sudden,
Death Row security
comes to the door,
and they've got the master
tape of "No Diggity".
As it got handed down the
line to different producers,
more and more stuff got
erased of "No Diggity",
and then it's kind of hard
to hear that that's in there.
The second thing that
we looked at in the letter
was actually the
reference to the fact
that there was an
altercation between
Lil Half Dead and
Tupac's soldiers.
I think Pac was a great man,
but his governor was broke.
You know, in the car, when
you got your governor,
where you could
only go a certain,
Pac had to go all
the way, every time.
All out or nothing.
It got to the point where I
had a bail bondsman
on speed dial,
and he knew me, and he
knew our money was good.
So anytime Tupac or any of
the guys got in trouble,
usually it was Tupac,
and then Madman would have
to get bailed out also.
I'd call and get them
bailed out right away.
This is back in the day
where we're using Dats.
And I cued up the Dat
to the wrong spot.
And Pac, he just blasted me
in front of the whole crowd.
I'm sorry y'all, that's
my stupid brother.
That's my stupid-ass
brother on the mix.
You know, I'm like.
No, they better come
now, check this out.
They fired me, but did
it in a round about,
punk, snitch way, so I
caught 'em on the streets
and beat they behinds,
you know what I'm saying,
I was a menace to
these brothers.
And it ain't over, I
still got more for you.
And I'm going like
this is a movie.
My fist is coming
back like this.
I got him by the neck, and I'm
getting ready to punch him,
and just like a movie
I get snatched off him.
And then it's just a bum rush,
and everybody just
start rat packing,
you're just like Raging Bull,
blood spurting everywhere.
And I just felt my
body just contort.
I'd never been, you
know, rat packed before.
I was just shocked I
didn't feel anything.
The third thing that the
confession letter brings up
is actually the
fact that there was
a bounty placed out on
Tupac and Suge Knight.
That's not news.
There were bounties
that were put out
allegedly on Death Row chains.
There was allegedly
bounties put out on that.
Crooked Eye talks about
the fact that there
was actually a bounty
that was put out.
If you were a Death Row artist
you were marked for death.
The fourth thing
that we looked at,
and this was the
real jaw-dropper,
and that was that they
mentioned Reggie Wright Jr.,
and his involvement and
the fact that he was going
to provide information as to
where they were going to be,
and to provide
barricades so that
there was actually no way out.
Tupac thought he was going to
a place where he
could have protection,
but both Tupac and Suge
were in over their heads,
and they were both targeted
for execution that night.
Why would you
have people mad at you
when they're holding your
freedom in their hands?
Suge, what up with ya, big man.
Yeah, we livin'.
Suge!
By this time we know
that Death Row Records
and Ruthless Records had
been funded with drug money,
and that Death Row
Records was the subject
of a money laundering
investigation.
The operation at Death
Row Records was the kind
of organization that you'd
wanna keep things kinda quiet.
Suge Knight started
showing up on talk shows.
He started showing up
on magazine covers.
And he started bringing
a lot of attention
to people who just did not
want that kind of attention.
In 1996, Death Row Records
is worth 1/2 a billion dollars.
There are a lot of people
that are really upset
with Suge Knight at the time.
So if you're Reggie Wright Jr.,
it only makes sense
that if something
is worth 1/2 a billion dollars,
and you're tired of being
harassed by the guy who runs it,
why not just kill him
and take it from him?
Guns, drugs, jealousy, money.
This is a really
bad formula here.
Now keep that back.
Keep that back.
I'm like, fuck that shit.
I could have jumped out
on his ass in Vegas,
but I, you know,
it was killing me,
but Snoop was like, hold
on, don't fuck this up.
Don't fuck this up,
don't fuck this up.
Don't fuck this up.
Don't fuck this up.
On September the 7th,
Reggie Wright asked
me to ride with him
to the meeting that
we were having.
It was about 12 noon.
And we were going to George
Kelisis' office in Las Vegas.
When we arrived there, there
was 23 other security personnel
for Wright Way Security
at this meeting,
along with the attorney
and Reggie Wright.
Which is another
thing that's unusual.
And one of the main issues
and the main points were
we were not to
carry our weapons.
So, that right away brought
up the issue of why not.
I've been to Club
662 on many occasions,
and never have they told
me to leave my weapon.
So myself, Michael
Moore, and Al Giddens
was excluded from
that because we were
gonna be the main security
at the Club 662 that evening.
Why would I leave my
weapons in a vehicle,
or in the hotel room, and
I'm personally guarding Pac?
In one of the most
hottest places to be.
We were told to
leave our weapons
originally into our
hotel room, okay.
Then we said well, why would we
leave them in the hotel room?
There was gonna
be a lot of commotion,
there was gonna be
a lot of people.
And what that's
gonna make it is a
body guarding incident.
So at this point in
time all of the weapons
were gonna be at Club
662, left in our vehicles.
Therefore, if there
was gonna be a problem,
we would be able to retrieve
our weapons from our vehicles.
I got into a little
argument with Reggie Wright.
At lunch over it.
He said, Mike, I'm
putting Frank back on him,
and I'm taking you back off.
And I said Reggie, that
part doesn't make sense.
Why not leave me
and Frank on Tupac?
I was at Los Angeles
County jail booking in
a burglary suspect I arrested,
I went to work that day.
At three o'clock or
four o'clock in the afternoon,
in Las Vegas, at the Luxor,
security was all
brought together
by Reggie Wright on the
day that Pac was shot,
and we were told not
to carry weapons,
'cause we were all armed.
We were told specifically,
do not carry your weapon.
And did you
find that kind of strange?
After the fight in the casino.
Yeah, everybody.
Everybody thought
it was strange.
Why would, why were guys
told not to carry weapons?
Even the cops that were there
were told not to carry weapons.
Everybody was told
not to carry weapons.
That's what we were told.
Now, I, at the meeting,
was one of the few,
asked one of the few questions.
Why would you tell us
not to carry our weapons?
This is their
number one artist, I mean.
He's as high-profile
as they get.
You know, and you're paying
for all this security.
I mean, you got all
these guys at the club.
Something's wrong.
The pieces, the pieces of this
whole situation
just doesn't fit.
I think the reason
they removed me
from Tupac is because
I was one of the
few people that wouldn't buy
into not carrying your weapon.
And during no part of that
day did I take my weapon off.
And Mr. Wright knew that, so
they removed me off Tupac,
so there wouldn't
be a weapon there.
I rode with Reggie,
and as we were riding,
driving, going over
to the meeting,
he began to tell me about how
he was upset at Kevin Hackie,
because Kevin Hackie didn't
come out to Las Vegas,
and that Kevin
Hackie had my Nextel,
two-way, you know,
cell-phone radio,
that should have been given
to me when I arrived in Vegas.
Normally Frank and I
would both have radios,
and Frank'd just say,
hey Mike, I'm over here.
There was no radio again.
That day Frank
doesn't have a radio.
I don't have a radio,
which I normally have.
And we have confusion.
So for most of the
day, all this went on,
and Tupac did not have a clue
that's what we were doing.
Death Row was worth 1/2 a
billion dollars at that time,
and Tupac Shakur,
most of that revenue.
If your go-to excuse as
the director of security
for Death Row Records
is that you can't afford
an extra radio, and that's why
you don't have enough radios
to go around, you should
be ashamed of yourself.
When Reggie did that
and I questioned it,
Reggie did something
that he's never done.
He's never stayed at 662.
He, that day, he
stayed at the club.
Then why would he need me there,
and why would I be
taken off of Tupac?
I didn't just meet Suge
when I started
working at Death Row.
I used to work at Solar Records.
When he was running around,
go-fering, and going
and buying lunch,
and picking lunch up,
and all of that stuff,
but they groomed him
into Suge Knight.
The ladies would see from
Suge is this nice side.
And the nice side is making sure
you didn't want for nothing.
You know Suge, for a while,
was sending her
roses all the time.
Too many, every time
that she was here.
You'd go open the door and
there was some more flowers,
you know, for every occasion,
and sometimes every week.
Initially he would
send her flowers,
and when we were
still in California,
they would try to, they
initially kept the bills paid.
See, we thought that
was Pac's house.
We did not know that
was Death Row's house.
That was not his house,
it was not in his name.
From the moment we got there,
we thought that that was
Pac's house he was buying.
So he bought
everybody a car for Christmas.
But the catch on that on the
control side, on the flip side,
he never put the
car in your name.
So if he got mad at you
he took your car back.
He died in September, October.
We had an estate
storage company come
and take all of the
stuff out of that house.
He has a side of him
that is the sweeter side,
and then he has a side of him
that he literally
turns into the devil.
Because he's so nice with it,
he catches you off-guard
when he does something.
Suge had them to pack
everything in the Wilshire house
and send it down here.
She didn't even
know it was coming.
We looked and it was there.
She didn't want it
in particularly,
even though she took
it 'cause it was here,
'cause she said it wasn't his.
We were getting very close
to wrapping on Gridlock,
we probably had maybe a
week or two left on it,
and myself and Kevin Hackie,
we were both on duty that day
on the set.
And it was in the evening time,
'cause it was already night.
And I got this phone
call from Yaasmyn Fula,
and she said, hey Frank,
I'm coming down to Gridlock,
don't you and Kevin
leave 'cause I
need to talk to the two of you.
So, you know, probably
30 minutes later,
she shows up, and she goes, hey.
She goes, there's
some things going on
over at the Death Row office.
Pac has called an audit
on the Death Row office.
You have to keep in mind,
it was a conflict of
interest for Tupac to have
the same attorney that Death
Row had, being David Kenner.
You know what I mean, that
speaks for itself right there.
He wasn't feeling comfortable
with what he was receiving,
I guess, as far as his
royalties or whatever.
So that's the completion
of that obligation.
As we, as I know it.
And I tell you, he
had movie scripts,
and he was truly
interested in that.
People were talking
to him about it.
Yeah, he's done, he was done.
He was done.
He was done.
There were meetings with
attorneys, Yaas and I,
yeah, he was done, he was done.
He had fulfilled his
obligation with Death Row.
And no intentions of renewing
any sort of paper agreement.
If David Kenner or Suge Knight
or anyone else that
was upset with Tupac,
what do you think
they would have done?
Institutionalize Tupac.
Have his appeal bond
revoked, for some reason.
They would have no
reason to kill him
or anything like that.
They would just have
him go back to jail,
and humble him a bit.
According to Reggie Wright,
if Tupac got out of line,
we'll just throw him back
in jail, and humiliate him.
Humble him a little.
Isn't that what they
did to Kevin Gaines?
Isn't that what they
did to Snoop Dogg?
And Seldon
is down on his stomach.
And that's it.
It's over in the first round.
Tyson was Pac's
homeboy, and to, you know,
see Tyson in the
ring doing his thing,
you know, whooping
up on Bruce Seldon.
Pac was excited, you know, he
was jumping up, and he was,
you know, saying
what he was saying,
you know, everybody getting
excited about a fight.
And that continued from
the seats into the back
of the, the area where
the boxers come back in
after the fight is over.
And he, you know, got back
there, and he's just going off,
you know, man, 50 blows, 50 man,
he knocked him out with 50
blows, you know, blah blah blah.
That was it, that was it.
That was the excitement
of that fight,
that was Pac's
excitement behind it.
Mike Tyson never
came in the back,
so we never met up with Mike.
We ended up leaving.
As we left out of
the fight arena area,
as we got out into
the casino area again,
the rest of our entourage
was out there waiting on us.
As we walked up to greet them,
which would have been, you know,
all of Death Row entourage,
along with Tupac's entourage.
One of Suge's guys,
his name was Trayvon.
Came over and whispered
in Tupac's right ear,
because I was standing
on Tupac's left.
Tupac took off and ran.
His governor was broke.
I took off behind him.
Your appeal
was about to be overturned.
And the rest of the
entourage was behind me.
He did not
want to go back to prison.
I had never been
rat packed before.
Tupac comes to, at this
time, I didn't know who it was.
Now being Orlando Anderson,
standing by this planter,
just like waiting.
Why would you have
people mad at you and upset
if they're holding your
freedom in their hands.
It was a setup.
Tupac had
a big tour still to do.
They're holding your freedom.
They're holding your freedom.
Pac just ran up on him, and,
and Orlando Anderson swung back.
At this time, Pac's
medallion broke.
When he reached out
to grab the medallion,
I grabbed him and got
him out of the fight.
By the time the
entourage who was
behind me had gotten there,
the footage that is from
the MGM everyone sees,
Orlando Anderson
is on the ground,
everybody's kicking at him,
beating him down or whatever.
Because I knew the
way through the MGM
'cause I was in the MGM
walking around earlier,
looking for everyone, I
knew how to walk us out
of the MGM to the entrance.
And I walked us out
of the entrance,
as the tape shows, I'm in front,
Pac and Suge and everybody
is following me now.
After the beating there seems to
be a divergence of stories.
On one hand, some
people say that
Orlando Anderson left the MGM
to go on and do other things.
But witness Corey
Edwards actually said
that Orlando Anderson
stayed at the bar.
Corey Edwards was
there with friends,
as was Orlando Anderson.
And if Orlando Anderson
was in fact at that bar,
according to Corey
Edwards, you don't think
the Las Vegas police
department would have
checked the closed circuit
cameras at the MGM,
to find out whether
that was true?
Well, Russell Poole
said they did.
And Russell Poole said
that that was true.
After the fight
that occurred at the MGM,
we got to the Luxor.
The crowd was all
outside all of the,
you know, groupies
and everything.
As I walked to
the car with them,
the first thought
in my mind was,
my weapon is in my car.
My car is on the other
side of the Luxor hotel.
I wasn't gonna tell
Tupac and tell Suge,
oh, wait one minute,
I have to run over
to my car and get my gun.
Well, how come you don't
have your gun on you?
Well, Reggie told us not to.
You took a fall because
you didn't have your gun,
you should have had your gun.
You know what, man?
You see, now we have
conflicting stories, then.
Because we were told...
I told you that?
You're saying, I told
y'all, at least in the car.
You could carry
that gun with you.
Exactly, there you go.
You said, leave 'em in the car.
It ponders through
me all the time,
what if I could
have done something?
Then I would have
really been the hero
that Suge Knight
once thought I was.
When Snoop's
trailer got shot up.
I put myself in this position
in my mind many times.
To say what if I
would have had my gun.
While I was working at 662,
I heard something
over the Nextels
that we all carried
for security.
And what I heard was, got 'em.
Got 'em.
Got 'em.
Michael talks about hearing
something over the radio.
Well, he would have heard
it over Reggie's radio,
because he wouldn't have
had a radio that night.
Then someone else came
on the radio and said,
hey, don't say nothing
over the radio.
Which was the Nextels we
were using, radio to radio.
And I just clearly
heard somebody say,
don't say that over the radio.
But the person who said it
was not homeboy security.
Nor was it one of
our security guards.
It was, to me, would
be like a stranger.
Someone, and the person that
said that was Caucasian.
Definitely not African-American.
Oh, no, you know.
We've been getting that,
even, we were in the cab,
and we heard, you know,
something happened.
Tupac, somebody
was like, you know,
over the radio, oh those
rappers, Tupac, something,
you know, people have been shot.
I was like oh no, I'm
like, pull over, you know.
I'm like, calling Yaas.
I'm like, is everything okay?
And she found, she calls,
says no, go to the hospital.
She told me where
the hospital was,
we went to the hospital.
And then I also remember
seeing, you know,
Suge roll by on the gurney
with a little Band-Aid
on his head, and I was
like, what happened?
They missed.
They missed.
All of the planning that
they put into the operation,
they shot tons of
rounds into that car.
To the point where everybody
thought that they were dead.
But at the end of
the day, they missed.
After the shooting occurred
on September 7th that evening,
I don't understand
something that occurred.
Trayvon, after we
were questioned by
the homicide detectives,
went back over to Club 662.
If he cared so much about Pac,
why didn't he go
to the hospital?
It didn't really seem to
register on anybody's radar,
that it might have
been an attempted
assassination on Suge Knight.
Suge was at the hospital,
Pac was at the hospital.
How come everyone that
supposedly had loved Pac,
other than his
family, the Outlawz.
This is about
selling a narrative.
They tried to sell
a narrative to
the Las Vegas police
and it didn't work.
They tried to sell
the same narrative
through Chuck Phillips
at the Los Angeles Times.
And that didn't work.
They tried to sell
the narrative through
the Wallace investigation
and the Wallace civil suit,
through Waymond Anderson.
And then they tried
the last round,
to sell it through
an ex-LAPD cop,
in a book called Murder Rap.
How come everybody
didn't go to the hospital?
What happened?
I don't understand that.
So now we're
in damage control mode.
Suge Knight got shot
at, and he lived.
Now what the hell
are we gonna do?
Because you've got
somebody asking questions,
and we don't have an answer.
I had Newsweek and
Time, I had all of them,
majors, magazines and
newspapers coming to Club 662.
They gotta make up a story.
They gotta come
up with something.
Because after the fight
Tupac was going to entertain.
You have the attempted
assassination of the head of
arguably the largest
record label at that time.
Now, if this were David Geffen,
or any other big
record label executive,
there'd be cops falling
all over themselves
to try to investigate this.
But, it didn't seem
to work that way.
So then I went
and, to see Tupac,
they wouldn't let
me close to Tupac,
but they did let
me see in there.
So that's when
Kenner came to me,
and said, do you have keys
to Death Row, to the offices?
He said, well then you get
on the next thing smoking,
you know, hey, do
you need some money?
I said, no, I got money.
And go back to LA.
So Suge Knight
goes back to Los Angeles
and has a meeting at
Death Row Records.
Suge called a
meeting, all the artists
were instructed to
come to this meeting,
and certain security
was invited.
And I happened to be one of 'em.
But prior to going into
the meeting with Suge
and all the artists
from Death Row,
Reggie met with us out
front in his own meeting.
But I'm gonna add
something to that.
We were also instructed to lie.
By Reggie Wright, to Suge.
But if I'm Suge Knight,
and somebody takes a shot at me,
regardless of who
else is in the car,
they're shooting at me.
I wanna know who
shot at me, and why.
And the reason we
were instructed to lie,
was because Reggie Wright told
us not to carry any weapons.
What did they do?
They lie.
So, I have, by me just
looking at what Reggie told me,
I'm thinking that Mr.
Knight was unaware.
More importantly, I wanna know
how far down this
rabbit hole goes.
The meeting was basically
about what happened,
and the artists were
drilling security
about what methods we had used,
and what were some
of our tactics.
And we know from looking
at the statement that
Suge Knight gave to the Las
Vegas Police Department,
that he fully expected
that Frank Alexander
and every other bodyguard there
was to carry their weapons.
So whatever the case
might have been,
Suge Knight didn't
get the message.
I looked around,
and no one said it.
No one was speaking
up for security.
So I'm Suge Knight,
and I'm asking myself,
who the hell is
shooting at me and why?
And who's the first
person I'm gonna ask?
My head of security,
Reggie Wright Jr.
And it looked like
Reggie wasn't going to
say that information to them.
The driver appeared to be hit
with a fragment
in the head area.
At this time the wounds
are life-threatening.
Serious, not in critical
condition at this time.
Homicide detectives are
very busy right now.
He has numerous injuries.
He has multiple gunshot
wounds to the chest
and so, yes, that's
always a possibility
that a lung could be hit,
a lung could collapse.
Or there could be
other internal injuries
that might need additional
attention in the OR.
Kevin Hackie
shows up in Las Vegas,
and he's got a lot of questions
as to what's happening.
I was in the hospital.
His eyes, you could
tell he was sedated.
So I mean, obviously,
his pupils were open,
but there was, there
was no movement there.
I actually started crying.
I mean, I was caught
up, I liked the kid.
But Kevin
Hackie gets into a scrape
with Las Vegas
Metropolitan Police,
when he reveals to them
that he may be involved
with a federal law
enforcement agency.
I did work
undercover for the FBI
and ATF during my tenure
with Death Row Records
and Wright Way
Protective Services.
There was a report
that was written
by the Las Vegas Metropolitan
Police Department
about the altercation
with Kevin Hackie.
The Las Vegas Metropoitan
Police Department
wasn't concerned about
anybody's safety,
but they were more concerned
about the public relations
of the Las Vegas Metropolitan
Police Department,
and strangely, the
public relations
of the Compton
Police Department.
Now since Compton
wasn't gonna be involved
in the case for
several days later,
why would the Las Vegas
Metropolitan Police Department
be so concerned about
the public relations
of the Compton Police Department,
if they weren't there yet?
A CEO of a company, or the
wife of somebody being murdered
is one kind of investigation,
but now you're talking about
something where there
was all kinds of
alleged baggage involved.
This is where you begin to see
Compton Police Department
inject themselves
into the middle of the
Las Vegas investigation
under the false pretense
that it's a gang activity.
And again, that first
night, I don't think he was
totally forthcoming
on everything he knew.
So they approach Frank
Alexander to basically
lie to the Vegas
Police Department,
and tell them that a chain
was actually snatched
the day of the
shooting, September 6th,
earlier that morning.
And that was the story
that was concocted then.
It happened that day.
Nothing about the Lakewood Mall,
and nothing about anything
happening months earlier.
It was all happening that day.
And that's what they told Frank
Alexander to tell the cops,
and that's what Frank
Alexander told the cops.
Every time I think it's over,
they drag me right
back in again.
And later on when
Frank Alexander is asked
to repeat that story
again, he refuses.
We were supposed
to went down to Vegas,
me, you, and Malcolm, 'cause
Malcolm could ID the person.
We're supposed to send
you and him down to ID,
you know, to look
at the pictures,
'cause they had a suspect.
And that's when they were,
had Orlando as a suspect.
And they were gonna
have y'all look
at the pictures before
then to see if maybe that,
you know, made your memory
get better or whatever.
Say you can describe somebody.
But once you see a picture,
oh yeah, that's him.
So that's what they
would have you to do,
and that's what David told them,
that we had two witnesses that
uh, maybe could help you out
and put some things
in the right.
And, plus the
statement that you gave
about the chain and
all of that, you know,
with the additional information.
And when he refuses,
the story begins to
evolve a little bit.
It doesn't become that the
chain was snatched that day.
It becomes that the
chain was snatched
several months earlier.
His head of security is an
ex-Compton police officer.
It's suspected that you
have Compton gang members
that came up there
to do a shooting,
gang land style shooting.
And yet, and still, who's
heading up the investigation?
You have a lieutenant
from Compton Police.
Just whole, this whole thing,
it smells from high hell.
Hundreds of hours
of investigation was spent
on the narrative that said that
this guy murdered
this other person.
That narrative came
from the powers to be.
There's a Compton police
officer by the name of
Tim Brennan who is a
protege of Reggie Wright Sr.
Well, Tim Brennan
is the first one
that comes up in this
investigation with
the entire concept that
a gang was involved,
and that Orlando Anderson
was actually the shooter.
Tim Brennan and Bobby Ladd
run around talking about
what great guys Reggie Wright
Sr. And Hourie Taylor were,
and of course this is the
same Reggie Wright Sr.
That the Compton
Police Department says
is in charge of both
the gangs and the drugs,
and drugs are disappearing
from the evidence locker.
And the same Hourie
Taylor, that's the one
that has two keys of cocaine
fall out of his locker
when they investigate him
after being suspended.
You know, so obviously
from a law enforcement agency
looking in to this,
to all of a sudden,
there's war in Compton.
I mean, you know, calls
were made, you know.
So, quote unquote, you
know, alleged crip members
whatever were killed
left and right.
But from Las Vegas standpoint,
I mean, the whole thing smells.
Tim Brennan lays the entire
Orlando Anderson theory
smack down in the middle
of the investigation,
and uses a couple of
confidential informants,
and we have no idea
of their reliability.
Oh yeah.
People you know, embellishing
search warrants to get it.
You know, so they can get it.
It's not, you know, in
my experience it wasn't
something that was widely done,
but there were times that
you'd hear about it was done.
But seriously, what
are they gonna do?
They're gonna try to
blame somebody else.
And who are they gonna
blame in a hurry?
They're gonna
blame somebody that
they can't point the finger on.
Somebody that can't
be named individually.
They're gonna name some entity.
They're gonna name some
group, some people, some gang.
But at the end of the
day, they're gonna lie.
And they had
to get a search warrant,
and they couldn't come up with,
you know, the
probable cause for it,
so sometimes it was
embellished, or yeah, made up.
That's what Tim
Brennan told me personally.
He said whenever they're
ready, tell 'em that
when they're ready
to know who did it,
who was in the car,
and all that stuff,
tell 'em we have the
evidence, we know who did it,
we know exactly who was
in that car that night.
And he's basically saying,
and I don't wanna start
the tension between two
different departments,
but he said...
Well it's funny because,
he, everything we had
came from Tim Brennan.
You can't always take
what they say 100% true,
because you always have
to look at a motive
for somebody, why are
they saying what they're,
why are they telling me
what they're telling me?
Do they have a motive?
You have to understand
the absurdity of this.
The entire narrative
being manufactured
is for a reason.
You have to solicit a
response from the judge.
You have to get the judge
to believe the story.
Is there some reason
why they're doing this?
'Cause I mean, it may be
something other than the truth.
If they had told the judge, hey,
there's just some random
arm that came out of a car,
we really don't know who it is,
and we really don't know
who is responsible for it,
and it may or may
not have been related
to a chain-snatch
earlier that day,
or two months earlier, and
we're really not sure of that.
There's not a very
good likelihood
that that judge is gonna
sign that search warrant.
They may, they don't like him.
They don't like the individual,
or they got something
against the individual,
or somebody told 'em, I
need you to pin this guy.
And no witness to the
Tupac Shakur fight at the MGM
said anything about
Tupac saying anything,
especially the line
are you from the south.
Cops do it all the time.
That was intentionally
added to the search warrant
to give it a flavor
of contradiction,
and to identify the south
with the Southside Crips.
And this was to make it
appear gang-motivated.
When a judge signs
a search warrant,
that judge is
absolutely relying upon
the representations
made in the affidavit.
And the affidavit
has to be under oath.
It's important
to understand that
this kind of a false
narrative emphasizes
the fact that there was a fight,
and it made it Tupac
versus the Southside Crips.
So it set up the big fight.
The judge is relying upon the
veracity and truthfulness
of that police officer.
The statements
made by Tim Brennan
were not simply academic.
They were actually made
for an intended purpose
and for a reason that that
judge would have to buy later.
And there are times,
and I was a judge myself,
where you get the call at
2:30, 3:00 in the morning,
from the drug
enforcement officers,
that they want to
come to your house
and have you sign
a search warrant.
It's like, when we
serve the search warrant
on my undercover operation,
the affidavit was this thick.
The affidavit says
that somebody got out
of the car and
started talking shit.
Well, that didn't happen.
No witness ever said
that that happened.
And if you really go
back to think about
the amount of work that
that would've involved,
it asks a whole
lot more questions.
And you gotta make
darn sure, as a judge,
that you're attentive,
you're attuned to
what they're doing, and
you have some clarity.
Well, if all your
facts are based upon
the opinion or assumptions
of other individuals
and you have no confirmation
of that by other witnesses,
then you're going to go
back and you're going to
put your affidavit
together, and you say,
I am swearing to these
truths that were given to me.
And these truths
may not be truth.
They're only opinions
and assumptions.
For example, if someone got out
of the passenger side of
a stopped car and walked
all the way around the
front of that car or around
the back of that car talking
shit and holding a gun,
that the bodyguards would
have reacted to that.
But it didn't happen.
So, the detective that
is getting the information
must be able to confirm or to
have other evidentiary value
to verify them as truths.
In my era,
if I was caught lying,
it would have been
the end of my career.
I would have been fired.
They wouldn't have whitewashed
it, they would have fired me.
Each one of the statements
made in Tim Brennan's affidavit
that were incorrect were
not made accidentally.
They were made intentionally.
And the reason that they
were made intentionally
was to alter the meaning
of the search warrant.
They alter the statement.
It wasn't are you
from the south.
Tupac said nothing like that.
But if you alter it, and you
say, are you from the south,
that's not just
a simple mistake.
That makes it personal,
it makes it argumentative,
and it makes it actionable.
They can't use you anymore,
because you've already
lied on the record
and therefore, you have
no credibility anymore,
so therefore they can't use you.
And it got to the point where
Compton had to do something.
It began before dawn.
The crime sweep
involved 300 officers,
10 agencies, including the FBI,
at more than 37
locations in the Compton,
Lynwood, and Long Beach areas.
Based on the affidavit and
the search warrant
of Tim Brennan,
they go ahead and they
do this big gang sweep.
Well starting out the day,
he chased me into a house,
and we recovered some
guns out of that house.
Looking all over Compton
for Orlando Anderson.
But who finds him?
Tim Brennan.
So they haul
Orlando Anderson in,
and Vegas police ask him
a bunch of questions.
And what do the Vegas police do?
They walk away.
I just don't see the interest.
And Tim Brennan and the
Compton PD can't figure out
what the heck's going on.
We're giving it to you
on a silver platter,
and you're just not buying it.
I've heard
Manning before say that
while we treat it
like any other case,
that they haven't got any
special treatment because,
he is a celebrity, but I
don't know if I buy all that.
There was an arrest made
for the murder of Tupac Shakur.
It was done by Tim Brennan
to Orlando Anderson.
Yeah, I know the
people they need to talk to.
The, to solve it.
So suddenly the rhetoric starts.
Now Las Vegas is incompetent.
Brent Becker's incompetent.
Kevin Manning's incompetent.
Everybody's incompetent.
The bullshit
that everybody says,
that we didn't do anything.
They're so far out in left
field, they're ridiculous.
You know and they,
and then that's that.
I've had some problems
between Las Vegas and me,
'cause they don't, you
know, like what I've said.
But you know, I speak the truth.
In the Tim Brennan
search warrant,
there's mention of several
gang members involved,
and one of those
gang members involved
is a gang member by the
name of Danny Patton,
who also goes by the
nickname of White Boy.
During the service and the
execution of this search warrant,
many, many houses and
residences that were involved
with these gang
members were searched,
with the notable
exception of one.
And that was Danny
Patton, AKA White Boy.
It reminds me of
the old statement,
don't ask a question you don't
already know the answer to.
There are a lot of things
that no one else knows about.
The Vegas police department
knew exactly what was going on.
It stunk to high heaven and
they didn't want any part of it.
On the way out, Orlando
Anderson says to Brent Becker,
are you going to arrest me?
Brent Becker says,
arrest you for what?
Do I think we know who did it?
Yeah.
And the further and harder
that Compton pushed the matter,
the further the Vegas police
backed away, and the further
that they didn't want
anything to do with it.
Right off the bat,
we're wanting to talk to
the guy that's in the car with
Tupac Shakur, Suge Knight.
And we're working
right away with that.
In fact, the night
of the shooting
we tried to talk to
him but were refused
access to him by members
of Death Row, attorneys.
And in fact it
took three days to
get to talk to Suge Knight.
And here's where
David Kenner comes into play.
David Kenner was a
former prosecutor
that suddenly for
whatever reason decided
he wanted to start
defending criminals,
and he became a
defense attorney.
He was a very good
defense attorney.
And we kept getting
the run-around,
yeah, yeah, we'll get
you in touch with him,
yes, we'll do this,
yes, we'll do that.
Who was giving
you the run-around?
David Kenner's office.
He was actually an
umbrella that covered
a lot of the legal
shenanigans that were going on
at Death Row Records.
But understand that any
shit can change tomorrow.
Compton PD had one
more shot at trying to
ruin Suge Knight, and that
happened in the courtroom.
They was able to
pull, they scheme,
and they ideas all about
me being in prison.
He had so many
people shook on these streets,
that yo, motherfuckers can't
wait 'til he's just gone.
For good, so they can fully
breathe a sigh of relief.
Because it's two
things that I always say,
being from the ghetto,
either they're gonna
take the money from
you, which you be OJ.
And if they can't take
the money from you,
they take you from the money.
It's y'all motherfuckers
that's scared of him.
Only way to take
you from the money is
while you die,
death, or in prison.
Yo, motherfuckers can't wait
'til he's just gone, for good,
so they can fully
breathe a sigh of relief.
I mean, I feel like
they're not gonna rest
until Suge Knight
is dead or in jail.
Tupac Shakur and Suge Knight
were kicking Orlando.
I seen him standing
right there helping me.
He was about the only one.
He made the comment that Tupac
and Knight beat
him up pretty good.
And with that, Suge Knight
is sentenced to nine
years in prison.
So if the Las Vegas
Metropolitan Police Department
weren't interested in Orlando
Anderson as a suspect,
who were they interested in?
I think the answer to that
question comes in the form
of logs and notes that were made
by a police officer on the
Los Angeles Police Department
involving certain
incidents that happened
at Death Row's Can-Am Studios.
That officer's name was Knox.
You're right that Knox
is probably the most
underrepresented
character in this story,
because he was the very first
guy to get on the fact that
there were all these cops
working for Death Row Records.
I can remember talking
to Sergio Robledo,
when they were trying to
get, you know, subpoena Knox,
to, and he said, you
know, he's disappeared,
I mean, the cops have given
him a leave of absence,
he's left the country,
we've staked out his
house, he's never home,
he hasn't been home in
we don't know how long.
I mean, we cannot get
him, the guy we most want.
And we cannot locate him.
He sort of stumbled into it.
He was the senior lead officer,
which is, it's an
elite position,
and there's just one
at every LAPD station.
He was responding to citizen
complaints about activity
at Death Row's studios.
People were upset that
these gang bangers were
parking in their driveways,
and if they questioned them,
you know, they were being
threatened with guns,
and that kind of thing,
so he decided he should
visit the studio, and
the first day he arrives,
he sees a back and
forth with this guy
who turns out to be
Ramsey Lewis' son,
and turns into one of
the best informants
about what was going on
at Death Row Records.
What Kendrick Knox
observed may have actually
driven Las Vegas in the direction
of their investigation.
And the guy says,
well, you know,
one of the people who sits
here is one of your own guys.
What?
And so, he follows that
up, that's McCauley,
but he's finding out that
there are a number of other
LAPD officers working
for Death Row Records,
and there are higher ups
that already know it.
It's already been, he
goes to his superior,
who says, yeah, we know that.
But that's not gonna
be in any reports,
and, you know, you're
not gonna, you know,
make anything public about that.
So Knox is pushed back
a step, but he still
is continuing with
his investigation,
'cause he's got all
these leads that are,
you know, he's getting
into the Tupac case,
he's getting into
the Biggie case.
He's getting evidence
that there are cops,
you know, there were lots of
cops, including LAPD present,
in Las Vegas and even on the
scene when Tupac was killed.
The implication that they were,
you know, helping set it up.
The reason that you've
never heard of Ken Knox
were because the minute that
Ken Knox turned in his reports
the LAPD understood the
value of those reports,
and how damaging they might be,
and those reports
just disappeared.
Well that was when he
really knew this is serious.
He did, he took a
vacation, I think it was.
And when he came back, he
found that his computer
had been completely
erased, I mean, everything.
It was blank.
They shut him down, basically.
They got him alone in a
room and threatened him,
and told him his
career was over.
The one thing he did do was
pass it on to Russ Poole.
When I talked to him,
it was clear, you know,
he'd made his, basically
I've made my decision,
I've decided to save
myself, it's not worth,
you know, throwing
my own life away,
and hurting my family for what,
to make cases against
these gang bangers?
One other reason that
the Tim Brennan affidavit
tended to gain traction
was because Tim Brennan
falsely characterized a
series of gang shootings
that happened as a war
that was in retaliation
for the shooting
of Tupac Shakur.
Our investigation revealed
that some of the motivation
for the shootings that
occurred in Compton may be
in retaliation for the events
that transpired in Las Vegas.
And in fact, it was stated later
that the shootings had nothing
to do with the gang war.
It's no secret
that the Crips and
the Bloods were
hanging out together,
and were recording
at Death Row Records.
But what made it interesting
was on the eve of Tim Brennan
telling everybody that
there was a gang war,
10 Los Angeles police
officers showed up
at Can-Am Studios
to basically hoist
a bunch of gang guys
out of the studio.
What they found was that
Bloods were working with Crips
at the studio,
which was no secret.
But that the Crips
were East Coast Crips
that came from New Jersey.
West Coast Bloods working
with East Coast Crips.
Not much of a gang war there.
But even more importantly,
if the term East Coast Crips
and Crips coming from New
Jersey, sound familiar,
it may be because of something
that happened just
shortly after that.
It was a criminal organization.
It'd be like officers working
for the Gambino family.
Yafeu Fula was a name that a
lot of people have thrown back
in our faces, that we were
derelict in doing things.
Yafeu Fula was interviewed
the night of the shooting.
Yafeu Fula gave a statement.
People say we never
interviewed him.
He was interviewed.
And the big thing is
everybody says that he said
he could identify the shooter.
No, he did not.
He never said that to us.
He said he might be able
to identify the driver.
That is what he said.
And we tried to reach out
to re-interview Yafeu Fula,
well, next thing you know,
we're getting notification
from, I think it's in
Orange, New Jersey,
if I remember right,
that he's been murdered
in a housing project or something
like that over some drugs.
The problem was, this
is a big country.
People go wherever, you know.
We don't have tracking
devices on them.
So we have to depend
on people we know
we can get in touch with to
try and reach out to 'em.
Immediately after the Yafeu
Fula shooting takes place,
Compton police and
Las Vegas police
make it known publicly
that the shooting
has absolutely nothing to do
with the death of Tupac Shakur.
But that's not exactly
true, because the FBI
went back several years later
and interviewed the New Jersey
detectives that worked
the Yafeu Fula shooting,
and they said that the
Yafeu Fula shooting
was done execution-style
in the style of the mob.
The Compton police
and Death Row Records
had two big problems.
Number one, they
still weren't able
to convince the Vegas
police that Orlando Anderson
had anything to do
with the murder,
and Reggie Wright was having
trouble trying to convince
Frank Alexander to go back
and repeat the same lie
that he had told Vegas police
earlier in the investigation
about the chain snatch
that occurred that day.
We were supposed
to went down to Vegas,
me, you, and Malcolm,
and correct the statement
that you gave about the
chain and all of that.
You know, with the
additional information.
The LAPD had just come out
of the Christopher Commission,
which was started by the
Rodney King beatings.
And it had everything to
do with police misconduct.
So police misconduct
was nothing new
to the Los Angeles
Police Department.
But to also have
it involving gangs,
and having it involve an agency
that's dealing in
drugs like Death Row
would have made a serious
black eye for the LAPD.
The LAPD was, it was
basically in cover-up mode.
You know, self-protection.
Kevin Gaines was in Las Vegas
from two days prior to the
shooting of Shakur until two
days after the death of Shakur.
So what are we gonna do?
We're gonna galvanize this
into the public mindset.
We're gonna make sure they don't
forget the South Side Crips.
We're gonna make sure they
don't forget Orlando Anderson.
We're gonna make sure they
don't forget this is an
East Coast/West Coast problem.
And we're gonna do
it in such a way
that it's big and outrageous,
and you will never forget it.
Fire department, go ahead.
We on Fairfax and Wilshire.
What's wrong?
We're a man shot
in our car right now.
Okay, they drove up
next to us and shot at
the car in the passenger side.
Okay,
somebody's already on the way.
Man, can you hear me baby?
I'm standing outside
of the Peterson Auto Museum,
the site of the
Wallace killings.
And you know, they did it.
Christopher Wallace murder
and the corresponding blame
placed on Suge Knight
as retaliation for
the Orlando Anderson shooting
moved light years towards
legitimizing the cover story
cooked up in September of '96.
But, in a missed move, the
Los Angeles Police Department
allowed a rogue, felon
ex-cop to tell his cell-mate
the details of how the Wallace
killing actually went down.
The LAPD tried to hide
this inmate's testimony,
because they had used
the same informant's
alleged credibility to exonerate
at least five LAPD officers
and they knew he was not just
another jailhouse informant.
What you're about to hear
was worth 1.1 million dollars
to the LAPD to hide
from the Wallace family.
That's what the
judge fined the city
for not letting this
go out to the public.
This is what they did
not want you to hear,
served up by the
very witness whose
testimony cleared five cops.
My name is Kenneth Boagni.
And I was in Lynwood
County Regional Facility
from November 1999 to July 2000.
There I befriended Raphael
Perez, the LAPD officer
who was in the center
of the Rampart scandal.
And then I could see,
the motive was patently obvious.
He'd done things that
were hanging over him.
He could have gone to prison
for the rest of his life.
He could make a deal to
get out from under that.
And, but then, he
could also get revenge
on anybody who had ever
offended him in any way.
Raphael Perez never mentioned
Suge Knight in name.
He just said David
Kenner and Reggie Wright
told him that that Mack was
there when Ronnie got beaten up.
It was a million dollars
for Puffy and Notorious BIG.
I cheated on my employer,
and I cheated on all of you,
the people of Los Angeles.
From what I was told,
it was, gave him almost
250 grand, which, up front,
and he owed him 750
grand on the back end.
Completely hidden Boagni from,
so clearly the LAPD took
it at least that seriously,
that they would hide
all mention of Boagni.
The real break in the case
was the arrest of David Mack for
a bank robbery out
in Los Angeles.
David Mack was an LAPD officer.
He was arrested for one of
the biggest bank robberies
in LA history, which he was
caught on film committing.
It's been said publicly
that David Mack was actually
the introduction of the concept
that LAPD cops were working
for Death Row Records,
and were working
for Suge Knight.
And that's not true.
Because long before David
Mack ever robbed that bank,
Ken Knox had logs that
clearly spelled out
who was working for
Death Row Records
and those logs were published to
Los Angeles Police
Department's internal affairs
in June of 1996, even before
the Shakur shooting took place.
They did a
search warrant on his house
for the bank robbery.
He owned a black SS Impala,
and that's the same
vehicle that was used
in the killing of Biggie Smalls.
There's a number of
clues that connect
David Mack possibly
to the killing.
Perez was just
along for the ride at the time,
going to a Death Row
meeting with Reggie Wright.
He was pretty much Mack's
sidekick at this time.
A bigwig got Amir
to get the job done.
And Mack had already
knew Amir from
being from the nation of Islam,
and they went to
school together.
He was already in the sand,
for the nation of Islam.
So Amir Muhammed
comes into the story.
Russ Poole sees that
he's had one visitor,
and he identifies
who this person is,
but he gave, basically was
trying to cover up who he was.
Well, that's
suspicious, obviously.
And then he gets, looks
at the driver's license,
and sees that the
picture looks a lot like
the composite drawing that
was made of Biggie's shooter.
LA police detective Greg
Kading came out and said
that the reason that
Amir Muhammed put a fake
social security number on the
inmate visitor application
when he went to visit
David Mack was because
he did not want his
identity stolen.
His explanation
was that he was aware
that inmates and other
people would be able to view
or access that log, and he
didn't want his identity stolen.
This hardly sounds like
a professional killer.
And he bought that as
a culpable explanation.
Well the fact of the matter is,
if you're putting your
true date of birth,
and your true address,
and your true name
on the application, you have
more chances of identity theft
than just the social
security number.
If you're really that
concerned about your identity
being stolen, you should
use a fake date of birth.
You should use a fake address.
But he didn't.
He used true information, the
only thing that he embellished
was his social security number,
and you'd ask the question, why?
Well it's really simple.
The social security
number is the only thing
that's not with you when
you get your ID checked.
Amir Muhammed in Orange
County under yet another
one of his assumed identities,
this time he changed
himself physically,
he had a shaved head now.
Didn't look like the Muslim
with the fade haircut anymore,
he had a shaved
head and a beard.
But anyway, he had been
arrested for menacing a couple.
He was in an SUV menacing a
couple in an SUV with a gun.
He pulled out a gun,
pulled up alongside
and pointed the gun at
'em, threatened 'em.
The woman was somebody he
had been involved with,
so it wasn't like, this
wasn't a hit, per Se.
But they called the cops.
They pulled him over,
he had, you know,
he had fake driver's license.
He had many aliases.
He had, his real name
was Harry Billups.
He never really, I don't
think, ever legally changed it,
I think he still is
legally Harry Billups.
But he called himself
Harry Muhammed.
Amir Muhammed was
convicted in that case,
but he was convicted on, I
think that was a misdemeanor.
Yet initially it was a felony.
They pleaded it down, and he.
But a lot of the
reason that he got off
was that the couple,
who the only witnesses,
the week later were
found shot to death.
It was ruled by the
coroner a murder-suicide.
The whole thing
seemed dubious to me.
You know, I, if I'd.
This happened well
after I wrote LAbyrinth,
and I found out about
this, so I, you know,
I didn't follow it all the way.
Somebody should.
I told you that this
cats was coming to kill us,
or try to get at us that night.
I told you I had intel.
The night that
Notorious BIG was killed,
a LAPD officer saw Gaines
cut off both, both cars.
Both were, Biggie
was in the car,
and Sean, P Diddy
was in the car.
Gaines was supposed to cut
both of those guys off.
I told our driver, Kenny.
Kenny, run these
next three lights.
Run the light, Kenny.
Kenny ran the light.
Big stopped at the light.
Big gets killed.
Wasn't meant for him, bruh.
The whole job didn't get done.
One of the guys got away, of
course Sean Combs got away.
He also told me later
on that he found out
that Gaines was working
with Internal Affairs.
He couldn't tell Internal
Affairs about that.
But he was informing them
on a lot of other stuff.
So what exactly
was Kevin Gaines doing
out on that special
assignment in Las Vegas?
Perez said that
was the reason he was killed.
No, it wasn't an accident.
He goes, do you
have any regrets?
And I says, yeah.
And he leans forward
again, he goes,
do you regret shooting him?
I says no, I regret
that he was alone
in the truck at the time.
Figured that one out.
You know, you hear that?
Alone in the truck at the time.
I could have killed a
whole truckload of them.
That would have been
happily doing it, doing so.
Derwin and his
buddy Kevin Gaines
were best friends
and running partners.
That's how Gaines
knew who I was.
I came through, Henderson
was a probationer of mine.
And I'd seen them one
night in Hollywood.
And remember, I had long hair,
driving a fucking Buick Regal,
and I see Henderson in
traffic and we stop,
I was going south,
he was going north.
He had another male black
in the car with him,
but I didn't pay
attention to that guy.
I was talking to Derwin.
We were partners,
and we were saying
hi to him and talking to him.
Turns out Gaines was with him,
they were running part, and
that's how Gaines knew me.
Reggie Wright and David Kenner
informed Mack and
Perez that they weren't
gonna pay for the
whole contract,
and therefore they not, they
had to do the bank robbery
to get the money to pay
Amir, 'cause Amir was
really upset about it, he
wasn't taking no for an answer.
You know, he wanted his money.
And the only recourse was for
Dave Mack and Raphael Perez
along with Sammy Martin
to do this bank robbery
to get the money to pay Amir,
which is the reason why
the money wasn't recovered.
Have you had any conversations
with Perez at all, either
over the phone or in person?
No.
No conversations
about what someone?
No.
How about with,
Sammy Martin, have you had
discussions with Sam Martin?
Over the phone, or.
No.
If a guy has all these
girlfriends or whatever, I mean,
I wouldn't want that
being in the paper on me,
you know, so what else...
What's your feeling about him
having a girlfriend
that's a dope dealer?
Well I think obviously
if that's true,
that's, you know, there's
a problem with that.
Okay, what's your
feeling about him
stealing three kilos of
cocaine out of the streets
and sus-ter-mans are
out of their property?
Right from the get-go,
detectives believed somehow
Death Row Records was involved.
Phil Carson was
committed to this case.
I mean, he had made a case.
He was ready to make arrests.
He was convinced that
Mack and Muhmammed,
and other LAPD officers
had been involved
in setting up Biggie's murder.
I mean, he was all
the way in on 'em.
He was ready to file,
but his superiors,
you know, basically blocked him,
and eventually took him off it.
Just like Kenneth Knox.
You know, he was right
there, ready to make a case.
He was told no.
So Carson basically, just
like Knox, to save his career,
backed off.
The first and most significant
informant in this case,
long before Poole or anybody
had heard of Amir Muhammed,
Mike Robinson.
He worked with the sheriffs
mostly, and the sheriffs
actually handed him over
to Poole and Miller.
But, and they said, you know,
this guy has made cases for us.
We've gotten murder convictions,
almost entirely based
on his, at least,
we wouldn't have gotten
them without him.
He said right away
that he knew the killer
was somebody named Amir or
Ashmir or something like that.
I've had cases
where I've had individuals
confess to a crime and I
go, no, you didn't do it.
I know you didn't do it, why
are you telling me you did it,
when I know you didn't do it?
It's well, it's
because their brother
did something to
somebody in a gang,
and the gang said, you gotta
make up for your brother,
so you gotta take the hit on
it, and they wouldn't relent.
They, they're actually
doing prison time
for something they didn't do.
Time and time again,
we have people who
have information.
They're put in a situation
that's manufactured
to make them look like nuts.
Now suddenly they're not
credible on the other side.
They're not nutty
about other things.
Board of Inquiries, they're
not nutty about Iranians
bringing in 60 kilos of cocaine.
They're not nuts about
any of these other things
that are going on.
They're cops, in some cases.
So I met Waymond.
And I started to talk with
Waymond, and meet with Waymond,
me and my partner, never alone,
and I can tell you that
he never, ever gave me
any bad information,
me or my partner.
One of the guys
that was from Marella's
law firm, he, actually, they
had my case up at Wilshire PD.
They told me if I did not do
what they were asking me to do,
they would switch my, they
had power to switch my case
into another courtroom,
which they did.
I have it to prove it to you.
Right after the deposition,
the guy who did the deposition
from Marella's law firm, I
think that's how you pronounce
the law firm.
Yeah, Marella.
Marella, whatever
they call themselves.
They sent the deposition within
four days to Chuck Phillips.
I never signed that deposition.
I never approved
that deposition.
But four days after I
cleared the deposition
when they were sending
it to the LA Times
to go to print with it,
I contacted Perry Sanders
and told him that I did
it under being threatened
and was duressed, and
I would never sign it.
I never, I never, ever.
They were bringing in me,
or sending me information.
You know, trying to
put words in my mouth
about other articles,
telling they wanted me
to go along with saying Perry
Sanders offered me money.
He never offered me any money.
That came from Don
Vincent's mouth.
And then he threatened my son.
Wow.
He told me I
would be put in the hole.
So, this whole thing came
from the city attorney,
they had a hard one
against Perry Sanders,
Mrs. Wallace, and
Christopher's estate.
They, they did not, they
did not like Perry Sanders,
they did not want them
to get over, they felt,
on the city of Los Angeles.
But suddenly when it
comes to matters of Death Row,
or it comes to matters
of Suge Knight,
or it comes to matters of
the Wallace investigation,
or LAPD corruption, these
guys are bonkers now.
Anybody with half a brain
can see what's going on here.
Let's suppose for a minute that
we say these guys aren't nuts.
Let's say we take at face value
what these guys had to say.
Before they were tampered with,
before they were threatened.
Before Chuck
Phillips got to them.
Probably gonna write this story
by the end of next week.
I just think that that would be.
I want to be able to bring
that up in the story,
but it would be much
better to bring it up
if you were part of it,
you know what I mean.
If you just would say,
hey, I would, I would.
I mean, you don't have to
say you can identify the guy,
all you have to say is
I would go to a lineup.
So, because they've
not even done that.
And they're trying to act
like they have done it,
you know what I mean, that
there's no reason to do it.
Yeah, you know.
Well, that's a question
that I'm not gonna answer,
Chuck, one way or another.
Before the LAPD got to them,
before they had an opportunity
to be dissuaded somehow.
We have been told
numerous times,
by numerous people,
including police officers,
that they're afraid
to come forward.
First we have to look
at what they said originally,
then we look at how
they were tampered with,
because this is
witness tampering.
Let's call it what it is.
These people had
reliable information.
They had a track record of
provable, reliable information.
They get tampered with.
Now all of a sudden
they're afraid to talk.
Their stories are changing.
They're not right
about certain facts
that they had been absolutely
concrete sure of before.
And how does that not stink?
And they wanted a gang expert.
'Cause there were some
gang issues in there,
and I was known, I've
been known and still am
as a gang expert in
the defense world also.
They called me, and I went
down and talked to 'em
about the case,
and told 'em yeah,
I'd be glad to work on it with
ya, and be more than happy.
So I got retained and
started working on it.
And got into it,
and found out that,
well, I don't understand
the gang issues,
there's no real gang
involvement in this.
And I'm basically there
as a police practices
expert at that time in court.
And so, they're having
discussion and testimony about,
you know, informants and things,
and Kading, and all that,
and he's up there and
testifying went on.
The defense calls me, and
I get on the witness stand,
and they're asking me.
And I says yeah, this is how
you deal with informants.
This is the department
protocol, and,
and there, you know,
there's a manual.
There wasn't when I was
on, but there is now.
And the judge turned over
and asked me, he says, well,
what is your assessment,
or how do you feel,
that Detective Kading
handling of these informants?
And I said he sounded like he
was totally out of control,
and totally out of
policy to me, Your Honor.
He just, he did not follow
the correct procedure.
And he goes, okay, and
then he, the judge told
the US Attorney that I want
to see the informant manual.
Well, there isn't
one, Your Honor.
Kading's telling the federal
prosecutor there
is no such thing.
But we know, we know there is.
And, he said, I want that manual
in my office in one hour.
And they went and got it.
And so that, basically,
put Kading in a real cross,
because he has testified
that there is no such thing,
and there was.
But the federal
prosecutor believed Kading
that there wasn't
anything, and there was.
And then you saw
exactly what I laid out,
as to how it's to be handled.
Well come to find out,
and I listened to a lot
of the tapes of him
and his informants.
Why he taped himself,
I'll never know.
Because he's promising
these guys houses and money,
and all these things,
I need you to say this,
I need you to say, and then
I have phone conversations
of the informant telling
other guys, yeah,
all I had to do, I have to
say this, this, and that,
I'm at 400 grand, I'm
gonna get a, you know,
a $500,000 home, I'm
gonna be living there,
I'm gonna be living
high on the hog,
I'm gonna be doing it bro,
and all this, and I'm like.
You can't promise
people, you can't.
You can't buy informants.
You can't offer them
anything for that.
You have to tell them that
I can't give you anything,
I have no authority
to give you anything...
Who would believe that?
If somebody, you're gonna
get half a million dollars
if you testify like that,
who would believe him anyway?
I mean, really, are
they that gullible?
Well, it was on tape.
You didn't have to believe
him, it was on tape.
That's why I don't understand
why he taped himself
when he visited
these guys alone.
He never had a partner with him,
and he never had a
witness or anything,
but he taped himself.
He even taped
himself on the phone,
and I just don't
understand the mentality
of someone that's a seasoned
officer or detective that
he knows they're taping this.
My understanding is is that when
the case was, almost all
the charges were dismissed.
There were some minor
bookkeeping things
the feds had on Torres, and he
got some real tiny conviction
on some housekeeping and
bookkeeping things or something,
everything else was dismissed.
The murder, the drugs, all
that stuff was all kicked out.
Was not guilty by
jury, and the judge
informed Kading that I
don't ever wanna know or see
or hear of you being in
a federal court building,
and you're never allowed
in my courtroom ever again.
And made mention to
the US Attorney that
he feels that they should
contact the department
and let them know what
had transpired here.
Were you around
when they said that?
Yeah.
You were there?
Yeah, and so.
That's all I know, and I
never saw or heard of Kading
again.
Right.
I've seen this with
other detectives at LAPD
on other cases in state court,
where they were caught in
a lie on the witness stand,
and the judge whitewashed
it as a, well,
they were just embellishing,
they weren't really lying.
And then when it gets
back to the department,
they slapped their
hand like, well,
you can't be in homicide
for three or four weeks,
and then he's right back in.
It's like nothing happens.
Like any public entity, they
don't want to take a hit
in public that puts the
reputation or anything
of the department down, and so.
It's a common practice
with just about anywhere.
They don't wanna take
that kind of hit,
you know, unless
they have to, like,
you know, the black eye
from Raphael Perez, where,
in my era, if I was caught
lying on the witness stand,
it would have been
the end of my career.
I would have been fired.
They wouldn't have whitewashed,
they would have fired me.
Because as that
point of you lying,
you are no longer any
use to the department
because you can not testify
on any case anymore.
You're not trustworthy anymore.
They can't use you anymore.
Because you've already lied
on the record in a courtroom,
and therefore you have
no credibility anymore,
so therefore they can't use you.
But, it seemed
like nobody cared.
You have to understand that
Greg Kading admitted in 2011
and several years after he
was off the police department,
that he personally had not
seen any of the evidence
that had been
presented in discovery.
Well, what was the
whole entire nature
of the Wallace lawsuit?
The entire nature of the
Wallace lawsuit was that
cops were involved, and that
David Mack was involved,
and that Raphael
Perez was involved,
and that Amir
Muhammed was involved.
That was the entire scope of
the Wallace investigation.
So if you're a detective
and you've seen nothing
that puts forward any new
evidence or any new information
to support that theory,
how in the world
can you say you've actually
investigated it at all?
If you do not include
box B, along with box A.
And explain everything
in those boxes,
of course, you're an
incompetent investigator, one.
Two, you're a
fraudulent investigator.
And, you've just disgraced
the law enforcement
code of ethics.
Greg Kading and
some other people that
he was affiliated with
put that letter online,
and then started
immediately saying,
oh, how ridiculous this is.
Oh, here goes R.J. Bond again.
But again, like I said, nobody
really has come back with,
other than, oh that's silly.
You haven't considered box
B, and the evidence in there.
That could refute and
change everything.
So your investigation
is not complete.
I've talked to
the US Attorneys out here
that had that Kading case, and
he's like, his name is mud.
It turns out a few months
after the Biggie Smalls killing,
that there was
actually a secret bid
auction for helicopters that the
Compton Police Department owned.
One of the bidders
on this secret bid,
that was a sealed bid,
was the city of Las Vegas.
Vegas has to be told to shut up.
They have to be hushed.
Because when they're gonna
get pinched in a corner,
the FBI rocks over
too many cases,
they're not gonna
be able to basically
contain what they believe
to be the truth about it,
and I think that was
always the veiled threat.
Hey, you push us too
hard, we're gonna
talk about the whole
stinking affair.
We know it exists.
Anybody with half a brain
can see what's going on here.
And if you really wanted
to go in that direction,
we can push it that way.
That's when Compton said, oh,
let's change our
tact a little bit.
Maybe we won't push so hard.
Maybe we won't say
you guys are dummies.
In fact, why don't we
give you something nice.
Why don't we treat you good.
Why don't we give you something
that you can turn
around and flip,
and make a little
bit of a profit on.
The City Council just
knew that the helicopters
were to be declared surplus.
The City Council has no
idea of what helicopters do,
and they're not in the
helicopter business,
so they wouldn't know how much
these helicopters were worth.
And so if you're gonna
give 'em away to Vegas,
give 'em away to Vegas,
sure, no problem.
How 'bout the helicopter?
That went to Vegas?
Man, I tell you, the
night of that meeting,
I'm getting sent the city
of Las Vegas' budget,
it's damn near a
billion dollars a year.
Our budget is 163 million.
And we selling
them a helicopter?
We had a four seat
jet helicopter,
it cost a million dollars.
And you're talking about
a helicopter?
Give me a break.
From the looks of it,
it doesn't appear
that that transaction
was actually sanctioned
in any kind of a
city council or budget meeting
in the city of Las Vegas.
Tell us what we're doing.
So, we're looking for records
of a helicopter transfer.
If there was an exchange
of a helicopter from
Compton PD to LVMPD, you're
never gonna find it in LVMPD.
You won't find it.
That, those documents
are destroyed,
and the tracking of
that money is just about
as hard to track
that money as it is
to the police
radio system money.
It's nonexistent anymore.
It's bought, it
stays off the books,
and no one has any idea that
this helicopter was purchased.
So, we hear that they
got this brand spankin' new
$50,000 helicopter engine, and,
they don't read the
instruction manual,
and they burn it up
right there on the pad,
so there's another $50,000
right out the door,
and it was right around
this same time frame.
I'm just wondering if there
was some kind of connection.
This wasn't a
grand conspiracy, but rather,
a few individuals that were
very good at gaming the system.
After Tupac was dead, and
having missed their opportunity
to kill Suge Knight, the
conspirators put him in prison
so they could rape and
plunder Death Row Records.
They were able to sell most
of their crimes leading up
to the murders as a gang
thing that was unsolvable.
When the narrative
didn't gain traction,
they elevated the narrative
by killing Biggie as an
East Coast/West Coast feud
that was equally unsolvable.
They sold this narrative
through Tim Brennan's affidavit.
And they sold it through Chuck
Phillips' LA Times articles.
As the truth began to
emerge in Biggie and Tupac,
and the Wallace civil trials,
they suppressed the
truth in the first trial,
and used Waymond Anderson
to sell the narrative
and derail the second trial.
To galvanize this narrative,
they used an ex-LAPD cop
to sell it, yet again.
They'll do anything
to obfuscate the truth
and sell you this
murder as unsolvable.
In spite of hundreds of
witnesses in very public places,
because they are still
gaming the system.
I don't take any criticism
of the Los Angeles
Police Department,
or any criticism against
law enforcement lightly.
Because my family
was a family of cops.
My grandfather was on the Los
Angeles Police Department.
My father was on the Los
Angeles Police Department.
I knew cops every day, and
it makes me sad to think that
these people that are involved
in these crimes have sullied
the reputation of great men
and women that are out there,
because there are a
lot of them out there.
The only way police
misconduct can occur is if it is
condoned and tolerated by
upper police management.
That's it, that's
the bottom line.
There were no
convictions as a result
of the Compton PD investigation.
There were no convictions
for the Tupac Shakur killing.
There were no convictions for
the Biggie Smalls killing.
There were no convictions for
the acts of very bad people.
And now the lack of conviction
and the lack of prosecution
against certain individuals
that we know did some
really bad things
are being used as a rationalization
and a justification
that they're
actually good people.
The reality is that Al Capone
was never charged with murder.
Al Capone was charged
with tax evasion.
Did it mean there weren't people
that were dead as a
result of Al Capone?
Yeah, there were.
But he was never
charged with murder.
And if that's gonna be our
rationale as a society,
well I didn't get caught,
so it must be okay.
Then we have a long way to go.
Do it the right way.
Reduced to three words.
Be high minded.
Three more words,
remain high minded.
That's the message I want
them giving to people.
Before, not after, they face
the first fork in the road.
Do I do the right thing today,
or do I go off the path?
And do I become corrupt today?