Authorities Under Pressure to Solve Notorious B.I.G.'s Murder Following Tupac Shakur Conviction

With a conviction for the 1996 murder of Tupac Shakur this week, pressure is mounting on authorities to find The Notorious B.I.G.'s killer. The Brooklyn rapper, born Christopher Wallace, was gunned down in a drive-by shooting on March 9, 1997, in Los Angeles; a murder widely believed to have been in revenge for killing Shakur. That case came to a conclusion when Duane “Keefe D” Davis was found guilty in a Las Vegas court last week of murder for ordering his cousin, Orlando Lane, to kill Shakur and then handing him a gun. Justin Tinsley, author of “Biggie and the World that Made Him,” stated, “The Tupac verdict doesn’t necessarily help solve Biggie’s murder, but it inevitably puts it under an intense microscope.” Both murders were gang-related, as Shakur was aligned with the Bloods street gang, while BIG’s manager, Sean “Diddy” Combs, has been alleged to have connections to their rivals, the Crips. Multiple theories over who killed Wallace abound, from rumors of involvement by off-duty LAPD officers to the killer being an associate of Shakur’s manager, Suge Knight. However, gangland lips are tightly sealed, and self-incrimination remains unlikely. Almost 30 years later, nobody has been charged in the killing. Tinsley noted, “What separates the two cases is that Biggie does not have a central figure who put himself inside the story [like] Keefe D. The police need somebody to corroborate evidence. Biggie needs his Keefe D moment.” Davis, who was a leader in the Crips, had his first brush with law enforcement when he was questioned by the LAPD about Wallace’s shooting. The drive-by took place outside the Petersen Automotive Museum on Wilshire Boulevard, where Wallace had just attended a party. A Chevrolet pulled up alongside the GMC Suburban he was riding in and opened fire, hitting him with four bullets. Former LAPD detective Greg Kading, who investigated both murders, stated that a woman, given the pseudonym “Theresa Swan,” told law enforcement about receiving orders to get an associate named Wardell “Poochie” Fouse to kill Biggie. Kading explained that they agreed on the amount of money Poochie was expecting, and the lone gunman, driving a green Impala, pulled up alongside Biggie and shot him. Randall Sullivan, in his books “Labyrinth” and “Dead Wrong,” suggested that members of the LAPD, some of whom were alleged to be on the payroll of Knight’s Death Row Records label, had a hand in it. Sullivan stated, “The most likely theory, which has not been proven to an absolute certainty, is that police officers working for Suge Knight coordinated the murder.” Knight has never been officially named a suspect or implicated in Wallace’s murder. In 2002, members of Wallace’s family sued the city of Los Angeles and members of the LAPD, claiming not enough was done to prevent Biggie’s death. Perry R. Sanders, Jr., who represented Wallace’s late mother, stated that evidence was found in the lead detective’s desk drawer that implicated police involvement. The judge declared a mistrial, making them pay seven figures in attorney fees. In 2007, another suit was filed which contended former police officers were involved in the shooting, but that case was dismissed. Alleged gunman Poochie was killed in a drive-by in 2003. Kading, Tinsley, and Sullivan agree that it is unlikely the murder of Wallace was a one-man operation. Tinsley noted, “To kill somebody like Biggie [who had Crips bodyguards], you would need what is called a spotter.” Some conspiratorial thinking about the murder has suggested Diddy knows more than he has let on. Gene Deal, a former bodyguard to Diddy, addressed rumors about his boss, stating that Diddy was acting anxious the week Biggie was murdered. However, Deal did not offer any explanation for why Diddy would be involved in the death of his close friend. Diddy has denied any involvement, stating, “I was not involved in the murder of Christopher Wallace [Biggie Smalls].” Kading expressed hope for a death-bed confession or a resetting of someone’s conscience, stating, “There’s going to have to be some rock-hard evidence brought forward.” Tinsley added, “But the encouraging thing about the Tupac verdict is that it proves these cases are never too old to pursue.”