Then along came Biggie and Ready To Die.
The three hit singles from the album - “Juicy,” “Big Poppa,” and the remix of “One More Chance” - had huge commercial appeal. Each sampled recognizable R&B songs and Biggie’s flow over the tracks was undeniable and irresistibly appealing.
Ready To Die established Biggie as a king of sorts and, once again, thanks to him, fans of hip-hop were looking, in the words of Professor X from the militantly Afrocentric group X Clan, “to the east, my brother, to the east,” from whence the music and the culture had originated.
***
The Source magazine made it official in July of 1995 when Biggie appeared on the cover of their magazine with the heading, “The King of New York Takes Over.” East coast rap was back with a fierceness as Puffy and Bad Boy Records firmly planted its feet with the hit-making Biggie leading the way. Biggie was feted with awards, including Billboard and at the Source Awards show.
He and Tupac had shared a close friendship until the shooting incident at Quad Recording Studios in November 1994. The so-called East Coast/West Coast war was in full effect after this. Many have said this war was a contrivance that was overblown by the media for hype, record sales, and an assortment of other reasons, but Tim and Bob saw many things happening in the streets that certainly looked like the war was real.
After Tupac’s murder and the initial attacks in Compton made in retaliation, talk of retaliation directed at the east coast also bubbled up.
The affidavit Tim had written in relation to the Tupac murder became relevant and began being talked about in news reports across the country. They particularly focused on the beginning of the affidavit, which stated:
There is also an ongoing feud between Tupac Shakur and the “blood” related “Death Row Records” with rapper “Biggie Small” (sic) and the East Coast’s “Bad Boy Records” which employed “SOUTHSIDE CRIPS” (sic) gang members as security.
Tupac’s murder was still top of mind for many of the attendees of the 11th Annual Soul Train Awards, which took place in Los Angeles at the Shrine Auditorium on March 7, 1997, six months to the day after Tupac had been mortally shot in Las Vegas. Tupac’s All Eyez on Me even won that night in the category “R&B/Soul or Rap Album Of The Year.”
No one, outside of those who perpetrated the crime, could anticipate what happened next.
The following night, on March 8th, there was an after-party at the Petersen Automotive Museum. Many music industry insiders and rap and R&B artists attended the event, including Bad Boy’s Puffy Combs and Biggie and representatives from Death Row Records. Suge Knight, who was incarcerated at the time, was noticeably absent. There were also several South Side Crips in attendance, as well as Bloods.
Biggie and Combs and their entourage remained at the party until after midnight, leaving somewhere around 12:30 a.m. They loaded into two brand new SUVs - GMC Suburbans - and several other vehicles. Biggie was in one of the Suburbans.
A dark green, possibly black, Chevy Impala SS pulled up next to the SUV with Biggie inside. The lone occupant, a man dressed in black Islamic garb, opened fire on the SUV with a 9mm handgun.
Four bullets hit Biggie, who would die a short time later from his mortal wounds at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center at 1:15 a.m.
At the time of the shooting, several on- and off-duty police had been present. Hundreds of fans had also been nearby. Somehow, not one of them managed to get the license number of the Impala as the gunman escaped into the night.
***
Tim, Bob, and the Compton gang unit met with Los Angeles detectives to discuss the murder. The L.A.P.D. had over twenty detectives assigned to investigate the case.
When Tim and Bob went to work the following Monday, March 10th, L.A.P.D. Detectives, Dave Martin and Steve Katz were waiting to speak to them. Tim and Bob had already spoken to informants who’d told them Biggie had been seen in Compton on March 8th, the day of the party at the Petersen Automotive Museum. He was spotted hanging with South Side Crips at South Park, the neighborhood park the gang members frequented. Another informant said Biggie had attended a celebrity basketball game at California State, Dominguez Hills in Carson, a city right next to Compton. They’d also received anonymous info that Biggie had been killed over a debt he owed South Side Crips for security work they’d done in the past, and/or possibly for the South Side Crips murdering Tupac on his behalf.
Reward poster for information about the murder of the Notorious B.I.G.
When Tim and Bob spoke with L.A.P.D. detectives Martin and Katz, they learned there were three possible theories that were being investigated. Those three theories were nearly identical to the theories about the reason behind the murder of Tupac:
Theory #1 - Biggie was killed because of a falling out with South Side Crip members.
Theory #2 - Biggie was killed by Death Row Records people in retaliation for the murder of Tupac Shakur.
Theory #3 - Biggie was killed by people at Bad Boy Records as a way to skyrocket sales of his music.
The last theory, with Puffy being behind Biggie’s shooting, mirrored the one that had emerged during the Tupac investigation suggesting Suge Knight as the culprit. The release of Biggie’s new album, Life After Death, just sixteen days after his murder, further fanned the flames of this theory as a possibility, especially since the album featured him leaning against a hearse and went straight to number one on Billboard within a week of its release and remained at the top of the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart for four weeks.
Tim and Bob shared with the L.A.P.D. detectives the intel their informants had provided and presented a copy of the search warrant affidavit they’d done after Tupac’s murder that contained the paragraph about the feud between Tupac Shakur/Death Row Records and Biggie/Bad Boy Records that had been all over the news and was now being seen as prophetic. Biggie and Bad Boy Records had used South Side Crips as security. Death Row Records had security provided by Pirus. It was East Coast rap versus West Coast rap. Bad Boy Records versus Death Row Records. Puffy Combs versus Suge Knight. Biggie versus Tupac. Crips versus Bloods.
The L.A.P.D. detectives had a list of nicknames they’d come up with based on the various clues they had regarding Biggie’s murder. Tim and Bob went over the list and provided the real names of the individuals. Most were for South Side Crips who were members of the Burris Street Crew that included Duane Keith “Keefe D” Davis, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, Michael “Lil Owl” Dorrough, Deandre “Dre” Smith, Terrence “T-Brown” Brown (aka “Bubble Up”), Wendell “Wynn” Prince, and Corey Edwards. Tim and Bob gave the detectives photos and other information.
As they met with the L.A.P.D. detectives over the next several weeks, an interesting development was simultaneously happening in South Side Crip territory. A violent internal feud erupted between two factions of the South Side Crips - the Burris Street Crew and the Glencoe set - leaving several people wounded and some dead.
Once more, just like after Tupac was shot in Vegas and died a few days later, war broke out on the streets of Compton in the wake of another high-profile hip-hop murder.
Tim and Detective Martin from L.A.P.D. met with an informant from the South Side Crips who outlined a connection between South Side Crip members and Biggie that went back to a Jodeci concert two years earlier where Keefe D, Orlando Anderson, and others had offered to provide security for the rapper when he was on the west coast. According to the informant, Biggie had agreed to this arrangement. The South Side Crips had been introduced to Biggie and Combs by a New-York-based drug dealer named Eric Martin, aka “Zip,” who had connections to both Bad Boy Records and South Side Crip members. Zip had done drug business with the South Side Crips for nearly a decade. He was also the godfather of Biggie’s son with Faith Evans. Faith, in her statement to the police in the months after Biggie’s murder, identified Zip as someone who worked for Combs. Zip was identified in the statement under the name Equan Williams.
In the years that followed after Biggie allegedly a
greed to the arrangement with the South Side Crips, they provided security for the rapper whenever he was in town.
***
Tim and Bob reviewed a videotape that a patron of the after-party at the Petersen Automotive Museum had made outside on the night of Biggie’s shooting. The L.A.P.D. had retrieved it from someone in Texas. The tape showed events which occurred around the time of the shooting, but Tim and Bob were unable to make any identifications from it.
The L.A.P.D. gave them copies of sketches made of the gunman, along with a description of the dark green or black Chevy Impala SS which had been rarely seen in Compton.
Tim and Bob, however, had seen and stopped three of these very vehicles around this time. One was a black SS they had seen on several occasions driven by Tony Lane, a Tree Top Piru whom they’d arrested many times in the past for drug violations. Lane had grown up with DJ Quik and several members of Death Row. He was a well-known top level drug supplier in Compton.
Another SS they had seen was a black car that had been converted from a Caprice. It was owned and driven by a man named Ian Salaveria, aka “Lil Spank,” who was a member of the South Side Crips. Tim and Bob had arrested Lil Spank several times in the past for things like weapon and murder charges. Salaveria had been with Darnell Brim, the OG South Side Crip and shot caller, when Brim was shot in the back in what was considered the first retaliatory response in Compton in the wake of the Tupac shooting in Vegas.
The third and most interesting Impala SS Tim and Bob had seen about town was new, black, and owned by Keefe D. They were told by informants that the vehicle was currently under a car cover in the backyard of Keefe D’s girlfriend’s house and that it hadn’t been driven since the night of Biggie’s murder.
Tim and Bob knew Keefe D well, of course, most recently in regard to the Tupac case. Since their first encounters with Keefe D in the eighties, they had watched him evolve from a small-time dealer to an interstate trafficker of large amounts of drugs.
The internal feud between the Burris Street Crew and Glencoe set - both factions within the South Side Crips - was going full throttle as Tim was about to write another South Side Crip search warrant affidavit like he’d done for the Tupac murder investigation. His plan was to include Keefe D’s residence and his girlfriend’s house as locations to be searched.
Tim’s multi-location warrants were served at six a.m. on May 25, 1997. The lead investigators in the Biggie murder case - Russell Poole and Fred Miller - were assigned to accompany Compton police officers to the home of Keefe D’s girlfriend at 1524 South California Avenue. This was supposedly where Keefe D’s black Chevy Impala SS was stashed in the backyard underneath a car cover.
Several arrests were made for weapons, narcotics violations, and murder at the various locations where the warrants were served. Significantly, Keefe D’s black Impala SS was, in fact, found in his girlfriend’s backyard under a car cover, just as Tim and Bob’s informants had said. The vehicle was impounded by L.A.P.D.
Keefe D retained Edi Faal, the same attorney who had been retained by his nephew, Orlando Anderson after Tupac’s murder. Faal had successfully represented Damien “Football” Williams, an 8-Tray Gangster Crip who was one of the suspects accused of beating Reginald Denny in the wake of the verdict in the Rodney King case in 1992.
***
Over the next few months, several South Side Crips were interviewed by L.A.P.D., with many admitting that they knew Biggie and had spoken to him on the night of his murder. All of them denied having any involvement. Several months into the investigation, the L.A.P.D. detectives investigating the South Side Crips connection contacted Tim and Bob saying they’d made several links between Biggie, the South Side Crips, and drug dealers on both the east and west coasts. They had spoken to Keefe D, Orlando Anderson, Deandre Smith and others, and knew they had been present at the Petersen Automotive Museum on the night of Biggie’s murder.
The L.A.P.D. detectives believed the South Side Crips needed to be investigated further, but Russell Poole, one of the lead detectives, believed the only true theory was that Death Row and its associates, including off-duty L.A.P.D. officers, were behind the murder. Poole wanted no further investigation of the South Side Crips.
One of the L.A.P.D. detectives told Tim and Bob that Poole had several conspiracy theories that seemed far-fetched. Poole retired from the L.A.P.D. in protest in 1999 after being ordered to stop investigating his theory of Death Row being behind the murder of Biggie.
In August 2015, as Russell Poole was meeting at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department with homicide detectives to further address the Tupac and Biggie murder cases, he died suddenly from what appeared to be a heart attack.[34]
***
In 2011, L.A.P.D. Detective Greg Kading published Murder Rap: The Untold Story of the Biggie Smalls & Tupac Shakur Murder Investigations. The book covered Kading’s work on the Biggie Smalls task force that was created in 2006. Tim was also a part of the task force.
Wardell “Poochie” Fouse
Kading asserted in his book that Suge Knight’s girlfriend (referred to in the book as “Theresa Swann”), among others, had suggested that Knight paid Compton mob enforcer Wardell Fouse, aka “Poochie,” thirteen thousand dollars to shoot Biggie.
***
Both Tupac and Biggie’s investigations had been stalled. Suge Knight was in prison serving a nine-year term for probation violation. Orlando Anderson was suing Suge, Death Row Records, and Tupac’s estate for assaulting him in Las Vegas. In turn, Tupac’s mother Afeni Shakur was suing Orlando Anderson for the wrongful death of her son.
Tim and Bob continued to talk with various informants about the murders of Tupac and Biggie, as well as murders involving Death Row. They gathered years of intelligence, only to have their efforts abruptly halted before they could complete their investigations. Both firmly believe that if they’d been allowed to continue, they would have produced more evidence on the murderers involved in these cases.
17
THE COLLAPSE OF DEATH ROW
During all of these things - the murders of Tupac in 1996 and Biggie in 1997 - Death Row records was still standing, even though its CEO, Suge Knight, was behind bars.
There had been rumors over the years of Suge and his entourage threatening and strong-arming others in business. Accounts of their tactics were legendary, from the controversy around how Suge freed Dr. Dre from his contract with Eazy-E to him getting Robert Matthew Van Winkle, aka rapper Vanilla Ice, to sign over lucrative points for his song “Ice Ice Baby” to a man whom, per Winkle, had no involvement with the song whatsoever.
Suge’s MOB Piru entourage included the McDonald brothers (Buntry, Mob James, and Timmy Ru), and alleged enforcers George Williams and Wardell “Poochie” Fouse.
There were several murders in Compton in the nineties related to Death Row and, over time, the tables turned as several people had vendettas against Suge and began to go after him.
In 1995, a man known as Rat, a member of the Bounty Hunters Bloods from Nickerson Gardens, allegedly crossed Suge and was killed in a barrage of gunfire on Central and 134th. Tim and Bob arrived on the scene and found Rat dead, AK-47 casings everywhere. In short order, their informants were saying two of Suge’s enforcers were possibly involved in the shooting.
One of the suspects had grown up in MOB Piru territory in Compton not far from Suge. He never wanted involvement with the police and always kept a low profile. He didn’t hang out in the streets. Tim and Bob knew he was a gang member with a deadly reputation, but their contact with him had been limited. They had arrested him twice for murder, but both times he had beat the cases. The suspect’s name came up often when murder was involved, but he was smart in that, for whatever reason, there were never any witnesses.
That same suspect’s name came up in another murder in Nickerson Gardens. A Compton gang member named Smoothie had been found dead with gang writing carved into his chest. Smoothie had allegedly been murdered for being suspected of killi
ng the brother of Marcus Nunn, a leader of the prison-based United Blood Nation (UBN). Per a witness interviewed by the Compton police, Nunn allegedly contacted Suge to have Smoothie killed.
During Suge’s time in prison in the nineties and after, it was rumored that he was protected by leaders of the United Blood Nation.
***
George Williams, one of Suge's enforcers, and Suge eventually had their own falling out, set in motion one Sunday during a Death Row picnic and Piru gathering at Gonzales Park in Compton. Williams told people that a close associate of Suge's - a man named Aaron Palmer, aka “Heron” - had shot at him and tried to kill him. Per one witness, George Williams, Wardell Fouse, and two other gang members followed Palmer from the picnic.
Palmer was in a car with a man named Allen Jordan, aka Wack II. Wack II had also been a witness to Tupac’s murder. As Palmer was blocked by traffic, two men in Williams’ car jumped out at a major intersection armed with automatic weapons and opened fire on Palmer, who was killed on the spot. It was a bold action that took place in broad daylight in front of several witnesses, including a Compton Fire Department unit.
Neither Williams nor Fouse were ever tried for Palmer’s murder. One of the passengers in their car, a man named Roderick Stiggers, was the only person convicted of Palmer’s murder. The rest would continue to play big parts in other Compton murders that followed.
Once Upon A Time in Compton Page 22