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