Murder of the Notorious B.I.G.

Christopher Wallace traveled to Los Angeles, California in February 1997 to promote his upcoming second studio album, Life After Death, and to film a music video for its lead single, "Hypnotize". On March 5, he gave a radio interview with The Dog House on San Francisco's KYLD, in which he stated that he had hired security because he feared for his safety. Wallace cited not only the ongoing East Coast–West Coast hip hop feud and the murder of Tupac Shakur six months prior, but his role as a high-profile celebrity in general, as his reasons for the decision.[2] Life After Death was scheduled for release on March 25, 1997.

On March 7, Wallace presented an award to Toni Braxton at the 1997 Soul Train Music Awards in Los Angeles and was booed by some of the audience.[3] The following evening, March 8, he attended an after-party hosted by Vibe magazine and Qwest Records at the Petersen Automotive Museum in West Los Angeles.[3] Other guests included Faith Evans, Aaliyah, Sean Combs, and members of the Bloods and Crips gangs.[4]

On March 9, 1997, at 12:30 a.m. (PST), Wallace left with his entourage in two Chevrolet Suburbans to return to his hotel after the Los Angeles Fire Department closed the party early because of overcrowding.[5] Wallace traveled in the front passenger seat alongside his associates Damion "D-Roc" Butler, Junior M.A.F.I.A. member Lil' Cease, and driver Gregory "G-Money" Young. Combs traveled in the other vehicle with three bodyguards. The two SUVs were trailed by a Chevrolet Blazer carrying Bad Boy Records' director of security.[4]

By 12:45 a.m. (PST), the streets were crowded with people leaving the event. Wallace's SUV stopped at a red light on the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and South Fairfax Avenue[6] just 50 yards (46 m) from the museum. A dark-colored 1994-1996 Chevrolet Impala SS pulled up alongside Wallace's SUV. The driver of the Impala, a black male, rolled down his window, drew a 9 mm blue-steel pistol and fired at the Suburban; four bullets hit Wallace.[4] Wallace's entourage rushed him to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where doctors performed an emergency thoracotomy, but he was pronounced dead at 1:15 a.m. (PST). He was 24 years old.

His autopsy report was released to the public in December 2012, fifteen years after his death. According to the report, three of the four shots were not fatal. The first bullet hit his left forearm and traveled down to his wrist; the second hit him in the back, missing all vital organs, and exited through his left shoulder; and the third hit his left thigh and exited through his inner thigh. The report said that the third bullet struck "the left side of the scrotum, causing a very shallow, ³⁄₈ inch [10 mm] linear laceration." The fourth bullet was fatal, entering through his right hip and striking several vital organs, including his colon, liver, heart, and the upper lobe of his left lung, before stopping in his left shoulder area.[7]

Wallace's death was mourned by fellow hip hop artists and fans worldwide. Rapper Nas felt at the time that Wallace's death, along with that of Tupac Shakur, "was nearly the end of rap."[8]

Immediately following the shooting, reports surfaced linking Wallace's murder with that of Shakur six months earlier, due to similarities in the drive-by shootings and the highly publicized East Coast–West Coast hip hop feud, of which Shakur and Wallace had been central figures.[9] Media reports had previously speculated that Wallace was in some way connected to Shakur's murder, though no evidence ever surfaced to seriously implicate him. Shortly after Wallace's death, Los Angeles Times writers Chuck Philips and Matt Lait reported that the key suspect in his murder was a member of the Southside Crips acting out of a personal financial motive, rather than on the gang's behalf.[10] The investigation stalled, however, and no one was ever formally charged.

In a 2002 book by Randall Sullivan, called LAbyrinth, information was compiled about the murders of Wallace and Shakur based on information provided by retired LAPD detective Russell Poole.[4][11] In the book, Sullivan accused Suge Knight, co-founder of Death Row Records and a known Bloods affiliate, of conspiring with corrupt LAPD officer David Mack to kill Wallace and make both deaths appear to be the result of the rap rivalry.[12][13] The book stated that one of Mack's alleged associates, Amir Muhammad, was the hitman who killed Wallace. The theory was based on evidence provided by an informant[14] and the general resemblance of Muhammad to the facial composite generated during the investigation.[12][13] In 2002, filmmaker Nick Broomfield released a documentary, Biggie & Tupac, based on information from the book.[11] The New York Times described Broomfield's documentary as a "largely speculative" and "circumstantial" account relying on flimsy evidence, failing to "present counter-evidence" or "question sources."[15] Moreover, the motive suggested for the murder of Wallace in the documentary—to decrease suspicion for the Shakur shooting six months earlier—was, as The New York Times put it, "unsupported in the film."[15]

An article published in Rolling Stone by Sullivan in December 2005 accused the LAPD of not fully investigating links with Death Row Records based on Poole's evidence. Sullivan claimed that Combs "failed to fully cooperate with the investigation", and according to Poole, encouraged Bad Boy staff to do the same.[4] The accuracy of the article was later challenged in a letter by the Assistant Managing Editor of the Los Angeles Times, who accused Sullivan of using "shoddy tactics." Sullivan, in response, quoted the lead attorney of the Wallace estate calling the newspaper "a co-conspirator in the cover-up."[16] In alluding to Sullivan and Poole's theory that formed the basis of the Wallace family's dismissed $500 million lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles, The New York Times wrote: "A cottage industry of criminal speculation has sprung up around the case, with documentaries, books and a stream of lurid magazine articles implicating gangs, crooked cops and a cross-country rap rivalry,"[17] noting that everything associated with Wallace's death had been "big business." More recently, the film City of Lies was produced based on Poole's investigation and Sullivan's book: LAbyrinth, and casts Johnny Depp as Poole.[18]

The Los Angeles Times printed conflicting theories of the murder in different sections of the paper. The Metro section of the Times reported that police suspected a connection between Wallace's death and the Rampart police corruption scandal, consistent with Sullivan and Poole's theory.[19] The Metro section also ran a photo of Muhammad, identified by police as a mortgage broker unconnected to the murder who appeared to match details of the shooter, printing his name and driver's license. However Chuck Philips, a staff writer for the Business section of the Times who had been following the investigation and had not heard of the Rampart–Muhammad theory, searched for Muhammad, whom the Metro reporters could not find for comment. It took Philips only three days to find Muhammad, who had a current ad for his brokerage business running in the Times. Muhammad, who was not an official suspect at the time, came forward to clear his name. The Metro section of the paper was opposed to running a retraction, but the business desk editor, Mark Saylor,[20] said, "Chuck is sort of the world's authority on rap violence" and pushed, along with Philips, for the Times to retract the article.[19]

The May 2000 Los Angeles Times correction article was written by Philips, who quoted Muhammad as saying, "I'm a mortgage broker, not a murderer" and asking, "How can something so completely false end up on the front page of a major newspaper?"[21] The story cleared Muhammad's name.[19][22] A later 2005 story by Philips showed that the main informant for the Poole-Sullivan theory was a schizophrenic with admitted memory lapses known as "Psycho Mike" who confessed to hearsay.[23] John Cook of Brill's Content noted that Philips' article "demolished"[22] the Poole-Sullivan theory of Wallace's murder.

In the 2000 book The Murder of Biggie Smalls, investigative journalist and author Cathy Scott suggested that Wallace and Shakur's murders might have been the result of the East Coast–West Coast feud and motivated by financial gain for the record companies, because the rappers were worth more dead than alive.[24]

The criminal investigation into Wallace's murder was re-opened in July 2006 to look for new evidence to help the city defend the civil lawsuits brought by the Wallace family.[25][26] Retired LAPD detective Greg Kading, who worked for three years on a gang task force that included the Wallace case, alleges that the rapper was shot by Wardell "Poochie" Fouse, a Mob Piru gang member and an associate of Knight, who died on July 24, 2003, after being shot in the back while riding his motorcycle in Compton. Kading believes Suge Knight hired Poochie via his girlfriend, "Theresa Swann," to kill Wallace to avenge the death of Shakur,[27] who, Kading alleges, was killed under the orders of Sean Combs.[28]

In December 2012, the LAPD released the autopsy results conducted on Wallace's body to generate new leads. The release was criticized by the long-time lawyer of his estate, Perry Sanders Jr., who objected to an autopsy.[29] The case remains officially unsolved.

• List of unsolved deaths
• Murder of Tupac Shakur