Politics
Prime suspect in murder of Notorious B.I.G may NOT have killed him, according to leaked interview from jail snitch
A PRIME suspect in the murder of Biggie Smalls may not have killed him as key evidence is based on weak testimony from a jailhouse snitch, it has been claimed.
The Notorious B.I.G was gunned down in a drive-by shooting aged just 24 as he left a party on March 9, 1997, in Los Angeles, California.
Biggie Smalls murder has remained unsolved since he was gunned down in 1997[/caption]
Despite constant speculation and rumour, the shooter has never been found and the crime remains unsolved some 24 years on – with the LAPD keeping the case open.
Amir Muhammad, also known as Harry Billups, a Nation of Islam convert, has been identified by many as the prime suspect in the murder of Biggie.
However, leaked recordings expose Muhammad’s links to the case are based on seemingly weak testimony from jailhouse informant Michael “Psycho Mike” Robinson.
LAPD detective Russell Poole implicated Muhammad following the interview.
And this element of the case is featured in the plot of upcoming Johnny Depp movie City of Lies.
Poole, who died in 2015, claimed Robinson identified Muhammad, who was linked to corrupt LAPD officer David Mack, who was in turn claimed to have been on the payroll of rival record boss Suge Knight.
Leaked audio recordings of Robinson’s interview however show him stumbling through the grilling, getting key details about the shooting wrong, and not even naming fully Muhammad.
Biggie expert and respected filmmaker Mike Dorsey told The Sun Online that Poole’s theory entirely rests on Robinson’s testimony, and if this crumbles, his case crumbles.
Mr Dorsey said: “All Poole took from the nearly hour-long interview with Robinson was a single first name – one of five that Robinson offered up as guesses.
“Poole then attached that to a random person with that same first name because they visited a cop in prison who’d robbed a bank, who they’d been friends with in college.
“To me, leaving out everything else Robinson said that didn’t match the guy Poole wanted to go after is lying by omission.
“And then Poole spent the rest of his life trying to make that guy and his friend the killers.”
Audio tapes show Robinson, a self-confessed schizophrenic convicted murderer, failing to properly identify Muhammad and see him being seemingly helped along in the interview.
Michael ‘Psycho Mike’ Robinson was a prime source for identifying Amir Muhammad[/caption]
At first Robinson could not even remember Muhammad’s first name – despite claiming they had known each other for years in Compton.
When asked about who killed Biggie, he stumbled across several names… “Abraham… An Arab name.”
Even when a detective reminds him: “You told me yesterday the name of Amir.”, but Robinson failed to settle then: “Ashmir or Amir. It’s an Arab name.”
He also doesn’t give the last name “Muhammad.”
Later in the conversation more questions are raised when Robinson, who claimed he knew his Biggie assassin for “five or 10 years”, added he was: “29 or 30, about 6ft 1in maybe 6ft 2in. Male, black.,,about 220, 230 pounds.”
However that description did not represent Muhammad – who was 5ft 11in, 180 pounds, medium sized, and was aged 37 at the time.
Robinson also insisted that Muhammad grew up in the South Side Crips’ neighborhood in Compton .
However Muhammad, grew up in Virginia and went to college in Oregon and was married and living in the San Diego area, working as a mortgage broker
Biggie Smalls was shot – but its been speculated the target of the gunman was actually P. Diddy[/caption]
Biggie Smalls was shot four times – with only one of them being fatal[/caption]
What happened to Biggie Smalls?
BIGGIE Smalls was born in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, New York on May 21, 1972.
The rapper, whose real name was Christopher George Latore Wallace, was signed to Sean “Diddy” Combs’ Bad Boy Records when it first launched in 1993.
His debut album Ready To Die was met with widespread critical acclaim and included singles like Juicy, Big Poppa and One More Chance.
His music was often semi-autobiographical, rapping about hardship and criminality, but also celebration.
In 1996, Biggie was entangled in the escalating East Coast-West Coast hip hop feud.
Former friends Biggie and Tupac Shakur were at the heart of a rap war – fuelled by jealousy and brutal diss tracks.
Following the death of Tupac in September 1996, Biggie was accused of being involved in his shooting.
Biggie was then murdered in similar circumstance six months later on March 9, 1997, in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles.
He was 24 at the time of his death.
The driver of a dark Chevrolet Impala SS, dressed in a suit and bow tie, pulled up alongside Notorious B.I.G’s SUV at a red traffic light at 12.45am and began shooting at the rapper’s car.
Biggie was shot four times, and died in hospital at 1.15am.
His second album, Life After Death, was released two weeks later and reached number one on the Billboard 200 – and eventually achieved a Diamond certification in the US.
Dorsey argues another problem in holding Robinson as a credible witness in the Biggie case was that he actually knew little about the rap icon’s murder outside the Petersen Museum in LA.
Robinson claimed “I heard he was shot by a machine gun” by an assassin on foot and then says the killer “ran away around the corner” hopping into a limo or truck.
Biggie was killed by a semi automatic gun by a gang member driving a sedan.
Dorsey argues against Poole’s theory with his takeaways from the Robinson tape – which he released as part of his YouTube investigation show DEEP DIVE: How the Michael Robinson Tape Exposes Russell Poole’s Biggie Theory.
Without Michael Robinson’s statement in 1997, Russell Poole’s theory never exists.
Mike Dorsey
He said: “Wow, a man was accused of murder over this? A man’s life was nearly ruined over that? This has to be one of the shakiest witness IDs in the history of law enforcement.
“It’s clear to me that Poole’s star witness who started this whole thing clearly doesn’t really know the guy’s name.”
Dorsey feels that Robinson was trying to get favors for giving detectives information – given the raft of other inmates all volunteered information about the Biggie murder to LAPD.
Dorsey added: “Michael Robinson never knew a killer named Amir. He was just repeating another random name that was floating around out there and that’s why he couldn’t remember the name at the top of the interview.
“It’s not something he lived.”
Johnny Depp plays LAPD detective Russell Poole in upcoming film City of Lies[/caption]
Alongside the City Of Lies’ release, Muhammad has been pinpointed as Biggie’s assassin by a retired FBI agent Phil Carson and film producer Don Sikorski.
“All the evidence points to Amir Muhammad,” Carson told The New York Post.
“He’s the one who pulled the trigger. There were plenty of others who helped orchestrate it [and] allowed him to pull the trigger.”
And the publication reported it had obtained a 2003 FBI report which also outlined a potential case against Muhammad.
Most read in News
However, Dorsey told The Sun Online the whole case against Muhammad is based on the faulty premise of Robinson’s interview.
“Without Michael Robinson’s statement in 1997, Russell Poole’s theory never exists. That statement started the ball rolling,” he said.
He added: “I know there are people who support Russell Poole who aren’t going to like this, but I’m showing you the actual evidence that his theory is based on, so don’t shoot the messenger.
“This is who he relied on.”
Here is the full explanation by Mike Dorsey of the Robinson interview ‘flaws and consistencies” on his YouTube series.
