FBI releases hundreds of pages on Notorious B.I.G. murder investigation

Asking any fan or rap impresario who killed the Notorious B.I.G. is a question that undoubtedly yields countless guesses.

Since the rapper’s controversial -- and still unsolved -- killing in 1997 after leaving a Los Angeles music party, conspiracy theories have swirled about his death, fueled among other things by the fact that his death closely mirrored that of one time friend and believed rival Tupac Shakur months earlier.

The FBI has released hundreds of pages of files from its investigation into the murder of the Notorious B.I.G., a.k.a. Biggie Smalls. The records come from a civil rights probe the bureau launched into the killing.

The 359-page document, which you can read here, is heavily redacted, which should reopen the dialogue for the countless conspiracy theorists who have long held that the Brooklyn-bred rapper’s death was covered up.

The family of the rapper, born Christopher Wallace, filed a wrongful-death suit against the city of Los Angeles in 2002,  accusing officials of covering up police involvement; the family had alleged that corrupt LAPD officers were involved in Wallace's slaying, a claim the city has denied. A federal judge dismissed the suit last year.

Read more at L.A. Now.

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Read the FBI documents on Biggie Smalls

-- Gerrick D. Kennedy

twitter.com/gerrickkennedy

Photo: The 1997 shooting death of Christopher "Notorious B.I.G." Wallace, shown receiving an award in 1995, remains unsolved. Credit: Mark Lennihan /Associated Press

Comments

[Iball1960]

Lets see, we have an unsolved murder from 1997 involving a black rapper and there is no reward that I am aware of and a white Giants fan get beating over the weekend and there is 100,000 dollar reward out for those guys that did this. Makes you think

[Alex]

Amen to Iball1960.

[Joe]

Yay! A 14-year-old murder mystery! It's like a Rocky and Bullwinkle ending: "Will the police solve it today? Or will the whole world think all FBI are a bunch of white, racist pigs until they put some guy behind bars, even if it's the wrong person?"