Showing posts with label Biggie Smalls. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Biggie Smalls. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Can Suge Knight Get a Fair Trial


by Michael Douglas Carlin

Suge Knight was targeted in 1996 at the shooting of Tupac Shakur (Knight was also in the car) and he has been targeted ever since. 1Oak’s video surveillance reveals that the shooters who shot Suge Knight on August 24th, 2014 specifically were looking to kill Suge Knight. According to Keith Middlebrook, a witness of the shooting, the shooters yelled, “You killed Tupac,” as they shot Suge Knight. Suge Knight had every reason to fear his life was in jeopardy… but why?

Both the murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls have been blamed on Suge Knight. His reputation was based upon rumors that Suge allowed to grow over time that he was a thug that kills some people and intimidates others. Suge obtained legendary status in the music industry – an industry known for corruption.

Suge Knight accomplished something no one else ever could building a record label from scratch with Bloods and Crips coexisting. How long could he keep the peace? His overblown reputation was one of the keys to him being able to keep the peace. The artists were all gangsters creating gangster rap and Suge Knight kept them all working in spite of deep rooted differences. Suge Knight occasionally pistol whipped someone that got out of line and he ruled with an iron fist. He had no choice but the results speak for themselves.

Suge drove sales into the hundreds of millions of dollars and built a record label that was worth over $500,000,000. The Chronic, Doggystyle, Dogg Food, All Eyez on Me, The Don Killuminati, Death Row Greatest Hits, Above the Rim, Murder Was the Case, Gridlock’d, and Gang Related were all albums released by Suge Knight’s Death Row Records. Those albums took lots of studio time, engineering, marketing, and promotion. Everybody assumes incorrectly that all of Death Row Records was partying and drama but there was a tremendous amount of work that made Death Row such a valuable label. Suge Knight knew the game and he drove Gangster Rap to a new level. But only his reputation, much of which was overblown, painted him as a thug executive. To get an idea how Suge Knight’s reputation grew with stories that are larger than life we go back to the beginning.

Suge Knight represented rapper Chocolate that wrote songs for Vanilla Ice. The story goes that Suge Knight dangled Vanilla Ice off a hotel balcony to get him to pay up. The real story is that Suge may have intimidated Vanilla Ice but that attorneys, contracts, and payments were made to settle the dispute. Did Suge take Vanilla Ice out on to the balcony to negotiate? Probably. He, no doubt, made reference to the height and Vanilla Ice felt threatened. As the story began to grow, Suge Knight did little to quash it. By the time the story was recorded in rap history it was that Suge dangled Vanilla Ice over the balcony, 15 floors up, with change falling out of Vanilla Ice's pockets at the Belage Hotel in West Hollywood.

The story of Suge intimidating Eazy-E into signing away artists Michel’le, Dr. Dre, and The D.O.C. included Suge approaching Eazy with thugs and baseball bats. One story was that Jerry Heller was held hostage. Here again there were contracts and Ruthless Records actually took 15% off the top of the revenue from Death Row Records and Suge Knight obtained rights to the name NWA as part of that settlement.

The story of the exit of Dr. Dre included Dre being shot in the leg and thugs stealing his masters. The hype was way overblown but the rumors were galvanized into the minds of fans. The reality was that contracts were drafted and a settlement was made. Jimmy Iovine had encouraged Dre to leave Death Row Records and since he was the distributor for Death Row he had the power to keep things relatively calm. In fact, as part of that settlement, Dre was signed to a lifetime management contract with Suge Knight as his manager.

Russell Poole was among the first but certainly the loudest to proclaim that Suge Knight was responsible for the murders of Tupac and Biggie. His source for this information was a 1998 leaked Los Angeles Sheriff’s report that Snoop had been rescued by Sheriff’s from an attack by Bloods and that he said Suge Knight was behind Tupac Shakur’s death. The details of this are available in Chaos Merchants, the book Russell Poole and I were working on at the time of Poole’s Death. Poole was adamant that every single fact be footnoted for the investigators and Chaos Merchants has links to sources.

The picture that began to emerge for Poole, in writing Chaos Merchants, was that Suge Knight had nothing to do with Tupac’s death. Poole had assumed that since Suge Knight was the sole shareholder of Death Row Records and the evidence led to Death Row Records as the responsible party for Tupac’s murder Suge was somehow responsible; Poole failed to separate Death Row Records from Suge Knight. During the Biggie Smalls investigation listening devices were placed in Suge’s cell and his cell was tossed regularly but, according to Poole, nothing was ever found. Additionally, since Suge was in LA County Jail at the time of Biggie's death it would be very hard to prove that Suge had anything to do with it in spite of the implications that Death Row Records affiliates were involved. Remember that Suge no longer was running Death Row Records at the time. Once Russell realized that Suge was a victim the night Tupac was shot, Poole felt bad about his years of being vocal that Suge was behind the murders. Poole, Carlin, and RJ Bond wrote Tupac:187 about the murders. Once that book was released additional clues poured in from fans about the murders. Those clues along with salient details from re-examining the case files Russell took with him from the LAPD led to the condensed version of events that became Chaos Merchants.

The DEA, FBI, and LAPD, spent millions of dollars and tens of thousands of man hours investigating Death Row Records with no indictments or convictions. The truth was that insiders at Death Row Records were behind the murder of Tupac Shakur and attempted murder of Suge Knight. Those insiders were responsible for derailing investigations into crimes associated with Death Row Records. The planning was done by David Kenner, a criminal defense attorney and Reggie Wright Jr., a Justice Administration graduate and former Compton Police Officer. They hired off-duty police to be present when crimes were committed and those investigations were derailed because solving the crimes would lead to damaging the careers of officers. Those implicated in the Rampart Scandal were involved in Death Row Records particularly Rafael Perez, David Mack, and Kevin Gaines. But Kevin Gaines and Suge Knight were not friends. Gaines was dating Sharitha, Suge Knight's estranged wife. That tends to indicate that Suge was not in the loop on the extracurricular activities of the Rampart cops. In spite of that, the crimes of Rampart all trace back through the halls of Death Row Records including the Tupac and Biggie murders. The beating at the El Rey Theater was cleared when Compton Police called over to the investigator and said this was nothing more than a gang thing and weighing the careers of police officers that would suffer from their conflicts of being present when a murder was committed caused the investigator to clear the case without any convictions or even charging anyone with the crime.

Suge liked having the off-duty cops around but he was also wary of them… for good reason. The Rampart corrupt cops along with the corrupt Compton Police were all working for Death Row Records. They along with Reggie Wright Jr., David Kenner, and Crips were involved in toppling Suge Knight. When they failed to kill him in Las Vegas they worked hard to get his probation violated.

Right after the Tupac murder, Suge Knight was discovered living in the Malibu home of the Longo family that exposed a conflict of interest with, Deputy District Attorney, Larry Longo. It was also learned that David Kenner, a friend of Larry Longo had orchestrated the signing of a contract with Gina Longo to elevate the conflict of interest. When this was exposed, Larry Longo lost his job and Suge Knight’s probation was violated but his reputation surged as a person that could bribe a D.A.. That was not a reputation that would serve Suge well in any of his criminal or civil trials... something Kenner would know. On October 22, 1996 Suge was arrested. Longo would be cleared of any wrongdoing because Kenner had rented the home from Longo’s son Frank. Kenner also negotiated Gina’s contract with Frank and Gina, a trained singer, laid down six tracks at CanAm Studios.

With David Kenner in charge of Suge’s probation case and Compton Police complicit in entering evidence against Suge into the court, and in light of his reputation of compromising an Assistant District Attorney, Suge Knight never had a chance at a fair trial. David Kenner entered into evidence the tape of the Orlando Anderson scuffle to put Suge behind bars. By California law Suge Knight could not operate a business so he needed to turn over the operations to others. For the probation violation hearing, Frank Alexander’s statement to Brent Becker was altered and entered into evidence by the Compton Police. Their motive to put Suge Knight behind bars was the theft of millions of dollars from Suge Knight’s Death Row Records. Suge put Reggie Wright Jr. in charge and Reggie and David Kenner looted the record label while Suge was in prison. Is it any surprise that the protective order limiting contact with Suge Knight to only his attorney, David Kenner, was entered in his current murder case by David Kenner after Kenner was fired by Suge Knight? Why do they fear what Suge will say? They know what Suge Knight knows.

The murders in the immediate aftermath of the Tupac murder were to take out witnesses. The murders at the time Suge Knight was going to be released from prison included Suge Knight’s inner circle. They wanted to make sure Suge would not have protection once he was released. Suge was one of the only people that knew the truth about what had happened at Death Row Records. He was a liability and loose end. His life is still constantly in danger especially in control of the Los Angeles County Sheriffs with their many existing ties to the former Compton Police Department that were instrumental in sending Suge Knight to prison.

While Suge Knight was in prison for the probation violation the Compton Police had been found to be corrupt. A gun, booked into evidence by the Compton Police, found its way into Death Row Records being run by the son of Compton Gang Lead, Reggie Wright. That gun was used to shoot Long Beach Police Officer, Brian Watt. In the civil suit both Reggie Wright Sr. and Jr. were deposed. The City of Compton reached an out of court settlement but the damage was done. There was an internal investigation into the Compton Police Department and it uncovered lots of missing cocaine and weapons. The result was that the Compton Police, who should have been disbanded, were absorbed into the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s department. The corrupt officers were sworn in as Sheriff’s.

When Suge got out of prison he was handed back a mere shell of a company. There were lots of lawsuits and complications that led him into bankruptcy. Mired in the legal system Suge Knight failed to regain the stature he once held. But the threats to Suge Knight continued.

What has never been disclosed before is that when I interviewed Long Beach Police Chief, Jim McDonnell for the article, “Taking the Blinders Off of Justice” I disclosed to him the existence of the confession letter and told him what I was working on. He campaigned and became the Sheriff after that meeting. I set up the meeting for Russell Poole with the Sheriff's through Sheriff Jim McDonnell. He was the first law enforcement representative to learn of the confession letter in March of 2014. In June of 2014, RJ Bond and Russell Poole visited with four members of the Los Angeles Police Department and provided them with the clue to the murder of Tupac Shakur and attempted murder of Suge Knight in 1996. In 1998, a confession letter had been given to respected journalist Chris Blatchford and that detailed the plot against Suge Knight. Russell hoped that, with the element of surprise on the side of LAPD, the shooters could be brought in for questioning. He mapped out for LAPD how he thought they should proceed. A copy of the letter was given to them but RJ was smart and he put a special border on the letter. On August 18th the letter was leaked on the Internet and the leaked letter contained the special border. LAPD was caught cold leaking the letter. LAPD had chosen to leak the letter instead of investigating it. Suge Knight may have a cause of action against LAPD for failing to investigate a crime perpetrated against him.

Six days after the leak of the confession letter, Suge Knight was lured down to the 1Oak Nightclub in West Hollywood. Russell would later learn that an off-duty Sheriff let the shooters in the club and drove them to the airport the next day. Why West Hollywood? Because the Sheriff’s would respond there and the response could be managed by remnants of the former Compton Police Department that still had deep ties into the Sheriff’s. On August 24th, Suge Knight was shot six times but survived the attack. Remember, this shooting occurred just six days after the Tupac confession letter was leaked by LAPD and the shooters yelled at Knight as they shot, “You killed Tupac!” The off-duty Sheriff has ties to the music industry. To this day, in spite of 37 cameras in the club, nobody has been charged with the crime. Most of the eyewitnesses were turned out of the club that night instead of getting their contact information for later follow-up - which is a deviation of standard procedure in any investigation.

Why was Suge going to Tam’s? Apparently Suge Knight was owed money from the Apple Beats Deal. Suge Knight signed a lifetime deal to manage Dr. Dre. He may have had a legitimate claim to some of the Beats money. Court never seemed to work out for Suge Knight. Perhaps he was sending word to Dre to work things out with him.

To further complicate things, Suge Knight also had a legitimate claim to monies from the budget of Straight Outta Compton. He was owed money for use of his likeness and he also had acquired the rights to the name “NWA” that was used in the movie. He had three solid claims of money he was owed. Having just been shot six times at 1Oak he was on edge coming to Compton that was known for danger and violence. Terry Carter, a well respected member of the community and brother of one of the original 16 founders of the Piru’s had invited Suge Knight down to Compton to work out a deal with Dr. Dre. According to former Mayor of Compton, Omar Bradley, Suge Knight was guaranteed safety for his meeting. Terry Carter’s word was a pass that should have been honored by everybody in Compton. Suge Knight was brought down to Compton by Terry Carter to broker peace. The video only shows us four men approaching Knight. We can’t see what is behind him but a witness placed Jimmy Chrys with a gun and other men with automatic weapons behind Suge Knight's truck. After Suge Knight runs over Terry Carter and Cle “Bone” Sloan there is a gun picked up off of Bone’s body before he is moved and the gun is put into the waistband of one of the men. Only a gun gets put into a waistband. Cle Bone says he was punching Suge Knight so Knight was admittedly attacked. If the gun was in one of Cle Bone’s hands Suge could have been facing potential bullets inside his truck. Suge backs up. With armed men behind him it gives Suge Knight every reason to pull forward to escape certain death. This incident happened only five months after Suge Knight was shot six times. He may have been understandably jumpy.

Can Suge get a fair trial? He hasn't been treated fairly so far. He has been prosecuted, not on the merits of this case, but on the larger than life rumors of what he is alleged to have done... None of which has ever been proven in a court of law.  

Suge Knight’s current legal case was one of the reasons Russell Poole was coming down to the Sheriff’s station. Russell believed it was a conflict of interest having Richard Biddle handling both crime scenes because in one case you have Suge Knight as a victim and nobody is brought to justice and the other case Knight is initially a victim and becomes the suspect of Terry Carter’s murder. There is a clear pattern here. In June of 2014, the LAPD failed to prosecute or investigate the attempted murder of Suge Knight that according to the confession letter began as a conspiracy in Balboa Park in September of 1996. Sheriff’s fail to prosecute the shooters that attempted to kill Suge Knight at 1Oak on August 24th 2014. Could it also be that Suge Knight was lured to Tam’s in Compton because the perpetrators knew that Sheriff’s would respond to that location too? Why is Suge only ambushed in place where Sheriff’s respond? Remember also that the rumor that Suge Knight was behind the murder of Tupac was leaked by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s. Compton Police that worked hard to get Suge’s probation violated still maintain very strong ties into the Sheriff’s.

Could it be that the bail is originally set at 25 million dollars and the protective order put in place to stop Suge Knight from talking about the police corruption that led to Compton Police, the LAPD, and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s? Somebody doesn’t want Suge Knight talking and they hope to banish him the nethermost parts of the prison system for the rest of his life.

Russell Poole was meeting with the Sheriff’s hoping to get them to drop the case against Suge Knight that was going to embarrass the department so that they could reopen the murders of Tupac and Biggie and solve cases that could make the department shine. The murders of Tupac and Biggie always haunted Russell and he was there talking about reopening the cases. The day before the meeting on a telephone call he confirmed with a Sheriff that the shooter’s were let into the 1Oak by an off-duty Sheriff and that the shooters were dropped off at LAX by the same Sheriff the next day. The Sheriff’s were anxious to discover the source of Russell’s information. He arrived at the meeting and instead of just the promised homicide investigator, he was confronted with four Sheriff’s on the Suge Knight case. Russell Poole had a massive heart attack and died in that meeting. He had given his last breath to clear Suge Knight and to solve the Tupac and Biggie murders.

Monday, February 22, 2016

Suge Knight Was Guaranteed Safety For His Meeting in Compton at Tam's

Growing up in Compton wasn't like growing up in any other city in America. The Crips were recruiting and they were aggressive. At Centennial High School there were 16 young men that were attacked because they refused membership into the gang. Many of them came from Piru Street in Compton. They created an affiliation to stand up to the pressures created by the Crips and the Bloods were born.

Because they are severely outnumbered they must adhere to a much more stringent set of rules to survive. They carve the code of conduct into their hearts. When a member of the Piru Set gives their word that someone is guaranteed safety in coming to a peace meeting it must be adhered to or there will be severe consequences. A Piru's word is his bond.

Terry Carter's brother was one of the original 16 members of the Piru. Suge Knight would know that since he grew up in the neighborhood. Carter giving his word that Suge Knight could feel safe in coming down to Compton to settle up with Dr. Dre for monies he was owed for the Apple Beats Deal and his portion of the budget for the movie Straight Outta Compton was something that Suge Knight could take to the bank. He should never have been attacked in a peace meeting as Carter told him this was... but we all know that isn't what happened.

How was Suge Knight owed money? When Eazy-E and Jerry Heller settled their lawsuit with Suge Knight they signed over the name NWA to Knight. That name was used freely in the movie and Suge should have been paid for it. Also, the likeness of Suge Knight appeared in the movie and even Ice Cube said that Suge should be paid. Also, when Dr. Dre left Death Row Records, Suge Knight signed a lifetime management contract with Dr. Dre. That meant that some of the Beats money had a legitimate claim by Suge Knight. Clearly there was some money he could expect to be paid and that was at least the subject of a negotiation.

But we all know Compton is a dangerous place. We also know that Suge Knight survived an attack by two shooters at the 1Oak Nightclub on August 24, 2014. Allegedly an off-duty Sheriff let the shooters into the club that night and the crime scene was allegedly bungled by Richard Biddle, a Sheriff investigator. That is why even though Sheriff's know the identity of the shooters they have never filed charges for attempted murder against them. There were 38 cameras in the club that night. Sheriff's blame Suge Knight being non-cooperative as the reason no charges are filed but video evidence is much more reliable than eye-witness testimony and the Sheriff's have all of the tapes.

In light of Suge's shooting at 1Oak and knowing that Compton is a dangerous place can anyone understand why Suge might be a little jumpy? When I look at the videotape I see an object being put into a waistband. If Suge Knight thought that was a gun it is enough justification to support his actions that night.

Clearly this was a homicide as Terry Carter died. The question becomes was this a justifiable homicide?
The Sheriff's made it clear to Russell Poole that they were going to try to throw the book at Suge Knight because they finally could send him away forever but the facts of this case don't justify their actions especially since they have failed to successfully prosecute his shooters at 1Oak and Richard Biddle was the investigator at Tam's (a conflict of interest that Russell would point out). Suge may have a cause of action against Sheriff's in civil court and he clearly has a cause of action against the City of Los Angeles for the LAPD's leak of the Tupac confession letter because Suge Knight was a victim of that crime too. Why else would there be so much publicity recently naming Suge Knight as the murderer of Biggie Smalls?

That is quite a stretch since Suge Knight was in LA County Jail at the time Biggie Smalls was murdered at Fairfax and Wilshire. Russell had previously blamed Suge for Tupac's murder because of a document leaked by LA County Sheriff's in 1998 blaming Suge Knight for the murder of Tupac. Russell felt bad once he knew Suge had nothing to do with it. He also believed it would be very difficult to prove that Suge had anything to do with Biggie's murder. They put listening devices in Suge's cell in prison. They searched his cell and always came up empty. Russell knew off-duty LAPD had carried out Biggie's murder using a shooter they could cut loose. He also knew Compton Police were there too. He was meeting with Sheriff's on August 19, 2015. He was trying to convince Sheriff's that their case against Suge Knight was crumbling and to reopen the cases of Tupac and Biggie's murders that he felt could now be solved. He brought proof that Compton Police were involved in those murders with him to the meeting that day as well as the information that an off-duty Sheriff participated in the attempted murder of Suge Knight. As we know Russell died in that meeting.

Suge Knight was the head of a gangster rap label. He was tough as nails and ran the company with an iron fist. He was in over his head as was Tupac. He was set-up to be murdered along with Tupac 20 years ago and his company was taken from him. You can trace his troubles from today straight back to that Las Vegas night of September 7, 1996. He was in Compton on a mission of peace to settle finances with Dr. Dre as Terry Carter promised him and he had a Piru word from the code that is written in every Piru's heart that he was safe. He never should have been attacked that night. Any reasonable person would have fled as he did even if it meant driving over someone to escape.

In the words of an eye-witness, "This is Compton man!!!"

You can read more about this in Chaos Merchants and Tupac:187 - Russell Poole's final words on the murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls before his tragic death meeting with Sheriff's about the cases.

Chaos Merchants
http://www.amazon.com/Chaos-Merchants-Murders-Shakur-Notorious-ebook/dp/B01A2VYJTO

Tupac:187
http://www.amazon.com/Tupac-187-Richard-RJ-Bond/dp/0692317848/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

© 2016 Michael Douglas Carlin. All Rights Reserved.

No Reprints allowed unless permission is granted in writing.



Sunday, February 21, 2016

Frank Alexander's Secret Tape Recordings in the Aftermath of Tupac's Murder

By Michael Douglas Carlin

In his book, "Got Your Back," Frank Alexander says, "I began keeping a tape recorder next to the phone. I recorded dozens and dozens of conversations, with Reggie, Death Row attorneys David Kenner and Milton Grimes, Detective Brent Becker from Las Vegas, as well as other members of security."

I have listened to some of those recordings. They paint a much different picture of the atmosphere at Death Row Records in the aftermath of the murder. Suge Knight was fighting for his freedom in probation hearings. There is a very telling conversation between Frank and David Kenner that shows the deck is stacked against Suge Knight. Kenner tells of a police report entered into evidence by Compton Police where Frank says Suge was kicking Orlando Anderson. Frank, according to the report as read by Kenner, is also providing all of the names of the participants that night. Frank denies having ever spoken to Compton Police and also denies having ever said these things about who was involved in the scuffle.

In "Got Your Back," Frank wrote, "Kenner was reading one lie after another. Not the lie about the chain, but an entire report filled with things I did not say. It was said I named names of those involved in the fight at the MGM. It said I gave the police their gang affiliations. I don't even know the real names of Suge's homeboys, nor would I give two shits about their gang affiliations. He kept reading me lies."

Keep in mind that Kenner said, "the report I am reading came from Compton PD."

Frank Alexander again writes, "We hung up the phone. I had this sinking feeling. I didn't understand what has happening."

There are many other telephone conversations that warn Frank not to get subpoenaed to testify in the hearing. Frank's life is threatened. Finally there is a conversation with Norris Anderson where it is relayed to Frank that Suge is cool with him and that he doesn't need to worry.

There is a wholesale manipulation of testimony that is painted by the tapes. Frank is asked to tell lies on the witness stand and he refuses to do this. His lie to Brent Becker about the Lakewood Mall incident is also exposed by these recordings. What is clear from this is that the Compton Police Department were behind getting Suge Knight's probation violated. David Kenner is the one that entered the MGM Videotape into evidence against Suge Knight.

Michael Moore talks about a conversation he had with Reggie Wright Sr. about who would run Death Row Records if something happens to Suge Knight. Senior speculates that his son would end up running the record label which, in fact, ends up happening. Compton Police were responsible for giving the events set into motion a little push. They were in Las Vegas on the night of September 7, 1996 - the night Tupac and Suge Knight were greenlit for murder. They steered the investigation. They were also seen at the Petersen Museum on the night Biggie Smalls was murdered.

Compton Police were brought down because a gun traced to them is used to shoot Long Beach Police Officer Brian Watt. That leads to an internal affairs report that uncovers over 80 kilos of missing cocaine, over 1400 missing firearms, and involvement in many other criminal activities. There was a vote on the eve of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's taking over the responsibility policing Compton. It was decided that all of the police officers in Compton be absorbed into the Sheriff's instead of being disbanded.

Compton Police can be traced into the Sheriff's all the way to influence the current legal troubles facing Suge Knight right now. They conspired against him back then and they continue to conspire against him now.


You can read more about this in Chaos Merchants and Tupac:187 - Russell Poole's final words on the murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls before his tragic death meeting with Sheriff's about the cases.

Chaos Merchants
http://www.amazon.com/Chaos-Merchants-Murders-Shakur-Notorious-ebook/dp/B01A2VYJTO

Tupac:187
http://www.amazon.com/Tupac-187-Richard-RJ-Bond/dp/0692317848/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

© 2016 Michael Douglas Carlin. All Rights Reserved.

No Reprints allowed unless permission is granted in writing.

Saturday, February 20, 2016

Letter to Afeni Shakur from Michael Douglas Carlin

Ms. Shakur,


I was the writer of Tupac:187 with RJ Bond and Russell Poole. Since writing that book many clues poured in from Tupac fans. Russell and I were able to put together a picture of what happened to your son. Russell Poole was never satisfied with the investigation that was done in the aftermath of the murders of both Tupac and Biggie and he continued to pursue clues. He struck out in getting cooperation from LAPD, and LVMPD. He finally turned toward the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s. He died mysteriously in a meeting with investigators talking about your son’s murder. The fact is that no law enforcement agency is interested in solving the crime.

Russell always wanted to bring closure to you and Mrs. Wallace by bringing the killers to justice. Respected journalist Chris Blatchford gave us a confession letter that put the entire puzzle together. The investigation died with Russell but he would have wanted you to have this information that he and I compiled. Russell spent his own money chasing down clues and never put a penny in his pocket simply wanting the truth about the murders to emerge. He died knowing that he solved the murders.

I was simply the writer. I have enclosed some of my other work so that you can see that we share common values. ‘A Prescription for Peace’ is my answer for how to fix many of the injustices in the world. Other books move the discussion forward with ‘Peaceful Protests’ and ‘Rise a Knight,’ that provide a roadmap to create guardians for the planet and the inhabitants so every single person is treated equally under the law and all have the tools to achieve the American Dream.

I spent the last two years working with Russell Poole who I consider to be an American Hero along with your son. They both saw wrongs they tried to right and their lives were both cut short standing up for their beliefs.

I hope the contents of this package are not simply dredging up old wounds and that you receive this information in the spirit it was intended. Russell kept a copy of the Homicide Investigators Creed on his desk. It read: “No greater honor will ever be bestowed on an officer, or a more profound duty imposed on him, than when he is entrusted with the investigation of the death of another human being. It is his duty to find the facts regardless of color or creed, without prejudice, and to let no power on earth deter him from presenting these facts to the court without regard to personality.”

Russell was steadfast to this creed and tried to fully investigate the murders. When it led back to LAPD Officers he was told to cease investigating. When he refused he was pushed out of his department six months before he completed his 20th year and vested fully in the pension plan. This caused severe hardship on his family but he remained true to his pursuit of information that would lead to arrests and convictions to let no power on earth deter him.

Though your son only lived 25 years he has impacted so many lives and carved a swath that will never be duplicated. You have my deepest sympathies for your profound loss.




Michael Carlin
Writer – Tupac:187 and Chaos Merchants
© 2016 Michael Douglas Carlin. All Rights Reserved.
No reprints or reposting unless agreed to in writing.