1253: Trained Marxist

Weinstein Evergreen

Clinton Dems switch to Corps

All got screwed

STEM must go

Social studies can't take the match

Crime Bill and Models

Chain outlets

Window breakers, door openers UPSCALE shops

New class of elites who distribute the 'funds'

Need to keep their client base alive (Bob Woodson)

Drugs and criminal hiphop

Internet shows what

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Your Guide To A Successful Cybersecurity OverhaulMany companies implement new cybersecurity policies and procedures, but they ignore one critical fact: When it comes to your cybersecurity posture, your end-users are your weakest link.

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With your end-users on board, how do you deploy new cybersecurity policies? There are many pitfalls companies commonly fall for during this process. With the right preparation and guide, you can overhaul and deploy a successful cybersecurity initiative.

This short but comprehensive guide will show you how to:

Overhaul your cybersecurity programGet your employees and other end-users on boardAvoid common pitfalls that cause cybersecurity initiatives to failTo download the guide, please provide us with your name and email address:

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PinkertonPrivate incorporationIndustryPrivate security contractorFoundedChicago, Illinois, United States(1850 ; 170 years ago ( 1850 ) )FounderAllan PinkertonHeadquarters, Area served

WorldwideServicesSecurity management, full-service risk management consulting, investigations, employment screening, protective services, security, crisis management, intelligence servicesParentSecuritas AB (2003''present)Website www.pinkerton.com Pinkerton, founded as the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, is a private security guard and detective agency established in the United States by Scotsman Allan Pinkerton in 1850 and currently a subsidiary of Securitas AB.[1] Pinkerton became famous when he claimed to have foiled a plot to assassinate president-elect Abraham Lincoln, who later hired Pinkerton agents for his personal security during the Civil War.[2] Pinkerton's agents performed services ranging from security guarding to private military contracting work. Notably, the Pinkerton National Detective Agency hired women and minorities from its founding, a practice uncommon at the time.[3] Pinkerton was the largest private law enforcement organization in the world at the height of its power.[4]

During the labor strikes of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, businessmen hired the Pinkerton Agency to infiltrate unions, supply guards, keep strikers and suspected unionists out of factories, and recruit goon squads to intimidate workers. One such confrontation was the Homestead Strike of 1892, in which Pinkerton agents were called in to reinforce the strikebreaking measures of industrialist Henry Clay Frick, acting on behalf of Andrew Carnegie.[5] The ensuing battle between Pinkerton agents and striking workers led to the deaths of three Pinkerton agents and nine steelworkers.[6][7] The Pinkertons were also used as guards in coal, iron, and lumber disputes in Illinois, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia as well as the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 and the Battle of Blair Mountain in 1921.

The company now operates as "Pinkerton Consulting & Investigations, Inc. d.b.a. Pinkerton Corporate Risk Management", a division of the Swedish security company Securitas AB. The former Government Services division, PGS, now operates as Securitas Critical Infrastructure Services, Inc.[8]

Origins [ edit ] In the 1850s, Allan Pinkerton, Scottish detective and spy, met Chicago attorney Edward Rucker in a local Masonic Hall and formed the North-Western Police Agency, later known as the Pinkerton Agency.[9][10][11]

Historian Frank Morn writes: "By the mid-1850s a few businessmen saw the need for greater control over their employees; their solution was to sponsor a private detective system. In February 1855, Allan Pinkerton, after consulting with six midwestern railroads, created such an agency in Chicago."[12]

Government work [ edit ] In 1871, Congress appropriated $50,000 (about equivalent to $1,067,000 in 2019) to the new Department of Justice (DOJ) to form a sub-organization devoted to "the detection and prosecution of those guilty of violating federal law." The amount was insufficient for the new DOJ to fashion an internal investigating unit, so they contracted out the services to the Pinkerton National Detective Agency.[13]

However, since passage of the Anti-Pinkerton Act in 1893, federal law has stated that an "individual employed by the Pinkerton Detective Agency, or similar organization, may not be employed by the Government of the United States or the government of the District of Columbia."[14]

Chicago "Special Officers" and watchmen [ edit ] July 27, 1877: J.J. White, who had been hired as a "Special Officer" during a strike, was shot and killed.[15]July 19, 1919: Hans Rassmuson, Special Officer, was shot and killed.[16]March 12, 1924: Frank Miller, Pinkerton Watchman, was shot and killed.[17]Molly Maguires [ edit ] In the 1870s, Franklin B. Gowen, then president of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, hired the agency to "investigate" the labor unions in the company's mines. A Pinkerton agent, James McParland, using the alias "James McKenna", infiltrated the Molly Maguires, a 19th-century secret society of mainly Irish-American coal miners, leading to the downfall of the labor organization.

The incident inspired Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes novel The Valley of Fear (1914''1915). A Pinkerton agent also appears in a small role in "The Adventure of the Red Circle", a 1911 Holmes story. A 1970 film, The Molly Maguires, was loosely based upon the incident as well.

Homestead Strike [ edit ] Frick's letter describing the plans and munitions that will be on the barges when the Pinkertons arrive to confront the strikers in Homestead

On July 6, 1892, during the Homestead Strike, 300 Pinkerton detectives from New York and Chicago were called in by Carnegie Steel's Henry Clay Frick to protect the Pittsburgh-area mill and strikebreakers. This resulted in a firefight and siege in which 16 men were killed, and 23 others were wounded. To restore order, two brigades of the Pennsylvania militia were called out by the Governor.

As a legacy of the Pinkertons' involvement, a bridge connecting the nearby Pittsburgh suburbs of Munhall and Rankin was named Pinkerton's Landing Bridge.

Steunenberg murder and trial [ edit ] Harry Orchard was arrested by the Idaho police and confessed to Pinkerton agent James McParland that he assassinated former Governor Frank Steunenberg of Idaho in 1905. Orchard testified, (unsuccessfully) under threat of hanging,[18] against Western Federation of Miners president Big Bill Haywood, naming him as having hired the hit. With a stirring defense by Clarence Darrow, Haywood and the other defendants of the WFM were acquitted in a nationally publicized trial. Orchard received a death sentence, but it was commuted.[19]

Indiana University [ edit ] Bogus written and distributed by Indiana University students in 1890. The Pinkerton Agency was hired to find the authors.

In 1890, Indiana University hired the Pinkerton Agency to investigate the authorship of a student "bogus", an underground newsletter, that had been distributed throughout town. While boguses were not uncommon, this particular one attacked IU faculty and students with such graphic language that Bloomington residents complained. The detective arrived in Bloomington on April 26 and spent nearly two weeks conducting interviews and dispatching regular reports back to the home office. In the end, it was town talk that led to the student authors and not the work of the agent. The seven Beta Theta Pi fraternity brothers were from locally prominent families, including the son of a Trustee, but all were expelled. In 1892, however, the Trustees granted five of the men their degrees and all seven were reinstated in good standing.[20][21]

Outlaws and competition [ edit ] Pinkerton agents were hired to track western outlaws Jesse James, the Reno Gang, and the Wild Bunch (including Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid). On March 17, 1874, two Pinkerton Detectives and a deputy sheriff, Edwin P. Daniels,[22] encountered the Younger brothers (associates of the James''Younger Gang); Daniels, John Younger, and one Pinkerton agent was killed. In Union, Missouri a bank was robbed by George Collins, aka Fred Lewis, and Bill Randolph; Pinkerton Detective Chas Schumacher trailed them and was killed. Collins was hanged on March 26, 1904, and Randolph was hanged on May 8, 1905, in Union. Pinkertons were also hired for transporting money and other high-quality merchandise between cities and towns, which made them vulnerable to outlaws. Pinkerton agents were usually well paid and well armed.

G.H. Thiel, a former Pinkerton employee, established the Thiel Detective Service Company in St. Louis, Missouri, a competitor to the Pinkerton agency. The Thiel company operated in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.

Modern era [ edit ] Due to its conflicts with labor unions, the word Pinkerton continues to be associated by labor organizers and union members with strikebreaking.[23] Pinkertons diversified from labor spying following revelations publicized by the La Follette Committee hearings in 1937,[24] and the firm's criminal detection work also suffered from the police modernization movement, which saw the rise of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the bolstering of detective branches and resources of the public police. With less of the labor and criminal investigation work on which Pinkertons thrived for decades, the company became increasingly involved in protection services, and in the 1960s, even the word "detective" disappeared from the agency's letterhead.[25] The company now focuses on threat intelligence, risk management, executive protection, and active shooter response.

In 1999, the company was bought by Securitas AB, a Swedish security company, for $384 million,[26] followed by the acquisition of the William J. Burns Detective Agency (founded in 1910), longtime Pinkerton rival, to create (as a division of the parent) Securitas Security Services USA. Today, the companies Headquarters are located in Ann Arbor, Michigan.[27]

Badge history [ edit ] 1870''1925 '-- Solid silver badge with engraved lettering1925''1930 '-- Silver-colored eagle badge with blue lettering1930''present '-- Gold-colored shield with black letteringAppearance in popular media [ edit ] Books [ edit ] Author Beverly Jenkins makes reference to Pinkerton agents in many of her novels including, "Vivid" and "Before the Dawn".In the Sherlock Holmes novel The Valley of Fear, Birdy Edwards is a Pinkerton agent. Another Pinkerton agent, Leverton makes his appearance in the short story The Adventure of the Red Circle, which is part of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's collection, The Memoirs of Sherlock HolmesDashiell Hammett's Continental Op detective stories were based on his experiences working for the Pinkerton agency for several periods during 1917-22. The Baltimore branch, where Hammett first worked, was housed in the Continental Trust Building; the Pinkerton agency was not named. Hammett also worked in the San Francisco office, thus many of the Op stories were set in that city. They were published in Black Mask magazine from 1923-30. There have been several Continental Op book collections. Four of the stories were combined to form Hammett's first novel Red Harvest.In Laird Barron's short story "Bulldozer", the Pinkerton protagonist Jonah Koenig hunts down a wanted criminal who also happens to dabble in profane occult rituals.Many Louis L'Amour books contain references to the Pinkertons, including Milo TalonMaria "Belle" Boyd, a lead character in Cherie Priest's steampunk novel Fiddlehead, works for the Pinkerton detective agency.Clive Cussler is often reputed to base his Isaac Bell series' Van Dorn Detective Agency upon the Pinkerton Detective Agency. This is often disputed, however.In the 1995 Doctor Who book Shakedown (novelization of Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans) the Doctor's companions Chris and Roz pretend to be agents of the galactic offshoot of the Pinkertons on the planet Megerra in 2376.In the James Bond novels, Felix Leiter becomes a Pinkerton detective between Live and Let Die and Diamonds Are Forever. He had been a CIA agent, but retired after losing an arm and a leg in the former novel.In a romance series of novellas, The Pinkerton Matchmaker, written by many different authors.Former Pinkerton agent Charlie Siringo published an expos(C) on methods used by the Pinkertons during the 1880s and 1890s in his 1914 book Two Evil-Isms: Pinkertonism and Anarchism. The agency soon suppressed publication of the book and made a request to the Governor of New Mexico, William C. McDonald, to arrest Siringo for criminal libel and extradite him to Chicago. Governor McDonald denied their request, but the agency was successful in obtaining a court order to impound all existing copies of the book.Author Ray Celestin makes reference to Pinkerton agents in his "City Blues Quartet" book series.Film [ edit ] Allan Pinkerton and several agents play a vital role in the film American Outlaws (2001), starring Colin Farrell and Gabriel Macht as Jesse and Frank James. Pinkerton and his detectives are hired by the owner of the fictional Rock Northern Rail Road to track down Jesse James and his gang following a series of robberies aimed at his company.The Pinkertons have been featured in the 1980 movie The Long Riders, where Pinkerton agents are depicted investigating the criminal activities of the James brothers.Two Pinkerton agents were featured in the movie The Legend of Zorro, using knowledge of Zorro's true identity to blackmail him.Pinkerton detectives are featured in the 3:10 to Yuma remake featuring Russell Crowe and Christian Bale, appearing at the start of the film defending a stagecoach from bandits. All are killed except for one, Byron McElroy (Peter Fonda), who is later killed by Crowe's character.In the 1994 western film Bad Girls the three main characters are being tracked down by two Pinkerton agents after committing murder.In the 1997 James Cameron film Titanic, Spicer Lovejoy, Caledon Hockley's valet and bodyguard, is an ex-Pinkerton detective.In the 2005 film Legend of Zorro, A pair of Pinkerton agents sees Zorro's face and recognise him. The following day, the Pinkertons confront his wife, Elena, and blackmail her into divorcing him in order to get close to the main antagonist; Armand and learn of his plans without the aid of Zorro, as they dislike Zorro and his vigilante ways.In the 2016 remake of The Magnificent Seven, agents of the fictional Blackstone Detective Agency, modeled after the Pinkertons, appear as antagonists.In the 2017 Kenneth Branagh film Murder on the Orient Express, Cyrus Bethman Hardman is revealed to be an undercover Pinkerton detective.In the 2019 western film Badland, the protagonist was a Pinkerton detective in New Mexico authorized by the President and directed by a black Senator to track down and hang Confederate war criminals.Music [ edit ] The song "Ballad of a Well-Known Gun" on the 1970 Elton John album Tumbleweed Connection references 'the Pinkertons' '' "The Pinkertons pulled out my bags and asked me for my name".The song "Book, Saddle, And Go" on the 2013 Clutch album Earth Rocker references 'Pinkerton Man' '' "Pinkerton man, murdering bastard, I'm gonna get even, get even with you, Get even with you".Television [ edit ] In the television series Damnation, Creeley Turner, one of the two lead characters, is a Pinkerton agent sent to Iowa by a powerful industrialist to stop a farmer strike.On the "Valentine's Day" (1989) episode of The Golden Girls, drugstore banter between Rose and Dorothy regarding purchasing protection for their trip (condoms), promoting their desire to have safe sex. When Rose asks what kind of protection they need, Dorothy quips ''Two armed Pinkerton guards, Rose!''In "False Colours", the eighth episode of the first series of the 1989 TV show The Young Riders, a detective named Pinkerton is working with the security of a gold shipment.In the fourth-series episode "Havre de Grace" of Boardwalk Empire, the character Roy Phillips is revealed to be a detective working for the agency.The character Captain Homer Jackson in the BBC series Ripper Street is also revealed as an ex-Pinkerton agent in series one.Three Pinkerton Agents were featured in the first-season episode "Husbands & Fathers", of the BBC America show Copper.In 1966 Irwin Allen series The Time Tunnel on episode 12 "The Death Trap", Mr. Pinkerton, with the help of the two main characters, saved President Lincoln.In Penny Dreadful series 1 episode 8 "Grand Guignol" Ethan Chandler is confronted by 2 Pinkerton agents in a bar as his past catches up with him.Pinkerton agents appeared in the first episode of the 2012 Hatfields & McCoys miniseries.The Pinkertons, a scripted one-hour syndicated starring Angus Macfadyen as Allan Pinkerton, debuted in 2014.[28][29]Cole Hauser plays Charlie Siringo, a Pinkerton investigating Lizzie Borden, in the 2015 mini-series The Lizzie Borden Chronicles.In the Canadian-American television drama When Calls the Heart, Pinkerton security officers are employed by the mining company managed by Henry Gowen (Martin Cummins)Michael Dorn played Mr. Eastman, a detective sent by the Pinkerton Detective Agency to investigate the kidnapping of a wealthy man's wife, in the tenth episode of the second season of the TV series The Dead Man's Gun titled "The Pinkerton", which originally aired on October 30, 1998.Allan Pinkerton was portrayed by Charlie Day in the second-series episode of Drunk History entitled "Baltimore". The episode relays the story of Allan Pinkerton successfully protecting Abraham Lincoln, portrayed by Martin Starr, from assassination."Bloody Battles", the second episode of the 2012 miniseries The Men Who Built America, focuses on the relationship between Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick, which is damaged by the 1892 Homestead strike when Frick hires the Pinkertons.Mentioned in six episodes -- "Let Loose the Dogs," "Werewolves," ''Au Naturel,'' "Summer of '75," "Manual for Murder," and "Bad Pennies" '--of the 2008''present Canadian TV series Murdoch Mysteries.In the television series Deadwood, the Pinkertons are prominently featured as mercenaries paid for by George Hearst, the final season's antagonist.In the television mini-series North and South Book III (Based on "Heaven and Hell" by John Jakes), George Hazard hires a Pinkerton detective to track Elkana Bent for the suspected murder of his wife Constance Hazard.Video games [ edit ] The protagonist of the video game BioShock Infinite, Booker DeWitt, is an ex-Pinkerton and former member of the "goon squads" used by the agency to suppress strikes. One of the game's trophies, awarded for completing the highest difficulty, is titled "Stone Cold Pinkerton".In the online game Poptropica, Pinkerton's services are used to catch a thief on Mystery Train Island.Pinkerton detectives appear as antagonists in Red Dead Redemption 2. They appear primarily as mercenaries and investigators employed to track down the Van Der Linde gang after they stage a robbery in the town of Blackwater which resulted in several civilian deaths. The modern-day Pinkerton security company issued a cease-and-desist notice to Take-Two Interactive, publisher of Red Dead Redemption 2, in 2019 over the use of the company's trademarks[30] and the game's negative portrayal of Pinkertons as villains.[31] Take-Two filed a suit striking back at the cease-and-desist notice from Pinkerton, wanting a court to rule that its use of the Pinkerton name '-- as part of a game that emphasizes historical accuracy '-- was fair use, but on April 11, 2019, Pinkerton dismissed their lawsuit and settled out of court with Take-Two.[32]See also [ edit ] Anti-union organizations in the United StatesAnti-union violenceBaldwin''Felts Detective AgencyBattle of Blair MountainCoal and Iron Police, a Pinkerton-supervised private police force in PennsylvaniaColorado Labor WarsGeorge Samuel Dougherty, the private detective for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency from 1888''1911Morris Friedman, author of Pinkerton Labor SpyDashiell Hammett, author and former Pinkerton operativeHistorian J. Bernard Hogg, public reaction to Pinkertonism and the Labor QuestionIndustrial Workers of the WorldLabor spying in the United StatesFrank Little, American labor leader; lynched in 1917, allegedly by Pinkerton agentsList of worker deaths in United States labor disputesTimothy WebsterReferences [ edit ] ^ "Pinkerton Government Services, Inc.: Private Company Information '' Businessweek". investing.businessweek.com . Retrieved 24 September 2012 . ^ Green, James (2006). Death in the Haymarket: A Story of Chicago, the First Labor Movement, and the Bombing that Divided Gilded Age America. Pantheon Books. ISBN 0-375-42237-4. p. 43 ^ Seiple, Samantha (2015). Lincoln's spymaster : Allan Pinkerton, America's first private eye. New York: Scholastic Press. ISBN 978-0-545-70901-9. OCLC 922643750. ^ TM Becker (1974). "The place of private police in society: An area of research for the Social Sciences". Social Problems. 21 (3): 438''453. doi:10.1525/sp.1974.21.3.03a00110. JSTOR 799910. ^ "Strike at Homestead Mill". Public Broadcasting System . Retrieved 27 June 2015 . ^ Krause, Paul (1992). The Battle for Homestead, 1890-1892: Politics, Culture, and Steel. University of Pittsburgh Press. ISBN 0-8229-5466-4. p.20-21 ^ Krause, Paul; Krause, Paul; Paul Avrich Collection (Library of Congress) DLC (1992). The battle for Homestead, 1880-1892 : politics, culture, and steel. Internet Archive. Pittsburgh : University of Pittsburgh Press. ^ LinkedIn ^ Foner, Eric; Garraty, John Arthur, eds. (Oct 21, 1991). The Reader's Companion to American History. Houghton Mifflin Books. ISBN 0-395-51372-3. p. 842 ^ Robinson, Charles M (2005). American Frontier Lawmen 1850-1930. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 1-84176-575-9. p. 63 ^ Horan, James David; Howard Swiggett (1951). The Pinkerton Story. Putnam. p. 202 ^ Morn, Frank (1982). The Eye That Never Sleeps: A History of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-32086-0. p. 18 ^ Churchill, Ward (Spring 2004). "From the Pinkertons to the PATRIOT Act: The Trajectory of Political Policing in the United States, 1870 to the Present". The New Centennial Review. 4 (1): 1''72. doi:10.1353/ncr.2004.0016. Archived from the original on October 26, 2009. ^ 5 U.S. Code 3108; Public Law 89-554, 80 Stat. 416 (1966); ch. 208 (5th par. under "Public Buildings"), 27 Stat. 591 (1893). The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in U.S. ex rel. Weinberger v. Equifax, 557 F.2d 456 (5th Cir. 1977), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 1035 (1978), held that "The purpose of the Act and the legislative history reveal that an organization was 'similar' to the Pinkerton Detective Agency only if it offered for hire mercenary, quasi-military forces as strikebreakers and armed guards. It had the secondary effect of deterring any other organization from providing such services lest it be branded a 'similar organization.'" 557 F.2d at 462; see also "GAO Decision B-298370; B-298490, Brian X. Scott (Aug. 18, 2006)". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. ^ "White, J.J." Homicide in Chicago 1870-1930 . Retrieved 2011-03-16 . ^ "Rassmuson, Hans". Homicide in Chicago 1870-1930 . Retrieved 2011-03-16 . ^ "Miller, Frank". Homicide in Chicago 1870-1930 . Retrieved 2011-03-16 . ^ Peter Carlson, Roughneck: The Life and Times of Big Bill Haywood, W.W. Norton & Company, 1983, page 90 ^ Peter Carlson, Roughneck: The Life and Times of Big Bill Haywood, W.W. Norton & Company, 1983, page 140 ^ Clark, Thomas D. (1970). Indiana University Midwestern Pioneer: The Early Years. Bloomington & London: Indiana University Press. pp. 257''260. ISBN 0-253-14170-2. ^ Kellams, Dina (October 12, 2016). "Sincerely Yours: The Pinkerton Detective Agency". Blogging Hoosier History. Indiana University Libraries . Retrieved October 19, 2016 . ^ "Deputy Sheriff Edwin P. Daniels". The Officer Down Memorial Page (ODMP). ^ Williams, David Ricardo (1998). Call in Pinkerton's: American Detectives at Work for Canada . Toronto: Dundurn Press. ISBN 1-550023-06-3. ^ Morn, Frank (1982). The Eye That Never Sleeps: A History of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-32086-0. p. 188-189 ^ Morn, Frank (1982). The Eye That Never Sleeps: A History of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-32086-0. p. 192. ^ The Pinkertons Still Never Sleep, New Republic, 23 March 2018 ^ About Securitas USA (company site) ^ "The Pinkertons TV Series". Rosetta Media and Buffalo Gal Pictures . Retrieved 2014-10-11 . ^ Andreeva, Nellie (July 23, 2014). "Angus Macfadyen Set To Play Allan Pinkerton In Syndicated Drama Series 'The Pinkertons ' ". Deadline Hollywood. Penske Business Media, LLC . Retrieved 2014-10-11 . ^ "Rockstar defends Pinkerton name in 'Red Dead Redemption 2'", The Washington Post (Associated Press), January 19, 2019. ^ Nicholson, Tom. "The Actual Pinkerton Detective Agency Is Suing 'Red Dead Redemption 2'", Esquire, January 18, 2019. ^ Robertson, Adi (2019-04-11). "Take-Two dropped its lawsuit over Red Dead Redemption 2's Pinkerton agents". The Verge . Retrieved 2019-04-11 . Further reading [ edit ] Jonathan Obert. 2018. "Pinkertons and Police in Antebellum Chicago." in The Six-Shooter State: Public and Private Violence in American Politics. Cambridge University Press.Distler, A. David (2008). Anarchy in the Heartland-The Reno Gang Saga (A. Pinkerton & Sons direct involvement in 1868). Chagrin Falls, Ohio. ISBN 978-0-9705297-1-8. Jeffreys-Jones, Rhodri (2003). Cloak and Dollar: A History of American Secret Intelligence. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-10159-7. Friedman, Morris (1907). The Pinkerton's Labor Spy. New York: Wilshire Book Co . Retrieved 2009-07-08 . O'Hara, S. Paul Inventing the Pinkertons; or, Spies, Sleuths, Mercenaries, and Thugs (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2016). x, 194 pp.Siringo, Charles A. (1912). A Cowboy Detective: A True Story of Twenty-Two Years with a World-Famous Detective Agency. Chicago: W. B. Conkey Company . Retrieved 2009-07-08 . External links [ edit ] Official website Radio Programme with Ward Churchill

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Co-founder of the Black Panther Party

Robert George Seale (born October 22, 1936[1]) is an American political activist. He and fellow activist Huey P. Newton co-founded the Black Panther Party.[2]

Early life [ edit ] Seale is the eldest of three children. He has a younger brother, Jon, and a younger sister, Betty.[3] He was born in Liberty, Texas to George Seale, a carpenter, and Thelma Seale (n(C)e Traylor), a homemaker.[4] The Seale family lived in poverty during most of Bobby Seale's early life. After moving around Texas, first to Dallas, then to San Antonio, and Port Arthur, his family eventually relocated to Oakland, California when he was eight years old. Seale attended Berkeley High School, then dropped out and joined the United States Air Force in 1955.[5] He was discharged for bad conduct three years after he joined for fighting with a commanding officer[citation needed ] at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota.[4] After being dishonorably discharged from the Air Force, Seale worked as a sheet metal mechanic for various aerospace plants while studying for his high school diploma at night.[6] "I worked in every major aircraft plant and aircraft corporation, even those with government contracts. I was a top-flight sheet-metal mechanic".[7] After earning his high school diploma, Seale attended Merritt Community College where he studied engineering and politics until 1962.[8]

While at college, Bobby Seale joined the Afro-American Association (AAA), a group on the campus devoted to advocating black separatism. "I wanted to be an engineer when I went to college, but I got shifted right away since I became interested in American Black History and trying to solve some of the problems."[9] Through the AAA group, Seale met Huey P. Newton. In June 1966, Seale began working at the North Oakland Neighborhood Anti-Poverty Center in their summer youth program. Seale's objective was to teach the youth in the program Black American History and teach them a degree of responsibility towards the people living in their communities. While working in the program, Seale met Bobby Hutton, the first member of the Black Panther Party.[10]

Also at college, Seale became a member of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity.[11] He married Artie Seale, and had a son, Malik Nkrumah Stagolee Seale.[12]

Black Panthers [ edit ] Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton were heavily inspired by the teachings of activist Malcolm X, who was assassinated in 1965. The two joined together in October 1966 to create the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, which adopted the late activist's slogan "freedom by any means necessary" as their own. Before the Black Panther Party, Seale and Newton created a group known as the Soul Students Advisory Council. The group was organized so to allow it to function through "ultra-democracy," defined as individualism manifesting itself as an aversion to discipline. "The goal was to develop a college campus group that would help develop leadership; to go back to the black community and serve the black community in a revolutionary fashion".[13] Seale and Newton then created the Black Panther Party to organize the black community and express their desires and needs in order to resist the racism and classism perpetuated by the system. Seale described the Panthers as "an organization that represents black people and many white radicals relate to this and understand that the Black Panther Party is a righteous revolutionary front against this racist decadent, capitalistic system."[14]

Seale and Newton together wrote the doctrines "What We Want Now!" which Seale said were intended to be "the practical, specific things we need and that should exist" and "What We Believe," which outlines the philosophical principles of the Black Panther Party in order to educate the people and disseminate information about the specifics of the party's platform.[13] These writings were part of the party's Ten-Point Program, also known as "The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense Ten-Point Platform and Program," a set of guidelines to the Black Panther Party's ideals and ways of operation. Seale and Newton decided to name Newton Minister of Defense and Seale became the Chairman of the party.[15] During his time with the Panthers, he underwent surveillance by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as part of its COINTELPRO program.[16]

In 1968, Seale wrote Seize the Time: The Story of the Black Panther Party and Huey P. Newton, published in 1970.[7]

Seale on trial in 1970, State Attorney Arnold Markle in the background.

Bobby Seale was one of the original "Chicago Eight" defendants charged with conspiracy and inciting a riot in the wake of the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Bobby Seale, while in prison, stated, "To be a Revolutionary is to be an Enemy of the state. To be arrested for this struggle is to be a Political Prisoner."[17] The evidence against Seale was slim, as he was a last-minute replacement for activist Eldridge Cleaver and had been in Chicago for only two days of the convention.[18] During the trial, one of Seale's many vociferous protests led Judge Julius Hoffman to have him bound and gagged,[19] as commemorated in the song "Chicago" written by Graham Nash[20] and mentioned in the poem and song "H2Ogate Blues" by Gil Scott-Heron.[21] On November 5, 1969, Judge Hoffman sentenced him to four years in prison for 16 counts of contempt, each count for three months of his imprisonment because of his outbursts during the trial, and eventually ordered Seale severed from the case, leading to the proceedings against the remaining defendants being renamed the "Chicago Seven".[22] The trial of the "Chicago Eight" was depicted in the 1987 HBO television movie Conspiracy: The Trial of the Chicago 8, whose script relied heavily upon transcripts from the court proceedings. Seale was portrayed by actor Carl Lumbly.[23]

Demonstration for Black Panther Bobby Seale in Amsterdam March 14, 1970

While serving his four-year sentence, Seale was put on trial again in 1970 in the New Haven Black Panther trials. Several officers of the Panther organization had murdered a fellow Panther, Alex Rackley, who had confessed under torture to being a police informant.[24] The leader of the murder plan, George Sams, Jr., turned state's evidence and testified that Seale, who had visited New Haven only hours before the murder, had ordered him to kill Rackley. The trials were accompanied by a large demonstration in New Haven on May Day, 1970, which coincided with the beginning of the American college student strike of 1970. The jury was unable to reach a verdict in Seale's trial, and the charges were eventually dropped. The government suspended his convictions and Seale was released from prison in 1972.[4] While Seale was in prison, his wife, Artie, became pregnant, allegedly by fellow Panther Fred Bennett. Bennett's mutilated remains were found in a suspected Panther hideout in April 1971.[25] Seale was implicated in the murder, with police suspecting he had ordered it in retaliation for the affair, but no charges were pressed.[26] Seale wrote an article titled "One Less Oppressor" that shows appreciation of the murder of Bennett and stated, "The people have now come to realize that the only way to deal with the oppressor is to deal on our own terms and this was done."[27]

Seale ran for Mayor of Oakland, California in 1973.[28] He received the second-most votes in a field of nine candidates[4] but ultimately lost in a run-off with incumbent Mayor John Reading.[28] In 1974, Seale and Huey Newton argued over a proposed movie about the Panthers that Newton wanted Bert Schneider to produce. According to several accounts, the argument escalated to a fight in which Newton, backed by his armed bodyguards, allegedly beat Seale with a bullwhip so badly that Seale required extensive medical treatment for his injuries. Afterwards, he went into hiding for nearly a year, and ended his affiliation with the Party in 1974.[29][30] Seale denied any such physical altercation took place, dismissing rumors that he and Newton were ever less than friends.[31]

The Ten Point Platform [ edit ] Bobby Seale worked with Huey Newton to create the Ten Point platform. The platform was a political and social demand for the survival of the Black population in the United States. The two men formulated the Ten Point Platform in the late 60s, and these ideologies grew into the Black Panther Party. The document encapsulated the economic exploitation of the black body, and addressed the mistreatment of the black race. This document was attractive to those suffering under the oppressive nature of white power. The document takes the position that combination of racism and capitalism resulted in fascism in the United States. The Ten Point Platform lays out the need for full employment of blacks, the need for their shelter, and decent education; decent education meaning the real history of the United States, the history including the murder of Native Americans and the enslavement of Africans. The platform calls for the release of political prisoners.

The points are as follows[32]:

We Want Freedom. We Want Power To Determine The Destiny Of Our Black Community.We Want Full Employment For Our People.We Want An End To The Robbery By The Capitalists Of Our Black Community.We Want Decent Housing Fit For The Shelter Of Human Beings.We Want Education For Our People That Exposes The True Nature Of This Decadent American Society. We Want Education That Teaches Us Our True History And Our Role In The Present-Day Society.We Want All Black Men To Be Exempt From Military Service.We Want An Immediate End To Police Brutality And Murder Of Black People.We Want Freedom For All Black Men Held In Federal, State, County And City Prisons And Jails.We Want All Black People When Brought To Trial To Be Tried In Court By A Jury Of Their Peer Group Or People From Their Black Communities, As Defined By The Constitution Of The United States.We Want Land, Bread, Housing, Education, Clothing, Justice And Peace. Life after the Black Panthers [ edit ] In 1988, Bobby Seale wrote an autobiography titled A Lonely Rage. Also, in 1987, he wrote a cookbook called Barbeque'n with Bobby Seale: Hickory & Mesquite Recipes, the proceeds going to various non-profit social organizations.[33] Seale also advertised Ben & Jerry's ice cream.[34]

In 1998, Seale appeared on the television documentary series Cold War, discussing the events of the 1960s. Bobby Seale was the central protagonist alongside Kathleen Cleaver, Jamal Joseph and Nile Rodgers in the 1999 theatrical documentary 'Public Enemy' by Jens Meurer, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival. In 2002, Seale began dedicating his time to Reach!, a group focused on youth education programs. He has also taught black studies at Temple University in Philadelphia. Seale appears in Roberto Bola±o's last novel, 2666, renamed as Barry Seaman. Also in 2002, Seale moved back to Oakland, working with young political advocates to influence social change.[1] In 2006, he appeared in the documentary The U.S. vs. John Lennon to discuss his friendship with John Lennon. Seale has also visited over 500 colleges to share his personal experiences as a Black Panther and to give advice to students interested in community organizing and social justice.[citation needed ]

Since 2013, Seale has been seeking to produce a screenplay he wrote based on his autobiography, Seize the Time: The Eighth Defendant.[35][36]

Seale co-authored Power to the People: The World of the Black Panthers, a 2016 book with photographer Stephen Shames.[37]

Publications [ edit ] Seale, Bobby; Shames, Stephen. Power to the People: The World of the Black Panthers. Abrams: New York. 2016. ISBN 9781419722400Seale, Bobby. Seize the Time: The Story of the Black Panther Party and Huey P. Newton. Arrow Books and Hutchinson & Co., 2010. Reprint ISBN 0-933121-30-XSeale, Bobby. A Lonely Rage: The Autobiography of Bobby Seale, 1978. ISBN 0-8129-0715-9See also [ edit ] References [ edit ] ^ a b "Bobby Seale Biography". Biography.com. A&E Televsion Networks LLC . Retrieved April 29, 2020 . ^ "Huey P. Newton" . Retrieved September 1, 2016 . ^ "Bobby Seale". Black Panther Party. ^ a b c d Bobby Seale Archived March 16, 2010, at the Wayback Machine at Spartacus Educational ^ Bagley, Mark. Bobby Seale biography Archived June 11, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. Penn State University Libraries. Retrieved February 2, 2011. ^ "Bobby Seale" at Discover the Networks.org ^ a b Bobby Seale, Seize The Time: The Story of the Black Panther Party. ^ Civil Rights Movement: "Black Power" Era at Shmoop. ^ Seale, Bobby (1991). Seize The Time. Baltimore, MD: Black Classic Press. p.10 ^ Seale, Bobby (1991). Seize the Time: The Story of The Black Panther Party and Huey P. Newton. Baltimore, MD. pp. 35, 43. ^ Presyce Media Group. "Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc". Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. ^ Jason Mitchell, "Malcolm X's Influence on the Black Panther Party's Philosophy" Archived October 5, 2018, at the Wayback Machine, History in an Hour, June 15, 2012. ^ a b Seale, Bobby (1991). Seize The Time. Baltimore, MD: Black Classic Press. pp. 59''62. ISBN 0-933121-30-X. ^ The Black Panther Leaders Speak pp. 21-22, On Violent Revolution. ^ Seale, Bobby (1991). Seize The Time. Baltimore, MD: Black Classic Press. p. 62. ISBN 0-933121-30-X. ^ "Archival newsfilm footage of a Bobby Seale press conference on police intimidation, from 1966". diva.sfsu.edu. ^ The Black Panther Leaders Speak, p. 23. On Violent Revolution. ^ "A Special Supplement: The Trial of Bobby Seale". Nybooks.com . Retrieved March 25, 2013 . ^ iPad iPhone Android TIME TV Populist The Page (November 14, 1969). "Trials: Contempt in Chicago". TIME . Retrieved March 25, 2013 . ^ "Mr. Fish in Conversation With Graham Nash". Truthdig.com . Retrieved March 25, 2013 . ^ "H20-GATE BLUES (WATERGATE BLUES)". American-buddha.com. Archived from the original on May 15, 2012 . Retrieved March 25, 2013 . ^ [1] at Discover the Networks.org ^ "Maxine Michaels - Birthday SALUTE - Robert George "Bobby"... | Facebook". www.facebook.com . Retrieved September 1, 2016 . ^ "Two Controversial Cases in New Haven History: The Amistad Affair (1839) and The Black Panther Trials (1970)". Yale.edu . Retrieved March 25, 2013 . ^ "Remote Panther Hideout was Slaying Scene". The Palm Beach Post, April 21, 1971. ^ Jama Lazerow, Yohuru R. Williams. In Search of the Black Panther Party: New Perspectives on a Revolutionary Movement. Duke University Press. 2006, p. 170. ^ The Black Panther Leaders Speak, p. 24, On Violent Revolution. ^ a b Bobby Seale Archived February 1, 2014, at the Wayback Machine at Pennsylvania State University's online library ^ Kate Coleman and Paul Avery. The Party's Over. New Times. July 10, 1978. ^ Hugh Pearson, The Shadow of the Panther, 1994. ^ "Former Black Panther draws crowd of more than 600". Ur.umich.edu. January 23, 1996 . Retrieved March 25, 2013 . ^ "Black Panther's Ten-Point Program". www.marxists.org. ^ "Robert George Seale". Africawithin.com . Retrieved March 25, 2013 . ^ Gillespie, J. David (December 7, 2012). Challengers to Duopoly: Why Third Parties Matter in American Two-Party Politics. Univ of South Carolina Press. ISBN 9781611171129. ^ Obenson, Tambay A. (March 29, 2013). "Bobby Seale Still Fundraising For Scripted Black Panthers Life Story Feature Film". IndieWire.com . Retrieved August 30, 2018 . ^ Whiting, Sam (October 14, 2016). "Bobby Seale, Black Panthers founder, writes his own history". San Francisco Chronicle . Retrieved August 30, 2018 . ^ "Power to the People: The World of the Black Panthers". PublishersWeekly.com . Retrieved August 29, 2018 . Further reading [ edit ] Pearson, Hugh. The Shadow of the Panther: Huey P. Newton and the Price of Black Power in America. Addison-Wesley, 1994. ISBN 0-201-48341-6.External links [ edit ] American Black Journal, interview, 1978Swindle, interview, 2007Appearances on C-SPAN

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Sat, 20 Jun 2020 15:31

Mulford ActCaliforniaAB-1591: To Com. on Crim. Pro.

Enacted byRonald ReaganPassed1967EnactedJuly 29, 1967Legislative historyBillFirearms lawBill published onApril 5, 1967Introduced byDon Mulford, John T. Knox, Walter J. Karabian, Frank Murphy Jr., Alan Sieroty, William M. KetchumFirst readingApril 5, 1967Second readingJune 7, 1967Third readingJune 8, 1967First readingJune 8, 1967Second readingJune 27, 1967Third readingJuly 26, 1967The Mulford Act was a 1967 California bill that repealed a law allowing public carrying of loaded firearms. Named after Republican assemblyman Don Mulford, and signed into law by then governor of California, Ronald Reagan, the bill was crafted in response to members of the Black Panther Party who were lawfully conducting armed patrols of Oakland neighborhoods, in what would later be termed copwatching.[1] They garnered national attention after Black Panthers members, bearing arms, marched upon the California State Capitol to protest the bill.[2][3][4]

Assembly Bill 1591 was introduced by Don Mulford (R) from Oakland on April 5th, 1967, and subsequently co-sponsored by John T. Knox (D) from Richmond, Walter J. Karabian (D) from Monterey Park, Frank Murphy Jr. (R) from Santa Cruz, Alan Sieroty (D) from Los Angeles, and William M. Ketchum (R) from Bakersfield,[5]. AB-1591 was made an ''urgency statute'' under Article IV, §8(d) of the Constitution of California after ''an organized band of men armed with loaded firearms [...] entered the Capitol'' on May 2nd, 1967[6]; as such, it required a 2/3 majority in each house. It passed the Assembly (controlled by Democrats 42:38) at subsequent readings, passed the Senate (controlled by Democrats, 20:19) on July 26th by 29 votes to 7[7], and was signed by Governor Ronald Reagan on July 28th, 1967. The law banned the carrying of loaded weapons in public.[8]

Both Republicans and Democrats in California supported increased gun control, as did the National Rifle Association of America, a major supporter of the act. [9] Governor Ronald Reagan, who was coincidentally present on the capitol lawn when the protesters arrived, later commented that he saw "no reason why on the street today a citizen should be carrying loaded weapons" and that guns were a "ridiculous way to solve problems that have to be solved among people of good will." In a later press conference, Reagan added that the Mulford Act "would work no hardship on the honest citizen."[10]

The bill was signed by Reagan and became California penal code 25850 and 171c.

See also [ edit ] Black Panther PartyReferences [ edit ] Further reading [ edit ] Leonardatos, Cynthia Deitle (1999). "California's Attempts to Disarm the Black Panthers". San Diego Law Review. 36 (4): 947. Hemmens, Craig (July 2000). "Resisting Unlawful Arrest in Mississippi: Resisting the Modern Trend". California Criminal Law Review. 2 (1). SSRN 235760 . Hampton, Henry; Fayer, Steve (2011). "Birth of the Black Panthers, 1966''1967". Voices of Freedom: An Oral History of the Civil Rights Movement from the 1950s Through the 1980s. Random House. pp. 349''72. ISBN 978-0-307-57418-3. Sanders, Kindaka (2015). "A Reason to Resist: The Use of Deadly Force in Aiding Victims of Unlawful Police Aggression". San Diego Law Review. 52 (3): 695''750.

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Sat, 20 Jun 2020 15:14

ThuggeeGroup of Thugs around 1894

FoundedUnknown[1]Named afterSanskrit word for concealment[2]Founding locationCentral India and BengalYears activeUnknownTerritoryIndian subcontinentMembershipunknownActivitiesMurder, robberyRivalsBritish RajThuggee (, ) refers to the acts of Thugs, an organised gang of professional robbers and murderers. The English language word thug traces its roots to the Hindi ठग (ṭhag), which means 'swindler' or 'deceiver'. Related words are the verb thugna ('to deceive'), from the Sanskrit स्थग (sthaga 'cunning, sly, fraudulent') and स्थगतठ(sthagati, 'he conceals').[3] This term, describing the murder and robbery of travellers, was popular in the northern parts of the Indian subcontinent and particularly India.

Thugs are said to have travelled in groups across the Indian subcontinent.[4] There were numerous traditions about their origin. One recorded by D. F. McLeod traced it to some Muslim tribes formed from those who fled Delhi after murdering a physician. Another traced it to some great Muslim families who fled after murdering a favoured slave of Akbar.[5] These original Muslim Thugs spread Thuggee amongst Rajputs, Hindus, Lodhis and Ahirs.[6] According to other traditions by Thugs, they were Kanjars or descended from those who worked in the Mughal camps.[7][8] Others have blamed the rise of Thugs on the disbanding of armies in employment of Indian rulers after the British conquest.[9]Thugs are said to have operated as gangs of highway robbers, tricking and later strangling their victims.[10]

To take advantage of their victims, the thugs would join travellers and gain their confidence; this would allow them to surprise and strangle the travellers with a handkerchief or noose. They would then rob and bury their victims. This led to the thugs being called Phansigar (English: "using a noose" ), a term more commonly used in southern India.[11] During the 1830s, the thugs were targeted for eradication by the Governor-General of India, Lord William Bentinck, and his chief captain, William Henry Sleeman.

Contemporary scholarship is increasingly skeptical of the thuggee concept, and has questioned the existence of such a phenomenon,[12][13] which has led historians to describe thuggee as the invention of the British colonial regime.[14]

Modus operandi [ edit ] The Thuggee units would resemble the physical appearance of travellers. Initially they wore turbans and carried with themselves some kinds of baggage. Their attire as travelers would deceive peasants and royalty alike.

The methods used by Thuggee were meant to reap maximum loot without being caught. They did not accost travelers unless their own numbers were greater than the victims. They flattered travelers they met, which gave them a chance to assess what wealth their targets might have. Many of them avoided committing thuggee near the areas they lived, making discovering their crimes a difficult task.[15] They often pretended to be either Hindu or Muslim to fool their victims.[16]

They usually attacked in the evening. A common method used by them was to distract their targets while striking to strangle them from behind. In order to avoid suspicion, they avoided carrying more than a few swords.[17] Sometimes they mutilated corpses of their victims to avoid detection.[18] The corpses were then hidden or buried.[19]

A leader of a gang was called jemadar.[20] Usage of military-style ranks such as jemadar and subedar among Thugs as well as reference to individual members as a "private", suggests that the organisation of their gangs had a military link.[21]

They used a jargon known as Ramasee to disguise their true intentions from their targets.[18] Although strangulation is one of their most-recognised methods of murder, they also used blades and poison.[22]

The thugs comprised both men who had inherited thuggee as a family vocation, as well as those who were forced to turn to it out of necessity.[23] The leadership of many of the groups tended to be hereditary with family members sometimes serving together in the same band. Such Thugs were known as aseel.[24] Many Thugs insisted, however, that novices were not taught Thuggee by their family but by others who were often more experienced Thugs, sometimes also called a guru.[25] While they usually kept their acts a secret, female thugs also existed and were called baronee in Ramasee, while an important male Thug was called baroo.[26]

They would often avoid killing children of victims and instead adopted them.[27] They sometimes tended to murder women and children to eliminate witnesses or in case they had substantial loot.[28] Some of the thugs avoided murdering victims they considered proscribed according to their beliefs and let other unscrupulous members commit the murder or were forced to let them by those who did not believe in their customs like the Muslim thugs.[29]

History [ edit ] The earliest known reference to the Thugs as a band or fraternity, rather than ordinary thieves, is found in Ziau-d din Barni's History of Firoz Shah (written about 1356).[30] He narrated an incident of the sultan Jalal-ud-din Khalji having 1,000 arrested thugs being sent to Lakhnauti or Gaur:[31]

In the reign of that sultan [about 1290], some Thugs were taken in Delhi, and a man belonging to that fraternity was the means of about a thousand being captured. But not one of these did the sultan have killed. He gave orders for them to be put into boats and to be conveyed into the lower country, to the neighbourhood of Lakhnauti, where they were to be set free. The Thugs would thus have to dwell about Lakhnauti and would not trouble the neighbourhood of Delhi any more.

'--'‰Sir HM Elliot, History of India, iii. 141

Surdas, in his allegorical couplet, mentioned robbers called "thags" who lured a victim while also killing and looting his property. The Janamsakhis used the term thag to refer to a robber who used to lure pilgrims. Jean de Th(C)venot in his account referred to a band of robbers who used a "certain Slip with a running noose" to strangle their victims. John Fryer also mentions a similar method of strangling used by robbers from Surat whom he saw being given capital punishment by the Mughals in 1675. He mentioned that three of them were relatives, which Kim Wagner notices is similar to the Thugs who were thought to have engaged in this as a family profession. A decree issued by Aurangzeb in 1672 refers to a similar method and uses the term "Phansigar".[32]

Guru Multhoo Byragee Jogee, a native of Ajmere aged 90, in jail (1840)

Murdan Khan and gang from

Lucknow (1840)

Watercolour (1837) by unknown artist of three Thugs strangling a traveller; one holds his feet, another his hands and a third tightens the ligature around his neck. Created in

Lucknow, based on descriptions from imprisoned Thug leaders (Dash, 2005)

Sketch by the same artist of a group of Thugs stabbing the eyes of murdered travellers before throwing the bodies into a well.

The garrote is often depicted as a weapon of the Thuggee.[33][34] Other evidences suggest that the Katar (dagger) was their personal status weapon, the Thuggee wore this weapon proudly across their chest. Early references to Thugs reported they committed their strangulation murders with nooses of rope or catgut, but later they adopted the use of a length of cloth that could be used as a sash or scarf, and thus more easily concealed.[35] This cloth is sometimes described as a rumāl (head covering or kerchief), translated as "yellow scarf"; "yellow", in this case, may refer to a natural cream or khaki colour rather than bright yellow.

The Thug preference for strangulation might have originated in a quirk of the law under the Mughal Empire, which ruled most of India from the 1500s.[35] For a murderer to be sentenced to death, he or she must have shed the blood of their victim. Those who murdered but did not shed blood might face imprisonment, hard labor and paying a penalty'--but they would not risk execution.

A poison called datura, derived from a plant in the Nightshade family, was sometimes used by Thugs to induce drowsiness or stupefaction, making strangulation easier.[35]

The "River Thugs" preyed upon people including Hindu pilgrims travelling using the Ganga river and became mostly active during the winter like their compatriots from Murnae, Bundelkhand and Awadh. Their dialect of Ramasee differed from the one used by their compatriots on land and used boats taken on lease from their builders or from a jemadar called Khuruck Baboo. Sleeman states that they tapped three times to give the signal to murder which they always committed during the day. To avoid detection of a corpse, they broke its back and threw it in the river to be eaten by crocodiles and only looted money or jewels.[36]

British suppression [ edit ] William Henry Sleeman, superintendent of the Thuggee and Dacoity Department

The British found out about them in Southern India for the first time in 1807, while in North India they were discovered in 1809 with an effort to suppress them being carried out from 1809''1812.[37]

After a dispute developed between the zamindar Tejun and the Thug Ghasee Ram in 1812, the latter took refuge with his family under another landlord called Laljee. Tejun in turn revealed the thugs of Sindouse to Nathaniel Halhed.[38] Thomas Perry, the magistrate of Etawah, assembled some soldiers of the East India Company under the command of Halheld in 1812 to suppress the Thugs.[39] Laljee and his forces including over 100 Thugs were defeated, with the village of Murnae, a headquarter of the Thugs, destroyed and burnt by the Company soldiers.[40] Laljee fled to Rampura and the southern banks of Sindh River but was caught by the Marathas who turned him over to the Company.[41][42]

British authorities had occasionally captured and prosecuted Thugs, circulating information about these cases in newsletters or the journal Asiatick Researches of The Asiatic Society. However, Sleeman seems to have been the first to realize that information obtained from one group of stranglers might be used to track and identify other thugs in a different district. His first major breakthrough was the capture of "Feringhea" (also known as Syeed Amir Ali, Khuda Buksh, Deahuct Undun and Daviga Persaud[10]), who was persuaded to turn King's evidence. (Feringhea's story was the basis of the successful 1839 novel Confessions of a Thug). Feringhea brought Sleeman to a mass grave with a hundred bodies, told him the circumstances of the murders and named the Thugs who had committed them.[43]

After initial investigations confirmed what Feringhea had said, Sleeman began an extensive campaign using profiling and intelligence. Sleeman was made superintendent of the Thuggee and Dacoity Department in 1835, an organ of the Indian government first established by the East India Company in 1830.[44] (Dacoity was a type of organized banditry, distinguished from Thugs most notably by its open practice and due to the fact that murder was not an intrinsic element of their modus operandi.) Sleeman developed elaborate intelligence techniques that pre-dated similar methods in Europe and the US by decades.[35]

Records were made in which the accused were given prisoner numbers, against which their names, residences, fellow thugs, and the criminal acts for which they were blamed were also noted.[citation needed ] Many thugs' names were similar; they often lacked surnames since the Thuggee naming convention was to use the names of their tribes, castes and job assignments in the gangs.[citation needed ] Accurate recording was also difficult because the thugs adopted many aliases, with both Muslim and Hindu thugs often posing as members of the other religion.[citation needed ] Per the Thug Ghulam Hussain, though Hindus and Muslims avoided eating together, such was not the case for drinking and smoking.[16][10]

The campaign relied heavily on captured Thugs who became informants. These informants were offered protection on the condition that they told everything that they knew. According to historian Mike Dash, who carefully examined the relevant documents in the UK archives, suspects were subject to bench trials before English judges. Though the trials were lacking by later standards (e.g., suspects were not allowed legal representation), they were conducted with care to protocols of the time. While most suspects were convicted, Dash notes that the courts genuinely seemed interested in finding the truth and rejected a minority of allegations due to mistaken identity or insufficient evidence. Even by later standards, Dash argues, the evidence of guilt for many Thugs was often overwhelming.[35]

Because they used boats and disposed of their victims in rivers,[45] the "River Thugs" were able to evade the British authorities for some time after their compatriots on land were suppressed.[citation needed ] They were ultimately betrayed to the authorities by one of their compatriots, from Awadh.[citation needed ] Forces under Sleeman's command hunted them down in 1836.[46]

Aftermath [ edit ] By the 1870s the Thug cult was essentially extinct, but the history of Thuggee led to the Criminal Tribes Act (CTA) of 1871. Although the CTA was repealed at Indian independence, tribes considered criminal still exist in India.[47][48] The Thuggee and Dacoity Department remained in existence until 1904, when it was replaced by the Central Criminal Intelligence Department (CID).

In Following the Equator, Mark Twain wrote about an 1839 government report by William Henry Sleeman:[43]

There is one very striking thing which I wish to call attention to. You have surmised from the listed callings followed by the victims of the Thugs that nobody could travel the Indian roads unprotected and live to get through; that the Thugs respected no quality, no vocation, no religion, nobody; that they killed every unarmed man that came in their way. That is wholly true '-- with one reservation. In all the long file of Thug confessions an English traveler is mentioned but once'--and this is what the Thug says of the circumstance:

"He was on his way from Mhow to Bombay. We studiously avoided him. He proceeded next morning with a number of travellers who had sought his protection, and they took the road to Baroda."

We do not know who he was; he flits across the page of this rusty old book and disappears in the obscurity beyond; but he is an impressive figure, moving through that valley of death serene and unafraid, clothed in the might of the English name.

We have now followed the big official book through, and we understand what Thuggee was, what a bloody terror it was, what a desolating scourge it was. In 1830 the English found this cancerous organisation embedded in the vitals of the empire, doing its devastating work in secrecy, and assisted, protected, sheltered, and hidden by innumerable confederates'--big and little native chiefs, customs officers, village officials, and native police, all ready to lie for it, and the mass of the people, through fear, persistently pretending to know nothing about its doings; and this condition of things had existed for generations, and was formidable with the sanctions of age and old custom. If ever there was an unpromising task, if ever there was a hopeless task in the world, surely it was offered here'--the task of conquering Thuggee. But that little handful of English officials in India set their sturdy and confident grip upon it, and ripped it out, root and branch! How modest do Captain Vallancey's words sound now, when we read them again, knowing what we know:

"The day that sees this far-spread evil completely eradicated from India, and known only in name, will greatly tend to immortalise British rule in the East."

It would be hard to word a claim more modestly than that for this most noble work.

'--'‰Chapter xlvi, conclusion

Thug view [ edit ] The Thugs Worshipping Kalee, around 1850

[49]Although Thugs trace their origins back to Kali's fabled battle against Raktabija, their foundation is closer to tantric[disambiguation needed ] cults which depart from Vedic versions and Puranic narrations. Thugs considered themselves to be the children of Kali, having been created from her sweat.[50] However, many of the Thugs who were captured and convicted by the British were Muslims,[51] perhaps up to a third.[35]

According to colonial sources, Thugs believed that they played a positive role in saving human lives. Without the Thugs' sacred service, Kali might destroy all mankind:

"It is God who kills, but Bhowanee has [a] name for it.""God is all in all, for good and evil.""God has appointed blood for [Bhowanee's] food, saying 'khoon tum khao': feed thou upon blood. In my opinion it is very bad, but what can she do, being ordered to subsist upon blood!""Bhowanee is happy and more so in proportion to the blood that is shed."[52]The Muslim thugs while retaining their monotheistic faith, had functionalised Bhavani for Thuggee and she was syncretised as a spirit subordinate to Allah. A Muslim thug caught by Sleeman stated "In my heart, I take the name of God, when I strangle a man '' saying "thou God and ruler!" "Alla, toomee Malik!" I do not pray to Bhowanee, but I worship her." Other Muslim thugs who had agreed to testify for Sleeman, stated they had assimilated Bhavani with Islamic prophet Muhammad's daughter Fatimah who killed Raktabija and started the practice of Thuggee.[53]

According to historian Mike Dash, the Thugs had no religious motive to kill. When religious elements were present among Thugs, their beliefs, in principle, were little different from the religious beliefs of many others who lived on the Indian subcontinent and attributed their success or failure to supernatural powers: "Indeed all of the Thugs's legends which concerned the goddess [Kali] featured exactly the cautionary notes which are typically found in folklore."[35]

Donald Friell McLeod who led the campaign against them in the Rajputana Agency, recorded the traditions of their origins. According to them, they were originally Muslims and were taught Thugee by the deity Devi or Bhavani. They then joined the Lodha people and migrated to Delhi where 84 tribes which were a part of all the criminal clans of India also became a part of the Thugs. A physician who belonged to these 84 tribes gained prominence after curing a royal elephant and was murdered by other Thugs. A schism developed and they left Delhi, which in turn led to the origin of seven Muslim tribes. According to McLeod, these tribes were named Bhyns, Bursot, Kachinee, Hutar, Kathur Gugra, Behleem and Ganoo. According to him, the thugs from Delhi were separated into more than 12 "classes".[54]

The earliest recorded traditions about the origins of the Thugs date back to 1760. Based on genealogies which were recounted by some Thugs, historian Mike Dash stated that the origin of the Thuggee can be dated back to the second half of the 17th century. A general consensus among them was that they originated in Delhi. The thug Gholam Hossyn who was caught in early 1800s stated that his accomplices believed that Thugs had existed since the time of Alexander the Great. Another tradition among Thugs who lived in the early 1800s stated that they had lived in Delhi till the time of Akbar and consisted of seven great Muslim clans, though they had Hindu names, during the period. After one of them killed a favoured slave of Akbar, they left Delhi for other regions in order to avoid being targeted by the emperor.[5] A Brahmin thug who was interrogated by Sleeman referred to the Muslim thugs as "Kunjurs" or Kanjars though another Thug denied this.[7]

Kim Wagner asserts that we can analyse their traditions about events after their flight from Delhi "to a much greater advantage". A tradition which was recounted by a captive Thug stated that the Thugs had originally tried to settle in Agra and they later settled in Akoopore in the Doab region. However, they had to flee to Himmutpur and later they fled to Parihara after their kings started demanding a larger share of the loot. In turn the original Muslim Thugs helped spread Thuggee amongst other groups like the Brahmins, Rajputs, Hindus, the Lodhi people and the Ahir people.[55]

One thug stated that some of the ancestors of the Thugs were forced to disguise themselves as Khunjurs while they were fleeing Delhi but they were high-caste Muslims. He, however, stated that their claimed descent may be wrong and some of them may be partially descended from poor people who worked in the Mughal army's camps. However, their claim that membership in the Thugs' clans was closed to outsiders is contradicted by the fact that people of all backgrounds were allowed to join them by the early 19th century according to available evidence.[8]

They considered it sinful to kill women, fakirs, bards, musicians and dancers.[56] Like the ancient Hindu texts which distinguished robbery from the murder of Brahmans, women or children as violent crimes, many Thugs considered it taboo to kill people who belonged to such categories.[57] Those who worked in lowly professions, the diseased and disabled were also forbidden as victims based on their folk belief.[58] The thugs who broke these rules of the fraternity were often believed to have been targeted by divine punishment and their manner of death was thought to depend upon the rules they broke.[59]

Sects [ edit ] The East India Company officers since the time of Thomas Perry, who was appointed to Etawah in 1811, came to understand that there were many Thug groups and they all viewed themselves to be different than the other groups.[60]

The Thug sects were mostly identified based on their habitat, but also based on their professions. The sect called Jamuldahee was named so because its members lived along the Yamuna river, they hailed from the Doab and Awadh regions. Another stated origin is that their ancestor was the Thug Jumulud Deen. The Telinganie originated from Telangana, Arcottees from Arcot and Beraries from Berar. The Lodaha sect, mostly concentrated in Bihar, were caravaneers named after the lodha or load they carried and according to a Thug from the Doab, originated from the same ancestors of his clan. The Lodahas were prevalent in the region around Nepal in Bihar and Bengal during the tenure of Perry and originally hailed from Awadh which they left around 1700. A Deccan Thug stated that the "Hindu Thugs of Talghat", located around the Krishna River, didn't marry with the Telinganies whom they considered to be descendants of lower classes as a result of their professions.[61][62] The Telinganie sect were also disparagingly called Handeewuls (from handi) due to their eating habits.[63]

The Pungoo or Bungoo of Bengal derived their name from the region, with the Lodhees or Lodaha also present. The Motheea sect of Rampur-Purnia region was from a caste of weavers and their name derived from the practice of giving "handful" (muhti) of the spoils to the head. In the Uttar Pradesh the sects were: the Korkureeas from Kohrur, Agureeas of Agra, Jumaldahees, Lodhees and Tundals. The Multaneea were from Multan. In Madhya Pradesh the sects were: Bangureeas or Banjaras, Balheems or Bulheems, Khokhureeas and Soopurreeas of Sheopur. In modern Rajasthan, the sects were Guguras whose name derives from river Ghaggar and Sooseeas who were part of the Dhanuk clan. The Dhoulanee sect existed in modern-day Maharashtra. The Duckunies of Deccan were from Munirabad and Kurnaketies from Carnatic region. Another sect was Kathurs whose name derives from a bowl called kathota, based on a tradition of a man who held it during celebrations by Thugs. The Qulundera sect's name was derived from the Muslim saints called qalandar. There were also Jogee thugs who were divided into twelve sub-groups.[64]

According to Feringheea, the Brahmins of Tehngoor village of Parihar were taught the Thuggee after they accompanied the kings of Meos to Delhi and later helped in spreading it in the region around Murnae. He also states that two of his ancestors who had settled and intermarried with Brahmins of Murnae about seven generations ago, which led to the introduction of Thuggee in the area. A Thug hailing from Shikohabad whilst talking of his clan's origin recounted to Perry a tradition that the Munhars were influenced to take up Thuggee after witnessing the immense plunder acquired by Afghans, Mewatties and the Sheikhs.[65]

Sleeman in 1839 identified a band called "Meypunnaists" who he stated abducted children to sell them further. Another band called "Tashmabazes" who utilised methods introduced by a British soldier deployed at Kanpur in 1802 were also identified by him.[66] The group called "River Thugs" were based deep in the South Bengal region.[46]

Colonial British view [ edit ] The British view of the Thuggee was merely as a form of ritual murder by Kali-worshippers. Sleeman's view of it as an aberrant faith was based on the contemporary British view of Hinduism as a despicable and immoral faith of idol worship.[67] R. C. Sherwood in Asiatick Resarches published in 1820 traces this phenomenon back to the Muslim conquests of India and suggested links to Hindu mythology.[68] Charles Trevelyan however instead of seeing them as a deviant sect, considered them to be representatives of the "essence" of Hinduism which he considered as "evil" and "false".[69] Sleeman considered some Brahmins acted as intelligence providers to Thugs, claiming that they profited from Thuggee and directed it.[70]

Kali's worship by thugs, both Muslims and Hindus, was emphasised by the British. McLeod commented, "It is a notable fact that not only amongst the Thugs, but in an especial manner among all lawless fraternities, and to a certain extent throughout the uneducated population of Central India, the Mussulmans vie with the Hindus in a devotion of this sanguinary deity (Devi or Bhavani) far exceeding that they pay to any other."[71] David Ochterlony blamed the Pindaris for the rise of Thuggee while Sleeman blamed it on Indian rulers dismissing their armies which took away the jobs of many soldiers.[9] Based on Sleeman's writings about the Thugs, Robert Vane Russell claimed that most of them were Kanjars. He viewed the Muslim Kanjars as having recently converted to Islam.[7]

Alexander Cunningham in 1882 had commented on Hiouen-Thsang's remarks about "people who visited Kahalgaon forgot to leave it", stating that the actual reason might have been different than what the monk meant and made an analogy of it with Kahalgaon's later reputation as a place frequented by the "River Thugs".[31]

Dispute and skepticism [ edit ] Contemporary scholars are increasingly skeptical of the "thuggee" concept, and have questioned the existence of such a phenomenon.[12][13] The representation of Thuggee by British colonizer thuggee is said by some critics to be full of inconsistencies and exaggerations; however the more radical critics in this camp have themselves been criticized for overly focusing on the British perception of thuggee rather than on the historical accuracy of primary source documents.[72] Numerous historians have described "thuggee" as basically the invention of the British colonial regime.[73]

Martine van Woerkens of ‰cole Pratique des Hautes ‰tudes writes that evidence for a Thug cult in the 19th century was the product of "colonial imaginings", arising from British fear of the little-known interior of India, as well as limited understanding of the religious and social practices of its inhabitants.[74]

Cynthia Ann Humes states that the testimony of most of the thugs captured by Sleeman does not support his view of priests profiting from and directing the Thugs. She adds that the Islamic idea of fate or Iqbal was more commonly invoked during Thuggee acts, while invoking the Hindu Bhavani was rare.[70]

Historian Kim Wagner views the policies of East India Company in relation to the dismissal of armies of the conquered Indian kingdoms as being responsible for the development of Thuggee. Roaming bands of freelance soldiers had often joined one kingdom or another during the pre-British era, with the main income of many armies coming from plunder. After being dismissed from military service, they turned to robbery as a means of subsistence.[9] He also contested whether the thugs mentioned by Firuz Shah Tughlaq's biography were actually the same Thugs the British authorities fought against.[75]

Sagnik Bhattacharya agrees with the skeptics and claims the thug-phenomenon to be nothing but a manifestation of the fear of the Unknown that dawned on the British Raj at the thought of being alone in the wilderness of Central India. Using literary and legal sources, he has connected the 'information panic' of the thug-phenomenon to the limitations of British demographic models that fell short of truly capturing the ethnic diversity of India. He calls the thug panic of the 1830s'--the Raj's angst at realizing its own ignorance of local society.[76]

In popular culture [ edit ] Sikh Guru Nanak's Janamsakhis describes an encounter with a Thug Sheikh Sajjan[77]The 1839 novel Confessions of a Thug by Philip Meadows Taylor is based on the Thuggee cult, revolving around a fictional Thug who is named Ameer[78] Ali. The novel popularized the word "thug" in the English language.Several of Emilio Salgari's Sandokan novels describe a struggle with the Thugs. The first of them '' I misteri della jungla nera (1887) '' was originally published with the title Gli strangolatori del Gange ('The stranglers of the Ganges').The 1931 crime novel The Case of the Frightened Lady by Edgar Wallace makes an indirect reference to the Thuggee murders by featuring "Indian scarves" which are used as murder weapons, as do its 1940 and 1963 West German film adaptations.The 1939 film Gunga Din features British soldiers' conflict with a resurgent sect of Thuggee cultists.The Thuggees and their method of killing are made reference to in the 1945 film Hangover Square.Sympathy For The Devil (1968), a song by The Rolling Stones, features the lyrics: "And I laid traps for the troubadors / Who get killed before they reach Bombay" possibly referring to the murder of Tibetan musicians by Thuggee cultists.The Stranglers of Bombay (1959), is a film which is centered around a lone British officer who investigates and uncovers the doings of the Thuggee cult.Help! (1965), a film which revolves around The Beatles' encounters with an Eastern Cult, is thought to parody the Thuggee.Sunghursh (1968), an Indian Bollywood film, gives a fictionalized account of a thug who tries not to join his family business which is ThuggeeThe Deceivers (1988) is an adventure film about the murderous Thugs of India which is based on the 1952 John Masters novel with the same name. Pierce Brosnan plays William Savage, a tax-collector for a British-Indian company who goes under cover in 1825 in order to investigate a Thuggee sect.Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) showcases the Thuggee cult with fictionalized religious ritual and the primary antagonist, Mola Ram, being a Thuggee High Priest of Kali.The fictional DC Comics villain Ravan (starting 1987), a member of the Suicide Squad, is a modern-day member of the Thuggee cult.The Black Company, a dark fantasy series by Glen Cook, features a cult called the Deceivers, largely based on the Thuggee, which plays a major role in the later novels.Ameer Ali thug na peela rumal ni gaanth, a novel in 3 parts by the famous Gujarati thriller writer Harkisan Mehta, is a fictionalized account of the thug Amir Ali, with references to the infamous Pindari chief Chitu Pindari.Theeran Adhigaaram Ondru (2017; Tamil) an honest police officer finds himself transferred again and again due to his sincerity. After his latest transfer, he comes across a file that involves a gang of ruthless thieves who loot and kill along the highway. A group of 13 people whose roots go back to these Thuggee tribes whose members camouflaged themselves as logistics and goods delivery vendors and plundered random cities and brutally murdered families, including women and children. Tamil Nadu police took this matter seriously when a member of the legislative assembly was victimized. This cult was brought down after a country-wide operation was conducted with limited resources for over 18 months.Thugs of Hindostan (2018) is a Bollywood epic action-adventure film about a band of Thugs which resists the British East India Company's rule in India. The film stars Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan, Katrina Kaif, Fatima Sana Shaikh and Lloyd Owen.Many novels by the Italian writer Emilio Salgari which are about Sandokan's adventures feature the Thug as enemies of the heroes. His novel I misteri della giungla nera (1895) revolves around the main character Tremal Naik's fight to save Ada Corisant, the daughter of a British officer, who has been kidnapped by the Thugs.Ebong Inquistion, a Bengali novel series by Avik Sarkar, also features detailed events in which the Thuggees are the key participants, with references to Sleeman, Feringhea, Khuda Baksh and others.Kali Yug, la dea della vendetta and Il mistero del tempio indianofilms by Mario Camerini (1963) features Klaus Kinski and Omar Sharif as Thug leaders.The strategy game Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties features Thuggees and dacoits, both of whom are available to players as hired mercenaries, though they are somewhat inaccurately depicted as using pistols and muskets.References [ edit ] ^ K. Wagner (2007). Thuggee: Banditry and the British in Early Nineteenth-Century India. Springer. p. 26. ISBN 978-0-230-59020-5. ^ "Thuggees '' the Cult Assassins of India". ancient-origins.net. 2 October 2014. ^ "Thugs". 1902encyclopedia.com . Retrieved 1 October 2017 . ^ "Tracing India's cult of Thugs". 3 August 2003. Los Angeles Times. ^ a b Mike Dash (3 February 2011). Thuggee: Banditry and the British in Early Nineteenth-Century India. Granta. pp. 28, 36 & 37. ISBN 978-1-84708-473-6. ^ K. Wagner (2007). Thuggee: Banditry and the British in Early Nineteenth-Century India. Springer. p. 154; 155. ISBN 978-0-230-59020-5. ^ a b c Martine van Woerkens (3 February 2011). The Strangled Traveler: Colonial Imaginings and the Thugs of India. University of Chicago Press. p. 136. ISBN 978-0-226-85086-3. ^ a b Mike Dash (3 February 2011). Thuggee: Banditry and the British in Early Nineteenth-Century India. Granta. p. 37. ISBN 9781847084736. ^ a b c K. Wagner (2007). Thuggee: Banditry and the British in Early Nineteenth-Century India. Springer. p. 92. ISBN 9780230590205. ^ a b c David Scott Katsan (2006). The Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature, Volume 1. Oxford University Press. p. 141. ISBN 9780195169218. ^ R.V. Russell; R.B.H. Lai (1995). The tribes and castes of the central provinces of India. Asian Educational Services. p. 559. ISBN 978-81-206-0833-7 . Retrieved 19 April 2011 . ^ a b Cristina M. Gmez-Fernndez; Om P. Dwivedi (2014). Tabish Khair: Critical Perspectives. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN 9781443857888. ^ a b MacFie, Alexander Lyon (2008). "Thuggee: An orientalist construction?". Rethinking History. 12 (3): 383''397. doi:10.1080/13642520802193262. ^ S. Shankar (2001). Textual Traffic: Colonialism, Modernity, and the Economy of the Text. SUNY Press. ISBN 978-0791449929. ^ Mike Dash (3 February 2011). Thug: The True Story Of India's Murderous Cult. p. 33. ISBN 9781847084736. ^ a b Mike Dash (3 February 2011). Thuggee: Banditry and the British in Early Nineteenth-Century India. Granta. p. 193. ISBN 9781847084736. ^ Mike Dash (3 February 2011). Thug: The True Story Of India's Murderous Cult. p. 77. ISBN 9781847084736. ^ a b Mike Dash (3 February 2011). Thug: The True Story Of India's Murderous Cult. p. 73. ISBN 9781847084736. ^ Mike Dash (3 February 2011). Thug: The True Story Of India's Murderous Cult. p. 79. ISBN 9781847084736. ^ Mike Dash (3 February 2011). Thug: The True Story Of India's Murderous Cult. p. 67. ISBN 9781847084736. ^ Kim Wagner (12 July 2007). Thuggee: Banditry and the British in Early Nineteenth-Century India. p. 110. ISBN 9780230590205. ^ Kim Wagner (12 July 2007). Thuggee: Banditry and the British in Early Nineteenth-Century India. p. 116. ISBN 9780230590205. ^ Kim Wagner (12 July 2007). Thuggee: Banditry and the British in Early Nineteenth-Century India. p. 135. ISBN 9780230590205. ^ Mike Dash (3 February 2011). Thug: The True Story Of India's Murderous Cult. p. 87. ISBN 9781847084736. ^ Mike Dash (3 February 2011). Thug: The True Story Of India's Murderous Cult. p. 84. ISBN 9781847084736. ^ Martine van Woerkens (November 2002). The Strangled Traveler: Colonial Imaginings and the Thugs of India. p. 146. ISBN 9780226850856. ^ Kim Wagner. Thuggee: Banditry and the British in Early Nineteenth-Century India. p. 107. ^ Martine van Woerkens. The Strangled Traveler: Colonial Imaginings and the Thugs of India. p. 147. ^ Mike Dash. Thug: The True Story Of India's Murderous Cult. p. 92. ^ "Thug '' Indian bandit". Britannica.com . Retrieved 1 October 2017 . ^ a b Martine van Woerkens (2002). The Strangled Traveler: Colonial Imaginings and the Thugs of India. University of Chicago Press. p. 110. ISBN 9780226850856. ^ K. Wagner (2007). Thuggee: Banditry and the British in Early Nineteenth-Century India. Springer. p. 26; 27; 28. ISBN 9780230590205. ^ Richard James Popplewell (1995). Intelligence and imperial defence: British intelligence and the defence of the Indian Empire, 1904''1924. Frank Cass. p. 11. ISBN 978-0-7146-4580-3 . Retrieved 16 April 2011 . ^ Lois H. Gresh; Robert Weinberg (4 April 2008). Why Did It Have To Be Snakes: From Science to the Supernatural, The Many Mysteries of Indiana Jones. John Wiley and Sons. pp. 104''107. ISBN 978-0-470-22556-1 . Retrieved 16 April 2011 . ^ a b c d e f g Dash, Mike Thug: the true story of India's murderous cult ISBN 1-86207-604-9, 2005 ^ Mike Dash (3 February 2011). Thuggee: Banditry and the British in Early Nineteenth-Century India. Granta. p. 247; 248; 249. ISBN 9781847084736. ^ K. Wagner (2007). Thuggee: Banditry and the British in Early Nineteenth-Century India. Springer. pp. 7, 8. ISBN 9780230590205. ^ K. Wagner (2007). Thuggee: Banditry and the British in Early Nineteenth-Century India. Springer. p. 167. ISBN 9780230590205. ^ Mike Dash (3 February 2011). Thuggee: Banditry and the British in Early Nineteenth-Century India. Granta. p. 193. ISBN 9781847084736. ^ Mike Dash (3 February 2011). Thuggee: Banditry and the British in Early Nineteenth-Century India. Granta. p. 48. ISBN 9781847084736. ^ Mike Dash (3 February 2011). Thuggee: Banditry and the British in Early Nineteenth-Century India. Granta. p. 49. ISBN 9781847084736. ^ K. Wagner (2007). Thuggee: Banditry and the British in Early Nineteenth-Century India. Springer. p. 168. ISBN 9780230590205. ^ a b Twain, Mark (18 August 2006). Following the Equator (ASCII) . EBook. Project Gutenberg . Retrieved 27 February 2011 . ^ Giriraj Shah (1 January 1993). Image Makers: An Attitudinal Study of Indian Police. Abhinav Publications. p. 52. ISBN 978-81-7017-295-6 . Retrieved 15 September 2019 . ^ Sleeman, Sir William Henry (1839). The Thugs or Phansigars of India: comprising a history of the rise and progress of that extraordinary fraternity of assassins; and a description of the system which it pursues, and of the measures which have been adopted by the supreme government of India for its suppression, Vol. 2. Carey & Hart. p. 159 . Retrieved 15 September 2019 . ^ a b Mike Dash (3 February 2011). Thuggee: Banditry and the British in Early Nineteenth-Century India. Granta. p. 249. ISBN 9781847084736. ^ "Thugs Traditional View". BBC. Archived from the original (shtml) on 17 October 2007 . Retrieved 17 September 2007 . ^ Sinister sects: Thug, Mike Dash's investigation into the gangs who preyed on travellers in 19th-century India by Kevin Rushby, The Guardian, Saturday, 11 June 2005. ^ "The Thugs Worshipping Kalee". The Missionary Repository for Youth, and Sunday School Missionary Magazine. XII: 98. 1848 . Retrieved 6 November 2015 . ^ Brigitte Luchesi; Kocku von Stuckrad (2004). Religion im kulturellen Diskurs. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 623''624. ISBN 978-3-11-017790-9 . Retrieved 20 April 2011 . ^ Douglas M. Peers (2013). India Under Colonial Rule: 1700-1885. Routledge. p. 57. ISBN 978-1-31-788286-2. ^ Martine van WÅ'rkens; Catherine Tihanyi (2002). The Strangled Traveler: Colonial Imaginings and the Thugs of India. University of Chicago Press. p. 170. ISBN 978-0-226-85086-3 . Retrieved 19 April 2011 . ^ K. Wagner (2007). Thuggee: Banditry and the British in Early Nineteenth-Century India. Springer. p. 141. ISBN 9780230590205. ^ K. Wagner (2007). Thuggee: Banditry and the British in Early Nineteenth-Century India. Springer. p. 122. ISBN 9780230590205. ^ K. Wagner (2007). Thuggee: Banditry and the British in Early Nineteenth-Century India. Springer. p. 154; 155. ISBN 9780230590205. ^ Mike Dash (3 February 2011). Thug: The True Story Of India's Murderous Cult. p. 92. ISBN 9781847084736. ^ Martine van Woerkens. The Strangled Traveler: Colonial Imaginings and the Thugs of India. p. 111. ^ Mike Dash. Thug: The True Story Of India's Murderous Cult. p. 93. ^ Martine van Woerkens. The Strangled Traveler: Colonial Imaginings and the Thugs of India. p. 165. ^ Mike Dash (3 February 2011). Thuggee: Banditry and the British in Early Nineteenth-Century India. Granta. p. 16; 39. ISBN 9781847084736. ^ Mike Dash (3 February 2011). Thuggee: Banditry and the British in Early Nineteenth-Century India. Granta. p. 38; 39. ISBN 9781847084736. ^ Martine van Woerkens (November 2002). The Strangled Traveler: Colonial Imaginings and the Thugs of India. p. 134. ISBN 9780226850863. ^ Martine van Woerkens (November 2002). The Strangled Traveler: Colonial Imaginings and the Thugs of India. p. 133. ISBN 9780226850863. ^ Martine van Woerkens (November 2002). The Strangled Traveler: Colonial Imaginings and the Thugs of India. p. 133;134. ISBN 9780226850863. ^ K. Wagner (2007). Thuggee: Banditry and the British in Early Nineteenth-Century India. Springer. p. 154; 155. ISBN 9780230590205. ^ Martine van Woerkens (November 2002). The Strangled Traveler: Colonial Imaginings and the Thugs of India. p. 103. ISBN 9780226850856. ^ Will Sweetman, Aditya Malik (23 May 2016). Hinduism in India: Modern and Contemporary Movements. SAGE Publications India. ISBN 9789351502319. ^ Bart Moore-Gilbert (1996). Writing India, 1757-1990: The Literature of British India. Manchester University Press. p. 86. ISBN 9780719042669. ^ P.D. Reeves (10 June 2010). Sleeman in Oudh: An Abridgement of W. H. Sleeman's A Journey Through the Kingdom of Oude in 1849''50. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521153096. ^ a b Encountering KālÄ: In the Margins, at the Center, in the West. University of California Press. 2003. ISBN 9780520232396. ^ K. Wagner (2007). Thuggee: Banditry and the British in Early Nineteenth-Century India. Springer. p. 140; 141. ISBN 9780230590205. ^ K.Wagner (2007). Thuggee: Banditry and the British in Early Nineteenth-Century India. Springer. ISBN 9780230590205. ^ R. Roque; K. Wagner (2011). Engaging Colonial Knowledge: Reading European Archives in World History. Springer. ISBN 978-0230360075. ^ van Woerkens, Martine (2002). The Strangled Traveler: Colonial Imaginings and the Thugs of India. ^ K. Wagner (2007). Thuggee: Banditry and the British in Early Nineteenth-Century India. Springer. p. 156. ISBN 9780230590205. ^ Bhattacharya, Sagnik (4 May 2020). "Monsters in the dark: the discovery of Thuggee and demographic knowledge in colonial India". Palgrave Communications. 6 (1): 1''9. doi:10.1057/s41599-020-0458-8. ISSN 2055-1045. ^ "Sheikh Sajjan". Sikhiwiki.org . Retrieved 8 July 2017 . ^ History of Ameer Ali Thug Bibliography [ edit ] This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Thuggee". Encyclop...dia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. Dash, Mike Thug: the true story of Indias murderous cult ISBN 1-86207-604-9, 2005Dutta, Krishna (2005) The sacred slaughterers. Book review of Thug: the true story of India's murderous cult by Mike Dash. In The Independent (Published: 8 July 2005) textGuidolin, Monica "Gli strangolatori di Kali. Il culto thag tra immaginario e realt storica", Aurelia Edizioni, 2012, ISBN 978-88-89763-50-6.Paton, James 'Collections on Thuggee and Dacoitee', British Library, Add MS 41300Woerkens, Martine van The Strangled Traveler: Colonial Imaginings and the Thugs of India (2002),External links [ edit ] Look up Thuggee in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.Acting in the "Theatre of Anarchy": 'The Anti-Thug Campaign' and Elaborations of Colonial Rule in Early-Nineteenth Century India by Tom Lloyd (2006) in PDF file format Parama Roy: Discovering India, Imagining Thuggee. In: idem, Indian Traffic. Identities in Question in Colonial and Postcolonial India. University of California Press 1998. (in html format) Confessions of India's real-life Thugs

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Sat, 20 Jun 2020 15:06

Leading black Democrats are rejecting President Obama's conclusion that "thugs" were behind the furor in Baltimore that followed last month's death of a black man in the custody of city police.

Obama has characterized the rioters as "criminals and thugs who tore up" the city in the wake of Freddie Gray's death, which Maryland officials on Friday deemed a homicide committed by six police officers now facing murder charges.

But leading members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) are denouncing the president's language, arguing that a vast majority of the protesters '-- even those who resorted to violence '-- were simply kids swept away in the emotions of the moment. Obama, they say, overstepped in employing a term that, in recent years, has taken on sensitive racial dimensions.

"These are children, high-school students, you know, and I would not want to classify them as thugs," said CBC Chairman G.K. Butterfield George (G.K.) Kenneth ButterfieldMourners, family and lawmakers in North Carolina gather to pay respects to George Floyd Democrats introduce coronavirus-focused privacy legislation Hillicon Valley: Experts raise security concerns about online voting | Musk finds supporter in Trump | Officials warn that Chinese hackers targeting COVID-19 research groups MORE (D-N.C.). "Certainly they are lawbreakers, but they're still children. '... These are youth, these are teenagers who are misguided, who don't have the same maturity that adults have, and I would not venture to call them thugs."

Rep. Alcee Hastings Alcee (Judge) Lamar HastingsEthics panel closes investigation into Rep. Alcee Hastings's relationship with staffer The Hill's Coronavirus Report: Johns Hopkins's Jennifer Nuzzo says America needs public health crisis insurance to pay for COVID-19 victims; Protests, pandemic continue to ravage America Pelosi stands firm amid calls to close Capitol MORE (D-Fla.) agreed, arguing that Obama simply used too broad a brush in attributing the violence to thugs.

"I would call them felons for breaking into an institution that they had no right or business to break into. I would call them criminals for the very same thing '-- burning cars and what have you. But a kid that just got out of high school at 3 o'clock in the afternoon in Baltimore and got caught up '... and he's throwing a rock [and has] no criminal record and everything '-- he's not a thug, OK?" said Hastings, another senior CBC member.

"Were there thugs out there? Damn right. But would you then attribute that to everybody in the crowd? No. And for that reason you should not say it," Hastings added. "I would caution that any leader, including the president of the United States, that is going to comment about these kinds of things to remind the public of all of our responsibilities wait until we have all the facts."

Fox News reporter Leland Vittert, speaking on that network's "Hannity" show Thursday night, said he had asked Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) to suggest an appropriate term for the people involved in the disorder. By Vittert's account, Cummings responded, "Human beings."

Gray, 25, was arrested by Baltimore police on April 12 after a chase through the streets of the city, and suffered severe spinal and head injuries in a police van on the ride to the station. He died of those injuries on April 19, and Baltimore's top prosecutor on Friday charged six arresting officers with murder and other charges.

After Gray's death, thousands of protestors took to the streets of Baltimore to protest the police's initial handling of the case. Those protests turned violent on Monday night, following Gray's funeral, with cars set ablaze, businesses looted and burned, and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) calling in the National Guard to maintain order. More than a dozen police officers were hospitalized, according to the department.

Obama addressed the episode Tuesday, applauding those who pushed back against the violence and condemning the rioters as "thugs."

"The overwhelming majority of the community in Baltimore I think have handled this appropriately, expressing real concern and outrage over the possibility that our laws were not applied evenly in the case of Mr. Gray, and that accountability needs to exist. And I think we have to give them credit," Obama said in a joint press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe.

"My understanding is you've got some of the same organizers now going back into these communities to try to clean up in the aftermath of a handful of criminals and thugs who tore up the place."

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake initially used identical language, carving a distinction "between the peaceful protests and the thugs, who only want to incite violence and destroy our city."

The mayor later walked back her comments, tweeting Wednesday that, "When you speak out of frustration and anger, one can say things in a way that you don't mean."

But the White House took a different tack, doubling down on Obama's use of the term.

"Whether it's arson or, you know, the looting of a liquor store ... those were thuggish acts," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Wednesday.

Obama on Friday addressed the new charges against the six officers surrounding Gray's death, saying it's ''absolutely vital that the truth comes out.''

''What I think the people of Baltimore want more than anything else is the truth,'' he said. ''That's what people around the country expect.''

The "thug" language has raised plenty of eyebrows in the black community, with a number of pundits, political scientists and Baltimore City leaders condemning the White House's characterization.

"Of course it's not the right word to call our children thugs,'' Councilman Carl Stokes said earlier this week.

Writing Friday in The New York Times, Johns Hopkins University history professor N.D.B. Connolly said those employing the term, including the president, "are fighting myths about degenerate black culture."

"Condemning 'criminals' and 'thugs' seems to get them away from beliefs about broad black inferiority," Connolly wrote.

Rep. Bennie Thompson Bennie Gordon ThompsonTwitter, Facebook see new tactics in foreign disinformation efforts 'Defund the police' movement hits semantics roadblock Democrats see path to ridding Capitol of Confederate statues MORE , another leading Black Caucus member, emphasized that "people who break the law should be punished." But the Mississippi Democrat also stressed that not everyone caught up in Baltimore's protests deserve the White House's characterization.

"I don't know if all lawbreakers, if we call them thugs. You know, thugs has a different connotation," Thompson said.

"Name-calling," he added, "won't get us anywhere."

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'No intention of resigning': Manhattan US attorney vows to continue probes

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A hip hop cypher is a improvised freestyle cyclical rapping session without the ugly dissing of other artist like in a rap battle where you have to insult your opponent

In Layman term Cypher means a gathering where rappers usually spit(rap) one by one without breaking or interrupting the cypher(the circle),as i mentioned above no dissing (Disrespecting) the other rappers present.

Just to give a brief idea what a diss is like

Below is an example from Biggies Flava in yo ear

I see the gimmicks, the wack lyrics, the shit is / Depressing, pathetic, please forget it / You're mad cause my style you'r...

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John Wayne Todd

Portrait of John Todd

Born ( 1949-05-19 ) May 19, 1949DiedNovember 10, 2007 (2007-11-10) (aged 58)Other namesJohn Todd CollinsLance CollinsKris Sarayn KollynsChristopher KollynsOccupationPublic speakerYears active1968''1983Criminal charge(s)RapeCriminal penalty30 years imprisonmentCriminal statusConvictedJohn Wayne Todd (May 19, 1949[1][2] '' November 10, 2007),[3] also known as "John Todd Collins", "Lance Collins",[4] "Kris Sarayn Kollyns", and "Christopher Kollyns",[5] was an American speaker and conspiracy theorist. He claimed to be a former occultist who was born into a 'witchcraft family' before converting to Christianity. He was a primary source for many Chick Publications works against Dungeons & Dragons, Catholicism, Neopaganism, and Christian rock.

In his public appearances, Todd made a variety of claims about witches, Satanists, and the Illuminati, who he alleged were conspiring against Christians. These purported conspiracies often included government officials and leaders of Christian organizations. Investigative reports in magazines and books said there were many inconsistencies in his statements about anti-Christian conspiracies and his own past.

In 1988 Todd was convicted in South Carolina on charges of rape and sentenced to 30 years in a prison. In 2004 he was released from prison and placed in a psychiatric facility, where he died in 2007.

Biography [ edit ] Speaking career [ edit ] Todd's earliest known public speaking engagements began in 1968, when he was preaching and married to a woman named Linda. He claimed he had been a witch while in the United States Navy, but converted to Christianity while visiting a southern Californian Pentecostal church. After disappearing from public sight for a few months, Todd returned without his wife, saying that God told them to seek other mates. In 1969, Todd joined the United States Army and was stationed in Germany for a few months before being discharged for psychiatric reasons and drug abuse.[2][4]

In 1972 Todd became associated with a Jesus Movement coffeehouse. In 1973, he appeared on a local Christian television show in Phoenix, Arizona, and was invited by evangelist Doug Clark to appear on his Amazing Prophecies show on the Faith Broadcasting Network.[6] However, allegations surfaced that he had been making sexual advances toward young women and teenage girls at the coffeehouse, was incorporating witchcraft teachings into his Bible studies, carrying a .38 caliber handgun into church meetings, and using drugs.[2][4] In addition, he impregnated his wife's teenage sister.[4] Todd was dismissed from the coffeehouse ministry, and Clark denounced him on his television show.[2]

In 1974 Todd moved to Dayton, Ohio, where he opened an occult bookstore and began recruiting for a Wiccan coven. In 1976 Todd became the subject of a criminal investigation over reports that he was involving underage girls in sexual initiation rituals for his coven. Following an investigation of his activities by neopagan leaders Isaac Bonewits and Gavin Frost, which uncovered drug use and underage sex, Frost's Church and School of Wicca revoked the charter it had granted to Todd's coven. He was convicted of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and given a six-month sentence, but served only two months before being released due to epileptic fits.[4]

Todd resurfaced in the evangelical Christian community in late 1977, this time claiming the existence of a vast Satanic conspiracy led by an order of witches called the Illuminati, supposedly including a number of Christian organizations and well-known Christian figures such as Jim Bakker, Jerry Falwell, Billy Graham, Bob Jones, Sr.,[7] Oral Roberts, and Pat Robertson.[8] He claimed to have given, as a member of the Illuminati, $8 million to Pastor Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel to launch the Christian rock industry,[9] which Todd said was a Satanic invention to entrap Christian young people in rock music and its "demonic beat". He claimed that Falwell had been bribed by the Illuminati with a $50 million donation.[2] He also claimed that US President Jimmy Carter was the Antichrist[2] and that Ayn Rand's 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged was the Illuminati's blueprint for unleashing a planned Satanic takeover.[10][11] He urged Christians to stockpile weapons and food in preparation for a Satanic takeover in 1980.[7][11]

Tapes from Todd around 1979 indicate that he was then teaching Oneness Pentecostal (sometimes called "Jesus Only") theology.[12] Todd significantly curtailed his public speaking after 1979, reportedly moving to rural Montana after issuing warnings that the Satanic takeover had begun.[13] He was later reported to have delivered a speech in Cedar Falls, Iowa in 1983 at the invitation of Randy Weaver.[14]

Later life [ edit ] Todd was arrested in May 1987 for the rape of a University of South Carolina graduate student. After his arrest, he was additionally charged with sexually molesting two children who attended a karate school where he worked. He was convicted of the rape in January 1988 and sentenced to 30 years in state prison.[15] In 2004, Todd was released, but he was put in the care of the Behavioral Disorder Treatment Unit run by the South Carolina Department of Mental Health.[16] On November 10, 2007, Todd died in the institute.[3] His body was buried in the Florence (SC) National Cemetery under the name "Christopher Sarayn Kollyns" [17]

Claims and reactions [ edit ] Todd claimed to have served as a Green Beret in the Vietnam War, but his discharge papers list him as a general clerk/typist and do not record him having been in Vietnam. Army medical reports referred to "emotional instability with pseudologica phantastica" (compulsive lying), difficulty in telling reality from fantasy, homicidal threats he had made on another, false suicide reports, and a severe personality disturbance.[18] Todd also claimed in his testimony to have murdered an officer in Germany and to have escaped prison with the help of the Illuminati, but his records show no such things occurred.[18] These records were later recovered by investigative journalists working for Christianity Today, who found that he had never been to Vietnam. One report concluded that Todd found it difficult to distinguish reality and fantasy.[2][4] Todd also claimed that John F. Kennedy was still alive and that he had been Kennedy's "personal warlock".[2][4]

While Todd claimed to have left witchcraft in 1972 and converted to fundamentalist Christianity, accounts have him being baptized into a Oneness Pentecostal church in Phoenix, Arizona in 1968, and leading a Wiccan group in Ohio in 1976. When confronted with the latter by Christian evangelists, Todd said that he had gone through a period of "backsliding" during that time. However, when a number of other inconsistencies in Todd's story were reported in the evangelical Christian media, and Todd began denouncing many Christian leaders as part of the Satanic conspiracy or the Illuminati, many evangelists denounced Todd and cut off any further association. Jack Chick was the only influential evangelist to continue to defend Todd.[19]

Todd's speaking engagements during 1978 and 1979 generated controversy and sometimes hysteria at the churches he spoke at. Frequently, there were claims by Todd of gunshots in the parking lot or attacks on his life after the services, but there were no witnesses to confirm his claims.[2] Several Christian organizations and publications investigated Todd's claims and published articles disputing them. These included Cornerstone magazine, the Christian Research Institute, Christianity Today magazine, and the book The Todd Phenomenon by Darryl E. Hicks.[citation needed ]

Similarities to other preachers [ edit ] Todd was not the only speaker making the rounds in evangelical Christian circles in the 1970s warning young people against the occult. Todd's claims of being a Satanic high priest before his conversion[4] were similar to claims by Hershel Smith and Mike Warnke.[20] In one meeting between Todd and Warnke, the two had a backstage confrontation and Todd accused Warnke of stealing his testimony regarding the Illuminati.[20]

Publications based on Todd's claims [ edit ] Todd has appeared in several of Jack Chick's publications. Chick first promoted Todd's message in comic form in The Broken Cross, a comic that portrays a town controlled by organized Satanists, who ignore ritual murders and teach witchcraft to children in school.[21] In another Chick comic book, Spellbound?, a character called "Lance Collins" describes himself as a former druid and member of the Illuminati.[22] The character claims that Satanists control the rock music industry and are infiltrating churches, and urges Christians to burn their rock music records, Ouija boards and Dungeons & Dragons game sets.[23] Both comics offer "deepest appreciation to John Todd, ex-grand Druid priest".[24][25]

Todd's stories about the Illuminati were published as the comic book The Illuminati and Witchcraft in 1980 by Jacob Sailor. His claims partially became the basis for a different book, Witchcraft and the Illuminati, published in 1981 by The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord, a Christian Identity group, and reprinted in 1999 by the Christian Patriot Association. This book repeated many of Todd's claims, including the alleged power structure of the Illuminati and the idea that Atlas Shrugged was the Illuminati's secret blueprint, but added Identity beliefs derogatory toward Jews and African-Americans.[10][26]

After Todd's veracity was questioned and investigated, Chick continued to defend him and publish tracts based on Todd's life. Author Cynthia Burack wrote that Chick often made "excuses for behaviours that were inconsistent with Todd's status as a high-profile Christian convert," and that his "propensities to indulge in conspiracy theory and to lash out at putative allies who question his conclusions" in his defense of Todd and other controversial figures (namely Alberto Rivera and Rebecca Brown) resulted in a split between himself and the conservative Christian movement.[19]

References [ edit ] ^ "Sex Offender Archive Record: John Wayne Todd". Sex Offender Archives . Retrieved September 29, 2013 . ^ a b c d e f g h i Plowman, Edward E. (February 2, 1979). "The Legend(s) of John Todd". Christianity Today. 23: 38''42. ^ a b Kollyns v. Watson, FindACase (D.S.C. April 17, 2008). ^ a b c d e f g h Medway, GJ (2001). Lure of the Sinister: The Unnatural History of Satanism. New York: New York University Press. pp. 169''74. ISBN 0-8147-5645-X. ^ Cearley, Gary Dale (2006). Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness: The Truth about the Vatican and the Birth of Islam. Aux Arcs Publications. p. 25. ISBN 978-1-84728-731-1. ^ Walker, Jesse (2013). The United States of Paranoia: A Conspiracy Theory. New York: HarperCollins. pp. 208''217. ISBN 978-0-06-213555-1. ^ a b Versluis, Arthur (2006). The New Inquisitions: Heretic-Hunting and the Intellectual Origins of Modern Totalitarianism. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 117. ISBN 978-0-19-530637-8. ^ Ellis, Bill (2000). Raising the Devil: Satanism, New Religions, and the Media. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky. p. 197. ISBN 0-8131-2170-1. ^ Hertenstein, Mike; Trott, Jon (1993). Selling Satan: The Evangelical Media and the Mike Warnke Scandal . Chicago: Cornerstone Press. p. 164. ISBN 0-940895-07-2. ^ a b Barkun, Michael (2003). A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. p. 31. ISBN 0-520-23805-2. ^ a b Noble, Kerry (2010). Tabernacle of Hate: Seduction Into Right-Wing Extremism (second ed.). Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press. pp. 78''80. ISBN 978-0-8156-5126-0. ^ "Cornerstone's Near-Miss Interviews with Madalyn Murray O'Hair and John Todd". Cornerstone (48). Archived from the original on September 11, 2004. ^ Barkun, Michael (2003). A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. p. 57. ISBN 0-520-23805-2. ^ Walter, Jess (1996). Every Knee Shall Bow . New York: HarperCollins. pp. 52''53. ISBN 0-06-101131-2. ^ Hook, Debra-Lynn B. (January 23, 1988). " ' Survivalist' Protests Verdict". The State. p. 1D. ^ Kollyns v. Hughes, FindACase (D.S.C. August 18, 2006). ^ FindAGrave listing for Christopher Sarayn Kollyns Retrieved 15 June 2020 ^ a b Metz, Gary. "The John Todd Story". Cornerstone (48). Archived from the original on October 6, 2006. ^ a b Burack, Cynthia (2008). Sin, Sex, and Democracy: Antigay Rhetoric and the Christian Right. Albany, New York: SUNY Press. p. 49. ISBN 978-0-7914-7405-1. ^ a b Trott, Jon; Hertenstein, Mike (1992). "Selling Satan: The Tragic History of Mike Warnke". Cornerstone. 21 (98). Archived from the original on June 29, 2011. ^ Chick, Jack T. (1974). The Broken Cross. Chick Publications. pp. 6, 23. OCLC 11126870. ^ Chick, Jack T. (1978). Spellbound?. Chick Publications. p. 11. OCLC 54527440. ^ Chick, Jack T. (1978). Spellbound?. Chick Publications. pp. 17''26. OCLC 54527440. ^ Chick, Jack T. (1974). The Broken Cross. Chick Publications. p. 1. OCLC 11126870. ^ Chick, Jack T. (1978). Spellbound?. Chick Publications. p. 1. OCLC 54527440. ^ Barkun, Michael (1997). Religion and the Racist Right: The Origins of the Christian Identity Movement (Revised ed.). Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. p. 193. ISBN 0-8078-2328-7. External links [ edit ] Report on Todd and other purported ex-Satanists from a Wiccan perspectiveState of South Carolina Criminal Record

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American former drug trafficker

Rick "Freeway" Ross

Ross in 2010

BornRicky Donnell Ross

( 1960-01-26 ) January 26, 1960 (age 60) Other namesFreeway, The Real Rick Ross, Freeway Rick Ross, Freeway RickyOccupationAuthor/EntrepreneurCriminal statusIncarcerated in 1996, released in 2009Parent(s)Annie Mae Ross, Sonny RossCriminal chargeConspiracy to illegally traffic cocaine (100 kg)PenaltyLife, reduced to 20 yearsWebsitewww.freewayrickyross.comRicky Donnell "Freeway Rick" Ross (born January 26, 1960)[1] is an American author and former drug trafficker best known for the drug empire he established in Los Angeles, California, in the early to mid 1980s.[2] He was sentenced to life in prison, though the sentence was shortened on appeal and Ross was released in 2009.[3]

Biography [ edit ] Ross attended school at Susan Miller Dorsey High School in Los Angeles. He played for the tennis team but was unable to get a college scholarship because he was illiterate.[4]

Ross has said that when he first saw crack cocaine as a teenager in 1979, he did not immediately believe it was a drug because it looked different from other drugs he had seen.

The nickname Freeway came from Ross owning properties along Los Angeles' Interstate 110, also known as the Harbor Freeway[6] According to an October 2013 Esquire magazine article, "Between 1982 and 1989, federal prosecutors estimated, Ross bought and resold several metric tons of cocaine," with Ross's gross revenue claimed to be more than $900 million (equivalent to $2.7 billion in 2019) and profits of almost $300 million ($900 million in 2019).[7] During the height of his drug dealing, Ross was said to have sold "$3 million in one day."[8] According to the East Bay Times, "In the course of his rise, prosecutors estimate that Ross exported several tons of cocaine to New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and elsewhere, and made more than $500 million between 1983 and 1984."[9]

In 1996, Ross was sentenced to life imprisonment under the three-strikes law after being convicted for purchasing more than 100 kilograms of cocaine from a federal agent in a sting operation. Later that year, a series of articles by journalist Gary Webb in the San Jose Mercury News revealed a connection between one of Ross's cocaine sources, Danilo Bland"n, and the CIA as part of the Iran''Contra affair.[10] Having learned to read at the age of 28, during his first stint in prison, Ross spent much of his time behind bars studying the law. He eventually discovered a legal loophole that would lead to his release.[7] Ross's case was brought to a federal court of appeals which found that the three-strikes law had been erroneously applied and reduced his sentence to 20 years. He was released from Federal Correctional Institution, Texarkana on September 29, 2009.[11]

Ross was arrested in October 2015 on suspicion of possessing cash related to the sales of illegal drugs when police discovered $100,000 in his possession during a traffic stop.[3] Ross later alleged that he had been racially profiled and stated that he was carrying a large amount of cash for the purchase of a home.[12] Charges were ultimately dropped, and Ross explained he had earned the cash from book sales and speaking fees.[13]

Cocaine use and business [ edit ] Cocaine introduction [ edit ] Ross began selling cocaine after his illiteracy prevented him from earning a tennis scholarship for college. He began spending time with an upholstery teacher at a Los Angeles community college who revealed he dealt cocaine and offered Ross a small amount to sell. Ross used his profit to purchase more cocaine to sell, expanding his small operation. Ross eventually began to ask for quantities to sell that exceeded what the teacher was willing to procure, so he turned to find a new dealer.

The teacher referred Ross to his supplier, Ivan Arguellas, who offered to keep Ross supplied. Arguellas was able to provide larger quantities at a better price, and Ross quickly went from dealing in grams of cocaine to dealing in ounces. About eight months after becoming Ross's supplier, Arguellas was shot in the spine, resulting in months of hospitalization that forced him out of the cocaine business. His brother-in-law Henry Corrales took over the business, but was not enthusiastic about the trade and had failed to make any connections of his own to suppliers.

A Nicaraguan exile and cocaine distributor named Danilo Bland"n was acquainted with Arguellas and Corrales, and although he did not know him personally, was impressed with the amount of cocaine that Ross was moving. Bland"n offered to supply cocaine to Corrales to sell to Ross, for a fifty-fifty split of the profit. Eventually, Corrales lost his appetite for the cocaine business and retired, at which point Ross became a direct customer of Bland"n.

Through his connection to Bland"n, and Bland"n's supplier Norwin Meneses Cantarero, Ross was able to purchase Nicaraguan cocaine at significantly reduced rates. Ross began distributing cocaine at $10,000 per kilo less than the average street price, distributing it to the Bloods and Crips street gangs. By 1982, Ross had received his moniker of "Freeway Ricky" and claimed to have sold up to US$3 million worth of cocaine per day, purchasing 455 kg of cocaine a week.[8]

Ross initially invested most of his profits in houses and businesses, because he feared his mother would catch on to what he was doing if he started spending lavishly on himself. In a jailhouse interview with reporter Gary Webb, Ross said, "We were hiding our money from our mothers." He invested a portion of the proceeds from his drug dealing activities in Anita Baker's first album.

Drug empire [ edit ] With thousands of employees, Ross has said he operated drug sales not only in Los Angeles but in places across the country including St. Louis, New Orleans, Texas, Kansas City, Oklahoma, Indiana, Cincinnati, North Carolina, South Carolina, Baltimore, Cleveland, and Seattle. He has said that his most lucrative sales came from the Ohio area. He made similar claims in a 1996 PBS interview.[23] According to the East Bay Times, "In the course of his rise, prosecutors estimate that Ross exported several tons of cocaine to New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and elsewhere, and made more than $600 million in the process."[9] Adjusting for inflation using the Consumer Price Index, this becomes more than a billion dollars in 2013.[24]

Much of Ross's success at evading law enforcement was due to his ring's possession of police scanners and voice scramblers. Following one drug bust, a Los Angeles County sheriff remarked that Ross's men had "better equipment than we have."

According to the October 2013 Esquire article, "Between 1982 and 1989, federal prosecutors estimated, Ross bought and resold several metric tons of cocaine. In 1980 dollars, his gross earnings were said to be in excess of $900 million '' with a profit of nearly $300 million. Converted roughly to present-day dollars: $2.5 billion gross and $850 million in profit. As his distribution empire grew to include forty-two cities, the price he paid per kg of powder cocaine dropped from as much as $60,000 to as low as $10,000."[7]

Lawsuit against rapper Rick Ross [ edit ] On June 18, 2010, Ross sued rapper Rick Ross (real name William Leonard Roberts II) for using his name,[26] filing a copyright infringement lawsuit against Ross in a California Federal Court.[26] Jay-Z had been called to testify in the lawsuit, as he was President of Def Jam when Ross was signed to the label.[26] Ross sought $10 million in compensation in the lawsuit.[26]

After the lawsuit was dismissed on July 3, 2010,[27] the album Teflon Don was released as scheduled on July 20, 2010. A federal judge ruled that the case should be refiled in California state court because it fell under California state law. Ross refiled the case with the State of California and the federal case is on appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.[28] The state case was filed in 2011 in California.

Ross refiled in Los Angeles Superior Court with publicity rights claims. Trial was set for early May 2012. The case was dismissed by a judge in the Los Angeles Superior Court.[29]

The California State case was updated with a motion in Freeway Rick Ross's favor as to Warner Bros. Records and their use of the name and image Rick Ross in July 2012.[30]

The New York Post reported that a trial was set for August 27, 2013 in Freeway Rick Ross versus Rick Ross and Warner Music Group.[31]

On December 30, 2013, the court ruled in favor of the rapper Rick Ross, allowing him to keep the name based on a First Amendment ruling.[32]

Book [ edit ] In 2013, The Huffington Post reported that journalist and author Cathy Scott was co-writing Ross's autobiography with him, scheduled for release in 2014.[33]

The memoir, Freeway Rick Ross: The Untold Autobiography, was released at a book launch with author Scott at the Eso Won Bookstore in Los Angeles on June 17, 2014 to a standing-room only crowd.[34][35]

KCET TV in its review wrote, "(The book) is fascinating for its unsentimental, inside look at his career on the streets of South Central, which started for Ross with car theft and quickly shifted to drugs and the big time."[36]

Award [ edit ] The memoir was nominated for ForeWord Review ' s IndiFab Best Book of the Year Award 2014 in the true crime category.[37] In June 2015, winners were announced, with the book named as a Foreword Reviews' 2014 INDIEFAB Book of the Year Award Finalist, True Crime.[38]

Ross was a key figure in filmmaker Kevin Booth's documentary American Drug War: The Last White Hope. The second episode of the first season of BET's American Gangster documentary series was focused on the story of Ricky Ross and his connection to the Iran''Contra scandal.[39]

Ross was a guest interview on VH1's Planet Rock History of Crack and Hip Hop Documentary.[40]

Ross is featured in the 2015 two-part documentary Freeway: Crack in the System, which details various levels of the drug trade, the Iran''Contra scandal, and mass incarceration.[41] In 2016, the documentary was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Investigative Journalism: Long Form.[42]

Since 2013, Ross has been a regular guest on The Joe Rogan Experience.[43][44][45] In the 2014 film Kill the Messenger, Ross is portrayed by Michael K. Williams.

References [ edit ] ^ "Ricky Ross Biography". Biography.com . Retrieved July 2, 2013 . ^ "Law Enforcement Investigations of Ross". United States Department of Justice Archive. Archived from the original on May 31, 2009 . Retrieved July 2, 2013 . ^ a b Rocha, Veronica; Mozino, Joe (October 23, 2015). "Former L.A. cocaine kingpin 'Freeway' Ricky Ross arrested in Sonoma County". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved January 31, 2017 . ^ "Dark Alliance: Library". San Jose Mercury News. Archived from the original on April 9, 1997 . Retrieved December 14, 2013 . A few years before, Ross became involved in cocaine sales, he was a player on his high school tennis team. A college scholarship was reneged once it was learned he couldn't read. The same day, he dropped out of high school his senior year weeks away from graduation. ^ Webb, Gary (August 19, 1996). "Shadowy origins of 'crack' epidemic". San Jose Mercury News. Archived from the original on April 9, 1997. ^ a b c Sager, Mike (September 25, 2013). "Say Hello to Rick Ross". Esquire . Retrieved November 11, 2018 . ^ a b Cockburn, Alexander; St. Clair, Jeffrey (1999). Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs and the Press. Verso Publishing. pp. 6''7. ISBN 978-1-85984-258-4. ^ a b Johnson, Scott (April 17, 2012). "The return of "Freeway" Ricky Ross, the man behind a crack empire". East Bay Times . Retrieved July 2, 2013 . ^ Pierce, Charles P. (June 18, 2013). "Gary Webb And The Limits Of Vindication". Esquire . Retrieved November 11, 2018 . ^ "Inmate Locator". Federal Bureau of Prisons. Archived from the original on March 10, 2012 . Retrieved July 2, 2013 . ^ Ferranti, Seth (November 5, 2015). "A Conversation with Freeway Ricky Ross on His Latest Run-in with Police and Race Relations in America". The Huffington Post . Retrieved January 31, 2017 . ^ Jack Morse (2015). Charges Dropped Against Former Crack Kingpin Pulled Over With $100K In Cash Archived November 5, 2017, at the Wayback Machine, SFist.com, October 26, 2015. ^ "Covert Connections?". PBS NewsHour. November 18, 1996. Archived from the original on January 3, 2014 . Retrieved August 29, 2008 . ^ "CPI Calculator". USInflationCalculator.com. Archived from the original on October 28, 2013 . Retrieved July 2, 2013 . ^ a b c d Harling, Danielle. "Freeway Rick Ross files lawsuit". Archived from the original on January 3, 2014 . Retrieved June 25, 2010 . ^ Barshad, Amos (November 5, 2010). "The Drug Dealer Rick Ross Has Lost His Lawsuit Against the Rapper Rick Ross". New York. Archived from the original on December 29, 2011. ^ Johnson, Bill (July 6, 2010). "Freeway Ricky Ross' Lawsuit Against Rick Ross Thrown Out". The Urban Daily. Archived from the original on March 12, 2012 . Retrieved September 12, 2010 . ^ " ' Freeway' Rick Ross Will Take On Rick Ross In Court Early May". MTV Rapfix. February 29, 2012. Archived from the original on January 3, 2014. ^ Gardner, Eriq (July 18, 2012). "Rick Ross Vs. Ricky "Freeway" Ross: Judge Rejects Warner Bros. Records' Motion to Dismiss". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on January 27, 2013. ^ "Rick Ross vs. Rick Ross: Rapper sued by drug trafficker for allegedly stealing name". The New York Post. January 11, 2013. Archived from the original on February 19, 2013. ^ Gardner, Eriq (December 30, 2013). " ' Freeway' Ricky Ross vs. Rick Ross: First Amendment Protects Hip-Hop Persona". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on March 9, 2014. ^ Johnson, Luke (August 7, 2013). "Rick Ross, Former Drug Kingpin: 'Why Wouldn't You Want To Emulate Me If You Can't Even Get a Job At McDonald's?". The Huffington Post. Archived from the original on December 24, 2013. ^ D'Amour, Zon (June 27, 2014). "Rick Ross Book signing Event Recap". Los Angeles Sentinel . Retrieved November 11, 2018 . ^ Ross, Rick; Scott, Cathy (2014). Freeway Rick Ross: The Untold Autobiography. Freeway Studios. ISBN 978-1-49965-153-9. CS1 maint: ref=harv (link) ^ Kaplan, Erin Aubry (June 6, 2014). "L.A.'s Notorious Drug Dealer, 'Freeway' Rick Ross, is Moving On". KCET . Retrieved November 11, 2018 . ^ "Indie Fab Book of Year Freeway Rick Ross Nomination". IndieFab. April 14, 2014. ^ "Freeway Rick Ross is a 2014 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award finalist". IndieFab. ^ "American Gangster: 'Freeway' Ricky Ross". BET. Archived from the original on July 9, 2007 . Retrieved June 12, 2007 . ^ Ramirez, Erika (August 24, 2011). "VH1 Planet Rock History of Crack and Hip Hop". Billboard. Archived from the original on May 29, 2013 . Retrieved July 2, 2013 . ^ Levin, Marc (March 1, 2015). "A Drug Kingpin, the CIA, and Prisoners". The Daily Beast. Archived from the original on March 2, 2015 . Retrieved April 4, 2015 . ^ Bihm, Jennifer (August 8, 2016). "Film Documenting L.A.'s Drug Era Nominated for Emmy". Los Angeles Sentinel . Retrieved November 11, 2018 . ^ "Joe Rogan Experience #208 - "Freeway" Rick Ross". YouTube. Archived from the original on March 9, 2017 . Retrieved May 3, 2013 . ^ "Joe Rogan Experience #262 - "Freeway" Rick Ross". YouTube. Archived from the original on November 16, 2015 . Retrieved June 3, 2013 . ^ "Joe Rogan Experience #323 - "Freeway" Rick Ross". YouTube. Archived from the original on January 18, 2016 . Retrieved February 6, 2013 . Bibliography [ edit ] Webb, Gary (1999). Dark Alliance. Seven Stories Press. ISBN 978-1-888363-93-7. CS1 maint: ref=harv (link) External links [ edit ] Rick Ross's website"Freeway" Rick Ross on IMDbInterview 2018 (German)

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"Suge" redirects here. For the 2019 song by DaBaby, see

Suge (song).

American music executive and convicted felon

Marion Hugh "Suge" Knight Jr. (; born April 19, 1965)[1] is an American former music executive who, as cofounder and CEO of Death Row Records, was a central figure in gangsta rap's catapult to massive commercialization.[2] This feat is attributed to the record label's first two album releases: Dr. Dre's The Chronic in 1992 and Snoop Dogg's Doggystyle in 1993.[2] "It was Knight's executive muscle that helped Snoop"'--implicated in a 1993 homicide'--"avoid jail a few years after its release".[3]

During 1995, Tupac Shakur began a prison sentence of up to four and half years. Knight struck a deal with him that in October, paying his bail, freed him from prison'--pending his conviction's appeal'--while signing him to Deathrow Records. In 1996, the label released 2Pac's greatest commercial success, All Eyez on Me. Yet that September, after departing a Mike Tyson boxing match in Las Vegas, a group that included Knight and Shakur assaulted Orlando Anderson, a Southside Compton Crips gang member. Three hours later someone shot into the car that Knight was driving and fatally wounded Shakur, and Anderson has since become the prime suspect.

In the fallout from and the aftermath of Shakur's death, both Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg left Deathrow Records. Rapidly, the label declined, and it was soon eclipsed. Meanwhile, allegations mounted that Knight, beyond employing gang members, had often plied intimidation and violence in his business dealings. From the late 1990s into the early 2000s, Knight spent a few years incarcerated for assault convictions and associated violations of probation and parole. In September 2018, upon pleading no contest to voluntary manslaughter in a fatal 2015 hit-and-run, Knight was sentenced to 28 years in prison.[4][5] He is scheduled to become eligible for parole in October 2037.[6]

Early life [ edit ] Marion Hugh Knight Jr. was born in Compton, California, the son of Maxine (n(C)e Dikemen) and Marion Knight Sr.[7] His name Suge (pronounced Shoog) derives from "Sugar Bear", a childhood nickname.[8] He attended Lynwood High School in nearby Lynwood, where he was a football and track star. He graduated in 1983.

[ edit ] College [ edit ] From 1983 to 1985, he attended and played football at El Camino College.[9] In 1985, he transferred to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and played there for two years.[10]

Professional [ edit ] Knight went undrafted in the 1987 NFL Draft, but was invited to the Los Angeles Rams training camp. He was cut by the Rams during camp, but he became a replacement player during the 1987 NFL Players Strike, and played two games for the Rams.[11]

Career beginnings [ edit ] After the NFL, Knight found work as a concert promoter and a bodyguard for celebrities including Bobby Brown. In 1989, Knight formed his own music publishing company. His first big profit in the business came when Vanilla Ice (Robert Van Winkle) agreed to sign over royalties from his smash hit "Ice Ice Baby", because the song included material allegedly written by Knight's client Mario Johnson. Knight and his bodyguards confronted Van Winkle several times. On one occasion, Knight entered Van Winkle's hotel room and allegedly dangled him by his ankles off the balcony. Van Winkle said only that Knight threatened to throw him off the balcony; the claim was resolved in court.[9]

Knight next formed an artist management company and signed prominent West Coast hip hop artists DJ Quik and The D.O.C. Through the latter, he met several members of the seminal gangsta rap group N.W.A.

Death Row Records [ edit ] Dr. Dre and The D.O.C. wanted to leave both N.W.A and their label, Ruthless Records, run by Eazy-E, another member of N.W.A. According to N.W.A's manager Jerry Heller, Knight and his henchmen threatened Heller and Eazy-E with lead pipes and baseball bats to make them release Dre, The D.O.C., and Michel'le from their contracts.[12] Ultimately, Dre and D.O.C. co-founded Death Row Records in 1991 with Knight, who vowed to make it "the Motown of the '90s".

Initially, Knight fulfilled his ambitions: he secured a distribution deal with Interscope, and Dre's 1992 solo debut album, The Chronic, went on to Triple Platinum status in the United States by the end of 1993.[13] It also made a career for Dre's prot(C)g(C), Snoop Dogg, whose own debut album Doggystyle obtained a Quadruple Platinum certification in the United States in 1994.[14]

Meanwhile, Death Row had begun a public feud with 2 Live Crew's Luther Campbell, and when Knight traveled to Miami for a hip-hop convention in 1993, he was apparently seen openly carrying a stolen gun. The following year, he opened a private, by-appointment-only nightclub in Las Vegas called Club 662, so named because the numbers spelled out MOB on telephone keypads, MOB standing for Member of Bloods. In 1995, he ran afoul of activist C. Delores Tucker, whose criticism of Death Row's glamorization of the "gangsta" lifestyle may have helped scuttle a lucrative deal with Time Warner.[15]

Tupac Shakur, MC Hammer, Dr. Dre, and the Death Row Label [ edit ] Knight's feud with East Coast entrepreneur Sean Combs ("Puff Daddy") progressed when Knight insulted the Bad Boy label founder on air at the Source Awards in August 1995. Openly critical of Combs's tendency of ad-libbing on his artists' songs and dancing in their videos, Knight announced to the audience, "Anyone out there who wanna be a recording artist and wanna stay a star, and don't have to worry about the executive producer trying to be all in the videos, all on the records, dancing, come to Death Row."

The same year, Knight offered to post bail ( US$1.4 million ) for Tupac Shakur if the rapper agreed to sign with Death Row. Shakur agreed, setting the stage for his 1996 double album All Eyez on Me and The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory.

M.C. Hammer's relationship with Suge Knight dates back to 1988. With the success of Hammer's 1994 album, The Funky Headhunter (featuring Tha Dogg Pound), Hammer signed with Death Row Records by 1995, along with Snoop Dogg and his close friend, Tupac.[16] The label did not release the album of Hammer's music (titled Too Tight) while he had a career with them, although he did release versions of some tracks on his next album.[17][18] However, Hammer did record tracks with Shakur and others, most notably the song "Too Late Playa" (along with Big Daddy Kane and Danny Boy).[19] After the death of Shakur in 1996, Hammer left the record company.[20] He later explained his concern about this circumstance in an interview on Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) since he was in Las Vegas with Tupac the night of his death.[21] Hammer released 2Pac's "Unconditional Love", on his Family Affair album, in 1998. The friendships between Hammer (played by Romany Malco), Tupac (played by Lamont Bentley) and Suge (played by Anthony Norris) were depicted in the television film, Too Legit: The MC Hammer Story (airing on VH1 in 2001).

The label shrank when Dr. Dre, frustrated with the company's increasingly thuggish reputation and Knight's violent inclinations, decided to leave and form his own label, Aftermath Entertainment. A stream of Dre-dissing records followed.

Murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls: Theories accusing Knight [ edit ] Though never charged by any prosecutor for any involvement, Suge Knight has been the subject of theories in popular culture about the murder of two well-known rap artists. Tupac Shakur was shot four times in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada on September 7, 1996, and died six days later on September 13. When Shakur's East Coast rival, The Notorious B.I.G. (AKA Biggie Smalls), was murdered in a similar drive-by shooting in Los Angeles, California on March 9, 1997, speculation arose that Knight was involved and that Biggie's death was a revenge killing.[22] Former Death Row artists, including Snoop Dogg, also later accused Knight of being involved in Tupac's murder.[23]

A theory accusing Suge Knight in the deaths of both Biggie and Tupac was that of ex-detective Russell Poole, who conjectured that Knight had Tupac killed before he could part ways with Knight's label and then conspired to kill Biggie to divert attention from himself in the Tupac case.[24] The Biggie murder theory implicated Suge Knight, a rogue cop, and a mortgage broker named Amir Muhammad (who was never a police suspect) along with the chief of police and the LAPD in a conspiracy to murder and cover up the murder of Biggie. The Biggie theory formed the basis of a US$500 million lawsuit by his family, the Wallaces, against the city of Los Angeles. A key source for Poole's theory was Kevin Hackie. Hackie had implicated Suge Knight and David Mack. Hackie, a former Death Row associate, said that he had knowledge of involvement between Suge Knight and David Mack and other LAPD officers. His information was used by the Wallace family in their suit against the city of L.A. for Biggie's death. But Hackie later told a Los Angeles Times reporter Chuck Philips that the Wallace attorneys had altered his declarations.[25] The suit brought by the Wallace family against the city of L.A. based on the Russell Poole theory was dismissed in 2010.

A 2005 Los Angeles Times article claimed that another source for the theory of Biggie's murder implicating Amir Muhammad, David Mack, Suge Knight and the LAPD was a schizophrenic man known as "Psycho Mike" who later confessed to hearsay and memory lapses and falsely identifying Muhammad.[26] John Cook of Brill's Content noted that Philips' article "demolished"[27] the Poole-Sullvan theory of Biggie's murder.

Around the same time, Philips wrote an L.A. Times two-part series titled "Who Killed Tupac Shakur?" into the murder of Shakur and events surrounding it based on police affidavits, court documents and interviews.[28][29]

The L.A. Times story indicated that "the shooting was carried out by a Compton gang called the Southside Crips to avenge the beating of one of its members by Shakur a few hours earlier. Orlando Anderson, the Crip whom Shakur had attacked, fired the fatal shots. Las Vegas police discounted Anderson as a suspect after questioning him once briefly. He was later killed in what police said was an unrelated gang shooting."[28] The article implicated East Coast music figures, including Christopher "Biggie Smalls" Wallace, Shakur's nemesis at the time, alleging that he paid for the gun.[28] Before their own deaths, Smalls, his family and Anderson denied any role in Shakur's murder. Biggie's family[30] produced documents purporting to show that the rapper was in New York and New Jersey at the time. The New York Times called the documents inconclusive stating:

The pages purport to be three computer printouts from Daddy's House, indicating that Wallace was in the studio recording a song called Nasty Boy on the afternoon Shakur was shot. They indicate that Wallace wrote half the session, was In and out/sat around and laid down a ref, shorthand for a reference vocal, the equivalent of a first take. But nothing indicates when the documents were created. And Louis Alfred, the recording engineer listed on the sheets, said in an interview that he remembered recording the song with Wallace in a late-night session, not during the day. He could not recall the date of the session but said it was likely not the night Shakur was shot. We would have heard about it, Mr. Alfred said.[31]

Soon after the article was published, The Smoking Gun revealed that Philips' FBI documents were fake.

Mark Duvoisin, an editor at the L.A. Times, wrote in an opinion piece in Rolling Stone that Philips' account had withstood attacks to its credibility.[32]

However, the L.A. Times printed a full retraction of the two-part series and released Philips shortly thereafter during a wave of layoffs.[33]

In Tupac Shakur: Before I Wake, a documentary by Tupac Shakur's bodyguard, he and Cathy Scott, author of The Killing of Tupac Shakur and The Murder of Biggie Smalls, said that Knight would not have placed himself in the path of bullets he knew were coming. On her website Archived Letters Scott responds to a reader of her book stating that she felt there was never evidence to link Knight to Tupac's murder. Scott also told CNN, "That theory doesn't even add up. 'Open fire on my car, but try not to hit me?'"[34]

A 2006 law-enforcement task force probe into Biggie Smalls' murder, which included then-LAPD Detective Greg Kading, included the murder of Shakur. In his 2011 self-published book, Murder Rap,[35] Kading wrote that Duane "Keefe D" Davis, a member of the "Crips" street gang, gave a confession years later claiming he rode in the car used in the Las Vegas shooting of Shakur.[22][36] The Crips claimed they had been offered a million dollars by associates of Bad Boy records to kill Shakur. Kading, who named Sean Combs as having been involved in the conspiracy, also wrote that a bounty was offered for Suge Knight's murder.[22]

While in Las Vegas, Kading's book claims, Davis and fellow Crips members crossed paths with a BMW carrying Knight and Shakur.[28] The fatal shots were fired by Orlando "Baby Lane" Anderson, who sat on the side of the car closest to the BMW.

Kading alleged that Knight hired Wardel "Pouchie" Fouse to kill Sean Combs' most valuable star, Biggie Smalls, a murder done following a party at the Peterson Automotive Museum. Pouchie later survived a murder attempt but died in a drive-by shooting a year after the first attack. Charges were never brought against Fouse or Knight and the task force disbanded for reasons of "internal affairs."[35]

After Shakur's death and the release of Tha Doggfather, Snoop Dogg openly criticized Knight for the murder of Shakur and left the label in 1998.[37] He signed with Master P's No Limit Records and then forming his own record label, Doggystyle Records. In 2002, Snoop released the song "Pimp Slapp'd", in which he repudiated Knight and Death Row. In 2006, Snoop again attacked Knight verbally.[38] Knight responded, stating that Snoop was a "police informer" who "never goes to jail".[39]

End of Death Row Records [ edit ] On April 4, 2006, Knight filed bankruptcy due to civil litigation against him in which Lydia Harris claimed to have been cheated out of a 50% stake in Death Row Records. Prior to filing, Knight had been ordered to pay US$107 million to Harris.[citation needed ] Under questioning by creditors, he denied having money tucked away in foreign countries or in an African company that deals in diamonds and gold. Bankruptcy documents filed showed Knight had no income from employment or operation of a business. According to financial records, his bank account contained just US$12 , and he owned clothing worth US$1,000 , furniture and appliances valued at US$2,000 , and jewelry worth US$25,000 . He also testified that the last time he had checked the label's financial records was at least 10 years prior. Knight's lawyer said that his client was still "at the helm" of Death Row and had been working on securing distribution deals for the label's catalog. Harris told reporters she had received a US$1 million payment but had not agreed to settle the matter. "I'm telling you, I didn't do a settlement for US$1 million . That's ridiculous. Let's keep it real," she said.[40]

On July 7, 2006, the federal judge, Ellen Carroll, ordered a bankruptcy trustee takeover of Suge Knight's Death Row Records, saying the record label had undergone a gross amount of mismanagement.[41]

He filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection,[42] which allows a company to continue business operations while restructuring. Death Row was being operated by Neilson during the bankruptcy proceedings, while Knight oversaw his bankruptcy estate as a debtor in possession.[43]

In June 2007, he placed his 7 bedroom, 9½ bath home in Malibu, California on the market for US$6.2 million as part of his "financial makeover". The mansion was finally sold in December 2008 in bankruptcy court for US$4.56 million .[44]

In June 2008, Death Row Records was put up for auction in Bankruptcy Court. The winning bid went to New York-based company Global Music Group,[45] which confirmed it had purchased the firm in a statement to the Associated Press news agency. Global Music Group failed to secure funding and the Death Row Records catalog eventually went to Wideawake Entertainment.

On January 25, 2009, an auction was held for everything found in the Death Row Records office after the company filed for bankruptcy, including some of Knight's personal items. Of note was the Death Row Records electric chair which sold for US$2,500 . Some of Knight's personal items appeared in an auction during the debut episode of A&E's Storage Wars,[46] and a vault full of items (including a coat) was purchased by featured buyer Barry Weiss.[47]

New Death Row Records [ edit ] After news of his son's "New" Death Row Records was released with reports of Tupac still alive, Knight confirmed that new music would be released by the artist soon.[48][49]

Personal and legal troubles [ edit ] 1995 convictions [ edit ] In a 1995 federal case, Knight pleaded no contest and was sentenced to five years' probation for assaulting two rappers in the summer of 1992 at a Hollywood recording studio.[50]

1996 probation violation leading to incarceration [ edit ] On October 22, 1996, Knight was sent to jail pending a hearing on the probation violation that happened on September 7, 1996 when Suge Knight and his Death Row entourage including Tupac Shakur attacked Orlando Anderson, a crips gang member. Suge Knight was then sentenced to nine years in prison on February 28, 1997 for the probation violation[51] but was granted early release and was let out on August 6, 2001.[52][53]

2003 conviction and incarceration [ edit ] In 2003, Knight was sent to prison again for violating parole when he struck a parking lot attendant.[54] Death Row Records' income rapidly declined during Knight's recurrent incarceration.

In 2006, Knight was engaged in another dispute with former friend and ex-associate Snoop Dogg after Snoop insulted him in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine.[38][55]

2008 altercation [ edit ] On May 10, 2008, Knight was involved in an altercation involving a monetary dispute outside of a nightclub ("Shag") in Hollywood. He was unconscious for three minutes. At the hospital, he did not cooperate with the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD).[56][57]

2008 bankruptcy [ edit ] As part of an October 30, 2008, bankruptcy claim, Knight also filed a lawsuit against Kanye West and his associates. The lawsuit concerns an August 2005 shooting at West's pre-Video Music Awards party, where Knight was wounded by a gunshot to the upper leg.[58][59]

2009 altercation [ edit ] In February 2009, Knight was taken to Scottsdale Healthcare Osborn to be treated for face injuries he received during an altercation at a private party in the W Scottsdale Hotel, where Knight was reportedly punched.[60]

2012 arrest [ edit ] On February 8, 2012, Knight was arrested in Las Vegas, after police found cannabis in his car and several warrants for prior traffic violations.[53]

2014 shooting [ edit ] On August 24, 2014, Knight was shot at a pre-Video Music Awards party hosted by Chris Brown at a West Hollywood Sunset Strip nightclub ("1OAK"). Although shot six times, he was able to walk from the venue to an ambulance. His injuries required surgery.[61] It is reported by investigators that evidence from closed circuit television (CCTV) footage showed that Knight was the intended target of the shooting.[62] Knight was released from the hospital on August 27. Friend Keith Middlebrook told the New York Daily News that Knight returned home with the intentions to "heal up in a few days and be stronger than ever".[63]

Knight refused to cooperate with law enforcement on the matter.[64] Jeezy later claimed on the Breakfast Club that he would have been shot had he not been pushed out of the way just prior to the shots.[65]

Prosecution on charges of robbery (2014''present) [ edit ] On October 29, 2014, Knight and comedian Katt Williams were both arrested and charged with second-degree robbery in connection with an alleged theft of a camera from a paparazzi photographer the previous month in Beverly Hills, California.[66][67] While in jail, doctors found a blood clot in Knight's lung.[68] Both Knight and Williams pleaded not guilty to robbery. In 2016, the robbery trial was delayed until the resolution of the unrelated murder trial.[66]

Prosecution on charges of voluntary manslaughter (2015''2017) [ edit ] On January 29, 2015, Knight crashed his car into two men, killing Terry Carter (his friend and co-founder of Heavyweight Records) and fled the scene in Compton, California.[69][70][71][72] The second victim, filmmaker Cle Sloan, suffered a mangled foot and head injuries.[73][74] Witnesses claimed Knight followed the men to a burger stand parking lot after an argument on the Straight Outta Compton film set, and that the collision looked intentional.[75] Security footage video showed Knight running over both men. Knight claimed he acted in self-defense.[76]

In March 2015, Knight was hospitalized after he told a judge that he was suffering from blindness and other complications. Knight fired attorneys handling his murder case and said he was receiving inadequate medical treatment while in custody.[77] The same month, a court set bail for his release for US$25 million . Knight collapsed in court shortly after the bail setting was announced.[78] On April 16, 2015, Knight's bail was reduced to US$10 million .[79][80] In July 2015, Knight's lawyer claimed that Knight might have a brain tumor[81] on the same day that Knight's request for lower bail was refused.[82] In January 2016, Knight changed counsel in his murder trial for a fourth time.[83][84] In May 2016, three attorneys replaced the two hired earlier in the year.[85] In July 2016, the judge denied Knight's motion to reveal the identities of several key prosecution witnesses, citing Knight's long history of violence.[86] Knight became emotional after the ruling, stating that because of his health problems, he will die in jail.[87] In March 2017, Knight was hospitalized after suffering from blood clots, a condition that has been affecting him for two years.[88] Knight's hospitalization delayed the trial[89] to September 2018.[90] When September arrived, Knight pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter.[91][92] The judge sentenced Knight to 28 years in prison.[93] As of December 2018, Knight is incarcerated at RJ Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego.[94]

Prosecution on charges of threatening death (2017) [ edit ] In August 2017, a grand jury indicted Knight on charges of "threatening death or bodily injury" for sending threatening text messages to F. Gary Gray, the director of Straight Outta Compton, on August 8, 2017. Knight pleaded not guilty to the charge,[95] and the charge was dropped as part of Knight's plea agreement in the death of Terry Carter.[96]

Biographical portrayals in film [ edit ] Documentary film [ edit ] American Dream/American Knightmare, a documentary by Antoine Fuqua featuring interviews conducted with Knight in 2011 and 2012, was broadcast on Showtime on December 21, 2018.

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XXL Mag. ^ "2 lawyers for Suge Knight accused of plotting to bribe potential murder witnesses". CBS News. March 6, 2018 . Retrieved November 28, 2019 . ^ Abrahamson, Alan; Philips, Chuck (March 1, 1997). "Rap Mogul 'Suge' Knight Sent to Prison for 9 Years". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved November 27, 2019 . ^ Christina Saraceno (August 8, 2001). "Suge Knight Leaves Prison". Rolling Stone . Retrieved November 27, 2019 . ^ a b Ramirez, Erika (January 30, 2015). "Suge Knight: A Timeline of His Legal Troubles". Billboard . Retrieved July 23, 2016 . ^ Teresa Wiltz (June 17, 2007). "Like Knight and Day? Gangsta Rap Brought 'Suge' Knight Wealth -- and Lots of Trouble. Now He's Singing a Different Tune". The Washington Post. ^ "Tupac Amaru Shakur". Books.google.com. epubli . Retrieved July 23, 2016 . ^ Janice aka Miss Mad (May 11, 2008). "SUGE KNIGHT KNOCKED UNCONSCIOUS IN LA NIGHT CLUB". MAD NEWS . Retrieved July 23, 2016 . ^ Park, Dave (May 12, 2008). "Suge Knight knocked out (Photos)". 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New York Daily News. ^ "Suge Knight -- I Ain't No Snitch ... Not Talking To Cops". Tmz.com. August 26, 2014 . Retrieved August 27, 2014 . ^ "Jeezy: I Was Nearly Hit When Suge Knight Was Shot". BET.com. November 13, 2015. ^ a b Nancy Dillon, Suge Knight's robbery trial with comedian Katt Williams pushed till after jury weighs his murder case, New York Daily News (August 30, 2016). ^ Almasy, Steve (October 29, 2014). "Suge Knight, Katt Williams arrested in paparazzi camera theft case". CNN . Retrieved October 30, 2014 . ^ Fieldstadt, Elisha (November 3, 2014). " ' Suge' Knight Hospitalized With 'Blood Clot' After Passing Out in Vegas Jail". NBC News.com. ^ Dillon, Raquel Maria (January 30, 2015). "Ex-rap mogul Suge Knight arrested on suspicion of murder". Christian Science Monitor . Retrieved February 3, 2015 . ^ McGeehan, Patrick (January 30, 2015). "Suge Knight, Music Executive, Is Questioned by Police in Hit-and-Run". The New York Times . Retrieved January 30, 2015 . CS1 maint: ref=harv (link) ^ Rocha, Veronica (January 30, 2015). "Man allegedly killed by Suge Knight was father figure in South L.A." LA Times . Retrieved February 3, 2015 . ^ "Heavyweight Records On A&M Records". onamrecords.com. ^ McCartney, Anthony (February 3, 2015). "Suge Knight Taken to Hospital After Court Appearance". ABC News . Retrieved February 4, 2015 . ^ Kalilea, Vivian (January 29, 2015). "Suge Knight kills 'close friend' in Hit and Run". Entertainment Weekly . Retrieved January 29, 2015 . ^ Suge Knight arrested in fatal hit-and-run, Saeed Ahmed, CNN, January 30, 2015 ^ Anthony McCartney (February 9, 2015). " ' Suge' Knight's Lawyer: Video of Deadly Wreck Helps Defense". ABC News. AP . Retrieved February 9, 2015 . ^ McCartney, Anthony (March 3, 2015). "Suge Knight hospitalized after firing lawyers". Detroit Free Press. ^ "Rap mogul Suge Knight collapses in court after judge sets $25 million bail". BBC Newsbeat. March 20, 2015. ^ "Suge Knight Murder Case Going to Trial, Rapper's Bail Reduced to $10 Million". E! Online. ^ "Judge Lowers Bail to $10 Million In Suge Knight Case - Vibe". Vibe. ^ "Suge Knight -- My Toilet Is Possessed ... Oh Yeah, I May Have a Brain Tumor", TMZ, July 17, 2015. ^ Anthony McCartney, "Judge refuses to lower Suge Knight's bail", USA Today, July 17, 2015. ^ "Suge Knight Gets Fifth Lawyer in Murder Case". Billboard. Associated Press. January 22, 2016 . Retrieved September 25, 2016 . ^ Erin Staley (January 23, 2016). "Suge Knight Gets New Lawyer In Last-Ditch-Effort To Avoid Life Sentence". Inquisitr.com . Retrieved September 25, 2016 . ^ Hassahn Liggins (April 27, 2016). "Suge Knight Selects New Defense Team for Murder Trial". Radiofacts.com . Retrieved September 25, 2016 . ^ "Suge Knight Breaks Down in Court as Judge Denies Key Witness Info". Yahoo. July 24, 2016 . Retrieved September 25, 2016 . ^ Dillon, Nancy (July 22, 2016). "Judge denies rap mogul Suge Knight murder-trial witness info". NY Daily News . Retrieved September 25, 2016 . ^ "Suge Knight Back in Hospital for Blood Clots". Tmz.com. ^ "Suge Knight misses court hearing due to illness". Nydailynews.com. ^ "Suge Knight Finally Gets a Date for Murder Trial". Billboard . Retrieved June 20, 2018 . ^ Almasy, Steve; Mossburg, Cheri (September 20, 2018). "Suge Knight pleads no contest to manslaughter in 2015 hit-and-run". CNN . Retrieved September 21, 2018 . ^ Dalton, Andrew (September 17, 2018). "Suge Knight pleads to manslaughter over fatal confrontation". MSN . Retrieved September 21, 2018 . ^ "Suge Knight sentenced to 28 years in prison for fatally running over man in 2015". www.cbsnews.com. ^ "State of California Inmate Locator". inmatelocator.cdcr.ca.gov. ^ Marisa Gerber, Marion 'Suge' Knight charged with threatening director of the film 'Straight Outta Compton', New York Daily News (August 3, 2017). ^ "Suge Knight sentenced to 28 years in prison for fatally running over man in 2015". www.cbsnews.com . Retrieved February 20, 2019 . Further reading [ edit ] Biggie & Tupac. Dir. Nick Broomfield. Lafayette Films, 2002.Brown, Jake. Suge Knight: The Rise, Fall, and Rise of Death Row Records: The Story of Marion "Suge" Knight, a Hard Hitting Study of One Man, One Company That Changed the Course of American Music Forever. Amber Books, October 1, 2001, 218 pp. ISBN 0-9702224-7-5Kading, Greg. Murder Rap: The Untold Story of the Biggie Smalls & Tupac Shakur Murder Investigations by the Detective Who Solved Both Cases. One Time Publishing, 2011. ISBN 0-9839554-8-4Philips, Chuck. "Who Killed Tupac Shakur? How Vegas Police Probe Foundered". Los Angeles Times, September 7, 2002, p. 1.Raftery, Brian M. "A B.I.G. Mystery." Entertainment Weekly. September 27, 2002, p. 19.Ro, Ronin. Have Gun Will Travel: The Spectacular Rise and Violent Fall of Death Row Records. Doubleday, 1998, 384 pp. ISBN 0-385-49134-4Poole, Russell. "Chaos Merchants" ISBN 9781310940200Scott, Cathy. The Killing of Tupac Shakur. Huntington Press, October 1, 2002, 235 pp. ISBN 0-929712-20-XScott, Cathy. The Murder of Biggie Smalls. St. Martin's Press, 210 pp. 2000. ISBN 978-0312266202Scott, Cathy. "The Unsolved Murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls." Crime Magazine. July 23, 2012, p. 1."Suge Knight Sentenced to 10 Months for Parole Violation." MTV.com. July 31, 2003.Sullivan, Randall. LAbyrinth: A Detective Investigates the Murders of Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press. 2002.Sullivan, Randall. Labyrinth: Corruption and Vice in the L.A.P.D.: The truth behind the murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls. Atlantic Monthly Press, April 2, 2002, 384 pp. ISBN 0-87113-838-7Welcome to Death Row. Dir. S. Leigh Savidge & Jeff Scheftel, 2001External links [ edit ] Career statistics and player information from Pro-Football-Reference

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Sat, 20 Jun 2020 14:33

News Stewart PerrieLast updated 4:53 PM, Tuesday July 10 2018 GMT+1

In 1993, rapper 2pac - real name Tupac Shakur - was charged with sexually assaulting a woman in a hotel room, and although he denied the offence, the rapper was convicted and sent to prison. That woman, Ayanna Jackson, spoke during the trial of how 'in awe' and 'starstruck' she was when she arrived at the hotel that night.

Ms Jackson wasn't named during the trial, however she's come forward more than 24 years later to give her first on-camera interview to explain what happened that night.

Speaking to VLadTV, Ayanna explained how she initially went into a bedroom with Shakur and gave him a massage. They eventually started kissing but the rapper grabbed the back of her head at one point and kept telling her to 'relax'. But at one point, a door opened, and Ms Jackson could hear people shuffling into the room.

She recalled: "Because he had his hand in my braids, I can't physically move around. So I'm looking at him while I'm straddling him and I'm looking at him face to face and I can hear people talking and I hear people saying, 'Look at her.'

"I'm looking at him dead in the eye and I say, 'What's going on?'

"He's saying: 'Relax, relax, relax, baby. These are my boys. I like you so much I decided to share you with them.'"

Watch the trailer for the documentary on 2pac's death

Ayanna said she told Tupac 'no' several times but he kept his hand on the back of her head. She described parts of the encounter like an out-of-body experience because she couldn't believe it was happening to her.

Ms Jackson recalled her stockings and dress being ripped off by the other men in the room before being raped by Tupac. Eventually the singer left the room and his friends then raped her.

It wasn't until she 'came to' that she realised what had happened to her.

When the case went to court, Tupac stringently denied the rape charges and insisted what happened that night was consensual. While he apologised to her in the courtroom, he told the judge: "I'm not apologising for a crime. I hope in time you'll come forth and tell the truth."

Justice Daniel P. Fitzgerald didn't side with the singer and described the crime as 'an act of brutal violence against a helpless woman'. He was sentenced to four and a half years behind bars with the ability to apply for parole after serving just one and a half years.

Featured Image Credit: Tupac Instagram

Topics: Celebrity, News, Music, Raped, Sexual Assault, US News, crime, Tupac Shakur, Prison

Stewart PerrieStewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

Follow @stewartperrie

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Archived Version

Sat, 20 Jun 2020 14:13

Vincent Thompson was first arrested when he was 14. It was a Friday night and Thompson and some friends in his neighborhood in Hempstead, Long Island, had just come home from a party. They were clustered outside their buildings not yet ready to call it a night, when the police "rushed" the group, he said, and searched them. Thompson had just started selling crack, and the police found it. He was handcuffed and stuffed into the back of a police car. "It was my first time ever being in that position," Thompson recalls. "I was young."

He was released into his mother's custody, but placed on juvenile probation '-- a label that would come to define his adolescence, as was the process of shuttling back and forth to court. By this point in his life, Thompson had already witnessed his older brother and sister get arrested; the images of them sitting in the back of a police car, handcuffed, were cemented in his conscience.

Thompson's home situation was loving. His mother was strong, stable and the sole provider for her three children. But the realities of the neighborhood were dominant. There were two constants for Thompson growing up in Hempstead: drugs and police. He described his community as swallowed by drugs. He often saw the buying and selling of it, but also a heavy, perpetual police presence. If a group of kids were hanging together outside, there was a significant possibility that they would be searched and harassed.

In the early 2000s when Thompson became a teenager, the "superpredator" myth was largely unquestioned. This was the theory that certain cohorts of young people in urban settings (and almost always black or Latino) are violent, terrifying and with "no conscience, no empathy," as Hillary Clinton famously said in 1996. Thompson experienced stop-and-frisk long before he even knew there was a name for it. And Thompson witnessed so many arrests, beyond his siblings, so many people leaving the neighborhood for stretches of time, so many people returning to the community, that incarceration became normalized.

The superpredator condemnation was conceived by John J. Dilulio Jr. in the mid-1990s. ''A new generation of street criminals is upon us '-- the youngest, biggest and baddest generation any society has ever known," he said, and the term ushered in a methodology of putting violent teenagers in adult prisons with no thought given to intervention or rehabilitation. Dilulio's description of "brutally remorseless youngsters" won out against children's inexperience and suggestibility. William J. Bennett, with John P. Walter and Dilulio, penned "Body Count" in 1996 and promoted the theory that superpredators would skyrocket the level of teenage violence by the new millennium. But violent crime declined; what surged was the juvenile justice population.

The reality that the U.S. has the highest prison population in the world is both devastating and well-known. The U.S. also leads the world in youth incarceration. There are more than 850,000 juvenile arrests per year and nearly 50,000 young people sit in incarceration every day. And like the adult prison population, black and brown youths are disproportionately impacted. Black children are five times more likely to be held and detained than white children, according to data from the Department of Justice.

The superpredator theory has been disproved. Dilulio and Clinton have apologized for propagating it. But the policies that followed and the effects of this thinking are still very much in place. In California, people from as young as 14 years old can be transferred to adult courts and tried and sentenced as such. It is a proposition still on the books from 2000. And California is not alone. In a new VICE documentary called "Raised in the System," it says, "There are up to 200,000 youth, tried, sentenced, or incarcerated as adults annually."

"That superpredator myth really scared generations," Bahiyyah Muhammad, assistant professor of criminology at Howard University, said. "That myth is continuing to go on, even in the midst of the apology for it."

The next year, Thompson was arrested again. This time, the police observed him making a drug sale. They chased him into his apartment and "put the guns to me and all that," he said. They thought he broke into someone's home. "I'm 15 years old," he added. For this charge, he spent 60 days in the Nassau County Juvenile Detention Center. Thompson's major takeaway from the center was, "it really got you ready for prison."

"They make very little even pretense at rehabilitation at this point anywhere," said WNYC reporter Kai Wright. He takes an in-depth look into the juvenile justice system in a new podcast series "Caught." He added, "Coming out of, again, the politics of the '90s ... it really started to crowd out the idea that we would be rehabilitating people instead of punishing them."

Thompson remembers that when he was incarcerated there, the detention center held about 60 young people from all over Long Island. But at least one-third were from his same neighborhood. That's because juvenile justice is local and incarceration overwhelmingly cripples distinct geographic areas, but research by Harvard sociologists shows that when law enforcement finds its focus, entire neighborhoods in major cities '-- mostly poor, and black and brown '-- can be swept up by the prosecutorial zeal.

When it comes to youth incarceration and one's ZIP code, "it's an immediate correlation," Muhammad said. "That really is the bread and butter of the entire juvenile justice system." Wright added, "The sorting of innocence from irredeemable guilt starts young. And more often than not, that stark divide depends on what you look like and where you live."

Researchers labeled areas with high concentration of crime and plagued by mass incarceration as "hot spots." Informally, they have been dubbed "'million-dollar blocks' to reflect that spending on incarceration was the predominant public sector investment in these neighborhoods," the American Prospect magazine reported.

This means mass incarceration can be totally invisible to some Americans or ever present for others. The same is true for youth incarceration. Muhammad says that like the criminal justice system, "the doors revolve" in the juvenile justice system and "t he majority of people incarcerated have a juvenile record. So it's clear that there is this pathway." One common denominator is the lowest-performing schools '-- those that are the most underfunded and underresourced '-- are often in areas where incarceration rates are the highest.

Eighth grade was the last grade Thompson completed as a teenager. He started at Hempstead High School, but was kicked out for truancy, and was officially expelled his second year for the same thing. "I didn't need to be pushed out of school," he said. "I needed to be inside a school." Thompson felt his expulsion drove him right into the juvenile justice system.

It didn't help either that his high school already resembled a place of lockup. It had metal detectors; police patrolled the halls; status offenses, misbehavior or fistfights meant you could leave handcuffed in the back of a police car. Thompson thought school was supposed to be a "safe haven," but with his expulsion, his problems spiraled. " It doesn't help living in highly criminal areas and the school system just pushes you back into that area," he said.

The superpredator myth didn't just infect courtrooms. Schools became these militarized "zero-tolerance" zones, where childish behavior was criminalized, and schools, in specific underresourced neighborhoods, became gateways to youth incarceration. It is a phenomenon known as the school-to-prison pipeline.

Muhammad described the pipeline as:

Individuals in certain schools are being pushed out and being disciplined in a way that's very vicious, that's disrespectful and is a disregard for young black bodies within schools. You started to see metal detectors popping up in these different schools and it was connected to zip code. So if it was a zip code that was plagued by mass incarceration '-- connected to the statistics that come out of the Bureau of Justice highlighting the different communities and city that individuals are returning home to '-- their children started to get targeted within the schools that they are attending. And not reaching out to help them, but creating an environment where the school is almost just like prison.

In WNYC's "Caught," Judith Browne Dianis, executive director of a civil rights organization, explained that in schools, talking back became disorderly conduct; writing on desks became vandalism. In some states, schools have to alert the courts if a student is cutting class, and fights at school became felonies. So instead of providing social services in schools, children as young as elementary and secondary are facing draconian-style laws and are shifted into the juvenile justice system, which VICE estimates makes a young person 38 times more likely to enter the criminal justice system as an adult.

A horrific video surfaced from a South Carolina high school in 2015, when a school police officer wrapped his arm around a 16-year-old black girl's neck to forcibly remove her from her desk. The desk flipped over and he proceeded to drag her and throw her across the floor before arresting her. Classmates said the teenager used a cellphone in math class and then refused to leave the classroom. For this, she faced a misdemeanor charge for "disturbing schools." Wright worries that even as we are in a political moment where the school-to-prison pipeline is named and known, which he says is progress '-- as a society, we have yet to wrestle with the long-term effects of these zero-tolerance policies.

With no school to attend, Thompson spent more time on the streets, more time selling drugs and more time face to face with what he says were "the hardships of the neighborhood." Thompson was arrested again for a drug sale at 17 and sent to Nassau County jail '-- an adult jail, but he was housed in the adolescent block for one year. There, he turned 18 and got his GED. And five months after his release from jail, Thompson was arrested for manslaughter and sentenced to 12 years in prison.

"Very few people would look at this and say this works," Wright said of the juvenile justice system. "It is almost unanimous that this does not work. The debates are really about how much harm does it do."

But something clicked for Thompson during his sentencing as a legal adult. He saw scores of young black men shuffling in and out of courtrooms and it amplified the way the system disregards young black bodies. To see his mother in tears at his sentencing was exemplary of the way the system crushes entire families. And to see the district attorney pine for a plea deal made clear the system's priority for a conviction over justice. Thompson said that if he didn't devise a plan for himself, the system had the possibility of determining the rest of his life. So education became his primary goal once he learned there was a possibility of getting a college degree while incarcerated.

It is no accident. "The teenage brain is like a sports car," is the title of "Caught's" fifth episode. It follows the scientific brain research that demonstrates how teenagers are unpredictable and how brains do not mature fully until young people are in their 20s. (This adds to the long-established research of how most people age out of crime.)

In 2002, the Supreme Court deemed it unconstitutional to execute mentally disabled people, because they lack culpability, judgment and impulse control. Wright shows how this opened the door for lawyers to argue for the same treatment for youth '-- that a teenager is just as impulsive as someone with intellectual disabilities.

In 2005, the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional for a teenager under the age of 18 to be sentenced to death. Then, in 2010, the Supreme Court ruled that a juvenile could not be sentenced to life without parole for a non-homicidal crime. And in 2012, the Supreme Court ruled that a juvenile could not be sentenced to mandatory life without parole. (This does not bar life sentences for youth, just mandatory ones.)

"Brain science, and juvenile life without parole, I think that's a perfect example of where the conversation around youth incarceration and youth criminalization is driving us into a space to think newly about what is justice," Wright said. "We've done this before, because we've thought newly about what is justice and made it a more punitive and more avenging space. We can think newly about justice and make it more about reform."

Reforms are happening. In Tuledo, Ohio, the documentary "Raised in the System" shows how juvenile court administrator Deborah Hodges has diverted a significant portion of juvenile offenders from detention to a youth assessment center. The Annie E. Casey Foundation's Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative is another well-known project that reduces juvenile detention populations. What began as a pilot project in the 1990s is now present in 300 counties. And in Illinois, youth under 18 are no longer tried as adults, but now automatically sent to juvenile court. Other nationwide programs like Models for Change incorporate mental health and community-based alternatives to youth incarceration.

"There are efforts inside the system and around the system to figure out how can we put rehabilitation back on the table and find ways to intervene with mental health," Wright said. "They are swimming against the tide of what the system is built to do at this moment."

Muhammad says to upend the superpredator myth, what's needed is a cultural upheaval for how we treat juvenile offenders. She added that it is crucial to keep youth in their communities, to connect them with mental health and other social services, to include their families in the reentry process and to provide young people with employment. Beyond the structural reforms, Muhammad stresses that, most important, young people need to be listened to and forgiven.

Thompson served just under 10 years in Sing Sing, Attica, Coxsackie, Eastern and Wallkill Correctional Facility. He tried three different times to enter college programs, but either did not qualify or did not make the cut. "It's so hard to get into a college program inside prison, so it took me about eight years to qualify," he said. "It's highly competitive."

At Wallkill, Thompson was accepted into New York University's Prison Education Program and earned his associate's. Now free, Thompson is at NYU working toward his bachelor's in American Studies. In his spare time, he works with Just Leadership, an organization that empowers formerly incarcerated individuals and others most affected by incarceration to craft prison reform through policy. Thompson is helping to create a Just Leadership branch in his hometown, Long Island. For the long term, he plans to start his own organization, "to provide mentorship to the youth and the support that I felt I should have gotten at that age," he said.

"No longer is the criminal justice system swallowing the juvenile justice system," Muhammad said of the research and reform dedicated to youth incarceration. Formerly incarcerated individuals like Thompson are increasingly leaders in this work. And since the juvenile justice system is the starting point of criminalization and incarceration for so many adults in prison, juvenile justice reform is integral to repairing the criminal justice system.

A nationwide cultural shift is still needed, but "you're starting to see a drive for juvenile justice," Muhammad continued. "And by looking at these children, this is the way that we're beginning to free them. And I feel like it's allowing us to humanize these children that should have never been animalized or dehumanized in the first place."

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Sat, 20 Jun 2020 13:58

"Tupac" redirects here. For other people with this name, see

Tupac (name).

American rapper and actor (1971''1996)

Tupac Amaru Shakur ( TOO -pahk shÉ- KOOR ; born Lesane Parish Crooks, June 16, 1971 '' September 13, 1996), popularly known by his stage name 2Pac, was an American rapper and actor.[3][4] He is considered by many to be one of the most significant rappers of all time.[5][6] Much of Shakur's work has been noted for addressing contemporary social issues that plagued inner cities, and he is considered a symbol of resistance and activism against inequality.[7]

Shakur was born in the Manhattan borough of New York City but relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1988. He later moved to Los Angeles in 1993 to further pursue his music career. By the time he released his debut album 2Pacalypse Now in 1991, he had become a central figure in West Coast hip hop, introducing social issues in the genre at a time when gangsta rap was dominant in the mainstream.[8][9] Shakur achieved further critical and commercial success with his follow-up albums Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z... (1993) and the critically acclaimed Me Against the World (1995), which has been considered as his magnum opus.[10]

In later 1995, after being convicted of molestation and becoming a victim of a robbery and shooting, Shakur became heavily involved in the growing East Coast''West Coast hip hop rivalry.[11] His double-disc album All Eyez on Me (1996) became certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).[12] On September 7, 1996, Shakur was shot four times by an unknown assailant in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas; he died six days later and the gunman was never captured. The Notorious B.I.G., Shakur's friend turned rival, was at first considered a suspect, but was also murdered in another drive-by shooting several months later.[13][14] Five more albums have been released since his death, all of which have been certified Platinum.

Shakur is one of the best-selling music artists of all time having sold over 75 million records worldwide. In 2002, he was inducted into the Hip-Hop Hall of Fame.[15] In 2017, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility.[16] Rolling Stone named Shakur in its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.[17] Outside music, Shakur also gained considerable success as an actor, with his starring roles as Bishop in Juice (1992), Lucky in Poetic Justice (1993) where he starred alongside Janet Jackson, Ezekiel in Gridlock'd (1997), and Jake in Gang Related (1997), all garnering praise from critics.

Personal life Tupac Amaru Shakur was born on June 16, 1971, in the East Harlem section of New York City's Manhattan borough. While born Lesane Parish Crooks,[19][20][21] he was renamed, at age one, after Tºpac Amaru II[22] (the descendant of the last Incan ruler, Tºpac Amaru), who was executed in Peru in 1781 after his failed revolt against Spanish rule.[23]

Shakur's mother explained, "I wanted him to have the name of revolutionary, indigenous people in the world. I wanted him to know he was part of a world culture and not just from a neighborhood."[24] Tupac had an older stepbrother, Mopreme "Komani" Shakur, and a half-sister, Sekyiwa, two years his junior.[25] His parents, Afeni Shakur'--born Alice Faye Williams in North Carolina'--and his birth father, Billy Garland, had been active Black Panther Party members in New York in the late 1960s and early 1970s.[26]

Panther heritage A month before Tupac's birth, his mother Afeni was tried in New York City as part of the Panther 21 criminal trial. She was acquitted of over 150 charges, in sum, "Conspiracy against the United States government and New York landmarks."[27][28] Other family members who were further involved in the Black Panthers' Black Liberation Army were convicted of serious crimes and imprisoned.

Tupac's godfather, Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt, a high-ranking Panther, was convicted of murdering a school teacher during a 1968 robbery, although his sentence was overturned. In 1982, for aiding the 1979 New Jersey prison escape of Tupac's step-aunt and godmother Assata Shakur, his stepfather Mutulu Shakur spent four years among the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives. Captured in 1986, Mutulu was convicted and imprisoned for the 1981 robbery of a Brinks armored truck, during which police officers and a guard were killed.[29]

East Harlem neighborhood of New York City, where Shakur was born

School years In 1984, Tupac's family moved from New York City to Baltimore, Maryland.[30] He did eighth grade at Roland Park Middle School, then two years at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School. On transfer to the Baltimore School for the Arts, he studied acting, poetry, jazz, and ballet.[31][32] He performed in Shakespeare's plays'--depicting timeless themes, now seen in gang warfare, he would recall[33]'--and as the Mouse King role in The Nutcracker ballet.[29] With his friend Dana "Mouse" Smith as beatbox, he won competitions as reputedly the school's best rapper. Also known for his humor, he could mix with all crowds. As a teen, he listened to musicians including Kate Bush, Culture Club, Sin(C)ad O'Connor, and U2.[36]

At Baltimore's arts high school, Tupac befriended Jada Pinkett, who would become a subject of some of his poems.[37] After his death, she would call him "one of my best friends. He was like a brother. It was beyond friendship for us. The type of relationship we had, you only get that once in a lifetime."[38][39] Upon connecting with the Baltimore Young Communist League USA,[40][41][42] Tupac dated the daughter of the director of the local chapter of the Communist Party USA. In 1988, Shakur moved to Marin City, California, a small, impoverished community,[44] about five miles (eight km) north of San Francisco.[45] In nearby Mill Valley, he attended Tamalpais High School,[46] where he performed in several theater productions.[47]

Later relations In Tupac's adulthood he continued befriending individuals of diverse backgrounds. His friends would range from Mike Tyson[48] and Chuck D[49] to Jim Carrey[50] and Alanis Morissette, who in April 1996 said that she and Tupac were planning to open a restaurant together.[51][52]

In April 1995, early in his prison sentence, Tupac married his then longtime girlfriend Keisha Morris.[53] The marriage officially ended in March 1996.[54] In the four months before his death, Tupac lived with his girlfriend Kidada Jones, daughter of the record producer Quincy Jones and the actress Peggy Lipton.

In 1994, Tupac had spoken against interracial marriage,[55] but retracted these comments,[56] Kidada herself having been born through an interracial marriage. She was beside him at his death.[57] Some of Tupac's song lyrics suggest a belief in a god,[58] perhaps in the manner of deism.[59] Apparently not believing in Heaven and Hell as typified, he perhaps believed in karma.[60]

Music career In January 1991, Tupac, rapper, nationally debuted under the stage name 2Pac, guest on rap group Digital Underground's single "Same Song," compiled on the soundtrack of the February 1991 movie Nothing but Trouble.

2Pac's first two solo albums, November 1991's 2Pacalypse Now and February 1993's Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z..., preceded September 1994's eponymous and only album of his side group Thug Life, himself in it.[61]

Rapper/producer Stretch guests on the above, three 2Pac projects. 2Pac's third solo album, March 1995's Me Against the World, features rap clique Dramacydal, reshaping as the Outlawz on 2Pac's fourth solo.

The fourth 2Pac solo album, and last in his lifetime, February 1996's All Eyez on Me, features also, among its numerous guests, Thug Life member Big Syke. Yet another solo album was already finished.

November 1996's The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory, under the stage name Makaveli, is a studio album made in one August week, whereas later posthumous albums are archival productions.

Later posthumous albums are R U Still Down? (1997), Greatest Hits (1998), Still I Rise (1999), Until the End of Time (2001), Better Dayz (2002), Loyal to the Game (2004), Pac's Life (2006).[62]

Beginnings: 1989''1991 Tupac, using the stage name MC New York, began recording in 1989. That year, he began attending the poetry classes of Leila Steinberg.[63] Soon, she became the budding music artist's manager.[44]

Steinberg organized with Tupac's rap group Strictly Dope a concert. She managed to get Tupac signed by Atron Gregory, manager of the rap group Digital Underground.[44] In 1990, Gregory placed Tupac with the Underground as a roadie and backup dancer.[44][64]

Under the stage name 2Pac, he debuted on the group's January 1991 single "Same Song," leading the group's January 1991 EP titled This Is an EP Release,[44] while 2Pac appeared in the music video. It also went on the soundtrack of the February 1991 movie Nothing but Trouble, starting Dan Akroyd, John Candy, Chevy Chase, and Demi Moore.[44]

Rising star: 1992''1993 2Pac's debut album, 2Pacalypse Now'--alluding to the 1979 film Apocalypse Now'--arriving in November 1991, would bear three singles. Some prominent rappers'--like Nas, Eminem, Game, and Talib Kweli'--cite it as an inspiration.[65] Aside from "If My Homie Calls," the singles "Trapped" and "Brenda's Got a Baby" poetically depict individual struggles under socioeconomic disadvantage.[66] But once a Texas defense attorney, with a young client who had shot a state trooper, rationalized the defendant had been listening to the album, which touches upon police brutality, controversy ensued.

US Vice President Dan Quayle partially reacted, "There's no reason for a record like this to be released. It has no place in our society." Tupac, finding himself misunderstood,[67] explained, in part, "I just wanted to rap about things that affected young black males. When I said that, I didn't know that I was gonna tie myself down to just take all the blunts and hits for all the young black males, to be the media's kicking post for young black males."[68][69] In any case, 2Pacalypse Now was certified Gold, half a million copies sold. Altogether, 2Pacalypse Now seats well with the socially conscious rap, addressing urban black concerns, still prevalent in rap at the time.[70]

2Pac's second album, Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z..., arrived in February 1993. A critical and commercial advance, it debuted at #24 on the pop albums chart, the Billboard 200. More hardcore overall, it emphasizes Tupac's sociopolitical views, and has a metallic production quality, in fact featuring Ice Cube, the famed primary creator of N.W.A's "Fuck tha Police," but who, in his own solo albums, had newly gone militantly political, along with L.A.'s original gangsta rapper, Ice-T, who in June 1992 had sparked controversy with his band Body Count's track "Cop Killer," heavy metal.

In fact, in its vinyl release, side A, tracks 1 to 8, is labeled the "Black Side," while side B, tracks 9 to 16, is the "Dark Side." Nonetheless, the album carries the single "I Get Around," a party anthem featuring the Underground's Shock G and Money-B, which would render 2Pac's popular breakthrough, reaching #11 on the pop singles chart, the Billboard Hot 100. And it carries the optimistic compassion of another hit, "Keep Ya Head Up," encouraging women. This album would be certified Platinum, a million copies sold. As of 2004, among 2Pac albums, including of posthumous and compilation albums, the Strictly album would 10th in sales, about 1 366 000 copies.[71]

Stardom: 1994''1995 The

test pressing single for "

Dear Mama": the platinum single is among the top ranked songs in hip-hop history.

In late 1993, Shakur formed the group Thug Life with Tyrus "Big Syke" Himes, Diron "Macadoshis" Rivers, his stepbrother Mopreme Shakur, and Walter "Rated R" Burns. Thug Life released its only album, Thug Life: Volume 1, on October 11, 1994. It went Gold. It carries the single "Pour Out a Little Liquor", produced by Johnny "J" Jackson, who would also produce much of Shakur's album All Eyez on Me. Usually, Thug Life performed live without Tupac.[72] The track "Pour Out a Little Liquor" appears also on the 1994 film Above the Rim's soundtrack. But under the heavy criticism of gangsta rap at the time, the album's original version was scrapped, and the album redone with mostly new tracks. Still, along with Stretch, Tupac would perform the first planned first single, "Out on Bail," which was never released, at the 1994 Source Awards.[73]

2Pac's third album, arriving in March 1995 as Me Against the World, is now hailed as his magnum opus, and commonly ranks among the greatest, most influential rap albums. The album sold 240,000 copies in its first week, setting a then record for highest first-week sales for a solo male rapper.[74] The lead single, "Dear Mama," arrived in February with the B side "Old School."[75] The album's most successful single, it topping the Hot Rap Singles chart, and peaked at #9 on the pop singles chart, the Billboard Hot 100.[76] In July, it was certified Platinum.[77] It ranked #51 on the year-end charts. The second single, "So Many Tears," released in June,[78] reached #6 on the Hot Rap Singles chart and #44 on Hot 100.[76] August brought the final single, "Temptations,"[79] reaching #68 on the Hot 100, #35 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks, and #13 on the Hot Rap Singles.[76] At the 1996 Soul Train Music Awards, Tupac won for best rap album.[80] In 2001, it ranked 4th among his total albums in sales, with about 3 524 567 copies sold in the US.[81]

Superstardom: 1995''1996 While imprisoned February to October 1995, Tupac wrote only one song, he would say.[82] Rather, he took to political theorist Niccol² Machiavelli's treatise The Prince and military strategist Sun Tzu's treatise The Art of War.[83] And on Tupac's behalf, his wife Keisha Morris communicated to Suge Knight of Death Row Records that Tupac, in dire straits financially, needed help, his mother about to lose her house.[84] In August, after sending $15,000 for her, Suge began visiting Tupac in prison.[84] In one of his letters to Nina Bhadreshwar, recently hired edit a planned magazine, Death Row Uncut,[85] Tupac discusses plans to start a "new chapter."[86] Eventually, music journalist Kevin Powell would say that Shakur, once released, more aggressive, "seemed like a completely transformed person."[87]

2Pac's fourth album, All Eyez on Me, arrived on February 13, 1996. Of two discs, it basically was rap's first double album'--meeting two of the three albums due in Tupac's contract with Death Row'--and bore five singles while perhaps marking the peak of 1990s rap.[88] With standout production,[89] the album has more party tracks and often a triumphant tone.[90] As 2Pac's second album to hit #1 on both the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and the pop albums chart, the Billboard 200,[91] it sold 566,000 copies in its first week and was it was certified 5— Multi-Platinum in April.[92] "How Do U Want It" as well as "California Love" reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. At the 1997 Soul Train Awards, it won in R&B/Soul or Rap Album of the Year.[93] At the 24th American Music Awards, Tupac won in Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Artist.[94] The album was certified 9— Multi-Platinum in June 1998,[95] and 10— in July 2014.[96]

Tupac's fifth and final studio album, The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory, commonly called simply The 7 Day Theory, was released under a newer stage name, Makaveli.[97] This album had been created in seven days total during August 1996.[98] The lyrics were written and recorded in three days, and mixing took another four days. In 2005, MTV.com ranked The 7 Day Theory at #9 among the hip hop's greatest albums ever,[99] and by 2006 a classic album.[100] Its singular poignance, through hurt and rage, contemplation and vendetta, resonate with many fans.[101] But according to George "Papa G" Pryce, Death Row Records' then director of public relations, the album was meant to be "underground," and "was not really to come out," but, "after Tupac was murdered, it did come out."[102] It peaked at #1 on Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and on the Billboard 200,[103] with the second-highest debut-week sales total of any album that year.[104] On June 15, 1999, it was certified 4— Multi-Platinum.[105]

Film career Tupac's first film appearance was in 1991 in Nothing but Trouble, a cameo by the Digital Underground. Yet in 1992, he starred in Juice, where he plays the fictional Roland Bishop, a violent gang member. Rolling Stone ' s Peter Travers calls him "the film's most magnetic figure."[106]

Then, in 1993, Tupac starred alongside Janet Jackson in John Singleton's romance film, Poetic Justice. Tupac then played another gangster, the fictional Birdie, in Above the Rim. Soon after Tupac's death, three more films starring him were released, Bullet (1996), Gridlock'd (1997), and Gang Related (1997).[107][108]

Director Allen Hughes had cast Tupac as Sharif in the 1993 film Menace II Society, but replaced him once Tupac assaulted him on set. Nonetheless, in 2013, Hughes appraises that Tupac would have outshone the other actors, "because he was bigger than the movie."[109][110] For the lead role in the eventual 2001 film Baby Boy, a role played by Tyrese Gibson, director John Singleton had originally had Tupac in mind.[111] Ultimately, the set design includes in the protagonist's bedroom a Tupac mural, and the film's score includes the 2Pac song "Hail Mary."[112]

Criminal cases In October 1991, Shakur filed a $10-million lawsuit against the Oakland Police Department for allegedly brutalizing him over jaywalking. The case was settled for about $43 000.[113] Yet thereafter, he would be involved in a series of cases where he was accused of inflicting the harm.

Shooting of Qa'id Walker-Teal On August 22, 1992, in Marin City, Shakur performed outdoors at a festival. For about an hour after it, he signed autographs and posed for photos.

Allegedly, once a conflict broke out, Shakur drew but dropped a legally carried Colt Mustang that someone with him then picked up while it accidentally discharged. About 100 yards, or 90 meters, away in a schoolyard, Qa'id Walker-Teal, a boy age 6, on his bicycle, was fatally shot in the forehead.

Police matched the bullet to a .38-caliber pistol registered to Shakur. And his stepbrother Maurice Harding was arrested. But no charges were filed. Lack of witnesses stymied prosecution. In 1995, Qa'id's mother filed against Shakur a wrongful death suit, settled for about $300 000 to $500 000.[114][115]

Shooting two policemen In October 1993, in Atlanta, Mark Whitwell and Scott Whitwell, two brothers, both police officers off duty, were out celebrating with their wives, one of whom had passed the state's bar examination. Drunk, the officers crossed the street while a passing car, carrying Shakur, allegedly almost struck them. The Whitwells, later found to have stolen guns, argued with the car's occupants, soon joined by a second car. Ultimately, Shakur shot one officer in the buttocks and the other in the leg, back, or abdomen. Shakur was charged in the shooting. Mark Whitwell was charged with firing at Shakur's car and later lying to the investigation. Prosecutors dropped all charges against the parties.[116][117]

Assault convictions On April 5, 1993, charged with felonious assault, Shakur allegedly threw a microphone and swung a baseball bat at rapper Chauncey Wynn, of the group M.A.D., at a concert at Michigan State University. On September 14, 1994, Shakur pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor, and was sentenced to 30 days in jail, twenty of them suspended, and ordered to 35 hours of community service.[118][119]

Slated to star as Sharif in the 1993 Hughes brothers' film Menace II Society, Shakur was replaced by actor Vonte Sweet after allegedly assaulting one of the film's director, Allen Hughes. In early 1994, Shakur served 15 days in jail once found guilty of the assault.[120][121] The prosecution's evidence included a Yo! MTV Raps interview where Shakur boasts that he had "beat up the director of Menace II Society."[122]

Sexual-assault conviction In November 1993, Shakur and three other men were charged in New York with sexually assaulting a woman in his hotel room. The woman, Ayanna Jackson, alleged that after consensual oral sex in his hotel room, she returned a later day, but then was raped by him and other men there. Interviewed on The Arsenio Hall Show, Shakur said he was hurt that "a woman would accuse me of taking something from her."[123]

On December 1, 1994, denying that he had himself raped her, Shakur was convicted of first-degree sexual abuse, but acquitted of associated sodomy and gun charges. In February 1995, he was sentenced to 18 months to '‹ 4 1'2 years in prison by a judge who alleged "an act of brutal violence against a helpless woman."[124][125] On October 12, 1995, pending judicial appeal, Shakur was released from Clinton Correctional Facility,[126] once Suge Knight, CEO of Death Row Records, arranged for posting of his $1.4 million bond.[127] On April 5, 1996, Shakur was sentence to 120 days in jail for violating his release terms by failing to appear for a road cleanup job.[128] But on June 8, his sentence was deferred via appeals pending in other cases.[129]

New York scene 1990s In 1991, 2Pac debuted on a new record label, Interscope Records, that knew little about rap music. Until that year, Ruthless Records, formed during 1986 in Los Angeles county's Compton city, had prioritized rap, and its group N.W.A had led gangsta rap to platinum sales, but N.W.A's lyrics, outrageously violent and misogynist, precluded mainstream breakthrough. On the other hand, also specializing in rap, Profile Records, in New York City, had a mainstream, pop breakthrough, Run-DMC's "Walk This Way'', in 1986. In April 1991, N.W.A disbanded via Dre. Dre's departure to, with Suge Knight, launch Death Row Records, in Los Angeles city.[130] With it very first two albums, Death Row became the first record label both to pioritize rap and to regularly release mainstream, pop hits with it.[130]

Released by Death Row in late 1992, Dre's The Chronic'--its "Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang" ubiquitous on pop radio and "Let Me Ride" winning a Grammy'--was trailed in late 1993 by Snoop's Doggystyle.[130] Gangsta rap, no less, these propelled the West Coast, for the first time, ahead of New York to rap's center stage.[130] But meanwhile, in 1993, Andre Harrell of Uptown Records, in New York, fired his star A&R man, Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs, later "P. Diddy."[130] Puffy, while leaving behind his standout projects Jodeci and Mary J. Blige'--two R&B acts'--took to his own, new record label, Bad Boy Entertainment, the promising gangsta rapper Biggie Smalls, soon also known as The Notorious B.I.G.[130] His debut album, released in late 1994 as Ready to Die, promptly returned rap's spotlight to New York.[130]

Rap world Stretch and Live Squad In 1988, Randy "Stretch" Walker, along with his brother, dubbed Majesty, and a friend debuted with an EP as rap group and production team, Live Squad, in New York City's borough Queens.[131] Tupac's early days with Digital Underground made his acquaintance with Stretch, who featured on a track of the Digital Underground's 1991 album Sons of the P. Becoming fast friends, Tupac and Stretch recorded and performed together often.[131] Stretch as well as Live Squad contributed tracks on 2Pac's first two albums, first November 1991, then February 1993, and on 2Pac's side group Thug Life's only album of September 1994.

The end of Tupac's and Stretch's friendship in late 1994 surprised the New York rap scene.[131] The next 2pac album, released in March 1995, lacks Stretch, and 2Pac's album after that, released in February 1996, has lines suggesting Stretch's impending death for betrayal. No objective evidence would publicly emerge to tangibly incriminate Stretch in the gun attack on Tupac, while with Stretch and two others, at about 12:30 AM on November 30, 1994. In any case, after a Live Squad production session for the second album of Queens rapper Nas, Stretch's vehicle was chased while receiving fatal gunfire at about 12:30 AM on November 30, 1995.[131]

Biggie and Junior M.A.F.I.A. During 1993 and 1994, the Biggie Smalls guest verses on several singles, often R&B, like Mary J. Blige's "What's the 411? Remix," set high expectations for his debut album. The perfectionism of Puffy, still forming his Bad Boy label, extended its recording to 18 months. In 1993, visiting Los Angeles, Biggie asked a local drug dealer for an introduction to Tupac, who then welcomed Biggie and Biggie's friends to Tupac's house and treated them to food, weed, and entertainment.[84] On later visits to Los Angeles, Biggie would stay at Tupac's place.[84] And when in New York, Tupac would go to Brooklyn and hang out with Biggie and his circle.[84]

During this period, at his own live shows, Tupac would call Biggie onto stage to rap with him and Stretch.[84] Together, they recorded the songs "Runnin' from the Police" and "House of Pain." Reportedly, Biggie asked Tupac to manage him, whereupon Tupac advised him that Puffy would make him a star.[84] Yet in the meantime, Tupac's lifestyle was comparatively lavish, whereas Biggie appeared to continue wearing the same pair of boots for perhaps a year.[84] Tupac welcomed Biggie to join his side group Thug Life.[84] Biggie would instead form his own side group, the Junior M.A.F.I.A., with his Brooklyn friends Lil' Cease and Lil' Kim, on Bad Boy.

Underworld Despite the "weird" timing of Stretch's shooting death,[131] a theory implicates gunman Ronald "Tenad" Washington both here and in the 2002 murder of Run-DMC's Jam Master Jay via, as the unverified theory speculates, Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff punishing the rap mentor for recording 50 Cent despite Supreme's prohibition after this young rapper's 1999 song "Ghetto Qu'ran" had mentioned activities of the Queens drug gang Supreme Team.[132] Supreme was a friend, rather, of Irv Gotti, cofounder of Murder Inc Records,[132] whose rapper Ja Rule would vie among New York rappers after the March 1997 shooting death of Biggie, visiting Los Angeles.

Haitian Jack By some accounts, the role Birdie, played by Shakur in the 1994 film Above the Rim, had been modeled on a New York underworld tough, Jacques "Haitian Jack" Agnant,[133] a manager and promoter of rappers.[134] Reportedly, Shakur met him at a Queens nightclub, where, noticing him amid women and champagne, Shakur asked for an introduction.[84] Reportedly, Biggie advised Tupac to avoid him, but Tupac disregarded the warning.[84]

In November 1993, in his Manhattan hotel room, Shakur received a woman's return visit. Soon, she alleged sexual assault by him and three other men there: his road manager Charles Fuller, aged 24, one Ricardo Brown, aged 30,[135] and a "Nigel," later understood as Haitian Jack.[84] In November 1994, Jack's case was spit off and closed via misdemeanor plea without incarceration.[84] In 2007, for shooting at someone, he would be deported.[136] Yet in November 1994, A. J. Benza, in the New York Daily News, reported Tupac's new disdain for Jack.[84][133]

Jimmy Henchman Through Haitian Jack, Tupac had met James "Jimmy Henchman" Rosemond.[84] Another underworld figure formidable, Jimmy Henchman doubled as music manager.[133] Bryce Wilson's Groove Theory was an early client.[133] The Game as well as Gucci Mane were later clients.[133] In 1994, a client lesser known, and signed to Uptown Records, was rapper Little Shawn, friend of Biggie and Lil' Cease.[133] Eventually, Jack and Henchman would reportedly fall out, allegedly shooting at each other in Miami.[133] And for his major drug trafficking, Henchman would be sent to prison on a life sentence.[133] But in the early 1990s, Jack and Henchman reputedly shared interests, including a specialty of robbing and extorting music artists.[133]

Shootings of Shakur November 1994 On November 29, 1994, while in New York, Tupac was recording verses for a mixtape of Ron G.[133] Tupac was repeatedly distracted by his beeper.[133] It was music manager James "Jimmy Henchman" Rosemond, reportedly offering $7 000 for Tupac to stop by Quad Studios, in Times Square, that very night to record a verse for his client Little Shawn.[84][133] Tupac was leery, but, needing cash to offset steepening legal costs, took the gig. Tupac arrived with Stretch and another or two. In the lobby, three men initiated robbery at gunpoint, whereupon Tupac, resisting, was shot.[137] Shakur speculated that shooting was the main motive.[138][139]

Three hours after surgery, against doctor's advice, Shakur checked out of Bellevue Hospital Center. The next day, in a Manhattan courtroom bandaged in a wheelchair, he received the jury's verdict in his ongoing criminal trial for a November 1993 incident in his hotel room. Convicted of three counts of molestation, he was acquitted of six other charges, including sodomy and gun charges.[140]

In a 1995 interview with Vibe magazine, Shakur accused Sean Combs,[141] Jimmy Henchman,[137] and Biggie, among others, of setting up or being privy to the November 1994 robbery and shooting. Vibe alerted the names of the accused. When Biggie's entourage went downstairs, Shakur was being taken out on a stretcher, giving the finger to onlookers.[143][144]

In March 2008, Chuck Philips, in the Los Angeles Times, reported on an alleged ordered hit on Shakur.[145] The newspaper retracted the article since it relied partially on FBI documents later discovered forged, supplied by a man convicted of fraud.[146] In June 2011, convicted murder Dexter Isaac, incarcerated in Brookyn, issued a confession that he had been one of the gunman who had robbed and shot Shakur at Henchman's order.[147][148][149] Philips then named Isaac as one of his own, retracted article's unnamed sources.[150]

Tupac became convinced that Stretch had likely been somehow privy to the impending hit. Present during its unfolding, Stretch had shown atypical tolerance for and exemption from it, Tupac felt. But Tupac accused James "Jimmy Henchman" Rosemond, rather, of arranging the hit. Further, Tupac was convinced the Bad Boy record label's inner circle, especially its star rapper Christopher "Biggie" Wallace and label's boss Sean "Puffy" Combs, two who had seemed Tupac's friends, had certainly been privy.

Death Row signs Shakur During 1995, imprisoned, impoverished, and his mother about to lose her house, Tupac had his wife Keisha Morris get word to Marion "Suge" Knight, in Los Angeles, boss of Death Row Records.[84] Reportedly, Tupac's mother promptly received $15,000.[84] After an August visit to Clinton Correctional Facility in northern New York state, Suge traveled southward to New York City to join Death Row's entourage to the 2nd Annual Source Awards ceremony.[84] Already reputed for strongarm tactics on the Los Angeles rap scene, Suge used his brief stage time mainly to belittle Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs, boss of Bad Boy Entertainment, the label then leading New York rap scene, who routinely performed with his own artists.[130][151] Before closing with a brief comment of support for Tupac,[152] Suge invited artists seeking the spotlight for themselves to join Death Row.[130][151] Eventually, Puff recalled that to preempt severe retaliation from his Bad Boy orbit, he had promptly confronted Suge, whose reply'--that he had meant Jermaine Dupri, of So So Def Recordings, in Atlanta'--was politic enough to deescalate the conflict.[153]

Still, among the fans, the previously diffuse rivalry between America's only two mainstream rap scenes had instantly flared already.[130][152][151] And while in New York, Suge visited Uptown Records, where Puff, under its founder Andre Harrell, had started in the music business through an internship.[154] Apparently without paying Uptown, Suge obtained the releases of Puff's prime Uptown recruits Jodeci, its producer DeVante Swing, and Mary J. Blige, all then signing Suge's management company.[154] On September 24, 1995, at a party for Dupri in Atlanta at the Platinum House nightclub, a Bad Boy circle entered a heated dispute with Suge and Suge's friend Jai Hassan-Jamal "Big Jake" Robles, a Bloods gang member and Death Row bodyguard.[130][155] According to eyewitnesses, including a Fulton County sheriff, working there as a nightclub bouncer, Puff had heatedly disputed with Suge inside the club,[130] whereas several minutes later, outside the club, it was Puff's childhood friend and own bodyguard, Anthony ''Wolf'' Jones, who had aimed a gun at Big Jake, fatally shot while entering Suge's car.[130][156][157]

The attorneys of Puff and his bodyguard both denied any involvement by their clients, while Puff's added that Puff had not even been with his bodyguard that night.[158] Over 20 years later, the case remains officially unresolved. Yet immediately and persistently, Suge blamed Puff, cementing the enmity between the two bosses, whose two record labels dominated the rap genre's two mainstream centers.[130][159] In the late 1990s, Southern rap's growth into the mainstream would dispel the East''West paradigm.[152] But in the meantime, in October 1995, violating his probation, Suge visited Tupac in prison again.[130] Suge posted $1.4 million bond. And with appeal of his December 1994 conviction pending, Shakur returned to Los Angeles and joined Death Row.[130] On June 4, 1996, it released the 2Pac B side "Hit 'Em Up." In this venonmous tirade, the proclaimed "Bad Boy killer" threatens violent payback on all things Bad Boy'--Biggie, Puffy, Junior M.A.F.I.A., the company'--and on any in New York's rap scene, like rap duo Mobb Deep and obscure rapper Chino XL, who allegedly had commented against Shakur about the dispute.

September 1996 On the night of September 7, 1996, Shakur was in Las Vegas, Nevada, to celebrate his business partner Tracy Danielle Robinson's birthday[160] and attended the Bruce Seldon vs. Mike Tyson boxing match with Suge Knight at the MGM Grand. Afterward, in its lobby, someone in their group spotted Orlando "Baby Lane" Anderson, an alleged Southside Compton Crip, whom the individual accused of having recently, in a shopping mall, tried to snatch his neckchain with Death Row Records medallion. The hotel's surveillance footage shows the ensuing assault on Anderson. Shakur soon stopped by his hotel room and then headed with Knight to his Death Row nightclub, Club 662, in a black BMW 750iL sedan, part of a larger convoy.[161]

At about 11 PM, for its loud music and lack of license plates, bicycle-mounted police stopped the car on Las Vegas Boulevard. The plates were found in the trunk, and the car was released without a ticket.[162] At about 11:15, at a stop light, a white, four-door, late-model Cadillac sedan pulled up to the passenger, and an arriving occupant rapidly fired at Shakur, who was struck four times, once in the arm, once in the thigh, and twice in the chest,[163] one bullet entering his right lung.[164] Shards hit Knight's head. Not in the car, Shakur's bodyguard, Frank Alexander, had been tasked, he would say, to drive the car of Shakur's girlfriend, Kidada Jones.[165]

Shakur was taken to the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada, heavily sedated, put on life support, and later, to prevent involuntary reactions injurious, put under a barbiturate-induced coma.[166] In the intensive-care unit, on the afternoon of September 13, 1996, Shakur died from internal bleeding.[166] He was pronounced dead at 4:03 PM.[166] The official causes of death are respiratory failure and cardiopulmonary arrest associated with multiple gunshot wounds.[166] Shakur's body was cremated the next day. Members of the Outlawz, recalling a line in his song "Black Jesus," although uncertain of the artist's attempt a literal meaning, chose to interpret the request seriously, and, after mixing them with marijuana, smoked some of his body's ashes.[167][168]

In 2011, via the Freedom of Information Act, the FBI documents reveal its investigation of the Jewish Defense League for making death threats against Shakur and other rappers.[169][170] In 2002, investigative journalist Chuck Philips,[171][172] after a year of work, reported in the Los Angeles Times that Anderson, a Southside Compton Crip, having been attacked by Suge and Shakur's entourage at the MGM Hotel after the boxing match, had fired the fatal gunshots, but that Las Vegas police had interviewed him only once, briefly, before his death in an unrelated shooting. Philips's 2002 article also alleges the involvement of Christopher "Biggie Smalls" Wallace and several within New York City's criminal underworld. Both Anderson and Wallace denied involvement, while Wallace offered a confirmed alibi.[173] Music journalist John Leland, in the New York Times, called the evidence "inconclusive."[174]

Legacy and remembrance The online, rap magazine AllHipHop held a 2007 roundtable where, among fellow New York rappers, Cormega, citing tour experience with New York rap duo Mobb Deep, imparted a broad assessment: "Biggie ran New York. 'Pac ran America."[175] In 2010, writing Rolling Stone magazine's entry on Tupac Shakur at #86 among the "100 greatest artists," New York rapper 50 Cent appraised, "Every rapper who grew up in the Nineties owes something to Tupac. He didn't sound like anyone who came before him."[176] Dotdash, formerly About.com, while ranking him fifth among the greatest rappers, nonetheless notes, "Tupac Shakur is the most influential hip-hop artist of all time. Even in death, 2Pac remains a transcendental rap figure."[177] Yet to some, he was a "father figure" who, said rapper YG, "makes you want to be better'--at every level."[178]

According to music journalist Chuck Philips, the dead artist "had helped elevate rap from a crude street fad to a complex art form, setting the stage for the current global hip-hop phenomenon."[179] Philips writes, "The slaying silenced one of modern music's most eloquent voices'--a ghetto poet whose tales of urban alienation captivated young people of all races and backgrounds."[179] Via numerous fans perceiving him, despite the questionable of his conduct, as a martyr, "the downsizing of martyrdom cheapens its use," Michael Eric Dyson concedes.[180] But Dyson adds, "Some, or even most, of that criticism can be conceded without doing damage to Tupac's martyrdom in the eyes of those disappointed by more traditional martyrs."[180] More simply, his writings, published after his death, inspired rapper YG to return to school and get his GED.[178]

Afeni Shakur In 1997, Shakur's mother founded the Shakur Family Foundation. Later renamed the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation, or TASF, it launched with a stated mission to "provide training and support for students who aspire to enhance their creative talents." The TASF sponsors essay contests, charity events, a performing arts day camp for teenagers, and undergraduate scholarships. In June 2005, the TASF opened the Tupac Amaru Shakur Center for the Arts, or TASCA, in Stone Mountain, Georgia. Afeni also narrates the documentary Tupac: Resurrection, released in November 2003, and nominated for Best Documentary at the 2005 Academy Awards. Meanwhile, with Forbes ranking Tupac Shakur at 10th among top-earning dead celebrities in 2002,[181] Afeni Shakur launched Makaveli Branded Clothing in 2003.

Academic appraisal In late 1997, the University of California, Berkeley, offered the course "History 98: Poetry and History of Tupac Shakur," a course led by a student.[182] Yet in April 2003, Harvard University cosponsored the symposium "All Eyez on Me: Tupac Shakur and the Search for the Modern Folk Hero."[183] The papers presented cover his ranging influence from entertainment to sociology.[183][184] Calling him a "Thug Nigga Intellectual," an "organic intellectual,"[185] English scholar Mark Anthony Neal assessed his death as leaving a "leadership void amongst hip-hop artists,"[186] as this "walking contradiction" helps, Neal explained, "make being an intellectual accessible to ordinary people."[187] Tracing Tupac's mythical status, Murray Forman discussed him as "O.G.," or "Ostensibly Gone," with fans, using digital mediums, "resurrecting Tupac as an ethereal life force."[188] Music scholar Emmett Price, calling him a "black folk hero," traced his persona to black American folklore's tricksters, which, after abolition, evolved into the urban "bad-man." Yet in Tupac's "terrible sense of urgency," Price identified instead a quest to "unify mind, body, and spirit."[189]

Multimedia releases In 2005, Death Row released, on DVD, Tupac: Live at the House of Blues, his final recorded live performance, an event on July 4, 1996. In August 2006, Tupac Shakur Legacy, an "interactive biography" by Jamal Joseph, arrived with previously unpublished family photographs, intimate stories, and over 20 detachable copies of his handwritten song lyrics, contracts, scripts, poetry, and other papers. In 2006, the 2Pac album Pac's Life was released and, like the previous, was among the recording industry's most popular releases.[190] In 2008, his estate made about $15 million.[191]

In 2014, BET explains that "his confounding mixture of ladies' man, thug, revolutionary and poet has forever altered our perception of what a rapper should look like, sound like and act like. In 50 Cent, Ja Rule, Lil Wayne, newcomers like Freddie Gibbs and even his friend-turned-rival Biggie, it's easy to see that Pac is the most copied MC of all time. There are murals bearing his likeness in New York, Brazil, Sierra Leone, Bulgaria and countless other places; he even has statues in Atlanta and Germany. Quite simply, no other rapper has captured the world's attention the way Tupac did and still does."[192]

On April 15, 2012, at the Coachella Music Festival, rappers Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre joined a 2Pac hologram,[193] and, as a partly virtual trio, performed the 2Pac songs "Hail Mary" and "2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted."[194][195] There were talks of a tour,[196] but Dre refused.[197] Meanwhile, the Greatest Hits album, released in 1998, and which in 2000 had left the pop albums chart, the Billboard 200, returned to the chart and reached #129, while also other 2Pac albums and singles drew sales gains.[198] And in early 2015, the Grammy Museum opened an exhibition dedicated to Tupac Shakur.[199]

Film and stage In 2008, the play Holler If Ya Hear Me, based on Tupac lyrics, played on Broadway, but, among Broadway's worst-selling musicals in recent years, ran only six weeks.[200] In development since 2013, a Tupac biopic, All Eyez on Me, began filming in Atlanta in December 2015,[201] and was released on June 16, 2017, in concept Tupac Shakur's 46th birthday,[202] albeit to generally negative reviews. In August 2019, a docuseries directed by Allen Hughes, Outlaw: The Saga of Afeni and Tupac Shakur, was announced.[203]

Awards and honors In 2003, MTV's viewers voted 2Pac the greatest MC.[204] In 2005, on Vibe magazine's online message boards, a user asked others for the ''Top 10 Best of All Time."[205] Vibe staff, then, "sorting out, averaging and spending a lot of energy," found, "Tupac coming in at first".[205] In 2006, MTV staff placed him second.[206] In 2012, The Source magazine ranked him fifth among all-time lyricists.[207] In 2010, Rolling Stone placed him at #86 among the "100 Greatest Artists."[176]

In 2007, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's "Definitive 200" albums'--choices irking some otherwise[208]'--placed All Eyez on Me at #90 and Me Against the World at #170.[209] In 2009, drawing praise, the Vatican added "Changes," a 1998 posthumous track, to its online playlist.[210] On June 23, 2010, the Library of Congress sent "Dear Mama" to the National Recording Registry,[211] the third rap song, after a Grandmaster Flash and a Public Enemy, ever to arrive there.[212]

In 2002, Tupac Shakur was inducted into the Hip-Hop Hall of Fame. Two years later, cable television's music network VH1 held its first ever Hip Hop Honors, where the honorees were, it says, "2Pac, Run-DMC, DJ Hollywood, Kool Herc, KRS-One, Public Enemy, Rock Steady Crew, Sugarhill Gang."[213] On December 30, 2016, in his first year of eligibility, Tupac was nominated,[214] and on the following April 7 was among five inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.[215][216]

Discography Studio albums 2Pacalypse Now (1991)Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z... (1993)Me Against the World (1995)All Eyez on Me (1996)Posthumous studio albums The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory (1996) (as Makaveli) R U Still Down? (Remember Me) (1997)Until the End of Time (2001)Better Dayz (2002)Loyal to the Game (2004)Pac's Life (2006)Collaboration albums Thug Life: Volume 1 with Thug Life (1994)Posthumous collaboration albums Still I Rise with Outlawz (1999)Filmography Biographical portrayals in film Documentaries Shakur's life has been explored in several documentaries, each trying to capture the many different events during his short lifetime, most notably the Academy Award-nominated Tupac: Resurrection, released in 2003.

1997: Tupac Shakur: Thug Immortal1997: Tupac Shakur: Words Never Die (TV)2001: Tupac Shakur: Before I Wake...2001: Welcome to Deathrow2002: Tupac Shakur: Thug Angel2002: Biggie & Tupac2002: Tha Westside2003: 2Pac 4 Ever2003: Tupac: Resurrection2004: Tupac vs.2004: Tupac: The Hip Hop Genius (TV)2006: So Many Years, So Many Tears2015: Murder Rap: Inside the Biggie and Tupac Murders2017: Who killed Tupac?2017: Who Shot Biggie & Tupac?2018: Unsolved: Murders of Biggie and Tupac?See also List of best-selling music artistsList of best-selling music artists in the United StatesList of murdered hip hop musiciansList of number-one albums (United States)List of number-one hits (United States)List of awards and nominations received by Tupac ShakurList of artists who reached number one in the United StatesReferences ^ John Lynch (September 13, 2017). "The incredible career rise and tragic murder of Tupac Shakur, who died 21 years ago". Business Insider . 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Fox and MC Lyte at the Hammerstein Ballroom in NYC. 2Pac, Run-DMC, DJ Hollywood, Kool Herc, KRS-One, Public Enemy, Rock Steady Crew, Sugarhill Gang and The Graffiti Movement were honored. Tributes were performed by Beastie Boys, Common, Fat Joe and Terror Squad, Nas, MC Hammer, Kid Rock and more. Tracy Morgan, Ice-T, Taye Diggs, P. Diddy, Wyclef Jean, Foxy Brown, Debbie Harry and Roselyn Sanchez presented". ^ Gotrich, Lars (October 18, 2016). "Pearl Jam, Bad Brains, Joan Baez, Depeche Mode, and Tupac Shakur nominated for induction into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame". NPR. Archived from the original on October 20, 2016 . Retrieved October 18, 2016 . ^ "Rock and Roll Hall of Fame taps Tupac, Journey, Pearl Jam". USA TODAY. Archived from the original on December 20, 2016 . Retrieved December 20, 2016 . ^ Peter Helman (April 8, 2017). "Watch Snoop Dogg Induct Tupac Into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame". Spin Magazine. Archived from the original on April 15, 2017. ^ Bansky (June 19, 2015). "This Is The Guy Who's Playing Tupac In The N.W.A. Movie". Uproxx.com. Archived from the original on June 19, 2015 . Retrieved June 20, 2015 . ^ "Tupac Biopic Taps Newcomer Demetrius Shipp, Jr. For Lead Role". Billboard. Archived from the original on December 27, 2015. ^ "Tupac Shakur Biopic 'All Eyez on Me' Casts a Lead". The New York Times. December 25, 2015. Archived from the original on December 28, 2015. Further reading Bastfield, Darrin Keith (2002). Back in the Day: My Life and Times with Tupac Shakur. Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-345-44775-3. CS1 maint: ref=harv (link) Hoye, Jacob (2006). Tupac: Resurrection. Atria. ISBN 0-7434-7435-X. CS1 maint: ref=harv (link) External links Official website Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation for the Arts"Expressing Myself, Silencing the Demons", interview with Chuck PhilipsTupac Shakur on IMDbTupac Shakur at Find a GraveFBI Records: The Vault '' Tupac Shakur at FBI.govPerformersJoan BaezElectric Light OrchestraBev Bevan, Jeff Lynne, Richard Tandy, Roy WoodJourneyJonathan Cain, Aynsley Dunbar, Steve Perry, Gregg Rolie, Neal Schon, Steve Smith, Ross ValoryPearl JamJeff Ament, Matt Cameron, Stone Gossard, Dave Krusen, Mike McCready, Eddie VedderTupac ShakurYesJon Anderson, Bill Bruford, Steve Howe, Tony Kaye, Trevor Rabin, Chris Squire, Rick Wakeman, Alan WhiteAward for Musical Excellence