'08
The Smoking Gun has uncovered a conspiracy that falsely implicated Diddy in an attack on rap legend Tupac Shakur. The LA Times claimed last week to have unearthed official FBI documents that tied Diddy to a planned shooting of Shakur in 1994, two years before his death. While the LA Times did not state that Diddy had any direct connection to Shakur’s murder, the implication was clear - he had a hand in intimidating him because he would not join Diddy’s growing record label.
I totally believed that story, because you can see Diddy planning a hit on someone like the mafia. He’s an arrogant asshole and just seems like the type. Diddy of course denied any involvement.
The documents tying Diddy to the crime against Shakur weren’t real, though. They were forged by a prison inmate with too much time on his hands. The guy is a con man who wants to be famous and has access to a typewriter.
Here are the highlights, paraphrased from the story on The Smoking Gun:
- The LA Times was given supposed FBI filings or “302s,” tying Diddy to the crime. The FBI never investigated the Tupac case, it was investigated by Secret Services.
- There is no record of any of those 302 documents in the FBI database.
- The inmate, James Sabatino, 31, also filed a civil suit against Diddy for supposedly not paying him $175,000 for 1994 recordings he made of Notorious B.I.G.
- The spelling, grammatical errors, and typewriter font used for both Sabatino’s civil case and the FBI documents are the same.
- The faked FBI documents include abbreviations and awkward phrasing that are not used in regular FBI filings and are full of obvious errors.
- In the documents, Sabatino tried to paint himself as a tough guy with ties to rap luminaries. His role in the rap underworld was completely fabricated. He was just a teen when some of the events occurred.
- Sabatino’s rap sheet includes a long history of impersonating executives to get free goods, and get comped at hotels and sports events. While in jail he defrauded Nextel into sending him over 1,000 cell phones by pretending to be an entertainment executive and having the phones shipped to his friends on the outside.
The Smoking Gun notes how easily the LA Times was duped by the faked FBI documents, which they even included as PDF downloads on their website. They say the errors made it obvious that the documents were fabricated.
The LA Times has issued an apology and is conducting an internal investigation to try and figure out how they were duped. The author, Chuck Philips, is a Pulitzer prize winner and has also apologized for relying on falsified documents for his article. Tupac’s murder has never been solved.
Written by Celebitchy
Posted in Crime, P. Diddy, Tupac Shakur
- Diet secrets from Jessica Alba's nutritionist [Hollywood Life]
- Hef's twins have beautiful hair [D-Listed]
- The Twilight kids: more "Hills" than cool [Lainey Gossip]
- Ellen premieres on Idol tonight [Popeater]
- Cute photos of Anna Paquin and Steven Moyer exercising [Popsugar]
- JWoww wants bigger implants [Celebslam]
- Look at Handy Manny now [Go Fug Yourself]
7 Responses to “Prison inmate cooked up scheme to tie Diddy to Tupac Shakur attack”
-
I am amazed how fast Mass-Media can run unsubstantiated stories these days. Did they put some time out to check if the FBI file was legit?
This sends me the signal that some blogs out there are more credible that well-established newspapers. Scary thought.
-
Its Suge Knight.
-
(not Shug)
-
I can believe Diddy might have had something to do with it. I wrote a paper on the rap industry in college and got completely sidetracked by the Tupac/Biggie/Diddy drama. It was long after it went down, but a lot of different people made some valid points. They might all be nuts, but somewhere in all the crazy was a little bit of sense. I could buy that Diddy was involved in Biggie’s death too. The song he released to mourn him is what really put him on the mainstream radar.
The point is that’s one of the many, many, many conspiracy theories floating around about all that. But this guy has some brass ones. Forging FBI docs and putting it over on the LA Times. Can’t really call him unmotivated. Well, except for that prison thing.
-
pac u a legend for life rest in peace at the thug mansion
-
I smell a lawsuit — and it smells like Diddy!
http://lifeisacookie.wordpress.com/2008/03/27/p-didnt/
Leave a Reply
Celebitchy aims to be a friendly, welcoming site where people can discuss entertainment stories and current events in a lighthearted, safe environment without fear of harassment, excessive negativity, or bullying. Different opinions, backgrounds, ages, and nationalities are welcome here - hatred and bigotry are not. If you make racist or bigoted remarks, comment under multiple names, or wish death on anyone you will be banned. There are no second chances if you violate one of these basic rules.By commenting you agree to our comment policy
Use the "Report this comment as spam or abuse" link to ask the moderators to delete a comment if it's offensive. If your comment disappears, it has been eaten by the spam filter. Please e-mail cbcomments at gmail.com to get it retrieved.
Get an icon next to your name by signing up for a free Gravatar
Arrogance does not equal plotting to murder someone. If anyone active in the hip hop community at the time was capable of plotting a hit mafia style is was Shug Knight.
But since Shug was in the car that day, he certainly didn’t plan it. But I did always wonder if whoever it was wasn’t trying to kill Shug.
In any case, I don’t think either Diddy or Biggie were involved in Tupac’s death.
Report this comment as spam or abuse