A Look Back at Women in Crime Ink & its 2nd Anniversary

By Cathy Scott

The criminal-expert blog Women in Crime Ink recently reached a milestone by celebrating its second anniversary--and with an impressive lineup of female true crime personalities of producers, anchors, analysts, authors, prosecutors, lawyers. In two short years, it has amassed an archive of essays and commentary about the hottest topics in crime, justice, and law, from a woman's perspective. 

Shortly before the anniversary, I interviewed author Diane Fanning, a co-founder of WCI. Simply put, Diane said, "It’s a cooperative blog of women crime professionals. We started it as a group of women who wanted to cover issues about writing and every aspect of crime. Our point at the time was women are sensitive to issues." A group of five began planning the planning and designing of the blog in December 2007 and debuted in March of 2008. You can follow WCI on Twitter as well as Facebook fan page. 

I'm thrilled to be a part of that lineup of professionals. Here's a post by true crime author and novelist Kathryn Casey about the history and good things that have happened since WCI launched two years ago. 

Break Out the Party Hats & Champagne; We're Celebrating!

March 10, 2010

Reprinted from Women in Crime Ink: 

Time flies, the saying goes, especially when having fun. Obviously, we’re having a blast at Women in Crime Ink. So much so that an important event nearly slipped past us. 

What’s the big deal about March 10, 2010? It's our second anniversary. 

In all honesty, we've been so busy, it hardly seems like two years, at least not until one peruses the links trailing seemingly to infinity in our right hand column, subjects we’ve covered over the past twenty-four months. Our contributors have weighed in on sensational cases making headlines, from Casey Anthony’s psychological peculiarities to Manson follower Susan Atkins’ deathbed bid for freedom. In our posts, we’ve covered mobsters and mayhem, human traffickers and bank robbers, poison, passion, and Marge Simpson’s provocative Playboy spread. 

Our unique perspective on the world of crime hasn’t gone unnoticed. On June 2, 2009, the esteemed Wall Street Journal featured WCI on its pages, lauding it as “a blog worth reading.” WSJ editor Becky Bright wrote: “Women in Crime Ink is hosted by a cast of female journalists, lawyers, authors, and others with a passion for true crime. It has amassed an extensive archive of essays and commentary from women’s perspectives about crime and the court system.” 

When we began the blog in 2008, we christened it “a well of thoughts on crime and media issues from women criminal justice professionals and authors.” We still have a solid core of the founders among us. In addition, other great contributors have signed on, women we’re proud to have in our ranks. 

So on this day, as we turn two, we’d like to reintroduce ourselves to all our readers. Once again, here are the voices of Women in Crime Ink: 

Deborah Blum is a Pulitzer-prize winning science writer, a journalism professor at the University of Wisconsin and the author of six books, the most recent, The Poisoner's Handbook, exploring Jazz Age New York City's murderous history. Kirkus calls it: “Caviar for true crime fans and science buffs alike.” From the cover: "a pair of forensic scientists began their trailblazing chemical detective work, fighting to end an era when untraceable poisons offered an easy path to the perfect crime." 

Pat Brown is a renowned Criminal Profiler and 24/7 news fixture, with appearances on The Today Show, The CBS Early Show, HLN’s Nancy Grace and "Issues with JaneVelez-Mitchell," "Larry King Live," the "Joy Behar Show," FOX, MSNBC Prime News, Dr. Phil and others. The Discovery Channel, Court TV, and National Geographic have featured Pat in documentaries and series. She is the author of Killing for Sport: Inside the Minds of Serial Killer. Her second book, The Profiler: My Life Hunting Serial Killers and Psychopaths debuts May 18, 2010. 

Andrea Campbell writes books about forensic science and law. She holds a criminal justice degree and is a forensic artist whose work includes sculpturally recreating victims’ facial features from skulls. She is editor of Arkansas Identification News (an IAI group) and an American College of Forensic Examiners International Diplomat and Fellow.

Kathryn Casey is the author of six true crime books. Ann Rule calls Casey "one of the best in the genre." Her latest, Shattered, debuts in July. Singularity, the first in her Sarah Armstrong mystery series, waspicked as one of the top crime novel debuts of 2009 by Booklistmagazine. The third in the series, "The Killing Storm," will be out in November 2010. Casey has appeared on Oprah, Montel, Nancy Grace, truTV, Investigation Discovery, E! and A&E. 

Lisa R. Cohen is an Emmy award-winning television news magazine producer with over 20 years in network news, including ABC NewsPrimeTime Live and CBS News' “60 Minutes.” She is also the author of After Etan: The Missing Child Case That Held America Captive. Cohen is an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, and was a Princeton University Ferris Professor of Journalism. 

Diane Dimond has reported for Court TV, EXTRA, and Hard Copy, and has hosted MSNBC’s “Missing Persons,” NPR’s “All Things Considered,” and co-hosted a show with Geraldo Rivera. The award-winning journalist and author of Be Careful Who You Love: Inside the Michael Jackson Case also writes for The Huffington Post and appears regularly on Entertainment Tonight. 

Stacy Dittrich is an award winning former police officer, and media consultant. A co-host of Justice Interrupted, she's appeared on Fox, The O’Reilly Factor, CNN, Geraldo at Large, The Nancy Grace Show, Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell, and E! True Hollywood in Crime. The author of the CeeCee Gallagher detective series, Stacy's first true crime book is Murder Behind the Badge: True Stories of Cops Who Kill. 

Diane Fanning is the Edgar-nominated author of ten true-crime books and four mystery novels. Diane has appeared on 48 Hours, 20/20, Forensic Files, and radio stations from coast to coast. She is currently under contract for three books--two true crime titles and one mystery novel. Her bestselling book on the Casey Anthony case, Mommy's Little Girl, was released in fall 2009. 

Laura James is an attorney, true-crime author and crime historian living in Detroit, Michigan. The former reporter is the woman behind CLEWS, a literary blog devoted to the true-crime genre. Laura’s first book came out in May 2009: The Love Pirate and the Bandit's Son: Murder, Sin, and Scandal in the Shadow of Jesse James. 

Vanessa Leggett has written essays for Newsweek and Texas Monthly, editorials for the Houston Chronicle, and articles for the Justice Department, which jailed her for protecting sources on a murder case. A former English and Criminology instructor at the University of Houston-Downtown, Vanessa writes and lectures. Her book on the case that landed her in jail is awaiting publication. 

Susan Murphy-Milano is a nonfiction author and violence expert--a defender of victims' rights. Susan has appeared on Oprah, 20/20,American Justice, and CNN. Susan's third book,” Time’s Up: A Guide On How To Leave and Survive Abusive Relationships will be released in April, 2010. Susan is also co-host of the weekly television and interactive Internet crime show "Crime Wire." When there is no place for families to find answers and seek justice, “The Crime Wire Team is there.” 

Cassie Nelson is Women in Crime Ink's representative from the younger generation. A high school senior, Cassie interned for WCI contributor Robin Sax last summer, and she's stayed on interning at WCI. Her posts have explored everything from dancing in underwearand Octomom to Jaycee Dugard's rescue. Cassie plans to attend law school after receiving her undergraduate degree. In her free time, she trains daily with a kick-boxing coach. 

Donna Pendergast is a career prosecutor specializing in homicides. She has tried 100 murder cases, boasts a 98-percent conviction rate, and put away the most prolific serial killer in US history. Donna has appeared on 60 Minutes, "The Montel Williams Show," Dateline NBC, "True Hollywood Story," "Cold Case Files," and other television and radio venues, featuring her serial and sexual homicide cases. 

Robin Sax is a former prosecutor in Los Angeles, where she specialized in sex crimes against children for fifteen years. An author and legal analyst, she appears on "Larry King Live," HNL Prime News and "The Today Show." A co-founder of "Justice Interrupted," a top-ranked radio show highlighting cases that haven't received media attention, Robin is a the author of "SaxFacts," a weekly digest/blog. 

Katherine Scardino is a defense attorney who has handled 39 capital murder cases. She received the first "not guilty" verdict in 25 years for the State of Texas in a death penalty case, and recently received another acquittal in a capital trial. Katherine has appeared on Court TV, TODAY, Bill O’Reilly, MSNBC and American Justice. She has several capital murder cases pending. 

Cathy Scott's work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, New York Post, San Diego Union-Tribune, and Las Vegas Sun. Known for her true crime books The Killing of Tupac Shakur and The Murder of Biggie Smalls, Cathy taught journalism at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Her most recent appearances include Investigation Discoveryand VH1. Her next book is about Barbara Kogan, charged with the two-decades-old murder of her husband. 

Donna Weaver is an investigator for The Pat Brown Criminal Profiling Agency. She began her education and training after the disappearance and murder of her husband in 1983. Donna is an area director for the Bahamas and Caribbean Region for The Doe Network - International Center for Unidentified and Missing Persons. 

Janet Braunstein was a professional journalist and editor for more than 20 years at The Associated Press, newspapers, magazines, internet sites and Agence France-Press. She won multiple awards covering automotive electronics and safety technology. She updated and edited Every Bite a Delight, a collection of advertising slogans. Her interest in the local arts scene includes listening to, editing and encouragingoriginal storytelling, poetry, lyrics and music.

As we concluded our very first post, we say again: Welcome to Women in Crime Ink, your source for the real story behind crime and media issues.

Smoke and Mirrors: The Truth About Las Vegas

by Cathy Scott

Reprinted from Women in Crime Ink

Watching Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman’s indignation over recent advice by President Barack Obama to a New Hampshire audience to not waste cash in Las Vegas was reminiscent of a similarly indignant Goodman a decade earlier.

Goodman, a former criminal defense attorney and self-described “mouthpiece for the mob,” spent 35 years defending the nation’s most notorious underworld figures. His clients included mobsters Meyer Lansky, Anthony "Tony The Ant" Spilotro and Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, the latter two portrayed in the film Casino by actors Joe Pesci and Robert DeNiro. Goodman, also in the film, played himself -- a lawyer for the mob.

So it came as a surprise in 1999 when Goodman tried to deny the mob’s existence in Las Vegas. It was during Goodman’s mayoral run, when he issued a statement in the midst of a colorful Las Vegas trial of two reputed Mafiosi charged in connection with the 1997 execution-style murder of another gangster, Herbert “Fat Herbie” Blitzstein. The trial spotlighted the very kind of mob activity that officials, other than Goodman, had insisted, year after year, no longer existed in Las Vegas. 

It started in the early 1990s, when the Nevada Gaming Commission released the first of several statements assuring the public that the FBI had forced the last of the mob out of Las Vegas in the 1980s. That was not true, of course. Goodman himself had represented Spilotro in a mob trial in the mid-1980s, shortly before Spilotro was buried alive and left for dead in an Indiana cornfield. Blitzstein was a co-defendant with Spilotro in that trial. After Spilotro’s murder, Blitzstein pleaded guilty and went to prison. He was released in the early 1990s and returned to Las Vegas, picking up where he had left off.

The 62-year-old Blitzstein ran a downtown auto-repair shop that fronted for his rackets. Authorities said he ran loan-shark and insurance-fraud racketeering operations out of the shop.

In January 1997, Blitzstein was gunned down in his town house. Federal prosecutors later contended that mob families in Los Angeles and Buffalo, N.Y., had ordered Blitzstein’s hit so they could take control of his business.

Then, in May 1999, Goodman, as a mayoral candidate, issued a press release declaring the streets of the city free of traditional organized crime.

"For the last 15 years," Goodman said, "there hasn't been a mob presence here."

Coincidentally or not, Goodman issued that statement from his law office, which was around the corner from the U.S. District courthouse where the Blitzstein murder-related trial was well underway. Testimony in that case, which was heavily covered by the media, related to the life-and-death saga of Herbert Blitzstein–who had been Spilotro's right-hand man–provided new details about Las Vegas street rackets. For example, the 12-count racketeering indictment handed down in the case named 10 defendants charged with offenses ranging from Mafia-related murder-for-hire to racketeering.

The trial surrounding Blitzstein’s murder, which ended with most of the defendants pleading out to lesser crimes, was the last Mafia-related trial in Las Vegas.

Blitzstein’s murder also marked the last mob hit in Sin City. But don't tell Oscar Goodman. We'll just keep it between us.

Personal Assistant's Murder Trial Heats Up

,by Cathy Scott
Reprinted from Women in Crime Ink 

Two worlds collided when a quiet 26-year-old woman named Natavia Lowery went to work for the powerful, outspoken 62-year-old Linda Stein, a property broker to the rich and famous.

For years, the New York City media referred to Linda as the “realtor to the stars.” Despite her toughness, people were drawn to her. Stein, a self-made woman who swore like a sailor and smoked pot like a hippie, could command a room equally with her wit and razor-sharp sarcasm. She’d jumped head first into the music industry in the 1970s when she co-managed the legendary punk-rock band The Ramones.

Linda Stein had turned herself into a successful, fiercely independent businesswoman with big-name clients.


Natavia’s working-class upbringing contrasted starkly with Linda’s upper-class life. Natavia (photo right) was an only child, the daughter of a housekeeper and maintenance man, and had been raised in the Grant projects on Amsterdam Avenue in Harlem. After her father’s death, her mother eventually remarried, and the family moved to Brooklyn. Natavia excelled both academically and in competitive sports. In high school, she was a star runner on the girls' track team. Upon graduation from high school, she enrolled at North Carolina State University, where she was a member of the modeling troupe Black Finesse. She dropped out after just one semester to finish a business degree at Hunter College in Manhattan. Natavia’s classmates remember her as being soft-spoken but also sticking up for herself when she needed to.

The morning of October 30, 2007, started out like any other. Natavia showed up for work at her boss’s Upper East Side, Fifth Avenue apartment. Linda spent the morning in her bedroom doing yoga exercises while Natavia printed e-mails from Linda’s personal computer. But as the day progressed, something went terribly wrong. By the end of the day, Linda was discovered dead and the police and paramedics were investigating the crime scene inside her spotless apartment, preparing to move her body to the morgue. Six days later, Linda was buried. Four days after that, Natavia was under arrest, charged with the murder of her boss.

According to a confession made by Natavia and released by the Manhattan district attorney’s office -- which was challenged by Natavia’s lawyers but ultimately ruled admissible in court -- Linda walked to the desk in her living room, where Natavia was working on Linda’s e-mails, and asked what was taking so long. Linda started blowing marijuana smoke in Natavia’s face and berating her at the same time.

“Get the fucking e-mails! How can you be so fucking slow?” Linda reportedly hollered. If that’s what actually happened that midday, perhaps Stein’s anger was born out of frustration: she could no longer open her own messages because her right hand and arm were numb from the after-effects of chemotherapy she'd endured fighting breast cancer. Linda apparently smoked marijuana to ease the lingering pain. In addition, Linda was on prescription medication that caused mood swings. Verbally, Linda was a fighter; physically, she was not in shape to defend herself against a physical attack.

Whatever it was that sparked the tirade that day, according to Natavia Lowery’s reported account to police, Linda then waved either a walking or yoga stick at Lowery as she continued berating her assistant. Then, at about 12.30 p.m., Linda returned to Natavia's work spot and offered, as a way of making peace, to buy her assistant lunch.

“I’ve got my own money in a savings account. I don’t need you to buy me lunch,” said an indignant Natavia, who repeated the alleged conversation to detectives. “Black people don’t have any money,” Linda purportedly responded. “C’mon, save your money. I’ll buy you lunch.”


Currently being tried in a Manhattan criminal courtroom, the case against Natavia Lowery is not looking good for the former personal assistant. The scenario prosecutors have laid out for the jury is that Linda, who sold homes to Madonna, Elton John, and Angelina Jolie, confronted Natavia, and, in response, Natavia killed her.But Natavia’s team of lawyers said their client may be a thief, but she’s no killer.

This week, lead prosecutor Joan Illuzzi-Orbon presented a taped phone message from Natavia to Linda. Natavia and Linda’s daughter, Mandy Stein, were the last to see Stein alive. Each was captured on security videotape leaving the Central Park West apartment building, with Natavia the last to leave.

The message from Natavia was left hours after Linda was killed. Prosecutors contend that Natavia called in the message to create an alibi.

Instead, according to evidence presented in court, Natavia slipped up. In the message left on Linda Stein’s phone answering machine, Natavia asked Linda to give her a call before 5:30 p.m. that day.

"Hey, Linda, it's Natavia," the 28-year-old said in her message, which the prosecutor described as a “breezy" message. "I just wanted to let you know that I'm leaving work at 5:30. … If you get this message before 5:30, you can just call me. If not, talk to you later."

The problem with that statement was that message was left just after 6 p.m. -- proof, the prosecutor told the jury, that it was done to cover Natavia’s tracks.

Testimony provided by Verizon and T-Mobile phone experts show the call originating at 6:09 p.m. from Brooklyn, where Lowery lived, and not from Linda’s apartment.

It’s evidence like this -- what at any other time would be considered a small detail -- that gets people convicted.

But time will tell. The trial is expected to last another four to six weeks. 

Photos courtesy of the New York Daily News.

New Year’s Military-style: A Look Back

by Cathy Scott
Reprinted from Women In Crime Ink

Just before New Year’s Eve 2003, something extraordinary happened in three popular partying spots: The arm of the law came down and ordered that information on everyone visiting those respective cities be handed over to the FBI. It was a true Big Brother moment, all in the name of Homeland Security.

The three cities--Washington, D.C., New York and Las Vegas--were pointed out as possible target cities for terrorist strikes. As history would show, it never happened, but that didn’t stop the frenzy that it might happen. The New York Times' story about the high alert, which was issued December 21, 2004, read: "Military helicopters and sharpshooters joined fireworks and noisemakers on Wednesday in welcoming the New Year in the nation's largest celebrations."

Then-Las Vegas Sheriff Bill Young told PBS’s “FRONTLINE” producers, “We have 300,000 to 400,000 people on the streets on Las Vegas Boulevard [the Las Vegas Strip] in front of all these beautiful hotels, waiting for the clock to strike midnight and all the fireworks to go off. And that was what the intelligence information indicated, that that was, you know, the type of area or venue that they were going to try to target.”

“Here was the real dilemma,” Young continued. “Do we cancel our New Year's Eve celebration in Las Vegas? That was the question being placed on me.”

So the answer was to hand over the names of everybody staying in town. That meant hotel records, airline records, rental car records, gift shop records and casino records.

People swarmed to the Las Vegas Strip anyway to welcome in 2004.
Sheriff Young seemed to justify the heavy scrutiny over his city's guests, telling PBS, “People that come to Vegas, the only time they're not on video is when they're in their room or they're in a public restroom. They don't have them in those. But the hallways, the elevators, the gaming area--we've taken that to a level that has, I think, surpassed any place in the United States.”

But the high alerts weren’t the only time guests of Las Vegas have unknowingly had their personal information handed over to law enforcement. For years, insiders at Vegas hotels have reported that when someone registers at a hotel or even a small motel, and the hotel desk clerk takes the guest's driver’s license, he then walks behind the lobby where you can’t see him. That’s when he makes a Xerox copy that is later handed over, in a stack of driver’s licenses, to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. The police, in turn, run the licenses see if there are any outstanding arrest warrants.

Early on, when I was covering the police beat for the Las Vegas Sun, I wondered how, when someone had just arrived in town and wasn’t pulled over for a traffic violation, the cops knew that particular person had an outstanding warrant. I’d see it several times a week in police reports. Or a news release would state that so-and-so was arrested soon after arriving in Las Vegas because he or she was a fugitive from justice.
Once I learned that hotel personnel regularly Xeroxed driver’s licenses of registered hotel guests and handed them over to the cops, then I knew. The police would run the names, then, voilà, up would pop the miscreants--an easy collar for police.

That’s the dirty secret most people who come to Las Vegas don’t know about. It’s not just that people are being watched via surveillance cameras in cabs, restaurants, hotels and casinos, but their driver’s license info may be passed on to the authorities as well.

As Gary Peck, at the time executive director with the American Civil Liberties Nevada office, told PBS in reference to the December 2003 terrorist scare, '"Trust us. We're the government. And if you're not up to no good, why should you care?' That's not the way our system works. We are a country that is founded on a set of principles relating to individual freedom, including our privacy, our right to be left alone by the government."

Well said, Gary Peck.

Such law enforcement scrutiny for New Year’s Eve hasn’t happened since 2003 turned into 2004--at least not that we know of.

Photos courtesy The New York Times and Las Vegas Sun

Accused Killers Catch a Break

Reprinted from Women In Crime Ink.

by Cathy Scott

Two murder cases with women as the accused killers have taken similar -- and unusual -- turns. Each was instantly labeled the “Black Widow.” And both women stood to gain millions should their husbands die.

In the first case, San Juan and Manhattan socialite Barbara Koganwas indicted late last year for the 1990 murder of her millionaire husband George. She stood accused of convincing her attorney to hire a hitman to kill George. Kogan’s estranged husband, with whom she was in the middle of a nasty divorce, was shot to death in broad daylight while George was walking from a neighborhood market to his live-in girlfriend’s high-rise apartment on Manhattan's Upper East Side.

Joel Seidemann, the Manhattan assistant district attorney who has been on the case for nearly two decades, is expected to refile a fresh charge against Kogan by the end of this year. During Kogan's arraignment in November 2008, Seidemann described the suspect as "a very angry woman."

"But when that anger became so overwhelming," he told the judge, "she decided to litigate the divorce through the bullets of a gun."

The second defendant is Margaret Rudin, charged and convicted of killing her husband, wealthy real estate investor Ronald Rudin, then driving the body to a remote area on the shore of Lake Mojave 45 miles outside of Las Vegas, stuffing him inside an antique truck and setting it on fire.

The commonalities with the two women, both of whom are now 65 years old, are many. Rudin, who was convicted of murder, has been granted a new trial. Rudin’s conviction was overturned in December 2008 by Clark County District Court Judge Sally Loehrer, who ruled that Rudin, who has spent the last nine years in a Nevada state prison, had “ineffective counsel” during her first trial.

And Barbara Kogan, accused of second-degree murder in the contract killing of her estranged husband, has had the charge dismissed on a technicality. In July, State Supreme Court Justice Michael Obus ruled that because another grand jury had failed to indict Kogan in the 1990s, prosecutors needed judicial permission to empanel a new grand jury that handed down the indictment against Kogan last year. The prosecution, he said, failed to get that permission.

Both women are expected to be in their respective courtrooms on opposite ends of the country sometime next year. Rudin’s first trial, which was much publicized and lasted 10 weeks, was one of Las Vegas's highest profile murder cases. For Kogan, “48 Hours” and “Dateline” have already made arrangements to be in the courtroom for the trial, which is expected to last eight weeks.

While prosecutors in both crimes claim greed as the motive, in the Kogan case, the only evidence against her is circumstantial at best -- unless, by trial time, the prosecution comes up with more.

As for Rudin, it's mostly circumstantial as well, with hard evidence against her shaky. Her husband was missing in 1994, his car found at a strip club. Later, a boy and his father, out fishing together, discovered the burnt trunk and body near the shore of Lake Mojave on the Nevada side of the water. A gun, said to be the murder weapon, found months later in the lake, was not registered to Rudin or her husband, so that connection was never made, just conjectured.

After Rudin was granted a new trial, her new attorney, Christopher Oram, told reporters, "Obviously, we're very happy with the judge's ruling and look forward to going to trial.”

Kogan’s new counsel, high-profile criminal defense lawyer Barry Levin, said he’s looking forward to going to trial as well. “I intend to represent her zealously. I think she will be acquitted,” Levin said.

It all will unfold in their respective courtrooms. For the prosecution, both cases at this juncture appear to be uphill battles. But you never know what might happen as both sides sides duke it out in court.

Photo of Barbara Kogan in court (top) courtesy of the New York Daily News and photo of Margaret Rudin courtesy of TruTV.


Cathy Scott is writing a true crime book (St. Martin's Press) about the Barbara Kogan case.

Real or Rumor? Tupac's Killer Charged?

Reprinted from Women in Ink Crime Blog

By Cathy Scott

It always amazes me when I see a rumor picked up by a media outlet, regardless of how small that outlet is. So I was once again surprised a couple weeks ago when I got an e-mail from a TV producer asking about an arrest in the 13-year-old murder case of platinum-selling rapper Tupac Shakur. I put on my sleuth cap and started digging. This is what was first reported, from Backseat Cuddler, a gossip site that got Tupac fans and the hip hop world hyped up: BREAKING NEWS - Tupac Shakur Killer Has Been Arrested In Las Vegas I just received a message from my source in Las Vegas that Tupac Shakur’s killer has been arrested in Las Vegas, Nevada. Tupac died on September 13, 1996. On the night of September 7, 1996, Shakur was shot four times in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas. He died six days later of respiratory failure and cardiac arrest at the University Medical Center. Tupac Shakur was a rapper, actor, and social activist. Story developing…..

That prompted “Gossip Headlines” to print this reaction, which, in turn, prompted three pages of comments from readers:

Arrest Made? OMG, OMG, O-M-G, if this is true, hip-hop is about to go into a tailspin!!! According to BackSeatCuddler, Tupac Shakur’s killer has been arrested in Las Vegas, Nevada!!! It was there in Sin City 13 years ago (September 13 marked the 13th anniversary) where the legendary rapper was shot 4 times while sitting in the passenger seat of Suge Knight’s BMW after leaving a Mike Tyson fight at the MGM Grand Hotel. Tupac died six days later from respiratory failure and cardiopulmonary arrest caused by multiple gunshot wounds. See Original Story For More.

Wow, I thought to myself, how could I have missed that one? Maybe it had to do with Notorious B.I.G.’s case, I thought. And that was odd too, because Las Vegas reporters would have been all over the Tupac story. A source wasn’t listed in the postings. So I checked TV and print sites and there were no mentions of an arrest. Then I reached out to my law enforcement contacts in Las Vegas and Nevada. “No,” said a source in the Los Angeles area, “there haven't been any arrests in the Tupac and Biggie cases here.” Then I called the homicide unit of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and talked with a spokesperson. “There haven’t been any arrests in that case,” she said. I put out a few more feelers. I came up empty.


The only news involving Tupac, who, besides being a rapper, was an actor and poet, is that the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation, which Tupac’s mother, Afeni Shakur, runs, is partnering with Woodruff Library to prepare Tupac’s writings and papers for scholarly research. The Tupac Shakur Collection is currently housed within the Woodruff Library's Archives and Special Collections Department. It features Tupac’s handwritten lyrics, personal notes and fan correspondence, among other items. Meanwhile, the rumor about an arrest in Tupac's case coincided with the 13th anniversary of his murder. As a result of the anniversary and the rumor, record sales for Tupac’s music went through the roof. And sales for books about Tupac took off too. The warehouse manager at Huntington Press, my publisher for The Killing of Tupac Shakur, said sales had jumped and orders from Amazon.com were especially high. Other than that, it's been fairly quiet on the Tupac front. So much for a “developing story.”