User:Lucanus NN/The killing of Tupac Shakur

THE KILLING OF TUPAC SHAKUR

The Killing of Tupac Shakur, a biographical, gang life story and true-crime account, by journalist and author Cathy Scottof Las vegas sun newspaper, of the 1996 murder of rapper Tupac Shakur. The book made news upon its September 1997 release, on the first anniversary of Tupac's death, because of an autopsy photo included in its pages.[1] It was the first book to be released after the rapper's death. The book was reprinted in the UK by Plexus Publishing in 2002.[2] Coverage of the autopsy photo, taken of Shakur's body on a gurney in the coroner's examining room, catapulted the book onto the Los Angeles Times bestseller list.[3]

Contents

1 History 2 Autopsy photo 3 East Coast-West Coast rap war 4 External link 5 References

History

Cathy Scott was employed as a crime writer reporter at the Las Vegas Sun ,when Tupac was gunned down on September 7, 1996, in a drive-by shooting near the Las Vegas Strip. She covered the case from the start and turned it into a book. The shooting occurred a few hours after the Mike Tyson-Bruce Seldon match, which Tupac and his music producer, Suge Knight, were in Las Vegas to attend. Tupac died from his injuries six days later. The killer has never been caught, although it's widely believed that Crips gang member Orlando Anderson, who was murdered 18 months later, was the shooter. Compton, California, police interviewed Anderson, but he was never charged. Six months after the murder, "Unsolved Mysteries" covered the case, following Scott through a reenactment of the crime scene. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department declined to be at the studio to field calls and participate when the show aired, saying the publicity would not help their investigation.[4]

Autopsy photo

Upon the book's release, the internal affairs bureau with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department(LVMPD)launched an investigation into how the autopsy photo was released to the author. The investigation, which Scott has reported she did not participate in, ended 30 days later with no results. MTV News reported the week of the book's release that it "includes a grisly autopsy photo that should end all speculation as to whether the late rapper might still be alive," alluding to rumors that the star rapper and actor had faked his own death.[5] Two years after the murder, Los Angeles Magazine featured a story by writer Heidi Seigmund Cuda focusing on rumors about Tupac "still living large" and described the autopsy photo as a "gruesome shot."[6] As much as $100,000 was offered for the photo by tabloids. Scott has not revealed her source.[7]

East Coast-West Coast rap war

A second updated edition of The Killing of Tupac Shakur was released in September 2002, which includes a chapter about rapper Biggie Smalls' death. Scott also wrote The Murder of Biggie Smalls, about The Notorious B.I.G., who was murdered six months later as a possible result of a bitter feud between Tupac and Biggie, onetime friends, in what has been called the East Coast – West Coast hip hop rivalry.

External link

Book's Amazon page PEOPLE magazine, "Unsolved Mysteries," September 17, 1997 (scroll down) The Killing of Tupac Shakur Facebook page Publisher Huntington Press' The Killing of Tupac Shakur page Author's official website References ^ Cathy.S, " The Killing Of Tupac Shakur" September 04, 1997 ^ MTV News, "Tupac Review," September 12, 1997 ^ Amazon's U.K. listing of the book ^ PRWeb, Thug Life Army interviews Cathy Scott, May 22, 2004 ^ Las Vegas Sun, "Behind of the Scenes of 'Unsolved' Mysteries' Shakur Mystery: Who Shot Tupac Shakur?" March 14, 1997 ^ Houston Chronicle, "Tupac Shakur remembered ten years after his death," September 12, 2006 ^ Los Angeles Magazine, "Die Hard: Two Years After his Murder, Rumors Persist that Tupac Shakur is Still Living Large," April 1999 ^ Las Vegas Sun, "Book