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The Long Road to Accountability for Tupac Shakur's Murder · Murder Files Unsealed

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So, uh, start by picturing a very specific visual contrast.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: It is September seventh, nineteen ninety six, right, a really
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: iconic date exactly. You are standing right on the Las
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Vegas Strip and the air is I mean it's practically vibrating,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: the neon is blinding, the casinos are totally packed.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: The absolute epicenter of the universe that night is the
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: MGM Grand.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because Mike Tyson is fighting Bruce Selden. And this
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: isn't just a sporting event, you know, it is the
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: absolute glittering peak of mid nineties celebrity culture.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Oh for sure, You've got Hollywood Royalty literally rubbing shoulders
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: with the titans of hip hop glamour.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Right, there's this intoxicating veneer of like invincibility and wealth
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: and spectacle covering the entire desert.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: It's the kind of atmosphere where reality just feels suspended.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: I mean, Vegas on a fight night operates under its
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: own laws of physics, it really does.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: But beneath that veneer, a completely different reality had just
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: pulled into town because on that exact same night, a
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: very gritty, hyper specific ten square mile stretch of Compton, California,
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: had basically relocated to the Nevada Desert.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: Which is such a crazy collision of.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: Worlds, and that collision is the foundation of our mission.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: Today.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: We are taking a deep dive into a truly fascinating document.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: We're unpacking the opening remarks from a district attorney in
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: a murder trial that has been hovering over the justice
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: system for nearly thirty years.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the trial of Dwayne Davis, also known as Keith
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: d for the nineteen ninety six murder of Tupac Shakur. Right.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: And the mission for you listening to this deep dive
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: today is to explore the anatomy of accountability. We really
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: want to look at how a man who didn't even
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: pull the trigger, who did not fire the fatal shots,
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: ends up facing the ultimate justice decades after the fact.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: Which is a profound legal and really philosophical puzzle. It
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: forces us to ask, you know, where does culpability actually begin?
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: Does it begin with the bullet or does it begin
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: with the architecture of the conflict?
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: Exactly. It's a story about the terrifying butterfly effect of
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: a single fight.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And it's about the rigidly enforced, almost sovereign laws
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: of gang culture, and ultimately it's about the incredible irony
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: of a man whose own, like compulsive, unshakable need to
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: tell his story became the very thing that destroyed him.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: It really is framing this is just a legal brief.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: Almost does it a disservice, right?
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: It reads exactly like a tragic Shakespearean play. You have
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: all these volatile pieces, you know, geography, ego, billionaire, music
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: industry rivalries, and they're perfectly aligned for absolute disaster.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: But to really understand the explosion in Las Vegas, we
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: have to map the powder cake back in California. You
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: just cannot comprehend the actions taken in the desert without
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: first understanding the ecosystem that bred them.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: So let's do exactly that. Let's travel about two hundred
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: and seventy five miles west of the MGM Grand to
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: Compton in the mid nineteen nineties.
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: Okay, let's set the scene.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: Think about the geography of this place. We are talking
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: about a densely populated, heavily urbanized area that's spans just
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: ten square miles. It's tiny, really, Yeah, to give you
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: some perspective, you could drive across it in minutes. But
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: within that tiny constrained footprint. There are over thirty different
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: gangs actively claiming territory.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: The sheer density of that conflict it's just staggering. I
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: want you to imagine living in a neighborhood where crossing
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: a specific street or walking into the wrong convenience store
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: is literally crossing a hostile international border.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: Wow, that's intense.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: It is when you compress thirty armed factions into ten
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: square miles. The borders aren't abstract concepts, they are physical,
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: hypervigilantly guarded zones. The proximity just breathes this constant simmering paranoia,
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: and the.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: DA strategy today really hinges on two pivotal factions within
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: this pressure cooker. You have Mob Peru associated with the
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: color Red and the south Side Compton Cryps. What's absolutely
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: fascinating is how the leaders of these two groups actually
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: amass their power because it wasn't just about street toughness,
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: it was about panomics.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: Absolutely money changes everything.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: On one side representing Mob Peru, you have Marion Suge Knight.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: Now Sues grew up in Mob Peru territory, but he
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: didn't rise to power just by dominating the block physically.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: He elevated himself by becoming an economic titan.
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, by the mid nineties, he is the CEO of
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: death Row Records, and he fundamentally altered the economy of
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: his neighborhood. Death Row Records wasn't just a label. I
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: mean it was an empire.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they had unprecedented cultural and financial reach.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: Right. Souge Knight is funneling staggering amounts of corporate capital
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: into a historically disenfranchised area and power in Compton, like
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: anywhere else, follows the money. Sooge provided an economic engine
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: that elevated his faction status exponentially.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: But then you contrast that with the man on the
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: other side. Dwayne Davis or Keith D. Davis is the
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: leader of the Burrs Street faction of the South Side
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: Compton Cripps.
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: And his path the power was very different.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: Right. Davis doesn't have Platinum Records, he doesn't have distribution
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: deals with Interscope, but he is a neighborhood titan in
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: in his own right because he controls a massive, highly
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: lucrative narcotics trafficking operation.
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: It's basically the underground mirror image of death Row Records. Yeah,
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: both men are CEOs of massive logistical operation.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: Oh, that's a great way to put it.
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: Whether as Souge Knight distributing multi platinum hip hop albums
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: or Dwayne Davis moving large scale narcotics, the result is
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: the exact same. It's economic leverage. They are both bringing wealth,
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: fleets of vehicles, and heavy resources into their respective ten
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: square mile territories.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: But here's where the structure goes completely off the rails.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: Souge Knight is a corporate executive, but he refuses to
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: leave the street infrastructure behind. In fact, he integrates it.
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he leans right into it.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: He starts employing mob Peru gang members directly within death
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: Row records. They are literally on the payroll. They are
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: brought on to act as what we might politely call
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: unofficial security.
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: And this just totally blurs the line between a legitimate
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: corporate entity and a street level organized crime syndicate. Pug
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: Nite is taking the loyalty and the capacity for violence
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: inherent in a street gang and repurposing it as corporate muscle.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: I keep visualizing this through the lens of medieval history, Like,
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: think about a massive record label executive acting like a
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: medieval lore right and he's hiring a rival mercenary army
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: to serve as his palace guard.
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: That is a remarkably accurate analogy.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: If you are a global corporation and you are literally
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: using a specific, localized street gang as your corporate security force,
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: how do the accountants even hide that?
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: They probably don't ask too many questions?
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: Right? But more importantly, aren't you basically guaranteeing that a
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: localized dispute over a city block is going to mutate
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: into a highly publicized, incredibly well funded corporate war.
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: That is the exact alchemy of this tragedy. You are
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: taking grievances that would normally be contained within the borders
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: of Compton, a dispute over a street corner, a perceised slight,
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: and you are strapping acket engine to them. Wow, you
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: are backing those hyper local grievances with millions of dollars,
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: luxury fleets of cars, and global media attention. You amplify
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: the stakes of the street to a lethal frequency.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: And we know exactly when and where those amplified steaks
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: finally sparked because it wasn't under the neon lights of Vegas.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: The fuse was lit at a shopping mall in California.
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: Right, the Lakewood Mall in the summer of nineteen ninety six.
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: The Laquiod Mall incident is the catalyst. It is the
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: tectonic shift that sets everything else in motion. What happens
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: is Treyvon Lane, who is affiliated with mob Piro and
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: works within the Death Row Records apparatus, is at this mall, Okay,
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: and he crosses paths with a group from the South
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: Side Compton Cryps. Among that group is a young man
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: named Orlando Anderson, also known as Baby Lane.
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: And Orlando Anderson isn't just a foot soldier. He is
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: a highly respected member of the South Side Cryps and crucially,
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: he is the nephew of Dwayne Davis. He is Davis's
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: blood relative.
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: Right, So, during this encounter at the mall, the tension
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: basically boils over into violence. A brawl irrupts, and during
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: this brawl, Trayvon Lane has his heavy diamond encrusted Death
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: Row medallion physically ripped from his neck.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: Let's pause on that, because to anyone outside this culture,
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: it just sounds like a mugging, It sounds like petty theft.
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: But in this specific ecosystem, what is taking that chain
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: actually mean?
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: It is the equivalent of capturing a rival nation's flag
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: on the battlefield.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: Really, it's that significant.
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, It has nothing to do with the monetary value
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: of the gold or the diamonds. That chain was the
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: ultimate symbol of death Row's invincibility. It was the physical
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: manifestation of Souge Knight's power. Okay, I see by ripping
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: it off Trayvon Lane's neck, the South Side Cryps are
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: publicly humiliating a rival faction that is funded by the
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: biggest record label in the world. It is a monumental,
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: totally unforgivable act of disrespect.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: It's a declaration of war, and it basically ensures that
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: if these two groups ever occupy the same space again,
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: the response will not be a conversation.
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: It will be violent, without a doubt.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: But what I find some mind boggling is how this
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: hyper local feud in a California mall gets tangled up
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: in the massive East Coast versus West Coast hip hop rivalry.
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that requires the introduction of a new variable. A
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: man named Eric Martin, known as zip right zip Martin
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: now zip Martin operates entirely outside the ten square miles
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: of Compton. He is an East Coast based large scale
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: drug trafficker out of New York.
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: So how does a New York drug kingpin even cross
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: paths with a Compton crip through.
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: The invisible logistics of the underground economy. Zip Martin and
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: Dwayne Davis share a business relationship based on bi coastal
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: narcotics distribution. Ah Davis manages the West Coast infrastructure and
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: Zip manages the East Coast supply lines. It's purely transactional,
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: but Zip Martin also has deep ties to the New
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: York music.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: Industry, specifically ties to Sean Combs also known as Puffy,
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: the CEO of Bad Boy Entertainment exactly and for anyone
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: who knows the era bad Boy is locked in a
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: bitter are highly publicized and increasingly dangerous feud with death
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: Row Records.
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: Right, and because of the mounting tension with Suge Knight
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: and death Row, Seawan Combs was understandably concerned about his
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: physical safety whenever he traveled to the West.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: Coast, which makes sense.
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: He needed a deterrent. So Zip Martin acts as a broker.
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: He connects Combs with Dwayne Davis and they strike a deal.
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: Davis agrees that his faction the Southside Compton Cryps will
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: serve as the unofficial security for bad Boy entertainment personnel
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: whenever they are in California.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: Wait, so bad Boys deputizing the Southside Cryps. It's the
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: exact mirror image of what Death Row is doing with
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: mont Peru.
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: It really is.
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: This is insane. You have two billionaire music executives outsourcing
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: their corporate security to two rival street gangs who are
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: already on the verge of a shooting war over a
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: stolen chain at a shopping mall. It's a proxy war.
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: It is the absolute definition of a proxy war. Yea,
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: the street gangs become the foot soldiers for the music
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: industry titans.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: The localized beef over the chain is now infused with
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: the paranoia and the financial backing of the East Coast
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: West Coast rap war, and all of these volatile elements
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: converge in the lobby of the MGM Grand on the
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: night of September seventh, nineteen ninety six.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: Let's put ourselves right back in that lobby. The Tyson
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: fight is over. Tyson decimated Bruce Selden in like one
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: hundred and nine second fight. Yeah, and the arena's emptying out.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: You have this massive chaotic egress of celebrities and high rollers.
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: Walking through this crowd is the Death Row entourage, Tupac Shakur,
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: Souge Knight, and Trayvon Lane.
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: Trayvon Lane, the guy who got his chain stolen at
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: the Lakewood.
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: Mall exactly and suddenly, right through the crowd, they spot
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: Orlando Anderson.
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: Now, consider the logistics of this moment. Or Lando Anderson
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: is standing entirely alone in an environment teeming with entourages.
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: Why is the nephew of a gang leader totally isolated?
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: That is a good question.
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: The reality is a mundane logistical error. Dwayne Davis had
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: pretty cured scalp tickets for the fight at the very
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: last minute. The tickets were scattered throughout the arena.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: Oh I see.
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: Because the fight ended so abruptly, the south Side crips
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: hadn't had time to regroup. Anderson has caught out in
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: the open, highly vulnerable.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: And Trevon Lane spots him. He points him out. He
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: identifies a guy who humiliated him and stole the Death
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: Row chain, and the Death Row crew does not hesitate.
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: They just swarm him.
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: They absolutely rush him.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: But here is the detail that the justice system and
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: historians have spent decades dissecting. Tupac's A core throws the
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: first punch.
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that is the turning point.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: Tupac, alongside Souginnite and hardened mob PERU members, initiates a
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: brutal gang land style stomping of Orlando Anderson right there
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: on the casino floor. It's all caught on the MGM
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: security cameras.
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: We really need to analyze the paradox of Tupac in
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: this moment. Think about who he was. He was an
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: international icon. He was a poet.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he attended a performing arts school in Baltimore, right exactly.
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: He studied Shakespeare and ballet. He was not a hardened
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: gangster from the streets of Compton.
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: So why is he dumping a guy on a casino lobby.
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: Why is he doing the dirty work of a street gang.
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: It speaks volumes about the sociology of code switching and
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: the performative nature of loyalty in that specific era of
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: the music industry, Tubac had aligned himself completely with death
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: Row records.
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: SUJ Knight did bail him out of prison, right.
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: And he wore the death row chain in that ecosystem.
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: You cannot just be a passive beneficiary of a gang's protection.
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: To maintain his status, to prove his loyalty to the
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: dangerous men insulating him, Tupac felt a psychological compulsion to
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: adopt their grievances.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: Wow, so he felt he had to prove himself.
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: Yes, he stepped out of his role as an artist
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: and actively participated in a war that was not historically his.
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: He kind of cosplayed as a gangster, but the consequences
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: he faced were brutally.
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: Real, cragically real.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: So Casino security eventually breaks up the fight where Lando
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: Anderson is on the ground. Security asks him if he
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: needs an ambulance. He refuses medical attention. They ask him
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: if he wants to file a police report or rust
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: charges against Tupac and Suge Knight, and he refuses, and.
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: That refusal is the hinge upon which the rest of
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: the night turns. Really how so, by waving off the police,
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: Orlando Anderson is communicating a very clear message this violation
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: will not be adjudicated by the state. The legal system
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: has no jurisdiction here. The streets will dictate the response and.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: The moment he says no to the cops a clock
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: basically starts ticking. The DA's entire legal strategy focuses on
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: the next two and a half hours.
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: Because the moment Dwayne Davis receives the phone call that
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: his nephew is blood relative and a respected member of
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: his organization was just publicly beaten by Tupac and Souge,
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: the concept of choice vanishes.
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: He had to act.
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: We have to understand the rigidity of the street code
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: here in Davis's world, retaliation isn't an emotional reaction. It
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: is a structural mandate.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: Like it's not even up for debate.
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: Exactly, if a gang leader allows his own nephew to
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: be publicly humiliated and assaulted by rival faction and there
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: is no violent con consequence, his authority instantly evaporates. His
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: organization looks weak, and in that environment, weakness invites immediate predation.
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: Retribution is a matter of political and physical survival.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: You literally lose your territory and your income if you
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: don't strike back. So Davis doesn't just get angry, he
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: gets logistical. He immediately starts organizing a hit squad.
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: But to execute a hit you need a weapon.
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: Right, and this is where the East coast connection, Zip
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: Martin suddenly transitions from a drug broker to the lynchpin
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: of a murder.
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: It's a terrifying convergence. Davis is scrambling for hardware in
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: a city where he doesn't have his usual armory. He
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: runs into Zip Martin in Vegas. Zip tells him I
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: have a gun just like that. Yeah. They orchestrat to meet.
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: Davis goes to his Mercedes Benz, meets with Zip and
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: procures a loading block forty. This isn't a spontaneous crime
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: of passion anymore. This is the calculated procurement of the
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: tools necessary for an assassination.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: With the glock secured, the hunt officially begins. Davis sets
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: up two vehicles, a van and a white Cadillac. They
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: load up and head straight to Club six sixty two. Now,
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: Suge Knight actually owns Club sixt sixty two, and Tupac
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: is scheduled to perform.
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: There later that night, so they know where he'll be.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the hit squad plans to ambush them right at
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: the venue.
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: Think about the sheer brazenness of that plan. Put yourself
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: in their mindset.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: It's sheer insanity. They are in the middle of Las Vegas.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: It's a fight night. The city is crawling with Metropolitan police, tourists,
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: and rival security details, and their plan is to roll
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: up to a crowded nightclub and assassinate the most famous
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: wrapper on the planet, alongside a notorious record executive.
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: The tunnel vision is terrifying.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: It really is. They feel completely immune to the surrounding world.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: It's like they are operating in a separate dimension where
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: the only law is their own.
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: That tunnel vision is a defining characteristic of hyper focused
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: gang conflict. The environment, the collateral damage, all of it
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: just fades into the background. The only thing that exists
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: is the target and the objective.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: But this is also where we see how chaotic reality
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: can disrupt a highly focused plan.
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: Right Because they arrive at club six sixty two and
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: they wait. Fifteen twenty minutes go by. Yeah, but tufok
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: Ensiouge aren't there yet. They had delayed.
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: And here is where fate intervenes in the most mundane
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: way imaginable. The hit squad gets bored, they get thirsty.
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: They decide to abandon the stakeout and what do they do.
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: They go to buy liquor.
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: It is a staggering pivot. One moment they are a
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: militarized unit lying in wait, and the next they are
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: just tourists on a booze run.
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: It's so surreal.
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: The tension completely dissipates, and during this pivot, the physical
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: logistics of the group shift. Dwayne Davis gets out of
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: the van and moves into the front passenger seat of
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: the wait Cadillac.
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: Okay, that's a crucial detail.
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: The driver is a man named Terence Brown, known as t.
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: In the back seat are DeAndre Smith, who goes by
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: Big Drey, and Orlando Anderson.
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: Davis literally admits later that the mission was essentially called off.
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: They were going to hit a liquor store, get some drinks,
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: and head back to the strip to party. Retaliation was
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: going to have to wait for another day. They were
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: transitioning out of the combat mindset.
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: But as they are driving back toward the strip, a
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: completely random, uncontrollable variable puts them right back on a
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: collision course with their targets.
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: A completely random event. I mean, imagine you're in that
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: white Cadillac, You're driving down the street, and in the
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: lane next to you there's a car full of young women. Okay,
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: These women are leaning out their windows and they are
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: enthusiastically screaming Tupac, Tupac. They are just fans. They spotted
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: a celebrity and they are excited, right, But those screams
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: act like a flare gun for Dwayne Davis.
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: It instantly snaps the hit squad back into protocol. Davis,
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: here's the name, looks over and sees the death row caravan. Specifically,
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: he sees a black BMW Souge Night is driving and
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: Tupac Shakur is in the front passenger seat. The target
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: has presented itself right in the open.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: The white Cadillac violently pulls a U turn right there
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: in the middle of Las Vegas traffic. They start hunting
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: down the BMW, navigate through the cars, accelerate, and pull
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: up directly alongside the right side of the BMW, the
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: passenger side. This is critical, and I really want to
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: emphasize this heavily for you listening. The physical geometry of
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: how these two cars align on that street is the
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: absolute crux of the entire legal argument against Dwayne Davis. Today.
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: We have to break down the mechanics of the interior
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: of that Cadillac. Y Dwayne Davis is sitting in the
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: front passenger seat. The BMW is on their right side,
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: the passenger side. When they pull up alongside, Davis has
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: the loaded Block forty in his hands.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: He's literally holding the gun, yes.
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: But because of his position in the car, he physically
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: cannot get a clean shot. To shoot out the passenger window.
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: He would have to reach entirely across his own body,
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: navigate the window frame, and fire accurately at a moving
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: vehicle while sitting in.
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: A moving vehicle, which is nearly impossible exactly.
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: He later admits to authorities, if they were on my side,
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: I would have shot them myself.
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: So he was entirely willing to pull the trigger, but
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: physics wouldn't let it. So what does he do? He
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: physically takes the Glock forty, reaches over the center console,
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: and hands the weapon into the back seat. He offers
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: it to Big Dray.
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: And Big Dray refuses to take the.
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: Gun, which leaves one person the NEPHO who has beaten
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: just hours earlier at the MGM Grand Orlando Anderson takes
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: the Glock.
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: Forty and the moment dwanne Davis's hand, let's go of
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: that weapon and Orlando Anderson's hand grasps. It is the
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: very moment that planning transitions into execution. That physical hand
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: off is the anchor of the prosecution's case.
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: Orlando Anderson levels the weapon out the back window, and
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: in Davis's own grim vernacular, he starts blasting. Davis's recollection
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: of these few seconds is incredibly dark. He recounts it
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: with this chilling cinematic detachment. He remembers seeing Souge Knight
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: look over and make eye contact with him just as
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: the shooting starts.
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: He watches Suge violently flinch as a piece of shattered
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: glass and beds itself in Souge's neck. He watches Tupac
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: shakor frantically trying to scramble over the center console into
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: the back seat to escape the hail of bullets, and
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: Davis remembers thinking, right then, in that chaotic moment, that
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: Tupac was already dead.
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: Is the testimony of an architect watching his structure collapse
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: perfectly according to plan. He observes the physical trauma of
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: the victims not with horror, but with an eerie observational clarity.
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: And the immediate aftermath is pure adrenaline and chaos. The
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: white Cadillac hits the gas and makes a hard right turn,
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: tires screeching, fleeing the scene. And remember those women in
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: the other car, the fans who yelled tupac.
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: Oh right, what happened to them?
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: When the gunfire erupts, they totally panic. They slam on
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: the gas to escape, and in their terror, they inadvertently
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: followed the fleeing white cadillac. Davis looks in his rear
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: view mirror, sees headlights aggressively tailing them, and for a
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: tense moment, he genuinely believes Death Row security is hunting
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: them down.
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: It highlights the intense paranoia of the escape. But they
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: evade the chaotic traffic, they evade the police, and the
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: detail that truly underscores their psychological conditioning is what they
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: do next?
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: To do they do?
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: They don't go to a safe house in Vegas. They
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: drive straight back across the desert to Compton that very night,
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: within twenty four hours of orchestrating the most infamous dry
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: by shooting in hip hop history, they are back on
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: their home turf, acting as the legal record state as
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: though nothing.
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: Happened, but the reality was that the world hit irreversibly changed.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: Tupac Shakor is rushed to University and medical center. He
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: clings to life for six days before his body finally
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: gives out. Suginite survives with the Gray's wound and the
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: glass in his neck. Vegas is completely engulfed in a
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: media circus.
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: But back in Compton, in those ten square miles, it
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: isnt a media circus. It is a literal war zone.
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: Because the streets didn't need a police investigation.
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: No, the streets already knew the truth. They understood the
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: chain of events perfectly. Mob Pieru knew Orlando Anderson was beaten,
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: and they knew the south Side crypts retaliated. The result
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: was an immediate, catastrophic explosion of retaliatory violence.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: Statistics from those days following the Vegas shooting are horrific.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: Within just ten days, three people in Compton are murdered.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: Numerous others are shot, including an eleven year old girl
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: who is just caught in the crossfire of rival gang
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: members hunting each other. It is an absolute bloodbath.
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: And this brings us to a crucial element of this story.
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: Why did the justice system completely fail to intervene for decades.
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: The reality is that the combination of heavily armed gangs
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: and an entrenched code of silence creates an ecosystem that
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: is completely impervious to traditional policing methods.
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: Silence means survival. That is the phrase that paralyzes the courts.
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: The Las Vegas Metro Police can have a suspect in mind.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: The rival gangs know who pulled the trigger. The entire
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: neighborhood knows who is in the white Cadillac. But if
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: not a single person is willing to sit in a
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: witness chair in a court of law, raise their right
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: hand and testify under oath, the justice system is utterly powerless.
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: The code of silence isn't just some romanticized notion of
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: honor among them thieves, is a highly practical, brutally enforced
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: defense mechanism. It protects the organization from law enforcement and
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: it protects the individual from violent reprisal. The South Side
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: crips held that line with iron discipline for years.
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: Nobody talked except for one person. And this is where
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: the irony of this story becomes almost suffocating. The mastermind
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: behind the entire operation, the man who rigidly enforced the
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: street code, the man who ordered an assassination to protect
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: his gang's reputation. He is the one who ultimately could
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: not stop talking.
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: It's unbelievable.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: Let's delve into the unraveling of Dwayne Davis, brought down
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: entirely by his own words.
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: We have to trace the timeline of his interactions with
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: law enforcement. Let's start back in nineteen ninety eight and
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: nineteen ninety nine. The FBI is actively interviewing Davis, but crucially,
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: they aren't interviewing him primarily about TUPAC. They are building
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: a massive federal case against him regarding his large scale
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: narcotics trafficking operations. Naturally, the Vegas shooting comes up in
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: these entires.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: But in those early years, Davis plays a very sophisticated
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: game of chess with the Feds. He gives them just
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: enough truth to seem cooperative, but absolutely nothing actionable.
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he offers a very fine line.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: He admits he was in Vegas for the Tyson fight.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: He admits he was furious about his nephew being stomped
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: at the MGM. He even admits he planned to retaliate,
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: but claims he was going to wait and handle it
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: back in Compton. He steadfastly denies any involvement in the
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: actual drive by shooting. He holds the code.
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: He is controlling the narrative perfectly. He offers a sanitized
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: version of events that acknowledges his proximity to the crime
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: without exposing him to criminal liability. But jump forward a
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: decade to two thousand and eight, and the landscape shifts seismically,
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: And it shifts because of an entirely different tragedy, the two.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: Thousand and eight turning point. Let's explain the mechanics of
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: how this happens. A federal task force has been assembled
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: in Los Angeles. It is led by a seasoned investigator
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: named Greg Kating. Okay, but Kating's task force isn't looking
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: for Tupac killer. They are investigating the murder of Christopher
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: Wallace Biggie Small's the notorious big who was gunned down
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: in LA just six months after Tupac died.
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: The connection between these two investigations hinges on a staggering
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: coincidence that ultimately seals Davis's fate.
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: What's the connection?
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: The Cating task force is meticulously investigating the Biggie hit.
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: They discovered that The suspected shooters in that case utilized
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: a very specific type of vehicle, a Chevy SSM Paula.
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: So they run massive databases of vehicle registrations in the
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: LA area looking for connections. And whose name pops up,
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: Dwayne Davis. He happened to own a Chevy SSM Paula.
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: It's an incredible piece of luck for the investigators because
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: of this car. Dwayne Davis suddenly lights up on the
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: federal radar again. But the Feds are smart. They know
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: they can't just arrest a guy for owning an Apolla
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: and interrogate him about a murder. No, they need real leverage,
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: so they deploy the classic federal playbook. They attack his vulnerabilities.
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: They know he is a kingpin in the drug trade
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: as a confidential informant. They set up a massive undercover
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: narcotic sting and they catch Davis doing a significant amount
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: of weight. Suddenly the trap snaps shut. Dwayne Davis is
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: looking at a catastrophic federal drug trafficking sentence. He is cornered.
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: This is the exact moment law enforcement has been waiting for.
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: They have the leverage necessary to shatter the code of silence.
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: They bring Davis and his attorney into a room for
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: what is known as a secret proffer session.
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: Let's explain this to the listener, because the legal mechanics
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: of a proffit agreement are fascinating. How does this actually work?
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: A proffer agreement, often referred to in legal circles as
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: a queen for a day letter, is a highly specific
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: written contract queen a suspect and the government.
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: Okay, so it's a formal deal exactly.
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: It essentially states, you sit here today and tell us
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: everything you know about these crimes. You must tell the absolute,
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: unvarnished truth. In exchange, we promise that the specific words
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: you say in this room today will not be used
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: directly against you in a court of law to prosecute
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: you for those crimes.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: Wait, if you sign an agreement like that, isn't it
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: an ironclad contract? How can they possibly be prosecuting him? Now?
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: That is the critical misunderstanding that Davis had. A profit
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: agreement provides limited immunity, not blanket amnesty. It prevents the
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: government from using your direct statements in their case in
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: chief against you.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: Oh, I see the distinction.
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: However, it usually allows the government to pursue derivative use,
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: meaning they can take the clues you give them, go
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: find independent evidence, and use that evidence to prosecute you.
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: More importantly, profer agreements almost always contain a breach clause.
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: If you ever lie, or if you later make public
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: statements that contradict your profit, or if you confess independently
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: outside the protection of the agreement, the deal is voided.
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: You are no longer protected.
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: So Davis sits down in this room with Greg Caating's
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: task force. The Feds look at him and say, we
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: have you dead to rights on these drug charges. You
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: are going to prison for a long time, but we
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: really want to solve the Biggie Small's murder. Tell us
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: what you know about Biggie and we can make the
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: drug charges disappear.
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: And Davis looks back at them and says, I honestly
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: don't know anything about the Biggie murder, but I can
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: give you tupac.
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: It is a breathtaking pivot face with the reality of
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: dying in a federal penitentiary for drug trafficking. Davis offers
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: the confession to the most infamous unsolved murder in hip
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: hop history as a bargaining chip. It really is I
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: keep thinking about this like a mafia boss. Imagine a
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: mob boss gets caught on a mundane tax evasion charge,
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: and to save his own skin, he offers up the
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: exact GPS coordinates of Jimmy Hoffa's body. Davis trades the
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: ghost of Tupac Shakur to dodge a narcotics charge.
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: That's exactly what he did.
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: He sells out the legacy of that night and the
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: street code he claims to live by, purely to save
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: himself under the perceived impenetrable shield of that proffer agreement,
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: he confesses to orchestrating the entire night in Las Vegas.
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: He tells them about Zip Martin. He details the U turn,
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: he describes physically handing the loaded weapon to his nephew.
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: He lays the entire blueprint out for the federal government,
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: and he.
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: Commits to this cooperation entirely. In two thousand and nine,
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: Davis actually flies to New York whars a concealed wire
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: for the federal government and attempts to get Zip Martin
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: to confess on tape to providing the Glock forty.
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: He actually wore a wire.
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: Yes, Zip Martin, who is dying of cancer, at the
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: time refuses to take the bait, But the fact remains
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: Davis was an active federal informant.
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: So if he confessed in two thousand and eight, why
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: wasn't he arrested then?
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: Because of the profer agreement at that time, the confession
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: was locked inside that specific legal protection. The federal task
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: Force couldn't use his words against him, and they failed
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: to gather enough independent, corroborating evidence to secure a conviction
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: without relying on his direct confession.
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: Ah, so he thought he'd beat them.
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: He believed he had outsmarted the system. He got to
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: unburden himself of his secrets, secure his legacy as the
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: mastermind behind a legendary historical event, and walk away entirely free.
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: And for a few years he lived in that illusion.
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: The confession stayed locked in a federal vault. But in
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: twenty eleven, the illusion violently shatters.
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: It sure does.
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: Greg Kating, the federal investigator who led the task for
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: US and took the secret confession, retires from law enforcement.
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: He decides he is going to write a book detailing
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: his investigations into the murders of Biggie and Tupac, and from.
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: Dwayne Davis's perspective, this is a monumental, earth shattering betrayal.
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: Kating publishes the book and he prints the granular details
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: of Davis's secret two thousand and eight confession right there
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: in the pages for the public to read.
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: Suddenly, the entire world knows that Dwayne Davis Keith d
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: a terrifyingly respected leader of the South Side Cryps, broke
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: the most sacred rule of the street. He talked to
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: the Feds, he snitched. The world knows he confessed, and worse,
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: they know he explicitly implicated his own blood nephew Orlando Anderson,
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: as well as Big Dray and Terence Brown in a murder.
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: The psychological friction this causes for Davis is immense. His
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: street credibility is completely annihilated. But perhaps even more infuriating
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: to a man driven by ego, this white former police
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: officer is now financially profiting off Dwayne Davis's life story.
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: Katie is selling books and building a media career based
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: on the secrets that Davis spilled to save his.
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: Own life, which leads to what I think is the
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: most wildly counterintuitive reaction in criminal history. Most people, upon
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: realizing their secret murder confession has been leaked in a book.
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: Would retreat into the shadows. They would move to another country,
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: They would stay as quiet as humanly possible to avoid
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: for their scrutiny.
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: That would be the logical thing to do.
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: But what does Dwayne Davis do? He decides to go
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: on the offensive. He decides that if his story is
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: going to be monetized, he wants to be the one
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: cashing the checks.
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: He embarks on a bizarre, sustained, and incredibly reckless public
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: confession tour. In twenty seventeen, he agrees to a sit
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: down interview for a BET documentary series called Death Row Chronicles.
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: On camera, the producers ask him point blank, why are
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: you finally speaking out publicly about this after twenty years?
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: And his answer is wild.
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: His response is deeply revealing about his psychology. He says
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: he was jealous. He was jealous that journalists and authors
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: have been chasing him for two decades, writing books and
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: magazines about him, and now he wants to tell the
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: story himself. He claims he has cancer, He believes he
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: has nothing else to lose, and he just wants to
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: tell his truth.
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: Put yourself in his shoes for a second. You are
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: sitting under hot production lights, cameras are rolling, and you
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: essentially look into the lens and say, I was the boss,
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: it was my operation.
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: It's hard to fath him now.
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: In that twenty seventeen documentary, he's slightly evasive about exactly
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: who pulled the trigger, but he definitively admits to being
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: the shot caller. He admits to being in the white Cadillac.
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: He admits to being a core part of the murder plot.
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: He justifies speaking out by noting a very grim reality.
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: He is the only one left who can tell the.
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: Story the last man's standing syndrome. By twenty seventeen, every
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: other individual inside that white Cadillac was dead, all of them. Yes,
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: Terence Brown, the driver, had been murdered in an unrelated incident,
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: DeAndrea Smith had passed away from an illness, and Orlando Anderson,
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: the nephew who Davis claims pulled the trigger, had been
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: killed in a totally separate gang shootout in Compton way
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: back in nineteen ninety eight.
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: Dwayne Davis is the sole survivor of the Vegas hit squad,
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: and this raises an absolutely fascinating psychological question does Davis
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: go on television and later write a book because the
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: actual shooters are dead, making him genuinely believe that a
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: prosecution is practically impossible.
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: Or is it pure unadulterated hubris. Does he possess such
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: a deep seated narcissistic desire to claim his pivotal place
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: in hip hop history that he's willing to confess to
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: murder on television.
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: That's the real question.
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: It is almost certainly a toxic combination of both. He
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: fundamentally misunderstood the law, and his ego exploited that misunderstanding.
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: He believed that because he did not physically pull the trigger,
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: and because the man who did pull the trigger was dead,
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: the justice system had no mechan to hold him accountable.
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: He thought he was untouchable, and it had to be
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: his ego driving the bus, because in twenty nineteen he
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: doubles down. He self publishes his own memoir. He writes
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: an entire book detailing his life as a Compton kingpin.
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: He put it all in print.
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: And, as the DA tells the jury today, sure the
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: book is full of self aggrandizement and street mythology, but
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: the core actionable facts remained perfectly consistent with his two
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: thousand and eight police confessions. In his own published book,
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: available Amazon, he admits he was furious about the MGM beating.
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: He admits he procured the glock right.
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: He admits he was in the passenger seat of the Cadillac,
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: and he explicitly admits he handed the weapon to the
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: back seat with the intent that it'd be fired.
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: He literally took a signed confession, bounded in a hardcover
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: and placed it in the biography section of bookstores across
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: the country.
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: It's just incredible.
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: By publishing that book and by giving those television interviews,
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: he stepped entirely outside the protections of his two thousand
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: and eight profer agreement. He gave the state independent public confession.
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: He handed the prosecution the exact tools they needed to
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: circumvent the federal immunity.
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: Which brings us precisely back to the courtroom today and
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: the core of the DA's opening argument. The DA stands
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: before the jury and lays out an unvarnished truth. He
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: doesn't try to twist the facts. He says clearly Duayne
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: Davis did not pull the trigger.
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: Right. The state concedes that fact.
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: Entirely, but the DA argues vehemently that under the law,
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: Davis is just as guilty of first degree murder as
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: the man holding the gun.
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: This is where we must delve deeply into the legal
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: doctrines of felony, murder and conspiracy. The law recognizes a
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: fundamental truth about organized violence. The architect of a crime
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: is often more culpable and more dangerous to society than
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: the foot soldier who executes it. The DA's logic is
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: meticulously constructed. Davis procured the weapon, Davis organized the hit
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: squad and the vehicles. Davis directed the search. Davis ordered
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: the U turn when he spotted the target and rose critically,
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: Davis physically handed a loaded firearm to a volatile young
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: man who had just been violently assaulted, knowing exactly what
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: the inevitable outcome would be.
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: The DA explicitly calls that physical handoff of the clock
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: the ultimate green light. By passing that weapon, Davis authorized
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: and facilitated the execution of Tupac Shakor. That's a powerful phrase,
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: But I have to push back here, just to play
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: Devil's advocate for you listening. Is it entirely fair from
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: an ethical standpoint to prosecute a man who is now
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: in his sixties for an action he took twenty eight
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: years ago.
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: It's a very valid question, especially.
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: In an environment that the DA himself described as a
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: war zone. We're talking about an ecosystem of violence that
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: existed three decades ago. The actual shooter is dead, the
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: primary victim is dead. Are we punishing the elderly man
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: he is today for the systemic sins of a bygone era.
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: It is a profound ethical debate that the justice system
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: grapples with constantly. On one hand, you have arguments for
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: rehabilitation and the idea that individuals evolve over decades. But
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: on the other hand, the legal doctrine arding murder is absolute.
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: There is no statute of limitations on murder. For a
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: very specific reason, the justice system argues that the severity
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: of taking a human life demands a permanent, unclosing window
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: for accountability.
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: That's true.
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: The DA is arguing that while the ecosystem of Compton
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: may have fostered the violence, Dwayne Davis made deliberate, conscious,
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: logistical choices within that ecosystem to orchestrate an assassination. He
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: was a leader orchestrating a hit, not a passive bystander
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: swept up in a riot.
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: And if anyone needs proof that the Dwayne Davis of
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: today is still deeply connected to the violent sins of
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety six, the DA provides a truly chilling piece
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: of evidence. Right at the end of his opening remarks,
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: he tells the jury about a secret wiretap recorded just
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: recently in twenty twenty four.
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: Yes, law enforcement intercepted a private phone call between Dwayne
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: Davis and his own son, and in this call, nearly
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: thirty years after the Vegas shooting, Davis is still speaking
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: about Tupac Shakur with what the DA accurately describes as
• 38:59
  Speaker 2: visceral anger.
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: We have the transcript. He's on tape in twenty twenty
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: four saying, they jumped on my nephew, a fucking kid.
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: My nephew never jumped on his head. He jumped on
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: my nephew.
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: The emotion is still right there, twenty.
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: Eight years later. The rage is still palpable, it's burning
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: right through the phone line. He still fiercely resents Tupac
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: for putting hands on Orlando Anderson. That gang Bravado wasn't
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: just a phase in the nineties, It is a permanent
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: resentment etched permanently into a psyche.
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: It perfectly encapsulates the tragedy of his existence. Davis took
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: care of his anger, as the DA notes, in two
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: and a half hours back in nineteen ninety six, he
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: exacted his violent revenge quickly and efficiently. But that two
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: and a half hour window retaliation has kept him mentally
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: imprisoned for twenty eight years. He has been three decades reliving, justifying,
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: and attempting to monetize that anger. And now the very
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: words he used to keep that mythology alive were going
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: to put him in a physical prison.
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: It is the ultimate tragic irony. So what does this
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: all mean for us? For you listening today, how does
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: a nineteen ninety six gangland murder connect to our modern lives?
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: I think it connects directly to a very modern impulse
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: we all share. We live in an era where everyone
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: feels this burning, almost compulsive need to document their lives.
• 40:14
  Speaker 2: That is so true. Everyone is broadcasting.
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: We all want to be the author of our own narrative.
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: We want to broadcast our truth to the world on
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: social media and podcasts and memoirs. Dwayne Davis believed he
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: could control the narrative of his own primes. He thought
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: he could outsmart the federal government, write a book, go
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: on television, and shape exactly how history remembered him.
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: But his hubris blinded him to a fundamental rule of
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: the justice system. Words are permanent, Exactly. Legal system has
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: an incredibly long memory, and it is endlessly patient. Davis
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: forgot that every time he opened his mouth to build
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: his own myth, he was literally handing the prosecution another
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: brick to build his jail cell.
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: We so often think of justice as this swift, sharp
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: sword that strikes immediately after a crime is committed. We
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: expect the gavel to fall right away. But in the
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: case of Dwayne Davis Keith d justice wasn't a sword
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: at all.
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: No, it wasn't.
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: It was just a microphone. A microphone sitting patiently on
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: a table for decades, knowing full well that eventually humean
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: ego will always compel a man to confess his own sins.
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: Which leaves you with this final thought to ponder as
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: we wrap up in a digital world where we are
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: constantly recording, posting, and rationalizing our own actions, what secrets
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: are we casually broadcasting today? Assuming the world isn't really listening,