Crime Writing: The Almost New York Times Bestseller

Fourteen years ago, on October 1, 2000, crime writer Cathy Scott's second book, The Murder of Biggie Smalls, was released by MacMillan. A few weeks later, she received a phone call that it had sold enough copies the first week to qualify the hardcover as a New York Times bestseller. It was fantastic news, something every author wants to hear. But with it came bad news too. Read full article

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Remembering Notorious B.I.G. on 14th Anniversary of His Unsolved Murder

by Cathy Scott

"My son's albums, to me, are a celebration of his life." Voletta Wallace, a couple of years after her son's murder on March 9, 1997, said those words in a telephone interview about the murder of Biggie Smalls. She's proud of what her son accomplished in his short life but frustrated that his murder remains unsolved.

Fourteen years after the slaying, the music of Biggie Smalls–a k a Christopher Wallace–is as big as ever. But his murder doesn't appear any closer to being solved than it was shortly after his murder following a VIBE magazine party outside the Petersen Automotive Museum, in Los Angeles, on the eve of the release of Biggie's double-disc album, ironically titled "Life After Death."

No one knows what else Biggie, a New York-based rapper who performed as The Notorious B.I.G., would have accomplished had he not been cut down that fateful March night. He was embraced by his Brooklyn community and rap fans worldwide. What we do know is that Biggie's music, after his death, topped the charts and sold millions of CDs. Like Tupac Shakur before him, Smalls is bigger in death than in life. Biggie was known for his semi-autobiographical lyrics and storytelling and his easy style of rap.

Shakur was killed in Las Vegas six months before Smalls in what some have called eerily similar drive-by shootings. Biggie and Tupac unfortunately became tragic victims of the culture of violence depicted in their lyrics.

Smalls, who died at 24 years old, had been mentoring younger rappers, including hip-hop singer Lil' Kim. On the 14th anniversary of the shooting, Lil' Kim posted her sentiments on Twitter: "On this very day a great soul was laid to rest. Now on this very day we celebrate the rebirth of a beautiful Life! R.I.P Biggie Baby."

Smalls' record producer, Sean "P Diddy" Combs, also took to the pages of Twitter to remember his friend: "Today is #BIGGIEDAY–send me all your videos, links, photos, exclusive content. ALL things BIGGIE so I can tell the world!!"

Spreading the word about her son is music to Mrs. Wallace's ears, to keep her son's legacy alive. But, while Biggie's music keeps his memory on the forefront, his mother, a single mom who worked as a pre-school teacher to support her son, holds out hope his killer (composite sketch, right) will one day be found and brought to justice. Despite the length of time without a named suspect (although a task force in L.A. has been, for several months, looking into the cold case), she keeps the faith.

"I'm not only hoping," Mrs. Wallace told me, "but I am praying that they catch the dog who killed my son. I can't wait. I know that's a trip [to Los Angeles] I'm waiting to take ... to look the murderer in the face."

Cathy Scott's book, The Murder of Biggie Smalls, is a biographical and true crime account of his life and death.

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Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur Cold Cases Heat Up

by Cathy Scott

A couple weeks ago, I sat down with CNN's anchor/reporter Ted Rowlands and producer Michael Cary to talk about the Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls murders. In Anderson Cooper's resulting blog post, Rowlands and Cary quoted a former Los Angeles Police Detective as saying, “Suge Knight ordered the hit [on Biggie Smalls]."

Smalls, 24, Brooklyn-born Christopher Wallace and also known as the Notorious B.I.G., was gunned down in L.A. while driving away from a VIBE magazine album release party at the Petersen Automotive Museum on March 9, 1997. Investigators suspect the killer was a lone gunman in an early model Chevy Impala who opened fire on Biggie's Suburban in a drive-by. Witnesses described the gunman as a thin-faced African-American man wearing a suit and a bow-tie.

The accusations toward Knight, who at the time ran Death Row Records, were from the mouth of one Russell Poole, who was one of many detectives who once worked on the Smalls murder investigation. Poole added, when he spoke with the CNN crew, that he believes the murder was organized by Reggie Wright Jr., who headed security for Death Row.

Poole went on to say he believes Knight ordered the murder of Tupac Shakur as well, even though Poole never worked on the Tupac investigation, after Shakur, 25, was gunned down in September 1996 near the Las Vegas Strip.

Bold words. The problem, however, with Poole's statements, which have become almost a mantra for him, is that there isn't a scintilla of evidence pointing to Knight as either committing or ordering the murder of Biggie Smalls. The LAPD launched both criminal and internal investigations into just that, to no avail. And Biggie Smalls' mother, Voletta Wallace, in 2006 sued the city of Los Angeles and the LAPD for a cover-up and sloppy handling of her son's case. 

Investigators have long suspected that Biggie was killed because of an East Coast/West Coast rivalry between the rappers, who were from opposite coasts, which they have said may have caused the death of Shakur six months earlier. Wallace's family's suit against the LAPD was dismissed in 2010. Still, Voletta Wallace has said many times she has faith that her son's killer will one day be brought to justice.

But Detective Derrick Parker, a veteran of the NYPD specializing in hip-hop related crimes, told People magazine, "No disrespect to the LAPD," says the police officer nicknamed the "hip hop cop," "but every time they get a new set of detectives on it, it fizzles out. They lose a lot."

Poole is one of those officers who rotated in and out of the Smalls case. If Knight is, in fact, responsible for Smalls' murder, where's the evidence? Bring it forward. I'm not saying Knight is a Boy Scout. Far from it. It's common knowledge that he grew up on the streets of Compton and was a member of the Mob Piru gang.

And it's not as if the cops haven't tried to get Knight. In the aftermath of both murders, police in a variety of jurisdictions have hauled him into both county jails and prison for everything from outstanding traffic warrants, possession of marijuana, and violation of parole. He served time. But he has never been identified by the LAPD or the Las Vegas police as a person of interest, let alone a prime suspect, in either murders.

I was told by a source about a year and a half ago that a multi-task force had been formed to look into both Smalls' and Tupac's murders as a part of an in-depth gang probe. So far, the members of that task force have been silent. When the task force eventually winds up its work, maybe we'll then see whether Poole's words ring true. Until then, and without evidence, it's an empty accusation.  

Knight, who was behind bars serving out a parole violation at the time Smalls was killed, has denied he had anything to do with the murder. And Reggie Wright has also said he had nothing to do with the killing. 

As for an LAPD cover-up, Los Angeles City Councilman Bernard Parks, who was chief of police at the time of the Smalls murder, said, simply, that allegations of a police cover-up are "absurd." 

Click here to read CNN's blog.

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