All language subtitles for Unsolved.Mysteries.S09E14.AMZN.WEB-DL.DD+2.0.H.264-AJP69_track3_[eng]

ANNOUNCER: Tonight on
"Unsolved Mysteries."

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER):
September 7th, 1996,

gunfire erupts along the
famous Las Vegas strip,

taking the life of rap
music star Tupac Shakur.

Today, disturbing questions
haunt the investigation.

Why were Shakur's trusted
bodyguards unarmed?

Why do the killers seem
to target only Shakur?

And why was almost no
one willing to talk?

They are snapshots of a
different time and place.

Virginia Burns
always thought she

was the baby in the pictures.

Then Virginia learned about
her father's secret life.

And now she needs your help
find her long lost sister.

It is a phenomenon so
bizarre that it defies

belief, ordinary people
suddenly and inexplicably

bursting into flame.

Mainstream science
says it can't happen,

but independent
researchers insist

that the evidence doesn't lie.

Spontaneous human
combustion is real.

In Ohio, the quiet
of a small community

is shattered when Becky
Wood and her grandchildren

are terrorized by a pair
of vicious armed robbers.

Now the intruders
have been unmasked,

and authorities need your
help to track them down.

Join me for another
intriguing edition

of "Unsolved Mysteries."

[theme music]

Becky Wood doesn't need
this police photograph

to remember the terror, the
choking fear of being bound,

assaulted, and
absolutely convinced

that she and her
four grandchildren

were going to die.

It happened in February of
1996, when two men, disguised

in masks, invaded her home.

It was 7:00 AM.

Becky's husband had
just left for work.

The intruders seemed
to know exactly

what they were looking for.

Out of bed, open the safe!

BECKY WOOD (VOICEOVER):
When I first opened my eyes,

I saw a man with blood
on the head and the eye.

And I thought, "Oh my God.

I'm having this bad dream."

And then when he said it
again, I knew it was for real.

Let's go!

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER):
Becky's granddaughter

was sleeping beside
her, and Becky thought

to hide her with a blanket.

Three other children were
asleep in different bedrooms.

Move, move.

Into the kitchen,
into the kitchen.

BECKY WOOD (VOICEOVER):
I never felt so helpless.

Take it off, OK?
Take it off!

I was afraid for
my grandchildren.

And I kept praying to God, "you
know, please let the children

sleep through this.

Don't let them wake."

The whole time he's screaming
"where's the combination?

Where's the combination?"

Now the kitchen!

[inaudible]

BECKY WOOD (VOICEOVER):
And I tried

to explain to them
that I didn't know,

that I didn't have it with me.

Could I please call my daughter?

[shouting]

He kicked me in the
head, and he kept

telling me that they
would take the children,

I'd never see them again.

And I kept telling him, "I swear
I don't have the combination.

I swear I would open it.

I'd give it to you.

I don't have it."

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER):
Sounds of ransacking

came from upstairs, where the
second intruder was looting

Becky's dresser of jewelry.

That's when
nine-year-old Matthew

wandered out of his room.

Hey, we got one up!

I don't really know how
to explain what I felt.

Like my heart just
felt like it was

just gonna beep or something.

It was pounding
real hard, because I

didn't know what it was.

He threw Matthew on the floor,
and put his hands behind him,

and tied him up.

[shouting]

I saw the man's feet coming
around in front of me.

And he took a trash bag and
put it over my grandson's head.

I thought they were gonna take
me out in this rug and kill me,

and they were gonna
smother Matthew.

You count to 2,000
before you move,

or else we'll be
back to kill you!

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER):
Becky Wood heard

the safe drag across the floor.

She heard her car start.

Then silence as it
was driven away.

One of the other children awoke
and cut Becky and Matthew free.

Becky then discovered that
the intruders had sliced

all the alarm and phone lines.

Neighbors summoned police.

In addition to
stealing Becky's car,

the robbers had made off with
$20,000 worth of jewelry,

and the locked safe containing
the Woods' life savings,

another 18,000 in cash.

Well, while they stole
a lot of our possessions

that I'll never be able
to replace, I'm thankful

we're alive.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER):
That afternoon,

police found Becky's '91
Lincoln at a nearby car wash.

The safe turned up a week
later, emptied of cash,

but yielding evidence that
could help convict the robbers

once they were identified.

As police began to
review the case,

the facts pointed
to one conclusion.

The assailants had known
exactly where to find the wires

for the home alarm system.

They knew just where
the safe was kept.

They knew just where to
look for Becky's jewelry.

They had known too much
to be total strangers.

I'd met back up again with
Becky and her husband Woody.

We asked them to
do something that

was kind of difficult for them.

We asked them to sit down and
start thinking about people

they knew, and people
that they've dealt with,

and people that have
worked for them,

and put a list together for us.

ROBERT STACK
(VOICEOVER): It would

prove to be a solid hunch.

When the jury showed up at
pawnshops in Pittsburgh,

100 miles away, police there
believed it had been sold

by a man named Larry Juster.

State computers yielded
this photograph.

The information was
relayed to Ohio.

Becky and her husband had left
town to recover some peace

of mind after the robbery.

Their daughter offered
to review the pawnshop

leads for local police.

Listen, there's a photograph
I need you take a look at.

You wouldn't happen to
recognize this guy, would you?

Yeah, it's Gary Noble.

Gary Noble?

Gary Noble.

It's not Larry Juster?

That's what the name
says, but that's Gary Noble.

He and his brother Ted
Noble worked for my dad

a couple months ago.

ROBERT STACK
(VOICEOVER): Ted Noble

had briefly worked
for the Wood family

eight months prior
to the robbery.

When Ted and his
brother Gary found

that detectives were
closing in, they fled Ohio

and are still on the run.

We were given information
that they had made statements

that they had no intention of
being taken alive if confronted

by law enforcement.

The way we entered our warrants
is with extreme caution

on the two of them.

BECKY WOOD (VOICEOVER):
The robbery

has done something
to us that you

don't really understand unless
you live through it yourself.

Out of the bed!

Out of the bed!

BECKY WOOD (VOICEOVER):
I'm angry what

they did to my grandchildren.

And I'm angry.

I am angry at the
men that did this.

ROBERT STACK
(VOICEOVER): Coming up,

he was one of rap music's
most popular and controversial

stars.

Then he was gunned down
by an unknown assailant.

Who killed Tupac Shakur?

But first, Virginia Burns always
thought she was an only child.

Then she learned that her
father had gone to his grave

with a secret of an
ill fated romance

and a long lost daughter.

And the heartwarming
reunion of a young man

and the anonymous good
Samaritan who saved his life.

August 27th, 1995
began as a joyous day

for Steve and Sharon Newton
of Immokalee, Florida.

That morning, their first
child, Virginia, was born.

Steve had come to the
hospital straight from work.

At around 2:00 PM, he headed
home on his motorcycle

to pick up the family car.

He had no way of knowing
he was on a collision

course with disaster.

I just remember coming
straight down on my head.

As I hit, I saw poof,
this big bright light.

And that was it.

Then I was just completely out.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER):
For Steve Newton,

death was just a heartbeat away.

Then a gift from heaven.

Are you OK?

Can you hear me?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER):
A passing motorist

had turned Steve
over in the water

and saved him from drowning.

She remained at the
scene until Steve

was transported to a hospital.

Then she disappeared, and
Steve never learned her name.

If she could just
see my daughter,

she'll know that she did me
the greatest favor or gift

that anybody can give, and
that's to give me back my life.

And I'd like to say
"thank you" for that.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER):
With the help of our viewers,

Steve Newton recently had
a chance to do just that.

Here's Keely Shay
Smith with the details.

Bob, a woman in
Florida recognized

the story as one she had
heard from a coworker named

Tammy Dotson.

After the broadcast, Tammy's
boyfriend discussed the case

with one of his coworkers,
who happened to be

Steve Newton's father-in-law.

It soon became perfectly
clear that Steve's

mysterious good Samaritan
was in fact Tammy Dotson.

On January 31st,
1997, Steve and Tammy

met face to face
for the first time

since the near fatal accident.

As a special treat, Steve
brought along Virginia,

now 1 and 1/2 years old.

She's so cute.

Nobody has ever gone that
far to come to thank me.

And he kept saying
that I was his angel.

I've never been called
an angel before.

Far from it.

But it just--

I mean, it made me
feel good inside

to know that I've done something
that's helped somebody so much.

KEELY SHAYE SMITH (VOICEOVER):
Steve and his wife

Sharon, now expecting
their second child,

were finally able to express
their gratitude to the woman

who had saved Steve's life.

I owe her
everything, and there's

nothing that I have to give
to her to just say thank you.

Right through here it started.

KEELY SHAYE SMITH (VOICEOVER):
Before the day was out,

Tammy and Steve returned to the
scene of the accident, all too

aware that Tammy's
simple act of kindness

had changed both
of them forever.

It makes me want to do
more for other people now.

If someone's in trouble, I would
go that extra mile, that extra

just to help that person.

I just wanted to hug him.

I was so glad to
see that he was OK.

And the baby and
everything, I was

just thrilled that he was fine.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The
images are from another place

and another time.

The proud young father
cradles his newborn daughter,

her gentle smile captured
in dozens of photographs.

Virginia Burns of
Aurora, Colorado

always thought they
were pictures of her.

She learned the truth when
she was in her early 30s.

My father said, "oh
no, those aren't you."

And I asked my mother,
"well, who are they?"

And she says, "oh, that's
just a friend's baby."

Mom, how are you feeling?

ROBERT STACK
(VOICEOVER): Years would

pass before Virginia finally
learned the entire truth.

In 1991, a year after
Virginia's father

died, her mother confided that
he had been previously married.

Then she made an even
more startling revelation.

Honey, there's something
I have to tell you.

You have a sister.

What do you mean,
I have a sister?

You know the baby pictures
that you always thought

were you, and we told you
they were the daughter

of a friend of ours?

Well, she's your sister.

My mother admitted that she
didn't tell me to protect me.

She had no way of knowing
where my sister was.

And why tell me if there
was no way I could meet her?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Three
months later, Virginia's mother

also passed away.

With both of her
parents gone, Virginia

launched a search for the
sister she had never known.

I was looking
through the pictures,

and I found written
on the back of one

in my father's handwriting,
it said "Susan and I in Hugo."

And I had no idea where Hugo
was, so I asked my husband.

And he said, "well,
that's a little town

out on the eastern
plains of Colorado."

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER):
Hugo, Colorado

is where Virginia's father,
Joe Coram, lived in 1942.

He was a dishwasher and
bus boy in a small cafe.

That's where Joe met a
young woman named Diana.

Hey, I just wanted to know if
maybe Friday night you'd wanna

go to the picture show with me.

Oh, I'd love to, but I don't
think my mother will let me go.

OK, well, how about a walk?

Just for an hour?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER):
Diana's mother

Clara ran the cafe.

Diana, come here.

I don't like you
talking to that boy.

Mother, he's
perfectly nice person.

He could be a nice person,
but, honey, he's a drifter.

He just came in here--

Clara didn't approve of my
father because he was poor,

and he had no future.

He-- she didn't see where
he could really go anywhere.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER):
Despite Clara's objections,

a romance blossomed.

Joe and Diana decided
to get married.

A year later, Susan was born.

But the tensions between
Joe and his mother-in-law

apparently escalated,
and eventually

drove Joe and Diana apart.

Diana, please.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER):
In 1946, they divorced.

And Joe left town for good.

Come here, sweetie.

How's my little girl.

Daddy's gonna miss you.

Diana, I need you inside.

VIRGINIA BURNS
(VOICEOVER): I think

it was probably one of
the most heartbreaking

things he ever went through.

I'm sorry, Joe.

VIRGINIA BURNS (VOICEOVER):
To leave Susan and Diana.

I really don't think he would
have left unless there was just

horrendous pressure on him.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Joe
Coram apparently never saw

his wife or his daughter again.

After the separation, he
moved to Greeley, Colorado,

where he fell in love with
Virginia's mother, Dolly.

They eloped, and Virginia
was born a year later.

Joe was happy with
his new family,

but he apparently never
forgot the daughter

he had left behind.

Now looking back some
40 years, Virginia

understands the poignance
of one memorable incident

from her childhood.

It was Virginia's
sixth birthday.

For months, she
had coveted a doll

in the window of a local store.

VIRGINIA BURNS
(VOICEOVER): She was

just like an unreachable dream.

I opened that box, and
there was that doll.

And it was just
like time stopped.

I was so excited
to get that doll.

So what do you think
of your doll, sweetie?

I love her.

She's beautiful.

Well, what's her name?

I don't know.

What do you think
I should call her?

VIRGINIA BURNS (VOICEOVER):
He says, "why don't you

call her 'sweet Sue?'"

How about "sweet Sue?"

VIRGINIA BURNS (VOICEOVER): And
I did, not realizing that that

was the name of my sister.

Ginny, why don't you go
inside and play with your dolly?

OK.

Run inside.

Sweet Sue?

I know, I know.

It's OK.

You must really miss her.

Yeah.

Let's clean up.

I know he missed her.

A lot of times when I was
growing up, he would search

faces.

We would go out, and there be
a lot of little girls around,

and he would search faces.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER):
Virginia learned

that her father tried to find
Diana and Susan several times,

but was never successful.

He died in 1990, without
ever learning their fate.

Virginia now hopes to succeed
where her father failed,

and find the sister
whose memory lingers on

in the sweet innocence
of a young girl's doll.

This is important
to me for two reasons.

Number one, here
is a little girl

who has gone her whole life
without knowing that she had

a father who cared about her.

My sister does not
know that her father

cared about her, that
he looked for her,

that he wanted to find her.

She needs to know she has
a father who loved her.

And secondly, I have
a sister out there.

And I'm more than
ready to be a sister.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER):
When we return, for mainstream

science, it is too
incredible to believe,

but some researchers
are convinced

that spontaneous human
combustion is very, very real.

And later, last September
dozens of eyewitnesses

watched in horror
as rap music star

Tupac Shakur was gunned down
on a crowded Las Vegas strip.

Six months later, the
killer remains at large.

Good morning.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER):
Morning coffee at Kay and Mike

Fletcher's hardly ranked
as an unsolved mystery,

until the peculiar events
of February 11th, 1996.

It happened just after 9:00 AM.

- Mike?
- Kay.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER):
The Fletchers

say that smoke suddenly began
to billow from Kay's body.

Maybe it's got my sweater.

Take it off.

I had Michael take
a look at my back.

I said, "take a
look at my back."

Because I'm thinking, "do
I have blisters or what?"

And he says, "no,
it's just red."

We really were frantically
looking through the clothing.

You know, like arm
and back, and just

looking it over very carefully.

And we found absolutely
no discoloration.

We found no sight of
any kind of fire damage.

I mean, it was actually
coming off of her skin,

but there was no flame.

The smoke was so thick that
we did have to turn on the fan

and open the window, just to
get the smoke out of there.

Now, earlier in my life I
had worked at a crematory.

And the smell was
that of burnt flesh.

There was no mistake
of that, because it's

an unmistakable smell.

Mike?

Mike?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER):
For Kay and Mike Fletcher,

it was frighteningly
real, yet at the same time

almost impossible to believe.

Only later did they learn
that such mysterious episodes

have been reported for
well over 500 years.

Students of the
paranormal call it

spontaneous human
combustion, or SHC,

when a perfectly
normal person bursts

into flame without warning
and without apparent cause.

Mainstream scientists
dismiss such accounts.

Still, the reports
have persisted

since the 15th century, and
show no signs of letting

up now at the dawn of the 21st.

If there is indeed
such a thing as SHC,

Kay Fletcher is one of the few
who lived to tell about it.

Most of the others
weren't so lucky.

March 26th, 1986,
Kendall Mott was worried.

His father George,
a retired fireman,

had serious lung problems.

An air pump and facemask
helped keep him breathing.

But on that day, George hadn't
answered repeated phone calls.

A quick look around
convinced Kendall

that something was wrong.

KENDALL MOTT (VOICEOVER):
The windows were all brown.

And I noticed that
the door handle

was warm when I grabbed it.

Dad?

KENDALL MOTT (VOICEOVER): It
was real dark inside the house,

and it smelled like
it had been burnt.

Dad?

Dad?

ROBERT STACK
(VOICEOVER): Kendall was

confronted by a ghastly sight.

Fire had reduced his father
to a scattering of ashes,

a few splinters of bone,
and a fragment of skull.

It's scary to find somebody
like that, to walk in and find

somebody that you love all burnt
like that with no explanation

as to why or what happened.

The case of George Mott
in the spring of 1986

has all the hallmarks of classic
spontaneous human combustion.

There was incredible localized
damage done to the body.

George Mott was
incinerated to an extent

that we have been told by
forensic experts could only

be replicated
inside a crematorium

operating at 3,000
degrees Fahrenheit or more

for 12 long hours.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER):
The searing heat had melted

a television in the room.

Yet curiously it had left
much of the bedding unscathed.

In addition, scarcely two feet
away, a box of wooden matches

had failed to ignite,
and air was still pumping

through George's facemask.

Skeptics, however, insist
that behind the bizarre scene

lies a rational explanation.

Now, do I know
exactly what happened?

I don't, but let me
reconstruct a little bit.

We're told that Mr. Mott
was a former drinker

and a former smoker, but
that he had reformed.

He was supposed to be depressed.

Just suppose that he
said, "what the heck?

I think I'll have a cigarette."

This would explain him
taking off the oxygen mask

while the unit would
still be left running.

And it would explain why
the matches were there.

Now, if that's the
case, then this

is just another case
of smoking in bed,

and is not mysterious, and
is a rather mundane case.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER):
But not even skeptics

use the word mundane to
describe what Don Gosnell

found in December of 1966.

A gas company meter man in
Coudersport, Pennsylvania,

Gosnell called on
Irving Bentley,

a 92-year-old retired physician.

That day, Dr. Bentley was
apparently away from home.

Gosnell let himself
into the basement.

DDN GOSNELL (VOICEOVER): When, I
got to the bottom of the steps,

there Was a pile of
ashes on the floor.

And there was an odor, something
I had never encountered before.

It was kind of
sickening sweet odor.

And then I looked
up, and here there

was a hole through the
floor right above me.

And I stood there, and
I looked at that hole,

and there was little red
embers all around the hole yet.

And all I could think was, "they
got Dr. Bentley out of here,

but why didn't somebody
call the fire company

and get this taken care off?"

So I went run running upstairs
and went into the bathroom.

And that's when I found
the remains of Dr. Bentley,

or what was left.

All there was part of one leg.

And it was so discolored
I couldn't tell

it was a human
being or a mannequin

till I got right down
close and looked at it.

And when I got the
picture, I left right then.

What is so amazing
and so profoundly

perplexing to mainstream
science about the scene

that Dr. Bentley left behind
is the incredibly intense fire

that consumed his body
quite literally to powder,

leaving behind only his
head, a kneebone, and a lower

left leg as mute
testimony to what

had once been a human being.

The rest of his body was
ash in the basement below.

We believe that Dr. Bentley
answered a call of nature,

to be polite.

While standing in
front of the toilet,

suddenly, spontaneously,
he became a human fireball.

The nature of the fire,
and we kind of use fire

in quotes here, failed to
produce enough thermal energy

to melt the little
aluminum walker, failed

to produce enough
heat to blister paint

on the bathtub inches away.

And yet it was quite capable of
directing its energy downward,

through the oak beams,
through the flooring,

and into the subfloor
beneath into the basement.

The case of someone
like Dr. Bentley

is very understandable in the
sense of him being infirm.

He had a history of setting his
clothes on fire from his pipe.

His clothing was pockmarked
with burns from his pipe.

ROBERT STACK
(VOICEOVER): Dr. Bentley

also had a habit
of keeping matches

in his bathrobe pockets.

Joe Nickel believes that burning
ashes from Bentley's pipe

dropped near them
and they ignited.

And there was plenty of
fuel to feed the flames.

In many of the cases,
the person's own body fat

can contribute to the fire.

If we imagine Dr. Bentley
with his body on fire,

he falls to the floor, there
is linoleum on that floor.

And linoleum, once
it catches fire,

is a very powerful
flammable material.

The flooring burned.

The subflooring burned.

And beams, there's
beams underneath.

There's a tremendous amount
of wood underneath his body

to act as a funeral pyre.

Mysterious?

Not really, not
scientifically mysterious.

Unusual, yes.

The debunkers of
spontaneous combustion

could conduct a very
simple experiment.

Take a cadaver.

Put it on a tar-based
linoleum flooring,

put an aluminum walker
over the top of it,

and drop a cigarette on it.

If it burns to powder, we're
gonna be real impressed,

and that person deserves
a Nobel Prize in physics.

But I'll wager money that
experiment is gonna fail.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER):
Larry Arnold theorizes

that some cases of
spontaneous human combustion

may be an explosive aberration
of the electrical current flows

naturally present in the body.

We have the potential
of hundreds of thousands

of volts of electricity
coursing through the body

instantaneously.

If the amperage is
sufficiently high,

then the body would literally
become its own electrocution

mechanism.

It would fry itself out from
the inside electrically.

This is crackpottery
of a very high order.

There is not a single
reasonable theory

for spontaneous
human combustion.

There is no convincing
scientific evidence of it.

So the mystery mongers ought
to shut up and get a life.

ROBERT STACK
(VOICEOVER): Larry Arnold

is unfazed by such criticism.

He claims to have
researched over 400 cases

of spontaneous human combustion,
some dating back to the 1400s,

and many documented
by photographs.

The naysayers, the PhDs who
are phenomena-hating debunkers,

choose not to face the facts.

This is a mystery that's
crying out for study, that's

crying out for recognition.

This is a mystery that
is to this day unsolved.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Next,
the poetic music of rap star

Tupac Shakur
glorified gang culture

and seemed to predict
his own violent demise.

Now the investigation
into Shakur's murder

has become a tangle of
chilling speculation

and conflicting theories.

Tupac Shakur, one
of rap music's most

popular and enigmatic artists.

His autobiographical
songs reflected

a dark, treacherous world
he knew all too well.

Alternately
described as a street

thug and a charismatic
poet, Tupac

won the duration of millions.

By the age of 25, he had
cut four platinum albums

and starred in
five feature films.

I thought he was
a brilliant man.

I thought he had a lot of
vision, a lot of foresight.

He made-- he was very creative.

He was an artist.

And at the same time,
he was a revolutionist.

He was a great person.
He was extremely charismatic.

He was very intelligent, very
business smart, very funny,

very warm, intelligent, caring.

That was the Tupac that I knew.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER):
Despite his success,

Tupac could never resist
the lure of the streets.

Between 1991 and 1995, he
was arrested eight times.

In 1994, he was shot
five times and left

for dead in the lobby of a New
York City recording studio.

In 1995, he served eight
months in prison for rape.

Within a year of his release,
Tupac's explosive past

finally caught up with him.

He was cut down in
a hail of gunfire

just off the Las Vegas strip.

His killer is still
unidentified, still at large.

According to those
who knew him best,

Tupac Shakur never expected
to reach his 25th birthday.

He was wrong, but
only by three months.

Shakur's untimely death has
raised a host of questions

and given rise to three distinct
theories about his murder,

a murder that occurred
as Tupac Shakur

relaxed with
friends in America's

playground, Las Vegas, Nevada.

It was September 7th, 1996.

Las Vegas was operating
at full capacity.

Thousands had gathered for
the heavyweight boxing match

between Mike Tyson
and Bruce Seldon,

held at the world
famous MGM Grand Hotel.

Tupac Shakur was one
of the many celebrities

who attended the fight.

He was accompanied
by Marion Suge

Knight, CEO of
Death Row Records,

Shakur's recording company.

This photograph
of Tupac and Suge

was taken after the
fight at around 10:55 PM.

They were headed
for Sugee's dance

club, followed by an entourage
of musicians and bodyguards.

CATHY SCOTT (VOICEOVER):
Tupac normally

was known to pack a weapon,
as was Suge and many people

in the entourage.

They weren't armed
that night, and

everybody said they felt safe.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER):
Reporter Cathy Scott is writing

a book about the murder.

So it was a very festive mood.

Obviously, they were
playing their music loud.

So they were in a partying mood.

They were flirting with women.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER):
At 11:10, Tupac and Suge

pulled up to an
intersection and spoke

with two unidentified women.

Is there a party somewhere?

You know that, always a party.

The two were looking at the
girls and talking to them.

That's what the witnesses
have told police.

And that's when a white Cadillac
drove up on the passenger side

next to Tupac and opened fire.

[gunshots]

Tupac tried to climb into the
back seat, and didn't make it.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER):
As the attackers sped away,

Suge Knight took off in
the opposite direction.

He finally stopped in front
of a casino one mile away.

Tupac Shakur was in critical
condition, shot in the chest,

in the hip, and in the hand.

Suge Knight had escaped
with a slight bullet

graze in the temple.

Despite the presence
of thousands

of potential witnesses,
police say only one person

offered a glimmer of hope.

I was in the car behind 'em.

Car behind 'em?

The Yafeu Fula, one of
Tupac's backup singers,

was riding in the car directly
behind Suge and Tupac.

I was [inaudible] backseat.

Next thing you know,
[inaudible] shot him.

All right, relax.

He told police that night
that he could do a photo lineup,

pick out the gunman
from a photo lineup.

Police interviewed him briefly.

Apparently, not extensively.

Took his number, and
he went on his way.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER):
For six long days,

fans gathered outside
the Las Vegas hospital

where Tupac clung to life.

It was a losing battle.

On the afternoon of
September 13th, 1996,

Tupac Shakur took his
last breath and died.

Initially, conventional
wisdom had it

that Tupac fell victim
to a spontaneous burst

of gang violence.

Supporting that scenario
was this videotape, recorded

by a security camera
at the MGM Grand,

just three hours
before the shooting.

Members of Tupac's entourage
can be seen in the lobby

engaged in a brutal scuffle.

Both Suge Knight and
Tupac were present.

Moments later, Tupac
followed by Suge

can be seen hurrying
through the casino.

The target of the assault was
22-year-old Orlando Anderson,

an alleged member of
a Los Angeles street

gang, the South Side Crips.

It has long been
rumored that Suge

Knight is affiliated with a
rival gang, the Compton Bloods.

Was this confrontation the spark
that led to Tupac's murder?

Any time someone as popular
as Tupac Shakur can be killed

in front of thousands of
people after one of the biggest

events in the world in one of
the most popular cities, Las

Vegas, in the world, then
there's something more to it

than just some random
shooting by some idiot

who decided to pick up a gun
and point at Tupac Shakur.

It has to be some
organization or some movement

behind that killing.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Some
say this music video by Tupac

offers a clue to
a second scenario.

In the months
preceding his death,

Tupac was at the
center of a heated

dispute between East Coast and
West Coast rap music factions.

There was a rivalry that
started between Tupac Shakur.

And artist Biggie Smalls and
Puffy Combs, who is the CEO

of Bad Boy Entertainment.

That rivalry
between them existed

because when Tupac was
shot at Quad Studios

he felt not that Big
and Puffy set him up,

but that they knew that it was
coming and didn't warn him.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER):
In a dramatized portion

of the video, Tupac
publicly blamed Puffy Combs

and Biggie Smalls for the attack
that nearly killed him in 1994.

Please don't kil me.

It was Buff's idea.

I'm just a rapper, man!

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER):
No one has ever

been arrested in that shooting.

I ain't gonna kill you.

We was homeboys once, Pig.

Once we homeboys,
we always Homeboys.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER):
Just weeks before his death,

Tupac appeared on radio
station KMEL in San Francisco,

and candidly
discussed his feelings

towards his East Coast rivals.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Just
last weekend, Biggie Smalls,

AKA Notorious BIG,
was himself gunned

down shortly after leaving
a party in Los Angeles.

At this time, there is no
known connection between

his murder and Shakur's.

In addition, there is no proof
that the East Coast West Coast

rivalry had anything
to do with two Park's

death, leading to
intense speculation

about a third possibility.

Perhaps the murder was an inside
job orchestrated by someone

close to Tupac Shakur.

This scenario is populated
by unanswered questions.

In the midst of the
jam-packed Vegas strip,

how do the gunmen know
where Tupac would be?

Why did he seem to
target only Tupac?

Why weren't Tupac's s
bodyguards armed at the time

of the shooting,
when they had been

armed earlier in the evening?

And why were the strips
swarming with people,

including the two
unidentified women just

a few feet from the shooting?

Was no one apparently willing
to cooperate with police?

[gunshots]

What I was told by
one homicide detective

was that everybody went
deaf, dumb, and blind.

They were surprised
because they said these

are professional bodyguards.

They're paid to guard Tupac.

He hired them for this purpose,
yet they didn't see anything.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER):
The only person

who reportedly did see
something, Yafeu Fula,

never had the opportunity
to view a photo lineup

of possible suspects.

Within a week of the shoot,
he returned to his home

in New Jersey.

Two months later, Fula was
gunned down in the stairwell

of a housing project.

A random act of violence
or a premeditated murder

to keep Fula from talking
to the authorities?

He was their best bet.

He was right behind the
car when it happened,

and he said he could identify--

he believed he could
identify the gunmen.

And now Fula's dead, and
they don't have that anymore.

Authorities have
always maintained

that Fula was the only
eyewitness willing to talk.

However, just two weeks
ago, two other members

of Tupac's entourage
claimed they

told police from the
beginning that they had

a clear view of the shooter.

They say police never asked
them to view a photo lineup.

The police say the men initially
denied seeing the shooter,

but have now
re-interviewed them.

Ironically, in one of
Tupac's final videos,

he seemed to foretell
his own violent demise.

[gunshots]

Cut down in a hail of gunfire
by a shadowy unknown assassin.

I don't know if we'll ever
know who killed Tupac Shakur,

but I do know that there's
millions of people that

are devastated by his loss.

There was a lot of things
people might consider bad

about Tupac, but there was a
lot of good things about Tupac,

amd we had yet to see
all the good things

that I believe could have
come out of Tupac Shakur.

Join me next time for
more "Unsolved Mysteries."

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