S1 x E6 Celebrity deaths complete

This is a True Crime and Conspiracy podcast discussing untimely celebrity deaths. They cover John Lennon's life, his role in The Beatles, and his use of drugs like LSD and heroin. They also discuss his controversial statement about being more popular than Jesus, which caused backlash in the US. Lennon's relationship with Yoko Ono and his temporary relationship with May Pang are also mentioned. The podcast mentions a moment when Lennon and Pang saw a UFO while naked on their terrace. Welcome to Serials and Schemes. I'm Sam. Hello, I'm Sandy. This is a True Crime and Conspiracy podcast. Our podcast is intended for mature audiences. Listener discretion is advised. Welcome back to Serials and Schemes. I'm Sam. Hello, I'm Sandy. Today we're going to do a little bit of a different feel. There are some untimely celebrity deaths that are still relevant in conversation today. A lot of people know about them but don't know the ins and outs. They know that it happened and that's basically it. So we just thought we would cover some of those. We've got a couple of cases for you guys. I'll start off with who we know as John Lennon. Then we're going to move on to a couple of different cases. John Winston Ono Lennon. Born John Winston Lennon on the 9th of October 1940 in Liverpool, England to Alfred Lennon and Julia Stanley. Famously known for his role in the band The Beatles. In 1956, aged 15, John Lennon started the band The Quarrymen, which later evolved into The Beatles in 1960. That's pretty epic. Aged 15 and he basically created The Beatles. The band was introduced to the drug prelude in Hamburg in the early 60s. They regularly took it on the long and overnight performances. I don't know if you've seen anything about Johnny Cash and all that sort of stuff. When they were Elvis, Johnny Cash, all of them, they were all taking a certain drug. Lennon married Cynthia Powell in 1962 and had his first son, Julian Lennon, with her in 1964. Their marriage lasted six years and they were then divorced in 1968. In 1965, Lennon started putting on weight and he called it his Fat Elvis period. When did Elvis die? I was just thinking, they were all alive at the same time, so how does he remember Fat Elvis? We know Fat Elvis, but he was around at the same time. In 1965, he was introduced, along with Harrison from the band, to LSD when a dentist spiked their coffee with it at a dinner party. They recall being in a lift at a nightclub later that night believing that it was on fire. We can go down the LSD route, but also, a dentist spiked their coffee, so they went to leave. They were like, cool, yeah, thanks for dinner, catch you later. The dentist was like, oh, nah, you better not go. This is what's just happened is what I did. There were other times where I think doctors were able to prescribe and get their hands on LSD. For what purpose? Depression, I think. We missed it. You may have. No, but we missed the medical area. You know what will help? You feeling sad? LSD. Then you won't even know that you're here. This is a different case entirely, but there was a woman who got doctors back in a similar time in Australia. She got them to spike patients, like dose them with their mouth, so they would come in to be treated with LSD. Then we'd get dosed. Then she would appear with dry eyes and be like, I'm the nuclear fire. You are my child. You must believe me. People bought it. She built the whole cult based on acetylcholine. Oh, my gosh. I don't remember something about that. I think there's a Netflix thing on it. Was he called the mother or something? I'm a psycho. Yeah, I mean, most of our cases we say that because there's a lot of psychos in the world. There's a lot of psychos. Look into that one. Yeah. The quote from John Lennon in 1966 in an interview with Maureen Cleave was, Christianity will go. It'll vanish and shrink. We are more popular than Jesus now. I don't know which will go first, Christianity or rock and roll. Dude. It's a bold claim. It's a bold claim. We're more popular than Jesus. Oh, that's sad. It's funny. The UK didn't even notice the quote. It just moved on with their life. They were like, okay. But in USA, it caused some controversy because it was like, the interview happened, and no one kind of took notice of it. But then a couple of months later, it was printed and made into Rolling Stones or something. Yeah. And so then USA read it, and they were like, the fuck is this? Can you imagine when you're all in the South? How dare he come after Jesus? Right, exactly. And they started burning Beatles records, and KKK activity was a huge thing. It started up again. So that was a deciding factor in the band to stop touring. Talking would probably have been a smarter move, because that was where the issue lay, not the touring. But okay, all right. You need a manager, Ava. Yeah. Yeah. So Lennon did a film and then more recording that had increased his use of LSD at this point, and according to Ian McDonald, brought him closer to erasing his identity. Between 1968 and 1969, Lennon and Yoko Ono recorded three albums together of experimental music and then formed the Plastic Ono Band. Plastic Ono Band. Lennon then married Yoko Ono in 1969, and then they used their honeymoon to protest against the Vietnam War with what famously became known as the Bed-In. We all know the Bed-In. Well, we know of it. Yes. Do you know anything? Do you know of it much? I don't think I know. I honestly can't understand how they protested against the Vietnam War by just staying in bed. Like, cool, yeah. Go off. They're like, do I afford the Bed-In? Yeah. They just stayed in bed for like, I don't know, three days or a week or whatever, so they just didn't leave their bed at all. That's like what everyone does on their honeymoon. That's what the honeymoon is for. We are making love for three days in the interest of making love happen in Vietnam. We just want the Vietnam War to stop, and we know what's going to work. We should fuck. Maybe they abstained. Maybe that was the whole thing. We're going to stay in bed naked next to each other. We've just got married. We really love each other, but we're not going to fuck. That's the real process. The war is like, fuck, stop. Everyone's like, John, let him stop getting laid. It's a big problem. Send our best men on the job, please. Between 1969 and 1970, Lennon recorded a couple of singles, one being the single Cold Turkey, which documented his withdrawal symptoms after he got addicted to heroin. Man's just moving his way through. That was such a joint heroin loss. People didn't realize how bad it was. I thought they would just have a beer in a minute and just go off. All I'm asking is for them to put the cocaine back in the Coke. That's all I've asked. Put the cocaine back in the Coke bottle and stop touching shit. Don't think the thought broke it. Yeah, that's all I'm saying. Lennon left the Beatles in September 1969, but agreed to not announce his departure while the band renegotiated contracts. Paul McCartney announced his own departure in April 1970, with a solo record. So, pissed Lennon off. Lennon's like, I'll do the right thing. Won't say anything. I'll just quietly, I'm out, but you guys just sort yourselves out and then, you know, we'll... Paul McCartney's like, I'm better. I'm going to record a whole album and be like, guys, I'm leaving the band. So John was pissed. He was like, no, I started the band and I broke up the band. Everyone's like, well, actually, I think it was Paul, actually. No, it was me. I left earlier. Did he? I don't know. Very like, I'm king of the castle, how dare you? Yeah. No, no, no. I broke up the band. Weird flex, but okay. It's very like, I brought you into this world. I'm your big fan. Exactly, exactly. So that's 1969, 1970. They just sort of work on their own shit. 1973, Yoko Ono approached May Pang. She was a PA and production coordinator who was working on the recording of Lennon's Mind Games album. Ono told Pang that her and Lennon were having marital problems and were growing apart, but that he needed a companion and suggested Pang should be that person. Initially, Pang refused, saying he was married. No shit. It's his wife that's talking to you. And he was her boss. But eventually he started a relationship, which would last 18 months and what Lennon would refer to as his lost weekend. He had lots of names for all the shit he was going through. Bad Elvis, lost weekend, mate, take some responsibility. I feel like she's very like, everything is a metaphor. Yeah. It's all character development. But if you listen to their songs, that is, yeah. Lennon recorded during this time with a number of artists and reconciled with his son Julian and with Paul McCartney. May set that up, or Pang set that up, and had him reconciling with them. And then in 1974, while at their home in New York City, Lennon and Pang climbed out their kitchen window, both naked. The only way to get out onto their front terrace was to go through their kitchen window. So they were, I don't know, I guess walking around naked, and then climbing out their kitchen window, stood on their terrace watching a UFO fly over Manhattan. So that was 23rd of August, 1974, at 9pm. And three other people reported that they saw a UFO going over Manhattan. Were they chipping balls? I mean, like, if it was only three other people, yeah, maybe. Yeah. I don't know. But there's that famous photo of, it's like a naked photo of John and Yahoo on a terrace. It's not May, Pang, but it's Yahoo on a terrace. But I wonder if it's based on that. Yeah. He sings about it in a song, Nobody Told Me, like that photo. But yeah, I don't know, sorry, he sings about the UFO in that song, Nobody Told Me. But I wonder if they sort of were like, oh my God, that was like a famous sort of thing. There's no photo of him and Pang, because they just jumped out and were watching this thing. Yeah. But I wonder if that's what they sort of redid as a resonance. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. In 1975, Yoko Ono contacted Lennon to say she had a resolve for his smoking habit. Pang didn't hear from him and called him the next day. Ono told Pang that Lennon was exhausted from his hypnotherapy session, so he was unavailable. And when Lennon saw Pang two days later, I think at the dentist, he said he had reconciled with Ono and that his and Pang's relationship was over. So 18 months of, yeah, but, I mean, as she said, he was married. So she went into that. She knew them on a personal level. She knew that they were married and what have you, but okay, choices. I think they did see each other a few times through the years, him and my Pang. But the relationship was over. And Pang recalls Lennon being stupefied and confused to an extent that she believed he had been brainwashed and hypnotized. Yeah. Ever known what was being said in that way? Yeah. Yoko Ono and John Lennon remained married the whole time. And when they got back together, they had Lennon's second son, Sean. They remained together until the fateful day of 8th of December, 1980. At approximately 5pm on December 8th, 1980, after Ono and Lennon left their apartment in Dakota, John Lennon signed an outstretched copy of Double Fantasy for an obsessed fan named Mark David Chapman. An amateur photographer by the name of Paul Gorish took a photo as Lennon signed the album. This was the last photo ever taken of Lennon. Around 10.50pm that same evening, Lennon said to Ono that he wanted to go home and say goodnight to their son, Sean, before going out to dinner. I've got two questions. It's 10.50pm. It's almost 11pm. It's almost 11pm. Why is their kid awake for them to say goodnight to him? And what's open for dinner at that time of the night? I mean, it's New York. So, everything. But also, I think at that time, it was more like Lucy Goose. Like, everything was Lucy Goose. Yeah. 1980, though. Like, it's getting to, like... It was, like, hippie vibes, though. Everyone was doing drugs and, you know, like... And it was New York. And it was New York. Everyone's up. So, they arrived to Dakota, got out of their limo and started walking to their apartment. Now, there's speculation about whether Lennon's name was called or not, but nevertheless, the next thing to happen was that a fan from earlier in the evening, Chapman, fired five hollow-point bullets from a .38 special revolver. Four of these bullets fired, hit Lennon in the back and shoulder. Chapman stayed at the scene and waited for emergency services while reading The Catcher in the Rye. What? It was obviously cocktail. I'll get there, because it all makes sense. So, he's reading The Catcher in the Rye when NYPD arrived and arrested him. He didn't resist. He's like, yeah, that's me. Lennon was hurt so bad that they decided not to wait for an ambulance and rushed him to Roosevelt Hospital in the squad car. Lennon was pronounced dead on arrival. Mark David Chapman, born in Fort Worth, Texas, and was 25 at the time of the murder, is now incarcerated at Greenhaven Correctional Facility and is 69 years old. He was angry that Lennon, from his song Imagine, would tell people to imagine no possessions, but there he was with millions of dollars and yachts and farms and estates, laughing at people who believed the lies and bought the records. Chapman attributes his actions to, and I quote, as per the book Let Me Take You Down, inside the mind of Mark David Chapman, this is a long book name. I'm going to start it again. The book is called Let Me Take You Down, inside the mind of Mark David Chapman, the man who killed John Lennon by Jack Jones. This is so long. Yeah. So, quote, I would listen to this music and I would get angry at him for saying in the song God that he didn't believe in God, that he just believed in him and Yoko, and that he didn't believe in the Beatles. This was another thing that angered me. Even though this record had been done at least 10 years previously, I just wanted to scream out loud, who does he think he is saying these things about God and heaven and the Beatles, saying that he doesn't believe in Jesus and things like that. At that point, my mind was going through a total blackness of anger and rage, so I brought the Lennon book poem into this, the catcher in the rye milieu, where my mindset is Holden Caulfield and anti-phonyness. Like, what a crazed fan. Because obviously he loves the Beatles, so he's pissed that John Lennon speaks about the Beatles. Like, how dare he speak about the Beatles. But then he's from Texas. He loves God. It's like, fair enough, all good. But, yeah, he's pissed. So, he... Because he knew about... Sorry, he had read that thing in the... They Are More Popular Than Jesus. That's what pissed him off to begin with. I mean, if you're a hardcore religious person, that would upset you. Yeah, but... Well, actually, instead of killing someone, that's what I mean, but, I mean, maybe in a more radical time like that where there was probably lots of protesting and, yeah, you know. Yeah. So, he... So, this happened on... What was the date? I can't say it. 8th of December, 1980. On the 9th of December, 1980, John Lennon and Yoko Ono were supposed to be going to David Bowie's concert and they were in the first... They booked tickets in the first row. David... Mark David Chapman also had a ticket to that concert in the front row. He... David Bowie was next on his list. Yeah. So, when David Bowie sang that night, there was three empty seats and it was because Mark had killed John. Like, hold on, shall we? Like, yeah. But, yeah, so David Bowie was next. There was a few others that had pissed him off in the years and he had a list and he basically said also that he wouldn't have killed John Lennon that night had... I'm going to say the amateur photographer, he wanted him to hang out with him that night and the show was like, nah. And he's like, if he had hung out with me, wouldn't have killed him. Okay, bro. Take a little bit of responsibility for what you've done. I don't think it's the photographer's fault. Wow. Yeah. Also, like, in this day and age, you would just get cancelled. Yeah. Like, it's this way smaller chance that someone's going to be like, oh, you kissed me about Jesus and come to your house and I'm going to shoot you dead. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. But, yeah. So, I mean, yeah. He was always going to do something. He was always going to do it. Yeah. It was his plan. But, yeah, John Lennon was really young as well. In the early 40s. Yeah. That's great. He did a lot in his life. I mean, he started early. Yeah. 15. Yeah. But then got it all sort of, got it all rounded up and out. So, I mean, Elvis was, I don't know how young Elvis was, but he also died in his late 40s. They're all, like, when he started. Yeah. Statham. 1977. That's when he died? Mm. Okay, well, so they were around at the same time because John Lennon died in 1980. So, they were... How do you know what to say Elvis thing? Yeah, I don't know. Well, I mean, he knew because Elvis... Was he already fat at that time? What do you think? Oh, I don't know. Maybe he was. Well, he must have been. Maybe, yeah. Well, that makes sense. Unless he prophesied that Elvis was just... No, because Elvis died before John Lennon. But only by, what, three or four years? Three years, yeah. But, like, it was... It was early 1970s that he said he was in the state Elvis era, so... So, yeah, seven years before Elvis passed away, but maybe that's when he started putting it on. Yeah, but basically, I just rounded it up. I just wanted to do, like, a quick overview of John Lennon. Yeah. How he died. This one is going to be... Some people know about her, but it was a while ago, and she only had really... She was only 10, so it was early years, and once I explain it, you'll be like, oh, you know. I remember when I found out that it had happened, I was like, oh, my God. I'm not going to lie. I cried a bit when I... They came across the tape on TikTok. Yeah. I cried a little. Our next case, or my next case, is of Judith Barsi. She kind of... I guess because she was so young when she did her parts, everyone's kind of forgotten about her, maybe. I guess. Yeah. But it happened a long time ago. She was part of my childhood, but then even my own kids have watched movies with her in it and stuff. So, yeah, so without further ado, Judith Barsi, born Judith Ava Barsi on the 6th of June, 1978, in Los Angeles County, California, to Joseph Istvan Barsi and Maria Barsi. Both of Judith's parents were immigrants to the United States who fled the Hungarian People's Republic in the 1956 uprising, according to Wikipedia. They met at a restaurant in California where Maria was working as a waitress. So they didn't come over here together, but they both came from the same place and then met while they were here. Judith Barsi was an American child actress. She began her career in television as well as starring in the movie Jaws The Revenge. Judith's mum, Maria, started preparing her daughter to become an actress when Judith was just five. She went on to appear in more than 70 commercials and guest roles on TV. I remember her as the voice to Ducky in The Land Before Time and the voice of Anne-Marie in All Dogs Go to Heaven, two of my favourite childhood movies. Judith was earning around $100,000 a year by the time she was nine or ten, which is equivalent to about $260,000 now. She was so short for her age, being about 112 centimetres, that she was receiving hormone injections at UCLA to encourage her growth. Hormone injections? To help her grow? I mean, it was apparently pretty normal at that time. What a crazy concept. Maybe it was a big horror if people had done that to us. It was our growth hormones. Yeah. But just such a weird concept that you go and inject hormones into this little girl. As glamorous and successful as Judith was, though, her life at home was anything but. Judith's dad, Joseph, a plumber by trade, was an alcoholic with a temper. He repeatedly threatened to kill himself, his wife and his daughter, and was arrested three times for drunk driving. Before Judith left to film for Jaws The Revenge in the Bahamas, Joseph reportedly held a knife to Judith's neck and said, if you decide not to come back, I'll cut your throat, per the LA Times. In December 1986, Maria, Judith's mum, reported Joseph's threats and physical violence to police, but the police found no physical signs of abuse, so she decided against pressing charges. Wait, what? Like... What the hell? Oh, there's no physical signs of abuse. Wait. This lady is telling you that he's abusive. 80s and 90s, though, they were a different time. It's just so, like, so sad. Could you tell me a couple of cases now? It's just... In that time, it was... Be quiet about it. No-one needs to know about your dirty laundry. Keep it behind your door. Like... Yeah. Yeah. As Judith became more famous and her career was really taking off and successful, Joseph's abusive behaviour became even more prevalent, and Judith told a friend that her father had thrown pots and pans at her and caused a nosebleed. Judith began showing signs of distress, gaining weight, plucking out her eyelashes and even pulling out her cat's whiskers. In May 1988, Judith was taken by her mother to a child psychologist who found severe physical and emotional abuse, and she reported that to CPS. CPS decided not to make moves in their investigation as Maria assured them that she intended to start divorce proceedings and had rented an apartment in Panorama City, which she was currently using as a daytime haven from her husband, but planned to move herself and Judith into it. But she didn't. She hesitated. She was scared. She feared losing her home and her belongings. Because actually, Judith Basi's money had bought that home. Maria told her friend and neighbour Eunice Daly that she had worked too hard helping Judith's acting career to give it all up. Daly also reports Maria saying that Joseph would come after her and Judith and kill them and that he had already threatened to burn the house down. This is the thing with abuse. Like, it doesn't start with hitting somebody. No. They break you down right to the bones of your ass, and then that happens. And they tell you that what they give you is the best that you've got. Yeah. I love it. It's... yeah. I read somewhere that Judith's dad grew, like, really resentful. Because, like, she was the breadwinner. She was. He's an alcoholic doing absolutely nothing. Judith was the one bringing in the money. She was the only one doing it. Yeah. I mean, earning $100,000 a year back in those days. $250,000. None of us are making that even now. So... Yeah. He must have, like, felt like a waste of space and masturbated off on shit as well, you know? And, okay. Okay. So then pull her out and don't let her work then. But it's also just so ridiculous. Like, most people are paying to be happy for their kids, man. Yeah. It wasn't like, fuck, you get to just sit at home and be an alcoholic. Shut the fuck up. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I look at, like, you know, we've got kids and stuff. I'm always just so proud of them. I don't want them to do less than me. I want them to be better than me. I want them to earn more and be successful and stuff. You know you want more for your kids than what you've got. And he literally ran away from his country. You know, like, you're giving her... You should have been giving her this good life. And she's working, and what is her... I don't know. I just don't get it. So, on Wednesday, the 27th of July, 1988, at 8.30 a.m., Eunice Daly, the Barsi family's neighbor, reported that she heard a bang from the Barsi household next door and then saw smoke rising from the house. She has also said that she remembers thinking, as she ran into the house to call 911, that he's done it. He's killed them and set a fire in the house, just like he said he would. Joseph Barsi had indeed followed through with his threats. Joseph had shot his wife, Maria, in the hallway of their home and had shot Judith in the head while she was sleeping in her bed. There's... Obviously, no one knows when it happened, or, like, you know, what order, but what people think is that he went in and shot Judith, and then Maria came running to see what was happening, and then he shot her in the hallway. He then doused their bodies and home with gasoline, set the house on fire, and then took his own life in the garage. Judith's fucking... Fucking salad. I know. Yeah. Fucking salad. Like, just... Not that, you know, any death is great, but... If you're going to kill yourself anyway, why don't you just do that? See yourself. Just, you know, have a go and sort yourself out, and these ladies, you know, yeah. Judith's funeral was held on the 9th of August, 1988, and was only attended by 75 people, most of those being children. I don't think that's in response to who she was or anything, more so that they just kept it small. I mean, her parents are both gone, she's gone, so I don't even know who would have organised it, but, yeah, most of the people attending were children. And she was buried with her mum in an unmarked grave in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles. Judith Barsey didn't get to see the last movies that she had voice-recorded for. Both of these movies, The Land Before Time and All Dogs Go to Heaven, were released after her death. I miss you. Yeah, I miss you too, sweetheart. And I need you to sleep. Charlie, will I ever see you again? Sure, sure you will. You know, goodbye is hard to come by. Ben, goodbye, Charlie. I love you. I love you too. The voice actor for Charlie from All Dogs Go to Heaven that we just heard, he had to do over 60 takes in that scene because she had already gone. And there's that last part where he's like, he says, I'm sorry, as he goes back up into the clouds, and it's like I feel like those were from the heart, not necessarily from the script, but actually him going like, I'm sorry I didn't see it, I'm sorry I couldn't help you. Yes. That was the sorrowful story of Judas Basi. So fucking sad, man. Just unnecessary, actually. Just think if they both show those, or like, men, men to husband, I don't know, like even family support for men needs to be more of a priority perhaps, I don't know. Also, it'd be great if men just weren't losers. Like, why are they? I just think the more we uncover these cases and study them and stuff, and it's just like, I'm not saying women are innocent here, like, you know, they aren't. Women do kill, women do horrible shit too. But the statistic of men doing this to women and girls is astronomical. Yes. Yes. Going through their heads would be, you just might understand, not that there's any good reason or good excuse, but we can't protect ourselves properly without knowing the why. And I honestly think there's a reason why, like, and this is just my personal opinion, but I think the reason why women seem to be more like true crime consumers is I think that a lot of the time we can't actually make sense of this stuff, so we have all this morbid curiosity around it. It feels surreal to us as well, I think. Yeah. The ones of us that haven't had to go through the extremes. But I think we listen because we're trying to make sure we're as safe as we can be. Yeah. Yeah. It's fuzzy because I think, like, guys, not all of them, but especially kids, like, they can look at stuff like this and go, yep, bad shit happens in the world. Yeah. But we're like, but no, but why? Yeah. Why does bad shit happen? And how do we make it stop? I didn't understand the motive. Yeah. Like, why? Yeah. Why does anyone do these things? Yeah. So the untimely celebrity guest that I'll be uncovering is Mr. Tupac Shakur. I know most people know who he is, slash was, but I would still love to briefly go over who he was, especially because you don't know a lot about Tupac, eh? No. Perfect. So, yeah, we'll go over where he came from and what ultimately led to his untimely death. Sweet. The West Coast rapper, born by the name of Tupac Amaro Shakur, entered the world on June 16th of 1971. His name was inspired by Peruvian revolutionary Tupac Amaro II, who led an indigenous revolt against Spain. He was born in East Harlem of Manhattan, New York, to parents Afeni Shakur and Billy Garland. Both parents were political activists and members of the Black Panther Party. Tupac was raised by his mother, and his father, Billy, was not an Afeni's wife at the time and had no contact with his son until about 20 years later. Oh, so he's got his mum's surname. Yeah. At a young age, Tupac knew he wanted to be a performer, his ambition taking him to perform at the famous Apollo Theatre at only 12 years old, after joining the 107th Ensemble in Hull. Jesus. Yeah. At like 12 years old. He landed the role of Travis in a play called A Raisin in the Sun. Later in life, in an interview, he would actually state that that was when he caught the acting bug after performing on stage. Yeah. Excuse me. According to Timetwist.com, three years later, in 1986, Tupac and his family would move to Maryland, where he would enroll at the Baltimore School of Performing Arts at the end of his second year in high school. This is where he would meet his lifelong friend, at the time she was Jada Pinkett, who would later become a famous actress known as Jada Pinkett Smith. Tupac studied acting, jazz, ballet, and then poetry. And this would also be where he began writing rap songs and rapped under the name MC New York. Huh. Didn't know that. Yeah, neither did I, to be honest. In 1988, Tupac moved out of his mother's house as their relationship became tumultuous. As she succumbed to drug use, and with nowhere to go, he fell into a bad company. He started selling drugs and staying with gang members and thugs. But his love for hip-hop music would steer him away from the criminal life that he began to fall into. At 17 years old, in 1989, he began attending poetry classes hosted by Layla Steinberg, who would later become his manager. Layla soon got Tupac signed by the rap group Digital Underground as their backup dancer, roadie, and occasionally a rapper. He would debut under the name Tupac, that is the number two. Yep. Yep. I was like, how am I gonna... I was like... Um... Yeah, so he debuted under the name Tupac with the rap group, and soon he began getting noticed. Um... First off, the tales of excitement from having one of his... I'm sorry, his first record airing on MTV as a music video. October 17th of 1991, Tupac was accused... Sorry, Tupac accused the Oakland Police Department of brutally beating him for jaywalking, stating that the officers Alex Boyovich and Kevin Rogers asked for his ID and pressed him about his name before choking him, throwing him to the ground, and slamming his head on the concrete. Tupac ended up filing a civil suit of $10 million against the Oakland Police Department, and the case ended up settling for $43,000. Cheaper. Which is obviously a huge discrepancy. It is. It's also, back then, it's not just $43,000. No. Like, it was a fair amount of money. It was a fair amount of money. And also, you're suing the police. Yeah. Like... Um... It was later revealed that the incident was actually the onset of the autoimmune disease, um, alopecia, leading Tupac to shave his head. Um... Sorry, the incident with the police is what started it? Well, I think maybe the head injury. Oh, okay. Or even the stress, because obviously any of those things can bring on. Yeah. Yeah. Um... And obviously, at this time, like, it was very, very tumultuous energy. The environment was very, like, racist. Um... Yeah. Racism was every single thing. Police brutality... It's still pretty bright. It was just different then. Yeah. Like, the black people weren't actually protected as much as they are these days, by the law. Yeah. It was locked over. Yeah. It was almost, like, swept under the rug. Yeah. The energy was very much like the people versus law enforcement. Yeah. On November 12th of 1991, um, Tupac debuted his first album titled Tupacalypse Now. The album was politically themed, outlining the systemic issues surrounding racism, police brutality, and teenage pregnancy. Prominent rappers at the time, like Eminem, Nas, and The Game cited this album as an inspiration. Which, um... What year was that, like? 1991. Okay. Yeah. Like, it's got the... When I studied the timelines for this, I was like, wow. Like, it's quite a while back, but also... Yeah. Everything was really... Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, yeah. So they cited it as an inspiration, and on the other hand, the US Vice President at the time, Dan Quayle, strongly disagreed. Quote, There is no reason for a record like this to be released. It has no place in our society. End quote. But he was white? Yeah. Dan Quayle. I mean, yeah. Tupac was misunderstood. And according to an article, he explained in part, quote, I just wanted to rap about things that affected young black males. When I said that, I didn't know I was going to tie myself down to just take all the blunts and hits for all the young black males. To be the media's kicking post for young black males. End quote. However, Tupac Lips Now was certified gold, with a whopping half a million copies sold. Honestly, I have always loved Tupac's music. And I knew a bit about his story, and I definitely watched the movie about him. But I never paid as close attention to his actual music. And what it was portraying. And what he stood for. Understanding now who he was, it's such a waste of time. It's so sad that he's not here anymore. He would be changing the world. Yes. But anyway, this would kick off a very, albeit short, but very successful career. Tupac landed the role of the main character named Bishop in a movie called Juice. And even acted alongside Janet Jackson as her love interest in the movie Poetic Justice. Tupac would go on to release many iconic songs and albums. And most of his albums would be certified platinum. Each album selling well over a million copies. But as much success as he gained, he also began to have many entanglements with law enforcement. There were many instances where Tupac's behavior was almost like a ticking time bomb. Tupac and his friends were involved in a shooting involving two brothers that were also off-duty police officers. Officers named Mark and Scott Whitwell. It was revealed that the two men were drunk, and that the gun they used had originally been seized in a drug bust, and then stolen from the evidence locker. So the situation was that Tupac and his entourage were driving along the road and they saw these two brothers getting into an altercation with a black man. That's the context. Okay, alright. And so they pull up and they get out and they start yelling, telling them to stop. And then Mark, I believe, draws his weapon, prompting Tupac to do the same. From what I understood, Mark smashes Tupac's window of his car. Okay, so he's still in the car, pulls up. Yeah, they're pulling up and then, I think, Mark approaches with a gun and then goes up to his car and smashes his weapon with the butt of the gun. And then Tupac fires his weapon, shooting, I think, shooting Mark in the shoulder, and then shooting his brother Scott in the butt. Yeah. But yeah, obviously, all parties were arrested and then the case was dropped because it was found that Tupac was actually acting as a good Samaritan in defense of someone else. And also, like I said, the gun was stolen from an evidence locker. Oh. Yeah, yeah. Okay, okay. So the gun that was used was stolen from an evidence locker and therefore the case was dropped. Thank you. Idiot. But I love that they just drop the case. They don't go after them because they're white cops. They were forced to resign six months later. Okay. But the point is they were still active for these last six months. I think they wanted the story to kind of sizzle down. Yeah. Typical. Yeah. Over the following years, Tupac ran in and out of trouble, including the notorious case in which he was accused of raping a woman named Iyana Jackson. It is reported that Iyana alleged that after she performed oral sex on Tupac in public on the dance floor of a Manhattan nightclub, she went to his hotel room on another day when Tupac's record executive, Jack Abnett, otherwise known as Haitian Jack, Tupac's road manager, Charles Fuller, and an unidentified fourth man apprehended and forced her to perform non-consensual oral sex acts on all of them. Tupac was also charged with illegal possession of a firearm as two guns were found in the hotel room. He denied the rape allegations, publicly stating that he was hurt that, quote, a woman would accuse me of taking something from her, end quote, as he had been raised in a female-predominant household and was surrounded by women his entire life, even expressing his love and respect for women throughout his music. Tupac was acquitted of three counts of sodomy and the associated gun charges but convicted of two counts of first-degree sexual abuse for, quote, forcibly touching the woman's buttocks. Like, literally. Anything. Yeah. Because he was a treat. Tupac was highlighting some really serious issues at the time. Yeah, and they wanted to sit under the rug. Yeah. And he was like, you know, he was loved where he was from, and he was loved where he was living. Yeah. Yeah. And at this point, by the way, Tupac was only 23 years old, just for context. So, Tupac was released on $50,000 bail, and while out in New York, Tupac was recording Versus Ferongi, and Tupac's beeper kept going off, and he was distracted by it. And so he checked it, and the music manager, James Rosemond, a.k.a. Jimmy Hinchman, offered Tupac $7,000 to go to Quad Studios in Times Square to record a verse for Lil Sean. Tupac was reluctant but agreed, needing the money, and arrived with a couple of his friends. Whilst in the lobby, three men pulled up and robbed and beat him at gunpoint. Tupac resisted, prompting them to pull the trigger. Tupac was shot five times, twice in the head, twice in the groin area, and the most serious, a gunshot to the hand, which hit an artery in his thigh. Less than 24 hours after being shot, he was treated and arrived at his court sentencing in a wheelchair that faces charges. He was sentenced to more than a year in prison. His charges for what? For the, um, for the touching of him. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Not for the sodomy, not for the gun charges, for, like, yeah, okay, maybe if he made unwarranted, you know. But, like, it's such a tricky experience. Yeah. And even these days, it's like, yeah. It's like to go to jail for years. Yeah, that's, yeah. Pretty intense. Yeah. Um, so, yeah. Well, like, he felt really suspect that this robbery was a set-up. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. In an interview with The Vibe in 1995, Tupac accused Sean Combs, aka P. Diddy, Jimmy Henchman, and Biggie Smalls, who were at Quad Studios at the time. Um, like, he accused them of either being behind it or at least knowing about it. Um, and this ended up becoming an infamous East and West Coast rivalry in hip-hop, prompting the creation of iconic diss tracks, such as Who Shot Ya? by P. Diddy and Biggie Smalls. Which was released. Yeah. It's shady. It's so shady. And this was obviously released while Tupac was in jail. Yeah. Both rappers were already on opposite sides of the infamous East Coast-West Coast rivalry, which was really defined in the hip-hop scene during the mid-1990s. However, this beef with, um, Biggie and Tupac sparked even bigger, an even bigger divide within the hip-hop world. Tupac was a West Coast rapper associated with the Bloods gang and signed to Death Row Records with Suge Knight, who was, at this point, known to be, like, heavily affiliated with gangs. Like, we're talking, he is so Bloods that he doesn't even use, like, the letter C. Right. I ever seen this T-shirt that Suge wore that was, like, it says, Bompton instead of Compton, because they don't use, like, a fishy as the first letter. Or not a capital C. Shit. So funny. Um, I've seen a few of those Bompton shits, and now it makes sense. Yeah. So, like, if you ever, like, hop onto, like, a video that's made by a crap, Yeah. you'll see they won't say the word bitch, it'll be, like, kitsch. You know, because they don't say the word bitch. Dude. It's pretty wild. Um. It's extreme. Yeah. Yeah. And so, um, Biggie, who was a known talent at this point, was an East Coast rapper associated with the Crips and signed to Bad Boy Records with P. Diddy. So where's, so Tupac was West? Yeah. But he's from New York. Yeah. Which is East. So, yeah, he was born in Harlem, but he became a West Coast rapper. So he sort of took, he represented Cali. Okay. California. Yeah. Okay. Let's go to C. Well, he, so he wasn't, like, he wasn't affiliated to one gang. He was definitely, like, man was a floater. Like, he had lots of friends. Yeah. But he was never, like, I'm a Crip or I'm a Blood. Yeah. He had affiliates. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. As the rivalry between Bloods, Bloods and Crips, East and West Coast, began to escalate, public statements between rappers and figures in the industry were exchanged. On August 3rd in 1995, Suge Knight subtly called out P. Diddy at the Source Awards that year in New York. Like, he won their turf, by the way. Announcing to the audience of artists and other figures within that industry, quote, any artist out there that wants to be an artist and wants to stay a star and doesn't want to have to worry about the executive producer trying to be all in the videos, all on the records, dancing, come to death row. End quote. Alluding to Diddy's tendency to appear in artist music videos and feature his own ad-libs in their songs. To the New York-based audience, Suge's comments came off like an insult to the entire East Coast hip-hop scene and resulted in many abuse from the crowd. When Dubok was out of prison, he later released an iconic diss track, Hit Em Up, where he alleges that Biggie plagiarized the style of rap and also alleged having sex with Biggie's wife, Faith Evans. Shit. Like I said, shady. Yeah. Yeah. According to various news sources, on September 7th of 1996, the rivalry takes a deadly turn at the MGM Grand Casino in Las Vegas. The venue doubles hosting Mike Tyson's boxing match. Tupac was there to spectate the fight and on his way out of the casino lobby, Tupac and his two bodyguards got into an altercation with a man named Orlando Anderson, a known member of the Crips gang, who allegedly taunted Tupac that he was part of the robbery at Quad Studios. Right. That'll do it. Mm-hmm. This fight would have permanent and fatal repercussions. A couple hours after the fight, Tupac and his convoy were near the Las Vegas strip when a car full of women started driving by Tupac's side. The representative teared out of the sunroof and spoke to the women, and the car carrying the women drove off ahead suddenly, while Shogun Tupac was stopped at a red light. And then, a white Cadillac did a U-turn and pulled up by Tupac's side of the door. A gunman then fired more than a dozen rounds, hitting Tupac with four bullets, two bullets hitting him in his chest and one hitting his right lung. Shogun was grazed in the head by a bullet fragment but was not seriously injured. Tupac was then rushed to the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada where he was heavily sedated and put on life support. On the afternoon of September 13th of 1996, whilst in the ICU, Tupac sadly passed away from internal bleeding and was announced dead at 4 or 3 p.m. The official causes of death are respiratory failure and cardiopulmonary arrest associated with the multiple gunshot wounds Tupac's body was cremated the next day. Like, literally the next day. Dude! This just seems like so... Doesn't it just give everyone a moment? Like... Very sudden. John Lennon's was the same. Next day. Though he's not fucking around at that point. I mean, that's like 16 years difference. It's very Jewish. I don't know if you know this but in Judaism, like, when someone dies, like, you apparently think the religion is to put the body on the ground while it's warm. That's pretty quick. It's really quick. I learned that... It could still be alive. How? It could still be alive. Well, like, Matt's passed away this year and we were trying to organize sites for his mom to go home and they were like, it was like two days in and they were like, go to the funeral now. And we were like, what? Oh, I was like, what? And Matt was like, yeah, apparently it's the whole thing. Wow. Okay. In 2006, on the 10th anniversary of Tupac Shakur's passing, his ashes were laid to rest in Soweto. Tupac's mom, Afeni Shakur, took them to the birthplace of his ancestors and conducted a memorial service in one of South Africa's most renowned townships. Afeni Shakur explained that Soweto had been selected due to its significance as the birthplace of South African struggle for democracy and against apartheid. Tupac made a big impact on the world and created a legacy in her home, still in present day considered to be one of the greatest and best representable times. Otherwise, the goat. And as for Tupac's killer, well, this murder went unsolved for a really long time. However, on the morning of September 29th of 2023, Dwayne Keefe D. Davis was arrested in connection with Tupac's murder. He was held without bail and charged with murder. He pleaded not guilty on November 2nd of 2023 in Las Vegas and a few days later... He pleaded not guilty? He pleaded not guilty. And also, I was going to mention this later, but just for reference, Keefe D. is the uncle of Orlando Anderson, the guy that, yeah, started that fight. A few days later on November 7th, Judge Carly Kearney for the Clark County District Court scheduled for Keefe D.'s trial to begin on June 3rd this year. But on January 9th in 2024 this year, during a court status check, Keefe D. was granted $750,000 bail and granted house arrest. However, a second trial was held on February 20th of this year, during which Keefe D.'s trial would be delayed to November 4th of this year. Despite being granted bail and house arrest, Davis remains incarcerated at the Clark County Detention Center. So, more to uncover this November. I think it'll be interesting to see what Keefe D.'s lawyer's strategies are just in relation with P. Diddy's investigation, obviously because they were both part of, he was a member of the Crips gang, I'm not saying he was. And Keefe D. has confirmed a member of the Crips gang. So, it would be quite interesting to see what happens then. But there are a couple of little theories I wanted to get into. They're just little things to let us know what you think. But there are many theories that maybe someone in government wanted Tupac gone. So, I think Tupac understanding the issues, and this is what I uncovered over studying him was that I'm a big fan of Biggie's as well, and not comparing them, but they were comparative at that time. 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