Unsealed FBI Files Reveal Tupac, Eazy-E As Extortion Targets

A little over a week after the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigations) unveiled its new "Vault" section, in which new information in the Notorious B.I.G.'s murder was revealed, the government agency unsealed documents that confirmed speculation about rumored extortion attempts on late rappers, Eazy-E and Tupac Shakur.
The new documents indicate that the Jewish Defense League, whom the FBI have labeled "a right-wing terrorist group", targeted both Pac and Eazy -- as well as other well-known rappers -- for extortion, in an attempt to dupe the hip-hop artists out of cash.
Key people, whose names were omitted from the documents, revealed that the JDL and "others yet unidentified" had been trying to extort money from various rappers, including Shakur and Eazy, through death threats.
"On September 11, 1996 [omitted] reported that JDL, and others yet unidentified have been extorting money from various rap music stars via death threats," the report reads. "The scheme involves [omitted] and other subjects making telephonic death threats to the rap star."
From here, it says associates of the JDL would then contact the rappers and offer paid protection, as part of the overall scheme. "The victim and their family are taken to a 'safe haven,' usually a private estate, and are protected by gun-toting body guards associated with the Jewish Defense League."
The connection between Ruthless Records and the JDL is not surprising. The label's co-founder, Jerry Heller, explained some of these revelations in his previously released autobiography, Ruthless. According to Heller, Ruthless employed Israeli bodyguards to protect him and co-founder Eazy-E from Marion "Suge" Knight, who was also had threatened Eazy after Dr. Dre left his label around 1990 to start Death Row Records.
In Heller's book, he even claimed Eazy-E liked the JDL so much, that he planned on doing a movie on the organization.
"Eric Wright had a questing, restless mind," Heller wrote. "He was always surprising me. 'I want to do a movie about the JDL,' he told me shortly before his death. He always had a hundred ideas going at once. He was obsessed with the Jewish Defense League and their motto, 'Never again.' 'Man, I can't get that out of my head,' he said. 'Never again.' That's dope.' "
The FBI docs say that after Eazy-E died from AIDs, death threats continued on his wife and family until, at least, 1996.
In May of 1999, the FBI closed a 2 1/12 year investigation on the JDL, citing an inability to corroborate the source information that spawned the probe. The FBI document links Shakur and other unidentified victims to a separate extortion attempt by "a known organized crime figure," whose name is omitted from the public version of the report.
"On October 17, 1996, a preliminary inquiry was initiated at Los Angeles Field Office to corroborate source information that [omitted], a known organized crime figure, along with a group of unidentified individuals were utilizing death threats in the furtherance of extortion attempts targeted towards two former prominent rap musicians from the Los Angeles area and other victims yet unidentified," the report reads.
The previously sealed FBI documents were released as part of a request under the Freedom of Information & Privacy Acts. Until this point, they were classified.
To read the full, 102-page report, visit Vault.FBI.gov.