Global News Podcast: Man charged with murder of rapper Tupac Shakur in 1996
BBC 9/30/23 - Episode Page - 32m - PDF Transcript
Hello, this is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service, with reports and analysis
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podcasts. This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service.
I'm Nick Miles and in the early hours of Saturday the 30th of September, these are our main stories.
A man in the US state of Nevada has been charged with the murder of the rapper Tupac Shakur,
who was killed in a drive-by shooting 27 years ago. A state of emergency has been declared
in New York City, where flash floods have caused major disruption. Washington says there has been
a buildup of Serbian forces on the border with Kosovo. Also in this podcast, it's nearly every
metal detectorist dream to find some hidden treasure, maybe some gold or something that was
held by a Saxon or Roman. So what did a Norwegian family come across while searching for a missing
earring? We begin in the US. It's a case that has frustrated investigators and fascinated the public.
Tupac Shakur, one of the most acclaimed rappers in hip hop, was gunned down on the Las Vegas strip
27 years ago. The identity of his killer has remained a mystery. It's been the epitome of a
cold case, a long unsolved but still open criminal investigation, until now, perhaps,
because police have arrested a man over the drive-by murder of Tupac Shakur.
Steve Wilson is the Las Vegas Clark County District Attorney. It has often been said
justice delayed is justice denied. It's a quote we hear often and for many, many years
when talking about our legal system, but not in this case. Today, justice will be served
in the murder of Tupac Shakur. Our North America reporter, Reagan Morris, is in Los Angeles and
told me the latest. They've arrested Dwayne Keefe D. Davis. He is an associate who knew Tupac
and he's a man that lives in the Las Vegas area. They raided his wife's home about two months ago,
so that we sort of knew something was happening with the investigation and that caught many by
surprise. And in that raid, they took some cell phones, computer hard drives, a computer,
and a copy of Keefe D's memoir. He had a 2019 memoir where he admitted to being in the Cadillac
that the shots that were fired that ultimately did kill Tupac. And Reagan, remind us of the
circumstances of Tupac Shakur's death. Yeah, it was 27 years ago and they were, he was driving in a
convoy of cars on the sunset strip and they were at a red light and a Cadillac pulled up
and someone in that Cadillac opened fire and those were the shots that ultimately killed Tupac.
He lived a few days later in hospital, but no one ever knew. There was so much mystery who did
shoot him. And Keefe D has written in his memoir and has talked about that he was in that Cadillac,
so it's been known, he's been known to investigators. And I suppose a lot of surprise
for some people that it's taken so long to get anywhere with this case. What are the theories
behind why that might be? Oh, there's so many conspiracy theories about east coast, west coast,
grudges between rappers. I was listening to an interview, an earlier interview with Tupac's brother
after they had the police raid in Las Vegas a couple months ago of Keefe D's house and, you
know, he wasn't surprised at all. He's more surprised that they never took the investigation
as seriously as he would have liked and found more evidence and he thinks there's people out there
that know what happened, but isn't necessarily surprised that they didn't. I think there's a
lot of distrust in that family and within many in the black community over police and
who knows what happened with that investigation, but it seems like something is happening now and
maybe we will find out finally who killed Tupac. Reagan Morris in LA. Staying in the US, as we
record this podcast, a flashed flood emergency is enforced in New York as multiple waves of
heavy rain hit the city. The downpours began during Friday morning's rush hour.
Emergency services responded to the dangerous conditions and people were rescued from basements.
The mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, made this appeal. I want to say to all New Yorkers,
this is time for height and alertness and extreme caution. If you are home, stay home. If you are
at work or school, shelter in place for now. Some of our subways are flooded and it's extremely
difficult to move around the city. Well these New Yorkers were in despair. I'm lost. I'm lost.
I feel terrible. I don't even know where I'm going because I'm accustomed to catching a particular
train. Now I come, the train is delayed. I don't know when. It's disgusting. I don't know what New
York needs to do to mitigate this problem. I understand it happens a couple times a year.
So it seems like there should be plenty of information to know how to mitigate the flooding
when these disastrous intense rains happen. Correspondent Nedda Tothiq is in New York and
she told me there's been chaos across the city. This made commuting this morning nearly impossible
for New Yorkers. As passengers went out on the roadways, they found that they had been
just essentially covered, turned into rivers and just bumper to bumper traffic. Some people even
found themselves stranded and needing help on the subways. I mean every single line was impacted.
So the delays were just intense. 17 lines in Brooklyn were suspended altogether and people
were just taking videos. You can see all over social media, the water rushing into the station,
the tracks covering the roadways and then on top of that people who were trying to leave the area
with the airports found that in LaGuardia, for example, one of the terminals was completely
shut. All air traffic was delayed. So it really has been a chaotic morning and for some people
a scary and dangerous morning as they set off on their commutes. And Nedda, everybody saw the
satellite pictures ahead of this. They pretty much knew it was likely to happen but there's not much
you can do in the short term to prevent it, much like the last big flood after the Hurricane Sandy
back in 2012. Yeah, that's right. And I mean even if we look back to the recent hurricane, Hurricane
Ida, the issue in New York is when you've had several days of rainfall already, the area is
saturated, the infrastructure saturated. And so when you have rainfall that's intense in such a
short amount of time, this New York City's sewer system just can't cope to be frank. I mean we
heard that from officials in the briefing today. And so when I've been kind of going around here
in Gowanus in Brooklyn, one of the areas that has been the most affected, you see basements just
absolutely flooded. You see cars that were covered up to the doorways and water. And even though it's
begun to recede now, these are areas that people keep expensive business equipment. So one of the
businesses, they lost freezers, a heater, merchandise. And it's going to cost tens of thousands of
dollars. Yet this is an area where you can't get something like flood insurance. So New York is
increasingly seeing these rain events become pretty expensive and damaging to the economy and the
livelihood of people. And New York can expect worse in the years to come. What's actually changed
since the Hurricane Sandy 11 years ago? I mean it always is an issue of money. You know I always
point to the Gateway Project, which was supposed to build another tunnel between New York and New
Jersey because the one that's operating now was damaged significantly by Hurricane Sandy. And yet
the entire Tri-State area is relying on that tunnel. It's been over a decade and that project is
still just getting started. Certainly when you look at new buildings in New York, there's been a lot
of research into how to make buildings more resilient to sea level rises and climate change.
And those things are taking place. But the simple issues that we see again and again, too many
basement apartments in New York City when there's already a housing crunch, the sewer system unable
to cope, these are issues that aren't being fully resolved yet. And it is happening again and again
when the rain overwhelms the system. Nettatorfic in New York. Diane Feinstein, the longest serving
female senator in US history, has died at the edge of 90. A passionate advocate for gun control,
Ms. Feinstein was sworn in as San Francisco's mayor in 1978. Shortly after her predecessor Harvey
Milk and then the country's only openly gay politician was gunned down inside City Hall.
Later as chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, she released a report detailing
the CIA's secret overseas detentions of terror suspects. President Biden led tributes to his
fellow Democrat, describing her as a pioneering American. She was a historic figure, trailblazer
for women and a great friend. Diane made her mark on everything from national security to the
environment, gun safety to protecting civil liberties. The country's going to miss her
dearly. And so will Jill and I. Well, the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, spoke in front
of her desk just after her death was announced on Friday. Today we grieve. We look at that desk
and we know what we have lost. But we also give thanks. Thanks to someone so rarefied, so brave,
so graceful a presence served in this chamber. I heard more from our North America correspondent
Barbara Plettusher on Senator Diane Feinstein's prolific career. She got started in California
politics in the 1960s and then ultimately spent 30 years in the Senate. And as you were mentioning,
she was a vocal advocate for gay marriage, for environmental protection and for greater gun
controls. She was passionate about these priorities and others, but she was also pragmatic about
getting stuff done across the aisle, which made her quite an effective legislator. And here
she was addressing the Senate Judicial Committee ahead of a vote on gun control in March 2013.
We've seen it in universities. We've seen them in elementary schools. And now we have seen them
used against first graders. The time has come, America, to step up and ban these weapons.
She also helped document the CIA's torture of foreign terrorism suspects when she was chair
of the Senate Intelligence Committee. She led a five-year investigation. And in 2014,
she spoke out following publication of the report, which was into post-911 interrogation tactics.
The report exposes brutality that stands in stark contrast to our values as a nation.
It chronicles a stain on our history that must never be allowed to happen again. This is not
what Americans do. It's a very strong on policy. She was also very much a trailblazer for women
in American politics, wasn't she? She certainly was. And that is something that many people
have been saying in their tributes. Even the Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said
that she inspired women from both sides of the aisle. She was the first female mayor of San
Francisco. She was the first female candidate of a major party for governor of California. She
was one of California's two first female senators. She was the first woman to head the Senate Intelligence
Committee. She was the first woman to serve as the judiciary committee's top Democrat. So
lots of firsts in her career. She broke gender barriers.
And we heard from Chuck Schumer earlier on a very moving tribute. What have other people been saying?
Nancy Pelosi, the former Democratic House Speaker, talked about her as a pioneering woman
leader and the fierce champion of gender justice. And as I mentioned, you had a couple of Republicans
also giving her tributes. Marco Rubio, the Republican senator, called her hardworking,
always treating everyone with courtesy and respect. Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican
leader, also called her his friend, said she was a trailblazer with dogged advocacy and a
diligent service. And you saw that the Senate has taken physical steps, putting the flag at half
mask and also put it draping her chair in black velvet with a vase of white roses.
And briefly, Barbara, what will happen now? How will she be replaced?
The governor of California will probably appoint somebody to take her place until an election
for her replacement can be held. He'll want to do that as quickly as possible because the Senate
is evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans. So they want to keep that Democratic vote.
But she will almost certainly be replaced by a Democrat because California is strongly Democratic.
That was Barbara Pletusher. The United States says it's monitoring a Serbian military build-up
along the border of Kosovo as tensions rise between ethnic Serb and Albanian communities.
The White House said there was an unprecedented deployment of tanks.
Our Balkans correspondent Guy Delaney has more details.
The United States is urging Serbia to withdraw a large military deployment near its border with
Kosovo. White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby described the unprecedented
staging of advanced Serbian artillery as a very destabilizing development. Tensions are high
after the deaths of a Kosovo police officer and three members of an armed group in majority Serb
North Kosovo last Sunday. Britain has confirmed it's sending a battalion to join NATO's K-4
peacekeepers. It said it was a response to the current situation in Kosovo.
Guy Delaney. Next to Slovakia and Slovaks go to the polls today in early elections following
the collapse of the centre-right coalition earlier this year. Leading the polls is the left-wing
populist smear party of Robert Fidso who was forced to step down as Prime Minister following
the murder of the investigative journalist Jan Kucjak in 2018. As Rob Cameron reports from
Bratislava Mr Fidso has grabbed the headlines with a pledge to end Slovak military support for
Ukraine immediately. The closing weeks of a bad-tempered election campaign in Slovakia
coming to a head is an outdoor press briefing by Robert Fidso's smear party. The event was
gate-crashed by Igor Matovic, another former prime minister who ended up being punched in the head.
But the incident was a little more than a sideshow. Igor Matovic's star has fallen. Robert Fidso,
however, could be on the verge of a comeback, one that could have far-reaching consequences.
We need to stop sending the weapons and the military equipment to Ukraine and we need to stop this
war whatever price. Smear didn't respond to requests for an interview but this is the party's MP
Lubos Blaha speaking to the BBC this summer. I can understand that Ukrainians wouldn't be happy
that they will lose for example Donbas or Crimea but still we need to be realistic and we see that
this war is not only the conflict between Ukraine and Russia. We see it as a proxy war of United
States against Russia in a Ukrainian plant and this is something very different. Robert Fidso's
threat that he will not send one more round of ammunition to Kiev has sent alarm bells ringing.
This is a country that has so far been a loyal and steadfast ally sending its entire fleet of
MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine. But some say that threat is a red herring. Slovakia has already
donated so much there's almost nothing left to give. The cupboards bear as one unnamed Western
official told me the thundering populist rhetoric is just that they say rhetoric. Others aren't so
sure. Several foreign diplomats ask me aren't you crying wolf too early? Biata Balogovar editor-in-chief
of the Slovak Daily's smear she says it's dangerous to assume that once in office Fidso the populist
will give way to Fidso the pragmatist. It's a very wrong assumption because right now Robert Fidso
doesn't have a better version he has to keep feeding his electorate. Across the border in the
Czech city of Brno smear's main challenger progressive Slovakia was drumming up support
amongst Slovak university students. Their vision of an open tolerant cosmopolitan Slovakia
is dismissed as liberal fascism by smear who offer stability order and social security instead.
Progressive Slovakia's deputy leader Tomasz Valasek says Robert Fidso has been inspired
by another illiberal politician in Hungary. My concern is that Viktor Orban has said an example
that you can pursue illiberal policies cement your hold on power by by rigging the electoral
system and still get away with it without being really in trouble with the EU and NATO and therefore
we've made it far too easy for Robert Fidso to pursue Viktor Orban's example. With a third of
voters undecided and as many as 10 parties potentially entering parliament in Slovakia
nothing is for certain. Rob Cameron in Bratislava now to Norway where a family searching for some
lost jewellery in their garden have stumbled upon a much older find instead. Rebecca Wood reports.
It's nearly every metal detectorist's dream to find some hidden treasure maybe some gold
or something that was held by a Saxon or Roman but one family from Norway have fulfilled that
goal without even trying. The Arsvik family from the small island of Jomfruland got out their metal
detector to hunt for a lost gold earring in their backyard. The telltale beep of a potential
find went off near a big tree in the centre but instead of unearthing their piece of missing
jewellery they found two small metal artefacts instead one round one oval and both with intricate
cross detailing. Archaeologists have taken a look and identified the pieces as a Viking era
clasp and buckle objects from the grave of a woman buried over 1000 years ago. Although
long belief to be the case it's the first evidence that the area was inhabited during
Viking times but what of their missing gold earring? Well that's still not been found
but give it another thousand years and you might hear another similar sounding news report on the
airwaves. Rebecca Wood. Still to come. So will we really hear the actor Christopher Plummer as
Captain Von Trapp singing in his own voice in a new remix version of the sound of music film?
The attacker had very good knowledge of banking systems. $3.1 billion in stolen funds. Money
laundering operations. A cybercriminal group. These are smart guys. Seasons one and two of
the Lazarus heist from the BBC World Service are available in full right now. Following the twists
and turns in the incredible story of the Lazarus group hackers. The Lazarus heist from the BBC
World Service. Catch up with the whole series now wherever you get your BBC podcasts. Welcome back
to the Global News podcast. The Afghan embassy in India has suspended all operations and the
ambassador and other senior diplomats have left the country. Officials say Delhi will now take over
the diplomatic compound in a caretaker capacity. Lipika Pelham has more details. The Afghan ambassador
Farid Mamunze who was appointed by Afghanistan's previous western backed government has been
battling to stay in office in defiance of the Taliban in Kabul. Embassy officials in Delhi
say Mr Mamunze and at least five other diplomats have now gone to Europe and the United States
where they have received political asylum. India doesn't recognize the Taliban and closed its own
embassy in Kabul after the Islamist group took power in 2021. The Taliban have taken control
of 14 of Afghanistan's overseas missions but Delhi isn't one of them.
Lipika Pelham. The International Paralympic Committee has voted to allow Russian athletes to
take part in next year's Paris Games despite the invasion of Ukraine. Member nations meeting in
Bahrain voted against a full suspension of Russian competitors but decided that they will have to
compete as neutral participants. Athletes from Russia will not be permitted to wear Russian emblems
on their clothing nor display the Russian flag. Belarusians will also be allowed to take part
under those conditions. Ukraine has responded to the ruling saying that allowing Russians to
compete just prolongs the war. Our sports news correspondent Alex Kapstik told me more.
It's pretty close this isn't in the end Nick. 74 to 65, 13 abstentions at this meeting in Bahrain
and that was against the motion to slap a full ban on Russia who had been barred from all
Paralympic competitions since the invasion of Ukraine. They then came back for a second vote
on whether they should compete under neutral conditions and that was much more emphatic 90
to 56 in favour and it means that individual Russian athletes who haven't shown support for
the war in Ukraine they'll have to participate without wearing their national team gear. There
will be no anthems or flags. Teams are not allowed and there was a similar decision regarding Belarus.
And Alex this was the Paralympic committee's decision. What about the Paris Olympics?
Yeah it doesn't affect what will happen at the Paris Olympics. The IPC and the IOC that's the
International Olympic Committee they're very separate organisations but I do think today's
events give us a pretty strong indication of which way the wind is blowing here. The IOC have been
encouraging individual sports to welcome back athletes from Russia and Belarus all be uttered
under strict conditions of neutrality. Their president Thomas Bach keeps repeating his mantra
that sportsmen and women should not be punished for the actions of political
leaders but the decision as I said is not expected until next year although they are
meeting to discuss this in Mumbai at their annual meeting next month. I should say there's been
criticism of the decision by the IPC to include Russian and Belarusian athletes. Paralympics
GB said it was disappointed and global athletes which says it represents athletes from around the
world accused the IPC of lacking reason and principle and said that it was lending its support
to Putin's invasion of Ukraine. And Alex on an entirely different matter another controversial
difficult decision has been made with regard to whether or not hijabs or head coverings can
be worn at the games by some Muslim women. Well this follows a decision and announcement by
the French Sports Ministry that French athletes would not be allowed to wear headscarves or hijabs
which was in line with the country's regime of strict secularism. The IOC has responded by saying
as you say that they will be allowed certainly in the athletes village delegations athletes from
all countries will be allowed to wear a veil a hijab. As far as competition sporting competitions
are involved well that's a decision for the individual sports and that's based on safety
but French athletes will not be allowed to wear hijabs at the Olympics. Alex Capstick
An international trial has found that some men who undergo treatment for prostate cancer could
safely be given far less radiotherapy. The trials which were led by a team in London
found that by changing the timings of the treatment doses could be cut by three quarters.
Doctors say it's fantastic news for patients and could ease pressure on the National Health
Service here in Britain. Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in men around the world
with more than a million new diagnoses every year. More details from our medical editor
Fergus Walsh. Nearly 900 men in the UK, Ireland and Canada took part in the trial. All had medium
risk prostate cancer which had not spread. They got either five high doses of multiple beam
radiotherapy or at least 20 doses of standard radiotherapy. Both groups did really well with
around 95% of patients being cancer free after five years with few side effects. The results
will be released at a conference in the US. Alistair Kennedy Rose was in the five dose group.
It was almost as though I'd never had prostate cancer because I didn't have any symptoms to start
with and the treatment was so easy ultimately so very effective. The international trial was led
by Professor Nicholas Van Asse. When I got the results I was literally I was blown away. I mean
it was probably one of the best days in my career. I think it's fantastic news for patients.
He expects it could apply to 8,000 men a year in the UK who'll be able to have all their treatment
in a week with many fewer hospital visits. It should also mean fewer men receiving hormone
therapy which is used to help stop cancer from coming back but can cause extreme fatigue,
hot flushes and low libido. None of the men on the trial received any hormone therapy
and for nearly all their prostate cancer did not recur. Fergus Walsh. The sound of mucous
is how the actor Christopher Plummer is said to have derided the 1965 film that probably
made his name the sound of music. In it he starred as Captain Von Trapp leading his family across
the Alps fleeing the Nazis with Julie Andrews in tow. The film of the musical was an enormous hit
but not because of Mr Plummer's singing. His voice was swapped for a singer Bill Lee when the
film was released but now it's a case of so long farewell Bill Lee because a new release of the film
will have Christopher Plummer's voice put back in its rightful place. Mike Matacino is the man
performing the remix magic. Johnny Diamond asked him how it all came about. Cue the music.
He went into the project not really keen on doing a musical but he wanted to work on his singing
voice so that he could do them on Broadway which he eventually did so he pre-recorded the songs as
playbacks sang to his own voice during filming and took vocal lessons all through production.
He just felt when he heard them in agreement with the director and the associate producer
Saul Chaplin that it just wasn't quite working with his voice besides Julie Andrews and it should
be replaced and dubbed. So he agreed because I think some versions of the story have it that he was
really hacked off. No I have the memos to back that up so all of that was just hearsay or people
creating a drama where there wasn't any. And voice doubles were pretty common? It was common but it
was also a verboten subject and the people who did it had to remain anonymous until early 1964
where there was actually an expose about it and the center of that was Marnie Nixon who was probably
the most famous of the vocal doubles having done The King and I and West Side Story.
Then the whole thing just sort of gradually opened up a bit but it wasn't until many many years later
where they could really be publicly acknowledged or credited. So instead of Christopher Plummer
the version that everybody knows and so many people love was in fact sung by a completely
different voice it was by Bill Lee. It was Bill Lee who was very very known as a vocal double.
What did Bill Lee have that Christopher Plummer did not?
Just a polish and the ability to do the long sustained notes that Plummer wasn't up to matching.
So it was a matter of that polish and particularly in the sustained
notes and the timbre and just the overall quality and resonance of the voice.
In which case people will be wondering why now bring Christopher Plummer back?
Well only because this project was an attempt to really do the ultimate version of the sound of
music soundtrack as a complete treasury of everything that has survived and we're talking
about nearly 60 years so now fans can hear it and decide for themselves.
Christopher Plummer had a sort of fairly notorious relationship with the film what do you think about
it? Well when I first met him which was in 1993 and he sat down for the interview for the documentary
I did for the 30th anniversary he gave a beautiful interview and that marked a kind of turnaround
where he started looking at it in a different light. Some people think it's a very sentimental film but
I think it's sentimental in the proper way. It seemed light and fluffy at the time but once he
saw just how meaningful it was to people and the longevity that it had I mean I think he just came
to accept his role in it and that what they did was right.
The film historian Mike Mattesino ending that report on the remixed sound of music film.
And that's all from us for now but there will be a new edition of the Global News
podcast later. If you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered in it you can
send us an email. The address is globalpodcastatbbc.co.uk. This edition was mixed by Chris Lovelock,
the producer was Liam McCheffrey, the editor is Karen Martin. I'm Nick Miles and until next time,
goodbye.
Machine-generated transcript that may contain inaccuracies.
US police say a former gang leader, Duane "Keffe D" Davis, planned the shooting in Las Vegas after his nephew was involved in a fight with Tupac Shakur in a casino. Also: state of emergency in New York over flash floods, and Christopher Plummer's singing voice is included in re-release of "The Sound of Music" soundtrack.