Greg Kading is a retired detective with the Los Angeles Police Department who investigated the murders of Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur.
Kading’s role in the cases is chronicled in the new true crime series Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G. The series is scripted and also discussed theories raised by another detective, Russell Poole. Actor Josh Duhamel stars as Kading in the series, which airs on the USA Network.
Tupac, 25, was murdered in Las Vegas in September 1996. Biggie Smalls, 24, was murdered in March 1997. Both murders have never been solved, and the series takes viewers into both police investigations. “Detective Greg Kading (Josh Duhamel) was asked to spearhead a multi-agency task force with the sole purpose of finding out who was responsible for the murder of Christopher Wallace (AKA The Notorious B.I.G.), once and for all,” USA Network reports on the show website.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Kading Has Claimed He Knows Who Killed Tupac Shakur & Biggie Smalls
Kading has sensationally claimed that he knows who killed Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls, and he believes the murders are linked. According to The Huffington Post, “Kading claims that Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs hired Crips gang member Duane Keith ‘Keffe D’ Davis to kill Shakur and his manager, Marion Hugh ‘Suge’ Knight, for $1 million. He alleges that on the night of Sept. 7, 1996, Keffe D’s nephew, Orlando ‘Baby Lane’ Anderson, pulled the trigger. Only Shakur was killed.”
However, it’s important to note that the case remains open and none of the men mentioned above has ever been arrested nor charged in the death of Tupac Shakur.
Kading further alleges that the death of Biggie Smalls was retaliation for Shakur’s murder. “Kading alleges that in retaliation, Knight hired Bloods gang member Wardell ‘Poochie’ Fouse to kill Biggie Smalls for $13,000. Biggie Smalls was shot to death on March 9, 1997, just six months after Shakur died,” reported Huffington Post. As in the case of Shakur, the Christopher Wallace death remains unsolved, and none of those mentioned has ever been charged in the chase.
Kading made the allegations in a documentary called Murder Rap, which was based on a book he wrote. The book is called Murder Rap: The Untold Story of the Biggie Smalls & Tupac Shakur Murder. The book’s blurb reads, “Told by Greg Kading, a much-decorated LAPD detective assigned to solve the homicides, Murder Rap unravels a twisted tale of music, money, and murder, finally answering the question of who killed Biggie and Tupac and why.”
In 2013, Kading wrote on Facebook, “Can you dig it? We really need your help in raising funds for the Murder Rap documentary project. If you’re a fan of Tupac, Biggie and/or True Crime documentaries please go to the below link and help us make it happen.”
2. Kading Was Assigned to Investigate Notorious B.I.G.’s Murder After a Lawsuit Was Filed Against LAPD
The LAPD assigned Kading to the Biggie Smalls murder case in response to a lawsuit against the department by his family. After the LAPD wasn’t worried about that case anymore, Kading claims the department’s interest in solving the murder fell. According to HipHopDx, Biggie’s mother Voletta Wallace’s multi-million dollar lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles alleged a cover up of “the fact that then on-duty L.A.P.D. officers helped coordinate the shooting of her son outside of the Petersen Automotive Museum in the early hours of March 9, 1997.”
Those theories resulted from the investigation of the LAPD detective on the case before Kading, Russell Poole. According to HipHopDx, “Kading does however align with Poole in his belief that Suge Knight orchestrated the hit, but believes that Suge’s ‘go-to guy’ for murders was not a cop.” Again, Suge Knight has never been arrested nor charged in connection with the murder.
“Once the LAPD got out from under the threat of a multi-million dollar lawsuit, their motivation to solve the case diminished. The civil case against the department was having insurmountable problem,” Kading said.
He told SwaggaMusic.net, “I was transferred off the case after a newspaper article came out alleging I had acted unethically in another high-profile murder case. The attorney for the murderer was desperately trying to save his client and knew that discrediting me (I was the investigator on the murder case) was his client’s only hope. I was exonerated of any misconduct, but nearly a year had passed and the LAPD had discontinued its investigation of Biggie during that time…In hindsight, I think it was all part of a plan to put the Biggie case back on the shelf.”
3. Kading Received Awards During His Time on the Police Force
According to The Huffington Post, “Kading received the LAPD’s Medal of Valor and its Police Star for heroic action. He also achieved the highest ranking for an investigator that the LAPD gives. In 2010, he retired from the department.” Kading was in law enforcement for 25 years before he retired.
Kading writes on his Facebook page that he lives in California.
4. Kading Was Removed From the Task Force Looking Into the Murders
Greg Kading
The murder investigation was complicated further when Kading was removed from the task force investigating it. LA Weekly published a lengthy article detailing the back-and-forth allegations on that matter.
According to LA Weekly, Kading says he was removed because the “LAPD was conducting an Internal Affairs investigation into allegations that Kading made false statements on an affidavit and manipulated witnesses to get them to testify in federal court against George Torres, Numero Uno supermarket magnate and an alleged drug kingpin.”
The magazine noted, “LAPD only formed an allegation of misconduct against Kading for apparently putting false information down on an affidavit for a search warrant.” The judge in the case once accused Kading of having a “reckless disregard for the truth,” LA Weekly reported. However, an Internal Affairs report obtained by LA Weekly says, “Although the court found that Detective Kading had misquoted certain portions of wiretap calls, the Court never found that Detective Kading was intentionally lying.”
According to Complex, “After his efforts led to two sworn confessions from people who said they played a part in the killings of Wallace and Shakur, Kading was suddenly pulled off the case.”
According to Complex, “In the end, Internal Affairs cleared Kading of any wrongdoing.”
5. Josh Duhamel Plays Kading in the New TV Series
Kading is played by Duhamel in the new TV series, Unsolved. Over the years, other books, documentaries and movies have featured either Kading or the other detective on the case, Russell Poole. In fact, a movie starring Johnny Depp is scheduled to run in 2018.
The Unsolved movie shows Duhamel being brought into the case because of the lawsuit.