(Originally published on 06.27.2012)
Was James "Jimmy Henchman" Rosewood responsible for starting the notorious war between East and West Coast rap rivals, ending with rappers Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls dead? According to a new article written by Chuck Phillips for The Village Voice, Henchman himself admitted to ordering the 1994 attack on Shakur which left him near death. Shakur survived the shooting and went on to record "Against All Odds," which called out Henchman for setting up the attack, but no arrests were ever made in the ambush, and it remained an unsolved mystery until now.
Phillips first implicated Henchman in the 1994 attack on Shakur in an article for the LA Times in 2008, but the paper issued a retraction and apology after some of the federal documents proved fake. Phillips stood by his investigative reporting and sources, but the LA Times fired him. Now, his article is considered evidence in Henchman’s federal trial where the former drug lord was recently convicted on 13 counts of drug trafficking.
It was during this trial that Henchman’s earlier admission was revealed. Although he had always denied any involvement in the 1994 shooting, Henchman came clean last year during a proffer session with the feds who were investigating his massive drug ring. In a proffer, the suspect can agree to confess knowledge of crimes without being prosecuted, which is what Henchman did.
No one will ever be charged with the 1994 attack thanks to New York’s statute of limitations, but it makes us wonder if Henchman was also involved in the 1996 assassination of Tupac. One mystery has been solved, but we still have one question: Who killed Tupac?
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