"gunshots to tut/now you stuck"- Tupac
JAILED ROBBER: 'AGENTS WANTED DIDDY FOR TUPAC'S DEATH'
Also see:
TUPAC SHAKUR
SEAN COMBS
The man widely believed to have killed TUPAC SHAKUR has sensationally revealed federal agents tried to force him to incriminate rap mogul SEAN COMBS - and name him as the murderer. WALTER 'KING TUT' JOHNSON is serving time in a Virginia prison for successive armed robberies after becoming the first New Yorker to be jailed for life under America's 'Three Strikes' provision. And he believes he was served a harsher sentence than most because he refused to work with agents who were keen to put Combs behind bars. Speaking from prison, Johnson tells America's King magazine, "(I was told) if you don't play ball and you don't give us PUFF (Combs), you goin' down (sic). "(I told them) I'm not testifying for anybody and I'm not testifying against anybody." Johnson reveals he and Comb's history began in 1995 when the robber was attempting to put his thug life behind him and work as a confidante to the rap mogul. He recalls, "I explained to Puffy, 'I can be beneficial to you. You don't have to give me anything - I have income coming in. I just need someone to educate me.' "Puff was like, 'Yo, I heard some really bad things about you.'" But the rap boss agreed to advise Johnson and urged him to study self-help book ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE MUSIC BUSINESS, telling him, "I need you to take this book and study it. Learn the book by heart."
25/07/2006 03:32
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KING TUT speaks!
Walter "King Tut" Johnson never thought victory could feel so empty. Just after 9am on Oct 24,1996, Johnson strode into the courthouse at 360 Adams St. in downtown Brooklyn, excited at the prospect of returing home later that day on a not-guilty verdict stemming from a robbery charge.
Though Johnson had a criminal record that one prosecuter dubbed "extraordinary"-his rap sheet included a dramatic holdup of a Jehovah Witness Hall in 1983 , also numerous acquittals in a number of shootings and robberies , including the 1993 attempted murder of a cop in a Brooklyn barbershop.
Johnson attorney had informed him that he'd have a good shot at a not-guilty verdict or even having his case dismissed. But as Johnson passed through the courthouse metal detectors and made his way to the courtroom, he was accosted by a group of men dressed in plain business like attire in the hallway. The men followed Johnson to the courtroom, where moments after the judge announced that he was dismissing the robbery case, the men in business attire promptly stepped forward and slapped handcuffs on him.
The well dressed men happened to be U.S Marshalls and King Tut was on his way to being indicted by the Feds. As he was driven to the U.S District Court in Brooklyn, Johnson started to panic; this was his first run in with the feds and his extensive criminal background made him an easy target.
Johnson's fear of a life behind federal bars increased to near parylisis when the marshals in the car accused him of shooting Tupac Shakur at Quad studios in Times Square New York in 1994 and of having murdered the rapper just six weeks earlier, on Sept 13, 1996.
"I'm screaming at them..like 'You crazy!!- I didn't do either one of them", Johnson remembers sayin. "I didn't kill nobody, I didn't kill Tupac!"
The agents wasn't buying it, in fact they were so convinced Johnson had killed Tupac that they asked to search his truck-which was parked in a garage near the courthouse-in hopes of finding the murder weapon.
When Johnson arrived at U.S District Court later that day, though he was only accused of a series of robberies in Brooklyn. Much to thier chagrin, the federal agents did not find the weapon used in the Quad shooting or Tupac's murder.
King Tut was hit with 12 federal charges stemming from three armed robberies, and not the murder of perhaps the most iconic rapper in hip hop's history, should have come as a profound relief to Johnson. But it didn't-Johnson knew that if hee was convicted, he could be sentenced to life without parole under the "Three Strikes" provisioin of a federal crime bill passed by congress in 1994, which mandated a sentence of life imprisonment for violent three time federal offenders. "That was the worst day of my life" says Johnson speking to KING MAGAZINE from the U.S Penitentary in Lee, Virginia.
CONT.
The next day, thinigs took an even darker turn. News reports of his indictment quoted an informant whom told investigators that Johnson had called Tupac “a sucker”and bragged about shooting him at Quad, an incident that jumped started the coastal hip hop war of the mid 90’s. The New York daily news quoted the informant as saying that “Tupac was not a real gangster and that he had shot him, to discipline him”.
The feds seem to believe the informants words and the following statement was given to the Daily News by a police spokesperson , “We hope that [king tut] arrest will lead to solving the murder of Tupac Shakur”.
In spite of the fact that no evidence could be produced to solve the murder much less the shooting of Tupac in N.Y, the Daily News ran with the story under the headline: “FEDS VOW TO BURY KING TUT”.
Walter Johnson-stick up kid, alleged killer of tupac, has the most regal of street names, born to a brooklyn -under humble conditions. During the mid 70’s, Johnson and his friends attended hip hop block parties uptown , by the dawn of the 80’s , Johnson was drawn to the sinister side of the streets.
During this time period of the pre-guliani era, one could easily earn his stripes on the street by arming himself with a pistol and wearing a ski-mask. It was this part of street life, which Johnson relished as he commited strings of armed robberies and various street heists with ease.
“I was very angry, or you could say disturbed”, Johnson explains..”By allowing yourself to be manipulated by into situations that will affect you for your entire life, will result in lifetime reprucussions.”
Johnson’s rep became cemented in stone in 1979, when he was picked up on a charge relating to a sting of unsolved robberies. “When my mother came to get me from the precint, the police asked her..”What other name he goes by besides Walter Johnson?..she responded “Tut is his nickname”..the superior officer replied ..”King Tut?”, my mother said..”No , that is not his name”..the officer responded..”Yeah I think his name will be KING TUT..cause he’s from the county of Kings.”
With an alias given to him by an officer, King Tut lived up to his title as his “get money” schemes grew more outrageous and more frequency. On August 8, 1983, Tut robbed 6 passengers on a Queens to Brooklyn bus; a week later the hold up of a subway car full of passengers in downtown Brooklyn was attributed to Tut as well, and little more than a month later, on Sept 12th, he executed the robbery of more than 300 members of a Jehovah Witness Hall. Yet inspite of his healthy criminal spree, Tut virtually remained “untouched” with the exception foa 2 to 6 year jail sentence , in which he would eventually be parolled after just 3 years.
But in January or 1993, tut’s luck with the law would come into an abrubt end. At a Brooklyn barbershop, King Tut shot a plainsclothes officer in full crowd view with Tut’s five year old son accompanying him, the officer named Richard Aviles was partially paralyzed from the waist down, Johnson says that him and his son was ambushed by Aviles without provocation and never identified himself as a cop.
"He was dressed like a thug" , Johnson recalls, with his voice trailing off.."and he produced a weapon , ran up behind my son ..and right then all hell broke loose!".
