This week, Tupac Shakur would have celebrated his 44th birthday. And yet after all these years, there are still a few dedicated people who want to solve the murder of the iconic rapper.

The day after 2Pac’s birthday, VICE ran an extensive piece breaking down conspiracy theories on how ‘Pac died. There are seven ongoing theories according to Jeff Weiss, contributor and co-author of 2Pac vs. Biggie: An Illustrated History of Hip-Hop's Greatest Rivalry, and he unveils one by former LAPD detective Russell Poole. In his theory, Poole thinks he has uncovered who is responsible for the killing of ‘Pac.

Poole says that he received his first big break in the case in 2013, where he got a tip from Fox 11 KTTV investigative reporter Chris Blatchford to a clue he had been sitting on since 1998. He never pursued it, but it turned out to be pretty valuable: one of Tupac's alleged killers, Malcolm Patton's, confessional note.

It gets pretty deep from here. Patton allegedly wrote it to the sister of Robert Soria, one of Blatchford’s jail informants who would later slip him the note. The letter claims that Patton, along with two other people, his brother Danny Patton and Donald Smith (Weiss explains who he is later), carried out the hit on ‘Pac and that head of Death Row security Reggie Wright Jr. told the whereabouts of ‘Pac and Suge Knight. The letter continues to say that the weapon used in the murder would be dropped off at the security booth of Fox 11, which ended up never happening.

| CIA TWEETS ABOUT TUPAC's WHEREABOUTS |

Poole later states that Sharitha Knight (Suge's wife) and Reggie Wright Jr. were head conspirators of the whole operation. He thinks that while Knight was going through her divorce with Suge, Poole believes they teamed up to plan a murder plot so they could take over Death Row.

"Suge wasn't divorced yet and if he died in that hit, she'd get most of everything," Poole said. "So she went to Wright Jr., who was in charge of Death Row and ran it while Suge was in prison.”

"[Wright Jr.] has gotten away with it this whole time," Poole continues. "They floated a whole lot of propaganda to former LA Times reporter Chuck Phillips — calling in hundreds if not thousands of fake clues."

Then, it gets even deeper. According to Poole, the three shooters were brothers Malcolm and Danny Patton and Smith, who is better known as Lil ½ Dead. The Death Row affiliate had his own motives for murdering ‘Pac. When ½ Dead was 20 years old, he met ‘Pac in 1991 during the recording of his debut, 2Pacalypse Now. ½ Dead claims he passed his demo to ‘Pac, which allegedly contained “Brenda’s Got a Baby.” After never reconnecting with ½ Dead again, ‘Pac allegedly stole this song and made it his own. So in short, it was done out of revenge.

Poole has also started a campaign to get the LAPD to look into the case again. All he is wants is a final conclusion. For more of Weiss’s story, head over to VICE and read the entire thing. 

(Photo: Ron Galella/WireImage)

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