Russell Poole who claimed cops murdered Biggie Smalls 'died while interviewing police'
A detective who investigated the murder of rapper Biggie Smalls reportedly died while interviewing a police captain for a book trying to expose the truth in the unsolved case.
Retired LAPD detective Russell Poole, 58, who looked into the shooting death of 24-year-old New York hip-hop artist Christopher 'Notorious B.I.G.' Wallace in 1997, collapsed on Wednesday at the Sheriff's Homicide Bureau in Los Angeles
A killer has never been found, though Poole has pushed a theory that LAPD officers plotted with West Coast record label CEO Marion 'Suge' Knight to kill the rapper.
His final moments were spent interviewing a captain for a book he was writing about the case, according to TMZ.
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Russell Poole, the former LAPD detective known for investigating Biggie Small's murder, died Wednesday while interviewing a police captain about it. Above, he appeared in the documentary 'Biggie & Tupac'
Christopher 'Notorious B.I.G.' Wallace, also known as Biggie Smalls, was killed at age 24 but his murder has never been solved. Above, the New York rapper attends an event in 1994
'I think I'm having a heart attack,' Poole reportedly said while clutching his chest.
The retired detective had chronically high blood pressure, but also thought that the LAPD 'wanted him dead,' law enforcement sources told TMZ.
Authorities have not yet released a cause of death, pending toxicology results.
Poole worked for about a year on the case and eventually advanced the theory that three police officers were responsible for the murder along with Knight, the CEO of Death Row Records and a rival of 'East Coast' rappers such as Biggie Smalls.
'You got to think to yourself, 'Who could do this and get away with it?' Cops,'' he reportedly said in the 2002 Nick Broomfield documentary Biggie & Tupac.
Smalls had catapulted to fame with his album Ready To Die, and was involved in a notorious 'East Coast-West Coast' dispute with various hip-hop figures.
He was sitting in Los Angeles traffic after an awards party when he was shot by someone in another vehicle.
Also in the rapper's car were members of the Junior M.A.F.I.A. hip-hop group. In a nearby car was CEO of Smalls's label Bad Boy Records, Sean 'Puff Daddy' Combs.
Smalls was hit five times and died.
One of the officers who Poole accused of being involved in the killing is David Anthony Mack, who would later serve 14 years in prison for robbing a bank.
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Smalls was killed in 1997 after attending The 11th Annual Soul Train Music Awards in Los Angeles. Above, he is pictured with Sean 'Puffy Daddy' Combs
Detective Poole (above) advanced the theory that Smalls was killed by three corrupt LAPD officers who were working with Suge Knight - but his theory was shot down by the LAPD
Poole claimed that LAPD officer David Mack (pictured) had links to the murder of Smalls. Mack was never charged but served 14 years in prison for a bank robbery
Mack reportedly worked as Knight's bodyguard and grew up in the same neighborhood.
He has always denied being involved in the murder. A civil case was brought against the LAPD by Smalls's estate in 2007 but the suit ended up being dropped.
Poole suggested that Mack and Knight conspired to kill Smalls as 'retaliation' for the murder of rapper Tupac Shakur, which had happened six months previously in Las Vegas, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Shakur was on Knight's record label, which was seen as a rival to Combs' record label, of which the Notorious B.I.G. was part.
Knight was never implicated in Smalls's murders but was sentenced to nine years in prison on a probation violation in 1997.
He was released in 2001 but arrested again in January on murder charges for an alleged hit and run.
When Poole presented his findings to the then-chief of the LAPD, Bernard C. Parks, he was reportedly ordered to stop the investigation.
Smalls's death came roughly six months after West Coast rapper Tupac Shakur (left) was killed in Las Vegas. Some theories put blame for both deaths on Death Row Records CEO Marion 'Suge' Knight (right)
One theory holds that Smalls's murder was retaliation for the death of Shakur. Above, Smalls (left) Shakur (center) and Redman (right) pose for a 'bad boy' backstage at Tupac's show on July 23, 1993
As a result of that order and other disagreements, he resigned in 1999.
He filed a lawsuit against the LAPD for violating his First Amendment rights for not allowing him to go public with his information.
His suit was dismissed, according to the New York Times.
He eventually opened his own detective agency and contributed to a book released earlier this year called 'Tupac 187: The Red Knight'.
Poole was also the main subject of the book. 'LAbyrinth: A Detective Investigates the Murders of Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G., the Implication of Death Row Records' Suge Knight, and the Origins of the Los Angeles Police Scandal.'
The detective had a long and illustrious career that also included shining a spotlight on the late-90s Rampart Scandal, which uncovered widespread police misconduct throughout the LAPD's Community Resource Against Street Hoodlums (CRASH) unit.
Poole (above) had also advanced the theory that Shakur's murder was a conspiracy involving Knight's then-wife and the head of security for Death Row Records, though neither were ever implicated
Knight (right) ended up going to prison for nine years on unrelated charges - he is currently charged with suspicion of murder in another case and remains in jail on $10million bond
He also claimed that many officers were working security for Death Row records, including David Mack.
In an interview with Vice in June, Poole theorized that Shakur's murder was orchestrated by Suge Knight's then-wife, Sharitha Knight, and Reggie Wright Jr., head of Death Row Security.
Knight was in the car along with Shakur the night he was killed, and was also shot, but survived.
'Suge wasn't divorced yet and if he died in that hit, she'd get most of everything,' Poole speculated. 'So she went to Wright Jr., who was in charge of Death Row and ran it while Suge was in prison.'
Neither Sharitha Knight nor Reggie Wright have ever been implicated in Shakur's murder.
Other theories into Shakur's death speculate that Knight had his own artist killed because of internal disputes within Death Row.
The murders of Shakur and Smalls have not been officially solved,
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