by TChris

News reports indicate that the F.B.I. has joined the investigation into the murder of rap artist Notorious B.I.G. (a/k/a "Biggie Smalls," born Christopher Wallace), seven years ago. The F.B.I. may be looking into a theory, advanced by former LAPD Detective Russell Poole, that a former Los Angeles police officer conspired with Death Row Records head Marion "Suge" Knight to arrange the killing.

Poole ... contends then-LAPD officer David A. Mack, acting at Knight's request, arranged for [Amir] Muhammad, Mack's friend and college roommate, to kill Biggie. He also believes Knight had Tupac [Shakur] killed six months earlier in Las Vegas because he was about to leave Death Row Records and that Knight then had Wallace murdered to make it appear both slayings were the result of a bicoastal rap feud.

Ex-Officer Mack is now serving time for bank robbery. Poole resigned from the LAPD in 1999 over disputes about the investigations, and the LAPD announced in 2000 that it no longer considered Muhammad a suspect. Although the LAPD dismissed Poole's theory, the FBI may be giving it a fresh look.

According to law enforcement sources and court documents obtained by [LA Times reporter Scott] Philips, the FBI took interest in the Biggie murder after an agent watched a VH1 special on the rapper last summer. The agent contacted the slain rapper's mother, Voletta Wallace, and her attorneys, who filed a wrongful-death suit against the city of Los Angeles in 2002 accusing the LAPD of covering up police involvement in the murder .... Voletta's attorneys told the FBI agent that witnesses were afraid to talk to LAPD detectives about the case because of corruption.

All of the alleged conspirators deny any involvement in the crime, and the F.B.I. has declined to comment.