"And did I mention/ Promised a payback, Jimmy Henchman/ In due time/ I knew you bitch niggas was listening/ The world is mine/ Set me up/ Wet me up/ Niggas stuck me up/ Heard the guns bust/ But you tricks never shut me up"
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.
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!".
In spite of the broad daylight violence and life threatening injuries of the officer, a Brooklyn jury found Johnson not guilty of the crime of attempted murder, and this profoundly upset the NYPD. After serving a year for a minor armed robbery charge, King Tut vowed to his family and friends that he would leave the streets for good , as well as salvaging what little freedom he gained after surviving a firefight with an officer as well as beating prosecution.
To achieve his goal , King Tut like many of his street peers sought entry into the lucrative rap industry, which at the time was capitalizing off the ‘gangsta’ lifestyle in the form of “thuggary” via Tupac and big money “dons” such as Biggie.
It just so happen that King Tut would set up a meeting with one of the biggest advocates of this form of entertainment, Sean “Puffy” Combs, “I explained to Puffy that I can be very beneficial to you, you don’t even have to give me money, I have income coming in, I just need your insight”, Puff was like..”Yo I heard alot of bad things about you man, I don’t know”, Puff was told by many that I was not to be trusted and can do nothing but harm.” As the meeting was coming to a conclusion, with nothing productive seeming to come out of it, Tut made this plea..”Look if you don’t want to deal with me based on what I did to you or some people associated with you, I can respect that”..but to not deal with me just ‘based on what others might have said to you, just ain’t right!”
Puff finally was convinced, and agreed to mentor King Tut in the complexities of doing business in the hip hop world, by just following his directives. Walter “King Tut” Johnson really wanted to follow Puff’s demands, but Tut had plans of his own according to rivals of Bad Boy as well as the Feds.
Once Tupac Shakur fingerpointed King Tut and Brooklyn based manager Jimmy Rosemond in his shooting at Quad, Johnson became a certified suspect. Johnson says “Pac fingered me in the shooting, based on what people told Pac, Johnson refuses to reveal whom, all he says is that people on Rikers and the streets said it was “Tut from Cypress.” The notion that Tut was the triggerman made perfect sense to Tupac , because of an east coast cabal consisting of Puffy, Haitian Jack, Biggie and Jimmy “Henchmen” Rosemond seemed capable of conducting the attack. “Because of my association with Puff Combs and Bad Boy”, Johnson says. For his part Henchmen denies any involvement.
When Shakur was later murdered in 1996, Tut’s name came up once again, he became a logical suspect which led to that fateful day that the marshals picked him up in a Brooklyn courtroom. Not able to present any credible evidence of Tut’s involvement in Tupac’s shooting as well as murder, the Feds alleged that he had commited three robberies back to back in 1996 against the girlfriend of a Brooklyn dope kingpin. Even though their were numerous loopholes in the robbery cases, and the fact that these robbery charges should have never gotten pass the state jurisdiction level, it raises the question:
Why were the Feds so infatuated with Tut’s alleged robbery sprees?, federal law enforcement denied comment, but Tut offers this explanation, the indictment on the robbery charges were meant to pressure Tut into directly fingering Puff Daddy in Tupac’s assault and eventual murder. But instead Walter “Tut” Johnson did not cooperate with the Feds in any investigation involving Puff Daddy.
It is likely that as a result of resisting pressure from the Feds by refusing to comply with the Feds demands, Walter “Tut’ Johnson was the first New York resident to be sentenced with life without parole under the newly written “Three Strikes’ provision.
Although it has been a decade since Tupac’s murder and nine years since Tut’s federal indictment, the ghosts of both events still haunt Johnson and Hip Hhop as a whole. TUPAC’S controversial take on the matter “Against All Odds” off the Makavelli L.P includes the line: “Gun shots to Tut, now you stuck!” and 50 CENT kept tut’s name in the game with the verse on “MANY MEN”: “Feds ain’t no jack when Pac got shot, I got a kite from the pen saying Tut got knocked.”
Johnson is now currently serving his life sentence in Jonesville , Va and he confirms to KING that as both New York Magazine and Newsweek have speculated that he is at the center of a renewed investigation by the U.S ATTORNEY’s office in New York regarding the shooting as well as slaying of Tupac Shakur. Johnson says that in the spring of 2005, he was moved by the Feds from Jonesville prison to the Metropolitan Corrctional Center (MCC) in downtown Manhattan next to a cell containing Jacques “Haitian Jack” Agnant for intense questioning.
Johnson says that in spite of that he is working with tupac’s father , Mutulu Shakur and Shakur’s private investigator Watani Tyehembia in their own investigation of the murder of Tupac shakur, Tyehembia confirms that Tut has cooperated.
King Tut isn’t surprised why many of Tupac’s fans are wary of his motives in helping to solve the murder of Tupac, “I can understand why pac fans would not like me and I respect their loyalty to him”…”But I want them to know I definitely had nothing to with his attempted murder nor his assassination, it is very important that they know that this situation is MORE COMPLICATED THAN THEY WOULD EVER BELIEVE, if you look at this case you will find numerous lies , inconsisticies and more importantly cover-ups and smoke screens!”
“If i’m wrong prosecute me to the fullest degree, but if I’m innocent let me go, even though i was a bad guy in my younger years, i didn't do this, and i don't deserve to be here for this!"
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Tupac shooting at the quad studios in 1994 is a turning point in Hip Hop history and one of hip-hop’s unsolved mysteries. The shooting would fuel the east coast west coast war of the mid nineties and turn Tupac from a rapper into an urban legend.
Tupac was on his way to record a song for Uptown artist, Lil Sean. He was ambushed in the elevator by three men, who attempted to rob him and then shot him.
Tupac would blame the shooting on Sean Combs, AKA Puffy, Diddy etc, Biggie Smalls and Andre Harrell all of whom denied any involvement.
On his album “Makavelli,” Tupac would directly name the people who were involved in the shooting. The three names that would keep coming up were, Jimmy Henchman” Rosemond, Jacques “Haitian Jack” Agnant and Walter “King Tut” Johnson.
Tupac would meet Haitian Jack in New York while filming the movie “Above The Rim.” Tupac would base his character “Birdie” a gangster and villain on Haitian Jack.
Tupac would go to clubs with Haitian Jack, who would show him the New York nightlife and get him into places he couldn’t get into.
Haitian Jack was arrested with Tupac for allegedly raping Ayanna Jackson, who they had previously met at Nel’s nightclub. Jack would get a separate case than Tupac and plead out to misdemeanors with no jail time while Tupac would be sentenced to 4 and half years in jail.
Tupac would tell New York Daily News reporter, A.J. Benza that he believed that Haitian Jack set him up in the rape case and referred to him as a “hanger-on.” This would lead to the streets buzzing about a beef between Tupac and Haitian Jack.
Tupac would run into Agnant a while later at a nightclub with Biggie and Puffy. Biggie would tell Pac to stay away from Haitian Jack.
"Even though I no longer liked him, I used to pretend. But now, I can’t pretend no more because I knew he was a snake. When I saw him with Biggie, I knew they were snakes. I was like, ‘Damn, they just bounce from one ni**a to the next ni**a. They weren’t sending me any money. They weren’t trying to help me through my charges, even though it was them that set me up."
On the night of November 30th, Tupac was scheduled to record a verse for rap artist, Lil Sean. Lil Sean was an up and coming artist signed to Andre Harrell’s Uptown Records. Tupac was running late for the session an Lil Sean’s manager, James Rosemond also known has Jimmy Henchman.
When Tupac arrived at the shooting he was ambushed by a group of men who confronted him in the elevator. By the time he got off the elevator he had been shot 5 times. No one has ever been convicted of the crime yet there have been several suspects.
Tupac has on record made several references to Haitian Jack Agnant calling him an informant. Haitian Jack Agnant was close with Jimmy Rosemond. Both are of Haitian decent and used to be criminal cohorts in Brooklyn. Now the New York Daily News is reporting that Jimmy Rosemond is listed in court documents as being a federal and state informant.
Tupac would accuse Jimmy Henchmen of “setting him up.” It was Rosemond who arraigned for him to come to Quad studios to record a verse for his protege Little Shawn. In his book, Queens Reigns Supreme, Ethan Brown wrote that in 2005, Rosemond was the subject of a massive federal investigation into the deaths of Tupac Shakur and Jam Master Jay. At the same time his ex-cohorts and suspects in the shooting, Walter “King Tut” Johnson and Jacques “Haitian Jack” Agnant were moved from state prisons were they were being held on unrelated charges, leading some to believe they were preparing to testify against him. Rosemond would say of his cohorts:
"It saddens me to know that that Tut and those guys are gonna trade in somebody for their freedom i hope that’s not what he’s doing I love Tut, he grew up with me. But guys like that only remember me one way."
James Rosemond told Vibe Magazine that he confronted Tupac about the shooting before Tupac was killed and said:
“For real nicca, I don’t give a **** , it could go down right now!, why you blaming Puffy and Biggie? Them niccas ain’t got nothing to do with this…Nobody came to rob you, they came to discipline you, that’s what happened!”
Rosemond has denied any involvement in the Tupac shooting and no one has ever been convicted of the crime. It seems that the person with the strongest motive to want to shoot Tupac would be Jacques “Haitian Hack” Agnant. Jack had a tough reputation on the street and the two had a strong falling out over the rape case. Jimmy Henchman would not seem to have any other motive other than helping out this associate, Haitian Jack. Still Rosemond had several high ranking executives coming to the quad studios so setting up Tupac would not have been a good businessman for the crook turned executive. Perhaps someone in Rosemond’s camp tipped Agnant off to the fact that Tupac was coming to quad.
The fact that Rosemond is now being accused of being an informant and Tupac accused Agnant of being an informant will fuel the rumors that Tupac was set up by the government. Due to the codes of the streets in hip-hop, no one has spoken about the matter and no one has admitted to being involved. It my belief that Tupac’s accusations that Notorious B.I.G. and Sean “P Diddy” Combs were involved were based on anger and guilt by association. Tupac himself blamed Haitian Jack and Jimmy Rosemond in his own records and 50 Cent implicated Walter “King Tut” Johnson as Tupac’s shooter in the song “Many Men” but all that is left is rumor conjecture and talk.
