Mutulu Shakur
| Mutulu Shakur | |
|---|---|
 | |
| FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitive | |
| Description | |
| Born | August 8, 1950 |
| Status | |
| Added | July 23, 1982 |
| Caught | February 12, 1986 |
| Number | 380 |
| Captured | |
Mutulu Shakur (born Jeral Wayne Williams, August 8, 1950) is an American bank robber and black nationalist. He was a proponent of the Republic of New Afrika and a close friend of Geronimo Pratt.
Shakur is best known for planning the infamous $1.6 million robbery of a Brinks armored truck in New York in which a guard and two police officers were killed. One of his accomplices in the holdup was Kathy Boudin, a member of the Weather Underground and a fugitive on the FBI's Most Wanted List for 11 years. Boudin was arrested while making her getaway from the scene of the crime, but Shakur escaped. Shakur had been a leader of an offshoot of the Black Liberation Army. He is currently incarcerated in the United States Penitentiary, Victorville in Adelanto, California.[1] His projected release date is February 10, 2016.[1]
Robbery and arrest
On October 20, 1981, after six previous unsuccessful attempts to rob a Brink's truck,[citation needed] Shakur and five or six other men succeeded in robbing one in Nanuet, New York. During the robbery they killed one of the Brinks guards and seriously wounded another. After grabbing the cash, they drove to another location where they transferred the money to a U-Haul truck driven by Boudin and her husband David Gilbert. However, the transfer was seen and called in to the police, who set up a roadblock at the Tappan Zee Bridge. A shootout followed in which two Nyack policemen were killed. Afterwards, Boudin and some of her companions were captured as they attempted to flee, while others escaped successfully. To date, there has been no evidence found linking Shakur to the scene of the crime.[citation needed]
In the 1980s, he was arrested on Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) charges of bank robbery and aiding his sister, Assata Shakur, in her escape from prison on November 2, 1979. While at large, on July 23, 1982 he became the 380th person added by the FBI to the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. He was arrested February 12, 1986 in California and was subsequently found guilty of taking part in the armored-truck robbery and the prison escape.[2]
While in ADX Florence, he was visited by novelist Jonathan Franzen.[citation needed] The visit forms part of Franzen's essay "Control Units," which is included in his book of essays How to Be Alone, published in 2002. Shakur is to be released in 2016. He is also featured on a television show called American Gangster featured on Centric and BET. [citation needed]
Personal life
Shakur was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on August 8, 1950, as Jeral Wayne Williams. He was a strong supporter of Malcolm X as well as several other Civil Rights leaders as a youth. As he grew older, he moved to Harlem in New York City in the 1970s. Shakur later joined the Republic Of New Afrika and the BLA (Black Liberation Army) as well. He was involved with several bank robberies and other criminal activities.
Shakur is the stepfather of late rapper Tupac Shakur, and father of rapper Mopreme Shakur. Shakur was interviewed in the Oscar-nominated documentary Tupac: Resurrection, in which he described how he wrote a "Thug Life Handbook" with Tupac, expressing an anti-drug and anti-violence message.
In 1970, Shakur started working with the Lincoln Detox (detoxification) Community (addiction treatment) Program, which offered drug treatment to addicts using acupuncture. Shakur became certified and licensed to practice acupuncture in the State of California in 1976. Eventually he became the program’s assistant director and remained associated with the program until 1978. He went on to help found and direct the Black Acupuncture Advisory Association of North America (BAAANA) and the Harlem Institute of Acupuncture.
Mutulu founded a New York-based organization named Dare 2 Struggle, and released a compilation CD under the same name. As Shakur explains it, the CD was created in order to motivate, inspire, and challenge black people to struggle against their obstacles. He also recorded a radio PSA for Deejay Ra's "Hip-Hop Literacy" campaign, encouraging reading of books about Tupac.
Shakur has four children, including two daughters (Sekiywa and Nzingha) and two sons (Mopreme, Chinua).
In 2006, he released a 10-year anniversary tribute album for Tupac Shakur called A 2Pac Tribute: Dare 2 Struggle, featuring artists such as Mopreme Shakur, Outlawz, and Imaan Faith. It was released through music industry veteran Morey Alexander's First Kut Records and Canadian activist Deejay Ra's Lyrical Knockout Entertainment.
See also
References
- ^ a b "Federal Bureau of Prisons". Bop.gov. Retrieved 2013-05-03.
- ^ Lubasch, Arnold H. (May 12, 1988). "2 Ex-fugitives Convicted of Roles in Fatal Armored-Truck Robbery". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-10-10.
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External links
- FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives
- 1950 births
- Living people
- African-American people
- American bank robbers
- American criminals
- American people convicted of murdering police officers
- American prisoners and detainees
- Black Liberation Army
- People convicted of racketeering
- People from Baltimore, Maryland
- Inmates of ADX Florence
- Shakur family
- Terrorism in the United States