FBI File On Notorious B.I.G. Murder Yields Single Hip-Hop Curio

On Friday, the FBI unveiled its overhauled reading room, which they have re-christened “The Vault.” Along with a spiffy new document reader and a search option, the bureau has uploaded dozens of new files, material that has previously been processed in response to Freedom of Information Act requests.

Included in the new offerings are records related to the FBI probe of the murder of The Notorious B.I.G., a case that was closed in 2005 after federal prosecutors declined to pursue charges in the matter. The rapper (real name: Christopher Wallace) was shot to death in Los Angeles in 1997, a murder that remains unsolved.

While the Wallace file provides little news, it does offer one hip-hop curio, the Los Angeles Police Department property report itemizing the Wallace belongings catalogued post-homicide. As seen in this excerpt, evidence gathered by investigators included pot in a plastic baggy; bloodstained Karl Kani jeans (size 48); a pair of size 13 Timberlands; a Bernini sweater (size 54); and a Primatene Mist asthma inhaler.

And, of course, “3 condoms” that an LAPD official reported were “Magnum” and “Larger Size.”