Few events inspire the kind of frenzied speculation as the murder of rap star Christopher Wallace, aka Biggie Smalls, who was gunned down in 1997 while leaving a Los Angeles awards show after-party. Was it the FBI who orchestrated the hit, bent on ending the gangster rap culture that defined the ’90s? Was it Sean “Diddy” Combs, his friend and producer, who wanted to drive up sales of what would become Biggie’s posthumous sophomore album? Or is Biggie still alive, living it up in some exotic locale with rap rival Tupac Shakur, shot to death in similarly murky circumstances just six months prior?

As is often the case with conspiracy theories, the likely reality is at once more banal and more menacing than any of these. Though Biggie’s murder is still officially unsolved, decades of investigative work suggest that the emcee’s killing was the by-product of criminal elements within law enforcement itself.

The most promising theory for Biggie’s murder is still the one originally advanced by former Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) detective Russell Poole, later immortalized in Randall Sullivan’s 2002 tome LAbyrinth. Poole, who died in 2015, spent a year investigating the killing for the LAPD’s robbery and homicide division, until he saw no option but to quit the force, accusing the top brass of frustrating his efforts at every turn.