Tupac Shakur's Aunt Is A Wanted Woman!

Assata Shakur is placed on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists.

This week the FBI announced that the aunt of Tupac Shakur is added to the list of most wanted terrorists.

Assata Shakur (aka Joanne Chesimard) is wanted for escaping from prison in Clinton, New Jersey, while serving a life sentence for murder. On May 2, 1973, Shakur, who was part of a revolutionary extremist organization known as the Black Liberation Army, and two accomplices were stopped for a motor vehicle violation on the New Jersey Turnpike by two troopers with the New Jersey State Police. At the time, Shakur was wanted for her involvement in several felonies, including bank robbery.

Shakur and her accomplices opened fire on the troopers. One trooper was wounded and the other was shot and killed execution-style at point-blank range. Shakur fled the scene, but was subsequently apprehended. One of her accomplices was killed in the shoot-out and the other was also apprehended and remains in jail.

In 1977, Shakur was found guilty of first degree murder, assault and battery of a police officer, assault with a dangerous weapon, assault with intent to kill, illegal possession of a weapon, and armed robbery.

She was sentenced to life in prison.

On November 2, 1979, Shakur escaped from prison and lived underground before being located in Cuba in 1984. She is thought to currently still be living in Cuba.

The FBI is offering a reward of up to $1,000,000 for information directly leading to the apprehension of Shakur.

Chesimard was a member of the Black Panther Party (BPP) and Black Liberation Army (BLA). Between 1971 and 1973, she was accused of several crimes and made the subject of a multi-state manhunt.

Shakur fled to the island nation of Cuba by 1984; in that year she was granted political asylum in that country.


The Cuban government pays approximately $13 a day toward her living expenses.

In 1985 she was reunited with her daughter, Kakuya, who had previously been raised by Shakur's mother in New York.

She published Assata: An Autobiography, which was written in Cuba, in 1987. Her autobiography has been cited in relation to critical legal studies  and critical race theory. The book does not give a detailed account of the events on the New Jersey Turnpike, except saying that the jury "Convicted a woman with her hands up!" The book was published by Lawrence Hill & Company in the United States and Canada but the copyright is held by Zed Books Ltd. of London due to "Son of Sam" laws, which restrict who can receive profits from a book.

Mugshot in 1973.

 In the six months prior to the publications of the book, Evelyn Williams, Shakur's aunt and attorney, made several trips to Cuba and served as a go-between with Hill.

In 1993, she published a second book, Still Black, Still Strong, with Dhoruba bin Wahad and Mumia Abu-Jamal. Shakur's writings have been widely circulated on the Internet. For example, the largely Internet-based "Hands Off Assata!" campaign is coordinated by Chicago-area Black Radical Congress activists.

As early as 1998, Shakur has referred to herself as a "20th century escaped slave."

In the same open letter, Shakur calls Cuba "One of the Largest, Most Resistant and Most Courageous Palenques (Maroon Camps) that has ever existed on the Face of this Planet."

Shakur is also known to have worked as an English-language editor for Radio Havana Cuba.

Obviously, the FBI has been tipped about the whereabouts of Shakur. They're counting the days for her to make a simple mistake in her movement. Because the moment she does, Ms. Shakur is caught and brought to the United States.

This is the first time in history a woman was placed on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorist list.


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