Newly unsealed FBI documents portray Wu-Tang Clan members as more mobsters than musicians, linking the Staten Island rappers to guns, drugs and a pair of murders. The eyebrow-raising portrait of the renowned nine-man rap crew emerges from the 93-page federal file on the late Russell Jones, better known as Ol’ Dirty Bastard. According to an August 1999 report, NYPD detectives “have documented in their case files that the WTC is involved in the sale of drugs, illegal guns, weapons possession, car jackings and other types of violent crime.”
The documents also blame the Dec. 30, 1997, murder of a Staten Island man on an unidentified member of the group. The gun used in the killing was purportedly part of a weapons cache purchased by Wu-Tang members in Steubenville, Ohio. “At least one of these guns has been identified as the murder weapon in the killing of Robert Johnson, aka Pooh,” the FBI document said. “Johnson was an associate of the WTC who had a falling out with the group, and it is believed that his murder was ordered by someone within the WTC.”
An Aug. 24, 1999, one-page FBI summary mentions a second murder believed “ordered by members of the Wu-Tang Clan as retaliation for … robbing an associate of the Wu-Tang Clan.” The rappers were also linked to drug dealers affiliated with the murderous Bloods street gang, according to an October 1999 FBI memo. Another document indicated authorities wanted to interview ODB as part of a federal racketeering investigation in Brooklyn. The 93-page FBI file was released to a blogger, Rich Jones, who posted all the documents on the Internet. The quirky Ol’ Dirty Bastard, known for his slurring style of rap, died of an accidental drug overdose on Nov. 13, 2004. An email to the Wu-Tang Clan seeking a comment on the FBI documents was not immediately answered Friday. The Staten Island-based group, which launched the careers of Method Man, RZA, Ghostface Killah and others, debuted in 1993 with the album “Enter the Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers.” The ODB file also included a personal request from New York FBI head Lewis Schiliro to then-NYPD commissioner Howard Safir for Jones’ full criminal record. City cops responded by sending along a nine-page document, dating back to Jones’ first arrest for petit larceny.
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