MUTULU SHAKUR

Rap Sheet

Reign: 1970s-80s

Business: acupuncture / bank robbery

Region: New York

Claim to Fame: ’81 Brinks job

Downfall: convicted for criminal conspiracy

Sentence: 60 years

Status: incarcerated

Case File
Shakur spent the past 25 years in federal prison for helping plan and execute the $1.6 million robbery of a Brinks armored truck in New York in 1981. The heist left three people dead. Though that robbery is more famously attributed to the radical sect the Weather Underground, that group was actually working to assist the political aims of Shakur’s group, aligned with the Republic for New Afrika. In addition to the robbery, Shakur –  an acupuncture specialist who ran a health clinic in Harlem – was accused of helping his sister-in-arms, Assata Shakur (no relation), escape from prison, enabling her to flee to Cuba, where she lives today.