Tupac’s godmother on FBI’s most wanted list

Joanne Deborah Chesimard, a murder convict who is also godmother and step-aunt of rapper Tupac Shakur, has been put on the most wanted list of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, the first time a woman has made the list.

The FBI on Thursday announced the new addition of Chesimard on the list and offered up to $1 million for information leading to her arrest. The New Jersey state police also offered an independent reward of $1 million.

“This case is just as important today as it was when it happened 40 years ago,” Lieutenant Mike Rinaldi of the New Jersey state police said in a press release.

Chesimard -- also known as Assata Olugbala Shakur -- is a former member of a radical left-wing group that killed a New Jersey state trooper Werner Foerster on 1973. She was apprehended four years later and sentenced to life in prison for numerous crimes including first-degree murder and armed robbery.

Chesimard escaped from prison in 1979 and was spotted in Cuba in 1984, where she is still believed to be residing.

She is often cited as one of the founders of the Black Liberation Army, and authorities worry that the 65-year-old can still inspire militant separatists in the U.S.



From news reports
(khnews@heraldcorp.com)