Rebuttal to the "Tupac:187" Refuted Video by Anthony Battaglia aka Anton Batey

About 6,000 people out of 300 million do not a consensus make, but there is a person or two out there who want to believe the video "Tupac: 187 Refuted.- The Confession Letter is a Fraud." It was written by a cat named Anthony Battaglia, who for years tried to hide behind a moniker called "Anton Batey". He is a teacher at a Detroit High School (Hamtramck) and teaches social studies.

Here is Battaglia learning that a) his real name and identity have been spoiled and b) that he is being served a Cease and Desist for Copyright infringement for publishing the leaked PowerPoint Presentation made to the LAPD with the Patton Confession Letter in it.

So let's get on to his Video- as people say I have not responded to it:

(0:00) “There's a so-called confession letter sent to me.” says Battaglia .

The fact is that only one person has the original letter and that is Chris Blatchford a reporter for Fox News. It is relevant because it is a copy, from the PowerPoint Presentation given to the LAPD. 

Here is the page from the PowerPoint Presentation

Pay Attention to the Area circled below:

Here is a screenshot from his video:

And he throws a copyright disclaimer on it, as if stolen material is grounds for Fair Use.

Here is an advertisement from Greg Kading Promoting the stolen material. Notice the curved line on the side of the letter. You can clearly see that it was a rip from the PowerPoint.

So what are the key claims in the video? 

In this Video, both Kading and Battaglia (because everyone knows they are working together, though both of them are too cowardly to admit it) make a statement that the Patton Confession Letter is (0:06) “ one of the many bizarre leads that was brought to the attention of the Las Vegas police department regarding the murder of Tupac.” 

According to Veteran Fox-TV reporter Chris Blatchford, whom I have known for years since he helped us with the "Reggie Wright Polygraph Challenge" in 2008, the only thing he has even contacted police in Las Vegas about is to float Lil Half Dead's name to them to see if they have heard anything about involvement, and Blatchford said the Vegas Police did not seem interested in knowing anything about it, so he was not going to give them Pattons' names. Vegas did not have any idea about this letter and Kading and Battaglia have offered not one shred of proof that they did. 

But back to the smoke and mirrors. Battaglia shows a single page of a document (arguably an investigative report by LVMPD) and makes the broad overstatement that (0:19) ”much of the misinformation this so-called confession letter was mentioned.”
 

Here is the document that Battaglia (and now "Truth" about Tupac, LMAO) is trying to put out as proof that Vegas knows about the letter. We presume Battaglia actually read the letter and is familiar with its contents.

Showing a partial LVMPD report the document states nothing about any letter or Pattons or Soria. Battaglia tries to sneak one over: For those of you who care or who missed it without rewinding here’s the report bigger:

And here is the transcription, after the claim that Orlando Anderson killed Nicole Simpson.

5-19-99 Frank Alexander called (800-399-6922) He said he was interviewed by Jim Norman FBI. Frank also said two journalists from Fox Undercover went to the LA Times to report they know who the three suspects were in the Cadillac. The shooter lives somewhere in Orange County. A source allegedly has possession of the murder weapon and attempted to give the gun to Chris Blatchford and Dan Layton from Fox Undercover. The source arrived at the studios but Blatchford and Layton weren't there. Frank said some source claims Reggie Wright Jr. and David Kenner are behind Shakur's death. They didn’t care if Suge was injured or Killed. Kenner and Michael Harris were the ones who started Death Row so it didn't matter if Suge was out of the picture. Frank also said that the day of the shooting, Reggie held a meeting in George Kelesis office with all of the security people. Reggie instructed them not to carry their weapons with them later that night at the fight or during any of the events planned after the fight. “

5-25-99 Heidi Sigmund Cuda called (818-788-4238) she was the person who told Frank Alexander about the conversation regarding Fox Undercover. She spoke with Chris Blatchford (310-584-2056) approximately a week ago. Back in 1998 someone was supposed to deliver a package to Blatchford and Dan Layton at Fox, which allegedly contained the weapon that killed Tupac Shakur. Neither of them were there to accept the delivery, and the person left with it. They apparently have not heard from the person since. She said Blatchford told her Reggie Wright Jr......

So where is the letter mentioned? Where is Soria or Patton's or Half Dead Mentioned?

This was a report from Frank Alexander to LVMPD about what two Fox Journalists said to him. In fact I do not believe that there is one thing Frank says that is mentioned in the letter, other than the name Reggie Wright Jr.

Of course that does not stop Battaglia from laying it on (0:31) “Fox 11 News & Los Angeles Frank Alexander actually knew about letters” Reading the above transcribed LVMPD statement, where is this stated? It isn’t. Battaglia them baffles the listener by declaring that  (0:39) "Frank Alexander never mentioned it a single time publicly even though he made three DVD's that dealt specifically with the murder.”

Alexander never mentioned it privately either- because he didn’t know about it.

Dan Leighton

Since the Las Vegas report (or at least the one shown page where the rest are somewhere else) is SILENT on Dan Leighton, we have to ask about who it was that contacted Dan Leighton. (0:47) “Leighton was contacted about this so-called confession letter who was partners with Blatchford for another undercover show on Fox”

Battaglia, to be more precise, lays out his gauntlet, but forgets where he leaves it. In a rather bumbling misstep- forgetting for a moment that the Las Vegas report says nothing about the letter- Dan Leighton was quoted as stating that the letter was (0:59) “quote complete nonsense” and that (1:01) “he also said quote 'the informant was making claims that could not be substantiated'”

So if the Police report is silent on the matter of the letter, one has to look at what Batey says “when asked about the confession letter that was given to his partner…”(1:05) Batey does not directly quote Leighton because he did not talk to Leighton himself. Ever. So who did? Since Batey sidesteps the issue we will tell you. It was Greg Kading, who wrote to Blatchford August 1st 2014:

“Here's the dilemma I'm trying to resolve: As you might know, I've spoken to Dan Leighton and Heidi Siegmund-Cuda (briefly) in regards to a 1998 confession letter you'd received from a Hoover Crip gang member. Some of what was discussed in the letter made it into the Las Vegas police files I had access to while investigating Tupac and Biggies murders. Jointly, an informant (don't know if its the same source you had) was providing parallel information to the Feds who were conducting a RICO investigation into Death Row Records in the late 1990's. I also had access to these files.

In Tupac:187 (which you can order here) we lay out all the emails and how Kading was trying to coerce Blatchford (who was not buying it) into giving him information about the letter.

If an informant's claims that "can't be substantiated" make it "complete nonsense" then what does that make of the ENTIRE failed "Murder Rap" Investigation?

Kevin McClure, who supervised the task force as head of the Robbery-Homicide Division, confirms that he got approval from LAPD brass to dismantle the team. Now chief of police in Montebello, McClure says Kading's perception is skewed.

"I have no problems with Greg," McClure says. "But investigators are like softball parents: Their kid is always better than your kid. We followed every viable lead that we had at the time and pushed it to the point where we needed something else to occur in order to move the case forward. And that something — someone else coming forward to corroborate what we had — didn't happen."

But even in the email to Blatchford, it is clear that Kading is back-peddling his position as posted on the chat boards. He assumes that Blatchford knows that Kading has spoken with Dan Leighton. Kading then contradicts Batey’s statement that (0:19)”much of the misinformation this so-called confession letter was mentioned.” “Much” and “Some” are very different words.

However, other than the gun, NOTHING OF WHAT IS IN THE LETTER WAS MENTIONED. “Nothing” is different than “Some” or “Much”. So now both Kading and Batey are overtly exaggerating for dramatic effect. And these are the people who are supposed to be dogged fact finders.

Now, we go further to see that Kading, in fact doesn’t even know the source of the letter (who is referred to by Battaglia as Soria) when he tells Blatchford “don't know if its the same source you had.” So what does this say about the “source” if Kading and Batey don’t know for sure who they are talking about?

So Battaglia reports on things he did not have personal firsthand information about as fact, and labels them as if he did. His source Kading (maybe) speak with Leighton who may have said what he said, but since Kading can’t even substantiate to Blatchford the source of the letter or Blatchford’s testimony, how is anything beyond that true?

Of course that does not stop Battaglia who offers his own version of “Everyone needs to think like me” and says (1:05) “if there is any merit to the content to this letter would have been pursued by two revered investigators -I mean good reporters obviously…(1:18) who got this letter and did nothing with the so-called big confession letter..(1:21)Chris Blatchford and Leighton are renowned getting investigative reporters…if there is any element of truth in this letter they would have went with the story…”

When we went to Fox and talked with Chris, we had no idea about the letter. He offered it to us- I mean, we didn’t come to get a letter. But since we were talking with Blatchford about what was at the time the book we were writing, and fact checking, we brought Sandra Riberra, a noted San Francisco attorney, with us to take notes and witness the exchange for possible vetting later. Blatchford was actually offering up the letter and his statement about it, because he believed it might be worth checking out. He did actually say he wanted to follow up on it, but Fox news is doing other things with him and he didn’t get to it. Now imagine this guy with an incredible image and reputation- that Battaglia just paid lip service to- handing over a letter to us he himself believes is worthless. Why would he do that?

Battaglia argument that because Blatchford didn’t report on the letter or investigate it, then he must not have wanted to do it. Post hoc ergo propter hoc (Latin: "after this, therefore because of this") is a logical fallacy (of the questionable cause variety) that states "Since event Y followed event X, event Y must have been caused by event X." Post hoc is a particularly tempting error because temporal sequence appears to be integral to causality. The fallacy lies in coming to a conclusion based solely on the order of events, rather than taking into account other factors that might rule out the connection.