OK, here’s the deal. Rapper Tupac Shakur died in September 1996. But, as with many famous deaths, there are groups of people that contest he isn’t dead, such as the people at this site.
Tupac, so the theory goes, faked his death in order to escape his enemies (a theory propagated by books by Machiavelli in the 15th Century, which he read in jail), and would return after 7 years, for reasons which vary. This means he’s set to return next month, apparantly on the 13th September; the day he died in '96.
One of the main reasons for this ‘7 year’ gap, which is constantly cited by the subscribors to this theory, is the ‘fact’ that if one fakes one’s own death, as long as the life insurance pay-off is left untouched, one cannot be charged with fraud after seven years, apparantly for, ‘safety reasons’.
This seems highly suspect to me. Why seven years? What possible safety reasons could there be for allowing people to fake their own death and return legally?
So, my question to those experienced with this kind of legal business, is this: is there a law that states a person can fake their own death and legally return after seven years as long as their life insurance money remains untouched? If Tupac were to return on the 13th September, could he be arrested? And if so, under which laws?
It looks like this is the black version of the “Elvis is alive” theory.
IANAL, but the topic of faking one’s death has come up before on this board. IIRC, the consensus was that faking your death is not inherently illegal. Profiting from your “death,” however (by collecting on a life insurance policy, for example), would be fraud or taking money on false pretenses or some similar crime.
Possibly there is still some law that would be broken (like filing a false report or something), and seven years is the statute of limitations on that crime.
However, as you suspect, the story is probably just a load of crap that some guy made up.
The same way most contrary evidence is explained away; they were created on the internet, in order to fool us all into thinking Mr Shakur is really dead. Diceman, would you happen to have the link to this previous discussion on the legality of faking one’s death? My searches turn up nothing.
Are there any lawyers, or those who have studied law, who could discuss the topic first-hand?
Sorry I don’t have the answer you’re looking for, ~Great Philosopher, but here’s a similar wackjob site beating the dead horse of “Paul Is Dead” .
I’d just love some Doper feedback on that one, as it’s brought a 30 year old conspiracy into the present and made some “LEGAL” (read the site- you’ll see what I mean) analyses and claims that I hadn’t hjeard in connection with this conspiracy before.