Assata Shakur, Tupac’s Godmother Who Was on FBI’s Most Wanted List, Dies in Cuba

Tom Durante Sep 26th, 2025, 1:36 pm

(AP photos)

Assata Shakur , the godmother of the late rapper Tupac Shakur and a convicted cop killer on the FBI’s most wanted list, has died in Cuba, where she was granted asylum. She was 78.

Born JoAnne Deborah Byron and legally known as Joanne Chesimard after a brief marriage that ended in an annulment, Shakur died in Havana on Thursday due to “health conditions and advanced age,” according to a statement from Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

A member of the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army, Shakur was wanted by U.S. authorities after escaping from prison in 1979 and fleeing to Cuba.

Two years earlier, she was convicted in the 1973 murd

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