Jam Master Jay, the DJ for rap group Run DMC, was shot to death on the night of October 30, 2002 at his recording studio in New York City. But, even though there were multiple gunmen and multiple eyewitnesses to the murder, it would be more than two decades before the perpetrators were named, charged and convicted.
A&E True Crime looks at the life, death and investigation into the murder of one of the biggest hip-hop stars of the 1980s.
What Was Jam Master Jay Doing Before He Was Killed?
Jay, born Jason Mizell, grew up in Hollis, Queens, a middle-class New York City neighborhood where he taught himself how to DJ on turntables. As a teenager, he would take those turntables to basketball courts at a park near his house, where he would “spin and scratch records” for “big crowds,” according to David Thigpen, author of Jam Master Jay: The Heart of Hip-Hop.
“Back then, hip-hop was party music,” Thigpen tells A&E True Crime. “It wasn’t ‘go out and shoot someone’ music. It was party music. And you can hear that in the sound.”
[Stream an episode of Marcia Clark Investigates The First 48 about Jam Master’s Jay’s murder in the A&E app.]
It was at Two-Fifths Park that Jay linked up with collaborators, Joseph “Rev Run” Simmons and Darryl “DMC” McDaniels, forming Run DMC—and becoming the most successful rap group of the 1980s, largely credited with bringing hip-hop into mainstream American culture with a series of platinum albums.
“He made DJs famous,” Thigpen says. “He’s the one who spun all those fantastic beats; and that’s really what defined Run DMC.”
And while Run DMC’s star rose (and then subsequently faded), Jay never left the neighborhood he called home.
“Jay was a good guy. He made a lot of money, and he spent a lot of money…on his friends. And so he was beloved in that neighborhood,” Thigpen says. “And he was faithful to his childhood friends… And that’s what came back to haunt him.”
Despite the group’s image as anti-drug advocates, Jay turned to drug dealing in the mid-1990s to supplement the band’s declining cash flow. In the six years preceding his death, he sold large quantities of cocaine.
Who Killed Jam Master Jay?
Despite the fact that Jay was murdered as part of a narcotics trafficking conspiracy, his killers weren’t random cold-blooded gangsters. They were his close friends.
Karl Jordan Jr., the trigger man, was Jam Master Jay’s godson. Ronald Washington, who helped control the onlookers during the murder with his own firearm, had been friends with Jay since childhood. In the days before the murder, he had been sleeping on the couch of Jay’s childhood home.
Sean Haran, who was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District at the time of the murder, helped focus attention onto Washington as a suspect.
“There was a mosaic of evidence suggesting that he was involved, that he was in the room,” Haran tells A&E True Crime, based on “… variety of sources.”
According to Haran, who worked on several cases involved violent narcotics operations in Brooklyn and Queens, it wasn’t unique that Jay was killed by lifelong associates.
“It’s unfortunate, but I’ve prosecuted other cases where…people who knew each other as kids turn on each other,” Haran says. “Ronald Washington had a history of beating people up, shooting people, robbing people.”
Why Was Jam Master Jay Killed?
According to the U.S. Attorney’s office, Jay had secured 10 kilograms of cocaine from a supplier in California, which he was planning to resell in Maryland with Washington and Jordan’s help. But Jay would cut the pair out of the approximately $200,000 deal before it was completed.
Enraged, the pair broke into 24/7 Studio, Jay’s recording facility, allegedly with the help of a co-conspirator who allegedly had them enter through the fire escape. As of press time, that co-conspirator has not been tried.
Once inside the studio, the pair found Jay in a room with two other people, shooting Jay fatally, and shooting one of the others in the leg.
Why Did It Take So Long to Solve the Murder?
“There’s no reason in the world this should’ve taken 21 years to solve,” says Thigpen. The blame, he says, rests on several shoulders, starting with Jay’s supposed friends.
“No one came forward to help him,” Thigpen says. “He lent people money, he bought a friend a car, another friend started [a] fish and chips store and he helped finance that. And I think it was a personal betrayal of Jay that no one stepped forward.”
Haran is more sympathetic, saying that, “These are all people who live in [Jay’s] neighborhood. They know one another. And so I think there was fear of retribution. Fear of going out on a limb.”
Ultimately, on February 27, 2024, a federal jury convicted Washington and Jordan of murder while engaged in a narcotics trafficking conspiracy and firearm-related murder. At press time, they are appealing their convictions, according to a spokesperson for the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, and have yet to be sentenced. Should those appeals fail, they face a minimum of 20 years’ imprisonment and a maximum term of life imprisonment.
Related Features
Marvin Gaye: The Motown Legend Who Was Murdered by His Father
Who Was the ‘Hollywood Ripper’ and What Was His Connection to Ashton Kutcher?
‘The Dating Game Killer’ Wasn’t the Only Murderer to Go on a Game Show
