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Bettmann/Getty ImagesMalcolm X being led away in a stretcher shortly after he was shot.On Feb. 21, 1965, one of Americas most powerful voices fell silent in a hail of bullets. Malcolm X, the fiery civil rights leader who offered a poignant expression of Black rage and Black pride, was murdered at age 39 while preparing to speak at New York Citys Audubon Ballroom. Three Nation of Islam members were later convicted of his murder: Thomas Hagan, Muhammad A. Aziz, and Khalil Islam. Hagan admitted to his role in the assassination, but Aziz and Islam always maintained their innocence.Now, six decades later, after Aziz and Islam were officially exonerated in 2021, many disturbing questions still remain. Who killed Malcolm X? Why were two men wrongly blamed for the crime? Was the murder carried out only by members of the Nation of Islam, or were law enforcement agencies possibly involved? And why has true justice remained so elusive?The Making Of Malcolm XMalcolm X was born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1925, into a world that would shape his revolutionary consciousness through violence and loss. His father, Earl Little, was a Baptist preacher and follower of the Jamaican-born Black nationalist Marcus Garvey, whose activism made the family especially vulnerable to white supremacist terror. The Ku Klux Klan shattered the familys windows shortly before Malcolm was born, and after the family moved to Lansing, Michigan, a Klan offshoot burned their home.When Malcolm was six, his father died after being struck by a streetcar an accident that his family and the local Black community believed was murder, suspecting that white racists had arranged for Earl to be killed. Years later, Malcolms mother Louise suffered a mental breakdown and was institutionalized, scattering the children into foster care.Wikimedia CommonsA teenage Malcolm Littles mugshot in 1944.Despite this traumatic childhood, young Malcolm excelled academically and dreamed of becoming a lawyer someday until a teacher told him that was no realistic goal for a n*gger. He then dropped out by the age of 15, and after years of hustling in Boston and Harlem, Malcolm was arrested in 1946 for grand larceny and sentenced to eight to 10 years.It was behind bars that Malcolm Little began his transformation. He devoured books in the prison library, hand-copying the dictionary and immersing himself in subjects like science, history, and philosophy. And when his brothers introduced him to the Nation of Islam, Malcolm found more than just a religion he found a new purpose, eventually replacing his slave name with an X, representing his unknown African ancestry. Upon his release in 1952, his intelligence and charisma caught the attention of Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad, who made him a minister. Under Malcolms leadership, the organization exploded from roughly 400 members to an estimated 40,000 members in only eight years.Wikimedia CommonsBy the time of his death, Malcolm Xs rhetoric had taken on a more peaceful and inclusive tone but he still counted many powerful enemies, leading to numerous potential suspects who may have killed him. Malcolm X became famous and sometimes infamous for his uncompromising rhetoric. While Martin Luther King Jr. preached racial integration and nonviolent civil rights activism, Malcolm X proclaimed that Black Americans should secure their rights and freedom by any means necessary, including armed self-defense. His refusal to condemn violence and his description of white people as the white devil for their oppression of Black people drew both fierce criticism and a passionate following. He gave voice to a different type of Black anger, one that rejected the dream of racial harmony and raised the possibility of Black nationalism and separatism. Though his rhetoric eventually took on a more peaceful and inclusive tone, he continued to have a massive target on his back. The Assassination At The Audubon BallroomBy early 1965, Malcolm X had long been a marked man. His relationship with the Nation of Islam had deteriorated dramatically after he discovered that Elijah Muhammad was having extramarital affairs with young secretaries a clear violation of the movements teachings and after Malcolm made controversial remarks following President John F. Kennedys assassination, calling it chickens coming home to roost. Wikimedia CommonsMalcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., pictured during the first and only time they met on March 26, 1964.In March 1964, Malcolm X publicly split from the organization. Soon afterward, he embarked on a pilgrimage to Mecca that would once again change his worldview. He marveled at the sight of Muslims of all races (including white Muslims), embraced Sunni Islam, began speaking about the possibility of racial unity, and even took on the new name El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz earning him the lethal loathing of his former comrades.At the same time, Malcolm X had also long attracted the ire of the FBI. The FBIs director J. Edgar Hoover was known to have hated Malcolm and ordered close surveillance on him for years. Ominously, it was eventually revealed that just a year before Malcolms murder, Hoover had ordered the FBI office in New York City to do something about Malcolm X.Malcolm X was well aware that death was coming. While visiting the University of Oxford, he told British activist Tariq Ali that theyre going to kill me soon, naming either the Nation of Islam or the FBI as likely culprits. Just one week before the assassination, Malcolms home in East Elmhurst, Queens was firebombed, effectively confirming his suspicions.On Feb. 21, 1965, Malcolm X arrived at the Audubon Ballroom in New York Citys Washington Heights neighborhood to speak in front of about 400 people at a rally for his Organization of Afro-American Unity. Despite the recent attempt on his life, he asked his security team not to carry guns or search attendees at the door, hoping to welcome potential new members and make them feel as comfortable as possible. Meanwhile, his wife Betty, who was pregnant with twins, sat in the audience with their other children.As Malcolm X began his speech with As-salamu alaykum Peace be upon you a commotion erupted in the crowd. Someone shouted about a pickpocket. And in the confusion, as Malcolm attempted to restore order, witnesses saw multiple men in the crowd firing multiple gunshots at him, with one of the gunmen firing like he was in some Western.Wikimedia CommonsCircled bullet holes from the stage of the Audubon Ballroom, where Malcolm X was shot to death.Malcolm X was shot 21 times.Betty Shabazz threw herself over her children as gunshots echoed through the ballroom. A UPI correspondent described a terrifying volley of gunshots and screams that seemed to last for an eternity. Meanwhile, Malcolm X tumbled backward, blood spreading across his face and chest. He was pronounced dead shortly after he was taken to the hospital.The enraged crowd quickly descended on the suspects. One assassin, Nation of Islam member Thomas Hagan, was caught at the scene after being shot in the leg by Malcolms security. He was then beaten by some members of the crowd before he was arrested by the police. Authorities later said that Hagan had a pistol containing four unused bullets.In the chaos and grief that followed, many questions emerged. Who killed Malcolm X? Was this simply the Nation of Islams revenge? Or was there something even more sinister at work here?Three Men Were Convicted Of Malcolm Xs Murder But Did They Really Kill Him?Public DomainThomas Hagan being restrained by a police officer after the death of Malcolm X.Along with Thomas Hagan, police arrested two other Nation of Islam members for the death of Malcolm X: Muhammad A. Aziz and Khalil Islam. All three men were convicted of murder in 1966 and sentenced to life in prison. The prosecutions case may have seemed straightforward enough on the surface Nation of Islam members had killed their former comrade but from the very beginning, the case was riddled with problems. Experts say law enforcement agencies left the crime scene improperly secured, arguably botching the investigation from the start, and shockingly, there was even a dance held at the same ballroom hours after Malcolm had been shot there.Though Hagan admitted to shooting Malcolm X, describing him as a hypocrite who had gone against the leader of the Nation of Islam, he adamantly insisted that Aziz and Islam had nothing to do with it. Aziz and Islam maintained their innocence, offering alibis that placed them at their homes in the Bronx when the murder occurred. Whats more, no physical evidence linked them to the crime. The prosecution relied entirely on eyewitness testimony which was marked by troubling inconsistencies.In the 1970s, Hagan submitted two affidavits, reasserting that Aziz and Islam were innocent, naming other Nation of Islam members as his actual accomplices (while giving only partial names, not the full names). But for the time being, Aziz and Islam still remained behind bars.Later on, Aziz was paroled in 1985 and Islam was paroled in 1987, but their convictions still stood. Hagan stayed in prison until 2010 and eventually expressed deep regrets about his participation in killing Malcolm X.Bettmann/Getty ImagesMuhammad Abdul Aziz, one of the two men who were wrongly convicted for killing Malcolm X.Though Aziz and Islam were no longer in prison, they still had to live with the stigma of being convicted murderers of one of historys most important civil rights leaders a burden made all the heavier by their insistence they were innocent. Islam died in 2009, so he never saw his name cleared.As more people raised doubts about Aziz and Islams involvement, questions mounted about what really happened that day at the Audubon Ballroom.Then, in 2011, a former NYPD officer named Ray Wood claimed on his deathbed that he was part of a unit that worked to sabotage and discredit civil rights leaders and one of his assignments was to help ensure the arrest of two of Malcolm Xs best bodyguards just days before his assassination, leaving the activist especially vulnerable.It was my assignment to draw the two men into a felonious federal crime, so that they could be arrested by the FBI and kept away from managing Malcolm Xs door security on February 21, 1965, Wood alleged. Wood also expressed regret and remorse for his actions decades earlier, saying that he participated in actions that in hindsight were deplorable and detrimental to the advancement of my own Black people.The letters reemergence in 2021 prompted Malcolm Xs daughter Ilyasah Shabazz to call for the evidence to be thoroughly investigated. By this point, a reinvestigation into Malcolm Xs death and who killed him was already underway, following the release of a documentary about the assassination and a new biography that renewed interest in the case.Exoneration And The Search For TruthIn November 2021, after a 22-month investigation, Manhattan Judge Ellen Biben dismissed the convictions of Muhammad Aziz and Khalil Islam. One of the lawyers for Aziz and for Islams family said that the FBI and New York Police Department had withheld crucial evidence that pointed away from Aziz and Islam and could have even prevented their convictions. Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance said at the time: We are moving today to vacate the convictions and dismiss the indictments. I apologize for what were serious, unacceptable violations of law and the public trust.Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone/Getty ImagesMourners at Malcolm Xs funeral.The exoneration came about 57 years after the assassination, far too late for Islam, who had died still carrying the false mark of being Malcolm Xs killer. In October 2022, NPR reported that New York City had agreed to pay $26 million to settle lawsuits filed on behalf of both men, with the state of New York adding another $10 million a total of $36 million that would be divided equally between Aziz and the estate of Islam.David Shanies, an attorney representing the two men, said the settlements sent a message that police and prosecutorial misconduct cause tremendous damage, and we must remain vigilant to identify and correct injustices. The New York City Law Department also acknowledged that the wrongful convictions represented a grave miscarriage of justice.Yet the exonerations, while vindicating two innocent men, only deepened the mystery of who actually killed Malcolm X. Thomas Hagans conviction still stands, but its clear that he didnt work alone. Many scholars believe that other Nation of Islam members helped Hagan, likely including William Bradley, Leon Davis, Benjamin Thomas, and Wilbur McKinley. Unfortunately, its believed that most, if not all, of these potential accomplices have already died, making it impossible for them to be charged.Of course, the claims about the suppression of evidence by law enforcement agencies raise darker questions, and some believe that there may have been accomplices in various agencies like the FBI and the NYPD. Bettmann/Getty ImagesMalcolm X, pictured with his daughters Qubilah (left) and Attilah. Of course, J. Edgar Hoovers FBI had been monitoring Malcolm X closely, viewing him as a threat to national security and clearly wanting any threat removed. Former NYPD officer Ray Woods deathbed confession letter has also been viewed by some as a sign of a larger conspiracy at work. And disturbingly, a witness who saw Malcolm Xs assassination later came forward to say that he heard one NYPD officer ask another officer Is he one of us? while they were restraining Thomas Hagan after the murder. The extent of possible FBI and NYPD involvement whether through allowing the assassination to take place or even helping to plan it remains unknown. Chillingly, its also unknown what other evidence is still buried.And so, the quest for the full truth still continues, as it remains shrouded in mystery. Malcolm Xs family has called for even further investigation into his death, closely examining resurfaced evidence like Ray Woods letter. As Ilyasah Shabazz had said, any new evidence deserves thorough inspection. The exoneration of Aziz and Islam seemed to show that the once-official story was built on shaky testimony at best and outright lies at worst.After reading about who killed Malcolm X and the lingering mysteries about his death, learn all about the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Then, learn about Yuri Kochiyama, the woman who survived an internment camp, befriended Malcolm X, and became a prominent civil rights activist.The post Who Really Killed Malcolm X? Inside The Lingering Mysteries Surrounding His Assassination appeared first on All That's Interesting.

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