Nearly 56 years since the day Malcolm X was murdered in New York City, lawyers and members of the civil rights family and the black nationalist leader have released new evidence that claims to show that the NYPD and the FBI conspired in his murder.
It comes in the form of a deathbed letter attributed to a former disguised NYPD officer who claimed to have been pressured by supervisors to lure two Malcolm X security men to commit crimes, a few days before the February 21, 2009 murder. 1965.
The arrests prevented the two men from managing security at the doors of the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights on the day of the shooting, according to the letter.
The letter, written by Raymond Wood, was authorized for posthumous release by a cousin. It was read on Saturday at a news conference attended by three of X’s daughters and members of Wood’s family. No details were given about the circumstances and the timing of Wood’s death.
“Under the direction of my manipulators,” says the letter, “I was told to encourage leaders and members of civil rights groups to commit criminal acts.”
Last year, the murder was the subject of a six-part Netflix documentary, Who Killed Malcolm X ?, which reviewed long-standing questions about whether two of the three men convicted of the crime were innocent. In 2011, a NYPD detective involved wrote, “The investigation was sloppy.”
The documentary prompted Manhattan’s district attorney, Cyrus Vance Jr, to review the convictions in the case. After Saturday’s press conference, Vance’s office said the review was “active and ongoing”. In a separate statement, the NYPD said it “provided all available records relevant to that case” to Vance and “remains committed to helping with this review in any way”.
The FBI made no comment.
Malcolm X was shot seconds after stepping on a podium to speak. Days earlier, he told an interviewer that he believed members of the Nation of Islam were trying to kill him. He was being watched by the FBI at the time. His Queens home was bombed a week before he was killed.
One of his daughters, Ilyasah Shabazz, said at the news conference on Saturday that he lived with decades of uncertainty.
“Any evidence that provides a greater understanding of the truth behind this terrible tragedy must be investigated thoroughly,” she said.