On the 58th anniversary of their father’s death, the three surviving daughters of civil rights activist Malcolm X want to file a lawsuit against the NYPD and other governmental entities, alleging that they were complicit in their father’s murder in 1965.
Ilyasah, 60, Attallah, 64, and Qubilah Shabazz, 62, are expected to make allegations about how the government “fraudulently suppressed” information related to Malcolm X’s assassination.
They have a long-standing working relationship with renowned civil rights and personal injury attorney Ben Crump, who has taken on their case.
Crump and co-counsel Ray Hamlin intend to file a “notice of intent” to bring a lawsuit on behalf of the daughters against the NYPD and other government entities, alleging their involvement in the killing.
The lawsuit will claim that the authorities that were looking into Malcolm X’s killing “fraudulently withheld” information related to his murder.
The involvement that the NYPD, FBI, and CIA, as well as other federal and New York government organizations, played in his murder has long been a source of controversy.
The 58th anniversary of civil rights activist Malcolm X’s passing is on Tuesday.
Malcolm X was shot 21 times on that particular day in 1965 while giving a speech in the Audubon Ballroom in front of his family. He was 39 years old.
Crump claims that the authorities at the time had access to factual and mitigating evidence that they withheld from Malcolm X’s family and those wrongfully convicted of crimes related to his assassination.
A well-known civil rights activist in the middle of the 20th century was Malcolm X.
He was born in 1925, and in the 1950s, while incarcerated, he joined the Nation of Islam.
Following his release, he gained notoriety as a charismatic Nation of Islam spokesperson and was recognized for his ferocious speeches and activity in support of black liberation and the struggle against racism.
As the Nation of Islam’s spokesperson who urged black people to assert their civil rights “by whatever means necessary,” he rose to national notoriety.
His autobiography, co-written with Alex Haley, is still regarded as a classic piece of contemporary American literature, and a 1992 Denzel Washington-starring Spike Lee movie was based on his life. Washington received an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Malcolm X.
Malcolm X left the Nation of Islam toward the end of his life and, after visiting Mecca, began discussing the possibility of racial harmony.
Others in the Nation of Islam were furious with him over it, including the leader Elijah Muhammad, who viewed him as a traitor.
Up until his murder in 1965, which is still a contentious and disputed incident, he remained a prominent supporter of black rights.
Malcolm X was shot and assassinated by several assailants on February 21, 1965, when he was giving a lecture at the Audubon Ballroom in Upper Manhattan.
For their roles in the assassination, three individuals were later found guilty, but many have questioned whether there were further participants and what their goals may have been.
In March 1966, a jury found Muhammad Aziz, Khalil Islam, and a third man guilty of murder. At the time, these men went under the names Norman 3X Butler and Thomas 15X Johnson. They received a life in jail sentence.
The third man, Mujahid Abdul Halim, also known as Thomas Hagan and Talmadge Hayer, acknowledged shooting Malcolm X but denied any involvement from Aziz or Islam.
No tangible evidence connected the two, who both provided alibis, to the crime.
After serving decades in prison for their alleged involvement in the 1965 murder, Muhammad Aziz, now 85, and the family of the late Khalil Islam, who passed away in 2018, had their verdicts overturned in 2021, with the two parties receiving a combined $36 million in compensation.
Both men were cleared in November 2021 after a nearly two-year investigation by their attorneys and the Manhattan District Attorney, which resulted in the overturning of their conviction due to historical and legal experts’ concerns about the case’s flaws.
Officials in New York decided to pay $26 million for the incorrect convictions as compensation for the monumental affront, with the state contributing an additional $10 million.
After a 22-month inquiry into claims that the FBI, New York Police, and prosecutors concealed material information in the case that would have cleared the two, it was decided to rectify the unjust convictions.
Additionally, it has been claimed that government organizations including the FBI and NYPD were complicit in the murder.
Others think that Malcolm X may have been the subject of reprisal as a result of his activities and criticism of these organizations.
His opposition to racism and injustice in all its manifestations had also increased, which may have made him a target for those who disagreed with his message.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s office declared it was reexamining the case in early 2020, following the release of the Netflix documentary series “Who Killed Malcolm X?
Then-New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio declared, “For millions and millions of Americans, we still need to know who assassinated Malcolm X and who ordered it.”
Yet, the passage of time has dimmed the prospect.
All of the physical evidence, including a shotgun used in the murder, has been destroyed, along with any possible phone records, and all of the eyewitnesses who gave testimony during the trial have passed away.
The family of Malcolm X has made public a letter from a late police officer that suggests the FBI and police colluded to kill the civil rights activist in 1965.
Lawyers and family members of the late civil rights leader released a letter in 2021, marking the 56th anniversary of Malcolm X’s murder in New York City, in which they say the Police and FBI colluded in the crime.
Ben Crump, a civil rights lawyer, revealed the note at a news conference and claimed that it was a deathbed confession written by Ray Wood, a former undercover NYPD cop.
In his letter, Wood alleges that the FBI and the NYPD planned to murder Malcolm X, who was shot dead on February 21, 1965, while attending a protest in Harlem’s Audubon Ballroom.
He said that days before the shooting, two members of Malcolm X’s security detail were lured into committing crimes that led to their arrest. He claimed that he was under pressure from his NYPD managers to do this.
According to the letter, those arrests prevented the two guys from overseeing door security at the ballroom on the night Malcolm was killed.
According to Wood in the letter, “My mission was to infiltrate civil rights organizations all throughout New York City to gather proof of illegal behavior, so the FBI could discredit and arrest its leaders.”
I was instructed by my handlers to motivate civil rights group leaders and members to engage in criminal activity.
The former officer claimed in a later letter, dated January 25, 2011, that he had acted under pressure and out of fear of retaliation.
“I attempted to retire after repeatedly seeing cruelty committed by my fellow officers (police). Instead, if I did not complete the assignments, I was threatened with arrest and given marijuana and alcohol trafficking accusations.
Wood asserts that he forced members of Malcolm X’s security detail to plan an attack at the Statue of Liberty on February 16, 1965.
The police then thwarted the scheme, and the two men were detained just days before Malcolm X was assassinated. I was unaware that Malcolm X was the target at the time,” Wood wrote.
Wood gave his cousin permission to withhold the information until after his dying and then signed the letter.
“I hope that by conveying this knowledge, it will be understood that I have carried these secrets with a heavy heart and really regret my involvement in this affair,” the author writes.
Reggie Wood, Wood’s cousin, claimed that Wood confessed to his involvement in the crime in 2011, when he thought his cancer would claim his life. In the end, he experienced remission and survived until November 2020.
For ten years, Reggie Wood has kept this confession a secret out of concern for what would happen to him and his family if the authorities learned what he knows.
The three surviving daughters of Malcolm X joined civil rights lawyer Ben Crump in calling for the reopening of the murder inquiry.
Ilyasah Shabazz opined that “any evidence that provides further insight into the facts behind that horrible incident should be thoroughly probed.”
So, what we’re trying to do is talk about restorative justice is as lawyers – try to pursue unrelenting justice, said attorney Ray Hamlin.
“Dr. Betty Shabazz, on behalf of the legacy of Malcolm X, on behalf of his family and his lineage who are here.”
Mujahid Abdul Halim (also known as Talmadge Hayer and Thomas Hagan), Muhammad Abdul Aziz (also known as Norman 3X Butler), and Khalil Islam (also known as Thomas 15X Johnson) were three members of the Nation of Islam who were found guilty of killing Malcolm X in 1966 and given life sentences in prison.
Halim acknowledged his involvement in the murder, but he argued that Aziz and Islam were not complicit. And throughout the years, the two remained blameless.
Halim and Aziz have since been granted release, and Islam passed away in 2009.
Following a meeting with representatives of the Innocence Project in 2020, the Manhattan District Attorney started an investigation into Islam and Aziz’s convictions.
The NYPD stated in a different statement that it had “given to the District Attorney all records pertinent to that investigation” and “remains committed to cooperate with that review in any way.”
Refusing to comment on the situation, the FBI
As the national spokesperson for the Nation of Islam, an African-American Muslim organization that promoted Black separatism, Malcolm X gained notoriety as a dynamic orator.
Before growing frustrated and officially departing from the group in 1964, he spent more than ten years there. Some of his previous opinions on the advantages of racial segregation were softened by him.
On February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was shot just after approaching a podium inside the Audubon Ballroom to deliver a speech.
A man had gotten up just before and exclaimed, “N***** get your hand out of my pocket!”
Malcolm X and his group were attempting to calm the crowd when two guys with semi-automatic handguns and a man carrying a sawed-off shotgun charged the stage and shot Malcolm X once in the chest.
The civil rights activist was taken by ambulance to Columbia Presbyterian, where at 3:30 pm he was pronounced dead not long after arriving.
He had sustained a total of 21 gunshot wounds to his chest, arms, and legs, an autopsy subsequently revealed.
Malcolm X had ominously revealed to a reporter a few days prior that he thought Nation of Islam members were attempting to have him killed.
The FBI was keeping watch over him at the time. The week before he passed away, someone firebombed his Queens house.
Conspiracies about police complicity in the killing started to spread almost immediately after his death.
Many of the ideas focused on how simple it was for the assassins to access the ballroom and how poorly the police were thought to have handled the crime scene.
Tony Bouza, one of the officers involved, would later claim that the “investigation was bungled” in his 2011 book “Manny Marable’s Malcolm X.”
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