Daughters Call for Investigation: New Clues about Malcolm X's Murder

Daughters demand investigation
New clues about Malcolm X's murder

In 1965 the civil rights activist Malcolm X was shot dead at an event. Now the letter from a deceased ex-police officer turns up. In it, the officer incriminates the New York police and the FBI heavily. The daughters of Malcolm X are now demanding that the background to the attack be re-examined.

The daughters of US civil rights activist Malcolm X, murdered in 1965, have called for a full new investigation into the attack. Over the weekend, they relied on newly emerged evidence that allegedly implicated the New York Police and the Federal FBI in the attack. All evidence on the case would have to be "thoroughly checked", demanded Ilyasah Shabazz, one of the civil rights activist's six daughters, in a press conference.

A spokesman for the New York prosecutor said when asked that a new review of the murder case was "ongoing". The New York FBI office made no response when asked.

Malcolm X was shot dead on February 21, 1965 while performing in Harlem, New York. During the press conference on Saturday, a letter was read from a deceased policeman alleging complicity in the murder with the New York Police and the FBI. The late official Raymond Wood did not want his statements on the case to be published until after his death.

Wood – an African American – is said to have lured the two bodyguards of Malcolm X into a trap as an undercover agent. The two bodyguards were arrested a few days before the murder. When he appeared in Harlem, the civil rights activist was without a bodyguard. He was shot dead when he was about to start giving a speech.

Three men were sentenced to life imprisonment for the attack. One of them, Thomas Hagan, confessed to the crime, but described the other two convicts as innocent. Hagan was released in 2010 after granting a petition for clemency that he had submitted. He was a former member of the Muslim black movement Nation of Islam, of which Malcolm X was one of its leaders. One of the other two convicts died in prison in 2009. The third convict was released on parole in 1985.

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