Nearly 56 years after the assassination of Malcolm X in New York City, lawyers and relatives of the late civil rights activist and the black nationalist leader released new evidence that they say the NYPD and the FBI conspired to his murder.
It comes in the form of a letter on the deathbed attributed to a disguised former NYPD officer who claimed that supervisors pressured him to lure two Malcolm X security men to commit crimes a few days before the murder. on February 21, 1965.
The arrests prevented the two men from managing the security of the doors to 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 Saturday at a press conference attended by three of X’s daughters and members of Wood’s family. No details were provided as to the circumstances and timing of Wood’s death.
“Under the direction of my managers,” the letter says, “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 shooting were innocent. In 2011, a NYPD detective involved wrote, “The investigation failed.”
The documentary motivated Manhattan 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 had “provided all available records relevant to this case” to Vance and “remains committed to assisting with this review in any way.”
The FBI made no comment.
Malcolm X was shot a few seconds after heading to a lectern to speak. Days earlier, he told an interviewer that he believed members of the Nation of Islam wanted to kill him. The FBI was watching him at the time. His home in Queens was bombed the week before his death.
One of her daughters, Ilyasah Shabazz, told a news conference on Saturday that she had lived through decades of uncertainty.
“Any evidence that provides a greater insight into the truth behind this terrible tragedy should be thoroughly investigated,” he said.