Malcolm X was a key figure in the civil rights movement and an American Muslim cleric and human rights campaigner. There were numerous attempts on Malcolm X’s life throughout 1964 as his struggle with the Nation of Islam escalated.
Malcolm X’s automobile was bombed in February by a member of Temple Seven’s leadership. On April 10th, Muhammad Speaks published a cartoon showing Malcolm X’s decapitated head bobbing about. When an FBI source heard that “Malcolm X is going to be bumped off,” four days later, they acted.
On the evening of February 14, 1965, the house in which he and his family had been told to depart was destroyed by fire.
A supporter of Muhammad named John Ali who is suspected of being an undercover FBI agent made a reference to Malcolm X on July 9 by declaring, “Anybody who opposes the Honorable Elijah Muhammad puts their life in peril.”
Who is the Murd*rer of Malcolm X?
Malcolm X told Gordon Parks on February 19, 1965, that the Nation of Islam was plotting his assassination. At his speech to the OAAU in Manhattan’s Audubon Ballroom on February 21, 1965, a member of the audience of 400 yelled, “Nigger! Get your hand outta my pocket!”
Two men attacked the stage with semiautomatic handguns as Malcolm X and his bodyguards sought to calm the crowd down. Malcolm X was sh*t in the chest by one of the attackers. A short time after arriving at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, Malcolm X was pronounced dead at 3:30 p.m.
According to the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X by Les Payne and Tamara Payne, the three men responsible for the assassination were all worshippers at the Newark, New Jersey, mosque of the Nation of Islam: William 25X (also known as William Bradley) who fired the sh*tgun, Leon Davis and Thomas Hayer.
Before the police came, the crowd beat down one of the gunmen, Nation of Islam member Talmadge Hayer (also known as Thomas Hagan). The other two sh*oters were identified as Nation members Norman 3X Butler and Thomas 15X Johnson.
In March of 1966, all three were found guilty of murd*r and given life sentences. At trial, Hayer admitted to the crime but declined to name the other attackers beyond saying that they were not Butler and Johnson.
Affidavits he signed in 1977 and 1978 defended Butler and Johnson’s innocence, but he also implicated four other members of the Nation at Mosque No. 25 in Newark in the murder or its planning. The case was not reopened as a result of these declarations.
In 2021, the murder convictions of Muhammad Abdul Aziz and Khalil Islam were overturned after an investigation revealed that the FBI and the New York Police Department had hidden information that would have exonerated the men.
Aziz sued the City of New York for $40 million in damages for his unlawful imprisonment on July 14, 2022, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
To read more about the topic of murd*r, we’ve provided links to our most recent posts regarding the subject:
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- Phil Hartman Death: The Truth Behind His Murder
- Kim Coleman Had to Go to Jail for the Murder of Whom?
Note: That is all the information we currently have about the murd*r of Malcolm X. We will keep you apprised as more official details emerge about his case. If you know anything else about him you can share it with us in the comments section below.
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