The Death Of Malcolm X

The assassination of Malcolm X during an appearance at the Audubon Ballroom long has been the subject of conspiracy theories involving the Nation of Islam, the New York City police and the FBI.

Three men, all Nation of Islam members, were charged and convicted in the killing, but only one, Talmadge X Hayer, also known as Thomas Hagan, was caught at the scene. Hayer, who had been shot by one of Malcolm’s bodyguards, was unable to flee.

Hayer soon admitted his part in the killing but insisted that the other two accused men, Norman 3X Butler and Thomas 15X Johnson, who both were members of a Harlem mosque, were not his accomplices.

In 1977, Hayer named three other men, Nation of Islam members from New Jersey, as his accomplices. The lawyer William Kunstler, representing Butler and Johnson, obtained FBI files, quoting informants who were at the ballroom as saying that at least one of the assassins was a member of a Newark, N.J., mosque.

Kunstler, who at one time had been Malcolm X’s lawyer, tried to have his clients granted a new trial but failed. Both men have been released from prison since then.

Kunstler and some Muslims have said that Malcolm X may have been killed by the New York City police, the FBI or both. They note that Malcolm was under surveillance by the FBI and that the FBI tried to foster a feud between Malcolm and other members of the Nation of Islam.

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