Malcolm X’s Estate Sues CIA, FBI, NYPD For Allegedly Conspiring In Civil Rights Icon’s Assassination

Nov. 15, 2024, at the Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center in New York City. | Source: Ben Crump Law

The estate of Malcolm X, including family members, on Friday announced it filed a lawsuit against entities they allege were involved in the civil rights icon’s assassination nearly 60 years ago.

The family and their lawyers spoke from New York City during a press conference at the Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center, formerly known as the Audubon Ballroom where Malcolm X was shot dead at 39 on Feb. 21, 1965, in front of his wife and daughters.

Malcolm X’s estate sues CIA, FBI, NYPD

According to attorney Ben Crump, the lawsuit claims that law enforcement groups like the CIA, FBI and NYPD along with other governmental entities played a role in the conspiracy leading to Malcolm X’s assassination and engaged in a decades-long cover-up that deprived his family of justice.

“This cover-up spanned decades, blocking the Shabazz family’s access to the truth and their right to pursue justice,” Crump said in a statement sent to NewsOne. “We are making history by standing here to confront those wrongs and seeking accountability in the courts.”

According to a press release from Crump’s office, the lawsuit makes several allegations, including:

• The NYPD and federal agencies were aware of imminent threats but failed to safeguard Malcolm X’s life.

• The NYPD and federal agencies removed security personnel from the ballroom, reducing his protection.

• Federal and local agencies allegedly encouraged the assassination and directly facilitated conditions that made it possible.

• Federal agents, including undercover operatives, were in the ballroom during the assassination and took no steps to intervene.

• After the assassination, a coordinated effort was made to conceal the involvement of these agencies, preventing the Shabazz family from seeking justice in court.

Two policemen carry a stretcher bearing Negro nationalist leader Malcolm X after he was downed by an assassin’s bullets at a rally on February 21, 1965. The 39-year-old Malcolm was pronounced dead at the hospital when he was taken for treatment. The assassination of the one-time Muslim official came one week after the bombing of his home on February 13th. | Source: Bettmann / Getty

What we know about Malcolm X’s assassination

Earlier this year, on the 59th anniversary of Malcolm X’s assassination, Crump introduced Khaleel Sultarn Sayyed, a former Malcolm X security team member. Sayyed claimed he was falsely arrested by the NYPD days before the assassination.

“I believe I was detained in this conspiracy by the NYPD … and FBI in order to ensure Malcolm X’s planned assassination would be successful,” he said during a press conference in February.

Crump, who last year announced intentions by Malcolm X’s family to file a $100 million lawsuit against the NYPD, has suggested that government officials are concealing evidence from the assassination.

“Why don’t you release the information?” Crump asked. “Why don’t you release the files, release the memos, release the reports, release the surveillance of Malcolm X? Fifty-nine years. How long is it gonna take for you to come clean?” 

Crump also introduced testimony from another former security guard who claimed he was also detained by police on the day of the assassination.

“Fifty-nine years later, what more excuses can you offer to why America cannot see what the government did involving the assassination of Malcolm X?” Crump asked. 

In July 2023, during a press conference, Crump introduced Mustafa Hassan, 84, as “the witness who was right there beside Malcolm in the last moments of his life.”

Hassan, then known as Richard Melvin Jones, recalled that as Malcolm X began delivering his speech, someone yelled out “n—a, get your hand out my pocket” before a loud explosion caused disruption and led to gunshots ringing out.

Hassan said he ran toward the stage and saw a man fleeing down the aisle with a gun. That person was Talmadge Hayer – also known as Mujahid Abdul Halim – who later admitted he took part in the murder. Hassan said he knocked down Hayer and continued to the stage to see that Malcolm X was near death. Hassan said he was overcome with anger and ran back to find Hayer, who was already outside being beaten by Malcolm X’s followers.

“To this day, despite my presence inside and outside of the Audubon on that day, law enforcement never attempted to interview or attain a statement from me regarding what I had seen, heard and actually did that day,” Hassan said. 

Malcolm X pictured in 1964. | Source: Truman Moore / Getty

In 2021, it was revealed that Ray Wood, an NYPD officer who was working undercover when Malcolm X was assassinated, “confessed in a deathbed declaration letter that the NYPD and the FBI conspired to undermine the legitimacy of the civil rights movement and its leaders,” Crump and co-counsel Ray Hamlin said in a statement at the time.

A letter attributed to Wood was read aloud by Reggie Wood, a relative and administrator of Malcolm X’s estate, and handed to three of Malcolm X’s children — Qubiliah Shabazz, Ilyasah Shabazz and Gamilah Shabazz — who were in attendance.

“I participated in actions that in hindsight were deplorable and detrimental to the advancement of my own Black people,” the letter says in part. “My actions on behalf of the New York City Police Department were done under duress and fear.”

The letter also stated that Thomas Johnson, one of the men arrested in connection with Malcolm X’s murder, was wrongfully convicted.

“Any evidence that provides greater insight into the truth behind that terrible tragedy should be thoroughly investigated,” Ilyasah Shabazz, daughter of Malcolm X, said at the time.

Days later, Wood’s daughter claimed the latter was “fake.”

The letter echoed theories raised in the 2020 Netflix documentary, Who Killed Malcolm X? The series followed Abdur-Rahman Muhammad, an activist and self-trained investigator who dedicated his life work to solving the civil rights icon’s murder. In the documentary, Muhammad interviews several important figures involved in the investigation and explores different conspiracy theories including possible federal and state law enforcement involvement. Muhammad also attempts to explore an accusation that Malcolm X’s alleged killer was a Newark community leader who worshipped at a local Mosque.

Three men were jailed for the 1965 murder of Malcolm X. Talmadge Hayer – later known as Mujahid Abdul Halim – admitted he took part in the murder, while two other men, Norman 3X Butler (who later changed his name to Muhammad Abdul Aziz) and Thomas 15X Johnson (who took the name Khalil Islam), maintained their innocence. Aziz was released on parole in 1985; Islam was released in 1987 but died in 2009; Halim was released in 2010.

In 2021, Abdul Aziz and Islam were ultimately exonerated for their alleged roles in the assassination. This past October, it was announced that both men and their families would receive a $36 million settlement after suing the city and the state of New York.

“Based on our review, this office stands by the opinion of former Manhattan District Attorney Vance who stated, based on his investigation, that ‘there is one ultimate conclusion: Mr. Aziz and Mr. Islam were wrongfully convicted of this crime,’” a New York City Law Department spokesman told ABC News at the time.

Vance notably apologized for “serious, unacceptable violations of the law and the public trust.”

In 2011, the U.S. Department of Justice notably declined to re-investigate Malcolm X’s assassination.

circa 1965: Malcolm X speaks to a woman inside Temple 7, a Halal restaurant patronized by Black Muslims in Harlem, New York City. | Source: Richard Saunders / Getty

Malcolm X assassination conspiracy theories remain thriving

The popular narrative has been that Malcolm X was shot and killed by members of the NOI. Spike Lee even immortalized the moment on the big screen in 1992. But some have questioned whether those orders were given by Black Muslim leaders like Farrakhan or Elijah Muhammad, the latter being the NOI leader with whom Malcolm X had a philosophical falling out in the early 1960s.

The NOI, for its part, has a page on its website dedicated to the “Malcolm X Assassination & FBI COINTELPRO,” implicating the FBI’s Counter Intelligence Program which at the time focused much of its efforts “to the activities of such groups as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Revolutionary Action Movement, the Deacons for Defense and Justice, Congress of Racial Equality, and the Nation of Islam.”

The one person who admitted to being one of the gunmen who shot Malcolm X in the Audubon Ballroom in New York City was released from prison in 2010 after serving 44 years behind bars. Thomas Hagan was on record saying that he had “deep regrets about my participation in that. I don’t think it should ever have happened.”

SEE ALSO:

Fact vs. Fiction: Malcolm X, MLK And The Truth About Their Relationship

Blood Brothers: The Friendship Between Muhammad Ali & Malcolm X