Nearly 56 years since the day Malcolm X was murdered in New York City, attorneys and family members of the deceased civil rights and black nationalist leader have released new evidence that they allege the NYPD and FBI conspired in his murder.
It comes in the form of a deathbed letter attributed to a former NYPD undercover officer who claimed he was pressured by supervisors to trick two of Malcolm X’s security guards into committing crimes a few days before the murder. on February 21, 1965.
The arrests prevented the two men from securing the door at the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights on the day of the shooting, the letter said.
The letter, written by Raymond Wood, was authorized for posthumous release by a cousin. It was read on Saturday at a press conference attended by three of X’s daughters and Wood’s relatives. No details were provided as to the circumstances and time of Wood’s death.
“Under the direction of my escorts,” the letter says, “I was told to encourage leaders and members of civil rights groups to commit crimes.”
Last year, the murder was the subject of a six-part Netflix documentary, Who Killed Malcolm X ?, which has long-standing questions about whether two of the three men convicted in the shooting were innocent. In 2011, a concerned NYPD detective wrote, “The investigation has failed.”
The documentary prompted Manhattan prosecutor Cyrus Vance Jr to review the convictions in the case. Following 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 data relevant to that case” to Vance and “remains committed to assisting in that assessment in any way.”
The FBI did not comment.
Malcolm X was shot seconds after stepping to a lectern to speak. Days earlier, he told an interviewer that he believed members of the Nation of Islam were trying to kill him. He was being watched by the FBI at the time. His house in Queens was bombed the week before he was murdered.
One of his daughters, Ilyasah Shabazz, told Saturday’s press conference that she had lived with decades of uncertainty.
“Any evidence that provides further insight into the truth behind that terrible tragedy should be thoroughly investigated,” she said.