In early 2023, Malcolm X’s family marked the anniversary of his 1965 assassination by announcing plans to sue the FBI, CIA, and NYPD for $100m - but the case is anything but straightforward.

For more than 50 years, Malcolm X’s murder has been veiled in secrecy, igniting conspiracy theories that link the brutal assassination to the police and intelligence agencies. None of the allegations have been proven, but as Yale University professor Stephen L. Carter notes in an opinion column for Bloomberg, sometimes even conspiracy theorists have a point.

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The Murder of Malcolm X

The tragic climax of Malcolm X's life unfolded on February 21, 1965.

It was just after 3 pm when the civil rights activist began his speech at the Audubon Ballroom in upper Manhattan. Someone started shouting about a pickpocket and, in the confusion, a gunman with a sawed-off shotgun approached the stage and opened fire at close range. The gunman was part of a team. Malcolm X was shot 21 times in all by three men (some say four) while his family looked on.

His wife, Betty Shabazz, yelled, “They’re killing my husband,” as she and her children ducked for cover. A half-hour later, Malcolm X, 39, was pronounced dead.

Cries of foul play began shortly afterward with claims that the murder was not properly investigated; there were too many witness discrepancies and not enough physical evidence. The revelation that an undercover police detective witnessed the murder - a fact not disclosed to the defense - failed to persuade officials to reopen the case. Incredibly it was a Netflix documentary, Who Killed Malcolm X? (2020), that finally pushed the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office to reinvestigate. The results were stunning.

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The next court case‍

New York prosecutors exonerated two of the three men convicted of murder. Muhammad Aziz and Khalil Islam had already served about two decades each and were offered $36m in compensation in 2022. (As Islam is dead, the compensation will go to his family.) A third convicted gunman, Talmadge Hayer, aka Mujahid Abdul Halim, had already admitted his guilt and served his sentence.

Even more curious than the exonerations, the District Attorney’s office alleged in court documents that the FBI and NYPD initially withheld evidence (see below). Another court case is now brewing. This time, Malcolm X’s children plan to sue the FBI, CIA, and NYPD alleging that they fraudulently concealed evidence and conspired in an assassination plan. None of the allegations are proven and months after announcing the civil claim it still hadn’t been filed.

While the FBI and CIA haven’t commented publicly, the NYPD said in 2001 that the Department provided the District Attorney with all available records relevant to the case: “The department remains committed to assist with that review in any way."

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Malcolm X: Defend yourself ‘by any means necessary’

Nebraska-born orphan Malcolm Little was a grifter, a gambler, and a drug dealer raised largely in foster homes and reform schools. His spiritual rebirth began in 1952 when he emerged from prison having served six years for robbery. He embraced the teachings of the Nation of Islam, an African American movement that combined elements of Islam with Black nationalism, and replaced his surname with ‘X’.

The FBI had been watching Malcolm X since at least 1953 when his Bureau file noted he was the subject of a Communist Index Card, an FBI system used to track Americans and others before the adoption of computerized databases.

With undeniable charisma, Malcolm X aimed to empower marginalized young Black individuals in an America still plagued by segregation. His influential voice echoed far beyond the boundaries of the Black Muslim faith. He challenged the mainstream civil rights movement and the nonviolent pursuit of integration advocated by Martin Luther King Jr., encouraging followers to defend themselves "by any means necessary".

In 1964, Malcolm X established his own mosque and embarked on a pilgrimage to Mecca where he embraced Sunni Islam. Reborn for a second time as el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz, he renounced the separatist ideology of the Nation of Islam and preached a more inclusive approach to fight for Black rights.

Malcolm X apparently had no shortage of enemies when his home was firebombed a week before his death in 1965. He’d reportedly quarreled with the Black Muslims soon after JFK’s assassination. (They deny any involvement.) He was also at odds with the Ku Klux Klan white supremacists and had broken ties with the Nation of Islam which he’d joined in prison. He told The New York Times that he’d been receiving daily threats, so the list of suspects for the firebombing and murder a week later was lengthy.

Malcolm X family litigation

Malcolm X’s family are likely to face the same legal hurdles to prove their 2023 civil case as the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office did in reopening its investigation including a lack of physical evidence and a list of long-deceased eyewitnesses.

Some new evidence did come to light when the case was reopened in 2020, however, that may shed light on the proceedings including:

• previously unseen, unredacted documents from the FBI and NYPD concerning Malcolm X’s assassination;

• information that an undercover NYPD officer was acting as a member of Malcolm X’s security team and was relieved from his post just before Malcolm X took the stage;

• information that undercover NYPD detectives were present in the Audubon Ballroom when Malcolm X was shot but did not testify;

• Four FBI reports from February and March 1965 that indicate at least one witness to the murder had been an FBI informant who identified Aziz as one of the killers at trial; two other FBI informants also identified Aziz and Islam as the shooters;

• An FBI report dated February 25, 1965, indicates the Bureau ordered their local offices not to disclose to the NYPD that any witness in the murder investigation had been an FBI informant.

• Information that a New York Daily News reporter received an anonymous call on the morning of February 21, 1965, with the caller saying Malcolm X, Senator Robert Kennedy, NYC Mayor Robert Wagner, and Councilman Robert Lowe would be murdered by the Revolutionary Action Movement. The reporter did not take the call seriously and did not contact the NYPD until after Malcolm X was dead.

Curiously, in 2021, a letter also emerged allegedly written by a policeman at the time of the 1965 killing, supposedly implicating the New York police and the FBI in a conspiracy regarding the murder. Raymond Wood is said to have offered a deathbed confession saying his responsibility was to ensure Malcolm X's security team was arrested days before he was shot dead in Manhattan.

Since the letter was made public, however, Wood’s daughter has come forward to say that the letter and envelope are fake and that the deathbed confession was not signed by her father.