Shownotes Transcript
This episode includes discussions of violence and murder. Consider this when deciding how and when you'll listen. The 1960s marked a decade of political upheaval, revolution, and dissidence. A 1969 government report said it ranked among the most violent in our history. As unrest rose and trust in justice waned, disrupting the status quo placed a mark squarely on one's back.
That was the case for Malcolm X. He lived with the danger of violence every single day. He chose to speak out against it, even when he knew it would cost his life. Toward the end, every public appearance was like staring down the barrel of an assassin's rifle. Malcolm X knew who was pointing the gun, but who told them to pull the trigger?
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When his mother, Louise Little, was pregnant with Malcolm in April of 1925, there was a late-night knock on the door of the family's small cabin near Omaha, Nebraska. Outside were men in white hoods, members of the KKK. They were looking for Malcolm's father, Earl Little. He was a member of a local organization dedicated to improving the lives of Black Americans. But Earl wasn't home that night.
So the hooded KKK members broke the windows of the home and threatened Louise and her three small children. The next time they came back, it would be to kill the entire family. The little family's brush with the Omaha KKK is just the beginning of a lifetime of racially motivated harassment and terror. Malcolm and his siblings are often the only black children at their school.
They're called racial slurs on a daily basis. When Malcolm is four, his family's house in Lansing, Michigan is burnt down, and it's suspected to be the doing of white supremacists. When he's six, his father Earl dies after he's run over by a streetcar. Officials say it's an accident, but Malcolm later theorizes a local white supremacist group murdered him.
Louise does her best to hold the family together on her own, but now she has seven children. By the time Malcolm is 13, she hits a breaking point. She's sent to a mental health hospital, and Malcolm and his siblings are separated into different foster homes. On paper, it looks like Malcolm tolerates the volatility of his childhood remarkably well.
He maintains good grades and is well-liked by his classmates, teachers, and foster parents, who are virtually all white. He's even voted class president at his junior high. As a young teen, Malcolm starts thinking about his future. He has a favorite teacher, one that always encourages his students' ambitions. But when Malcolm, the only black kid in his class,
confides that he'd like to be a lawyer. The teacher tells him that a trade like carpentry would be a more realistic goal. This is a turning point in Malcolm's life. He realizes the work he put into studying, into getting white folks to like him, it won't help him get where he wants in life. So why try? Malcolm drops out of school and moves to the East Coast, eventually landing in Harlem,
But Malcolm gets mixed up with local criminals. He runs illegal gambling schemes, uses and sells drugs, traffics women, and burglarizes homes. It's a lifestyle that has an inevitable expiration date. For Malcolm, that's February 1946. He's 20 years old when he goes to prison. While he's inside, Malcolm returns to his studies.
But he's full of anger with no outlet. Many inmates turn to religion, but Malcolm has had it with mainstream Christianity. To him, it feels synonymous with white culture. Then, his brother Wilfred introduces him to the Nation of Islam. It's a decisively black organization with both religious and political aspects.
Every part of it appeals to Malcolm. From a spiritual perspective, members of the Nation of Islam are Muslim. Their leader, Elijah Muhammad, tells his followers that converting to Islam is a return to their roots, that their ancestors may have been Muslim before they were enslaved. This approach gives Malcolm access to a religion that fully embraces his black identity.
On the political side, the nation is working on everything that dissatisfies Malcolm about black life in America. The organization wants to unify its members to work toward racial justice with some radical ideas and methods.
Under Elijah, the nation claims that the world was first run by black scientists, one of whom created a white race. According to a nation prophecy, black people are supposed to reclaim power from so-called white devils. The nation is unflinching about their belief that reclaiming their power will require violence.
Young male members are highly encouraged to join the Fruit of Islam, an internal security force trained in hand-to-hand combat and military drills. They don't carry weapons, but they expect a fight. Elijah Muhammad appeals to Malcolm.
To him, the Nation of Islam offers a path toward dignity and a meaningful place in society, while also working toward racial justice. It feels like home to Malcolm. Malcolm writes a letter to Elijah, dedicating himself to Allah. Elijah responds, welcoming Malcolm into the nation and to their cause.
The Nation of Islam gives Malcolm a new focus. He redoubles his studies and joins his prison's debate club where he hones his natural skill for public speaking. When he emerges from prison in the summer of 1952, he's transformed. He's done with crime. Now, he wants to change the world.
Malcolm stops using his last name, instead adopting the Nation of Islam practice of replacing it with the letter X. When Malcolm's ancestors were enslaved, they were forced to take their slave master's names and eventually lost their own. Rather than using a name inherited from a history of slavery, Malcolm chooses to acknowledge that his real family surname is unknown and therefore represented with an X.
Elijah immediately sees the potential in Malcolm as an effusive and effective spokesman for the Nation of Islam. He takes a special interest in Malcolm, mentoring him and offering special favors. For example, when Malcolm gets married to Betty Dean Sanders, who he met at a Nation of Islam lecture in Harlem, Elijah reportedly pays her nursing school tuition. Elijah's attention pays off.
When Malcolm speaks publicly about the virtues of the nation and their cause, people listen. His own transformation from a criminal to sharp public speaker and devout Muslim is seen by many in the audience as a case study for what the nation can do to remake black people and their prospects. Many of those who heard Malcolm's early speeches credit them with changing the course of their lives.
According to the Netflix docuseries Who Killed Malcolm X, Malcolm helps increase the Nation of Islam's membership. During the 1950s, the nation expands from only a few hundred active members to a nationally recognized organization with over 25,000 dedicated followers. Malcolm spearheads the opening of mosques all over the country and himself presides over one in Harlem.
Even though only a small percentage of the Black American population are nation members, the organization holds significant influence among many Black Americans. His perspective about the power of the nation is shared across racial lines, but while it galvanizes many in the Black community, it disturbs mainstream white America and piques the attention of law enforcement.
The NYPD starts keeping tabs on Malcolm as soon as he settles in New York. As a public figure with a criminal history and ties to a growing radical political organization, Malcolm is someone the police consider dangerous. The surveillance is encouraged by folks higher up the chain of command. J. Edgar Hoover, leader of the FBI, has also taken a keen interest in Malcolm.
Hoover is dubious of any black radical movement, and that includes Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam. Hoover recognizes that Malcolm has the ability to animate a significant percentage of the black American population. And remember, the nation includes a militia-like arm, the Fruit of Islam.
Hoover worries about the combination of Fruit of Islam soldiers and Malcolm's reach into the black community resulting in violence and chaos. J. Edgar Hoover isn't the only one concerned about Malcolm's ability to upset the status quo. Malcolm's undeniable hold on the nation's fellowship and growing notoriety nationwide is quietly sowing discord among the organization's other leaders.
Even Malcolm's mentor, Elijah Muhammad, begins to chafe against Malcolm's star power. By the early 1960s, it feels like he's no longer the face of the nation. Malcolm X is. There are a few reasons behind this mistrust.
One is simple jealousy. Other leaders never like the special treatment Malcolm once got from Elijah and think Malcolm enjoys the spotlight a little too much. The bigger problem is that Malcolm is also widely seen as the natural successor to the aging Elijah. That possibility makes Elijah's sons view Malcolm as an outright threat to their birthright.
According to some Nation insiders, there's more at stake here than just spiritual leadership. Growing membership to the Nation means more tithing. Malcolm often preaches about how that money goes into community support and small business loans. Some of it does. And some of it also reportedly goes directly into the pockets of Elijah and his family.
The assumption among Elijah's sons is that if Malcolm ever came into power and discovered where the money was flowing, their cash cow would be sacrificed. There's mistrust on both sides. Even though Malcolm does his best to stamp out the rumor that he's the heir apparent, it's clear that some people inside the nation still consider him to be one. Because whenever other members have a grievance with Elijah...
They bring it to Malcolm. Admitting to even a minor disagreement with the nation's leader is a big taboo. Membership requires unquestioning loyalty to Elijah. But Malcolm isn't afraid to confront the supreme leader. At the end of 1963, Malcolm openly disobeys orders from Elijah, who responds by suspending Malcolm from public speaking for 90 days.
Malcolm doesn't listen. It's a clear signal to other nation members and to the public. Malcolm is done following Elijah. And that is a stance that the nation cannot tolerate. According to Malcolm's own account, a former assistant approaches him with apprehension. It's a stance Malcolm must have been familiar with by now. This is a fellow member of the nation who is about to break the chain of command.
Malcolm's right. The subordinate confesses that another nation member ordered him to install a bomb in Malcolm's car. When Malcolm turned the ignition, the whole thing was supposed to explode. Malcolm escapes this time, but the implication is clear. Someone with authority inside the nation wants him dead.
Malcolm responds by publicly announcing his official break with the nation and the formation of his own organization. Malcolm is resolute. He will continue his work until it kills him. Great days start with great underwear, and Tommy John makes the greatest.
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In late 1964, Malcolm X announces the formation of the Organization of African American Unity, OAAU for short. It's decidedly a political organization, not a religious one. Malcolm welcomes everyone to be a member, regardless of their spiritual beliefs. The mission of the OAAU is racial equality.
But Malcolm clarifies a shift in stance that brings him closer to the mainstream 1960s civil rights movement. He's now targeting racism as the root of injustice. Malcolm's plan of attack is ambitious. He wants OAAU to combat racism on a global stage and connect Black Americans with Africans. This approach creates an opportunity for international support.
And soon African countries began showing interest. Malcolm tours across North Africa, received by world leaders as a contemporary. One journalist refers to him as the president of black America. Part of Malcolm's reformed approach is informed by a pilgrimage to Mecca.
After leaving the nation, Malcolm is hungry to know more about the roots of his faith and wants to officially convert to Sunni Islam. Malcolm finds the trip transformative and inspiring. In Mecca, he feels that he and his fellow worshippers are treated as equals. It's an experience unlike anything he's felt in the States. To mark this secondary transformation, Malcolm changes his name again.
He chooses the Islamic name El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, although he's still publicly and privately called Malcolm. He begins referring to himself in another way, too, as a marked man. Malcolm's departure causes quite a stir inside the nation. Leaders, including Elijah Muhammad, disparage Malcolm after his expulsion, calling him a heretic, hypocrite, and traitor himself.
But still, some members choose to resign their fellowship and follow Malcolm instead. After he leaves, membership reportedly falls to less than 7,000. Things escalate from there. The organization evicts Malcolm and his family from their home, which the nation owns. A nation leader publishes an ominous letter to Malcolm in a Nation of Islam newspaper. It says...
The die is set, and Malcolm shall not escape. Such a man is worthy of death. Malcolm doesn't take it lying down. He strikes back with the only weapon he has: the truth about why he left. Sometime in the early 1960s, several of Elijah Muhammad's personal secretaries, usually girls and women in their teens and early 20s, became pregnant.
Sex outside marriage is outlawed in the nation, so these women faced expulsion as well as public humiliation. But a few approached Malcolm with their side of the story. Elijah was fathering their children. Malcolm confronted Elijah with this accusation. He basically shrugged, telling Malcolm that plenty of other prophets aren't perfect. Malcolm may have hoped that exposing Elijah would weaken the nation further...
But most of the remaining members brush off Malcolm's claim as the lie of an embittered traitor. Many of the nation's leaders were already aware of Elijah's transgressions and shrugged them off as well. All Malcolm's revelation does is make life more dangerous for him and his family. His wife Betty reportedly receives six to seven menacing phone calls daily, and
Death threats become a regular occurrence. He begins traveling with members of OAAU for security, who often stand on stage while he's speaking. But they can't protect him from everything. On Valentine's Day 1965, the threats become real. Malcolm, Betty, and their daughters are all asleep at home. Malcolm wakes up when he hears a window breaking.
A few seconds later, a massive explosion shakes the entire house. Malcolm and Betty rush to gather up their children. Betty can't move that fast. She's pregnant with twins, but she has to. The house is on fire. As they hurry outside to safety, they hear another explosion. It takes at least half an hour for authorities to arrive. When the press shows up, Malcolm doesn't mince words.
He says that the bombs were delivered upon the orders of Elijah Muhammad. With so many public threats against Malcolm, and now a clear attempt on his life, the NYPD offers him protection. But even though Malcolm literally just pulled his own children out of a burning building, he declines police help. Malcolm knows he's the target of NYPD surveillance.
He believes the department will always view him as a suspect before they view him as a victim. Malcolm feels that black people can't trust people who committed violence against them to also protect them. Plus, the family's interactions with police prior to the firebombing already confirmed Malcolm's suspicions. Betty contacted police about the threatening phone calls coming to their house. They told her there was nothing they could do.
Malcolm tries to protect his family by sending them to stay with a friend, but he takes no such measures to defend himself. He continues with his public appearances as planned. People close to Malcolm are concerned. He seems worn out on the brink of shattering. A violent death seems imminent and unavoidable. He tells a close friend it will all be over soon.
The day after the firebombing, Malcolm and his regular security guard show up for the first of a series of planned appearances at the Audubon Ballroom, a meeting hall in Manhattan. One of those guards, Gene, stands on stage with Malcolm. As the minister speaks, Gene scans the audience for threats. His eyes are drawn to a disruption toward the center. He feels his whole body tense.
People stand, suddenly knocking down their chairs. Gene spots a man advancing toward the stage. He doesn't recognize him. This isn't an OAAU member. This man shouldn't be here. Gene approaches, but the man just sits down in an empty seat, diffusing the situation. If Gene does anything now, he'll be the one making a disruption. He returns to the stage, unsettled.
In retrospect, Gene thinks this was a dress rehearsal for the real thing. Less than a week later, the night before another appearance at the Audubon Ballroom, Malcolm is asleep in a hotel room. The security team chose it, thinking he would be safe there. According to some accounts, in the middle of the night, the phone rings. Malcolm startles awake and picks up the phone. A man's voice on the other end says, Wake up, brother.
Before hanging up, the message is clear. No matter where Malcolm goes, his enemies will find him. Things feel off from the moment Malcolm and his bodyguards arrive at the ballroom on February 21st, 1965. Typically, they expect a police presence, but today, they don't see a single officer on the sidewalk.
Reportedly, Malcolm tells his bodyguards he doesn't want anyone covering the door or doing body searches. This confounds the security team. They all know danger is so close. Why doesn't Malcolm want to take basic precautions that could save his life? It almost seems like he's ready to die. The ballroom fills up with about 400 audience members. Betty and Malcolm's daughter sit in the front row.
A warm-up speaker addresses the crowd first. He can't put his finger on it, but the mood feels off. As he comes off stage, he tells everyone in the green room, something feels wrong out there. Malcolm walks on stage anyway. His bodyguards, including Jean, flank him, taking their posts in front of the minister, facing the crowd. The audience is hyped to see their headliner, but one notices that Malcolm appears drawn,
It looks like the pressure is finally getting to him. Malcolm raises his hand and greets the audience. Before he can say anything else, there's a disturbance in the crowd. Gene sees an undefined scuffle, a mix of bodies somewhere in the middle of the large seated crowd. Malcolm tries to settle the audience, but more people stand up. Then the gunshots begin. Gene turns to Malcolm, who's holding his chest tight.
He's already been hit. When Gene turns his head back to the audience, he spots two people approaching the stage in the center aisle. They're firing guns. Other eyewitnesses see more assassins, as many as five. The bullets keep coming, piercing the stage and lectern. There are so many shots that one witness says it sounds like a battlefield. Gene stays focused on the gunman closest to him.
He sees the barrel of the gun pointed at him and ducks. A bullet goes by. Time to fight back. Gene grabs an empty folding chair and smacks the gunman, knocking him to the floor. Gene stands back in shock. All around him is pandemonium. People are screaming and crying, trampling each other as they try to escape. Betty's lying on the floor with her crying children.
Malcolm has collapsed on stage, gasping for air, bleeding from several bullet holes in his chest. He comes back to the stage to check on Malcolm. He finds a pulse, but it's weak. Malcolm's chest is covered in blood. Gene rips open his shirt and sees several bullet holes. He begins mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. After several attempts, he knows it's over.
He steps off stage and tells Betty that he's out of breath and needs someone else to sub in. He can't bring himself to tell the pregnant woman, flanked by her weeping children, the truth. Her husband, the girl's father, is dead. When police arrive on the scene, the chaos has spilled outside. The first thing they do is break up a furious mob on the sidewalk, attacking one man.
Mujahid Abdul Halim, the gunman who fired at Jean, then tried to escape. Now, Halim, known at the time as Talmadge Hayer, is bleeding from his own bullet wound, where one of Malcolm's other security guards shot him in the leg. The incensed crowd is about to finish him off when officers force their way into the melee. Police intervention almost certainly saves Halim's life. He goes to the hospital in handcuffs.
Police continue their press into the chaos of the ballroom. They don't encounter any other assassins. However many were there in addition to Halim, they all managed to escape before police arrived. Eventually, officers reach Malcolm, who is still on stage. About 15 minutes after he was shot, an ambulance brings Malcolm to the emergency room. There, doctors officially declare him dead.
At the ballroom, police continue breaking down the crime scene. They recover bullets from Halim's pocket. They also find one murder weapon, a sawed-off shotgun. The scattershot fired from that weapon is what killed Malcolm. They take note of every bullet hole in the lectern, stage, and backdrop, circling them with chalk. They collect ballistic and fingerprint evidence and take extensive photographs of the scene.
But the real meat of the investigation is focused on interviewing as many eyewitnesses as possible. And with a crowd of 400 present, there are a lot of people to talk to. In early statements to the press, police say they are looking for the other four in a team of five assassins.
The days immediately following Malcolm's murder are a mashup of grief, anger, and violence. His followers are bereft and wondering about how Malcolm's absence will hinder their work toward racial equality. And they want revenge. A Nation of Islam mosque in Harlem goes up in flames.
Although it's not clear who or what is responsible for the fire, authorities call it an act of backlash after Malcolm's murder. Elijah Muhammad denies any nation involvement with the shooting and insists that he ordered his followers not to touch Malcolm. He brings on additional security in anticipation of a retaliatory assassination attempt on him.
As Betty leaves the coroner's office, where she identified her husband's body, she tells the press that Malcolm promised to always provide for her and their children. To them, he was everything. Less than a week after the shooting, the NYPD arrests a second suspect, Muhammad Aziz, at the time known as Norman 3X Butler.
And shortly after that, they arrest a third Khalil Islam, then known as Thomas 15X Johnson. Both men are Nation of Islam members and Fruit of Islam soldiers that attend the Harlem Mosque Malcolm used to preside over. Then police pass the case along to prosecutors.
Even though they were originally looking for four other assassins, officials now claim there's not enough evidence to pursue additional suspects. Those close to Malcolm are immediately skeptical about Aziz and Islam's alleged involvement. Members of Malcolm's security team also attended that same Harlem mosque. Some even did Fruit of Islam training alongside them. They knew Aziz and Islam.
if those men showed up at the ballroom that day they would have been refused entry an itchy feeling that something more was going on permeates malcolm's followers the whole police investigation didn't feel right certainly the unrest following malcolm's murder put pressure on law enforcement to resolve the case as quickly as possible but that wasn't the whole story
It all came back to Malcolm's deep-seated mistrust of law enforcement. How could they investigate his murder when they were also investigating him? Malcolm's supporters keep coming back to the lack of police presence at the rally that day. Remember, there are usually hundreds of uniformed officers present at events like the one where Malcolm was murdered. Instead,
Only two officers were at the event site, and they weren't even in the ballroom. They were in an upstairs room, totally removed from the crowd. Then there was the police reaction after the shooting. According to many eyewitnesses in the ballroom, officers didn't show urgency in their approach to the crime scene. Some had the unsettling sense that the NYPD knew this was going to happen.
Now, the inkling of an eyewitness is one thing, but that lack of urgency is on record. It took roughly 15 minutes for an ambulance to get Malcolm to the emergency room. It seems like a pretty long time when you consider the fact that the hospital was just across the street. The investigation also feels suspect.
Police did collect some physical evidence and take photographs, but there are a few signs that make their efforts seem cursory. When one witness returned to the ballroom almost two decades after Malcolm's murder, he was shocked to find the bullet-ridden lectern still in the building. He couldn't believe such a crucial piece of evidence had been left behind.
Worse, police failed to secure the crime scene. Instead, the ballroom was rapidly emptied and cleaned up so the evening event, a musical performance, could go on as scheduled. Malcolm was shot sometime around 3 p.m. That means police spent at best about four hours at the crime scene before opening it back up to the public.
Malcolm's supporters aren't the only ones with doubts. NYPD detective Tony Boza headed a surveillance unit targeting Malcolm. In the 2020 docuseries, Who Killed Malcolm X?, Boza admitted that he felt the assassination investigation was left incomplete. If police had the shooters, why didn't they also go after whoever sent them? On that point, at least, Malcolm's supporters could agree that
It seemed like the nation was involved, but for some reason, investigators were reluctant to follow that lead all the way to the top. What were they afraid would come to light? In the hours following Malcolm's assassination, everyone is in shock. Gene leaves the ballroom feeling numb. When he gets home, the reality of what he just witnessed finally hits. His entire body trembles, but he has a phone call to make.
He dials, then identifies himself to the voice on the other end. Officer Gene Roberts. Malcolm's personal bodyguard is an undercover NYPD officer.
Thank you for listening to Conspiracy Theories, a Spotify podcast. We're here with a new episode every Wednesday. Be sure to check us out on Instagram at The Conspiracy Pod. If you're listening on the Spotify app, swipe up and give us your thoughts or email us at conspiracystoriesatspotify.com.
Amongst the many sources we used, we found the Netflix docuseries Who Killed Malcolm X? directed by Rachel Dretzen and Phil Bertelsen, the 1994 documentary Brother Minister Who Killed Malcolm X? directed by Jeffrey Al-Muhammad and Jack Baxter, and the book The Dead Are Rising by Les Payne, extremely helpful to our research. Until next time, remember...
The truth isn't always the best story, and the official story isn't always the truth. This episode was written and researched by Hannah McIntosh, edited by Chelsea Wood, fact-checked by Laurie Siegel, video edited by Spencer Howard, and sound designed by Kelly Geary. I'm your host, Carter Roy.