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This episode includes discussions of violence and murder. Consider this when deciding how and when you'll listen. It's February 21st, 1965, and Officer Gene Roberts is on the phone with his supervisor. Roberts is an undercover officer embedded inside the Organization of African American Unity, a political group headed by Malcolm X. He's being questioned because he just saw Malcolm get murdered.
Robert's superiors interview him exhaustively about what happened. He walks them through it moment by moment, but the brass gets hung up somewhere unexpected. Why Roberts administered CPR on Malcolm before paramedics arrived? Roberts is confused. It's his duty as a police officer to protect all life. But what his superiors want to know is why Officer Roberts tried to save the target of their surveillance.
Welcome to Conspiracy Theories, a Spotify podcast. I'm Carter Roy. You can find us here every Wednesday. Be sure to check us out on Instagram at The Conspiracy Pod, and we would love to hear from you. So if you're watching on the Spotify app, swipe up and give us your thoughts. Stay with us.
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Quest Nutrition. Big on protein, low on sugar, huge on flavor. It's basically cheating. After Malcolm X is assassinated in February 1965, police arrest three suspects. The first, Mujahid Abdul-Haleem, is arrested at the scene. The other two, Muhammad Aziz and Khalil Islam, are arrested within about two weeks. Some of those in Malcolm's inner circle don't think Aziz and Islam are the right guys.
They have good reason to feel that way. Police found bullets in Halim's pocket. Multiple eyewitnesses confirmed seeing him with a gun, and an angry mob was attacking him at the time of his arrest. Authorities also have substantial physical evidence against him. That's not the case with Aziz and Islum.
Police are primarily interested in Aziz and Islam because they both have recent assault charges and generally fit eyewitness descriptions of the assassins. Aziz is ultimately arrested based off identification in a police lineup, a process that studies have suggested can be faulty even when conducted well. Most importantly, there's no physical evidence tying either of the other men to the scene or to the murder.
But prosecutors proceed with an indictment, charging all three men with first-degree murder. According to Islam, the first time he ever met Halim was that day in the courtroom when the prosecutors said they'd conspired to murder Malcolm X.
The trial begins in 1966. Prosecutors claim that Halim and Aziz distracted security guards with a disturbance in the middle of the auditorium, which allowed Islam to fire the shotgun from the front row, killing Malcolm. Then they say Halim and Aziz joined in the shooting. The entire case is based only on eyewitness testimony, but not all the statements are consistent. The
A witness for the defense claims he saw a completely different assailant holding the shotgun, a thick-set man with a dark complexion and heavy beard. Islam, a lighter-skinned, slender, and clean-shaven man, does not fit the description. The defense further weakens the case against Islam and Aziz by presenting alibis for both men, placing them far away from the murder scene.
Witnesses say they saw or spoke to the men on their home phones during the time the murder was being committed. The doctor even testifies that he treated Aziz the morning of the murder for an injury on his leg. According to the doctor, Aziz couldn't even walk. Because the three men are being tried together, prosecutors argue that any evidence presented against one defendant should apply to all.
But there's only a strong case against Halim. The evidence in his case seems like it might overwhelm the reasonable doubt the defense has established for Islam and Aziz. Then, Halim does something surprising. He's already testified in his own defense, but he takes the stand a second time.
He recants his earlier testimony where he claimed he was innocent. Now he admits that he was involved in Malcolm's murder. He says four other people were involved, just as the police originally suspected. Aziz or Islam are not among them. Halim wants to prevent Islam and Aziz from being convicted for a crime he knows they didn't commit.
But he's only willing to sacrifice himself for that goal. Halim says that Aziz and Islam aren't his accomplices, but he won't name anyone who is. Halim's incomplete testimony isn't enough to sway the jury. All three men are found guilty of first-degree murder. They're sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.
Islam and Aziz are both married. Aziz has six children. Islam has three. In 1977, after spending over a decade in prison, Halim revisits his testimony. Through his lawyer, William Kunstler, he issues an affidavit, a legal statement sworn by the writer to be true. In it, he names his four accomplices, gives their physical descriptions, and their present locations.
All of them are from the same Nation of Islam mosque in New Jersey. And that may be why no one in Malcolm's Harlem-based security force recognized them as a threat. They had no way of knowing these men from out of town were members of the nation.
But for a judge to consider the affidavit new evidence and therefore grounds for a new trial, it needs to be corroborated by either new physical evidence or another firsthand witness statement. Halim's lawyer, Kunstler, tracks that down. He gets a sworn statement from a member of Malcolm's security team who told police that Islam and Aziz were not in the ballroom that day. He would know.
He's one of the guys who trained alongside them in the fruit of Islam. But that's not enough. The judge denies Kunstler's motion for a new trial. Kunstler goes over the judge's head and petitions Congress to reopen the case. It goes nowhere. Without a new trial, no officials follow up on the names Halim provided in his affidavit. That means it's up to the civilians.
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Islam and Aziz are released on parole in the mid-1980s. Both men maintain their innocence throughout their time in prison. That opinion is widely shared. In the 2020 docuseries Who Killed Malcolm X, historian David Garrow says it is universally accepted among academics that the men are innocent. Even Islam and Aziz's fellow inmates seem to know it.
According to Islam, even though he served alongside men who supported Malcolm, none of them ever retaliated against him for the murder. If innocent men went to prison, the real killers are still out there. Maybe the men named in Halim's affidavit, but perhaps these men didn't act alone.
According to Malcolm's widow, Betty Shabazz, it's common knowledge that someone among the leadership inside the Nation of Islam was responsible. But who? In the mid-1990s, Shabazz and her daughters focus on Louis Farrakhan, an emerging leader in the Nation of Islam.
In a Nation newspaper a few months before Malcolm was assassinated, Farrakhan wrote, "...the die is set and Malcolm shall not escape. Such a man is worthy of death." In 1993, he seemed to take pride in Malcolm's murder in a speech to his followers.
In a 2000 interview with 60 Minutes, Farrakhan himself admits that his constant railing against Malcolm could have contributed to his murder, but that's as far as he goes. For all of the circumstantial indicators, there's never any hard evidence linking Farrakhan's rhetoric to the nuts and bolts planning of her murder. Plus,
He was just one of many leaders in the nation who harbored contempt for Malcolm X. Remember, Halim's affidavit mentioned that all four of his accomplices came from the same mosque in New Jersey. The leader of that mosque, James Shabazz, no relation to Malcolm's widow Betty, is one of Malcolm's biggest detractors.
James Shabazz publicly lambasted Malcolm for exposing the extramarital affairs the Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad had with his secretaries. He says Malcolm committed a character assassination of a man nation members consider a direct line to Allah. When a reporter asks if one of his followers might be responsible for attacks on Malcolm, Shabazz essentially says yes.
He compares it to a Christian standing up for Jesus. But just like with Farrakhan, there's no evidence that Shabazz ever actually directed Halim or anyone else to pick up a gun. Trying to connect any Nation of Islam leader to the specifics of Malcolm's murder gets really sticky. And that has to do with the culture and hierarchy of the organization.
Former members now speculate that any explicit assassination planning would have been done independently of figureheads like Farrakhan or Shabazz. Protocol for the nation was to insulate leadership from any kind of unsavory activity. But there was definitely a sense among nation rank and file that dispatching Malcolm would be an act of service to Elijah Muhammad.
That was all anyone might need to make a move. A direct order wasn't required. After Halim's release, he confirms that he only acted on a general sense of duty. Malcolm's assassination wasn't the result of a direct order from leadership. He didn't need one. Malcolm's betrayal of the nation and Elijah Muhammad was more than enough.
But we don't really know if anyone gave an order or not because investigators never looked into Farrakhan or Shabazz or any of the alleged accomplices Halim names in 1977. Authorities won't grant a new trial, even though William Kunstler demonstrates that there is new evidence and Kunstler only manages to uncover the tip of the iceberg.
You might have noticed some key evidence missing from the trial that didn't make Kunstler's list. Eyewitness testimony from a police officer with a front row seat to the assassination. That's right. Officer Gene Roberts was never called to testify. In fact, the lead NYPD investigator on Malcolm's murder never even knew that Roberts was an undercover officer.
Why was the NYPD hiding evidence from its own department? To answer this question, let's back up. You'll remember from part one that the NYPD and the FBI had Malcolm under heavy surveillance as soon as he was a rising star in the Nation of Islam. They were concerned about his potential as a radical black leader. But they weren't only paying attention to Malcolm.
They were also keeping tabs on Elijah Muhammad and the entire Nation of Islam. The FBI used the same surveillance techniques they used with Malcolm. Phone taps, tails to track movements, and even secret microphones hidden inside Nation administrative offices. They also cultivated informants. These double agents passed privileged information about the internal workings at the Nation and
back to the Bureau. The FBI's infiltration of the nation was significant. Of the ten people in leadership roles in the nation, three were working with the FBI. Agents also approached Malcolm about becoming an informant. At that point, Malcolm was only about a month away from formally breaking ties with the nation. Betrayal almost made sense. But
He flat out refused. With their ear inside the nation, the FBI observed the distrust and jealousy that other nation leaders, especially Elijah Muhammad's children, had for Malcolm. The FBI saw an opportunity to diminish Malcolm's power. They just had to widen the rift between Malcolm and nation leadership, especially his mentor, Elijah.
The FBI used several tactics to achieve this goal. They wrote anonymous letters to Elijah Muhammad and other leaders to create a sense of paranoia. They also leaked information to the press that exacerbated Malcolm's fraying relationships within the nation. Remember that troublesome rumor that Malcolm was Elijah's successor? That was an angle the FBI pushed in the press.
The FBI hoped that removing Malcolm from the nation would curtail his power. Turns out it was the opposite. Their concern about Malcolm only grew as he established the Organization of African American Unity, or OAAU.
From the FBI's perspective, the OAAU made Malcolm more dangerous for two reasons. The first was his international profile they feared could undermine America's power globally. The American brand in the early 1960s was one of justice and liberty. But the optics of the government's response to the civil rights movement at the time were
with its violence and water hoses and police dogs didn't fit into that image. Malcolm told foreign nations that the United States shouldn't hold any kind of moral high ground as long as they continued suppressing the rights of black people. Having that hypocrisy brought into such harsh relief was embarrassing, but officials also worried it could hurt American credibility and foreign policy.
The other reason the FBI perceived Malcolm's new O-AAU approach as a threat was his growing mainstream appeal. The Bureau had worried about Malcolm's vitriolic rhetoric around civil rights since he was in the nation. But now, Malcolm was pivoting to messaging that was more in line with the broader civil rights movement.
the possibility that malcolm could bring some of his extremist views to a bigger more mainstream audience made him seem more dangerous to them than ever before during this time the nypd had a special unit dedicated to just surveilling malcolm in the oaa everything they gathered was for bureau eyes only
Even information relevant to ongoing NYPD investigations. So when investigators at the NYPD were trying to figure out who killed Malcolm X, their officers in their own department withheld relevant information. Like that an undercover officer saw the entire assassination go down.
The FBI had their own informants inside the OAAU as well. Some of them were present at the assassination. The Bureau collected their witness statements, but failed to share that information with the investigators trying to solve Malcolm's murder. The FBI denies any direct responsibility for the murder of Malcolm X.
But some experts say their unwillingness to share information relevant to the investigation might indicate the awareness of some responsibility. Their own records show years of manpower dedicated to creating the circumstances that could have led to Malcolm's death. It's impossible to know how much blame they should hold, but a number of scholars maintain that FBI actions contributed to Malcolm's murder.
and not just his murder. It's possible they contributed to a miscarriage of justice during the trial. When the Bureau withheld key witness statements to protect themselves, they also could have protected Malcolm's real killer. Internal FBI records show that multiple informants supplied the same description for the man holding the shotgun.
A stocky man with a dark complexion. The same description as the defense witness at trial. Islam, the man prosecutors sent to prison for firing the shotgun, does not fit this description. It does match another man, William Bradley.
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In 2020, Netflix released a docuseries called "Who Killed Malcolm X?" It centered on independent scholar Abdur Rahman Muhammad. Rahman dedicated his life to finding the man who many scholars believe killed Malcolm X, William Bradley. Halim's affidavit, legal motions filed by William Kunstler, and declassified FBI documents all tell the same story.
William Bradley was the man who fired the shotgun that killed Malcolm. Rachman feels sure he's looking for the right man. He even thinks he spots Bradley in infamous news coverage of the assassination. The camera is focused on a mob attacking Halim on the sidewalk outside the Audubon Ballroom. On the fringe of the group, there's a heavyset man with a dark complexion, just as so many witnesses described,
But it's not just his looks that give him away. The man's participation in the attack on Halim appears to be a feint. Once the police start to break it up, he pulls away. He walks across the frame, casually closing his coat. Rahman tracks Bradley down to that New Jersey mosque Halim claimed all the assassins attended. He's close, but he's still facing a significant obstacle.
Like Malcolm X and many other Islamic men, Bradley took a Muslim name. Without it, Rachman can't link Bradley to his current identity. Rachman has to find that name. He takes a trip to Newark, New Jersey, where Bradley's home mosque is located. Although many locals are willing to admit that Malcolm's killers originated in Newark, it's hard to get anyone to speak in specifics.
Rahman ends up getting the crucial tip almost at random. He brings up his search casually at a Muslim social function, and someone from Newark speaks up with Bradley's Muslim name, al-Mustafa Shabazz. Rahman refers to him as Mustafa in the documentary, so we'll do the same here. With that name, Rahman can finally track down current information.
He finds out that Mustafa has a long criminal history with charges that include aggravated assault, sexual assault, robbery, quote, terroristic threat, and more. He's spent a fair amount of his life in prison. But like Malcolm X, he stuck to his faith and eventually turned his life around.
After Mustafa was released from prison in 1998, he married an activist in Newark, and together they opened a boxing gym for local youth. He's known in his neighborhood as a youth mentor. Mustafa's reputation makes his community protective of him. A few people seem to know about Mustafa's alleged connection to Malcolm's murder, but they're able to brush it off after all. There's no hard proof.
Others advise Rachman to back off. One source cryptically tells Rachman that if he did what they think he did and he's been out here like that, they're protecting him. Rachman wonders if Mustafa is an FBI informant, and that's why he was never prosecuted for his crimes. But Rachman never gets to ask the man himself. Mustafa dies suddenly before Rachman makes his approach.
Rahman is devastated. He'll never be able to make Mustafa face justice. But there is another person still living and still waiting for justice. Muhammad Aziz, who served nearly 20 years in prison for his alleged participation in Malcolm's murder. Khalil Islam served 21 years and passed away in 2009. Both men always maintained their innocence.
Rahman thinks they're innocent too. Maybe there's something he can do about it. Rahman visits Aziz and presents him with a petition to the New York Conviction Integrity Unit. This specialized unit is designed to reconsider cases that could have resulted in wrongful convictions. But Aziz is dubious. His perspective is reminiscent of Malcolm's.
How can he trust the same system that sent him to prison to clear his name? But eventually he agrees to sign off on the letter. Rahman submits it.
In February 2020, the same week Rockman's documentary Who Killed Malcolm X premieres on Netflix, Manhattan's then-district attorney Cyrus R. Vance responds to Rockman's petition. In front of a huge crowd of press, Vance announces that he'll be reviewing the murder charges against Muhammad Aziz and Khalil Islam.
The review team faces an uphill battle. Many of the participants in the original trial, witnesses, attorneys, law enforcement officers, are dead. A lot of the physical evidence, including the murder weapons as well as case notes, are no longer in NYPD storage. But Vance and his associates do have access to the same records that Rachman used to track down Mustafa.
They interview every living participant in the original investigation and trial. The team also tracks down new witnesses and gets access to previously unseen FBI and NYPD files. In November 2021, Vance is ready to report his findings. This time, the system that Malcolm and Aziz mistrusted fails.
takes a step toward regaining credibility and justice. Vance announces the official and complete exoneration of Muhammad Aziz and Khalil Islam on the charge of first-degree murder. Vance's investigation confirms what civilians familiar with the murder of Malcolm X had known for decades.
FBI documents show that law enforcement withheld evidence that would have prevented Aziz and Islam's incarceration. Aziz is 83 when his name is finally cleared. The family members present to support him burst into applause when they hear the good news. But when Aziz stands to speak, he's not celebratory.
I do not need this court, these prosecutors, or a piece of paper to tell me I'm innocent. I am an 83-year-old man who was victimized by the criminal justice system. A civil rights lawyer representing both Aziz and Islam agrees. He says the wrongful convictions had a horrific, torturous, and unconscionable impact on their lives that will never be remedied.
While Aziz and Islam were incarcerated, both their marriages disintegrated. Even after their release, both men were known as murderers, which prevented them and their families from living freely. Aziz describes the ongoing effect of his incarceration as a fissure in his family that has driven generations apart. He missed his children growing up.
And now he doesn't have much of a relationship with his grandchildren, great-grandchildren, or great-great-grandchildren. Vance admits that the system failed Aziz and Islam. He apologizes to them on behalf of all law enforcement, but acknowledges that there's no real way to make amends. Civil lawsuits on behalf of both men eventually settle for $36 million.
Vance was very specific with the scope of his investigation. He stayed focused on whether or not Aziz and Islam received a fair trial. He didn't attempt to address the outstanding questions about the other accomplices Halim named in his affidavit, why none of them were investigated, and why he didn't
or why the NYPD and FBI acted in a way that resulted in a gross miscarriage of justice. But he does leave one torch lit for someone else to pick up. Vance's investigation finds that the FBI and NYPD could have done more to prevent Malcolm's assassination. Malcolm's family picks up that torch and runs with it.
In November 2024, three of Malcolm's daughters announced they are suing the CIA, FBI, NYPD, and others for $100 million. Their lawsuit claims that officials knew Malcolm's life was in danger and did not adequately protect him.
They also allege that agencies were aware of and involved in Malcolm's assassination and then worked for decades to cover up that participation. While Vance's investigation may have laid the groundwork for this new lawsuit, the lawyer bringing the case, Ben Crump,
claims to have found new evidence that will prove a government conspiracy to execute Malcolm X. The government fingerprints are all over the assassination of Malcolm X. And finally, we believe we have the evidence to prove it, Crump said. When the lawsuit was announced, the Department of Justice declined to comment, as did the FBI and NYPD, both citing pending litigation.
The CIA did not immediately provide a statement to news outlets. We also reached out to these agencies for additional comment. The FBI declined to make a statement, and we hadn't heard back from the other agencies at the time of our recording in early 2025. There are no further updates on the case at this time. The lawsuit states that Betty and the entire family suffered the pain of the unknown for decades.
Malcolm's daughter, Ilyasa Shabazz, says that their ongoing fight is primarily inspired by their mother, Betty, who died in 1997. In the days following Malcolm's death, Betty Shabazz said that he accomplished more than can be realized at this moment. Vance's investigation added law enforcement accountability to Malcolm's legacy, and
Now his daughters are trying to obtain government accountability too. 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 2020 Netflix docuseries Who Killed Malcolm X, produced and directed by Phil Bertelsen and Rachel Dretzen, the 1994 documentary Brother Minister Who Killed Malcolm X, written and directed by Jeffrey Al-Muhammad and Jack Baxter, and reporting by the New York Times, 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, fact-checked by Laurie Siegel, edited by Chelsea Wood, video edited by Spencer Howard, and sound design by Kelly Geary. I'm your host, Carter Roy.