Payne declined to say whether there were any leads that she and her father had uncovered but been unable to resolve. Halim and scholars have named as the other killers are all believed to be dead. But even without that happening, she said, “It’s important to know what happened to understand history.”Īfter so long, the people Mr. Payne said that in the decades that she and her father worked on their book, they hoped the revelations would lead prosecutors to indict the real killers. It also might have sent investigators in search of wholly different suspects and a different theory of the crime. Such information, the district attorney’s motion said, might have led to an acquittal for Mr.
files have been made public under the Freedom of Information Act, along with a better understanding of how the bureau declined to share information with the police or prosecutors.
Since then, a steady drip of revelations has rekindled interest and incited speculation - some well supported, some less so. Garrow asked in The New York Times, “ Does Anyone Care Who Killed Malcolm X?” Interest in the case has waxed and waned over the years. “What remains murky is exactly what the chain of command was from Chicago to Newark and New York that brought the killers to the Audubon that day,” Mr. Speculation about what lies behind the black bars on the documents that have been released so far - and in any files that may still be buried in the bureau’s archives - has flourished. Garrow, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian. records related to the case remain heavily redacted, said David J. and/or the N.Y.P.D.”īut many of the F.B.I. The district attorney’s motion also says the investigators “did not uncover any evidence” to support theories that the murder had been “orchestrated by the F.B.I. The re-investigation team was not able to identify the man. The Paynes’ book includes a tantalizing interview with a man the authors called Talib, who said he had witnessed the planning and aftermath of the killing firsthand at the Newark mosque to which most scholars believe the killers belonged. “This brings us closer to understanding the mishandling of the prosecution, but there still remains the question of why those responsible were not investigated and prosecuted,” said Tamara Payne, who with her father, Les Payne, wrote the most detailed account yet of the murder, “The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X,” which won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for biography. Official records that might shed light on what happened that day are also lost or have been heavily redacted. 22, 1965.Īmong the more intriguing details from the district attorney’s exoneration motion: The shotgun that killed Malcolm X and was recovered at the scene can no longer be found.
The exonerations only deepen the mystery. Questions Linger: Scholars have never accepted the official explanation for Malcolm X’s murder.Read the Motion: A review by the Manhattan district attorney and lawyers for the two men found they did not receive a fair trial.Re-examining the Case: The exonerations of Muhammad Aziz and Khalil Islam validated long-held doubts about who killed Malcolm X.What to Know About the Assassination of Malcolm Xĭecades after Malcolm X was fatally shot in Manhattan in 1965, two men convicted in the killing were exonerated following a lengthy investigation.