Malcolm Little - Malcolm ‘X’

Elijah Muhammad - Head of Nation of Islam

Betty Sanders - Malcolm's wife

Talmadge Hayer (also known as Thomas Hagen) - involved in assassination

Norman ‘3X’ Butler - convicted of murder

Thomas ‘15X’ Johnson - convicted of murder

Leon David - identified as co-conspirator by Talmadge Hayer

Wilbur McKinley - identified as co-conspirator by Talmadge Hayer

Gene Roberts - Bureau of Secret Service agent and a bodyguard of Malcolm X (named in conspiracy theory)

The funeral of Malcolm X took place at the Faith Temple Church of God in Christ, in Harlem, New York on 27 February 1965, and was attended by fifteen hundred mourners, many of whom assembled in the streets outside the church. At his graveside at the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, in Westchester County, New York, friends took the shovels away from the waiting gravediggers and covered Malcolm’s coffin themselves.

In the murder investigation that followed, Hayer was the only certain suspect. Eyewitnesses claimed to have recognised two of the other assailants as Norman ‘3X’ Butler and Thomas ‘15X’ Johnson, both known agents of the Nation of Islam. This seemed unlikely, however, as both were well known to OAAU members, and they would certainly have been recognised as hostile members of the audience on that evening.

Hayer also denied that Butler and Johnson had been involved, instead identifying his co-conspirators as Leon David and Wilbur McKinley, in a sworn affidavit.

Despite this, the trials of Hayer, Butler and Johnson began on 12 January 1966, and they were all convicted of the murder of Malcolm X, in March 1966, and received life sentences.

As with other high profile assassinations, there were a number of conspiracy theories surrounding the case, the most popular involving a man named Gene Roberts, who was a Bureau of Secret Service agent, and a bodyguard of Malcolm’s at the time of his shooting. It is claimed that government agencies were uncomfortable with the international profile that Malcolm was building, and the potential racial tensions that were being fomented by his message, and that Roberts had been instructed by his superiors to engineer the assassination. Roberts was not called to testify at the trials of Hayer, Butler and Johnson.

A less plausible theory points to mob involvement: Malcolm’s philosophy of black empowerment, exhorting people to take direct control of their lives, had resulted in a marked reduction in crime, and drug taking, in black neighbourhoods. Malcolm was therefore the victim of a mob hit, in the interests of protecting the business of organised crime.

The release of the Spike Lee film, ‘Malcolm X’, in 1992, caused a huge resurgence of interest in the civil rights campaigner, and Denzel Washington earned an Oscar nomination for his portrayal.

Born: 19 May 1925

Assassinated: 21 February 1965

On 14 February 1965, Malcolm’s East Elmhurst home, still the subject of a bitter legal ownership battle with the Nation of Islam, was firebombed. Malcolm and his family were fortunate to escape physical injury, and no one was ever prosecuted in relation to the attack. Malcolm’s security was increased after the attack and, the next night, he spoke of the firebombing to a gathering of Organisation for African American Unity members at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan, New York, claiming a conspiracy between the Nation of Islam and the Ku Klux Klan was responsible for the attack.

Privately, however, he confided to his biographer that he was beginning to doubt whether the attacks against him were Nation of Islam inspired. Despite the daily threats on his life, he maintained a hectic schedule of personal appearances, including a well-publicised appointment to deliver another speech to the OAAU at the Audubon Ballroom, on 21 February 1965. Despite his private doubts about the real source of his attacks, it was to prove a perfect setting for a Nation of Islam assassination conspiracy.

Of the four men involved in the successful assassination plot on Malcolm, only one was ever identified with any degree of certainty; Talmadge Hayer, also known as Thomas Hagen, a member of the Fruits of Islam, a paramilitary organisation charged with the protection of the Nation of Islam. In a sworn affidavit after the fact, Talmadge described how the conspirators had visited the Ballroom on the evening of 20 February, the night before Malcolm’s speech, where a public dance was in progress, to plan their assassination strategy. It was agreed that he would sit near the front of the auditorium with a .45 handgun, allow one of his co-conspirators to draw the attention of Malcolm’s bodyguards by standing and shouting, at which point he and two others would stand and fire at Malcolm.

Shortly after Malcolm had begun his speech to the assembled OAAU, the plan was put into action. There was a commotion in the audience and, whilst the focus of Malcolm’s bodyguards was directed at the source of the disturbance, a man with a sawn-off shotgun rushed forward and shot Malcolm in the chest. Almost simultaneously, Hayer and his accomplice leapt up, stormed the stage, and discharged their own weapons at Malcolm. Malcolm received a total of 15 wounds from the three weapons. Malcolm’s supporters launched an immediate counter-attack on the assassins but three of them used the ensuing chaos to escape. Hayer was not so lucky, a bullet wound in the leg slowed him down considerably, and he was arrested by a police officer outside the Ballroom. By the time an ambulance had been summoned, and had reached New York’s Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, Malcolm was pronounced dead on arrival.