NATIONAL NEVVS (First of Two Parts) Who Killed Malcolm X ? Thirteen Years Later Questions Linger and the Case Is About to be Reopened

BY ALAN BERGER Yet, in the last few days of his life, Malcolm told people close to him that The assassination of Malcolm X thir- recent events had "led him to believe that teen years ago left in its wake a trail of the plotters of his death were much bigger unanswered questions. Some of these than the Muslims." Malcolm had what he were legal questions and some were considered sound reasons for this belief. larger, political questions. The standing The previous summer he had been legal verdict on the assassination holds poisoned in the main dining room of the that three men, forming a conspiracy, Cairo Hilton Hotel in Egypt. Malcolm were guilty of the act. And since two of was certain this was not the work of the the three were well-known Black Muslim Black Muslims; he had grounds for "enforcers," the public has accepted the attributing this attempt on his life to the obvious implication—that the murder was C.I.A. Less than two weeks before his ordered, planned, and carried out solely death, he was denied entry into France by the Black Muslims as the culmination forever as an "undesirable person," pos- of that group's vendetta against the apos- sibly because French officials feared he tate, Malcolm X. would be assassinated on French soil. Malcolm assumed that these signs of Alan Berger writes frequently for Seven danger were the inevitable consequence of Days. Portions of this article originally his political effort to "internationalize" appeared in Boston's Real Paper. John Lamle/Black Star

Malcolm's trip to Egypt "concerned" the State Department. John Launoia /Black Star

Seven Days 21 NATIONAL NEWS

publicly that Black Muslims, under orders the situation of black people in America and then returned the day before, on both occasions making careful preparations for from Elijah Muhammad, were out to kill by taking their case to the United Nations. him. Malcolm had heard rumors, he had The assassination itself and the trial their escape. The new deposition even describes the seen signs, he had received letters. But that followed almost a year later pro- get-away car including where it was just before he went on stage he had told duced a myriad of disturbing indications his assistants waiting with him in the that two innocent men were convicted and parked and where it headed. A preliminary reading of F.B.I. files— anteroom offstage that he was going to that undercover agents of the New York tell the audience that he had been hasty in Police Force and the F.B.I. may have just opened under the Freedom of Infor- mation Act—indicates early eyewitness accusing the Black Muslims of bombing played an instrumental role in the case. his home. "Things have happened since Attorney William Kunstler has recently reports, though not all uniform, do sup- port Hagan's statement that more than that are bigger than what they can do," submitted affliavits to a New York court Malcolm said. "I know what they can do. intended to show that new evidence three men participated in the killing. Attorney Kunstler has submitted Things. have gone beyond that." unearthed since the final appeal in the As Malcom stood beside the rostrum case constitutes grounds for obtaining a Hagan's affidavit along with another that includes the transcript of testimony given preparing to begin his talk, a scuffle new trial. broke out toward the back of the hall. One of the three men originally con- by police undercover agent Gene Roberts, There was an angry shout: "Nigger, get victed, Thomas Hagan, has now agreed to who admitted during a 1971 conspiracy your hands out of my pocket!" All heads name four other men who acted with him trial of twenty-one Black Panthers in New turned to see what was happening—and in the murder. Hagan says that Thomas York City tbat he had been a bodyguard to see who had spoken this unforgivable Johnson and Norman Butler, the two men to Malcolm X and possessed crucial convicted with him, are innocent. knowledge about Malcolm's murder word. Malcolm's bodyguards moved A first affidavit by Hagan was ruled which had been withheld at the time of the down from the stage toward the distur- not sufficiently specific by Judge Roph- original trial. bance. Malcolm himself stepped out from wax, the judge sitting at the hearing. But A little after three o'clock on Sunday behind the podium and toward the front Hagan has written a longer, more-detailed afternoon, February 21, 1965, Malcolm X of the stage. "Hold it! Hold it! Don't get confession, Seven Days has learned, walked out onto the stage of the Audubon excited," Malcolm said. "Let's cool it, which gives the last names of two of his Ballroom on Broadway and 166th Street brothers." four accomplices and the names by which in Manhattan, across the street from the Then there was a muffled explosion at he knew the others. He also names the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. the rear of the hall and smoke from an incendiary device rose into the air. A woman screamed. A man in one of the front rows held up a sawed-off shotgun and fired into Malcolm's chest. As Malcolm keeled over, two or three men were seen standing in the front row, "like a firing squad," pumping bullets into him. After he had fallen the gunmen emptied their revolvers into the inert body. One of the killers, Talmadge Hayer (whom police and court records refer to as Thomas Hagan), was knocked down by a chair thrown at him by one of Malcolm's bodyguards. Hagan shot at the bodyguard and a bullet left a hole near the bottom of the bodyguard's jacket. The bodyguard was called "Brother. Gene"; he would admit five years later that he was an undercover agent for the New York Bu- reau of Special Services, an elite subver- sion unit of the Police Department, which UPI Thomas Hagan: The link to a conspiracy? was sometimes called the "Red Squad." Another bodyguard, Reuben Francis, fired three shots at Hagan. The second contact man who gave the orders as well He came up behind the rostrum and gave the crowd of about 400 people the Islamic shot hit Hagan's leg, slowing him down so as the person to whom this contact re- To those that the crowd was able to catch him as he ported. greeting As-salaam alaikum. who knew him, Malcolm appeared tense tumbled down the stairs in front of the The new deposition—which is sealed to Audubon. protect the principles—describes a pre- and tired. He was showing the strain of the past few weeks, a time during which Hagan was rescued from a severe beat- vious effort to kill Malcolm at home, an ing by patrolman Thomas Hoy, 22, who effort not carried out because at the time his house had been fire-bombed with his wife and four children in it and he had had been the only uniformed police of- Malcolm was too well guarded. There is ficer stationed at the door that day. Hoy also a precise description of how the received several warnings of an imminent attempt to assassinate him. For some time wrestled the crowd for his suspect until killers went to a dance at the Audubon two more officers, Angelos and Araonoff, ballroom a few days before the murder he and his friends had assumed and said

22 March 24, 1978 arrived to help. Haley also describes Malcolm being should arraign the United States before Together they got Hagan away from followed and threatened 'during the last the General Assembly of the United the crowd and into a squad car. three weeks of his life by Muslims he Nations for American violations of the In the confusion following the event, recognized, not only in New York, but human rights provision of the U.N. the New York newspapers reported that also in Los Angeles and Chicago. charter. Hoy had arrested one suspect and that Thus there was ample reason for Angelos and Araonoff had arrested Earlier that year he had told a press Malcolm to think that he was marked for conference in Ghana: "All of Africa another. But F.B.I. files show no evidence death, and to believe that the killers unites in opposition to South Africa's of a second arrest, and a widely printed would be acting as agents of the Nation of apartheid, and to the oppression in the photo shows all three cops grappling with Islam. But to understand the main thrust Portuguese territories. But you waste Hagan. The second suspect now appears, of the motions for a retrial that William your time if you don't realize that in the light of Hagan's confession, to be a Kunstler will be arguing in the courts, it is product of journalistic haste. Verwoerd and Salazar, and Britain and first necessary to understand why Mal- France, never could last a day if it were In the aftermath of the assassination, colm intended to tell his audience in the not for United States support. So until the press gave much coverage to the feud Audubon Ballroom that he "had been you expose the man in Washington, D.C., between Malcolm X and his former hasty to accuse the Black Muslims," and you haven't accomplished anything." spiritual leader, the honorable Elijah why he said, "things have happened since On July 23, 1964, the day before he was Muhammad. With only some rare excep- that are bigger than what they can do. I to address the summit conference, Mal- tions, the newspaper slant given to the know what they can do. Things have gone colm was poisoned while eating dinner in story was of a religious war between two beyond that." the Cairo Hilton's main dining room. His irrational fringe groups composed of The assassination carried out so brazen- roommate at the Hilton, Detroit lawyer dangerous ex-convicts. The Times and the ly by the "firing squad" that gunned and civil rights activist Milton Henry, Tribune both editorialized airily about Malcolm down in the Audubon Ballroom said, "He would have died if he hadn't hatred that turns on itself and the violence was not the first attempt on his life. At been able to get to the hospital in a that spawns violence, despite the well- least two other attempts had already been hurry." known change in Malcolm's ideas after he made. - The food pumped from his stomach returned from his pilgrimage to Mecca. In The first of these took place far from was analyzed and found to contain a an airport news conference after his Harlem and far from the reach of Mr. Eli- "toxic substance." The possibility return from that first trip abroad, he told jah Muhammad. In July 1964 Malcolm of gratuitous food poisoning was ruled American reporters: "In the past, yes, I have made sweeping indictments of all white people. I never will be guilty of that again—as I know now some white people are truly sincere, that some truly are capable of being brotherly toward a black man." The editorials about hatred may have been either careless or vicious, but what about the widespread assumption that Malcolm was killed for a renegade by his former brothers in the Nation of Islam? Certainly Malcolm, right up until the last few days of his life, believed and said that the Muslims were out to kill him. "In any city, wherever I go, making speeches, holding meetings of my organi- zation, or attending to other business," he told Alex Haley, "black men are watching every move I make, awaiting their chance to kill me. I have said publicly many times that I know that they have their orders. Anyone who chooses After the shooting: Who did kill Malcolm X? UPI not to believe what I am saying doesn't know the Muslims in the Nation of was in Cairo to address a summit Islam." out by doctors. Malcolm told Milton conference of African prime ministers. Henry: "Somebody deliberately poisoned In his epilogue to The Autobiography He had come to the conference to per- me.", An effort was made to locate the of Malcolm X, Alex Haley reports that on suade his powerful friends he'd made on a waiter who had served Malcolm, but the Tuesday, February 16, 1965—five days previous visit to Africa—men such as waiter had vanished. before the fatal meeting at the Audubon President Nkrumah of Ghana, President In discussing the poisoning with Henry, Ballroom—Malcolm told a close associate, Toure of Guinea, Prime Minister Ken- Malcolm emphasized "the fact that "I have been marked for death in the next yatta of Kenya, President Nyerere of Tan- C.I.A. men were all around him in five days. I have the names of five Black ' zania, Prime Miniiter Obote of Uganda, Cairo." Malcolm's half-sister, Mrs. Ella Muslims who have been chosen to kill me. President Nasser of Egypt and President Collins, who paid for his first trip to I will announce them at the meeting." Azikiwe of Nigeria—that their countries Mecca and Africa, said Malcolm told her NATIONAL NEWS

John Launois/ Black Star that he felt that the C.I.A. was def- to the United Nations. Not only had he initely responsible for it. 1". made progress in promoting his plan for Malcolm's certainty that the C.I.A. was having America condemned for violations responsible for the poisoning was not of human rights, but in November 1964, founded on mere intuition. For some time at the time the United States intervened in before the conference, the American Em- the Congo's civil war, Malcolm lobbied bassy in Cairo tried by quiet diplomatic with his African contacts to convince means to prevent Malcolm from address- them to condemn the American interven- ing the delegates. The Embassy's diplo- tion. He was regarded as being partly matic requests were rebuffed, however, responsible for the vituperative attacks both by the Figyptian government and by mounted against the United States during the conference organizers. In a New York the General Assembly debates that took Times article of August 13, 1964, while place toward the end of 1964. On January Malcolm was still in Cairo discussing his 2, 1965, M.S. Handler, writing in the New U.N. project with the African ministers, York Times, reported that Malcolm had reporter M.S. Handler wrote: "The State pressed African delegates to condemn Department and the Justice Department America's role in the Congo and also to have begun to take an interest in use "the racial situation in the United Malcolm's campaign to convince the States as an instrument of attack in African states to raise the question of discussing international problems" since persecution of American Negroes at the "such a strategy would give the African United Nations.... states more leverage in dealing with the "Malcolm's eight-page memorandum United States and would in turn give to the heads of state at the Cairo Malcolm's wife Betty Shabazz and family. American Negroes more leverage in conference requesting their support be- American society. came available here only recently. After The day before he was murdered, in the "The spokesmen of some African studying it, officials said that if Malcolm last conversation the two men were to states acted precisely within the frame- succeeded in convincing just one African have together, he told Alex Haley, "You work of these recommendations last government to bring up the charge at the know, I'm going to tell you something, month in the Congo debate at the United United Nations, the United States govern- brother—the more I keep thinking about Nations," the article said. "They accused ment would be faced with a touchy this thing, the things that have been the United States of being indifferent to problem. happening lately, I'm not all that sure it's the fate of blacks and cited as evidence the "The United States, officials here the Muslims. I know what they can do, attitude of the United States government believe, would find itself in the same cate- and what they can't, and they can't do toward the civil rights struggle in Missis- gory as South Africa, Hungary and other softie of the stuff recently going on. Now, sippi. countries whose domestic policies have I'm going to tell you, the more I keep "The African move profoundly dis- become debating issues at the United thinking about what happened to me in turbed the American authorities, who Nations. The issue, officials say, would be France, I think I'm going to quit saying gave the impression that they had been of service to critics of the United States, it's the Muslims." caught off guard." Communist and non-Communist, and Two months after Malcolm's death "a The New York Times could not, of contribute to the undermining of the highly placed North African diplomat" course, measure nor say just how "pro- position the United States has asserted for told American journalist Eric Norden foundly disturbed" the American author- itself as the leader of the West in the something about the incident at Orly ities were. But Malcolm knew that as a advocacy of human rights." which, if true, would confirm Malcolm's result of his role at the United Nations, as The incident that persuaded Malcolm in last-minute suspicions. According to Nor- a result of his conscious political decision the final days before his death that some- den, "This official, who insists on to internationalize the problems of Amer- one other than the Black Muslims was out anonymity, said that his country's intelli- ican black people, he was under constant to kill him was not the Cairo poisoning, gence apparatus had been quietly in- surveillance. His phones were tapped and but rather another ominous event that formed by the French Department of at times he found himself shadowed by as took place beyond the borders of the Alien Documentation and Counter-Es- many as three different agents. His United States. pionage (the famous Deuxieme Bureau) friends and family were concerned about Twelve days before he died, Malcolm that the C.I.A. planned Malcolm's mur- the effect of his interference in the flew to Paris, where he was scheduled to der, and France feared he might be functioning of American foreign policy. address the Congress of African Students. liquidated on its soil. His half-sister, Ella Collins, "told him In his epilogue to Malcolm's autobiog- " 'Your C.I.A. is beginning to murder that to take a step of this kind he needed raphy, Alex Haley recounts the unexpect- its own citizens now,' he commented in protection, real protection that he felt ed reception Malcolm got from the elegantly modulated French." secure with. But he couldn't even trust his French officials. "He was formally By February 1965, Malcolm had devel- own bodyguards. I've been informed by advised that he would not be permitted to oped what amounted to diplomatic reliable sources that there were C.I.A. speak and, moreover, that he could relationships with several African delega- agents right in the Organization [the Or- consider himself officially barred forever tions to the United Nations. He fre- ganization of Afro-American Unity], and from France as an 'undesirable person.' quented the U.N. delegates' lounge in the I've been given their names. Malcolm He was asked to leave—and he did, manner of a working diplomat, the self- knew the dangers, but he said he had to go fuming with indignation." appointed ambassador of Afro-America ahead."

24 March 24, 1978