Malcolm X assassinated

1965MajorContested

Gunmen kill Malcolm X as he begins a speech at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem, a year after his break with the Nation of Islam. Two of the three men convicted are exonerated in 2021.

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Contested history

Consensus: Members of the Nation of Islam carried out the killing on 21 February 1965; in 2021 two of the three men convicted were exonerated after a review found the FBI and police had withheld evidence.

Nation of Islam members carried out the shootingEstablished

The gunman caught at the scene, Talmadge Hayer, confessed and later named other Nation of Islam members as accomplices.

Muhammad Aziz and Khalil Islam were among the killersDebunked

Their convictions were vacated in 2021 after the Manhattan District Attorney found withheld FBI documents and alibi evidence.

The FBI or New York police planned or allowed the killingSpeculation

Informants were in his circle and records were withheld, but no document shows either agency directed the attack; his family sued in 2023.