01x01 - Marked Man

[bunniefuu]

[Malcolm X] What were you
before the white man

named you a n*gro?

What was your name?

It couldn't have been
Smith or Jones.

They don't have
those kind of names

where you and I came from.

[Herb Boyd] Malcolm spoke truth
to power.

This guy is fearless.

It's the white man
that's cracking skulls!

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad] But even
at the height of his popularity,

he had a lot of enemies.

[Malcolm X] I do believe there
will be attempts on my life.

They're foaming at the mouth.

[Amin Nathari] It was inevitable
that he would be k*lled.

I probably am a dead man already.

- [g*n firing]
- [people screaming]

[witness 1]
sh**ting like a cowboy.

[witness 2] People
crawling on the floor.

[Calvin Sinnette]
It was like warfare.

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad] The first time
I saw those b*llet wounds,

I thought, "Why doesn't someone
want to get to the bottom of this?"

So I started asking questions.
It became an obsession.

[reporter] Who do you believe
is responsible for Malcolm X's death?

The white power structure
in America is behind it.

[James Farmer] He said that
he was going to be k*lled

because he knew too much.

What did he know?

[James Shabazz]
Might be an inside job.

[Tony Bouza] The investigation
was a failure

from beginning to end.

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad]
Three men were arrested.

[Aziz] The white man
say you guilty, you guilty. Why?

Because he says so
and he got a g*n.

[officer] Has he signed
a statement?

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad] And the thing is,
two of them weren't

even in the Audubon Ballroom that day.

Malcolm's death never
sat right with me.

This is a rough hood.

What we're doing,
it makes me nervous.

[David Garrow] Asking who's guilty
of Malcolm's assassination

is a dangerous question to ask.

That's not something
that we talked about.

Leave it alone.

[Muhammad]
What is the real story?

You know who did it.

It's important to get answers
about who gunned down my father.

...by any means necessary!

This is still a unsolved case,
a mystery.

That's almost
too much to process.

[Al Sharpton]
He was our shining black prince.

People still don't get it.

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad]
The whole thing is on film!

Wow.
I was not aware of that.

I'm not a lawyer, I don't have a Ph.D.
Who did this?

Folks try to caution me.
"You leave that alone, man."

Why would we dig up the dead?

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad] The more people
tell me I can't do something,

that's the thing I want to do.

I'm not going to stop
until I get justice.

Because the official account
of who k*lled Malcolm X,

it's not true.

[theme music playing]

[host] My guest tonight,
Malcolm X,

once the number-two man
in the Black Muslims,

now broken with Elijah Muhammad.

He says he's a marked man

and that a number of attempts
have been made on his life.

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad]
Malcolm knew he was going to die

by someone's hands.

It was coming.

[sirens wailing]

He was predicting it, even.

Malcolm spent the night
of February 20, 1965,

in the Hilton Hotel.

He had a big rally the next day.

He wanted to find a safe place

that no one knew
where he was staying,

so he could collect his thoughts.

[phone ringing]

He was awakened
by a phone call in the morning.

And the person
on the other end of the line

said something that let him know

that someone knew
where he was at.

That he could be gotten anywhere,
essentially.

He called his wife,
Betty, he said,

"I want you to come and
I want you to bring the girls,"

and that's what she did.

[Sinnette]
My wife was pleased

that it was a clear,
bright Sunday morning.

When we walked
into the ballroom,

we sat about eight to ten rows
from the stage.

I could see Betty

and I think one or more
of her children with her.

[A. Peter Bailey]
I got there a little bit early.

And when brother Malcolm came in,

it was the first time
I'd ever seen him

where he had looked
a little harried.

As though the pressures
were getting on him.

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad]
He knew at that point

that time was running out for him.

All the signs were there,

and that's why none
of his invited speakers

that were supposed to appear
on that stage with him that day,

none of them showed up.

Everyone knew
that this man was in trouble.

This man was hot!

[Bailey] I remember him saying,

"The way I feel today,
I shouldn't even be here."

And myself and about four of us
people backstage, we said,

"Well, why don't you go home?
People will understand."

"You know, you've been
under a lot of pressure

over the last three weeks."

And he said,
"No, they want to hear me,

what I have to say
about the firebombing."

[Malcolm X] As many of you know,

Sunday morning
about three o'clock,

somebody threw some bombs
inside my house.

I'm telling you these things,
because it has reached

a point where I feel
that black people

in this country need to know
what's going on.

And I'm talking
about an organization

which I had a hand in building,

which I had a hand
in organizing.

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad] By the time
he left the Nation of Islam,

Malcolm had a lot of enemies.

The Nation of Islam
was a pure dictatorship.

Elijah Muhammad was at the top.

And Malcolm was seen
as a traitor,

because he had turned
on his leader

who had raised him up
from a common criminal

and put him on a pinnacle
before the world.

Also the federal government,
the FBI,

was deathly afraid of someone
like Malcolm X.

And one of the most perplexing details
about this story

is the fact that
there was an absence

of any kind of police force

in and around
the Audubon that afternoon.

This was very strange,

especially given
the recent threats

that were made on his life.

[Zaheer Ali] Usually at the rallies
at the Audubon Ballroom,

there'd be up to two dozen police officers
stationed outside.

And on that day,
there were only two uniformed officers,

and they're stationed upstairs inside,
away from the ballroom.

So the deterrent effect

of having law enforcement present
was not there.

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad]
It kind of gave a kind of menacing vibe

to the whole scene.

You know...
where was this police presence?

[reporter] Try to remember
just exactly what happened.

[witness 1] Well, he had just
got up to open up.

And, um, he was speaking.

I don't remember the exact words
he was saying...

Malcolm goes to the rostrum,
and he gave the greeting.

Salaam-alaikum.

[Gene Simpson] At that point,
a rumbling broke out behind us.

[man] Get your hand out of my pocket!

[Gene Simpson]
And everybody in the place

naturally turned around to look.

[Malcolm X] Hold it, hold it, hold it...

[Samuel Bilal] I remember
Malcolm was raising

his hand saying,
"All right, everybody be cool now."

Or something to that effect.

I said to myself,
"Why don't they cut that out?

I want to hear Malcolm
unfold this program."

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad]
And a burly, dark-skinned man

walked up to the stage

and pulled from under his coat
a sawed-off shotgun.

And, uh, just then
the g*nf*re went off.

[g*n firing]

[people screaming]

[Bilal] Next thing I know,
two other fellas jumped up.

They're sh**ting this place up.

I remember there were so many shots
that were fired.

It was like warfare.

[people clamoring and wailing]

[Betty Shabazz] I saw people crawling
on the floor.

So I got down too.

And my children were crying,
you know,

"What's going on,
what's going on?

Are they gonna sh**t us?"

[women and children sobbing]

[Shabazz] Then I saw,
um, someone

look in amazement to the front.
I knew they had shot my husband.

[Bailey] I ran down
and I jumped up on the stage.

And his shirt was open

and I saw all these
b*llet holes in his body.

And he was gasping.

I remember thinking to myself,

"He's gonna die.
He's gonna die."

[Shabazz] My husband was all I had.
I mean he was...

He was everything to me
and my children.

He said that, uh...

That he'd always love me
and provide for us.

[Malcolm X] We're not brutalized
because we're Muslims.

We're not brutalized
because we're Catholics.

We're brutalized
because we are black people in America.

[Jelani Cobb] If you're looking
at the genealogy

of the anger and activism
in this country,

we see lots of it
descending from Malcolm.

[Malcolm X] If they want us
to turn the other cheek,

teach white people
to turn the other cheek.

And if they want us
to love our enemy,

teach white people
to love their enemy.

[Cobb] Malcolm was
the primary articulator

of our cause and our case
against America,

against white supremacy
in the United States.

[Malcolm X] Black people
in this country

have been the victims
of violence

at the hands of the white man
for 400 years.

Is that different


Not really.

[Eric Garner] I can't breathe!

[cop] Put your hands
behind your back!

[Eric Garner] I can't breathe!

[Malcolm X]
When someone attacks you,

when someone comes at you
with a club, with a g*n,

despite the fact
that you've done nothing wrong,

he tells you,
"Suffer peacefully."

And how long can you suffer,

after suffering for 400 years?

We declare our right to be
respected as a human being,

to be given the rights
of a human being,

which we intend to bring into existence
by any means necessary.

[crowd cheering]

[Cobb] For those
who love Malcolm,

it is a really, really intense
relationship with his memory.

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad]
Malcolm spoke to me at a time

when I was
a very angry young man,

and I fell in love with him.

I was the victim of a police attack

when I was only 14 years old,
and it was racially motivated.

One quiet Sunday afternoon,
myself and my cousin,

I believe I was in 9th grade,

and we were just
hanging out on our bikes.

Me, him, and his girlfriend,

a young white girl.

I was just chatting
with the young lady,

and this, evidently,
enraged the police.

You know,
"How dare these black boys

date these white girls?"

They did a fishtail,
you know, "whoop-whoop,"

you know,
jumped out the car.

They grabbed me by my afro,
and they said, you know,

"You like dating white girls, n*gg*r?

That's what you like to do?"

And they flung me
against the car

and one of 'em came up
and gave me a nice knee, y'know?

I'm 14 years old!

They threw me
in the back of the car,

and then they just drove
around Providence and terrorized me.

They started talking
about how many brothers

they threw
in the Providence River.

"You remember Pookie?
You remember Ray-Ray, or Johnny?

Y'know what happened to them,
didn't you?

They're at the bottom
of the Providence River."

That kind of talk.

Then one officer looked to
the other officer and he said,

"Did he say something?
Did you say something, boy?

Say one more thing

and we'll split your head
like a g*dd*mn grape, okay?"

I remembered there was a...

a paralyzing fear
just trying to figure out

what was going
to become of me, y'know?

What were these guys gonna do?

All I could do
was just sit there, you know,

and accept whatever my fate
was going to be, you know?

Um... It was terrifying.

It was terrifying.

Every case of police brutality
against a n*gro

follows the same pattern.

- [man] You right!
- They attack you,

bust you all upside your mouth,

and then take you to court
and charge you with as*ault.

What kind of democracy is that?

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad]
The first time I heard his voice,

what really attracted me to it
was the fearlessness of it.

[Malcolm X]
You speak as a black man,

a black man
whose patience has run out.

The manhood in it!

The day of the sit-in,
the crawl-in,

the cry-in, and the beg-in
is outdated.

The power of this man's courage
to say this stuff.

You know, it was...
It was irresistible!

It changed the entire trajectory
of my life.

That's the reason why I went
to Howard University.

That's the reason
I became a black militant activist

at that moment.

We all had a story
or know someone

who's been jacked up
by the police.

And that's what
Malcolm represented for us.

You know, that black man
that wasn't gonna take this sh*t anymore.

Malcolm's death
never sat right with me.

There were too many
unanswered questions.

And for the better part
of 30 years,

I've dedicated my life
to understanding this story.

I'm not a lawyer.

I don't have a Ph.D.
I don't have a Master's.

I'm not what you would call,
even, a professional.

I have no shame about that.

Just a regular brother who felt

that Malcolm deserved justice.

Ladies and gentlemen,
my name is Abdur Rahman,

I'll be your narrator.

This portion of the tour,

on behalf
of Arlington National Cemetery Tours,

I'd like to welcome you all
to Arlington National Cemetery.

This is our nation's most sacred place
of remembrance...

[David Garrow] Abdur Rahman
Muhammad is without question

the most knowledgeable person
about Malcolm's m*rder.

He's been an independent researcher

working on this
for a good number of years now.

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad]
Look to the driver's side,

the large memorial there
in the center of the...

[Garrow] He has invested
hundreds of hours

tracking down
direct first-hand evidence

of the conspiracy
to k*ll Malcolm X.

...brutally assassinated
in June of 1963.

[Garrow] No one alive
has done more

to solve Malcolm's k*lling
than Abdur Rahman Muhammad.

...state of Mississippi

to become the first
field secretary

for the NAACP at that time.

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad]
Early on, I had read enough to think

that the case was a sham, all right?

That it was a fraud.

I had read enough to believe
that the K*llers were

still out there.

It's been a great honor
and privilege

to share this rich
and auspicious history with you.

Never been afraid
of the truth.

I always wanted to know,
what is the real story?

Whatever it is,
I'll deal with it.

I decided that, you know,
if it was ever possible

for me to find these people,
that I would find them.

I mean, this is Malcolm X
we're talking about!

[Herbert J. Stern]
It was a Sunday.

I had the homicide duty.

Usually, there wasn't much
homicide activity, you know,

certainly not in the afternoons.

I was in a bar, dancing.

And you know,
the dancing in those days

was a lot of leaping in the air.

I remember the name
of the place too,

it was called Ondine's.

It doesn't exist anymore.

It was on, I think, 57th Street
right under the bridge.

I heard somebody say,
"You hear? Malcolm X was shot."

In this whole bar,
there was one booth with a telephone,

and it was occupied.

But I had a badge, you know.

So I took my badge out,

and I went over to the booth
and knocked on the thing.

Guy looked up, and I said...
Showed him the badge. "Out!"

And I called Manhattan
North Homicide.

They said, "Mr. Stern,
where have you been?

We have been looking for you."

[reporter] Chief, could you describe
what happened here today?

[police chief]
At about 3:15 p.m. this afternoon,

there were about 400 persons
present in the ballroom here,

representing an organization

headed up by Malcolm X.

[reporter] There were no police
at this meeting, were there, Inspector?

There were no uniformed policemen
assigned inside this ballroom.

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad]
When the police arrived at the Audubon,

there was no sense of urgency.

And this was noticed
by a lot of people.

Almost as if they knew
this was going to happen.

Almost as if they wanted it to happen.

[Bailey] The police,
they looked so nonchalant.

It just really...
It angered me when I saw it.

They was just strolling
through the Audubon Ballroom

like they was on a Sunday stroll
in Central Park.

And people were on the floor,
chairs overturned,

people were still crying
and screaming.

[Stern] The crime scene
was a total mess.

The whole place was
in total disarray.

[camera shutter clicking]

There was nothing
to see at the scene

that would have helped me
as a lawyer on the case.

[camera shutter clicking]

We knew that Malcolm
had stood up

in front of
a very crowded ballroom

and that the shooters
massacred him

in the presence of his family.

Boom, boom, boom, boom.
They just blew him apart.

[police chief] We have found
one weapon at the scene.

A shotgun, which, I'm sorry,

I cannot describe for--

- [reporter] A sawed-off shotgun?
- Sawed-off shotgun.

[Stern] Actually,
we knew that there were

three kinds of weapons.

There was a shotgun.

There was a.45,

and then there was some
sort of... like a Luger.

[reporter] Where was
Malcolm hit?

He sustained one shot
in the lower right chin

and the others hit him
in the chest and, uh, body.

[Stern] I knew that
one of the shooters,

one carrying a.45, had run,

and was shot
by one of Malcolm's bodyguards.

[people shouting]

He managed to stagger
into the street

and then the mob
tried to k*ll him.

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad]
By then, the police had finally arrived

and they rescued him
from almost certain death.

He was immediately arrested,
and he was found with a weapon.

So, that was kind of,
"Case closed" for him.

What bothers me the most

is that the other gunmen got away

because there was no police.

Were it not for the fact that

one of Malcolm's security detail

shot this man in the leg,

all of the assassins
would've got away.

[Zaheer Ali] Law enforcement
did not secure

the scene of the crime.

In fact, there was a dance scheduled
for 7:00 p.m. that evening,

and the ballroom was cleaned up
and prepared for the dance,

which went on as scheduled,

with the b*ll*ts
probably still in the wall.

It made the process
of the investigation

seem haphazard at best,

botched, at worst.

Maybe convenient to someone?

It's just one of the reasons
why many people

have continued questions
about the assassination

and the role of law enforcement,

either actively or passively,
in this happening.

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad]
Did people know it was coming?

Did they get the right guys?

There was just so many stones
still unturned.

And it just kept bugging me
and bugging me.

Somewhere in my path,

I decided that I need
to drill down on Malcolm's case.

My initial research began
in the FBI Hoover building.

I've gone through the files
in the Library of Congress.

You know, anything that
I could get my hands on

to get clues
as to who is responsible

for this horrific crime.

But I've never seen

the District Attorney's
case files

or any evidence
from the crime scene.

[Lorenzini] So, we have
a number of collections

at the Archives
related to Malcolm X

and the assassination
of Malcolm X.

- There's the DA's case files.
- [Abdur Rahman Muhammad] Okay.

[Lorenzini] Homicide case files,

and then there's
the NYPD photograph collection.

If we look in here,

this is the NYPD Photo Unit
Manhattan's logbook.

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad]
So this book would have been

at the, uh, precinct.

[Lorenzini] This would
have been at the precinct.

Every time an officer
comes on duty,

they sign in, they sign out,

um, they get a call.

And then you see here, at 3:45.

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad]


[Lorenzini]
To the Audubon Ballroom,

"to photograph scene
where Malcolm X Little,

male n*gro, 39,

was allegedly shot
by unknown perpetrators.

Photos of ballroom
and surrounding area taken

in black and white and color,"
which is very rare.

Very rare for them
to sh**t color.

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad]
Do those color photographs exist?

[Lorenzini]
Those color photographs do exist.

And here's some copies
of what...

- [Muhammad] Wow.
- Of those.

So here we have backstage
at the ballroom.

So there's the stage
of the ballroom.

And you can see
where they've circled here.

All those chalk marks,
those are b*llet holes.

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad]
That is incredible.

[Lorenzini]
This is the stairwell.

Some of the assailants
ran out the back stairwell.

Um, I think there's something

like 65 photographs
of this scene.

So was there a lot of evidence
collected at the scene?

[Lorenzini] There was.

What we have is what's in
the New York DA's case files.

So now that the DA has turned this over
to your office,

is it now considered
a closed case?

Anything that the DA's office
turns over to us

would normally be considered
a closed case file.

Um, but that doesn't mean
that cases still can't get reopened.

[Muhammad]
Well, there's no statute of limitations

- on m*rder.
- Right.

[Muhammad] If, for example,
this case could be reopened.

[Lorenzini] Right.

It's quite probable
that this material

- would be utilized in it.
- Yeah, that's true.

You know,
could always be reopened.

[Muhammad]
Could always be reopened.

[Lorenzini] And that's evidence,
not just history.

[Muhammad] Right.

[reporter]
Did he ever discuss with you

the likelihood that
he would be assassinated?

[Shabazz] Uh, yes,
we discussed it many times.

Several attempts
had been made on his life.

The police and the press
tried to make it look

like he bombed his own home,
which was ridiculous.

I mean, he had no insurance
on the furniture

or himself
or anything like that,

and now I guess
they'll say he shot himself.

[sirens wailing]

[police chief] We're in
the process now of trying

to interview every person
who was in the ballroom

and get as much information
as we can

to find the K*llers
of Malcolm X.

[Stern] The assignment
for the police

was to interview
every single person

that they could identify.

"Who'd you sit next to?
Who'd you sit next to?

Who did you know?
Who did you see?"

[reporter] Did you see
what happened, sir?

[witness 1] No, I just came in
when it all happened.

All I could see
was smoke and sh**ting.

[reporter] Did you see
what happened, dear?

[witness 2] No, no, no. No.

[witness 3] I see two men
rush up in to the platform.

[Stern] They knew almost
nobody to start with.

And then they began to find names
as they went through.

I mean, it wasn't Sherlock Holmes,
you know?

"Who did you see?

Did you recognize anybody?"
Some people did.

[witness 4]
There were two fellas.

One was a Black Muslim.
Ran and start sh**ting.

- They were Black Muslims?
- [witness 4] Yes, sir.

They were Black Muslims
'cause I recognized them.

[Aziz] The day of the m*rder,
which was a Sunday morning,

I was laying across the couch,
with my foot up,

and I heard it over the radio.

[news anchor] Breaking news
out of New York City.

Four b*ll*ts
from an assassin's g*n

have taken the life
of black nationalist leader Malcolm X.

[Aziz] Four days later,
they came and got me.

The fact is I spent 20 years in prison

for a crime
that I didn't commit.

[reporter] Watch the wire,
watch the wire.

Has he signed a statement, sir?

[Zak A. Kondo]
On February the 26th,

Norman 3X Butler,

who is a lieutenant,

he's arrested.

And then on March the 3rd,

Thomas 15X Johnson is arrested.

[police chief]
We were able to arrest

a third suspect this afternoon

in the assassination
of Malcolm X.

He's going to be charged
with acting in concert

with the others now arrested.

[Stern] These people
who were members of the Nation of Islam,

they were an extremely
militant faction.

[Muhammad] Butler and Johnson
were from the Harlem mosque,

Mosque number 7,
Malcolm's mosque.

From the very beginning,

the focus of the investigation
was on Harlem,

and on Butler and Johnson.

Because they were known enforcers
in the community

who had been arrested for other crimes,

and they were
the prime suspects.

[Aziz] I was always
one of those few out front.

So the police officers
came to us,

because we were all,
in effect, on their radar.

But that doesn't mean
that we had anything to do with anything.

'Cause actually, we didn't.

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad]
The only thing they had

was very contradictory
eyewitness testimony.

That's all they had.

There was no physical evidence
to speak of.

[Tony Bouza]
I thought it was a failure.

I thought it was mishandled
from beginning to end.

The NYPD had a few shooters

and they were relieved,
as we all were,

uh, to death, relieved to death.

If I'd been chief,
it would have been different.

Uh, that's not the way I worked.

If you get the shooters,

you better get the guy
who sent them.

[Kondo] Initially,
after talking to witnesses,

the NYPD let it be known,
and accurately, I should say,

they were seeking five K*llers,

that there were five men
who were part of this team,

and they were searching Harlem,

and other places,
looking for them.

But after they got Butler,
Johnson, and Hayer,

the NYPD said,
"Case is closed."

[Stern] We locked up
Butler and Johnson

in a matter
of a couple of weeks,

which was quite a feat.

[interviewer] But is it possible
that you arrested the wrong guys?

Uh, why would you ask me
a question like that?

How can any human being
answer a question like that?

They were proven guilty
beyond a reasonable doubt.

Are you going to say
it's not possible?

You going to say that?

If I put you on the camera,
are you going to say that?

You're not going to say that?

Answer me,
you going to say that?

[interviewer, softly]
No.

Okay,
then we're in the same boat.

[people clamoring]

[Sinnette]
When Malcolm was k*lled,

people were just torn apart

by what had happened.

[reporter] What did
Malcolm X mean to you?

He's a hero to me.

He stood out
among all black people.

He showed the white man
where it was at.

[woman] That's right.

[woman 2] He meant a great deal
to me and my people.

I couldn't have cried any more,
I don't believe,

if I had lost my mother.

[Bailey] Sister Betty
asked me to be a pallbearer,

and at that time,

I was feeling very full of grief.

Unlike any that I had
ever felt before or since.

[reporter] And you're saying
that you believe

this was paid for by whites?

[man] Yeah, by white people.

Anytime a black man
in this country stands up

for his constitutional rights,
he dies.

[helicopter whirring]

[woman] I know
it wasn't no accident

from what I hear
Malcolm X say the other night.

[reporter] Who do you believe
is responsible for his death?

The white power structure
in America is behind it.

And they're quick to capitalize
on it by saying that, uh,

one of his own kind did it,
but they put it up to be done.

[Bilal] All of us was thinking then

that the hidden hand
behind Malcolm's assassination

was the big boys
down in Washington,

but that maybe members
of the Nation of Islam

probably were the trigger men.

[news anchor] Malcolm X's
pallbearers vow vengeance

on the Black Muslims' leader,

Elijah Muhammad.

They feel it is he that ordered
Malcolm's execution.

[reporter] What's going to
happen now, do you think?

It's going to be
a whole lot of hurting

before this whole thing is over.
That's what I think.

[reporter] Because of his death?

Because of his death,
whoever did it,

Muslims or whoever,
there's gonna be a whole lot of hurtin'.

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad]
But Malcolm's followers

wanted to take some heads, okay?

They want revenge.

[sirens wailing]

[news anchor] Two days
after the m*rder of Malcolm X,

an expl*si*n destroyed
the Muslim mosque in Harlem

in what appeared
to be the first act

of retribution for the m*rder.

Elijah Muhammad himself
is said to be a marked man,

with followers of Malcolm X
swearing vengeance.

If you would like to follow anyone
against me,

go ahead and do it,

but I fear for you.

[news anchor] The south side
Chicago home of Elijah Muhammad

was under heavy police guard today.

Squad cars were posted
at the front and rear.

All who sought entrance
to the house

were frisked
by Muhammad's own guard force,

the group of husky young Negroes
known as the Fruit of Islam.

[John Ali] This is the house
that the Messenger built.

That was their living room there.

That was his bedroom there.

And his secretaries
worked on the third floor

and those were his offices there.

I lived here for nine months

when I came to Chicago.

On the third floor in the back,

there was an apartment
back there.

I was the secretary of New York.

Until the Honorable Elijah Muhammad

brought me here to Chicago in 1960.

[news anchor]
Meeting with reporters in his living room,

Muhammad had this evaluation
of Malcolm X's k*lling.

Malcolm, uh, is the victim
of his own preaching.

He preached violence,

and so he become
the victim of it.

[reporter] Well,
Malcolm X said that

the Black Muslims
were trying to k*ll him,

and he was going to name those

he thought would commit
the crime yesterday

before he was shot.
Could you comment on that?

I wasn't there,

but I don't believe that
any of my followers was there.

They had nothing
to do with it at all.

It was predicted that they would
blame the Nation of Islam.

Elijah Muhammad even said that.

[news anchor] Elijah Muhammad
and his followers

claim innocence in the execution

of their most famous defector,
Malcolm X.

[Khalilah Ali] Elijah Muhammad
told everybody,

"My believers, do not lay a hand
on our brother, Malcolm X,

because he is not aware
of what he is doing.

Give him time.

Do not raise a hand
against Malcolm X."

He said that in the temple.
I was there.

I said to the government
of America,

we are a peaceful people.

We have always tried
to obey the law.

We do that.

I teach my followers to do it.

[Akbar Muhammad] His words were,
"Leave Malcolm alone,"

to all of his ministers
and to all of us,

"Leave Malcolm alone."

And those who loved him
and obeyed him,

that's exactly what they did.

[John Ali] You don't have
lentil soup today?

- [waiter] Lentil soup?
- [John Ali] Yes.

[waiter] We do have it

but we don't put it on the buffet.

If you want to have it,
we can get it for you, one order.

- It's a lentil soup?
- Yes.

[waiter] Okay, I'll get it
when you sit at the table.

[John Ali] The lentil
and the navy bean we eat,

but not the lima beans
or black-eyed peas.

This is what the Messenger teaches.

[waiter] This is fresh tandoori chicken
from the clay oven.

[John Ali] I had it before.
It's okay.

[waiter] You've had it before?
Okay.

[interviewer] Did you play a part
in having Malcolm get k*lled?

I could have, if I wanted to.

[waiter] This is a lentil soup,
the yellow color.

[John Ali] You can put it
right there.

But I don't know who k*lled him.

I know the Messenger didn't.
I know I didn't order it, you know?

Nobody from the FBI
or local authorities,

they never asked us anything
about it.

They've written in the papers

that we ordered for Malcolm
to be k*lled,

But we didn't.

You know, The Honorable Elijah Muhammad
was a wise man.

That he wouldn't do
such a stupid thing

as to order someone, you know,
to be k*lled,

Malcolm or anyone else.

If it hadn't been for the Messenger
saying, "Leave him alone,"

then he would have been k*lled,

sooner than he was.

[police sirens wailing]

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad]
The key to understanding Malcolm's case

is that from the very beginning,

no one in the power structure

gave a damn about what happened.

His assassination was widely reported
in the media,

especially the white media.

But there was almost a sense
that they were gloating.

A sense of glee
that he had it coming,

like he almost deserved this.

[Garrow] It's clear,
even in the New York Times

in February of 1965,

that white authorities
and most white newsmen

didn't take this k*lling
all that seriously.

That from their perspective,
it's some intra-g*ng warfare

among radical black extremists,

that they don't value
what Malcolm's life represented.

But the real bottom line
to everything we have here

is that white prosecution authorities

have never, across this entire chunk
of time,

decades of time,

taken a serious interest

in investigating, pursuing,
solving Malcolm's m*rder.

For Abdur Rahman Muhammad,

this has been
a very lonely crusade.

Because time and again,

he's had people
who have some initial interest,

and again and again,

they've decided not to go forward.

But Abdur Rahman has
never given up.

He's still on the case.

[man chanting prayer]

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad]
After I became a Muslim,

I started moving in certain circles,

and over the years,

I started meeting people

who knew things
about the assassination.

You know, who could talk
first-hand about it.

You know what I mean?

I was like one or two people removed

from actually being able
to get certain information!

[Imam] You are sitting in a place that,
in its history,

from the Nation of Islam
under the Honorable Elijah Muhammad,

that when he started...

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad]
That's when I realized that, you know,

"Hey, if I started asking
the right questions,

I could get some
very significant answers."

And if you were commanded to,
you had to have a card in your pocket.

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad] But one of
the things that you learn quickly,

is you can't ask
a question too directly.

If you ask a question
too directly,

you could be suspect, you know.

Because then the question would become,

"Why are you asking that, brother?"

Assalam-alaikum, sister.

Alhamdulillah.

When Malcolm first got here,

was there any inkling

or any idea that maybe
he was having a problem

with the Honorable Elijah Muhammad?

Or, uh, 'cause I know '63...

Once I would learn something
and I would file it away.

And I'd connect this dot
with that dot,

or at least be pointed
in a certain direction.

You know, and it became
more and more apparent to me

that if anybody could break it,

it would be me.

Most serious historians believe

there were five men
who were the actual assassins.

According to my research,

I believe those assassins
didn't come from Harlem

as the police claimed.

And I also believe that
something has been covered up.

We have at least one
FBI document

that gives a... you know,
a perfect description

of the man that
they say fired the shotgun.

They described him to a tee.

Burly, big, dark-skinned man
wearing a certain kind of coat.

Complete opposite
of the man they convicted.

So someone in the government
must have known

that they might be convicting
the wrong person,

and they let it happen.

And I think that it's only
by looking deeply into Malcolm's life

that the clues
as to who actually k*lled him,

and who knew it was coming,
can be found.

[woman]
You are not only honoring

Malcolm in the sunshine,

but in the rain.

And the prayer is that

you're not only honoring him
on his birthday,

but every day
with the work that you do.

In the name of
el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz,

in the name of freedom,
and black liberation.

Because that is how
we truly honor Malcolm.

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad]
When we say we love Malcolm X,

el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz,

we love him so much,

we name high schools
and institutions after him.

He's one of our greatest heroes.

[Malcolm X] You don't scare
Negroes today

with no badge, or no white skin,
or no white sheet,

or no white anything else.

[Muhammad] Yet the real K*llers,

the real culprits,

both those who actually fired the trigger,

and those who were,

let's say, the puppet masters
of the whole thing,

were never brought to justice.

But if you can't prove

that a democracy
is not hypocrisy,

then don't put your hands on me.

[Muhammad] There's no statute
of limitations on m*rder.

Yes!

[Muhammad] There's no reason why

this case cannot be
looked at again.

That is my mission.
That is my purpose.

As long as someone
is still out there,

you know,
there is a chance, still,

to get justice for Malcolm.