Original subtitles

Formerly I spoke for Elijah Muhammad,

and everything I said was,

"Elijah Muhammad teaches us thus and so."

I'm speaking now from what I think,

from what I have seen for myself.

Malcolm was suspended

from the Nation of Islam,

never to be reinstated.

And he never would be reinstated.

Well in reality, I never even left the Muslim movement.

They put me out.

And they put me out because of what I knew.

At that point, he had just about a year left to live.

That last year was insane.

The police know the criminal operation

of the Black Muslim movement.

Given all this stuff happening to him,

one of the things Malcolm needs the most

the last year of his life is a therapist,

twice a day on a couch.

Elijah Muhammad could stop the whole thing tomorrow,

but he won't! He doesn't love black people.

He doesn't even love his own followers.

I think Malcolm lost his mind. I really do.

And, um, sometimes when you're in pain,

death may even seem like a better way out.

The threats against Malcolm began almost immediately.

Yes, I do believe there will be attempts on my life.

I know them. They're foaming at the mouth.

People had taken sides.

And this was going on in the streets.

And people were staring at people.

And, I mean, it was a charged situation.

Elijah Muhammad, uh, has given the order

to his followers to see that I am crippled or killed.

I think that that last year of Malcolm's life

is like a kaleidoscope,

dealing with the constant threats of violence

from the Nation of Islam.

He's also on the international stage

in a way that very few black leaders had ever been before.

I'm speaking as a black man from America,

which is a racist society.

Which both magnified his status,

and magnified his problems.

Malcolm lusts for power.

He lusts for television and the press.

The vitriol and the slanders against Malcolm

had filtered down into the rank and file.

...the chief hypocrite that is spreading malice.

And somewhere in Newark, New Jersey,

his alleged assassins lay in wait.

I did receive word that, uh,

the 90-day suspension that I was under

was not to be lifted, that it would remain indefinite.

So I just reached the conclusion that, uh,

I frankly didn't think that I would ever be an active member

of the Nation of Islam anymore.

Malcolm makes an announcement on March 8th, 1964,

that he is leaving the Nation of Islam.

Malcolm X, the organization's

most articulate spokesman, has quit,

taking some members with him.

It wasn't a clean break.

It was like a shattering.

Malcolm X, you're setting up a new mosque in New York?

Yes, sir. Uh, the mosque... Muslim Mosque Incorporated.

And it'll be quite separate from Elijah Muhammad's organization,

- the Nation of Islam? - Yes, it will be.

Here's a man that had been in prison,

came out of prison into the Nation.

And this was the first time that he had nobody guiding

and putting the boundaries of his life.

You're not taking orders from a messenger or a warden.

Malcolm had the freedom to make himself what he wanted to be.

Now that I have the independence of action,

it's my intention to work

with everybody or against everybody

to try and get some kind of immediate solution

to the problems that are confronting our people.

So the word got out

that Malcolm would be traveling across North Africa,

and he's, uh, going to be sitting down

and meeting these here high-powered leaders,

world leaders!

He's kind of a roving ambassador,

a minister without portfolio,

the president of black America.

Well, my purpose here

is to remind the, uh, African heads of state

that there are 22 million of us in America

who are also of African descent.

He was being treated like a foreign minister,

and the FBI was following him

and had people spying on him every minute of this trip.

Our problem is not an American problem.

It's a human problem,

and we hope to impress upon them the importance

of their bringing pressure

and world opinion upon the United States,

to make some meaningful efforts...

Malcolm had this thought, "There's got to be a way

for us to bring our collective power together."

And, uh, and he was right.

The Organization of Afro-American Unity

shall include all people of African descent

in the Western Hemisphere.

In essence, what it is saying,

we need to seek some allies among the people

who look something like we do.

Brother Malcolm understood very clearly

that the United States, at that time,

was portraying itself as the beacon of liberty and justice

and equality, and that the movement

that was going on in this country at the time

was no longer

to be just considered the civil rights movement.

It should be considered the human rights movement.

We feel that the problem of the black man in America

is beyond America's ability to solve.

Malcolm exposed the hypocrisy

of America and America's treatment

of African-Americans.

I mean, he was embarrassing the U.S. government.

Are you prepared to work with some of the leaders

of the other civil rights organizations?

Certainly, certainly. We will work with any groups,

organizations or leaders in any way,

as long as it's genuinely designed to get results.

After Malcolm left the Nation,

he made a trip to Selma,

to a rally down there.

Dr. King was in prison at this time,

but he let Coretta Scott King know,

Dr. King's wife,

that, you know, "I'm not an enemy to you."

I'm hoping that the other so-called Negro leaders

will forget the many bad things

that I've said about them,

and I will forget the bad things that they've said about me.

And we can submerge our differences, uh...

He was attempting to soften his image

and make himself more palatable.

...a common approach to a common problem.

But now that he's trying to make moves

to become a more mainstream voice,

the FBI saw Malcolm's ability

to indict America and be able to mainstream that indictment

as far more dangerous to the stability and safety

of the United States than he ever was

when he was in the Nation.

We need an organization that's ready and willing to take action,

any kind of action.

Malcolm was becoming a cult figure

in the country.

...by any means necessary.

People wanting to invite him to come and speak

in Mississippi, in Alabama, in Los Angeles.

People wanting to invite him

to Harvard and Yale and Cambridge.

He was becoming a figure that transcended

the bubble of the Nation of Islam.

Malcolm X, what brings you here today?

Well, I'm out here to, uh,

see the successful exposé

of the New York City, uh, school system.

The real threat to Elijah Muhammad and the Nation

was that as soon as Malcolm had an independent pedestal,

position, stature, people all across black America

would flock to Malcolm's banner

and abandon Elijah and the Nation.

There are probably less than 7,000 members

now in the Muslims.

Well, it has, uh, fallen apart.

Thank you. It has fallen apart,

and dissatisfied black Americans are now free to participate

into the full swing of the struggle that's going on in this country,

and I think it will be inclined to step up the tempo.

Malcolm felt that he was now a big man before the public,

and this seemed to have been his desire.

He wanted to be seen and heard,

uh, he wanted to exalt himself from his teachings.

Everybody was telling him he's the number two,

the heir apparent, and it went to his head.

You know, it's like he wanted a showdown.

Malcolm's home belonged to the Nation.

He felt that he should keep the home, and it went to court.

In that courtroom, Malcolm tried to argue,

"Elijah Muhammad gave me this house.

It's my house. I... You know, I served the nation."

So he felt that he should still be allowed to stay in the house.

I mean, he's looking at his children.

He has no visible means of income,

and he's being put out of his house.

I remember him coming out of the court,

and the press was there.

And the court made a ruling that the home was indeed

purchased as a parsonage for whoever was the minister

of Mosque #7. But Malcolm left the Nation.

On what grounds are you fighting him

to retain this house?

It has been 12 years of 24-hour-a-day work on my part,

representing him in every type of form imaginable.

People came to the temple

because of Malcolm.

So he done paid for the house himself,

you know what I mean?

But that just goes to show you that when things go bad,

things just go bad.

Mr. Muhammad lives in a $100,000 house

that he built in 1963.

I live in a five-room house here in Queens.

- But what about the-- - Now, if he can live

in a $100,000 house and he's going out of his mind

over a little five-room house...

Every resource that he had, from his home

to any salary that he had,

all that was provided by the Nation.

So as he left, he left with nothing.

At that point, he was very bitter.

I mean, he gave 12 years of his life

to the Nation of Islam

and built it! He built it.

And this is how it all ends?

"This is how it all ends? Me and my family on the street?

No, then I'm going to give it to you, too. To hell with you."

Y'know, "To hell with you.

This is how you're going to treat me?

Then the world should know what a fraud you are."

Elijah Muhammad, the head of the movement,

is the father of eight children

by six different teenage girls

who were his private, personal secretaries.

Uh, four of them had one child a piece by him.

Uh, two of them had two children,

and one of those two is pregnant right now in Los Angeles.

I think that was the breaking point.

That was pretty much, you know,

Malcolm pulling out, like, the very last card he had.

And it was, uh, their fear that

if I remained in the Black Muslim movement

and this came into the knowledge of his followers,

that they would leave him and follow me. So, uh...

Malcolm is angry, like all of us would be.

He's like an NCAA athlete, right,

where you're helping all these people create billions of dollars,

and the brand you create

turns out to be a billion-dollar brand.

Of course he's enraged.

Malcolm says that he's only trying

to expose him in the spirit of the truth, but it's not.

He wants back what he helped build.

Malcolm wants power as much as the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

I very much doubt that any of his followers

who really are aware of what he has done

would continue to follow him.

Malcolm was convinced that once people find out the truth,

that there's gonna be consequences.

He's 100% wrong. He's 1,000% wrong.

So many false things said about Messenger Muhammad

and his followers that I could write a book on it.

People needed the Nation of Islam

and the idea of it.

The thousands of hardcore believers,

they needed to believe.

Did you hear that he had mistresses

and children by other women other than his wife Clara?

I knew it. I didn't hear about it, I knew it.

Did it bother you to know that?

No, why should it?

That the prophet was going against his own teachings?

Does it bother you as a Christian to know that...

David looked over his backyard and saw Bathsheba down there,

is like, "Ooh, I want that booty."

And they says, "She's married... to her husband."

"Well, I'll send her husband... I'll get him killed.

And then I get the booty." Does that bother you?

So, Elijah Muhammed was human, like the rest of us?

No, he wasn't. He was... He was divine.

By nature they are Islam people.

By nature they are the very people of God.

When I saw these other women

coming up saying, "My child is Elijah Muhammad's child,"

it broke my heart. I told it to my mom.

She said, "You know what, don't worry about a thing.

This man has opened the door to Islam for us.

He has cleaned us up, and, you know,

we have to take the good over the bad."

The very man that fed, clothed, and sheltered you,

gave you a platform to speak, gave you security,

you're going to turn on him because of something over,

uh, some women?

We are a peaceful people.

But if you allow jealous hypocrites and envious people

to try and destroy us,

we can protect ourselves against them.

The mosque in Newark,

Muhammad's Mosque #25 of the Nation of Islam,

under the leadership of Minister James Shabazz,

was known as a very radical, militant,

fanatical, even, type of mosque,

and they prided themselves on that.

There were rumors that in that very building

is where the five assassins who killed Malcolm,

this is where they actually came from.

To be standing in front of it and to touch it,

and to see it, and to know, uh,

what took place there over 50 years ago,

uh, it's very unsettling and very, um, disturbing.

There is a lot of pain still about Malcolm's assassination

and a lot of swirl that you hear

when you talk to folk in my community about,

you know, where did the people even come from?

There's rumors that they came from Mosque #25,

the people that assassinated... There's all kind of swirl,

all kind of rumors.

It's part of the misunderstanding of Malcolm X

that people are still yearning to get to know.

This was the, uh, fastest-growing temple

- in the Nation of Islam. - In the Nation of Islam.

Here in Newark.

But let me ask you this. How did Elijah Muhammad

loom so large when most of you brothers never met him?

Most of you brothers didn't... He was just a picture on a wall.

- How did it translate into... - Well, see, now, now...

Talk to me about that.

- Now you're going into religion. - Right.

You're going into religion.

Everything that we were doing during the course of the day

had to do with the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

We loved him.

He had a message

that appealed to our hearts.

And this message was the salvation of the people.

- Exactly, exactly. - A good way to explain it.

I had known for quite some time that Malcolm had, uh...

high aspirations.

I knew that he had a big head, you know,

but, uh, never, never thought

he would go against the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

And, you know, this is the kind of town...

You don't play with that.

You just don't do that.

Uh, you do, there's a price to pay.

Malcolm X intends to bring about

the character assassination of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

And, uh, he is the first man that we've had

to try to go against the man

that have benefited him and have brought him into the light.

Minister James Shabazz was, like, "I'm gonna be Elijah Muhammad's man."

That's who he was.

Anything outside of that that came out of that paradigm

wasn't happening with him.

Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught Malcolm,

and he came out of drugs and alcohol, he came up out of that stuff

through the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

It was a sterling example of, "You can reconstruct your life

in a very positive way," and he did it

from the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

All that he did with that,

and turned around and betrayed your leader?

I mean, that... that hurts, man.

Malcolm is the chief hypocrite that is spreading malice

into the hearts of whosoever will spend a few minutes to listen to him.

But remember, we were all young and impressionable.

And it was going, "Malcolm betrayed the Honorable Elijah Muhammad."

Boom, "What? What? What?"

Hey, a lot of people didn't like that.

I guess a lot of people wanted to make moves on that.

And you wouldn't put it past some of your followers

to try and get Malcolm?

I wouldn't put it past a Christian to punch somebody out

for talking about Jesus, just outright.

You couldn't be lukewarm about Malcolm during that time.

There was no middle ground.

So you had to be on one side or another.

But I don't know too much about James Shabazz

having anything to do with the assassination of Malcolm X.

In fact, knowing how the Nation moves, I would think the opposite,

that if there was anybody that was involved in the conspiracy,

you want to move independent of the minister.

FOI would never do anything

that would come back on Nation leadership.

So even if that energy would've been put out there,

it would've never been anything

that could've been directly attributed to James Shabazz.

Brother Qasim, you were here at the time

when Malcolm broke off

and started making these statements.

Can you express how you felt and, like,

how you interpreted what was going on with Malcolm?

I don't know what was going on with Malcolm.

I only knew what was going on with me

- and how I felt, you know. - How did you feel?

Uh, how could he say those things?

You know, I didn't believe it. How could he say those things?

Never even entered my mind that Malcolm was right,

and it was like a man turning on his father.

Elijah Muhammad has gone insane.

Absolutely out of his mind.

Besides, you can't be 70 years old and surround yourself

by a handful of 16, 17, 18-year-old girls

- and keep your right mind.

You can't do it.

Newark's position against Malcolm

probably wasn't no different than any other

city that had a temple and a minister,

and a Fruit that loved Elijah Muhammad and what he did.

And of course, when they see someone coming against that,

of course, you know, you're gonna have that animosity,

you know, and some type of backlash.

Even if people had a certain disposition

negatively toward Malcolm, they were never going to say it

as long as he was in good standing with the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad loved him.

So you would never hear of anybody say anything publicly negative.

But when their relationship went south,

then you could easily surmise

that people that had issues before,

now this gives them a platform

for those things to come to surface.

We believed, as we will take to our graves,

that this was the will of Allah, all of this.

And, uh, we kind of seen something coming.

Because, uh, you know, there was strong feelings

for the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

Well, the question is,

do you think that Elijah Muhammad put a hit on Malcolm?

Oh, no, no, he... No.

No. He didn't do that.

He didn't do that. That was not him.

That was not him.

All right. Just let me just ask the question.

- Yes. - How do you know that?

How do you know Elijah Muhammad wouldn't have done something like that?

I'm just asking.

You know, you said you were very confident

when you said, "No, no, no... He wouldn't do that."

No, he wouldn't.

That was...

That was never his heart. That was never...

Nah, that wasn't Elijah. Not Elijah.

There are lots of people in the Nation

who say that Elijah Muhammad's hands are clean,

that in fact, he told his followers

to stay away from Malcolm.

Elijah Muhammad didn't want him dead,

I'm honest when I tell you.

Elijah Muhammad told us not to bother Malcolm.

His words were, "Leave Malcolm alone."

"Do not raise a hand against Malcolm X."

He said that in the temple. I was there.

But Malcolm was convinced

Elijah Muhammad was behind it all.

Elijah Muhammad, uh, has given the order

to his followers to see that I am crippled or killed.

The answer may lie

somewhere in the FBI's files.

Elijah Muhammad was wiretapped,

both in Chicago and at his vacation home

in Phoenix, Arizona, uh, for years and years.

I would not expect to find a wiretap log

in which Elijah Muhammad gives an explicit order.

But I wouldn't be surprised

if Elijah and his top deputies

were talking about the desirability of Malcolm's death.

What am I looking at there?

This page is from one particular wiretap

- at Elijah's home in Phoenix. - Okay.

And it's very explicit evidence

of how hateful Elijah is toward Malcolm.

"Elijah stated that with these hypocrites,

when you find them, cut their heads off."

I mean, to my mind, "cut their heads off"

is, you know, explicit enough to include shooting him.

The "cut their heads off" thing

also dates back to the early teachings

of the founder of the sect...

- Oh, right. - ...Fard Muhammad.

"Whoever cuts off the heads,"

or, "Whoever takes the heads of four devils..."

- Right. - "...will go to Mecca."

"...that upon referring to Malcolm X,

Elijah referred to him

as 'that no good long-legged Malcolm'.

Elijah said the only way to stop him

was to get rid of him

the way Moses and the others did their bad ones."

And that reference to Moses in the Qur'an,

if you go to the Qur'an, you find out that there was this...

These people that were put to death

were those who worshipped the calf...

- Ah! - ...when he went away.

So when he came back, their punishment was to be put to death for their idolatry.

You know, I don't grasp this Moses reference.

You really need someone with your sort of background.

I mean, really this... Just this paragraph right here, I mean,

- short of just saying... - Even before

you get to the "cut their heads off."

"Cut their heads off," yeah. I mean, the reference to Moses.

- Yeah. - You know,

it's very clear what he's calling for.

- Okay. - He wouldn't have to...

He wouldn't have to say it.

There's no organization in this country that could do more

for the struggling black man

than the Black Muslim movement if it wanted to.

But it has gotten into the possession of a man

who's become senile in his old age

and perhaps doesn't realize it.

And then he has surrounded himself by his children

who are now in power,

and want nothing but luxury

and will do anything to safeguard their own interests.

I wouldn't exclude anyone,

at the point that it had got to,

to have Malcolm removed.

I mean, that was a badge of honor,

to move on Malcolm like that.

I think the Honorable Elijah Muhammad didn't necessarily give the order.

He didn't have to give the order.

He could say something simple like this,

"Man, this situation is really causing me a problem,"

and someone would take care of it.

Keep this in mind.

You have to understand the culture

of the Nation of Islam.

When the leadership wanted something done,

they didn't have to use straight up words.

They could just basically use terms of arts.

- For example... - Okay.

If you heard a captain

say to a rank and file person

that we're gonna bless him,

that was basically code to say,

"We're gonna probably take him to the park,

and we're gonna beat the hell out of him because he didn't sell his newspapers."

This is the way the FOI worked.

And so, go back to 1964, 1965.

They were basically saying things

that gave people the notion that the national leadership

wanted Malcolm X dead.

Muhammad Speaks! Muhammad Speaks!

Come check it out. Come out to our meeting sometime.

We have a meeting tomorrow night at eight o'clock.

I remember a newspaper

that I was selling, Muhammad Speaks,

and it had a picture of Malcolm,

and it had his face,

just the head.

And it bounced, two horns came up,

small ones, and it bounced,

the horns got bigger, and it bounced again,

and the horns got bigger, you know.

And, uh, it was just a horrible time,

just a lot of tension.

I think the justice is after Malcolm,

and that pretty soon he will be on his knees

trying to crawl back to just that what he left.

By the time Malcolm was assassinated,

the vitriol and the slanders against Malcolm

had filtered down into the rank and file.

Anyone who cares to examine Malcolm would agree with us.

He's a cheap hypocrite of the worst sort.

And Malcolm was not allowed to defend himself, you know.

And what were called seeds were dropped on him.

A seed would be like a whispering campaign.

Like, "Man if you knew what Malcolm was saying

about the Honorable Elijah Muhammad,

you would kill him yourself."

So they would drop these little suggestions they called seeds.

Accepting the Honorable Elijah Muhammad

as the messenger of God, I felt that he was

being slandered, castigated at that time,

and I felt that in doing what I did,

participating in this like I did,

I felt that it was only an act of my duty at that time.

Even Talmadge Hayer, the convicted assassin,

admitted in a jailhouse interview

that he did not need a direct order.

I can only say this, uh...

I think anybody had the blessings,

from almost everybody, to deal with Malcolm in the way

that he was dealt with.

And most certainly I would say,

yeah, the overwhelming majority of leadership was definitely,

I would say, on that note.

Yes, I do believe there will be attempts on my life.

I know them. They're foaming at the mouth.

Uh, the rank and file Muslim means well.

It's those at the hierarchy who are living off the fatted calf

who don't mean well.

Elijah Muhammad Jr. come to New York

when Elijah Muhammad was at the Armory

in June of last year.

Junior stood up and told the Fruit

that my tongue should've been put in an envelope

and sent back to Chicago by now. And because Junior...

Junior is Elijah Muhammad's son.

He's the Assistant Supreme Captain of the Nation of Islam.

It was always thought

that he was the voice piece of his father.

And so when Junior says something like that

in front of hundreds of FOI,

that is nothing short of a direct order

by Elijah Muhammad telling his charges

that it's okay to take out Malcolm.

Well, let me ask you this. You were there.

Did you hear that kind of language?

- Can you clarify that? - What I...

What I remember is that he said,

"You should cut out his tongue.

And I'll put it in an envelope, stamp it approved,

and send it to my father." Words to that effect.

Norman Butler was one of the three men

convicted of murdering Malcolm.

He says he was innocent, and Talmadge Hayer backs him up.

As a high-ranking member of the Fruit of Islam,

he was there

when Elijah Muhammad Jr. spoke at the Armory.

I can't say what it was, how people inter...

I can only tell you what, how I interpreted it.

I can't tell you what other people think.

Well, how did you interpret it?

- Hype talk. Just... - Okay.

People get excited.

They say things that they don't necessarily mean.

And in an incendiary environment, all you need is a match.

I mean, it's not that...

That's not the first time I heard that kind of talk.

So, I mean, I wouldn't have reacted to it,

but clearly somebody did.

And took it as open season on Malcolm.

Somebody did. Five people that I know about.

If Norman Butler is innocent,

as he says he is,

then there are men still out there

who, whether through negligence or complicity by law enforcement,

got away.

But in two affidavits he gave to his attorney, Bill Kuntsler,

Talmadge Hayer finally named the four men

he said were his accomplices.

Just before we went on the air,

I was told that Mr. Kunstler has promised some information

about who killed Malcolm X. William Kunstler, welcome.

It was a huge break in the case.

And I gather you feel the wrong people

went to the big house.

One was right. That was Thomas Hayer,

who was one of the assassins,

but he would not name the other four

- who had done it with him. - But he knew.

He knew. And he finally gave me,

and I have the affidavit here,

he gave me a sworn affidavit

giving the identities of the four men,

who with Hayer, had done the job.

And they all came from New Jersey,

from the Newark mosque, Mosque #25.

And their names are Benjamin Thomas,

Leon Davis, William X,

and a man named Wilbur Kinly.

According to Hayer, these four men were partners with him

in the execution of Malcolm X.

The sworn affidavit

Talmadge Hayer gave to his lawyer

offered some important clues about the plot behind Malcolm's murder.

Not only did Hayer list the names of his accomplices

for the first time, he also gave details about the plot,

and how they planned to pull it off.

"We decided after looking at the place

that we would get there early, drift in."

According to Hayer,

they scoped out the Audubon the night before, during a dance,

where they figured out their positions.

"Leon and me up front,

Ben and William right behind us.

Wilbur had the seat in the back of the place.

His job was to accuse someone of picking his pocket

and throw the smoke bomb."

And Hayer even gave specifics about the weapons,

and who fired what.

"I had the.45 automatic.

Leon had the Luger.

William had the shotgun."

Here we have the autopsy.

39 years old, height 6'3", 178 pounds,

chest open, cavity full of blood.

Multiple shotgun slugs

and bullet wounds of chest, heart and aorta.

Phew!

That's obviously harsh to look at,

but the incision would've been done at the hospital, obviously.

But what really killed him was the shotgun round.

The shotgun pellet, yeah, and you can see

- it's right over the heart. - Right.

The coroner ruled the cause of death

to be the shotgun pellets.

It wasn't the.45 or the.38.

It was the shotgun that took the life of Malcolm X.

- So let's start there. - These are the shotgun shells

recovered at the scene.

So when it comes down to it,

if you want to answer the question of who killed Malcolm,

it was the man who fired the shotgun.

And according to Hayer, that man's name was William X.

Okay, now that would've contained the pellets?

That would've contained the pellets.

- Okay. - And then here

we have some lead fragments from the shotgun.

And this particular one

was removed during autopsy from right chin.

This was removed from Brother Malcolm's chin.

Yeah.

That's almost too much to process.

Yeah.

So who is this "William X?"

After the courts denied attorney Kunstler's efforts

to reopen the case, he petitioned Congress.

But the petition went nowhere,

and very few people, including me, have ever seen it.

Hayer said William X was 27 years old,

stocky build, dark-skinned.

Lived in Newark where he was a member of Mosque #25.

And his last name,

provided for the first time in Kunstler's petition to Congress,

was Bradley, William X Bradley.

Even to this day,

the information Talmadge Hayer provided

has never been officially investigated.

According to Hayer,

William Bradley lived on South Orange Avenue,

right across the street from Mosque #25.

With his full name, I could finally fill in some details.

I heard that William Bradley played baseball

for Southside High in Newark,

so I started there.

This is the name of Southside High School today.

Yeah, so, this is the senior class.

- That's the senior class? - This was the senior class.

Yeah. There were about 300 of us. Yeah.

Wow.

Was it Malcolm X High School by then?

By this time it was Malcolm X, yeah.

- My goodness. - Yeah. Malcolm X Shabazz.

So you were part of the first graduating class

- of Malcolm X Shabazz High... - We were the first, yes.

- Unbelievable. - It was an incredible feeling.

- Let me ask you this. - Yeah?

Uh, there's been a man identified, from right here in Newark,

who supposedly was the chief assassin,

the man that pulled the shotgun, fired the first shot.

Were you aware that this man went to this high school?

- I had no idea. - Is that right?

I had no idea he went to this high school. Is that a fact?

Yes, yeah, that is a fact. Yeah.

He was a baseball star here.

I had no idea.

How do you think Newark

reconciles that contradiction?

I don't think the majority of young people here

at this high school even know

that the murderers of Malcolm came out of Newark.

To be very honest with you,

I haven't thought once about them.

So, I don't know who they are.

I don't know where they reside.

Uh, they are asterisks

of history, as far as I'm concerned.

William Kunstler, where are they now?

Well, I don't know where they are now at this moment.

Uh, I think two or three of them lived in Paterson,

- one in Newark. - Yeah.

And I know one was in jail at the time we filed our papers.

William X Bradley was a member of the Newark mosque.

At the time Kunstler petitioned the government,

Bradley was serving time for another crime.

I found articles about Bradley in the local papers.

It is clear this guy was known for being violent.

He had served time for crimes from robbery

to assault and battery with dangerous weapons.

It was hard to get much more information about Bradley.

Word was he was still alive,

and at some point, he changed his name to a Muslim name.

I got the sense that Bradley's criminal past,

and his possible involvement in Malcolm's murder,

was an open secret in Newark.

But the people I asked made it clear

they didn't want to talk about it.

Not about him, or about any of the other alleged assassins.

Malcolm's assassination?

We don't dwell on that.

That's a waste. It's in the history book.

Leave it there. Move on.

That's where we are.

So, people knew who they were...

- Well... - But they just let them go?

They went on with their lives. What do you expect?

Going around with a... revenge?

What? Nothing like that.

People went with their lives, like anything else.

And it's no secret?

Hey, where's the secret at?

You know, it bothers a lot of people

that two brothers went to prison,

and they lost their families and what have you.

I mean, can't one make an argument that,

you know, justice should be done?

I wouldn't deal with it. I wouldn't deal with it at all.

What happened to Malcolm was wrong, 1,000%.

But I ain't hashing that up.

I'm not going to deal with nothing like that.

I've seen things that you haven't seen

and know things that you don't know.

So, you got to be careful when you try to pull up those things.

There's a lot involved in these things.

Leave it alone!

I would leave it alone. I have nothing to do with it.

I had nothing to do with it then, I have nothing to do with it now.

I moved forward.

This community moved forward.

It was something that was really inevitable,

and it was just a situation

where Newark was able to get there first.

That it was inevitable that he would be killed?

It was inevitable that he would be killed.

Whether it was going to be a crew out of Philadelphia,

a crew out of New York,

or a crew out of any other city

that had that type of zeal and love for Elijah Muhammad.

It's just that Newark got there first.

So it's not a secret. They came from this city.

- Understood, right, for sure. - And they came from the mosque

on South Orange Avenue.

Brother Qasim, you were deeply involved in the community.

- Right. - When did you...

When did you learn of their identities?

I can't even say it. A few years later.

- A few years later? - Yeah.

You knew who it was. So, this, you've known,

you know who these people are,

their comings and goings throughout the community.

People just knew about it, but it went un...

It was like, you know, the 800-pound elephant in the room.

- Right. - And nobody talked about it.

That's not something that we talked about.

If you see some dry dung in the roadway,

don't kick it.

If you kick it, you gonna send off an offensive smell.

Just leave it.

And that's what people should do. They should just leave it.

There's a justice in telling the truth...

establishing or correcting the historical record

once and for all, once and for all.

There's been a number of theories.

Some people say this. Some people say that.

Well, if a man named William Bradley from Newark, New Jersey,

pulled out a sawed-off shotgun

and took the life of Brother Malcolm X,

then it's time for the world to know

and for it to be established as a historical fact.

Abdur Rahman is a person with a cause.

Um, he's someone of deep commitment

and deep faith and deep courage.

But I think asking intrusive questions

about who in and around the Nation of Islam

was guilty of Malcolm's assassination

is a potentially dangerous question to ask.

I don't think white Americans know that,

um, but black Americans of a certain generation,

they know that.

And, certainly, Abdur Rahman knows that.