On February 21, 1965 civil rights activist Malcom X was assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan in front of his wife and children while giving a speech for the Organization of Afro-American Unity.
A Black police officer has confessed on his deathbed that he was part of the plot to facilitate Malcom X's murder...
From ABC News
New allegations surrounding the death of Malcolm X have surfaced in a letter written by a former New York City Police Department officer on his death bed.
On Jan. 25, 2011, Ray Wood, who was serving as an undercover police officer on the day of Malcolm X's death, wrote a letter in which he admitted he "participated in actions that in hindsight were deplorable and detrimental to the advancement of my own black people."
When Wood was hired by the NYPD in 1964, his job was to "infiltrate civil rights organizations" to find evidence of criminal activity so the FBI could discredit the subjects and arrest its leaders, Wood wrote in the letter obtained by ABC News.
Wood's handler devised the arrest of two of Malcolm X's "key" security detail members in a plot to bomb the Statue of Liberty days before his 1965 assassination, Wood wrote. The plot involved three members of a Black "terrorist group" and a Canadian woman who were planning to dynamite the Statue of Liberty, the Liberty Bell and the Washington Monument, the New York Times reported on Feb. 16, 1965.
"It was my assignment to draw the two men into a felonious federal crime, so that they could be arrested by the FBI and kept away from managing Malcolm X's door security on February 21, 1965," Wood wrote. "... At that time I was not aware that Malcolm X was the target."
Wood alleged in the letter that "his actions on behalf of the New York City Police Department (BOSSI) were done under duress and fear," adding that he could have faced "detrimental consequences" if he did not follow the orders of his handlers.
Wood placed his full confession into the care of his cousin, Reginald Wood Jr., and requested that the information be held until after his death.
"It is my hope that this information is received with the understanding that I have carried these secrets with a heavy heart and remorsefully regret my participation in this matter," Wood wrote.Three members of the Nation of Islam were convicted for the assignation.
