Malcolm X family unveils letter alleging NYPD, FBI assassination link Malcolm X in Hartford, Conn., in June 1963. Photo: Bettmann/Contributor The family of Malcolm X released a letter Saturday purportedly written by a now-deceased police officer alleging that the New York Police Department and FBI were behind the 1965 assassination of the Black civil rights leader. Why it matters: Scholars and civil rights advocates have long said men charged with killing Malcolm X, later known as el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz, in New York’s Audubon Ballroom were wrongly convicted. Some have alleged police and federal agents played a role in his death.