The official story has been that Malcolm X was killed Feb. 21, 1965, at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem because of a feud between him and his former allies in the Nation of Islam. Malcolm had a falling out with NOI leader and his former spiritual guide Elijah Muhammad, who he’d accused of fathering several children with teenage secretaries. The popular narrative was that Malcolm was killed by Muhammad loyalists after he was expelled from the NOI.

But many people, especially in the Black community, never believed that version of events as being the complete story. While there had been a clear rift between Malcolm and Muhammad, it was also a period when the FBI was conducting its Counter Intelligence Program, initially targeting suspected communists but later expanding it to disrupt groups such as the Black Panthers and other Black nationalist organizations.

Indeed, records revealed after Malcolm’s death show that the FBI had been actively monitoring him, as Malcolm’s files, available on the FBI’s website, confirm. Therefore, it isn’t beyond reason that the FBI, under the maniacal J. Edgar Hoover, could have played a role in the assassination by either fomenting, participating or at least turning a blind eye and allowing it to happen.

Could it be that the NYPD also came to know from the FBI, or from its own investigations, that Malcolm would be killed by opponents on that fateful February date? Could it be that the NYPD and the FBI worked together to allow Malcolm to be killed by not warning him or by not standing in the way? Could it be that both agencies even actively aided Malcolm’s killers? These intriguing questions came into sharp focus last week when Benjamin and I read the introduction of an upcoming book by Toby Rogers, “The Ganja Godfather: The Untold Story of NYC’s Weed Kingpin,” which chronicles the history of the mob in New York City.

In the book’s introduction, Rogers writes that when he interviewed Breslin 10 years ago on the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X, Breslin told him, “Well, I was supposed to receive a journalism award in Syracuse that evening, but I got a tip [from the NYPD] that I should go up to Harlem to see Malcolm X speak. I sat way in the back smoking a Pall Mall cigarette.”

Last Friday, on the eve of the 50th anniversary of Malcolm X’s murder, co-writer Benjamin and I interviewed Rogers separately about the assertion in his forthcoming book.

According to Rogers, after Malcolm was killed, Breslin, who at the time was a reporter for The New York Herald Tribune, wrote an article that initially reported the arrest of two suspects by police in the shooting. However, by the time the Herald Tribune’s second edition appeared, no reference was made of a second suspect. Three suspects were eventually tried and convicted of the killing of Malcolm X: Talmadge Hayer, Thomas Johnson and Norman Butler. However, Hayer was the only gunman officially arrested at the scene. Was there a second gunman? Perhaps a police informant who was later released?