Thomas Hagan (; born March 16, 1941) is a former member of the

Nation of Islam The Nation of Islam (NOI) is a religious organization founded in the United States by Wallace Fard Muhammad in 1930. A centralized and hierarchical organization, the NOI is committed to black nationalism and focuses its attention on the Afr ...

who

assassinated Assassination is the willful killing, by a sudden, secret, or planned attack, of a personespecially if prominent or important. It may be prompted by political, ideological, religious, financial, or military motives. Assassinations are orde ...

Malcolm X Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little, later el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) was an African American revolutionary, Islam in the United States, Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figur ...

in 1965. For a period he also went by the name Talmadge X Hayer, and his chosen Islamic name is Mujahid Abdul Halim ().

Assassination of Malcolm X

When Malcolm X was shot on February 21, 1965, in the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights, Manhattan, New York City, Hagan was shot in the leg by one of Malcolm X's bodyguards while attempting to flee from the building. Hampered by his bullet wound, Hagan was grabbed by several members of the crowd who witnessed the shooting and beat him before police officers arrived and arrested Hagan at the scene. He later confessed to the crime but said that Thomas Johnson (Khalil Islam) and Norman 3X Butler ( Muhammad Abdul Aziz), two suspects arrested at a later point in time, were not involved in the assassination. Hagan stated in a 1977 affidavit that he had planned the shooting with four others (Johnson and Butler not being among them) to seek revenge for Malcolm X's public criticism of

Elijah Muhammad Elijah Muhammad (born Elijah Robert Poole; October 7, 1897 – February 25, 1975) was an American religious leader, black separatist, and self-proclaimed Messenger of Allah who led the Nation of Islam (NOI) from 1933 until his death in 197 ...

and the

. He said that one of his accomplices, William 25X Bradley, distracted Malcolm X's bodyguards by starting an argument about having been pickpocketed. When the bodyguards moved toward the diversion and away from Malcolm X, a man with a shotgun stepped up to him and shot him in the chest. After that, Hagan himself and another of his accomplices shot several rounds at Malcolm X with semi-automatic handguns.

Later life

Hagan, Butler, and Johnson all received 20-years-to-life sentences in 1966. During his time in jail, Hagan earned bachelor's and master's degrees; he filed 16 times for parole but was denied each time. Butler was paroled in 1985 and Johnson in 1987. From 1988, Hagan was in a

work release In prison systems, work release programs allow certain prisoners to go outside the prison and work at a place of employment, returning to prison when their shift is complete. It is granted only to prisoners who are sufficiently trusted or can be su ...

program, which allowed him to seek work outside the prison. It required him to spend only two days a week in Lincoln Correctional Facility, a minimum-security facility in Manhattan. For the rest of the week, he was allowed to stay with his wife and children. Among other places, he worked at the Crown Heights Youth Collective, as a counselor at a homeless shelter on

Wards Island Randalls Island (sometimes called Randall's Island) and Wards Island are conjoined islands, collectively called Randalls and Wards Island, in New York City.

, and in a fast-food restaurant. Hagan was granted parole in March 2010 and was released from prison at the end of April. In 2021, Hagan expressed support that the convictions of Thomas Johnson and Norman 3X Butler were overturned, matching his original claims that they were not involved in the murder of Malcolm X.Nate Schweber, Glenn Thrush
''Malcolm X's confessed killer expresses support for the exonerations.''
New York Times, 2021-11-17 Hagan is still a practicing

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

, but has left the Nation of Islam, no longer agreeing with their ideology. He has expressed "regrets and sorrow" for having shot Malcolm X.

Assassination of Malcolm X

Later life

References

Further reading