On February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was assassinated after delivering a speech to the Organisation (the spelling used by the group) of African-American Unity. Four men were involved in the assassination, but only one was convicted: Talmadge Hayer (a.k.a. Thomas Hagan). The theory accepted by most historians is that the government ordered the assassination of Malcolm X. There is significant evidence to support this theory. One key component in the government theory is the New York Bureau of Special Services, B.O.S.S., an extremely covert spy agency (Hutchinson 1). A week before his assassination, Malcolm’s house was firebombed. Although some thought that Elijah Muhammad, leader of the Nation of Islam, was the bomber, most of those …show more content…

Despite these new beliefs, Malcolm still believed that Black people could defend themselves against any aggressive whites. He then founded the Organisation of African American Unity on these principles. Because he formed the Organisation, tensions between Malcolm and the Nation of Islam leadership increased dramatically.
The theory that led people to believe the government ordered the assassination of Malcolm X has much evidence to support it. B.O.S.S was one major link between the government and Malcolm X. B.O.S.S. was a secret New York agency that hated Malcolm X (Hutchinson 1). They and Malcolm were locked in an underground political and illegal war (1). B.O.S.S. and the F.B.I. infiltrated the ranks of the Organisation of African American Unity with spies, informants, and local police agents (1). B.O.S.S. constantly worked to undermine the Muslims and Malcolm X. They worked day-in and day-out to follow Malcolm, and planned to shut him down permanently if they caught a whiff of any wrongdoings. The F.B.I. cooperated with B.O.S.S. by giving them access to government information that other agencies did not have. Publicly, the F.B.I. seemed to be in the business of protecting Malcolm’s life. In reality, this was not true. The F.B.I. was well aware of the many threats made by the Muslims on Malcolm’s life, but they adopted a “See-no-evil, hear-no-evil” attitude toward the threats (1). This basically meant that the F.B.I. would