NEWS VAULT: The assassination of Malcolm X
Legendary WABC-TV reporter Gil Noble examines the case in this analysis from 1985
WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, Manhattan (WABC) -- Legendary WABC-TV reporter Gil Noble offers an analysis on the assassination of Malcolm X on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the murder, and discusses the question of the guilt of the men who were convicted.
Noble, the longtime host of the show "Like It Is," filed this report for Eyewitness News on Feb. 21, 1985.
On Thursday, two men who for decades steadfastly maintained their innocence in the 1965 assassination of civil rights icon Malcolm X were exonerated, after a nearly two-year-long re-investigation.
Muhammad Aziz, now 83 and previously known as Norman Butler, spent 20 years in prison before he was paroled in 1985. A co-defendant who also maintained his innocence, Khalil Islam, died in 2009.
Confessed assassin Thomas Hagan had long said neither man participated in killing Malcolm X at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem on February 21, 1965, when the civil rights icon was gunned down as he began a speech.
