Archive

Malcolm X's Assassin to Be Released

Free Men

Given parole after 17 tries.

The only confessed assassin of Malcolm X, Thomas Hagan, was granted parole on March 3. It was his 17th time applying for parole; his previous 16 attempts had been rejected. Hagan, 69, was a militant member of the Nation of Islam who shot Malcolm X on February 21, 1965. Two others were charged with the murder, but they maintained their innocence. When Hagan is released on April 28, he won’t be completely unfamiliar with the outside world: For the past two decades, he has been on work release, but he still spends two days a week locked up at the Lincoln Correctional Facility in Manhattan.

Read it at City Room