An NYPD cop allegedly confessed to aiding in Malcolm X’s assassination. His daughter says his letter is fake.
Quote:
A letter purporting to contain a New York police officer’s deathbed confession about his involvement in the assassination of Malcolm X is a fake, the officer’s daughter said Friday, adding another wrinkle to decades-long investigations into the civil rights leader’s killing.
In an interview with NY1, Kelly Wood said there was no way her father, Raymond A. Wood, wrote the letter, in which he purportedly admitted to helping arrest members of Malcolm X’s security team days before the 1965 assassination.
“My father is not a coward. He would have never ever asked anybody to speak on his behalf after his passing,” she said. “If he had something to say, he would have said it when he was alive. I’m certain of that.”
Kelly Wood said it would have been out of character for her father to keep critical information about Malcolm X’s death hidden for all those years. “If he was involved in any way,” she said, “he would have spoken up earlier.” While she believed Reggie Wood may have been sincerely trying to assist Malcolm X’s family, she told NY1, “hurting my father’s reputation is not the way to do it.”
In her interview with NY1, Kelly Wood said she was disappointed with the decision to release the letter. She claimed that the signature was forged and that an envelope used to justify its authenticity was “a fake.”
She also disputed allegations that her father was at the ballroom when Malcolm X was murdered. She noted that he had already been identified by news media as the undercover detective who handled the Statue of Liberty bombing case days before Malcolm X’s assassination and was a key witness in convicting the suspects.
“They were not going to run the risk of having him there,” she said.
Kelly Wood said that she empathized with Malcolm X’s daughters, who have long pressed prosecutors to reexamine the evidence related to their father’s murder.
“My heart goes out to you, and I’m so sorry because I know firsthand what it feels like when you want just answers, you want to find out exactly what happened,” she said.
But she called on the family to “find another way to get the answers that you need and the closure that you need.”
“I support you 100 percent,” she said, “but on this, with my father, I cannot.”
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25 Feb 2021, 8:19 pm
