Kelly Wood, the daughter of the late New York police officer Raymond A. Wood, said the letter her father wrote on his deathbed, where he confessed his involvement in the 1965 assassination of Malcolm X, is fake.
In an exclusive interview with NY1, Wood said that the letter was forged and accused her cousin Reggie Wood, who read the letter at a news conference on Feb. 20, of attempting to get attention.
“I know that my father did not write this letter,” Woods said to NY1’s Dean Meminger. “I know that is not his signature and I know the envelope they’re using to somehow justify that the letter was mailed is also a fake.”
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In the letter, which was allegedly written in 2011 after he fell ill, the late officer admitted that he was obliged by his then supervisors at the New York Police Department to persuade two members of Malcolm X’s security team to commit crimes which led to their arrests days before his assassination.
With members of his security team absent, the entry of New York’s Audubon Ballroom was left unprotected and he was killed.
He passed away in November 2020 at the age of 87. He retired as a sergeant after 21 years with the department.
“My father is not a coward. He would have never ever asked anybody to speak on his behalf after his passing,” Wood said. “If he had something to say, he would have said it when he was alive. I’m certain of that.”
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Further attention was brought to the document after the 56th anniversary of Malcolm X’s assassination on Feb. 21. “Any evidence that provides greater insight into the truth behind that terrible tragedy should be thoroughly investigated,” said Ilyasah Shabazz, the daughter of Malcolm X, at a conference.
Raymond Wood is said to have wanted the letter to be made public after his death.
His daughter, however, described the letter as out of character for her father and called the conference “a slanderous act” to “stain the reputation that he worked so to protect.”
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