article on CORE undercover police agent Ray Wood and assassination of Malcolm X
Dublin Core
Title
article on CORE undercover police agent Ray Wood and assassination of Malcolm X
Subject
Malcolm X, Ray Wood
Description
This is an explosive article which places undercover NYPD police officer Ray Wood at the assassination of Malcolm X. It also suggests an answer to one of the great mysteries surrounding the event - the identity of the second man who was arrested at the Audubon.
Wood aka Ray Woodall, was an undercover police officer for a special section of the New York City Police department called the Bureau of Special Services (BOSS) also known as the ‘Red Squad’. He not only infiltrated Bronx CORE, he attended Harlem CORE functions, dated women from the chapter and frequented East River CORE meetings. According to documents from the national CORE office, he had also been Bronx CORE’s delegate to CORE’s national convention which would gave him the opportunity to gather intelligence on CORE chapters from across the country.
He was responsible for the arrest of Bronx CORE chairman Herb Callender and testified against East River CORE leader Blyden Jackson in front of the House of UnAmerican Activities Committee. He infiltrated another Black radical group and convinced members to try and blow up the Statue of Liberty. CORE members during oral histories have stated he also tried to convince them to do the same at least a year earlier as well as other illegal and violent ‘militant’ actions while a member of CORE.
It is becoming clearer that Wood used CORE as a way to gain entrance to the activist community in NYC especially in Harlem. It appears that once he joined CORE, he began to spread out to different Black radical groups in the city. He went on to infiltrate the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM) and provided testimony against the Black Panther Party for the trial of the Panther 21. According to one source, he even hung around Mosque #7 while Malcolm X was the minister there, usually standing in the back, asking questions.
The article was written by Garrett Felber, who worked on Prof. Manning Marable’s Malcolm X Project as a graduate student. He raises an important question: What would Ray Wood have been doing at the Audubon given that the Statue of Liberty case had been reported in newspapers only days before Malcolm’s assassination? His cover was already blown. It is important to note that he is identified as ‘Ray Woods’ and not Ray Woodall, which could mean that if it was him that was seen at the Audubon, he was identified by his real name and not his alias as an undercover police agent.
The article questions whether whoever stated to Kochiyama they saw Ray Wood at the Audubon could have been mistaken. It does not take into account that Kochiyama had been a member of CORE. There were also other members of CORE who were at the Audubon that day. The article also does not take into account that several other members of CORE were also members of the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU) or that other CORE members had originally come out of Mosque #7.
Ray Wood would have been known in the NYC activist community, especially after a photograph of him
being arrested with Herb Callender a year earlier appeared in a New York Times article. There is good reason to believe Ray Wood would have been recognized if CORE and OAAU members saw him at the Audubon.
This revelation of Wood being at the Audubon is a bombshell in that if this article is true it again suggests police involvement in the assassination of Malcolm X, something which has been much speculated on.
My thanks to Dr. Nishani Frazier for bringing my attention to this article.
Wood aka Ray Woodall, was an undercover police officer for a special section of the New York City Police department called the Bureau of Special Services (BOSS) also known as the ‘Red Squad’. He not only infiltrated Bronx CORE, he attended Harlem CORE functions, dated women from the chapter and frequented East River CORE meetings. According to documents from the national CORE office, he had also been Bronx CORE’s delegate to CORE’s national convention which would gave him the opportunity to gather intelligence on CORE chapters from across the country.
He was responsible for the arrest of Bronx CORE chairman Herb Callender and testified against East River CORE leader Blyden Jackson in front of the House of UnAmerican Activities Committee. He infiltrated another Black radical group and convinced members to try and blow up the Statue of Liberty. CORE members during oral histories have stated he also tried to convince them to do the same at least a year earlier as well as other illegal and violent ‘militant’ actions while a member of CORE.
It is becoming clearer that Wood used CORE as a way to gain entrance to the activist community in NYC especially in Harlem. It appears that once he joined CORE, he began to spread out to different Black radical groups in the city. He went on to infiltrate the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM) and provided testimony against the Black Panther Party for the trial of the Panther 21. According to one source, he even hung around Mosque #7 while Malcolm X was the minister there, usually standing in the back, asking questions.
The article was written by Garrett Felber, who worked on Prof. Manning Marable’s Malcolm X Project as a graduate student. He raises an important question: What would Ray Wood have been doing at the Audubon given that the Statue of Liberty case had been reported in newspapers only days before Malcolm’s assassination? His cover was already blown. It is important to note that he is identified as ‘Ray Woods’ and not Ray Woodall, which could mean that if it was him that was seen at the Audubon, he was identified by his real name and not his alias as an undercover police agent.
The article questions whether whoever stated to Kochiyama they saw Ray Wood at the Audubon could have been mistaken. It does not take into account that Kochiyama had been a member of CORE. There were also other members of CORE who were at the Audubon that day. The article also does not take into account that several other members of CORE were also members of the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU) or that other CORE members had originally come out of Mosque #7.
Ray Wood would have been known in the NYC activist community, especially after a photograph of him
being arrested with Herb Callender a year earlier appeared in a New York Times article. There is good reason to believe Ray Wood would have been recognized if CORE and OAAU members saw him at the Audubon.
This revelation of Wood being at the Audubon is a bombshell in that if this article is true it again suggests police involvement in the assassination of Malcolm X, something which has been much speculated on.
My thanks to Dr. Nishani Frazier for bringing my attention to this article.
Creator
Garret Felber
Source
The Guardian
Publisher
The Guardian
Rights
Garrett Felber, The Guardian
Citation
Garret Felber, “article on CORE undercover police agent Ray Wood and assassination of Malcolm X,” corenyc.org, accessed May 16, 2024, http://www.corenyc.org/omeka/items/show/322.