Part 1 (1/2)

Malcolm X.

A Life of Reinvention.

by Manning Marable.

PROLOGUE.

Life Beyond the Legend.

In the early years of the last century, the neighborhood just north of Harlem, later to be named Was.h.i.+ngton Heights, was a spa.r.s.ely settled suburb. Only the vision of a businessman, William Fox, led to the construction of an opulent entertainment center on Broadway between West 165th and 166th streets. Fox's instruction to the architect, Thomas W. Lamb, was to design a building more splendid than any theater on Broadway. By the time all was finished, in 1912, an expensive terra-cotta facade adorned the front walls, marble columns stood guard at the entrance, while carvings of exotic birds graced the foyer: it was these colorful motifs, inspired by the great nineteenth-century artist John James Audubon, that prompted Fox to name his pleasure palace the Audubon. On the building's first floor, Lamb designed a ma.s.sive cinema, large enough to seat twenty-three hundred people. In subsequent years, the second floor was reserved for two s.p.a.cious ballrooms: the Rose Ballroom, which could accommodate eight hundred patrons, and the larger Grand Ballroom, holding up to fifteen hundred.

Within a few decades, the neighborhood around the Audubon began to change, becoming increasingly black and working cla.s.s. The Audubons management catered to this new clientele by booking the most celebrated swing bands of the era, including Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Chick Webb. The Audubon also became the home for many of the city's militant trade unionists, and from 1934 to 1937 the newly formed Transport Workers Union held its meetings there-accompanied by the occasional violent confrontation. One night in September 1929, for example, a four-hundredstrong party sponsored by the Lantern Athletic Club was disrupted by four gunshots. Two people were badly wounded.

During World War II, the Audubon was rented out for weddings, bar mitzvahs, political meetings, and graduation parties. After 1945, however, the neighborhood changed yet again, as many white middle-cla.s.s residents sold their properties and fled to the suburbs. Columbia University's decision to expand its hospital at West 168th Street and Broadway into a major health sciences campus generated hundreds of new jobs for the black influx, while the Audubon adapted to economic realities by shutting down its cinema and subdividing the s.p.a.ce it had occupied into rentals. However, both the Rose and Grand ballrooms remained.

By the mid-1960s, the building had surrendered most of its original grandeur. The main entrance for the ballrooms was small and drab. Customers had to climb a steep flight of stairs to the second-floor foyer, then maneuver past the manager's office and on into either the Rose, at the building's left (east) side, or the Grand, which faced Broadway. The larger room was about 180 feet by 60 feet, its north, east, and west walls housing about sixty-five separate booths, each of which could hold up to twelve people. Farthest from the building's main entrance, along the south wall, was a modest wooden stage, behind which was a cramped, poorly lit antechamber where musicians and speakers would muster before walking out to perform.

On the winter afternoon of Sunday, February 21, 1965, the Grand Ballroom had been reserved by the controversial Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU), a Harlem-based political group. For nearly a year, the Audubons management had been renting the ballroom to the group, but it remained concerned about its leader, Malcolm X. About ten years before, he had arrived as the minister of Temple No. 7, the local headquarters for a militant Islamic sect, the Lost-Found Nation of Islam (NOI). Later commonly described in the press as Black Muslims, its members preached that whites were devils and that black Americans were the lost Asiatic tribe of Shabazz, forced into slavery in America's racial wilderness. The road to salvation required converts to reject their slave surnames, replacing them with the letter X X, the symbol that represented the unknown. Members were told that, after years of personal dedication and spiritual growth, they would be given ”original” surnames, in harmony with their true Asiatic ident.i.ties. As the Nation's most public spokesman, Malcolm X gained notoriety for his provocative criticisms of both civil rights leaders and white politicians.

The previous March, Malcolm X had announced his independence from the Nation of Islam. He quickly established his own spiritual group, Muslim Mosque, Inc. (MMI), largely for those NOI members who had left the Nation in sympathy with him. Despite his break, he continued to make highly controversial statements. ”There will be more violence than ever this year,” he predicted to a New York Times New York Times reporter in March 1964, for instance. ”The whites had better understand this while there is still time. The Negroes at the ma.s.s level are ready to act.” The New York City police commissioner responded to this prediction by labeling Malcolm ”another self-proclaimed 'leader' [who] openly advocates bloodshed and armed revolt and sneers at the sincere efforts of reasonable men to resolve the problem of equal rights by proper, peaceful and legitimate means.” Malcolm was not intimidated by the attack. ”The greatest compliment anyone can pay me,” he responded, ”is to say I'm irresponsible, because by responsible they mean Negroes who are responsible to white authorities-Negro Uncle Toms.” reporter in March 1964, for instance. ”The whites had better understand this while there is still time. The Negroes at the ma.s.s level are ready to act.” The New York City police commissioner responded to this prediction by labeling Malcolm ”another self-proclaimed 'leader' [who] openly advocates bloodshed and armed revolt and sneers at the sincere efforts of reasonable men to resolve the problem of equal rights by proper, peaceful and legitimate means.” Malcolm was not intimidated by the attack. ”The greatest compliment anyone can pay me,” he responded, ”is to say I'm irresponsible, because by responsible they mean Negroes who are responsible to white authorities-Negro Uncle Toms.”

Several weeks later, Malcolm X appeared to experience a spiritual epiphany. In April, he visited the holy city of Mecca on a spiritual hajj, and on returning to the United States declared that he had converted to orthodox Sunni Islam. Repudiating his links to both the Nation of Islam and its leader, Elijah Muhammad, he announced his opposition to all forms of bigotry. He was now eager to cooperate with civil rights groups, he said, and to work with any white who genuinely supported black Americans. But despite these avowals, he continued to make controversial statements-for example, urging blacks to start gun clubs to protect their families against racists, and condemning the presidential candidates of the major parties, Lyndon Johnson and Barry Goldwater, as providing no real choice for blacks.

Most OAAU programs were ch.o.r.eographed as educational forums for the local community, encouraging audience partic.i.p.ation. For the February 21 meeting, the featured speaker was Milton Galamison, a prominent Presbyterian minister who had organized protests against substandard schools in New York City's black and Latino neighborhoods. The OAAU had not directly partic.i.p.ated, but Malcolm had publicly praised the minister's efforts, and his lieutenants may have desired an informal alliance.

Although the afternoon's program had been advertised to begin at two, by the starting time barely forty people had pa.s.sed through the main entrance. The spa.r.s.e early turnout may have been a reaction to fears of possible violence. For months, the Nation had been engaged in a well-publicized feud with its former national spokesman, and Malcolm's followers in Harlem and other cities had been physically a.s.saulted. Only a week earlier, his own home, located in the quiet neighborhood of Elmhurst, Queens, had been firebombed in the middle of the night. To guard against a public confrontation, the NYPD had a.s.signed a detachment of up to two dozen officers at OAAU rallies whenever held at the Audubon. One or more policemen, usually including the day's detail commander, would be stationed on the second floor in the business office, where they would have an uninterrupted view of everyone entering the main ballroom. Many of the others were prominently stationed at the main entrance, or located outside, directly across the street in a small playground area residents called Pigeon Park. On this particular afternoon, however, not a single officer was at the Audubon entrance, and only one, briefly, was stationed in the park. No one was seen inside the business office. In fact, just two uniformed patrolmen were placed inside the building, both having been ordered to remain in the smaller-and but for them unoccupied-Rose Ballroom, at a considerable distance from the featured event.

The absence of a substantial police presence would prove critical, because earlier that morning five men who had been planning for months to a.s.sa.s.sinate Malcolm X met together one final time. Although the venue of that meeting was in Paterson, New Jersey, all five were members of the Newark mosque of the Nation of Islam. Only one conspirator was an official of the mosque; the others were NOI laborers and a.s.sumed that their actions had been approved by the Nation's leaders.h.i.+p. After meeting at the home of one of the conspirators, where they went over each man's a.s.signment one final time, the five men then got into a Cadillac and headed for the George Was.h.i.+ngton Bridge. They exited in upper Manhattan and found a parking spot close to the Audubon that would also provide quick access back to the bridge, and an easy escape to New Jersey.

The sole security force inside the Grand Ballroom and at the main entrance was about twenty of Malcolm's followers. The head of Malcolm's security team was his personal bodyguard, Reuben X Francis, who earlier that afternoon had told William 64X George that the day's team would be undermanned, and that he would need his help. Usually, the dependable William would stand next to the speaker's podium (placed directly in the front center of the stage), where he could view the entire audience. On this particular day, however, Reuben instructed him to stand at the front entrance-about as far as he could have been from the stage.

Reuben also delegated some decisions to the event's security coordinator, John D. X, whose job was to supervise guards around the Grand Ballroom's perimeter. The normal protocol was for security teams to stand for up to thirty minutes-a demanding a.s.signment, especially for those with no prior experience in policing crowds. Usually the most important positions went to former NOI members, all of whom had both security experience and martial arts training. If a known NOI sympathizer attempted to enter an event, he was to be questioned, quietly but firmly. Nation of Islam members who had personal histories of violence or were known for hostility toward Malcolm would be escorted from the building.

One such man was Linwood X Cathcart, a former member of Malcolm's Mosque No. 7 who had recently joined the Jersey City mosque. He had entered the Audubon at 1:45 and seated himself in the front row of wooden folding chairs that had been placed across the dance floor. Malcolm's team spotted him at once, reckoning that his presence could mean trouble. Cathcart now brazenly wore an NOI pin on his suit lapel. Reuben persuaded him to go with him to the rear of the ballroom, where, after exchanging words, he insisted that he remove the offending b.u.t.ton if he wished to remain. Cathcart complied and returned to his seat. Malcolm's security people would later insist that he was the sole NOI loyalist they had spotted.

Handling the necessary custodial duties that afternoon was Anas M. Luqman (Langston Hughes Savage), another NOI member who had severed ties with the Nation out of loyalty to Malcolm. In his subsequent grand jury testimony, Luqman placed his arrival time at around 1:20. He briefly talked with a few people and, as he had done many times before, arranged the chairs onstage, positioned the speaker's podium, and removed some surplus equipment. He then ”went out into the audience and just stood around until the meeting start[ed].” Sometime after two, he decided to recheck the doors, located at stage right, closest to the speakers platform. For whatever reason, they were unlocked, which troubled him, but instead of notifying Malcolm's security people, he returned to his seat.

Despite the recent firebombing and the escalating threats of violence, Malcolm had insisted that none of his security team, with the sole exception of Reuben, should carry arms that Sunday. At an OAAU meeting some evenings before, his orders had been vigorously challenged. Malcolm's chief of staff, James 67X Warden, was convinced that the failure to tighten security that afternoon almost certainly would invite trouble. As he later explained his actions: ”We wanted to check [for weapons]. But this was an OAAU [public] meeting. Malcolm said, 'These people are not accustomed to having anybody search them.' We're dealing with an entirely different group.” IT As a result, as people entered the Audubon, many wearing bulky winter coats, no one was stopped. If Reuben was worried by this, he didn't appear so, and even left the ballroom to pay the manager that afternoons $150 fee.

By this time, all the would-be a.s.sa.s.sins had entered the building. As they antic.i.p.ated, no one searched them for weapons. The group then split up. The three designated shooters found chairs in the front row, either in front of or to the left of the speaker's podium. One shooter, a heavy-set, dark-complexioned man in his mid-twenties, was to deliver the initial hit. Two others were carrying handguns. Their task was to finish off Malcolm after the initial shots. The final two conspirators sat next to each other on the wooden chairs about seven rows back from the stage. Their a.s.signment was to create a diversion. If possible, one of them was going to ignite a smoke bomb.

By two thirty p.m. the audience had grown to over two hundred, and they were becoming impatient. Benjamin 2X Goodman, Malcolm's a.s.sistant minister of Muslim Mosque, Inc., came onstage and began a thirty-minute warm-up. Because Benjamin was not among the featured speakers, most people continued talking or wandered about seeing friends. After about ten minutes, Benjamin's remarks began to attract attention, as he recalled recent themes in Malcolm's rally speeches, such as opposition to the Vietnam War. Everyone knew that Malcolm almost always came to the podium immediately following Benjamin's introductions.

Several minutes before three p.m., Benjamin was still exhorting the audience when, without warning, a tall, sandy-haired man walked briskly out and sat on a chair a few feet from the podium. Caught off guard by his leader's entrance, Benjamin hastily finished up his remarks, then turned to sit down on one of the folding chairs onstage. As a rule, for safety reasons, Malcolm was not permitted to be there alone. On this occasion, however, he stopped his colleague from sitting, whispering instructions into his ear. Looking puzzled, Benjamin stepped down and returned to the backstage room.

”As-salaam alaik.u.m,” Malcolm proclaimed, extending the traditional Arabic greeting. ”Walaik.u.m salaam,” hundreds chanted back. But before he could say anything further, there was an unexpected disturbance about six or seven rows back from center stage. ”Get your hands out of my pockets!” a man shouted to the person next to him. Both men stood up and began to tussle, diverting everyone's attention. From the stage, Malcolm yelled out, ”Hold it! Hold it!”

The two princ.i.p.al rostrum guards, Charles X Blackwell and Robert 35X Smith, scrambled to break up the men. Most of their colleagues also moved from their positions to quell the disruption, leaving Malcolm completely alone onstage. It was then that the conspirator in the first row stood up and walked briskly toward the rostrum. Beneath his winter coat, he cradled a sawed-off shotgun. About fifteen feet from the stage, he stopped, pulled back his coat, and lifted his weapon.

For many African Americans, February 21, 1965, is engraved in their memory as profoundly as the a.s.sa.s.sinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr., are for other Americans. In the turbulent aftermath of his death, Malcolm Xs disciples embraced the slogan ”Black Power” and elevated him to secular sainthood. By the late 1960s, he had come to embody the very ideal of blackness for an entire generation. Like W. E. B. Du Bois, Richard Wright, and James Baldwin, he had denounced the psychological and social costs that racism had imposed upon his people; he was also widely admired as a man of uncompromising action, the polar opposite of the nonviolent, middle-cla.s.s-oriented Negro leaders.h.i.+p that had dominated the civil rights movement before him.

The leader most closely linked to Malcolm in life and death was, of course, King. However, despite having spent much of his early life in urban Atlanta, King was rarely identified as a representative of ghetto blacks. In the decades following his a.s.sa.s.sination, he became a.s.sociated with images of the largely rural and small-town South. Malcolm, conversely, was a product of the modern ghetto. The emotional rage he expressed was a reaction to racism in its urban context: segregated urban schools, substandard housing, high infant mortality rates, drugs, and crime. Since by the 1960s the overwhelming majority of African Americans lived in large cities, the conditions that defined their existence were more closely linked to what Malcolm spoke about than what King represented. Consequently, he was able to establish a strong audience among urban blacks, who perceived pa.s.sive resistance as an insufficient tool for dismantling inst.i.tutional racism.

Malcolm's later-day metamorphosis from angry black militant into a multicultural American icon was the product of the extraordinary success of The Autobiography of Malcolm X The Autobiography of Malcolm X, coauth.o.r.ed by the writer Alex Haley and released nine months after the a.s.sa.s.sination. A best seller in its initial years of publication, the book soon established itself as a standard text in hundreds of college and university curricula. By the late 1960s, an entire generation of African-American poets and writers were producing a seemingly endless body of work paying homage to their fallen idol. In their imagination, Malcolm's image became permanently frozen: always displaying a broad, somewhat mischievous smile, spotlessly well attired, and devoted to advancing the interests and aspirations of his people.

From the moment of his murder, widely different groups, including Trotskyists, black cultural nationalists, and Sunni Muslims, claimed him. Hundreds of inst.i.tutions and neighborhood clubs were renamed to honor the man whom actor Ossie Davis had eulogized as ”our manhood, our living, black manhood.” A Malcolm X a.s.sociation was initiated by African Americans in the military. In Harlem, activists formed a Malcolm X Democrat Club. In 1968, the independent film producer Marvin Worth hired James Baldwin to write a screenplay based on the Autobiography Autobiography, a project the novelist described as ”my confession . . . it's the story of any black cat in this curious place and time.” By the early 1970s, Betty Shabazz, Malcolm X's wife, was invited as an honored guest to a Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C., fund-raising gala promoting the reelection of Richard Nixon.

The renaissance of Malcolm's popularity in the early 1990s was largely due to the rise of the ”hip-hop nation.” In the group Public Enemy's video ”Shut 'Em Down,” for example, the image of Malcolm is imposed over the face of George Was.h.i.+ngton on the U.S. dollar bill; another hip-hop group, Gang Starr, placed a portrait of Malcolm on the cover of one of its CDs. Political conservatives also continued their attempts to a.s.similate him into their pantheon. In the aftermath of the 1992 Los Angeles race riots, for instance, vice president Dan Quayle declared that he had acquired important insights into the reasons for such unrest by reading Malcolm's autobiography-an epiphany most African Americans viewed as absurd, with filmmaker Spike Lee quipping, ”Every time Malcolm X talked about 'blue-eyed devils' Quayle should think he's talking about him.”

With the release of Lee's three-hour biographical film X X that same year, Malcolm reached a new generation. In a 1992 poll, 84 percent of African Americans between the ages of fifteen and twenty-four described him as ”a hero for black Americans today.” After years of relegating him to the periphery of modern black history, historians now began to see him as a central figure. He had become ”an integral part of the scaffolding that supports a contemporary African-American ident.i.ty,” historian Gerald Horne wrote. ”His fascination with music and dance and night clubs undergirded his bond with blacks.” For many whites, however, his appeal was located in his conversion from militant black separatism to what might be described as multicultural universalism. His a.s.similation into the American mainstream occurred-ironically-at Harlem's Apollo Theater on January 20, 1999, when the United States Postal Service celebrated the release of a Malcolm X stamp there. In a press statement accompanying the stamp's issuance, the U.S. Postal Service claimed that, in the year prior to his a.s.sa.s.sination, Malcolm X had become an advocate of ”a more integrationist solution to racial problems.” that same year, Malcolm reached a new generation. In a 1992 poll, 84 percent of African Americans between the ages of fifteen and twenty-four described him as ”a hero for black Americans today.” After years of relegating him to the periphery of modern black history, historians now began to see him as a central figure. He had become ”an integral part of the scaffolding that supports a contemporary African-American ident.i.ty,” historian Gerald Horne wrote. ”His fascination with music and dance and night clubs undergirded his bond with blacks.” For many whites, however, his appeal was located in his conversion from militant black separatism to what might be described as multicultural universalism. His a.s.similation into the American mainstream occurred-ironically-at Harlem's Apollo Theater on January 20, 1999, when the United States Postal Service celebrated the release of a Malcolm X stamp there. In a press statement accompanying the stamp's issuance, the U.S. Postal Service claimed that, in the year prior to his a.s.sa.s.sination, Malcolm X had become an advocate of ”a more integrationist solution to racial problems.”

A closer reading of the Autobiography Autobiography as well as the actual details of Malcolm's life reveals a more complicated history. Few of the book's reviewers appreciated that it was actually a joint endeavor-and particularly that Alex Haley, a retired twenty-year veteran of the U.S. Coast Guard, had an agenda of his own. A liberal Republican, Haley held the Nation of Islam's racial separatism and religious extremism in contempt, but he was fascinated by the tortured tale of Malcolm's personal life. In 1963, the beginning of the collaboration of these two very different men, Malcolm had labored to present a tale of moral uplift, to praise the power of the Nation's leader, Elijah Muhammad. After Malcolm's departure from the sect, he used his autobiography to explain his break from black separatism. Haley's purpose was quite different; for him, the autobiography was a cautionary tale about human waste and the tragedies produced by racial segregation. In many ways, the published book is more Haley's than its authors: because Malcolm died in February 1965, he had no opportunity to revise major elements of what would become known as his political testament. as well as the actual details of Malcolm's life reveals a more complicated history. Few of the book's reviewers appreciated that it was actually a joint endeavor-and particularly that Alex Haley, a retired twenty-year veteran of the U.S. Coast Guard, had an agenda of his own. A liberal Republican, Haley held the Nation of Islam's racial separatism and religious extremism in contempt, but he was fascinated by the tortured tale of Malcolm's personal life. In 1963, the beginning of the collaboration of these two very different men, Malcolm had labored to present a tale of moral uplift, to praise the power of the Nation's leader, Elijah Muhammad. After Malcolm's departure from the sect, he used his autobiography to explain his break from black separatism. Haley's purpose was quite different; for him, the autobiography was a cautionary tale about human waste and the tragedies produced by racial segregation. In many ways, the published book is more Haley's than its authors: because Malcolm died in February 1965, he had no opportunity to revise major elements of what would become known as his political testament.

My own curiosity about the Autobiography Autobiography began more than two decades ago, when I was teaching it as part of a seminar on African-American political thought at Ohio State University. Among African-American leaders throughout history, Malcolm was unquestionably the most consummately ”political” activist, a man who emphasized gra.s.sroots and partic.i.p.atory politics led by working-cla.s.s and poor blacks. Yet the autobiography is virtually silent about his primary organization, the OAAU. Nowhere in the text does its agenda or its objectives appear. After years of research, I discovered that several chapters had been deleted prior to publication-chapters that envisioned the construction of a united front of Negroes, from a wide variety of political and social groups, led by the Black Muslims. According to Haley, the deletion had been at the authors request, after his return from Mecca. That probably is true; but Malcolm had absolutely no input on Haley's decision to preface the began more than two decades ago, when I was teaching it as part of a seminar on African-American political thought at Ohio State University. Among African-American leaders throughout history, Malcolm was unquestionably the most consummately ”political” activist, a man who emphasized gra.s.sroots and partic.i.p.atory politics led by working-cla.s.s and poor blacks. Yet the autobiography is virtually silent about his primary organization, the OAAU. Nowhere in the text does its agenda or its objectives appear. After years of research, I discovered that several chapters had been deleted prior to publication-chapters that envisioned the construction of a united front of Negroes, from a wide variety of political and social groups, led by the Black Muslims. According to Haley, the deletion had been at the authors request, after his return from Mecca. That probably is true; but Malcolm had absolutely no input on Haley's decision to preface the Autobiography Autobiography with an introductory essay by with an introductory essay by New York Times New York Times journalist M. S. Handler, who had covered Malcolm extensively during previous years, nor on Haley's own rambling conclusion, which frames his subject firmly within mainstream civil rights respectability at the end of his life. journalist M. S. Handler, who had covered Malcolm extensively during previous years, nor on Haley's own rambling conclusion, which frames his subject firmly within mainstream civil rights respectability at the end of his life.

A deeper reading of the text also reveals numerous inconsistencies in names, dates, and facts. As both a historian and an African American, I was fascinated. How much isn't true, and how much hasn't been told?

The search for historical evidence and factual truth was made even more complicated by the complex and varied layers of the subject's life. A master of public rhetoric, he could artfully recount tales about his life that were partially fiction, yet the stories resonated as true to most blacks who had encountered racism. From an early age Malcolm Little (as he was born) had constructed multiple masks that distanced his inner self from the outside world. Years later, whether in a Ma.s.sachusetts prison cell or traveling alone across the African continent during anticolonial revolutions, he maintained the dual ability to antic.i.p.ate the actions of others and to package himself to maximum effect. He acquired the subtle tools of an ethnographer, crafting his language to fit the cultural contexts of his diverse audiences. As a result, different groups perceived his personality and his evolving message through their own particular lens. No matter the context, Malcolm exuded charm and a healthy sense of humor, placing ideological opponents off guard and allowing him to advance provocative and even outrageous arguments.

Malcolm always a.s.sumed an approachable and intimate outward style, yet also held something in reserve. These layers of personality were even expressed as a series of different names, some of which he created, while others were bestowed upon him: Malcolm Little, Homeboy, Jack Carlton, Detroit Red, Big Red, Satan, Malachi Shabazz, Malik Shabazz, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. No single personality ever captured him fully. In this sense, his narrative is a brilliant series of reinventions, ”Malcolm X” being just the best known.

Like a great method actor, Malcolm drew generously from his background, so that over time the distance between actual events and the public telling of them widened. After his death, other distortions-embellishments by devoted followers, friends, family members, and opponents-turned his life into a legend. Malcolm was fascinating to many whites in a sensual, animalistic way, and journalists who regularly covered his speeches picked up a subdued yet unmistakable s.e.xual subtext. M. S. Handler, whose home Malcolm visited for an interview in early March of 1964, attributed his aura of physical prowess to his politics: ”No man in our time aroused fear and hatred in the white man as did Malcolm, because in him the white man sensed an implacable foe who could not be had for any price-a man unreservedly committed to the cause of liberating the black man.” Even Malcolm during his early years routinely employed evocative metaphors to describe his personality. For example, portraying his time in a Ma.s.sachusetts prison in 1946, he likened his confinement to that of a trapped animal: ”I would pace for hours like a caged leopard, viciously cursing aloud. . . . Eventually, the men in the cellblock had a name for me: 'Satan.'” Handlers wife, who had been present when Malcolm had visited her home, admitted to her husband, ”You know, it was like having tea with a black panther.”