Did you know that another fact about Malcolm X is that he once tried to con a known killer out of his money? Yes, in his autobiography he told Alex Haley this fact about a numbers runner who had a photographic memory whose name was West Indian Archie.
Archie’s memory of the West Indies was well known for never having to write down a number, which was a valuable asset in the numbers business because the police could never catch him with number slips. He memorized the numbers customers gave him in any combination and then recorded them later that night.
For over twenty years, he never lost a customer’s number until one day Malcolm X, then known as the Detroit Red, claimed he had hit a number and accused him of forgetting he had touched it.
West Indian Archie went ahead and paid Malcolm his money, but checked his betting slips later and realized that Malcolm had made a false claim.
This was a dangerous play. West Indian Archie’s reputation was on the line because he knew that young swindlers often tried to trick older swindlers out of their money while building a reputation of their own in the process.
West Indian Archie put a gun to Malcolm’s face and demanded his money back within four hours. This was a death threat that Malcolm had to face or leave town.
Malcolm X decided to leave town.
But Malcolm returned years later, after spending 7 years in prison and becoming a minister for the Nation of Islam. He returned to find Archie from the West Indies living far below the level he was when Malcolm left.
Now he was living in a boarding house, broke and very ill. Malcolm says that he was too hurt to stay much longer because he couldn’t stand to see Archie living that way after meeting him on his best days.
But, another fact that Malcolm X did not tell in his autobiography is that West Indian Archie was broke because Malcolm X beat him up.
After Malcolm claimed that Archie was losing his memory and forgetting his numbers, many others continued to make false claims until his financial backers could no longer trust his memory.
This led to the fall of the West Indies.
This was devastating for Archie of the West Indies because his reputation for having a photographic memory was his claim to fame in the numbers business.
This is another fact about Malcolm X which is very important because later Malcolm X would also try to destroy the reputation of his renowned leader “The Honorable Elijah Muhammad”.
But unlike the situation with Archie of the West Indies, Malcolm X would not escape death and the Honorable Elijah Muhammad would continue to flourish and indeed become even more well known after Malcolm X’s untimely death.
