The three men were charged with first dagree murder for the assassination of malcolm x. They all plead not guilty initially, but when it became clear that they all three were going to be convicted, talmage hayer took the stand and he confessed. He thought in the beginning of the trial that his two co defendants would be cut loose,. That it would be obvious to any one that they had nothing to do with it. So they knew it just couldn't be talmage haer, so there had to be more arrests. And at that time, they said that it was mohammed abdulases and clil islam, norman, three x butler and th