When Malcolm X was shot and killed by three men at the Audobon Ballroom in Manhattan, it was immediately obvious who committed the act, as three Nation of Islam members were seen shooting Malcolm X. The assassins targeted him because he had recently left the Nation of Islam after discovering the group's leader, Elijah Muhammad, had been having a series of affairs with secretaries which involved illegitmate children and payoffs. Malcolm X was also punished for saying inflammatory comments about the killing of President John F. Kennedy. So Malcolm X left the Nation of Islam, a group he discovered in prison in 1948 and had then become its most famous spokesman, in early 1964.  Malcolm X would begin studying Sunni Islam, go on the Hajj to Mecca, and reach out to civil rights leaders. By early 1965, Malcolm X appeared to be shifting into a new kind of leader, but exactly what that would be would never be known.