Some people have never heard the name Michele Burgen, but for others it is one that lives in infamy. The popular journalist – who was one of the youngest editors in Ebony’s history at the time – was murdered in 1980 in New York when she was only 26 years old. While the official reason for her killing remains an unsolved mystery, the streets have long blamed the Philly Black Mafia, which is affiliated with the Nation of Islam, for Burgen’s death.
According to reports, Burgen took vacation leave from work that February to visit her parents and sister, actress Denise Nicholas, in California. She flew from Chicago to New York to make an interim stop first. Her mother, Louise Burgen, told the media her daughter said she was going to a convention in Philadelphia. However, Burgen’s boyfriend, Michael Seay, said she had plans to meet with Ernest Edwards, who was a member of the Philly Black Mafia.
Listen to GHOGH with Jamarlin Martin | Episode 74: Jamarlin Martin
Jamarlin returns for a new season of the GHOGH podcast to discuss Bitcoin, bubbles, and Biden. He talks about the risk factors for Bitcoin as an investment asset including origin risk, speculative market structure, regulatory, and environment. Are broader financial markets in a massive speculative bubble?
According to Gramho, Seay said Edwards expressed interest in starting community newspapers in Philadelphia and Chicago and wanted Burgen to serve as the editor. There were also rumors that Burgen was actually a drug courier who’d messed up a package and the Philly Black Mafia suspected her of wearing a wire. However, this has never been officially proven.
Upon her arrival in New York, Burgen rented a car at the LaGuardia Airport to drive to Philly using her ID and Ebony credit card. She never reached the ‘City of Brotherly Love’ because her body was discovered in an airport parking lot with a bullet wound in the back of her head. Her purse was missing, but she was still adorned with all of her expensive jewelry.
Detective Richard Beck said the murderer “took great pains to cover his tracks” and detectives found no concrete evidence to solve the case. Another officer identified as Detective Goodheart said Burgen was very paranoid the last few weeks of her life.
“Ms. Burgen had been very upset during the weeks before her death. She had been acting like something was wrong and her last weeks on this earth were very uncomfortable,” Goodheart said.
Nicholas sank into a deep, immobilizing depression after Burgen’s murder. “It was so irrational … so crazy,” Nicholas said in a 1990 interview. “Little things” became overwhelming, she continued. Nicholas and her brother, Otto, combed the country for clues to help solve the case to no avail.
“Like how do you get up in the morning? How do you walk out your front door? There was life before Michele’s death, and there was life after Michele’s death — and they are two different things,” Nicholas said.
Burgen was also mourned by many readers, the staff at Ebony, and the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ). “She was a wonderful woman and a fine writer,” Ebony’s then-Executive Editor Herbert Nipson said.
