NO JUSTICE WITHOUT RETRIBUTION: Short History of the Black Liberation Army's War on American Police, 1971-1974
E-Book in PDF format. 18,000+ words. Copyright reserved by John Doyle & JB Nicholas. You’re purchasing a limited license to read and quote. License DOES NOT include the right to re-publish.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
A BEAUTIFUL NIGHT TO DIE
'WE'RE IN A WAR’
BIRTH OF THE BLACK PANTHERS
THE CITIZENS' COMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE THE F.B.I AND ONE OF THE GREATEST HEISTS IN AMERICAN HISTORY
COINTELPRO
THE FBI'S WAR AGAINST THE BLACK PANTHERS
RISE OF THE BLACK LIBERATION ARMY
BULLETS AND BRIE: THE PANTHER 21 TRIAL
'REVOLUTIONARY JUSTICE': DHORUBA BIN-WAHAD & THE START OF THE BLA WAR AGAINST POLICE
'MAD KILLERS OF THE LAW': BLA OFFENSIVE CONTINUES WITH THE ASSASSINATION OF NYPD OFFICERS FOSTER AND LAURIE
'SOUL OF THE BLA' ASSATA SHAKUR & THE NATIONAL BLA OFFENSIVE
FATEFUL SHOOT-OUT IN ST. LOUIS
THE END: ASSATA SHAKUR CAPTURED, LAST KNOWN BLA LEADER, TWYMON MYERS, GOES OUT IN BLAZE OF GUNFIRE
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
John Doyle is a former print journalist based in New York City.
JB Nicholas is a news photographer and independent investigative reporter primarily covering crime, courts, cops and prisons. He publishes a news blog called The Free Lance News.org.
SAMPLE, CHAPTER 1
It was a beautiful night to die.
NYPD Patrolmen Waverly Jones and Joseph Piagentini stepped out of the high-rise public housing tower around 10:30 p.m. Spring was blooming, even on Harlem's mean streets. Amidst a sea of blacktop and concrete fresh green leaves sprouted from the few trees that grew out of patches of dirt scattered here and there. It had rained earlier in the evening. The air was clean and crisp. The ground was damp. The Harlem River flowed strongly nearby. Its salty scent flavored the air.
This was the scene the two doomed cops took in as they unknowingly breathed their last breaths.
The 34-year-old Jones and the 28-year-old Piagentini weren't even supposed to be there. They were responsible for covering another area. But on May 21, 1971 the cops responsible for the Colonial Park Housing project responded to a call for help from somewhere else. Jones and Piagentini answered their call. A man allegedly sliced a woman's ear with a knife. Jones and Piagentini pulled up to the building where it reportedly happened in their white-and-green marked N.Y.P.D. patrol car. Inside, the victim refused help. The two cops headed back outside.
Jones spent six years in the Air Force before becoming a cop. Piagentini bred German Shepherds and worked as a paper-pushing clerk. Jones lived in Manhattan; Piagentini in Deer Park, Long Island. Jones was Black; Piagentini white. They graduated from the police academy together in 1966. They'd been cops five years. They weren't rookies. They knew what they were doing. They also knew they couldn't, or shouldn't, draw down on Harlem's overwhelming Black residents whenever they felt a little sliver of fear.
Their interracial partnership broke centuries of racism in American policing—in the Black stronghold of Harlem.
Colonial Park was on the northside of where the Polo Grounds once stood. That was before the New York baseball Giants moved to San Francisco in 1958 and their old stadium was replaced with more high-rise public housing towers in 1964. Yankee Stadium was across the Harlem River. If there had been a home game, the roar of the crowd could have been heard but that night the Yankees were in Cleveland before a measly crowd of just 6,981 losing a close contest to the Indians 8-7.
Jones and Piagentini walked along a paved path to where they had parked their patrol car. A parking lot was close to one side. A white Ford Mustang was parked in the first spot closest to the path. Two young black men were resting on the white Mustang. The two cops walked past them. Two killers crept up behind the cops—and opened fire. One fired a .38 caliber revolver, the other a .45 caliber Colt automatic.
"They were about five feet away," a witness told a Newsweek reporter, when they "started to shoot."
After both police officers were shot, the witness said, the assassins "leaned over the two cops, who were stretched out on the ground. They took their guns and shot the cops again."
It was "cold-blooded murder, that's what it was," one of the shooters, Anthony Bottom, told the New York State Parole Board in 2020, during his 14th parole hearing, 49 years later. We "had laid and waited for the police officers to return and we ambushed them."
Bottom shot Jones in the back of the head with a .45 caliber automatic then, as he was falling, shot him three more times in the neck, back and buttocks. Once he was satisfied Jones was dead, he turned his attention to Piangentini—who, despite being shot multiple times, was still alive and begging for his life.
"Please, please, don't shoot, don't shoot. I'm married, I have two kids," he pleaded.
One of Bottom's accomplices, Herman Bell, emptied his .38 caliber revolver into Piagentini. The cop was still alive.
Bell reached down, pulled the mortally wounded officer's weapon from his holster, and emptied it too into Piagentini. Piagentini was still alive. Bottom fired a round from his .45 into his back too. In all, Piagentini was shot a total of 13 times. But he didn't die until he was in the ambulance and on his way to the hospital. His body had 22 entry and exit wounds in it, according to the Medical Examiner's office. He likely felt every shot.
Bottom, Bell, along with their lookout, Albert Washington, and two others, the brothers Francisco Torres and Gabriel Torres, fled, Bottom told the Parole Board. They regrouped at Gabriel Torres's apartment on Anderson Avenue in the Bronx, half-an-hour later. The apartment was less than two miles away, just on the other side of the Harlem River from the Colonial Park Houses. Waiting for them there was Gabriel's wife, Linda, Fransisco's live-in girlfriend, Jacqueline Tabb, and Tabb's sister, Karen Parks. Together they celebrated the murders. According to court records, the assassins "exchanged compliments on their efficiency."
They placed their trophies, the two .38 caliber revolvers taken from the two murdered police officers, on a table—with Bottom's .45.
E-Book in PDF format. 18,000+ words. Copyright reserved by John Doyle & JB Nicholas. You’re purchasing a limited license to read and quote. License DOES NOT include the right to re-publish.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
A BEAUTIFUL NIGHT TO DIE
'WE'RE IN A WAR’
BIRTH OF THE BLACK PANTHERS
THE CITIZENS' COMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE THE F.B.I AND ONE OF THE GREATEST HEISTS IN AMERICAN HISTORY
COINTELPRO
THE FBI'S WAR AGAINST THE BLACK PANTHERS
RISE OF THE BLACK LIBERATION ARMY
BULLETS AND BRIE: THE PANTHER 21 TRIAL
'REVOLUTIONARY JUSTICE': DHORUBA BIN-WAHAD & THE START OF THE BLA WAR AGAINST POLICE
'MAD KILLERS OF THE LAW': BLA OFFENSIVE CONTINUES WITH THE ASSASSINATION OF NYPD OFFICERS FOSTER AND LAURIE
'SOUL OF THE BLA' ASSATA SHAKUR & THE NATIONAL BLA OFFENSIVE
FATEFUL SHOOT-OUT IN ST. LOUIS
THE END: ASSATA SHAKUR CAPTURED, LAST KNOWN BLA LEADER, TWYMON MYERS, GOES OUT IN BLAZE OF GUNFIRE
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
John Doyle is a former print journalist based in New York City.
JB Nicholas is a news photographer and independent investigative reporter primarily covering crime, courts, cops and prisons. He publishes a news blog called The Free Lance News.org.
SAMPLE, CHAPTER 1
It was a beautiful night to die.
NYPD Patrolmen Waverly Jones and Joseph Piagentini stepped out of the high-rise public housing tower around 10:30 p.m. Spring was blooming, even on Harlem's mean streets. Amidst a sea of blacktop and concrete fresh green leaves sprouted from the few trees that grew out of patches of dirt scattered here and there. It had rained earlier in the evening. The air was clean and crisp. The ground was damp. The Harlem River flowed strongly nearby. Its salty scent flavored the air.
This was the scene the two doomed cops took in as they unknowingly breathed their last breaths.
The 34-year-old Jones and the 28-year-old Piagentini weren't even supposed to be there. They were responsible for covering another area. But on May 21, 1971 the cops responsible for the Colonial Park Housing project responded to a call for help from somewhere else. Jones and Piagentini answered their call. A man allegedly sliced a woman's ear with a knife. Jones and Piagentini pulled up to the building where it reportedly happened in their white-and-green marked N.Y.P.D. patrol car. Inside, the victim refused help. The two cops headed back outside.
Jones spent six years in the Air Force before becoming a cop. Piagentini bred German Shepherds and worked as a paper-pushing clerk. Jones lived in Manhattan; Piagentini in Deer Park, Long Island. Jones was Black; Piagentini white. They graduated from the police academy together in 1966. They'd been cops five years. They weren't rookies. They knew what they were doing. They also knew they couldn't, or shouldn't, draw down on Harlem's overwhelming Black residents whenever they felt a little sliver of fear.
Their interracial partnership broke centuries of racism in American policing—in the Black stronghold of Harlem.
Colonial Park was on the northside of where the Polo Grounds once stood. That was before the New York baseball Giants moved to San Francisco in 1958 and their old stadium was replaced with more high-rise public housing towers in 1964. Yankee Stadium was across the Harlem River. If there had been a home game, the roar of the crowd could have been heard but that night the Yankees were in Cleveland before a measly crowd of just 6,981 losing a close contest to the Indians 8-7.
Jones and Piagentini walked along a paved path to where they had parked their patrol car. A parking lot was close to one side. A white Ford Mustang was parked in the first spot closest to the path. Two young black men were resting on the white Mustang. The two cops walked past them. Two killers crept up behind the cops—and opened fire. One fired a .38 caliber revolver, the other a .45 caliber Colt automatic.
"They were about five feet away," a witness told a Newsweek reporter, when they "started to shoot."
After both police officers were shot, the witness said, the assassins "leaned over the two cops, who were stretched out on the ground. They took their guns and shot the cops again."
It was "cold-blooded murder, that's what it was," one of the shooters, Anthony Bottom, told the New York State Parole Board in 2020, during his 14th parole hearing, 49 years later. We "had laid and waited for the police officers to return and we ambushed them."
Bottom shot Jones in the back of the head with a .45 caliber automatic then, as he was falling, shot him three more times in the neck, back and buttocks. Once he was satisfied Jones was dead, he turned his attention to Piangentini—who, despite being shot multiple times, was still alive and begging for his life.
"Please, please, don't shoot, don't shoot. I'm married, I have two kids," he pleaded.
One of Bottom's accomplices, Herman Bell, emptied his .38 caliber revolver into Piagentini. The cop was still alive.
Bell reached down, pulled the mortally wounded officer's weapon from his holster, and emptied it too into Piagentini. Piagentini was still alive. Bottom fired a round from his .45 into his back too. In all, Piagentini was shot a total of 13 times. But he didn't die until he was in the ambulance and on his way to the hospital. His body had 22 entry and exit wounds in it, according to the Medical Examiner's office. He likely felt every shot.
Bottom, Bell, along with their lookout, Albert Washington, and two others, the brothers Francisco Torres and Gabriel Torres, fled, Bottom told the Parole Board. They regrouped at Gabriel Torres's apartment on Anderson Avenue in the Bronx, half-an-hour later. The apartment was less than two miles away, just on the other side of the Harlem River from the Colonial Park Houses. Waiting for them there was Gabriel's wife, Linda, Fransisco's live-in girlfriend, Jacqueline Tabb, and Tabb's sister, Karen Parks. Together they celebrated the murders. According to court records, the assassins "exchanged compliments on their efficiency."
They placed their trophies, the two .38 caliber revolvers taken from the two murdered police officers, on a table—with Bottom's .45.
E-Book in PDF format. 18,000+ words. Copyright reserved by John Doyle & JB Nicholas. You’re purchasing a limited license to read and quote. License DOES NOT include the right to re-publish.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
A BEAUTIFUL NIGHT TO DIE
'WE'RE IN A WAR’
BIRTH OF THE BLACK PANTHERS
THE CITIZENS' COMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE THE F.B.I AND ONE OF THE GREATEST HEISTS IN AMERICAN HISTORY
COINTELPRO
THE FBI'S WAR AGAINST THE BLACK PANTHERS
RISE OF THE BLACK LIBERATION ARMY
BULLETS AND BRIE: THE PANTHER 21 TRIAL
'REVOLUTIONARY JUSTICE': DHORUBA BIN-WAHAD & THE START OF THE BLA WAR AGAINST POLICE
'MAD KILLERS OF THE LAW': BLA OFFENSIVE CONTINUES WITH THE ASSASSINATION OF NYPD OFFICERS FOSTER AND LAURIE
'SOUL OF THE BLA' ASSATA SHAKUR & THE NATIONAL BLA OFFENSIVE
FATEFUL SHOOT-OUT IN ST. LOUIS
THE END: ASSATA SHAKUR CAPTURED, LAST KNOWN BLA LEADER, TWYMON MYERS, GOES OUT IN BLAZE OF GUNFIRE
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
John Doyle is a former print journalist based in New York City.
JB Nicholas is a news photographer and independent investigative reporter primarily covering crime, courts, cops and prisons. He publishes a news blog called The Free Lance News.org.
SAMPLE, CHAPTER 1
It was a beautiful night to die.
NYPD Patrolmen Waverly Jones and Joseph Piagentini stepped out of the high-rise public housing tower around 10:30 p.m. Spring was blooming, even on Harlem's mean streets. Amidst a sea of blacktop and concrete fresh green leaves sprouted from the few trees that grew out of patches of dirt scattered here and there. It had rained earlier in the evening. The air was clean and crisp. The ground was damp. The Harlem River flowed strongly nearby. Its salty scent flavored the air.
This was the scene the two doomed cops took in as they unknowingly breathed their last breaths.
The 34-year-old Jones and the 28-year-old Piagentini weren't even supposed to be there. They were responsible for covering another area. But on May 21, 1971 the cops responsible for the Colonial Park Housing project responded to a call for help from somewhere else. Jones and Piagentini answered their call. A man allegedly sliced a woman's ear with a knife. Jones and Piagentini pulled up to the building where it reportedly happened in their white-and-green marked N.Y.P.D. patrol car. Inside, the victim refused help. The two cops headed back outside.
Jones spent six years in the Air Force before becoming a cop. Piagentini bred German Shepherds and worked as a paper-pushing clerk. Jones lived in Manhattan; Piagentini in Deer Park, Long Island. Jones was Black; Piagentini white. They graduated from the police academy together in 1966. They'd been cops five years. They weren't rookies. They knew what they were doing. They also knew they couldn't, or shouldn't, draw down on Harlem's overwhelming Black residents whenever they felt a little sliver of fear.
Their interracial partnership broke centuries of racism in American policing—in the Black stronghold of Harlem.
Colonial Park was on the northside of where the Polo Grounds once stood. That was before the New York baseball Giants moved to San Francisco in 1958 and their old stadium was replaced with more high-rise public housing towers in 1964. Yankee Stadium was across the Harlem River. If there had been a home game, the roar of the crowd could have been heard but that night the Yankees were in Cleveland before a measly crowd of just 6,981 losing a close contest to the Indians 8-7.
Jones and Piagentini walked along a paved path to where they had parked their patrol car. A parking lot was close to one side. A white Ford Mustang was parked in the first spot closest to the path. Two young black men were resting on the white Mustang. The two cops walked past them. Two killers crept up behind the cops—and opened fire. One fired a .38 caliber revolver, the other a .45 caliber Colt automatic.
"They were about five feet away," a witness told a Newsweek reporter, when they "started to shoot."
After both police officers were shot, the witness said, the assassins "leaned over the two cops, who were stretched out on the ground. They took their guns and shot the cops again."
It was "cold-blooded murder, that's what it was," one of the shooters, Anthony Bottom, told the New York State Parole Board in 2020, during his 14th parole hearing, 49 years later. We "had laid and waited for the police officers to return and we ambushed them."
Bottom shot Jones in the back of the head with a .45 caliber automatic then, as he was falling, shot him three more times in the neck, back and buttocks. Once he was satisfied Jones was dead, he turned his attention to Piangentini—who, despite being shot multiple times, was still alive and begging for his life.
"Please, please, don't shoot, don't shoot. I'm married, I have two kids," he pleaded.
One of Bottom's accomplices, Herman Bell, emptied his .38 caliber revolver into Piagentini. The cop was still alive.
Bell reached down, pulled the mortally wounded officer's weapon from his holster, and emptied it too into Piagentini. Piagentini was still alive. Bottom fired a round from his .45 into his back too. In all, Piagentini was shot a total of 13 times. But he didn't die until he was in the ambulance and on his way to the hospital. His body had 22 entry and exit wounds in it, according to the Medical Examiner's office. He likely felt every shot.
Bottom, Bell, along with their lookout, Albert Washington, and two others, the brothers Francisco Torres and Gabriel Torres, fled, Bottom told the Parole Board. They regrouped at Gabriel Torres's apartment on Anderson Avenue in the Bronx, half-an-hour later. The apartment was less than two miles away, just on the other side of the Harlem River from the Colonial Park Houses. Waiting for them there was Gabriel's wife, Linda, Fransisco's live-in girlfriend, Jacqueline Tabb, and Tabb's sister, Karen Parks. Together they celebrated the murders. According to court records, the assassins "exchanged compliments on their efficiency."
They placed their trophies, the two .38 caliber revolvers taken from the two murdered police officers, on a table—with Bottom's .45.