Nearly 50 years after escaping custody, man convicted of murder in Pittsburgh arrested

PITTSBURGH — A man convicted in a murder stemming from the “Pittsburgh Riots” has been arrested nearly 50 years after escaping police custody, the FBI announced Friday.

Leonard Moses and some friends threw Molotov cocktails at a house in Homewood on April 6, 1968, authorities said. This was during the “Pittsburgh Riots” that followed the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

A woman who was inside the home was burned. She later died as a result of the burns and subsequent pneumonia.

Moses was convicted of first-degree murder.

Moses, who was sentenced to life in prison, escaped custody on June 1, 1971, while attending his grandmother’s funeral in Homewood.

Moses, 68, was caught in Michigan, where he had been working as a traveling pharmacist, living under the name Paul Dixon. He was arrested on an embezzlement complaint in January. According to the Saint Clair Shore Police Department, he was caught stealing $43 worth of hydrocodone pills.

It was determined Moses was wanted in Pittsburgh after his fingerprints were taken and they matched the federal database.

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