He was on the run for almost 50 years. FBI finally nabbed him in Michigan, officials say
A fugitive was arrested in Michigan nearly 50 years after he escaped custody in Pennsylvania, the Federal Bureau of Investigation says.
Leonard Moses escaped police custody during his grandmother’s funeral in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on June 1, 1971, the FBI said in a news release.
Moses was a serving a life sentence after he was convicted of first-degree murder for an incident during the Pittsburgh Riots in 1968 where he and some friends allegedly threw Molotov cocktails into a house in the city, the FBI said.
Mary Amplo was inside the house and died after getting badly burned and developing pneumonia. Moses was arrested in 1968.
After his escape, officials say, Moses assumed the identity of Paul Dickson and worked as a traveling pharmacist in Michigan since 1999.
A traveling pharmacist fills in at pharmacies that are short-staffed, according to Zip Recruiter.
In January, Moses was arrested on an embezzlement charge after police said he was caught on video stealing hydrocodone pills from a CVS pharmacy where he worked, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.
Moses’ fingerprints were entered into a nationwide database in October, the FBI said. They matched his fingerprints taken in 1968.
The FBI arrested Moses without incident in Grand Blanc, Michigan, on Thursday, officials said.
During their search, the FBI put up billboards in Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia and Florida and created an “age-enhanced” photo of how he might look, according to the Post-Gazette. They also investigated more than 2,000 tips and offered a $10,000 reward.
“I hope this arrest brings some closure to the family members of Mary Amplo, who was killed back in 1968,” FBI Pittsburgh Special Agent in Charge, Michael Christman, said in the release. “Mr. Moses will now have to face justice for her murder.”
Moses is being held on the charge of federal unauthorized flight to avoid confinement warrant and awaits extradition to Pennsylvania, the FBI said.
Grand Blanc is roughly 60 miles northwest of Detroit.
This story was originally published November 15, 2020 at 3:05 PM with the headline "He was on the run for almost 50 years. FBI finally nabbed him in Michigan, officials say."