Consequently, Moore converted to Islam, took the name Dhoruba al-Mujahid bin Wahad, and began reading political material, including both non-fiction (such as Edward Gibbon's The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and Karl Marx's Das Kapital) as well as historical fiction (such as Leon Uris's Exodus and novels about Attila the Hun and Genghis Khan).
[1] On May 19, 1971, Thomas Curry and Nicholas Binetti, two New York City Police Department officers who were guarding the home of Frank S. Hogan, the Manhattan district attorney, were fired upon in a drive-by shooting, with a machine gun.
The shootings took place during a period of intense violence between black activist organizations and the New York City police department.
Two days later, NYPD officers Waverly Jones and Joseph Piagentini were shot and killed outside a housing project in Harlem.
Morgenthau's attempt to appeal was rejected by the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court,[8] and on January 20, 1995, the Manhattan district attorney's office stated there would be no retrial, indicating that the current condition of the evidence would make this impossible.
[11] On December 8, 2000, the city of New York laid to rest a 25-year legal battle, and agreed to pay Wahad an additional $490,000 in damages.
[12] The event led founding member of the original Black Panthers, Elbert "Big Man" Howard, to denounce the group as "reactionaries" and "thugs".