In 1907 he escaped, fleeing first to Paris and then to London, where he became an associate of the revolutionary, Judith Goodman, and anarchist theorist, Rudolf Rocker.
Under the influence of Prime Minister Clemenceau, who was sympathetic to their youthful idealism and unaware of their criminal intent, the group were not imprisoned but rather were ordered to leave Paris on the next train.
[1] Tokar returned to London, where he remained for nearly a year before informing his colleagues that he was unable to tolerate it any longer and would risk traveling to Russia, whatever the consequences.
There he read reports of the cruel torture of political prisoners in Vilnius and resolved to assassinate Sergei Gershelman, the military commander responsible.
In his cell a couple of days before he was to be executed, Moishe Tokar doused himself in paraffin from his lamp and burned himself alive.