Gravemarkers bY the

138

T2

and local ofiicia

state
of who killed the fire captain' Not so
;i,iii., :'1; s';;'
LtrE rttJtrr'':
Hffi
carryrng
; ;"-;;,il
Yf""'Y;JT;i
of the white
l",,a r"itl of u crucial part
susPtctont
the
intensified
(
facts of Edwards' arrest' was
Hayden, without even knowing the.
officials regarding Moran's
risht track. The silence ti i"""t?ig"ing
had subsr
'.,1?.'o""i"t;;;;il";
n"* l""i fi'hinn' uui it tre according
truth'
('
ttt"
*""'a na.ve tr]f o"n
"suardsmen" for "police,;;
ouestion

+:tl^*

it1t

*',

than Howard Edwards himself'

*ty n^ltl*i-":
he g;;;tilJ;y a sniper the way
-'
"I didn't think
io me' Thev were charging
up,'i ri"lu,a. rnl't in" *uy it seemed
them a question' they
iit"t-i
the tueman's murder
"rt"a
even answer me."

.I'HE TRAGIC DEATH OF ISAAC HARRISON,

.[HE SILENT DEATH OF HOMER MOSELY

f;;;;;p"rt

'iri

{"
4

tt

;;;;il

without being shot i"9 hil'"|"d

Walter Edwards got out of the area
He learned 1"":,tY l':-:i:t"t":;
back to Staten Island il;d;;'"home
in Gastonia' North Carolina'
risht. then left for an aunt's
le ave and *tl]1:1^ t.'^
t i'
:-|tt*?lLlu r, ..,n,
solitary-c
Edwards was taken from his"

-**,n'

'"i;,ffi
t"Tlff;'I;;;,'no*u'o

;tyl"ii on Newark-:,ti:":.t:,:H]iPil
*"t" there staring at him' Photogra
When he had been ut"'*a, tJot'"t
distance ;iil.';d;f'q:"-l P-"':i:Y,"t:""ff"J:: 13*
sate urJLq.vY
Kcpt a s.rv
kept
jo*r d"*o"wittr a machine gun' Even tet
tle
renged
:ltire Yt',""^': :,:T"J::":,.;;;;';"i" no onrooke
had been on hand' Now' however' ..
.o hrrn^

ment cell at the Essei

ffi:1lfi,Ht,

"uri"rua

----r^.,, as hundrt
H";;.J *iin i'''atinq llre citv currew

;;; toto to.t&1t" 0,1;I::j*":^''ffi1

"i1'n#i"1;?";il;;i^"1. *o'," Ed.pa'd' remembered' "th

othcrs had u""n,

"onui"?J;,

i *o"ra h"'".1"^l^"lt:::y;t;",.";JiXfl
li:::
::;:;;".,., *J"it *t"n I was in lail
it out. My girl friend went over to se(

in storage una
rr r'sturd6v
nao it
they had
thev

to fet
no windows and there were
told me the tires were shot off, it had
b:r1let h*;,s
holes in the roof' sh" ;;ii
i:.Y:^'"i:
me I'd have to go back
told
fr'"" it'"v
i"T',i:ff"';:"p
Ir
eir I wanted was to get out of
rnt'";'
iii
wristwat"r'
my
for
iail
'St
it, t totA them to keeP that too"'

;"";

#t;;'

::

Were Still Firing

at Ground

Level

r''l'hcre was me," the stocky man said, "there was my brothers, Bussy

llorace, and there was my father. We were standing here in front of

plojects with a crowd of people when the three police cars turned the
rr from Springfield Avenue." Virgil Harrison went on, his voice never
tging tone, "They just got out of the cars and started shooting. There
't any looters running around us, that was bullshit. All that was going
ovcr on Springfield Avenue. At first I thought they were firing blanks
they were shooting directly into the crowd."
l'lt was a matter of seconds," the man next to Virgil Harrison, Willis
," Harrison, said. "They pulled up, got out of their cars and started
'l'here was no warning, nothing. I didn't hear any of that nonsense
looters and snipers until we got back from the hospital."
lltt, Harrison brothers, Virgil, thirty-two, and Bussy, thirty-five, were
lrrg cxactly where they had been then, just thirty-five yards from where
rlicc opened fire. A round scar on Virgil Harrison's right forearm
ctl the spot where a .3S-caliber bullet ripped through it and he walked
rr linrp that went with another scar on the side of his left knee. "When
tltw they were really shooting at us, we went for the entrance there," he
trccl. "My father got hit then. I thought he had just fell because everyWus pushing, so I picked him up and I was hclping him up the steps
t I got shot in the arm. When I got by the door, I got shot in the knee
I wcnt clown. Somebody pulled me in the doorway. My father was alItt thcre, he was bleeding badly and rnoaning. They were still shooting
Ittriltling outside."
tlicd to make a tourniquet with my handkerchief for Virgil's arm but
Itlootl was streaming out so fast it didn't do any good," Bussy Harrison
"ll just got soggy with blood and slipped off. The only way we would

iltrl ()l' thc builcling was to take our undershirts off and wave them

II(A(;IC DEATH OF ISAAC HARRISON

Gravemarkers bY thc

140

)ulrrrrrilion.

at the time of the shooting lllld

Iloward. Strct
movecl into a Scudder Homcs project a block away on

virgil Harrison livecl on 7th Avenue

$rh't l,clicve tle.p:tiT

niilglil,.-rI-.TK=i*irT they heard the slugs

bricks. Sounds of gunfire were then mixed with the screams
'fllrl r,lrrrrts of frightened human beings, a hideous mixture that reverberated
l$t,,rr1ih llro thirteen-story cement .inyons of the Scudder projects.
I lr.y scrcamed and ran. And with these moving targets ieviral Newark
rll . .lliccls who had been firing into the wattJ dropped their aim and
trrrr.cl firing. This episode was dealt with sympathetlialy in the Kerner
r;rrrrli rrt thc

nr I l)ut with one serious error.

son.

"After my mothcr died he just putted around," Bussy Harrison

over
"Therc was a scnior citizetrs' rccrcation place and he'd go

to be around
play pinochlc. Ue always would be stopping by, he liked
family."
five children lived in
Bu'.ssy Harrison, his wife, Ann, and their
fifth floor'
thc
on
Strcet
of the Scudder projects on Broome
"They werc iusistanding there watching Ylot *.o:.gotig :-"^:1":.,7
ur"rr.,'o, p"ople will do,';Mrs. Harrison said, pointing from the wi
The
"There were men and women' even chilclrcn down there'
say
even
th-ey-d
me
to
weren't shooting at lootcrs. It was surprising
happened'
were shooting airniperu and looters aftei wlmt
11,*t':Y:h^1

angry even talking

"o,it
"06:.t]t:Jn^"J^::'1"1
afrer.the shooting- I
of thc building
iu
g"t
everybody
for
bullfiorn
excited worrying
get
five kids in here ind, you fnow, with kids you
the glass above
them. wc wcnt out the far cxit an<l a bullct smashed
over to my Dr(
went
the kids'heads. I pullcd my children back and we
there'.If they
of
in-law's house and they'd r.u", gtt me to come out
homes'"
going to shoot us, they'cl have to shoot us in our own
angle the
No matter how many months hacl passed or from rrhat
Street'
Broome
was viewed, it wtls stili just thirty-five yarcls from 60
the l
where
of Broome and Mercer
first Scudder project on ih"
"o,n"t
police
three
the
risons had been shot down, out into the street where
Mosely,
Homer
had pulled up. officcr
l:"Y-ly:' " !]*^Pii"^1TT::
small group
ioa,'noa been on" of them. From behind their cars the
policc lookcd at the crowd of pgoplc standing on the:T'li"lLI3;;
and frustra
il "rttt"t .p"ctators but as blrrck peop]e, the enemy' Anger
air was pocked '
took holcl oi the police and thcy op"n"A fire' The warm
Dou
tf," lropping ,oun,l uf .38 calibei revolvers and shotguns firing

lrl r cport stated:

,{s thc police arrived three

*tu.;irr"y Jii, I set

cqntinuing beueggJicocheted off the brick walls behind

Sr, , r,,rvcl and fell io-ttreglouq

-*-*"

prisotts,
the thirteenth floor of one of Newark's main high-rise, brick
out
walking
been
had
the
group
and
there,
lived
also
of his brothers
pi.1""t when the policc opened fire' ike Harrison, Jr" thirty-fourl
lived wil'l
brother who hadn't been home at the time of the shooting'
wife, their teenage daughter and his father, seventy-two-1e-1-old
irt
"Uncl" Da<ldy" tio.riron] who had been born in Jamaica and lived
in thc
Jersey for haif a century. Isaac Harrison settled in Burlington
ntt,tulllt:,1
brought
then
and
1943
until
crn portion of the state
raised,ninc
wheie hc swcated in iron foundries arouncl the city and
Evelyn'
wife'
his
with
lived
man
old
the
dren. After they had grown,
in l
death
her
After
Street'
Lincoln
ncarby
on
senior citizens' projcci
his
lke'
with
the
projccts
of
floor
tcnth
ary, he wcnt to livt on thc

il;,

141

of the looters cut directly in front of

the

pr,rr;r ol'spectators. The police fired at the looters. Bullets plowed into the
tr

ll| t'li r tot's.

llr.

Kcrncr commissioners got this faurty information from initial policelf

fr1rr,ls. .l'.vcntually, supposed snipers replaced looters as having precipiti
lfllrrl |.licc gunfire for obvious reasons. First, there weren't unyioot"rr'iniI
llt'rl rrrrnrccliatc area. And, second, the looters would have had tobe runninsii
flrr,,l llr. innocent bystanders for a full ten to fifteen minutes, which is aiii
llllv,rr it sounds. Inexplicably, people were being shot down atground tevet
lj
gr;,rliee lircd at phantom snipers.
It
"\\'t'wc.c under fire, Iwould say, for approximately ten minutes
by the
Nruirk 1rolice," Horace Morris, Isaac Hairison's foity-year-old stepson,
trrl.l " lhc'y said they were looking for a sniper on the roof or the upper
lilrrrr',,l thc building but they were still flrinf at ground-level range.',
Nl,r ris. an articulate man who was an associate director of the washingl.,r, l).('., Urban League, had been attending a National Urban Leagrie
rurl.r('nce in Ncw York at the time of the riot and had stopped to visitlis
llrrrrly bcfo_rc returning to washington. The group of men-Bussy, virgil
*n,l l',;r;rc Harrison and Morris-had been walking to Bussy Harrisln,s ca'r,
;r'rrLt'rl rrcarby on thc corner, when the shooting began. For him the mesr'rltr \vils thc same one teacher John Thomas had given at the Human
lltl,lrts ( ilmmission meeting not far away.
"( )rrcc I had an opportunity to collect my scnses,,, he said
later, ,,and
n rrlly t'valuate and think this thing through, it came to me in stark reality
lltrrl rcg,ardlcss of how far up the economic ladder any Negro goes, thit
llr,,rr"s still this oppressive thing of prejudice that he is subjeitedlo by the
*llll(' r)rlrn hcrc in America. And I realized that I was extrlmely fortunate
{Irt t, bc killed myself. And that even though I had played football for
tyrrrcrrsc, cvcn though I was an elementary school principal who had edurrrt.rl whitc childrcn, even though I work with white people in the washIttl'|.,' ,rou, League, even though there are white people that I consider

142

Gravemarkers

by the W

)close friends-that, as the boys say, when it gets down to the nittyl
jright down to where it really matters, you're still a Negro and youofl
fidentified with every other Negro in America, be he in a ghetto or
j suburban neighborhood. You're still a brother."
His sons took Isaac Harrison to City Hospital. The white-haired
had been hit with five Double O slugs, four in the chest and stom
one in the arm. He died at 9:30 r.u. Virgil Harrison was also
City Hospital for treatment of his two gunshot wounds.
"I was there until Sunday, three days," he said. "They put a
adhesive tape on my arm, a piece of tape on my knee. I bled all night
They took X-rays but I don't know what the hell happened, they
shotgun slug wasn't in my knee. They told me all I needed was rest.
Sunday, I went to Presbyterian Hospital and they operated on the
took out the slug."
Virgil's father had been a long-time member of the Episcopalian
Church on Congress Street. His funeral was held downtown in T
Cathedral with Bishop Leland Stark, head of the Diocese of Newark,
ducting the funeral service himself. All the Harrisons and their fam
hard-working guts and strength of Newark as their father had been
them, were there. Even Virgil, who came in a wheelchair with a
nurse, attended the funeral. Steve Flanders and Robert Potts of CBS
lengthy interviews outside the cathedral with the sons, Flanders for
while Potts taped a segment for television. Virgil Harrison returned to
byterian Hospital while the rest of the family accompanied the
Cedar Lane Cemetery in south Jersey. The old man was buried
his wife, as he had wished. Television coverage of the fqg-q1al q
shown. According !o q cBS n"eilsmaq-cBsTI!""ddidA6dE;
riot ctrimate such a segment as an old man's funeral wguld bg.
versial.
Such decisions kept the public in almost total ignorance about the
ties of the Newark riot. It was little wonder that the Hughes
even the Kerner Report, were rejected in disbelief by the majority of
Jersey's white citizens.

Henry Franzoni, a Bloomfleld attorney, also attended the funeral.

ward, he began assembling bits of evidence and information
shootings.

Police claimed that they were sent to the projects because of

sniper fire and, after checking the area, had been fired on while
to their cars. If this ever happened, it certainly wasn't at 4:00 p.ru.
police opened fire on Isaac and Virgil Harrison and Robert Lee M
who had been shot by police near the same location a few minutes

I(

,I'RAGIC

DEATH OF ISAAC HARRISON

t43

lllrrisons. It was anger over these senseless shootings that prompted

ll'c from the upper stories of the projects when police, returning to the
lc an hour later, were fired upon. Detective Toto, standing near the
lurea where police had fired on the defenseless crowd, was hit in the
lty a.22 caliber bullet around 5:15 p.vr. and fatally wounded. It was
tirtmc thirty-five yards-but now the bullets were being returned.
"l [alked with at least fifteen eyewitnesses to the shooting," the thirtyl.ycar-old Franzoni said. "Not one of them saw Toto go down. His
xtting occurred much later in the afternoon. Police tried to group the
[)lings together and blame the whole thing on snipers. If there is one
thcy all agreed on, it was how they just couldn't believe the police
: liring on them with live ammunition. They thought the police were
rting blanks."
In't'irnzoni had

no doubt of the veracity of such statements given to him

t't'siclents of the Scudder projects.

In his office are paper bags containing

( Double O and revolver slugs they had picked up from the ground.
Ittvcstigation into the riot homicides was being carried on by private atItcys such as Franzoni and, theoretically at least, by Newark authorities.
ly onc of the groups took the job seriously, however. While homicide
thc prosecutor's office personnel could be credited with an effort acplishing little or nothing, men like Franzoni gathered what physical evi: they could. Nor was there any confidence in what the police would
tts cvidenced by the slug taken from Virgil Harrison's knee. Not trustpolice facilities, a hospital employee borrowed the slug and had it
zcd by a private source before returning it. This maneuver was prusince police went a good deal beyond bungling and incompetence,
rlircing bullets or being unable to come up with reliable ballistic inforion on slugs taken from the bodies of riot victims.
llolicc witnesses to killings were also rare, except in the most obvious
in which certain policemen had to admit having been there. Policemen
r had seen other policemen shoot down innocent people suffered lapses
urcrnory and the prosecutor's office did not work overtime trying to find

, Chetto

witnesses were either dead

or too far away to be able to

ify individual officers.

Olliccr Mosely, whom Bussy Harrison had recognized among the police
r wcrc firing at them, was an exception.
"l used to tend bar over at Big Mike's Tavern on Bergen Street and I
Mosely," he related. "When we finally were able to make them stop
rling and we got out of the building, I saw him there by one of the radio
l-tc told me he was working the radio and had nothing to do with the
roling. Two weeks later I bumped into him at the tavern. He approached
to say how sorry he was that my father had been killed. He said how

t'
144

Gravemarkers

by

the

there wasn't anything he could do, how his hands were tied. I
who were some of the other police shooting there and he said he
remember, or wouldn't, I don't remember which."
Five months after the shooting, on the morning of Monday, J
Franzoni was ready to approach the Essex County prosecutor's

offer information on Isaac Harrison's death. With him were Vi

Bussy Harrison, who had no faith in the outcome. Andrew Zazzali,
charge of presenting information to the special grand jury invest
riot deaths, asked for the identity of the patrolman who had wi
shooting and was told "Homer Mosely," which name he seemed to
nize. The assistant prosecutor left the room and returned a few
later to announce that Mosely had died the night before.
To this day nothing will convince the Harrisons that Mosely
meet with foul play.
"How he died, it was a real Dick Tracy thing, I'll tell you
older brother said. "I saw him over at Big Mike's many times and I
he would have to identify the other cops. It was very convenient
police department that he died, I'll tell you that. I went over to the
home where he was at to see him, to make sure he was the one. He
had any heart condition, I'm sure of that."
"As far as I'm concerned," Franzoni told me, "the prosecutor's in
tion was little more than an attempt to whitewash the entire situation.
zali acted like he wanted someone to drop all the information ri
his lap before he'd do anything. For one thing, I gave him a list of
nesses who had seen the shooting and they were never even
Mosely's death should be investigated. One thing I'm sure of, if
thought one cop would be able to identify a half-dozen others who
wildly into a crowd, his life wouldn't be worth a plugged nickel."

II

"l-Ie'd come home from working in the riot very tired," his forty-fournr-old widow recalled. "He told me he saw people getting hurt and shot
rrothing, for no reason at all. Homer said he didn't want to go out in
0gain."

Mosely was described by those who knew and worked with him as a
min with a big heart which, until Sunday morning, January 21, was
age, Mosely was.strong
e xcellent working order. At forty-two years of
I bull at 170 pounds, a light drinker and smoker. According to his doc', hc had an ulcer but was otherwise in top physical condition'
r,t had to work overtime that Saturday or I would have been home,"
five
lH, Mosely said. "We were supposed to go out that night' Around

got a phone call and left the house in a hurry. He toldty jayghter,
it Uo*r"y I'11 be right back,' and he went out the door' That's the last
heard from him. He would stay out all night sometimes, but
*"
"u"i
home ancl let me know where he was. He would always
call
always
d
time he didn't. At nine o'clock the next night his two
but
this
I home,
to the house and told me Homer had died from a heart
came
llcc partners
to tell me how it happened and they wouldn't tell me.
them
I
rck. asked
I know about where he goes and it can't hurt
because
hurt
me
cun,t
I told them. I told them I knew about where
the
truth,'
rcr, so tell me
tell me anything. Both of them were crying.
wouldn't
still
tlicd but they
,,1
died mysteriously like that there would
a
person
when
always thought
continued. "Homer always told me
Mosely
MrJ.
rr coroire.'s in-quest,"
open
after he was dead so I didn't ask
him
cutting
rli<In't want a.ryon"
be an inquest. No-w- I'm. sorry
would
there
tn autopsy but t ttrought
you
friends, 'Why
his
so-called
telling
I
kept
c wasn'i an autopsy.
-do
yc to hush everything?' I don't know whether they're uftl'! to face me
what it is but I've always had the feeling something's fishy. 'Those friends
'r'c going around

Tell Mommy

i
I

I'll Be Right Back

Homer Mosely, Sr., had been a police officer in Newark for eight
working out of the Fourth Precinct building, where the riot began.
come to the city twenty-eight years before from Jacksonville,
Mosely was an Army veteran of World War II and worked for a
engineering firm and attended a photography school before ioining,
police force. His wife, Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Mosely, is head clerk at
the city's downtown department stores. Together they raised two sons
two daughters. The family had moved into an attractive home on
Terrace, a short residential street running off Clinton Place in the
Ward, fifteen years before.

145

TRAGIC DEATH OF ISAAC HARRISON

with are not really your friends,'

I told Homer, 'be

rl'ul.; I told him that four months before he died."

According to his brief obituary-the only published report of his. death,.die-d
Sunday white visitlng friends at 25 Gold Street." This particrrrr:ly
house is notorious as a virtual police clubhouse offering white and

k prostitutes, gambling and liquoi. Mosely was one.of -11y Newark

:cri-both white and black-who frequently stopped in' The woman
I r.uns the house told me that Mosely was there that Sunday morning,

rmc sick and died, when, actually, the police officer had slept there that
It, His death certificate was just as abrupt. Cause of death was listed as
Iusive coronary arteriosclerosis," which means Mosely's heart stopped
i|lg. This conclusion, though medically accurate, does not take into acnt the fact that Mosely hid been ill for at least twelve hours before

wife was notified and when she finally was,

at the city morgue.

it

was only to identify a

146

Gravemarkers bY the W

13

Whatever went on inside 25 Gold Street that Saturday night and

has been private knowledge for those involved'
Mrs. Mosely is a stroig woman who understood her soft-hearted
band and was familiar wittr his comings and goings' Any effort to
her from learning the details of his dcath had only an opposite result'

SLAUGHTER ON CUSTER AVENUE

feeling of appreliension that has stayed with her'."We were,*1:'i:1.1

t*"nt"y-tl,re" !ears," shc said. "It's not right to just hand me a death
cate and tcll me my husband is dead."

Two more blacks-an old man and a policeman-had gone to

deaths in Newark wrapped in shrouds wovcn of official lies'

Never Shoutd Have Taken Him Out

of

Bordentown

I help it if the kid was killcd in my place?" thirty-two-year-old

l,c Campisi, owner of the former Jo Rae,s Muii" Room, uiked. ,.I dicln't
rr.'k him to rob me. After it was ovcr I started to get threatening phone
r rrlls. At first I told the
guys who called to go fuck themselves but after a
ru,lrilc I said the hell with i1 ind sold the place.,,
"Could

slMPSoN's LouNGE, a new blue neon sign, had replaced the old one but
lh;rl was the only noticeable change at the corner of Bergen Street and
('tl\tcr Avcnue. The bar adjoins several
party rooms to the right rear and
rr liquor store to thc left whcre nineteen-year-old James Rutleclge, Jr.,
u';rs caught looting during the riot. He was shot to dcath with the outrageous
rh'lrrils of his deati swepiunder the official carpet. For some in black New'rrr k. LcRoi Jones
among them, Rutlcdge is rememberecl as "the kid who
,'ol shot thirty-nine times." The memories of the three younger boys who
tvt'rc hiding in the bar when Rutledge was shot are haunted by the reverlr('rltitlg shotgun blasts which splattcied the wall with their friend's remains.
llobert "Poochie" Hatcher was fourteen years old at the timc, Dennis
llrrgltcs was thirteen and Brian Gary was fifteen. The first two come from
trrirldlc-class homes in Newark's reiirtential Weequahic section, while the

lirrry boy lived on Chadwick Avenuc around the corner from the bar.
l. vcryonc except Brian Gary hacl been in the
poolroom on Jones Street less
lltrttt an hour $sfe1s the shooting. Rutledge iaughed as he lost what little
nrrrrlgy he had playing pool.

"Wc came home on the bus," Poochic Hatcher related. ,.Jimmy got off
llrt' btts at West Kinney Strcet with another boy who was with ,r. He was
lrrllirlg us a dollar he could beat the bus home. He started running along-

,,trlt'thc bus but he fell behind and we couldn't see him anymore. The
rrlllt'r'tloy quit and we never saw him but Jimmy ran all the way to Custer
rrrrrl llclgen wherc wc got ofi.,,
ll was a warm Sunday aftcrnoon with disturbances in the city almost
147