NYPD Cop Killer Anthony Bottom Slated To Be Freed On Parole 43 Years Later

Anthony Bottom, the lone surviving convict of the Black Revolutionary Army members, is set to be freed in parole by Oct. 20. Bottom was jailed for being involved in the assassinations of two NYPD cops Joseph Piagentini and Waverly Jones in 1971, nearly five decades ago.

The update was passed by the police union officials on Tuesday, much to the fury of Piagentini’s family, especially his widow Diane. Bottom, Herman Bell, and Albert Washington were guilty of inviting Piagentini and Jones over to a Harlem housing project with a fake 911 call, only to stab them eventually.

“We are heartbroken to see another of Joe’s killers set free by politics. But more than anything else, we are angry,” said Diane in a recent statement. She implored the board to keep Bottom locked up for life during his October 2018 parole hearing.

Bottom met with success in terms of being granted parole after appealing the board’s Oct. 2019 decision to imprison him for longer.

The president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association lambasted state policies for Bottom’s release.“Gov. Cuomo and the State Legislature have spent years torturing crime victims, especially the hero families of fallen police officers,” said Lynch in a statement. “They knew that changing the parole guidelines would unleash more vicious killers like Anthony Bottom back onto our streets,” he added.

While Bottom has already served 43 years in jail, his allies left prison long before. Upon the completion of 40 years behind bars, Bell was freed on parole in April 2018. Washington breathed his last in prison after having died of liver cancer in 2000.