Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1912-08-07
THE MURDER OF
GAMBLER ROSENTHAL
Story of Crime Charged Against New
York Police, Which Has Startled
Civilized World.

in front of the Metropole hotel. on
Forty-third street. al > O'Clock in the
morning on July l6. only a few
hours after he had gwen evidence
against gamblers 4 the district at
torney and made the boast that he
would gladly go to prison for 10
years to send Lieut.. Charles Becker
head of the ''strong-arm" SQUAD. ia
prison for 10 days. Four men who
had lain in wait for him while a
fifth went into the cafe and beckon-
ed him out emptied their revolvers
at the man al soon as he made his
appearance, continuing until the
body was PROSTATE on the pavement.
then jumped into a large gray auto
mobile standing at he curb and
escaped east into Fifth avenue.
Scores Of persons of the type hat
linger around the glimmering streets
at that time in the morning saw the
murder, and in an instant thousands
OF night paraders were jamming into
the narrow sideway, but not a single
one offered a word of sympathy or
gave a suggestion for some one TO get
a pillow or tried to make the dying
ON m nvNn hln II l -
hour before an ambulance arrived.
but by hat time Rosenthal was be-
yond all aid. Then followed per-
haps as sordid exhibition as New
York ever beheld. The nighthawk
and the all night taxicab chauffeurs
formed in a long procession and
drove past the dead man. charging
their passengers anything from a
quarter to a dollar for the privilege
of looking at the murederers' victim.
Rosenthal only a few hours before
his murder had visited District At
torney Whitman and volunteered to
produce the following day two wit
nesses to c%Orroborate a charge that
he had made that Lieutenan Becker
had lent him $500. He declared
under oath that this money was a
share in the capital of the gambling
establishment that he maintained at
104 West Forty-fifth street prior to
a raid on the place on April Is. He
declared. further that Becker re-
ceived 20 per cent of the profits
prior to the raid and that after the
action Of the police Becker destroy
ed the note. which was made in the
name of J.. Donohue.
Police activity in pursuit of the
five men who were seen in the auto
mobile began before the body of the
gambler had been removed from the
sidewalk. Three hundred detectives
went out to find the gray Packard
car having a number as given by
two witnesses.
Ina few hours they arrested
Louis Libby and William Shapiro,
owners Of the car used by the STAY
ers. Libby is % years old, a chauf-
feur, and one of the proprietor OF
the Washington Square garage. lie
was arrested at his home, 35 Stuyve-
SAINT street. 1t developed that he
had driven the machine during the
entire day for customers and at
night turned il over to his partner
at about s o'clock. Their stand was
in front Of the Cafe Boulevard, and
about two blocks from the Hesper
club, where Rosenthal operated a
poolroom and gambling house before
his invasion of the Broadway dis
trict.
Rosenthal was president Of the
Hesper club and on ntimtae terms
with all the political leaders of the
East Side. Two. he always boasted,
were big Tim" Sullivan and Lar
ry" Mulligan. Libby said that he
was not in the car when the shoot
ing occurred, and that Shapiro had
been compelled to hurry away with
the men who had hired the car with
out his knowledge of what 1t was I'd
be used for. He said after the
shooting that revolvers were placed
against Shapiro's body and held
there until he got safely away from
the scene OF the murder. The muir
derers got out of the car down towr
near Third avenue and Second
street. Shapiro. who lived at thu
same house as Libby. was arrested
a few hours later.
Many men were brought into tn
case. but so little progress had beer
made by the police two days after
the murder that stories were toll
all about Broadway of a connection