Semi-weekly herald., 1914-03-12
BECKER SAYS HE KNOWS
MURDERER OF ROSENTHAL

pCAOahh8 al ~ tohehSos 49,"
York seems destined never to forget
the sensational murder of Gambler
Herman Rosenthal. Shortly after
midnight on July morning two
years ago, shots rang out on the still
air of Forty-third street in the Upper
Tenderloin and their echo has rever-
berated throughout the Greater City
ever since. On that fateful morning
the assassination, for it was nothing
less, of Rosenthal in front of the Ho.
tel Metropole, electrified contiguous
Broadway and its ripples have spread
until they ruffled the surface of every
portion of New York, from center to
outermost perimeter. And the echoes
and the ripples are not done.
They were given fresh impetus the
other day when the court of appeals
Of the state of New York, sitting at
Albany, on purely technical grounds,
reversed the conviction of former Po-
lice Lieutenant Charles Becker, in
Sing Sing awaiting death in the cleo
trio chair for the murder of Rosen-
thai, and ordered new trial for
him. The courts order revived the
case in all its startling features and
the newspapers of New York repeat
ed all the sordid and CHASTITY details
of the actual murder and the year of
investigations and trials, that it
brought on.
Becker added fuel to the flame by
lbeginning to talk as soon as he was
taken from the death house on the
life side of the Little Green Door and
he has continued to talk volubly ever
since. He began by reiterating that
he is innocent of the gamblers mur-
der and knew all the time that he
would get justice. Then he said that
he knew who did kill Rosenthal and
promised that when he is free-not
If" but "when"-he will devote his
life to running down the murderer
and bringing him to justice.
He openly accused Harry Vallon,
one of the notrious "squealers," of
being the actual murderer of Rosen-
thai. Then Becker declared his firm
belief that the four gunner, Gyp the
Blood, Lefty Louie, Whitley Lewis
and Dago Frank, now under sentence
of death for the murder, were not
guilty at all, but the victims of a
frame up. Becker, in his interviews,
injected handful of new elements in
to the already tangled case and there
by gave the impression to an unbiased
observer that he was simply trying to
"muss up the trail" and so hecloud
the issue that there would be an en-
tirely new lineup when he is tried
again.
The accused policeman's friends
took occasion at the outset to state
their belief that there would be no
real new trial of Becker, that the
court of appeals had not left District
Attorney Whitman leg to stand on
and that the second hearing would be
ohS, iSobieihS ~
Becker's complete vindication.
i Whitman nailed that story to the
cross by the prompt announcement
that Becker would be tried again, ant
that with all possible speed. The dis
trict attorney said there would be nj
let-up en- the part of the prosecution
/, and expressed the confident belief
. that the adverse decision of the high,
er court had left more than enough
| ammunition to blow the ex-lieutenant
: back into Sing Sing and the deatl
, house.
Whitman himself injected new
= element into the case by declaring
that he would be a witness for tn,
. flprosecution and Becker's counse
A countered with the declaration tina
Becker, too, would take the witness
4 chair and "tell it ALL"
a There is, therefore ample assur
ance that the second trial of Becker
p will not be cut-and-dried affair b,
any means and the New York publ,
will again hear all about the Rosen
thai murder, the gamblers feud tina
brought it about and the revelation.
of wholesale police corruption thai
came in its wake. Again will tn,
!, dapper and debonaire Mr.. San
schepps. stroll languidly through tn,
corridors of the criminal courts build
ing, attended by Wallets, manicure.
and masseuses. Again will the sane
timonious BALD Jack" Rose displa,
his cgg-like dome for the edificatior
of the camera mon. Once more will
the deftfingcred "Bridgey" webbei
parade his sartorial splendor for tn,
benefit Of the court spectators.
John the Barber" who recently has
been compelled TO resort to diamond
u robbery stories to keep up his press
b agent record, will get some more leri,
. innate publicity. In short, New
! York, which went through eonvul.
! sions that shook her from foundation
to garret to get Becker and the four
Hunmen In the electric chair, must do
= ,n u~A