The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1914-05-23
BECKER IS GUILTY
Jury Finds Verdict of Murder In
First Degree.
Evidence Lacking ut First Trial
Produced at Second.
ONLY HOPE LIES IN APPEAL

II Will Act as Stay of Execu-
M ton for q Year.
Story of Jack Rose Strong
Point i'm tho Evidence.
New York. Mays4s.%For the second
time Charles f.: Becker. former police
lieutenant. today cccnpies a cell In
Tombs prison, the convicted murderer
Of Herman RosenthaL gambler. for the
actual killing OF whom the four gunner
paid the penalty in the electric chair
little more than a month ago.
Twelve men decided, for a second
time, that Becker was the arch-con-
opirator responsible for the Rosenthai
murder which nearly two years ago
awoke New York, to realization, OF
corruption in the police department and
opened a new era of reform.
Becker, once a police lieutenant, was
found guilty of murd-r in the first de-
gree. Only interference again by the
court OF appeals can save him from
following to the electric chair the four
gunmen who shot Herman Rosenthal.
the gambler, early on the morning OF
July 16. 1912.
The jury decided that the gunner
were Beckers agents.
Tears streamed down the foreman
face as he announced the decision and
tears stood in the eyes of several other
dllrymen; but sympathy did not warp
their judgment. They had agreed that
tho confederation which the district at
torney failed to present at the first trial
80
and Weber. the three accomplices VINO
turned informers. had been furnished
by the new witnesses at the second
PA He Will Appeal.
Today, as on October 25 1912, the day
after his first conviction for the murder
Of Rosenthal, Becker's only hope to es-
cape the fate of the gunner lay in the
success of an appeal from the verdict
Or Friday of next week. Becker will be
sentenced and soon thereafter he will be
returned to the death house at Sing
Sing prison which he left last February
on the order of the court OF appeals.
that he be given a new trial. An appeal
by Becker's counsel, which is certain to
be made, will act as stay OF execution
giving Becker more than a year to live
and with it the hope of another reversal
Of the Judgment of the trial court.
The verdict of guilty by the jury re-
turned after four hours and five min
utes of elaboration came as shock
to Becker, his wife and his lawyers.
The jury could have spared the life
Of Becker. Under the instructions of
Justice Samuel Seabury the jurors had
the choice of three degrees of murder,
two of which would have meant i'm
prisonment but this jury, like two
juries before it, the first Becker jury
and the twelve men who convicted the
four gunner believed that Jack Rose,
10 - - %~1I he
truth when he unfolded on the wit
ness stand the plot for the murder of
Rosenthal by the gunner at the insti-
cation Of Becker.
Basis of Appeal.
Martin T. Manton chief Of the Beck
er lawyers, announced that his appeal
would be based on the admission of the
testimony of Mrs. Lillian Rosenberg,
widow of "Leftie LOUIE" the gunman,
the ruling of the court in refusing to
hear before the jury the argument on
the admissibility of the "Dago Frank
Cirof1ci confession and on the Justices
charge to the jury to which he took
exception in court Becker refused to
discuss the verdict. To a newspaper
reporter the condemned man replied
to an expression Of sorrow, that II
feel sorry for myself
Mrs. Becker collapsed when told by
her brother. Charlie has gone back
Mrs. Herman Rosenthal, widow of
the man for whose murder four men
have already paid the penalty and
Becker stands convicted, said the YER
dict was a just one. She EXPRESSED
sorrow for Mrs. Becker whose loyalty
to her husband, she said had won her
admiration.
History of the Case.
Herman Rosenthal was murdered
on July 1G, 1912. In October of the
same year Becker was tried and the
Jury found him guilty. but, after he
had spent sixteen months in the death
house, the court OF appeals reversed
the conviction and. on February "a
last. ordered that new trial be given
him.
Since Becker's last conviction he
has seen three informers against him
Rose, Weber and Vallon-go free
They confessed they procured the
murderers of Rosenthal, but swore
that they had done so at Becker's
bidding, that they were agents actins
under his orders. They turned state.
evidence and in SO doing saved them.
selves. And since his conviction the
TOUR gunmen-actual doors of the
deed-have been sent to the electric
chair.
Becker has suffered deeply since
his arrest. A baby was born to him
while he was in the death house, bu1
1t lived only one day. Then his moth.
er died, and on the day before he
was taken from Sing Sing his wife:
mother passed away.
sABETHA HERALD SOLD.
Drew Mclaughlin Sells Plant to w