The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-03-30
JURORS ASK TO
SPARE GUNMEN
Plea Of Ten Who Convicted
Them Goes to Gov
ernOr To-day.
STAY Is REQUESTED
Say ROsenthal Slayers Might
Be Aided by Becker
Trial.
NEW EVIDENCE PRESENTED
Stories Of Eyewitnesses, Not
Told at Trial, Offered
by Counsel.
NEW EVIDENCE PRESENTED

The petition for Executive clemency ir
the case of tho four gunner now under
sentence to die in Easter week for the
murder Of Herman Rosenthal will be
handed to Gov. Glynn to-day.
Ten Of the jurymen who heard the evil
dence and returned the verdict Of guilty
have signed a petition asking that the
death sentence be stayed until after the
second trial Of Police Lieutenant Charles
Becker.
Their signatures to the petition were
obtained by Mary Ciroficl, sister Of Dago
Frank One Of the Jurors refused to see
her and another Is without the State and
could not be located. d.
The Jurors who have signed a petition
for clemency are william II. Mont
gumery the foreman Leo Kramer. s. NJ.
Comstock, Charles =. Huntington, II. 1.
Dittman. II. c. Reynolds. Alfred j. Hern-
sheim. Edwin Fisher. Frank II. Gould
and John Gudebrod. John q. Duffy. who
was Juror No. 5. refused to see Mary
Cirofcl. and Sidney J. Hamilton. who was
Juror No II, is outside the State.
Miss Clrofici asserts that Gudebrod
signed a separate petition because she
did not have the original with her when
she called upon him. and also that the
signature of Mr.. Hernshelm was not made
In her presence, but that his petition wa
given to her signed by his attorney, Mr..
Holland, at the Hotel Majestic. where
Mr.. Hernsheim lives. Miss Cirofci began
getting these signatures on March 81 and
was accompanied on her visits by either
her mother or her brother.
Petition IL voluminous.
There are twen,y-six typewriter pages
in the petition prepared by Charles @. +.
wahle. caunsel for the gunner. With
this petition there are to be fled forty
one pages OF afiidavits. including the
Jurors petition. and certified copies Of the
trial record and brief filed with the
Court OF Appeals.
Included among these affidavits lie one
by Louis Libby. the bosom friend OF
William Shapiro. driver of the murder
car. in which he swears that Shapiro told
him while they were both held in the
Tombs that none OF the four men now
under sentence Of death fred a shot or
had q revolver the night Rosenthal was
KILLED.
Another affidavit Is by william r.
Masterson. vice. president OF the company
which publish, = the Morning Telegraph.
He swears that Butch Witt, an eye
witness OF the murder. told him many
times that the men who did the shooting
were Bridge Webber and Harry WALTON.
and that Sam Schepps was one of those
who escaped in the murder car.
Mr.. Masterson says he la confirmed in
his belief that the four convicted men did
not shoot Rosenthal because OF a state
ment made to him by Gus Roeder. a
Newspaper man. Masterson says that
Roeder told him webber had asked him
to recommend n lawyer because he be-
lieved WALTON was going to lay the blame
for the shooting upon him.
Talk with Pinkerton.
Mr.. Masterson also recites a conversa-
ton which he had with Col. william
A. Pinkerton OF Pinkerton's Detective
Agency, who. he says. told him that after
talking with Sam Schepps in Paris he
was satisfied that Scheprs could free the
four alleged gunner II ne would return
10 this country and repeat what he had
told him.
Masterson adds to these considerations
a personal appeal for a reprieve. He
says that as a newspaper man. whose
duties take him about the city. he knows
that public sentiment favors giving
the condemned men any advantage that
may accrue to them from n second trial
Of Lieut. Becker.
One Of tho startling afhdavits is made
by Lillian Rosenberg. wife of Lefty Louie.
and sworn to by her and Lillian Horo-
witz. wife of Gyp the Blood. It appears
to answer the question frequently raised
rs to why Thomas J. Coupe. clerk at the
Elks Club. In Forty-third street who was
brought back from Europe as an eye
witness Of the shooting. did not testify.
Mrs. Rosenberg declares that while abe
and Mrs Horowitz were detained during
the trial In the office OF Assistant District
Attorney Smith with other witnesses
Coupe said in reply to question as to
why he would not be a witness:
IT did see Rosenthal murdered, but
those four men are not the men whom !
saw; therefore l am not going to be q
Witness"
Libby Tells Of Friendship.
To show that he and Shapiro were or
most intimate terms Louis Libby says In
his affidavit:
For about Ave years prior TO the fif-
teenth day Of July, 1919. Shapiro and !
lived together. During those five years
j do not believe anything passed In my
life without shapiro knowing 1t and !
do not think anything passed In shapiros
life without my knowing IT,"
He then tells Of how Shapiro brought
the car to their house after the murder
and told him there had been q shooting
match and how he told his friend to 20 to
bed and keep quiet while he took the car
W rne garage. Libby was the first man
arrested In the case. He was not called
~ . witness.
LATER when Shapiro was also arrested
they spent hve weeks In the Tombs to-
gether Libby says that Shapiro re-
pestedly told him that none Of the -four
sunmen did the shooting or threatened "a
shooS him " no did not get up speed ~
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