The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-04-06


 Uo-. sra .:sunmen'' made?
 s<<y-o the Blood Lefty Lenfes HsWhftey Lewis and 'Dago Frank, will die in Sing Sing during the week of April 1S unless the governor or Ne" York intervenes. When their bodies are lifted from the chair society will rest content in the belief that it has done it's utmost to make their cases crime deterrents.
 All society seems to ask is: Dld they kill Rosenthal, the gambler ana ..squealer'' who was shot In Juiys 1912? And will they pay the penaltyE Doubtless this is society's first respon- sibility.
 But shall we stop there? Is 1t not important to learn as much as possi- ble of their early lives and assocla- ffons to discover how we may pre- vent more ttgunmen rom pelns @ znade2 Where did these four ooys come from2 Who are their parents! How was their childhood spent2 Did they become murderers in a day!
 LEFTY LOUIE"
 Lefty Louie. was born in the heart of New York's congested lower east side. The family is one of respecta- bIe orthodox Jews. The father, man eiaIly well off, is trustee of a syna- ~og4le. No suspicion of crime has ever been lodged against any olnef members of the family
 After an illness at. the age or SIX, 5he doctor said that Louie must nave. all the fresh air he could get Al tnat time the family was poor and the onfy fresh air for Louie was in the street. The stern household discipline was then brokn down. The myriad slgnts and sounds he had wondered about, he could now investigate first hano- New friends were waiting to teach him the anusements of the doorstep ana the = In a couple of years he became. says lis father .tstreet fend. The nrst 1,7isdeed his family knew about nap 7 -,e,,ed when he was eleven or twelve. with another boy he tried to take some money out of little bank In which his brother kept his savings.
 All this time he was going to both she public and Hebrew schools ana receiving the usual religious instruc- finn of his race. At twelve or thlr- teen he had become a. frequenter or pool rooms, where he probably learn ed how to pick pockets He was sent away to a private school for year and after that worked both in the shipnfne department of a department store and in his fathers office
 But his passionate longing for the street. continued. His first arrest <vas in 1907. when Louis was sixteen. The charge was "disorderfy conduct and he was sent to the House of Re- f1re Soon after he came out he was arrested for picking a. pocket and
 
 nine months. These were his only arrests up to the murder of Rosen- thai.
 sswHITEY LEWIS.'
 whitey Lewis came to this country with his family from Poland in 1900, when he was twelve years old. Tn Poland, the family says he never got into trouble His parents are Jews and are poor.
 The exciteunent of street life in New
 x~E1 Rr1Ts with his rural upbringing, and during his first year here he made the ac- quaintance of professional criminals in Chinatown. He worked for a while in a book-binding shop and then started to learn transmitting with an uncle in Jersey City.
 His first arrest, came when he was sixteen He pleaded guilty to grand larceny in the second degree and was sent to Eannira Reformatory. He was Taroled and earned his absolute re- lease in seven months. Two other convictions for similar offenses fol- lowed and then Whitey entered the army and went to the Philippines.
 There he got into a struggle with a fellow who taunted him for being Jew and Whitey, who had a knife in his hand, cut his persecutor. He was given hard labor for three months and adishonorably discharged He return ed to this country and fell in with his old associates. Like Lefty Louie and Gyp the Blood, he declared on the witness stand that he had met Jack ZeIiE, the notorious gang leader, about a year before the murder.
 Two of Whitey's brothers have been arrested, one for picking a pocket.
 'DAGO FRANK
 Dago Frank was confirmed in a Protestant Episcopal church at the age of sixteen. His family attended the church regularly and it has been +I-o oh, IJr began work at IS years of age and for four years was an errand boy at 8 a week for a news bureau. His em- p1oyers never complained of shis con duct
 Soon after he left this job he was convicted of carrying concealed weap- ons- This is the only charge except that of murdering Rosentha1 ever made against him. Frank says the NTeapons were handed him by an ex- convict and that he was caught with ahem fifteen minutes later. He was sent to Elnaira Reformatory and after fourteen months was paroled, earning his absolute release in seven months
 He worked year steamf1tters helper 6or~ @ construction company and no complaint was made against his character or industry.
 By what steps he came to be 9. mem her of the notorious Jack Zelig gang, it is difficult to 1earn- The attorney who defended him and the other gum men say that he is '-the pity and con- undrum of the four" This attorney thinks that it was the evil associa- 4ions Frank formed while in the re- zormatory that caused his undoing. Frank was one of the few non-Jews to belong to Ze1ig's gang. A Jew had once given his mother and sister em- ployment and helped them with their rent. Frank has ever since had a kindly feeling for Jews When Ze1ig was killed letter from Frank was found on his body recitinE these facts saying Although I'm wop, know you'll stick by me-"
 .'GYP THE BLOOD"