The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1915-08-04

ten years of our married life, I neyer
had occasion once to regret that I
was his wife"
"Charlie was nc angel. H. made
no p~retense of being one. He vas
Just an ordinary human bein,s and
perhaps that is why I loved hia So
DR.. W. O. Stillman, of H1ourn,
who assisted in the autopsy SAID that
Becker showed unusual resistance to
the electric fluid. After the autopsy,
DIR. Stillman said: 81 noticed no ur-
usual effects upon Becker's vital Or
gans. The way he resisted the strong
current was remarkable, showing him
to be an unusually powerful man"
1t was expected that Becker's body
would be removed some time today
to New York, where funeral services
probably will be held on Sunday.
Becker went to his death three
years and a day after his Indictment
and arrest, and slightly more than Is
months after the execution of the
four gunner convicted of the actual
murder of Rosenthal.
Becker is the first ma VINO left
the death house when granted a
new trial, to return there and suf-
fer the death penalty. All others who
have left Sing Sings death house af-
ter being granted a. new trial have
failed to return there for some rea-
son or other.
Gunmen Kill Rosenthal.
Herman Rosenthal, the gambler,
for whose murder Charles Becker
sentenced to die in the electric chair,
was shot to death by hired gunner
in the early morning of July 16, 1912
in front of the Hotel Metropole on
AID street, a few steps from Broad
way. The murder was the swift Gull
mination, of sensational charges made
a few days before by Rosenthal
against Becker in which Rosenthal
asserted that Becker, then head of
the strong arm squad Of detectives,
freely sold police protection and had
accumulated thousands of dollars of
graft money.
Rosenthal went further than that.
He swore that Becker was his silent
partner in a gambling enterprise that
failed and that Becker, angered by
losses where he had expected large
profits. raided the Rosenthal estab-
lishment and drove .Rosentnal out of
business by stationing uniformed po-
licemen on his premises day, and
night.
These charges were published and
District Attorney Whitman began an
investigation of them. He summoned
Rosenthal to the criminal courts
building and listened to his story. An
appointment was made with Rosen-
thai for the next day. Before the
time came, Rosenthal was murdered.
When the assassins had done their
work, they ran across the street,
jumped into a gray automobile which
was waiting at the curb and whirled
away uptown. A bystander caught
the license number of the car.
First News of Murder.
District Attorney Whitman, mott
fed by telephone of the murder,
reached the police station where Ros-
enthal's' body lay before dawn. He
. aroused his detectives from their
sleep and spread a dragnet over the
city for the murder car. 1t was found
before night. It's driver, Louis Sha-
piro, and Louis Libbey, par owner,
were arrested and Mr.. Whitman as
serted openly in an emphatic state
ment that the police had abetted the
murder.
New York city, already interested
in the charges of police corruption,
responded to the news of the murder
as if to a call to arms. Becker, who
had been the chief target of Rosen-
tilal's accusations, was openly sus-
pected. He was relieved of his COM
,mand of the strong arm squad and
transferred to the Bronx. Jack Rose
his graft collector, walked into the
criminal courts building the day after
the murder and surrendered to the
district attorney, declaring he had
nothing to. fear. Harry Vallon and
Bridgie Weber, gamblers and
friends of Rose and Becker, were ar.
rested as witnesses. The grand jury
began its investigation.
Rose lay in prison IL days without
word from Becker, and, believing his
chief had deserted him, confessed.