New Britain herald., 1915-07-28
|BECKER' I ID PREP ARE
 .POSTMORTEM DENIAL
Condemned Man DeYotes Last
 Hours on Final Statement

waited eagerly in the death, house all
 day for his wife to come to him with,
 as he put it, good news The news l he was looking for evidently was his l wife's word for it that Justice Ford 1 had granted him new trial.
 After a very long day--Becker arose yesterday an hour after sunrise l Mrs. Becker did arrive at the pri- l son. but not with the word her hus- band had been looking for. She drove up to Sing Sing at 6 o'clock last evening in one of the station au- tomobiles and greeted newspape men she knew personally. After only few minutes of delay she was conducted back through the prison to the death house, where she talked with Becker until it was time to re- turn to Manhattan on train leaving here at 9:32 o'clock.
 She carried no legal documents with her, as she did Monday night, but merely brought the evening papers to Becker and then had a long talk with him about his case. Before leaving Manhattan Mrs. Becker had conferred with his counsel at their offices.
 1t is the opinion of people close to Becker that if he escapes the chair next Friday morning he will go or, then steadily in a fight for freedom, 2 fight which for persistence will be likened only to that which was waged so successfully by Albert T. Patrick.
 lt,f q ' ceedings Becker, so it is said by those who. talk to him, seems to be mak- ing a mental fight with himself against placing too much stock upon any bit of encouraging news that may be brought to him. Over-conf1dence during the next two days, he realizes, would only make the blow all the harder if he were to learn at the last moment that his eleventh hour fight had been unsuccessful.
 Preparing Statement.
 Tn the meantime telegraph mana gers were busy experimenting the in-,. lstallation of instruments, enough to keep ten extra operators and a chief operator busy, on the second floor of the little hose house across the road from the main entrance to the prison. The instruments are for the use of the newspaper men who are to wit ness the execution if it takes place Friday morning. Despite whatever denials that may be forthcoming, it may be said authoritatively that Becker is preparing a statement which is to be made public in the event Of his death Also it may be said on excellent aaathority that the statement win be { saa ar affirmation of s iAneesneess sof ssarFy come ectfon. with the murder Of N Rosenthal. .sss, e.3S N .s8 S
 He realizes now, 1t is said on the same good authority, that his dis avowal of any guilt of grating in the long statement he issued early last week, weakened the statement in the minds of countless people who are morally certain that he had obtained vast sums ina short time while head of the strong arm raiding squad. Nevertheless in the statement he IS now working on he will not admit that he took money illegally from gam- blers. His death hour statement will, in word. be defence of himself as a martyr sent to the electric chair by a district attorney anxious to make political capital out of his conviction and death sentence.
 Campaign of Publicity.
 Shortly after the court Of appeals refused to give Becker a third trial one of his friends urged him to begin d campaign of publicity with g state ment in which he was to deny that he was guilty of murder but admit the graft charges.
 ..Be frank and open to the public, Charley" !" the friend pleaded with him Tell a clear, clean. cut story of your operations in the Tenderloin, how much money you got, where you got it and what you did with it. know that such a statement will be cor roborated. Any corroboration sets the public to thinking and talknig and much might result in your favor.
 Failed to Take Advice.
 Becker not only refused to do this but, as is usual when he is opposed. he brought to and end the close friendship which had obtained be- tween him and his confidant.
 Among his present regrets, however, is one which bears on this advice of his friend; if he does not as the result of the present hearing before Justice Ford receive 8 third trial he will be strapped in the chair believing that among his other mistakes was his re- fusal to begin a publicity campaign of some sort immediately after the court of appeals reaf1rmed his second con- viction. His chief regrets now, he says, are that he did not take the stand in his own defence at his last trial and that he did not make public long ago the story concerning con- ferences he says he had with Big Tim Sullivan and Harry Appelbaum.
 The Becker of today keeps we'll in hand the i'll temper he was prone to exhibit when he was czar of the gam bling districts of Manhattan. But on