The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1915-07-11

gunner uncovered the hlthiest
mess ever exposed to the eyes
of the public. For weeks it was nause-
ated with the stories of gangsters,
thieves. gamblers and plain murderers.
Jargon almost unintelligible to the aver
age reading public filled columns in the
newspapers.
The four gunner were sentenced and
executed with neatness and Dispatch
for the American law. But Becker
fought on, selling every legal and strate-
gical straw, until the entire rigmarole
OF the courts was exhausted. The testi-
mony of the Sam Schepps class and of
the Jack Rose and the "Gyp the Blood"
classes convicted Becker in the eyes Of
jury and appellate courts alike, but just
because the testimony was that of gam
blers. confidence men and ordinary man
killers, Becker was permitted to hang
on to life with constancy a great many
deem worthy of a better object.
The same unsavory morass of vile
ness exploited at the first trial OF Becker
was dragged out at the second, but 1t
was not until that second trial that
Becker was doomed by the testimony of
woman who played but an unconspic-
uous role in the first.
If any shadow of doubt existed as to
Becker's guilt, It was removed from the
minds of most men by the testimony Of
Mrs. Louis ROSENBERG better known as
Lefty Louie's Lilly.
Believing. or claiming to believe,
that the police lieutenants intention to
frame her Louie into prison was re-
sponsble for the plot that resulted in
the murder of the gambler, Rosenthal,
this young woman of nineteen, already
Sing Sing widow" swore at the sec
ond trial that she lied at the first. swore
tNat she had overheard the development
Of the conspiracy engineered by Becker
:" nut Rosenthal out of the way. swore
:""t her husband had admitted his own
and perkers part in the sordid tragedy,
sN ore in fact, swore away the last ves-
to- OF doubt that remained as to
Becker's guilt.
And still believing that Becker WAS
directly responsible for her youthful
widowhood, this girl is still swearing
away at the doomed policeman. 1T is
the greatest happiness for me to know
that he must die in the same way that
poor Lefty did" she takes occasion to
Say at every opportunity.
Not twenty years old but a widow for
year and a half this girl, with her
Apache-like East Side philosophy. finds
happiness in the approaching death of a
man who has exhausted every effort
known to modern legal procedure in the
attempt to establish his innocence.
Knowing intimately the men responsible
for Beckers conviction, knowing them
all for thieves and liars and arch tends
OF the underworld, she knows happiness
in the plight of the man they accused
and paid with their lives as the penalty.
Lillian Lieben was not an ignorant
spawn of the hideous crime dens of the
underworld. She is an intelligent. viva
cious, well schOoled young woman She
IL
and filthy tenements. Her people were
Industrious, frugal. temperate immi-
grants from Russia. She was we'll cared
for in her childhood. well fed and we'll
sChOOled. II was not until after her
marriage that she became associated
with the dcnizens of the East Side I'M
derworld. OF course, she had met few
gangsters at the raCkets and balls Of the
East Side, but so does every other girl
that attends these affairs. and thousands
of them grow up to become decent,
economical housewives.
So neither heTedity nor carly envir-
onment can be blamed for the warning
of this bright girls mind. And she only
associated with gangsters and thieves
for two years. for remember she was
married at fifteen and widow at seven
tcCn. No taunt at her way Of living has
been hurled at her since her husbands
drossmaker and is still working. She
laughs at reports she is to Re married
again, and that she is going about with
another GanCster.
This is the girl that proved the final
straw in the balance wheel against
Becker. His last CLEAN of hope was
blightHd when size calmly swore. nod
ding gravely her blonde curls and fixing
the iurymen with her big, blue eyes,
hat CT, Ini liHj fri 70
her husband, and that the truth was her
husband was in the plot at Becker's be-
hest. And then she told, with the tears
rolling down her smooth cheek and the
blue of her eyes Ciouded with uncon-
trollable moisture. OF her last interview
with Lefty Louie at Sing Sing of a
bright Easter Sunday when the sun
shone for all the world save for her and
her poor boy" and he confessed to her
that he couldn't "sQuear' himself, but