New-York tribune., 1922-09-16
wo (IlolxetI &c,
Death ON Negro
ellearaealt Roof
White Men, StrangIed With
Own Cravass. Believed
Lured to Craps Came
and Slain by Robbers
Clerk Discovers Body
One Victim Identified by
Father, Other IJnlknown:
Iron Slug Found Near by

Two white men were found strangled
10 death with their own cravats yes
tsrday on the roofs of negro tene-
snents in West Fifty-ninth Street, on
the border OF the San Juan Hill dis
trict. Their pockets had been turned
inside cut and even their shoes had
been removed in the search for money
and vaiuables.
One body was identified as that Of
Louis Rothstein, of 204 West Sixty
ninth Street. The body Of the other
sictim has not been identified.
George Huitgren, of 76 Thirty-ninth
Street, Corona. Queens, called this at
tention of the police to the first body
discovered, that of the unidentified
man Hultgren Is clerk in the en-
pioy of the Gotham National Bank, and
works on the seventeenth heor of the
building at Broadway and Fifty-ninth
Street.
A fascinating panorama OF New York,
including the ceaseless traffic of Co
Iunbus Circle, the green expanse of
the park with Millonaires' Row be-
yond and the teemipg tenements of
San Juan Hill is spread out below the
windows of George Hultgren's Office.
Glanced Down at Roof
It is his habit to snatch glance at his
contrasting surroundings before open
ing his ledger and at $3.50 yesterday
morning he was staring over the roof
tops of San Juan Hill and trying to re-
construct families from their Tapping
washings as a paleontologist recon
structs a prehistoric monster from a
few bones.
One roof bore no washing. 1t was
that of the fve-story tenement at 32l
West Fifty-ninth Street Midway be-
tween the scuttle and the coping, how
ever, was ii bundle of clothing fat on
the roof which bore grotesque re-
semblance of humanity and the bank
clerks eyes roved over it curiously.
The sun, edging from behind the
taller buildings Of Columbus Circle,
suddenly shot beam straight across
the heap of clothing and Hultgren
started back in horror os dead mans
face emerged from the shadow and
leered up at him from the roof.
Hultgren notified the police and
soon the roof of 321 West Fifty-ninth
Street was swarming with uniformed
men. The unusual activity on the
rooftops caught the eye of w. G.
Lewis, a. negro, as soon as he emerged
from the scuttle of the tenement in
Street on his customary morning visit
to his sister-in-law, who lives on the
top floor of $40 West Fifty-ninth
Street
Lewis was staring so fxedly st the
group of biuecoats on the neighboring
roof that he failed to notice an OBJ
struction in his accustomed thorough
fare until his foot struck it and he
stumbled. Only his outthrust arms
prevented him from falling full across
the body of Rothstein, who was
stretched out dead at his feet.
One glance at the nature of the eb-
stacle which had felled him, and Lewis
was speeding with mighty strides to-
ward the knot of policemen on the
roof of 331 West Fifty-ninth Street,
which had suddenly been TRANSFORMED ID
from an object Of suspicion TO g haven
of refuge.
In response to his frantic appeals
they went back to the roof of 339
where they found Rothstein's body
Near it lay a bit of iron which had
once been part of a stove CRATE 1t
was stained with blood, to which a
few hairs of the same hue as Roth.
STEMS cfung. There was a WOUND on
Rothstein's head, such as might have
beer caused had the bit of stove CRATE
been hurled as a missile and struck
him.
1t is believed that Rothstein was fee
ing for his life when brought down by
the iron, and that his assailants then
strangled him. The other white man,
it is believed, fought it out where his
body was found and was overcome and
strangled there.
Rothstein was thirty-three years old
He was an insurance collector and mar,
ried, although he had not lived with
his wife for several months. Letters
found IN his pockets gave the address
OF his father, Elias, who has tailor
shop at 217 West End Avenue. and lee
TO the identification of the body.
Man Often Carried Money
Elias Rothstein said that his sor
often carried from $35 to S75 for hin
Thursday nights TO the meeting of E
credit mems association, for which the
elder Rothstein collected dues, bat tha
last Thursday night he took the none,
there himself. He could not explair
how his son came to go to the roof o,
the negro tenement.
Tenement roofs in the San Juan Hill
neighborhood are the recreation groune
for the denizens of the buildings al
night. There crap shooting, CIR
drinking and many other diversions
flourish. 1t is thought that the two
WHITES were lured to the spot for q
crap game or by some other excuse
and that one of them was incautious
enough to display a sum of money suf
ficlent to arouse the murderous cupid
jty of his hosts.
The police are confident that negroes
did the killing because of the fact that
the victims shoes had been removed
Negroes are accustomed to hide valu.
ables in their shoes, it was said. anc
naturally would seek valuables there.