NOTORIOUS CHAPTER CLOSED

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2123, 15 April 1914, Page 7

NOTORIOUS CHAPTER CLOSED

IN HISTORY OF NEW YORK POLICE CRAFT . .

ROSENTHAI/S BEATH

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By Telegraph.—Press AegociaUon-Copy-ri.Eht New York, April 13. Four of the men convicted of the murder of Herman Rosenthal, thegambler, were., electrocuted in Sing Sing l'rison. Nono'of them couiessed, as was anticipated, and ' noae nieutio««l exPolice Lieutenant Becker as being in any way connector! with tho crime. "Whitey"' Lewis, as the oxecUtWKers wcro strapping him in th© electric chair, mumbled: "Gentlemnn, I did not shoot at Rosenthal, afid those who said 1 did were perjurers. .For the sake of justice, gentlemen, 1 say I did not.". The electric current here cut short the statement. A Jewish rabbi attended Lewis and "Gyp the 8100 d , ,' and a Roman Catholic chaplain "Dago Frank"; another rabbi accompanied "tiefty. Louis." Owing to tho crowds of newspaper reporters only a certain number were admitted to each execution. Tho condemned melt nearly collapsed while waiting. A new trial has been granted in the case of Becker,.

"DAGO FRANK" CONFESSES. (Rec. April 14, 11,55 p.m.) New York, April 14. It is now established, through the confession of ' 8 l?a«;o Frank,' ? that •'Gyp thei Blood," "'WMtey Lewis," and Vallou killed Rosenthal while "Dago Frank' , himself was absent. ''Dago Frank," however, admitted taking aleading part in tlio plat against Rosenthal's lite. Hβ exonerated Becker.

Rosenthal was singled otit for destrue* tion because he was about to "tell." He was a professional gambler, anil on the ere of the day when no was to appear be* fore the Grand Jury to tell all he knew about the alleged alliance for mutual profit between police and criminals in New lork, with-special emptosi-s upon the activities of Police Ljelitesattt Charles Becker, he was shot to death Ijy four gunmen on the brightly4jjfbted. pavement in frttnt of the Hotel JletJOfplo, almost under tlte noses of several policemen, his murderers getting away unmolested, in a gray automobile. Then two days before the trial of Becker for' iastigattnsr tlie Eose-nfcbal ■ murder was called, "Big Jack" Mig t a notorious gang-leader and an important witness for the prosecution, was shot and killed on a New York street-car by "Bed Phil" Davidson, the slayer afterwards submittinj; to arrest without resistance. Rosenthal' was murdered in the .most spftctacnlar manner, in order to striko terror into tho hearts of all Others who might have such knowledge as he had ami eon.tomplated giving it to the District Attorney, regarding that small and powerful minority whieli, with tho aid of Tammany Hall, ruled the eatire body and divides the many millions of its yearly takings of blackmail with its political backers.

Ex-Police Lieutcflant Becket, trad the four gunmen, were all convicted of beiug associated with the murder of Hermann Rosenthal in November of 1912. Now, in April of 1914, the four giiiimen have go» to their long-deferred account. Becker lias been granted a new trial! When tho previous convictions wei'p aecMijpHshod, in November of lDli , , tlie New York Press—tho. Press all over America, in fact—hailed the result as &n indication that the law of the United States w-onid no longer be flouted by the powerful interests of the men. "higher up," in the detection and punishment of crime, Becker's lawyers filed 4000 directions duriiis the first trial., as a bas-is for appeal. Uareasonable_ defer," remarked.' the "New YorMYorld" at the time, "is only now beginning, and the sliscoiiraging fact is that, as matters -stand, delay'is inevitable and automatic. No miter how palpably guilty, any mufdettr can claim six months for appeal and skilful attorneys can compass for -him Biucti more." It contrasted American cities t.n tWs platter with Loudon, There eifiit murderers out of nine were promptly convicted; in New York one out of nfo was slowly convicted. According to a table of statistics, compiled by the "World," onl.r 6ijc murderers of 1811 were executed within the calendar year, all these in four oi the smaller cities, In the othef sixtysis: cities not one murderer was eseouted in the same calendar year. "What blindness." it asked, "afflicts th? American people that they permit this blot, upon their government to remain ijtt- ; cleansed?" The Gunman'-a Parasite,gunman of tho "White lewis," Gyp the Blood" type is a new species m New York ovea among gangsters. Bβ seems to be a product of the last de-Cade, and is recruited eliiefty from the Italian and low Jewish quarters of East Side. He has neitherthe burly physique of tbe old thug nor his aggressive courage. So ho resorts to in«i>re refined methods—the revolver. Tho Western gunman., though n desperado, was never, or rarely, a hire' ling. But the fellows we have on tho East Side to-day, whose ppfession is the six-shooter, are just the transplanted, slinking typo of hired bravo of i'anulinr Italian stylo. They have their regular prices for killing, maiming, or beating up. And the jobs Ate turned off very cheaply. Instead of the former thug, the Neapolitan bravo-, the burly Apache in cap and blotise, or the soddetHooligan of London, who lurks in. dark corners and waylays his victim, wo have in Now York ft dapper, blade-haired, brown-eyed, sallow, sleek, well-dressed, carefully manicured person. The New York gunman has na fight in him. Ho is a parasite upon the outiaW industries, and those wham he blee<ls nro wretches so degraded by liquor, drags, end similar excesses as to bo afeie ta 6fr pose no resistance even to his feeble will. Jt is the gunman and not the gun that talks. That ho actually pulls a trigger, except to shoot a man an the back, is a matter for interesting psychological deuuction. _ In fact, ho. presently becomes the victim of his own long-MmtinMtl bluster. As a result of excesses, his inhibitory powers fail as the foree of impulse increases, and presently the iffisttuluout of death ia his Uiinds coatee into use—whether half-subconseipusly or not. Swinging his gun with finger through the trigger guard, swaggeriag, .bragging of ' croaking this one" and "cocking that," he comes to believe himself a desperado. All sense of persepectivo is lost, and, eteamed up all tlio time bv drugs ftr liquor, stimulated by tho glare of tho lights, the jangling music, in the back rooms he infests, he is seized by an obes* 6ion to do the very thing that ho lias boasted of—to make good in the eye? of the gang. Such artificial stimulation is necessary in our East Side siik«n, perfumed: gunman, who is invariably , a pondw, and whose luxuries—for ho demands luxuries, and would scDrn the Spartan earn beef and cabbage and mixed iile of the "guerrilla"—arc bis tribtito as tho pnra.sif.-9 of "Pretty Marian," "Cross-Eyed Lime," or the "Kansas Kid." Under these conditions, ho is supposed to recognise the quid pro quo iden. Ho must, play tho cavalier—protect his dame. If she bo arrested, ho must bail lier ont. If the "Jolinnio" she has in km will not part from his "roll" amiably, tlio gnnman must appear on the scmio and supply the necessary impetus. Under pain of distressing scenes, he must at least pretend to live up to his oaths of fidelity to Hie fair one whom he has selected as his menlticket. But, being a rut at heart, he is never faithful very long. : Inter-under-world feuds, with the beatings iip and cowardly shootings typical of them, are continually occurring under' the taeh of some injured beautrs tfiftgue. Quite in keeping with his other drug-exhaled ideas is the gunman's absurd confidence iu the power of the underworld to protest hiiu through the polka aad the coliticiass.