NEW YORK CRIME.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 1114, 26 June 1913, Page 3

NEW YORK CRIME.

“BRIDGIE” WEBBER STABBED,

WITNESS IN THE ROSENTHAL CASE.

NEW YORK, Juno 15. “Bridgie" Webber, one of the principal witnesses against Becker, the police officer who was convicted in December last for the murder of Herman Rosenthal, ,vm yesterday found lying in a street in Broadway stabbed in ■ the shoulder. • Although the victim was suffering seriously from loss of blood when taken to the hospital, tho doctors say that he will recover. ’ It is believed that Webber knows who his assailant was, but that he is afraid to “squeal." He declares that he was stabbed by a little boy with a penknife, but the ground is altogether too big to have been inflicted with so small an instrument.

It is not forgotten that the victim was ono of he witnesses who wore threatened at tho time of Becker’s trial for the evidence they had given. No arrests have yet been made.

Rosenthal was tho man whoso disclosures concerning the relations existing between tho police of New York and the gambling fraternity of that city created such a big sensation about twelve months ago, Rosenthal himeelf was the keeper of agamblinghouse, and had been summoned as a witness at the inquiry into tho police “graft” scandals. Shortly after 2 ©•’clock on the morning of July 16 ho was having a meal in the diningroom of tho Mctropole Hotel when ho was told that some friends were in a motor car outside who wanted to sco hint. He left the table and, going outside, was croesing the pavement, when six men in the car simultaneously fired their revolvers at him, and Rosenthal, pierced by four bullets, fell, and died almost instantly. Webber was one of the witnesses called by the prosecution, and the evidence he gave against Becker vvae highly incriminating.