NEW YORK MURDER.

Evening Star, Issue 15065, 23 December 1912, Page 2

NEW YORK MURDER.

POLICE AND GUNMEN,

WCTNESSESIN BECKER'S CASE THREATENED.

j An extraordinary situation in a civile ! srw4t,T elo r dsin^^^ ifim Kv -n d S" 11 murder in the - t'.fl IA 9\ e i men who <]id tlieir duty ■both Sf 0t Ule C ° m " fc ' the kwyers Sr wall" theVT*-/, nd wit nesses±cannot Justice Uofl reported a New York corbvTettt""^ 10ctQL r- r 26) . was «»™^S fore 7kl • d ° Ver hus P rivate betV^ ] hj?r im r d a verdict - wi^ or * V< * hls , home h j« assistant secretary S,^^ e<l guard accompanies him. V», «« • <,niCy A " hjtman compelled by the insistence of his staff to permit De- ! C n!,?- I ° mim t0 tee P near him w hen he is not m ] US- private office or in Ids .home He lias received throats that he will not hve to prosecute another case. John F U In tyre chief counsel for Becker, mates no secret of_ his Belief that his life is in lh!Ef r i * Vd th V lost> of the trial and mn+\ ™ S standll; a i««t outside the conit loom a gangman muttered in his ear tnat his comments about Jack Rose's wife would cost him his life. Mintyre carno? a revolver, and is ready to use it at any moment.

Lose, W>b«r, Vallon, and Schopps, i„reived messages in the « est fMde Court Prison that if they have any property to dispose of they might as well make their wills. These threat* are supposed to emanate from friends of the gunmen, Uwp tho Blood, Lefty Louis, Da«o i< rank and Whitey Louis. The informers are chilled with fear. Shapiro, the chauffeur, who turned against the gunmen and wno announced his readiness 'to identify them as tho murderers of Rosenthal to'd his lawyer, Aaron J. Levy, that, he' fears he will be shot or stabbed as soon as ho is let out of prison. Shapiro has been threatened with death as a "squealer." Lawver Levy is-no longer safe, because he advised Shapiro to testify against tho enmmen when they came to trial. Lew receives venomous threats daily. F r i ends | oi the jurors who convicted Becker have

been getting anonymous letters and telephone calls, some of which have been very alarming. Justice Gofi, the District At lorney, Mintyre, ad others who dislike •sensationalism have sought to minimise the facts »that indicate that the men who hire out for assassination and .assault seek an opportunity to cap the Rosenthal case with a crime more atrocious even than the tilling of Rosenthal, but the facts are as stated—that vicious threat's have been received, and that commonsense precautions are being taken by the men threatened. " Legal butchery" is how former Police Lieutenant Charles Becker characterised his conviction for the murder of Herman Rosenthal, in a talk with a newspaper reporter. From his cell in "murderers' row" in the Tombs, Becker spoke bitterly of his fate, declaring that he had been "railroaded," and that, could he have taken, tho witness stand during his trial, he would have explained away the public impression that he had acquired a fortune- levying graft upon gamblinghouses. The ex-policeman' talked in the presence of his brother, John Becker, a police lieutenant. "This case was legal butchery. You can't emphasise that Too much. Some of the accounts of my trial, I notice, say that I paid out £5,000 for my defence. Twenty-five thousand dollars! Why, that's £SOO in excess of any sum I ever possessed, or ever hoped to posw-ss. According to the newspapers, the public believe lam worth £20,000. I cannot imderstand the purpose of this statement. All of this could have been explained if I had been allowed to go on the stand—every cent. Neither ° Mrs Becker nor myself has 1 been given any consideration at all since this case began. What's more, I den't expect any."

KICKED ON THE KNEE. Wbsn preparing his horses to carrv people to the Bulls races Mr Duncan H. Stevens of South street, Feikling, N.Z.,. was kicked' on the knee by one of his animals, and could not stand for hours. He states: "I immediately applied Chamberlain's Pain Balm with wonderful results, for the next day i was quite recovered. Am confident that I would have been unfitted for work only for this wonderful liniment. I am only too pleased to make this statement, for I know that those who work round horses are only too pleased to hear of such a valuable lininien*as Chamberlain's Pain Balm.—[Advt ]