A NEW YORK SCANDAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 15124, 15 October 1912, Page 9

A NEW YORK SCANDAL.

THE ROSENTHAL MURDER.

SYSTEM OF BLACKMAIL

New York City (says the correspondent of a London paper) is practically unprotected. The only defence it has against desperate, anarchy is the District Attorney. The scandal of New York police criminality has been' whispered for years, and during the past few months these whispers have become loud accusations, and so positively were police infamies established that early in this year Mr. William J. Burns, the famous detective, was engaged by several patriotic citizens to discover the crimes in which the police are interested. Mr. Burns is the man who collected the evidence convicting tho McNamara brothers, the dynamitards who destroyed tho building of the Los Angeles Times. Never before in Mew York history has a police department been investigated by a private detective. Fully to understand the infamy of the crime for which the entire po]ice force is held responsible, and for which Lieutenant Becker, one of its prominent members, has been indicted for murder, the story of the crime must be told in some detail. Herman Rosenthal was a gambler, and conducted a gambling house in New York City. In order to indulge in the profession, those gamblers who make it a business find it useful to pay a considerable sum annually to the police, because gambling is against the law, and tho police are supposed by Innocent residents to enforce this law. A liberal bribe by tho gamblers induces the police to forget this obligation. While most of the gamblors have been satisfied to pay the bribe, Rosenthal, smarter than, the others, is said to have taken one of the police as partner. Rosenthal's selection of a partnor is alleged to have been Becker, a man located in an important section of the city, and, in addition, having command of an important body of police.

The Rosenthal Murder. Differences arc said to have arisen between Rosenthal and Becker. The latter is credited with offering the former £1000 | to leave the- city, but Rosenthal declined, | resolving ou revenge that consisted of telling Mr. Whitman, the District Attorney, and the public that Becker was his gambling partner. Rosenthal had told some of his story, and on a certain day was to tell the rest, accompanied by proofs. On the night before that certain day, Rosenthal was murdered on Broadway, in front of a large hotel, shot in the head by four men who escaped in a motor car.- In view of the disclosures already made by Rosenthal, suspicion for the murder naturally centred on the police, and selected Lieutenant Becker as the man responsible. The police made no arrest in the case, and pretended inability to find the criminals. The clamour was so great, and it associated Becker's name so closely with the tragedy, that Mr. Gaynor, the Mayor, was asked to suspend him during an investigation. But the Mayor neglected to do so. Then' Commissioner Waldo, chief of police, was asked to take the same action, and he likewise neglected to do so, whereupon three New York daily papers charged Mr. Waldo with complicity, and Mr. Waldo has sued each paper for £50,000 damages. The District Attorney caused the arrest, by his own detectives, of three men ho had reason to suspect knew of the murder. These three men are Jack Rose, .'.' Bridgcy" Webber, and Harry Yallon, all fictitious names. The fear they might be tried lor murder caused them to make complete confessions. EaA man swore that for weeks Becker h»sd urged him to kill Rosenthal. The first man Becker selected to accomplish the deed was Jack Rose, but as he did not get to wofk quickly enough, Becker then turned the work over to Webber, who was ordered to furnish the money and produce the men to do the actual killing. Becker compelled compliance by threatening to find some way to send' the three mdn to prison for several years if they delayed doing what he told them to do.

Hired Assassins. Under this throat, the hired assassins, it is unnecessary to say, agreed to do as Becker, required, and arranged for the murder of Rosenthal throe days before the shooting actually took place. Becker asi sured the men he had ample proof to protect, them, and they had nothing to fear from the police. Besides telling; of this murder plot and its rehearsal before real consummation, Jack Rose confessed he had been collector for Becker, and in that capacity had gathered in from gambling houses and other unlawful establishments £500,000, which was divided among high city officials. The confessions make thrilling reading. They tell of the selection, of four desperadoes who were to do tho genuine work of shooting down Rosenthal. These men rehearsed what they were to do, find, each became perfect in his part. Webber's i" poker" room was used as a meeting ! place for the men who were to have any part iu the murder. Each was told exactly what his part of the transaction was to be. On the night selected for the murder Webber and Vallon hung around the Hotel Metropole while Rosenthal' was there, and very frequently telephoned to the " poker " room information of Rosenthal's movements. Webber, who had kept up a.pretence of friendship for Rosenthal, talked with that gambler in the hotel a few, minutes before tho murder. It is said that word of the intended murder had been passed along among the enemies of Rosenthal, and at least a dozen of thorn were at the hotel to see the shooting. According to the confession of Rose, he went to a telephone booth directly after the murder and telephoned to Lieutenant Becker that the crime had been successfully carried out. Becker then made an appointment with Rose, and within an hour the two met in a defk street near the scene. What passed at the interview can only bo conjectured, but from the rapidity with which the gang was dispersed —two, indeed, are still being hunted for by the police—it is conceivable that the murderers received instructions to make themselves scarce. The whole affair throws a Inrid light upon the corrupt methods of the New York police.