Joe Bruno's Mobsters - Six Volume Set

by Bruno, Joe

  With the arrest of Bald Jack Rose and his boys, Swope went into full attack mode, and his prey was the New York City police department.

  The day after Rosenthal’s murder, Swope wrote in the New York World:

  “Herman Rosenthal was murdered in cold blood by the System. The System is the partnership between the police of New York City and the criminals of New York City. The System murdered Rosenthal because he threatened to expose it. It murdered him because he came to the World offices Saturday night and made affidavits as to the System’s activities.”

  Of course, this was typical Swope. He had made himself and his newspaper part of the story, and to a certain extent, they were. But by doing this, Swope forced his puppet Whitman to concentrate solely on the New York City police department, and specifically Lieutenant Becker, when the more likely suspects were the dozens of gamblers whose livelihoods were at stake because of Rosenthal’s intended actions. Bald Jack Rose, Harry Vallon, Sam Schepps, and Bridgey Webber, for instance, had much to gain if Rosenthal was eliminated. First, because of the intense scrutiny he was bringing to their operations, Rosenthal’s babbling was hurting them in their pockets. And secondly, Rosenthal was a direct competitor, whose elimination would send Rosenthal’s clientele into their own gambling joints.

  Rose, Webber, Schepps, and Vallon were the more likely suspects, but all Swope and Whitman could see was Lieutenant Charles Becker.

  Another reason why Swope and Whitman were so hot for Becker was that the arrest and conviction of lowly gamblers like Rose, Webber, Schepps, and Vallon was small-time news. But the arrest and conviction of a New York City police lieutenant was just what Swope and Whitman needed to further their careers.

  While Rose, Webber, and Vallon stewed in the sweltering and decrepit Tombs Prison (Schepps was still in Hot Springs, Ark.), they got together and decided if they gave Whitman Becker as a scapegoat, they might be able to escape prison altogether, not to mention avoid the possibility of frying in Sing Sing’s electric chair.

  On Sunday July 28, the three gamblers asked for an audience with Whitman. Whitman agreed to the meeting, and at this meeting, which took place in a room at a midtown hotel, Rose, who was well-known as a stool pigeon and collection man for Becker, told Whitman that Becker had given him $1,000 to disperse to Rosenthal’s four killers. Rose also told Whitman that he had first approached the killer’s boss - Big Jack Zelig - who was known at the time as “The Toughest Man in New York City.”

  However, Zelig turned down Rose’s proposition, and he wasn’t too nice about it either. It seemed that when Zelig had been arrested recently by Becker’s men, it was for carrying a gun, which Zelig said Becker’s men had planted on him. Zelig also blamed his set-up arrest on Rose, who was notorious for doing this sort of thing to people he didn’t like or felt threatened by.

  However, Rose said Zelig’s four hatchet men - “Gyp the Blood” Horowitz, “Whitey Lewis” Muller, Louis “Lefty” Rosenberg, and “Dago Frank” Ciroficci - seemed quite interested in whacking Rosenthal. And although Zelig didn’t tell them explicitly not to get involved, he didn’t forbid them to whack Rosenthal either (coincidentally, Zelig was on the lam at the time of Rosenthal’s murder; ducking the law on the illegal-gun charge).

  The following morning, Whitman convened a grand jury to hear evidence from Rose, Webber, and Vallon concerning the murder of Herman Rosenthal. Becker, along with his attorney, John Hart, was summoned to the grand jury meeting in the evening. But Becker’s fate had already been sealed.

  Becker sat there stoically; befuddled by what he heard coming out of the mouths of the three gamblers. Rose did most of the talking, and Webber and Vallon each parroted the main parts of Rose’s story. At the meeting’s end (around 9:20 p.m. that night), the indictment was immediately read to Becker, charging him with arranging the murder of Herman Rosenthal. After attorney Hart entered a not-guilty plea, Becker was led to his cell on the bottom floor of the Tombs, never again to be a free man.

  Before he pinned the rap on Becker, if Whitman had been thinking straight, he would have realized that Becker, considering Rosenthal’s conduct of the past two days, would have been the last person in the world to want Rosenthal murdered in such a public fashion. The reason being: Becker would be the prime suspect in Rosenthal’s murder and the perfect patsy for a frame. But Whitman wanted a big trophy over his mantelpiece: the head of a New York City police lieutenant, Charles Becker. Innocent or guilty, Whitman wanted Becker to go down for the murder of Herman Rosenthal. For his career’s sake, Whitman felt this was the right thing to do.

  The four shooters in Rosenthal’s murder were rounded up in the weeks that followed. “Dago” Frank Ciroficci was captured first, at a boarding house at West 154 Street; and then Whitey Lewis was nailed in the upstate Catskill Mountains. “Lefty” Rosenberg and “Gyp the Blood” Horowitz were found hiding in a Brooklyn apartment with their wives.

  THE “TOUGHEST MAN IN NEW YORK CITY” GETS WHACKED

  Big Jack Zelig returned to New York City in early August to discover he was wanted by a grand jury to testify as to his involvement in Rosenthal’s murder. This was in addition to the concealed-gun charge Zelig had been wanted on since June.

  Zelig had an axe to grind with Bald Jack Rose, since it was Rose who had approached him with the idea of the Rosenthal hit in the first place; which Zelig had turned down flat. Zelig was certain it was Rose who had told Whitman that Zelig was somehow involved in Rosenthal’s murder. And even though it was Becker’s men who had planted the gun on Zelig, Zelig figured it was done without Becker’s knowledge and by the direction of Bald Jack Rose, who for some reason envisioned Zelig as a threat to him personally. This made Big Jack Zelig quite angry indeed; not a good thing for Bald Jack Rose, if and when he hit the streets of New York City.

  Rose had to figure out what to do about Zelig, and do it quickly.

  On August 22, Zelig marched into the Criminal Court Building on Center Street to testify in the concealed gun charge against him. Before testifying before the grand jury, Zelig was met by a group of reporters outside the courtroom. Zelig told them, as far as the concealed gun charge was concerned, it was Bald Jack Rose who had framed him; not Becker.

  As for the Herman Rosenthal murder, Zelig said, “Herman was my friend. If I were not in the predicament I am at the present, I would make it a point to find out who did the killing and break his leg for him.”

  When Bald Jack Rose read Zelig’s comments in the next day’s papers his head began to hurt.

  However, Rose was nothing if not diabolically brilliant. When he learned that Zelig was scheduled to testify for the prosecution at Becker’s trial, which was set for October 7, Rose figured a way to eliminate Zelig, and then have the blame put on Becker; the proverbial gambler’s daily double. Rose found his Lee Harvey-like patsy in the name of “Red Phil” Davidson, a degenerate gambler and part-time pimp, who, because of his gambling, never had two nickels in his pocket at the same time to rub together. How the connection was made and what the payoff was is all conjecture, but the facts are the following:

  Around 8 p. m., on Saturday, October 5, a little less than two days before Becker’s trial was set to begin, Zelig was sitting in his usual hangout - Segal’s National Café, on Second Avenue - when the phone rang, and a woman asked for Zelig. Apparently, it was a paramour of Zelig’s; a manicurist who owned an uptown salon. Even though Zelig was married, he had a weakness for members of the opposite sex, and that became his undoing. Zelig agreed to meet this pretty young thing, and after bragging to a few pals what he had in store for the evening, Zelig left Segal’s, hopped on the Second Avenue Streetcar, and headed for the girl’s uptown apartment.

  Zelig was in such a jovial mood, he didn’t notice “Red Phil” Davidson slip out of a doorway near Segal’s and jump onto the trolley behind him. Davidson was the perfect man for the job, since just two days earlier, the big and burly Zelig had knocked out Davidson with one punch, after the two men had argued about a gamb
ling debt.

  As the street car neared 14th Street, Davidson pulled out a police-issued .38 caliber Smith and Weston revolver, snuck up behind the seated Zelig, pressed the gun against the back of Zelig’s right ear, and blew “The Toughest Man in New York City” into the hereafter. The fact that it was a stolen police gun pointed the finger at Becker and his boys more strongly.

  Davison jumped off the trolley, but he was so inept a killer, he was arrested minutes later on 14th by a passing policeman, who just happened to be in the right spot at the right time.

  At his arraignment later that night, Davidson said he killed Zelig because earlier that evening Zelig had robbed him at gunpoint of over $400. However, Davidson’s acquaintances all agreed Davidson never had $400 at one time in his entire life; so Davidson had no real motive to kill Zelig, unless he was paid to kill Zelig.

  Like noted before – Bald Jack Rose was diabolically brilliant.

  When the news of Zelig’s demise was related to Whitman, he admitted it would be a minor setback to his prosecution. However, Whitman said he certainly had enough evidence to convict Becker, especially with Rose’s testimony and the presiding judge, John William Goff, in Whitman’s back pocket.

  CHARLES BECKER’S TRIAL No. 1

  From the first day of the trial, which commenced on October 5, 1912 at 1 p.m. sharp, Becker’s attorney, John McIntire, was constantly harassed by Judge Goff. It was as if Judge Goff, and not District Attorney Whitman, were prosecuting the case against Becker. Goff was obviously anti-police, and he was especially annoyed that he had to cancel a planned vacation in order to preside over the Becker trial. Goff insisted that this trial would be over in two weeks, even though most experienced court observers thought that task would be almost impossible.

  During the trial, when Whitman objected to McIntire’s line of questioning, Goff sustained the objection every time. And on the occasions when McIntire asked a question of a witness that Goff did not approve of, he would not even wait for Whitman to object. Goff would strike McIntire’s question from the record himself. Even when assistant D.A. Frank Moss took over from Whitman, Goff was decidedly pro-prosecution. It was obvious to all seasoned court observers, that Goff had already found Becker guilty and that a jury “guilty” verdict was just a formality.

  The key witness against Becker was, of course, Bald Jack Rose, who during the trial was referred to in the newspapers as “Cue Ball” Jack Rose, because his shiny bald dome resembled the cue ball in the game of pool.

  On October 14, Whitman’s questions to Rose were obviously well-rehearsed. Rose stated on the stand that he had no choice but to arrange the killing of Rosenthal for Becker, otherwise Becker, whom Rose seemed to believe ran the entire city of New York, including the court system, would find a way to have Rose incarcerated for a very long time.

  Rose said he tried to talk Becker out of having Rosenthal killed, and he offered to have Rosenthal beaten instead.

  Rose said Becker told him, “If I wanted Herman beaten, I’d do it myself. I’d just raid his place and beat him up during the raid. No, I want him croaked. Cut his throat. Dynamite him. Anything.”

  Rose also said he and Becker had met with Bridgey Webber and Harry Vallon in a Harlem gambling house on June 27, three weeks before Rosenthal’s murder. Rose testified it was outside this Harlem gambling house that the four men had first planned the murder of Herman Rosenthal. Rose’s testimony about the “Harlem Conference” was also verified later by Bridgey Webber and Harry Vallon. Sam Schepps also testified, and even though he admitted to being in the murder car with Rose the night of the murder (but not at the time of the actual shooting), most of Schepps’s testimony was hearsay evidence, because he had not actually participated in the planning of Rosenthal’s murder.

  When it was McIntire’s turn to cross-examine Rose, Judge Goff outdid himself in his efforts to railroad Becker.

  McIntire’s strategy was to have Rose admit on the witness stand that he was a ruthless criminal himself and was looking to involve Becker in Rosenthal’s murder in order to save his own hairless skin. But whenever McIntire tried this line of questioning, he was cut off by Judge Goff, who then told Rose to plead the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination.

  It was obvious to those in court that McIntire, overweight and 57-years-old, was not in the best of health. This was compounded by the fact that the courtroom was stifling hot (unusual for early October), and the windows had been ordered closed by Judge Goff just before McIntire started his cross-examination of Rose.

  McIntire began his questioning of Rose at around 2:45 p.m. At 8 p.m. McIntire was near exhaustion, and he asked Judge Goff if he could resume his cross-examination on the following day.

  Judge Goff adamantly said no.

  McIntire tried to keep questioning Rose, but as the clock was nearing 9 p.m., McIntire nearly fainted. Wiping his brow, he told Judge Goff he could no longer continue with his cross examination. Instead of allowing McIntire to resume his cross-examination of Rose the following day, Judge Goff declared the cross-examination of Rose over, and he dismissed Rose from the witness stand.

  Judge Goff also insisted that the final summations by the defense and the prosecution were to take place on the same day. On Oct. 22, at approximately 3 p.m., Judge Goff asked McIntire how long his summation to the jury would take. McIntire said he was not certain, but said it could take as long as four hours. And besides, McIntire said he was overcome by the heat again and would rather give his summation the following day. Caught between a rock and a hard place, Judge Goff agreed that McIntire would be allowed to start his summation the following morning at 10 a.m., but it could not run longer than 2 p.m. At that time, they would take a recess until 3:30 p.m., when Assistant D.A. Moss would start his summation, which also could not run longer than four hours. Both McIntire and Moss agreed with the judge’s decision, and Judge Goff dismissed court for the day.

  As Becker was led from the courtroom, reporters asked him why he did not take the stand in his own defense.

  Becker said, “It has been my desire all along to tell my story to the jury, confident that I could sweep aside every particle of seeming evidence brought against me. But my lawyers have advised against it, and I have yielded to their advice.”

  Becker’s lawyer’s advice was on the mark, since if Becker took the stand, Whitman could have introduced tons of evidence that Becker was a crooked cop; taking graft with both hands. And this would have undoubtedly prejudice the jury against Becker.

  Becker was also asked by the press what verdict he expected the next day.

  “What can they do but acquit me?” Becker said. “What evidence has been brought against me other than that of crooks and thugs? I am confident of complete vindication.”

  However, after the summations by the prosecution and the defense were completed the following day, Judge Goff decided he needed more time before he gave his charge to the jury. And that he did, not on October 23, but on the morning of October 24.

  It was apparent to all: Judge Goff’s instructions to the jury stuck a proverbial knife in Becker’s back.

  As Judge Goff went over point after point concerning the evidence, he presented the prosecution and their witnesses’ statements as if they were the gospel truth. There was never any question of Judge Goff being fair. Any testimony made by Bald Jack Rose on the witness stand, Judge Goff accepted in his charge to the jury as absolute fact. And if Rose was telling the truth, of course Lieutenant Charles Becker was guilty as charged for ordering the murder of Herman Rosenthal.

  At 4:30 p.m., the jury started its deliberations. By 10 p.m., no verdict had been reached and there was speculation in the press that this was good news for Becker, since it usually took a jury longer to find a man not guilty than guilty. However, that speculation evaporated around 11:30 p.m., when the jury announced it had come to a decision.

  At exactly 11:54 p.m., Becker was seated and awaiting his fate.

  Clerk Penny rose, and after he gave his roll cal
l to the jury, he spoke directly to jury foreman, Mr. Skinner, “You have reached a verdict, gentlemen?”

  Skinner and the other 11 jurors rose to their feet. Skinner said, “Yes, we have.”

  “How do you find?” Clerk Penny said.

  Mr. Skinner said, “We find the defendant guilty as charged in the indictment.”

  The room became quiet as a tomb; all eyes concentrated on Becker.

  Becker’s face turned red and his mouth opened in a silent scream. He tried to say something, but the words stuck in his throat.

  Clerk Penny said to the jury, “You find the defendant guilty of murder in the first degree, and so say you all?”

  All 12 jurors said “Yes” in unison.

  Clerk Penny read the names of each juror individually, and he said to each one, “Is that your verdict?”

  One by one, the jurors all responded “Yes.”

  While Clerk Penny was verifying the juror’s verdicts individually, twice Becker appeared as if he were about to faint. Finally, two court officers rushed to his side and held him upright.

  Judge Goff, a look of satisfaction on his face, said that he would administer sentencing on October 30.

  As Judge Goff exited the courtroom, two court officers took Becker by each arm and led him from the courtroom. They crossed a bridge separating the courtroom and the Tombs prison called “The Bridge of Sighs,” and they took Becker back into his cell in the Tombs.

  After the verdict was announced, there was bedlam outside the courtroom door.

  Helen Becker was not in the courtroom to hear her husband’s verdict. The courtroom had been so packed, she was stuck outside; her face pressed against the courtroom door. When the door was finally flung open and the cry of “Guilty!” permeated the air, Helen Becker hit the floor in a faint. She was picked up and carried to a bench, where she was attended to by friends, one of whom was McIntire, who assured her there would be a successful appeal and a new trial.