The Murder of Charles Becker
Susi Robinson
Brandman University
Instructor: Prof Gilbertson
20 October 2012

Abstract
Lt Charles Becker was a police officer in New York City during the late 19th century and early 20th century who extorted money from local brothels and gambling houses (“casinos”) located within what is now the New York Times Square. He did so all while working in internal affairs and receiving promotions.

The action which led to making Lt Becker’s activities public was when a local gambler and bookmaker, “Beansie” Rosenthal got tired of Lt Becker harassing him and he went to the press and accused Lt Becker of extortion. Two days later, Mr. Rosenthal was killed. Lt Becker was accused of the murder and brought to trial and found guilty of first degree murder.

The scandal surrounding him and his other illegal activities, led to his execution in the electric chair in New York’s Sing Sing Prison in 1915. He was the first police officer to be put to death for murder. In addition, the revelation of his activities led to the shock and acknowledgment of the public to the corrupt activities of police.

To this day, he is the only New York City police officer put to death for murder.

A. Life of Charles Becker
Charles Becker was born to a German-American family in the village of Calicoon Center, Sullivan County, New York. He arrived in New York City in 1890 and went to work as a bouncer in a German beer hall in the Bowery before joining the New York City Police Department (NYPD) in November 1893. Becker received national attention in the fall of 1896 when he arrested a known prostitute named Ruby Young (alias Dora Clark) on Broadway. The notoriety of the case was due to one of Young's companions, the writer Stephen Crane, the author of The Red Badge of Courage. The next day at Ruby Young's hearing Stephen Crane stepped forward and defended Ruby Young. The word of the then highly popular Stephen Crane weighed heavily on the sentencing of Young, resulting in the Magistrate Robert C. Cornell dismissing the case. Afterwards Stephen Crane told reporters, "If the girl will have the officer prosecuted for perjury, I will gladly support her." Three weeks following the trial Ruby pressed formal charges against Becker. Becker knew he was in a bad situation and prepared in three ways. Becker gathered evidence, hired the experienced lawyer Louis Grant, and rallied the support of his fellow officers. This move allowed Becker to make a powerful entrance to his trial on October 15, 1896, when he entered surrounded by virtually the entire police force. Commissioner Frederick Grant, son of Ulysses S. Grant, headed the preceding and after almost five hours of examination Becker was acquitted. The trial taught Becker the power of the badge and how he could call on his colleagues for help. B. Reform Movement
In 1902 and 1903 Becker was one of the leaders of a patrolman's reform movement asking for the introduction of the Three Platoon System, which would have significantly reduced the number of hours officers were expected to work. In 1906, he was moved to a special unit working out of police headquarters to investigate the alleged corruption of Police Inspector Max Schmittberger, who had been widely disliked within the NYPD when he gave testimony during the 1894 Lexow Committee investigating police corruption in New York. Partly as a result of Becker's work, Mr. Schmittberger subsequently stood trial, and Deputy Police Commissioner Rhinelander Waldo was so satisfied with his work that when Waldo became New York City Police Commissioner in 1911, he had Becker, by then a lieutenant, appointed as head of one of the city's three anti-vice squads. C. Criminal Behavior
Becker allegedly used his position to extort substantial sums, later shown to total in excess of $100,000, from Manhattan brothels and illegal gambling casinos in exchange for immunity from police interference. Percentages of the take were regularly delivered to politicians and other policemen. In July 1912, he was named in the New York World as one of three senior police officials involved in the case of Herman Rosenthal, a small time bookmaker who had complained to the press that his illegal casinos had been badly damaged by the greed of Becker and his associates. Two days after the story appeared, Mr. Rosenthal walked out of the Hotel Metropole at 147 West 43rd Street, just off Times Square. Mr. Rosenthal was gunned down by a crew of Jewish gangsters from the Lower East Side, Manhattan. In the aftermath, Manhattan District Attorney Charles S. Whitman, who had made an appointment with Mr. Rosenthal before his death, made no secret of his belief that the gangsters had committed the murder at Lt Becker's request. Amid a major public outcry, Lt Becker was transferred to the Bronx and assigned to desk duty. D. Arrest, Trial and Execution
On July 29, 1912, Lt Becker was approached at the precinct's closing hour by special detectives from the District Attorney's Office and placed under arrest. He was tried and convicted of first degree murder that fall. The verdict was overturned on appeal on the grounds that the presiding judge, the Honorable John Goff, had been biased against the Lt Becker. However, a retrial in 1914 affirmed Lt Becker’s conviction. Although current newspapers were unanimous in asserting his guilt, Lt Becker went to the electric chair in Sing Sing on July 30, 1915, professing his innocence. Lt Becker was interred at Woodlawn Cemetery, the Bronx, on August 2, 1915. Lt Becker's electrocution took nine minutes, causing him intense agony, and was described for years afterward as "the clumsiest execution in the history of Sing Sing.
E. Controversary
Several later authors, beginning with Henry Klein in 1927, have suggested that Lt Becker was wrongly convicted. According to this theory, Lt Becker and his fellow officers had simply stood back and allowed "the street" to "take care of" Mr. Rosenthal, knowing that his cooperation would put a huge target on his back. Allegedly, District Attorney Whitman then manipulated the evidence to implicate Lieutenant Becker, knowing that a guilty verdict for Lt Becker would help his own political aspirations.

References • Cohen, Stanley, (2006) "The Execution of Officer Becker; The Murder of a Gambler, the Trial of a Cop, and the Birth of Organized Crime." • Dash, Mike (2007). "Satan's Circus: Murder, Vice, Police Corruption and New York's Trial of the Century" • "My Story, by Mrs Charles Becker." December, 1914. McClure's Magazine. • "The Becker case: view of 'The System.'" November 11, 1951. New York Times Magazine.