New York Times 100 years ago today, October 6, 1912:
WEAPON A POLICE REVOLVER
Man Who Used it Says Zelig Blackjacked and Robbed Him and He Killed in Revenge.
CALLS HIMSELF P. DAVIDSON
But Zelig's Friends Say He Is a Stool Pigeon Known as "Boston Red Phil."
ROSE PREDICTED THE CRIME
Had Told the District Attorney Only a Few Hours Before Zelig Wouldn't Live to Testify.
HAD LETTERS FROM TOMBS
"Gyp," "Dago Frank," "Lefty Louie," and " Whitey " Lewis Wrote Their Chief of Gay Times in Prison.
"Big Jack" Zelig, gunman and leader of a gang bearing his name, from which he was believed to have supplied, at the behest of Lieut. Charles Becker, the four slayers of Herman Rosenthal, was shot and killed last night. Zelig's slayer used a policeman's revolver, numbered 4,812. This weapon is now in the possession of the police.
Zelig was to have been one of District Attorney Whitman's most important witnesses in the murder trial of Lieut. Becker, which is scheduled to start to-morrow morning. Yesterday afternoon "Billiard Ball" Jack Rose said to the District Attorney in the West Side Prison:
"Zelig will never live to see the trial start. Watch. He'll be the next one they get."
Rose's words came true within three or four hours, for it was late afternoon when Mr. Whitman talked with him, and it was shortly before 9 o'clock that Zelig was killed.
News of the murder reached Mr. Whitman about 10 o'clock when he returned home from the Waldorf, where he had dined with his wife. The news staggered the District Attorney as a physical blow might have done. He threw up his hands and exclaimed:
"My God, what next? What next? I don't know what to do."
But in a moment he had pulled himself together and started for Police Headquarters, where Zelig's slayer and the policemen concerned in his arrest had been kept in the Record Room, practically prisoners, until the District Attorney could question them.
Underworld Scents a Plot.
The man who killed Zelig gave his name as Philip Davidson, a retired fruit dealer, now living at 111 East Seventh Street. The police declared that they had never heard of Davidson before, and that to their best knowledge he had no criminal record. Davidson voluntarily declared that he had killed Zelig simply because earlier in the day the gunman had blackjacked and robbed him. There seemed no connection between Zelig's death and his peculiarly important position in the Rosenthal murder case, according to the story told by Davidson.
But through the underworld word traveled quickly last night that Zelig had been "put away," because of what he could tell. Davidson's story that Zelig had blackjacked and robbed him was not denied. Most of the gangsters, who discussed the shooting seemed to think it highly probable that Zelig had done this, but their version of the affair did not leave this assault and robbery as the beginning of Davidson's association with Zelig yesterday.
Davidson, against whom the police found no record, was referred to by gangsters as "Red Phil" and as "Boston Red Phil," a crook and a stool pigeon of unsavory reputation. The attack on him by Zelig they accounted by saying that Zelig met "Red Phil" yesterday after-noon and accosted him in words that were anything but polite. He called him a stool pigeon, among other things, and "Red Phil" responded:
"Perhaps I am, but not for that crook Becker."
And then, according to this story, the men came to blows, until finally Zelig got the upper hand by blackjacking Davidson, whereupon none in gangland doubted that Zelig robbed him and left him to recover his wits when he might.
The death of Zelig, for whatever reason it was caused, is a blow to District Attorney Whitman from which he cannot lightly recover. Zelig was to have testified that "Billiard Ball" Jack Rose did come to him, as Rose has said, and beg him to provide the gunmen to kill Rosenthal, telling him that Becker had demanded it and was becoming importunate.
Weakens State's Case Against Becker
That one point alone would have made Zelig a witness of priceless value to the District Attorney, since it would have been corroborative testimony to Rose's confession, and to use this confession at all Mr. Whitman must have the corroboration of some one not an accomplice to the murder. And Zelig would have been this person, for it was no part of his plan to confess that he had supplied the gunmen, only that he had been asked to do so.
In Zelig's pockets, when his body was taken to the Bellevue Morgue last night. were found some blood-stained letters signed "Whitey," "Harry," and "Louis." They were from the Tombs, and told what good times "Whitey." who could be none other than "Whitey" Lewis, and "Harry," easily identified as "Gyp the Blood"; "Louie," who is "Lefty Louis" Rosenweig, and "Dago Frank" Cirosci were having in prison. These are the members of Zelig's gang charged with the actual murder of Rosenthal.
But this point was not the only one to which Zelig was to testify. He was the only witness against ex-Detectives Steinert and White, the former members of Lieut. Becker's Strong Arm Squad, whom Zelig accused of having "planted" a revolver in his pocket on May 11, when they locked him up for carrying a concealed weapon. On Zelig's testimony Steinert and White were indicted on last Aug. 22, and Zelig was almost the only witness against them. With Zelig gone the case against these men must fall through, and District Attorney Whitman realized this last night for he remarked:
"Steinert and White, now that Zelig is out of the way, are as safe from prosecution as though they never had been indicted. They are free now to come forward as witnesses for Lieut. Becker; to testify for him that the raids on Rosenthal's gambling house were genuine raids that Becker never was his silent partner, and that the whole affair of the Rosenthal murder was a plot to convict Becker.
Mr. Whitman evidently realized that the death of no one other man could have resulted in such tremendous benefit to Becker as did the death of Zelig.
Called, Like Rosenthal, to His Death.
At one stroke the witness who connected Becker with the murder conspiracy and who prevented from testifying in his behalf two men who would be of tremendous value to the accused Lieutenant was removed when Davidson's bullet struck Zelig in the back of the head.
The shooting occurred on an open Second Avenue trolly car near Fourteenth Street, and the slayer to escape fled through Fourteenth Street, menacing the throngs in the street with his revolver, and finally turning it on a policeman, only to lose his nerve and drop it as the officer dashed toward him, yanking his own revolver from his pocket.
Zelig, like Rosenthal, was called out to his death, only Zelig's message came by telephone. He was in the cafe at 70 Second Avenue, the same cafe in which Steinert and White arrested him, and the place that he usually made his headquarters, when the 'phone rang and some one asked him to meet him at Fourteenth Street and Second Avenue. Zelig left the place, telling friends where he was going, and jumped aboard a north-bound car. The cafe is between Fourth and Fifth Streets. A few moments later there came back the news of his murder.
That is the story of Zelig's death as the gangsters heard it last night. This is the story Davidson told:
Says Zelig Beat and Robbed Him.
He said that late in the afternoon Zelig had lured him into a hallway in Brooms Street, near Eldridge, and there had beaten him senseless by blows on the head with a blackjack. When Davidson recovered Zelig had gone, and with him had gone Davidson's $400.
The fruit dealer armed himself with a revolver and set out to look for Zelig. That was shortly after 6 o'clock. How he found Zelig Davidson was not permitted to tell, nor did he have a chance to explain where he came upon him.
It was somewhere in Second Avenue, not far from Fourteenth Street, however, for shortly before 9 o'clock Policeman Paul Schmidt of the East Twenty-second Street Station, escorting a parade of the Benjamin Schneitzer Society along Second Avenue, heard the report of a revolver shot and saw a man jump from a northbound Second Avenue car and run east through Fourteenth Street.
Schmidt abandoned the parade and took up the chase. There were throngs in Second Avenue and in Fourteenth Street, but every one scattered as Davidson ran along flourishing a revolver in his hand. Schmidt sped after him, shouting to him to stop, and in front of 329 East Fourteenth Street Davidson halted and swung around to face the policeman. He pointed his revolver at Schmidt and called out: "Stop where you are or I'll shoot!"
Policeman's Nerve Cowed Him.
Schmidt, instead of stopping, jerked his own revolver from his pocket and came at Davidson yelling:
"Drop that gun. Drop it or I'll blow your head off."
The policeman's gun was aimed directly in Davidson's face, and it did not waver as the Russian's did. The sight was too much for Davidson. He flung his gun from him, clasped his hands over his face, and cried out:
"I give up. I give up. Don't shoot me."
Schmidt grabbed Davidson, snatched up his revolver from the gutter, and started with his prisoner to the East Twenty-second Street Police Station.
Back in Second Avenue the trolley car had halted, and Policeman Robert Locke of the East Fifth Street Station, who had run from Thirteenth Street at the sound of the shot, boarded it. He found it full of hysterical women and frightened men.
In one of the long cross seats "Big Jack" sat, hunched into a heap, his head fallen forward on his chest. There was blood on the back of his head, and Locke, taking one look at him, sent a call for an ambulance from Bellevue Hospital.
Dr. Forbes came down and put Zelig in the ambulance. The gunman was senseless, and before the speeding ambulance reached the hospital "Big Jack" had passed out.
From the throng in the car Locke could get little information as to how the shooting had occurred. No one seemed to recall just where Zelig boarded the car, though the general belief was that it was in the neighbourhood of Fourth or Fifth Street. It was in a cafe between these streets that Zelig made his headquarters, and it was in this same cafe that he was arrested last May by Steinert and White.
Slayer Followed Zelig to the Car.
Wherever Zelig boarded the car, however, Davidson apparently had been watching for him, and sprang on the running board an instant after the gunman took his seat. No one in the car noticed either man until there resounded the report of a revolver shot.
Zelig fell forward with a cry and the other passengers saw Davidson, his revolver in his hand, leap from the moving car and speed along Second Avenue to Fourteenth Street, into which he turned. The car was stopped at once and terrified women sprang off and hurried away. Many men forsook the car also, so that when Locke arrived some of those who had seen the shooting had got away.
Locke found Hyman Civerth of 348 East Ninth Street, who said he had seen the shooting, and had followed Davidson, and took him in charge as a material witness. He was locked in the Record Room at Headquarters with the others.
Zelig's body was taken to the Bellevue Morgue, and there it was found that he had $500 in his pockets. A few minutes after his body was received there, a well-dressed woman, apparently about 30 years old called at the Morgue and asked that the $500 which she said she knew Zelig had be given to her. The morgue authorities refused to do this, and detained the woman until they should learn whether District Attorney Whitman cared to question her.
Davidson's Wife Tells of His Loss.
Davidson had said he lived at 111 East Seventh Street. Inquiries there were met at first by the declaration that Davidson did not live at that number, but it was discovered later that he and his wife, Dora, were stopping there temporarily with her brother, David Alter. The house is an elevator apartment of good type, and the position of the Davidsons cast some doubt on the underworld theory that Davidson was "Boston Rod Phil."
Mrs. Davidson said that she and her husband came from Katerinslaze, Russia, where they had been schoolmates. They arrived here thirteen years ago and were married in this country. For years, she said, her husband ran a fruit store at 1,661 East .New York Avenue, in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, but sold it out three months ago to her father, Isaac Alter, because her health was bad and she had to go to the country.
She said she and her husband had spent the last three months on Harry Hoffman's farm at Swanna Lake, near Peekskill, and that they had returned to this city only a few days ago and taken up their residence with her brother.
Friday night, Mrs. Davidson said, her husband had gone to a ball of some kind and had returned early yesterday morning, intoxicated and in a daze. Mrs. Davidson said she remarked his condition particularly because she had never seen him so before. Yesterday morning he arose and left the house at 8 o'clock, and that was the last Mrs. Davidson saw of him. She said he seemed greatly excited, and she knew that though he had had a large sum of money on Friday night, there was not a cent in his pockets when he returned yesterday morning. She said she had never heard her husband called "Red Phil," and had never even heard the name before.
LETTERS FROM THE TOMBS.
The Four Accused Slayers Told Their Chief of Gay Time in Prison.
When the body of "Big Jack " Zelig was searched in the Bellevue Morgue several blood-stained letters were found. They were from the four men named as the actual slayers of Rosenthal. The following from "Whitey" Lewis was the first found:
Tombs Prison, Oct. 6, 1912.
Friend Jack: I read that letter you sent to Louie, and you can't imagine how I felt when I read It, for I know that everything you write comes from the depths of your heart.
Well, Jack, I want you to stop worrying about us, as we have everything that we wish for, and we are having the best of times up here. We are only up here on a very short vacation to have a good rest and fatten us up. So if we hear that you are taking things to heart we will be very, angry at you. So cheer up and be good. That is all we ask of you.
"Well, Jack, I wish you would thank Hannah for the kindness she has shown us by sending us the bundles, for we know what a job she must have had to pack four big bundles for us four big brutes.
Well, Jack, I am getting fatter every day, and gaining weight at the rate of five pounds a week. I am having a lot of fun with Frank, telling him a lot of funny Jokes, as he is the only one I can easily see. For the rest, I wish I had them near me, so I could joke with them and cheer them up. The only time I can see them is when the lawyer calls on them, and that is when I get them laughing.
I wish you could go to Mr. Hanley and try to get Louie down to me and get him doubled up with me, as you know how dear Louie is to me. Well, Jack, I haven't got any more to write, so I close this letter with best regards to Joey and to your wife. From your friend,
WHITEY.
P. S.— Frank. Louie, and Gyp send regards to you, to Joey, and to your wife. Good-bye and good luck to you.
The second letter found is signed "Harry," and also was sent from the Tombs Prison. It is as follows:
Tombs Prison, Oct. 3, 1912.
Thursday.
Dear Friend Zel: A few lines letting you know I am feeling fine, and in good health. Also Louie and Whitey and Frank. I hope you and your wife are the same. Well, old boy, things look fine. They could not look better. I read your letter, and Louie and myself were tickled to death to read it. We have a hell of a time here all by ourselves; do nothing but fool and kick one another.
Gee, did you see that piece about Louie in to-day's Journal. We laughed ourselves sick over it. You remember that fellow who said he was stuck up last week on Second Avenue? Well, he is up here with us, and we kid the life out of him. Well, Zel, take care of yourself and I know you are one who can do that. So I'll close, with regards and best wishes to yourself and wife.
From your true friend, HARRY.
Regards and best wishes from W. and F. Answer as soon, as possible if you have time.
"Lefty Louie" Enjoying Life.
The third letter is signed "Louie," and was sent from the Tombs last Thursday. It reads:
Tombs Prison, Oct. 3, 1912.
My Dear Pal: I received your letter and I was certainly glad to hear from you, and you certainly know how I more than appreciate what you are doing for me. Zel, old man. I ain't worrying a bit; I eat good and sleep good, and also having a little fun up here and will certainly be ready for that big Christmas dinner.
Zel, you tell me you are going to stick to me and to the boys to the end. I know that, Zel, as I know what you are made of, having full confidence in you, old boy, that you will stick to the end. I know that, Zel, as I know what you are made of, and Zel, to tell you the truth, I have got it better than a lot of them bum millionaires have got it outside, and was up last night until 3 A. M. in the morning playing cards and eating lamb chops, but who do you think was in our party? But George Richman, that famous Jeweler from Second Avenue.
He came up here to identify Fosbrey, and as he failed to identify him, he changed his mind and thought he would keep me company for awhile, and I can assure you he is SAFE. My father and his lawyer called me down to the counsel room yesterday and I had a cheerful chat with him. And after I got through with him he said he was convinced that I really have nothing to do in this case, and he went away feeling much better. Now, old pal, let me know how you are, and how things are on the outside. I also tell the boys to write to you. I will now close, trusting this will find you in the best of health, as I am at present; also hoping this will cheer you up as your letter cheered me up.
I remain your sincere friend and pal,
LOUIE.
P. S.— Give my best regards to your wife, Jack Wolf, and my friend.
"Dago Frank's" Plaint.
The fourth and last letter is signed Frank Cirofici ("Dago Frank") and bears no date. It follows:
My Dear Friend Jack: I read your letter, and Jack, I tell you it made me feel kind of bad to think you are taking it so hard on our account, but I know what a true pal you are, so I know what about how you feel. I know the night I heard "Gyp" and "Lefty" were arrested I cried like a little baby. I had the blues for a week. Before that — the day you turned your pockets inside out — was enough for me.
Do you remember it? Dear pal, I have more faith in you than in any living man in this whole country. I tell you the truth right from my heart. I don't know you long, Jack, and I think if it weren't for you I don't know what would happen to me. Being a Dago, of course, you don't know what I know. But time will tell, old pal. Even at that. I was always ready to take anything they handed me and say nothing.
Dear Jack, I ought not to be writing to you my hard luck story. Don't mind it. I am as happy as a lord otherwise. Well, old boy, don't worry, we will have a grand time up at mother's house as soon as we all get out.
Let us hope they rush things along. The sooner the better. Be cheerful, Jack. There is not a bit of worrying with the four of us. If I have so much faith in you, I am sure the rest of the boys have the same. I have thought many a time how you and your good little wife, God bless her, have worked making up food for us. Tell her I prayed to-day that I can meet her and shake her hand, with ever so much thanks for her great kindness. I think I write you a nice long letter, and hope to get one in return. I would have written long ago, but I did not know your address. Hoping this will find you and your wife happy, and with my best wishes, I remain your true friend.
Room 328. FRANK CIROFICI.
P. S.— Regards to you and Jack Wolf. Better days coming, dear. Good-night.
The following effects were found in Zelig's clothing:
Two one dollar bills, three ten cent pieces, four pennies, a fountain pen, a pen knife, a ring, 2 cuff buttons, 2 bath tickets, a nail cutter, an advertising contract with the "Boulevard Chauffeurs," a slip of paper, inscribed "Harry Korper, night telephone boy, Elks Club, and on the back "Kempliman, who was a truest at the Elks Club; a card inscribed: "Libby Horowitz, aqueduct — Mac No. 10 West 116th Street," a slip of paper inscribed: "Eagle Store, 116th Street. Doggy Kaiser, Jack Gromley, Brut Blinkey." A card inscribed: " Louis Fridiger, Counsellor at Law, 31 Liberty Street." Another one which was written: "Lieut. Adams, Greenville, Ill., Bond County." A card bearing on one side the number "15 " and on the other the address; "145 Lexington Avenue;" a card bearing the telephone number "5360 Bryant;" a slip of paper inscribed "Dr Morris J. Klein, 307 East Sixth Street, near Second Avenue," and on the back: "Ed. Hess, Sadie Chink, Seventeenth Street and Third Avenue, Twenty-first Street and Third Avenue.
ZILIG'S RECORD AS GANGMAN.
Ready with a Gun, but Lacked Nerve — Picking Pockets His Trade.
"Big Jack" Zelig's rise to prominence in gang circles was a thing of the not very distant past. An east sider by birth and an opponent of all forms of labor by instinct, he quickly drifted into one of the smaller gangs which go to make up the bigger combinations in gang circles.
He was known to the police as a "dip" or pickpocket, and he plied that trade with such regularity as safety allowed. When too close police surveillance prevented this Zelig was accustomed to "stick up" a stuss game and live on the proceeds of this until he could return to his usual profession.
He had plenty of that kind of courage which is possessed by a man with a revolver and a gang at his heels when dealing with some unarmed opponent, and his readiness to use a revolver or knife soon won him a measure of respect in gang circles. He affiliated himself several months ago with Chick Tricker and "Big Jack " Sirocco, and was accepted by them as a worthy henchman. Apparently, though, Zelig was plotting at the time the downfall of Chick and "Big Jack," for he secretly cultivated Jimmy Kelly, the owner of the notorious Mandarin Cafe over the Arcade in Doyers Street, and one night he pressed the muzzle of his revolver against the stomach of Chick in the narrow, dark hallway of the saloon which Chick and "Big Jack" ran and announced that he was going to kill him.
"Go on," declared Chick. "You wouldn't shoot anybody who was looking at you. Beat it now before I do you up. Why, you mutt, you haven't got the nerve to touch a soul."
And Zelig quailed. He backed slowly out of the long hallway, covering Chick with his revolver, and, once safe in Chatham Square, he sped to Jimmy Kelly's, carrying the word that war had started and that Chick and "Big Jack" Sirocco were after his scalp.
"Leftie Louie" Rosenweig and several other of the gunmen whom Zelig had secretly gathered round him sprang down in to Doyers Street drawing revolvers as they ran, but when they met Chic and "Big Jack" Sirocco with their men at their heels, headed toward them, the Zelig crowd turned tail and ran. There was an exchange of shots in which no one was hurt and the police swept down on the fighters and led them off to the Elizabeth Street Station.
There Zelig was held in bail, as were the rest, and a few days afterward as he was leaving the Criminal Court Building, he was shot by Louis Torti, a gunman of the Sirocco faction. Torti was arrested and sent to jail while Zelig went to the hospital. His wound was only a sight one, however, and presently he was out and around his old haunts. It was then that he was arrested by Steinert and White, who said they found a revolver in his pocket. Zelig was released in $10,000 bail and left town a few days before the murder of Herman Rosenthal.
His disappearance bore out the rumors that he had supplied the gunmen who did the killing, but no trace of him was found until he was arrested in Providence, R. I., for picking pockets. He was released there on bail and was brought to this city, where he finally got the ear of District Attorney Whitman and gave such testimony before the Grand Jury as resulted in the indictment of Steinert and White.
Since then Zelig had been lying low. Nothing was heard of him, and the police had found no trace of him either as holdup man or pickpocket. That he was plying his old trade, however, is proved by Davidson's declaration that Zelig blackjacked and robbed him, and for the first time, apparently, the gunman made a mistake in his victim, a mistake which cost him his life.
ALL READY FOR BECKER'S TRIAL
Counsel on Both Sides Say It Will Go On Without Further Delay.
District Attorney Whitman had another conference in the West Side Prison yesterday with "Billiard Ball" Jack Rose, "Bridgey" Webber, Harry Vallon, and Sam Schepps, principal witnesses for the prosecution in the trial of Lieut. Charles Becker for the murder of Herman Rosenthal. The trial is scheduled to begin before Justice Goff to-morrow, and there is no longer any doubt that it will start on time, as John F. McIntyre, chief counsel for Becker, has announced that he will make no further efforts for delay. He said yesterday:
"The only action of mine which might result in even the smallest delay will not be taken until Rose, Webber, and Vallon have testified. Then, if their testimony is the same as the public prints have stated it to be, I shall demand that the District Attorney indict them for the murder of Herman Rosenthal.
"If Mr. Whitman refuses to ask for such indictments I shall appeal to Gov. Dix to appoint a special prosecutor to consider every phase of this case."
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