The Execution of Officer Becker: The Murder of a Gambler, The Trial of a Cop, and the Birth of Organized Crime

by Stanley Cohen

Lieutenant Charles Becker was the only New York City police officer ever executed for murder. He was convicted of orchestrating the gangland slaying of a small-time gambler named Herman (Beansie) Rosenthal in the summer of 1912. Becker was convicted twice, in showcase trials, and died in Sing Sing’s electric chair in 1915. The murder and the trial were front-page news in all twelve New York City newspapers for three years. Sensational as the case was on its own, it was given impetus by the fact that Becker was found to be a central figure in a network of police graft and political corruption whose effects were felt in City Hall, the state capital, and finally throughout the nation. For added measure, there was the strong likelihood that Becker, though clearly a cop on the take, had nothing to do with the murder of Rosenthal.

Genres: True Crime

320 pages, Hardcover

First published September 26, 2006

About the author

There are more than one Stanley Cohen author.

*Stanley Cohen (1922-): USA biochemist
*Stanley Cohen (1928–2010): USA crime novelist
*Stanley Cohen (1934-): USA sport writer
*Stanley Cohen (1937-): USA biologist
*Stanley Cohen (1942–2013): South Africa-British sociologist

Reviews

[Walt · Rating 2 out of 5]

A couple of authors panned the book on Amazon as being sloppy in terms of research and fact-checking. The main criticism is that too much reliance was placed upon the newspapers and nothing else. It is true that Cohen does rely heavily on the New York Times, a fact he clearly states early on the book, arguing that it gave a more neutral and balanced view of the proceedings. He makes a few random references to Jonathon Root's work on the trial; and some to David Pietrusza's Rothstein. Cohen defended his work saying there should be a modern re-telling of the story. Of course, the story is covered in both Pietrusza's definitive study and Rose Keefe's study on Zelig, The Starker. Both of whom do not go into the detail that Cohen offers.

It certainly took a lot of work to go through the newspaper coverage of the trial and synthesize it into a readable book. The Becker trials were sensational media events. Cohen might have included too much superfluous detail in the book, thereby distracting readers from the substance. Topics like Jack Zelig and Arnold Rothstein are pushed to the side while less important topics like possible sentencing guidelines for minor defendants occupied multiple pages. Some of the later chapters were so full of legalese that I was hoping Becker would die for no other reason than to go on to something else.

My biggest problem with the book was that the book is missing the second half of the title. The birth of organized crime was almost entirely omitted. The epilogue briefly quotes passages from Pietrusza concerning Rothstein's interest in the execution; but there was no analysis on how Rothstein took over Becker's position as intermediary between criminals and politicians. Even when discussing Becker's system, Cohen presents two different systems as presented in each of Becker's trials. Becker clearly had more than thuggish behavior as the head of a brute squad; but Cohen does not discuss more than whatever was printed in the press.

[Ccpgal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading this for class. Seemed like an interesting topic to do a speech on. I guess I'll find out now won't I.