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

A small-time gambler shot dead in the heart of Times Square. Gangland gunmen and conspirators running for cover. A cop on the take charged with murder and facing execution. New York in 1912, a city in transformation. Award-wining journalist and author Stanley Cohen has re-created the infamousBecker-Rosenthal affair in a book that reads like a historical Law & Order. Lieutenant Charles Becker was convicted of orchestrating the slaying of Herman "Beansie" Rosenthal after Beansie had exposed the officer as the centrepiece of "The System" - the Big Apple's network of police graft and political corruption. The case was front-page news in New York City for three years until Officer Becker was sent to Sing Sing's electric chair, and its effects were felt in city hall, the state capital, and throughout the nation. The old System was dismantled and criminal geniuses like Arnold Rothstein filled the void and created organised crime as we know it today. Yet, nearly a century later, there is still good reason to believe that Becker, while clearly a dirty cop, may have had nothing to do with the murder of Rosenthal.Cohen, Stanley is the author of 'Execution of Officer Becker The Murder of a Gambler, the Trial of a Cop, and the Birth of Organized Crime', published 2007 under ISBN 9780786720309 and ISBN 0786720301.