Jasper County Democrat, Volume 15, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 August 1912 — WILL TELL ALL TO ESCAPE CHAIR [ARTICLE]

WILL TELL ALL TO ESCAPE CHAIR

“Dago Frank” Breaks Down and Turns State’s Evidence. SAYS WAS IN MURDER PARTY Declares "Lefty” Louis or “Whitey” Lewis Fired Shot That Killed Gambler Rosenthal—More Arrests Expected.

New York, Aug. 2. —Declaring that he will tell all if he is saved from the electric chair “Dago Frank” Ciroflc, described by three witnesses as one of the men who fired the shots which killed Herman Rosenthal in front of the Metropole hotel on the night of July 16, has broken down and turned state’s evidence. The prisoner had been depending on an alibt He had arranged to show that, while the Rosenthal murder was being carried out, he was In a saloon in Harlem trying to get bond for Rosie Harris, a woman of the underworld, who had been arrested. Commissioner Dougherty and Assistant District Attorney Frank Moss tore Cirofici’s alibi to shreds. Was In Murder Party. The gun man broke down, began to cry and then burst forth: "I was In the murder party; I was ' one of the men hired to kill Rosenthal, but I did not fire a shot. “The shooting,” he went on, "was done either by ’Lefty’ Louis or by 'Whitey* Lewis. Four men were In the party, but one of the two of them was the only man who pulled a trigger.” Cirofici will go to the grand jury room and there he will tell how Rosenthal was surrounded and shot to death; the number of shots fired; who fired them; how and by whom he was hired ,to join the murder party and how he»and his companions got away.-

Hart Called by Jury. Following fast on the confession of Cirofici, though not directly connected with it, John W. Hart, attorney for Police Lieutenant Charles Becker, accused of the murder of Rosenthal, was brought before Judge Mulquefen and ordered to answer questions propounded to him by the district attorney be fore the grand jury. Hart previously refused to answer these questions, but when taken a second time before the inquisitorial body, talked more freely although he prefaced almost every statement with a protest Hart admitted that he had visited

“Jack” Rose, one of the men who was confessed, while the latter was in hiding following the gambler’s murder Hart went as the messenger of Lieutenant Becker. He visited Rose, h< said, in an effort to secure an affidavit concerning the $1,500 which Rosenthal claimed he had secured from Becker on a mortgage and another affidavit concerning Rosenthal’s charge that Becker had demanded and received 20 per cent, of the profits o! Rosenthal’s gambling house. At the time he secured these affidavits, Hart declares, he did not know that Rose was accused of complicity in the murder.

District Attorney Whitman declared that he would seek the disbarment of Hart on the charge of knowing the whereabouts of a man wanted on a murder charge and keeping hie knowledge secret.