Charles Becker Trials: 1912-14

Becker's second trial began May 2, 1914. This time, the judge was Samuel Seabury. McIntyre was tired of representing Becker, and Becker had a new defense team: W. Bourke Cockran, John Johnstone, and Martin Manton. Whitman continued as prosecutor, but without Frank Moss' assistance.

Whitman changed his strategy in the second trial, relying less on Rose and Becker's other thugs and more on James Marshall, a young black man who had been on Becker's payroll as an informant and who had been present when Becker ordered Rose and the others to kill Rosenthal. Unlike the other witnesses, Marshall had not participated in the actual murder and thus Whitman reasoned that if Becker was convicted again, the Court of Appeals would be less likely to criticize the prosecution. Further, Judge Seabury was more scrupulous than Goff in his instructions to the jury. In his closing argument for the defense, Manton tried to convince the jury that Marshall couldn't be trusted because he used to be an informer and because he was black:

Remember this, gentlemen of the jury, the men who accuse Lieutenant Becker would be on trial for murder had they not accused Lieutenant Becker. And the only corroboration of their desperate testimony comes from a little coloured boy whose only motive is that he was paid, fed, clothed and housed by the district attorney; a little coloured boy who was once a police informer, a man who betrays others for pay.

The jury was not swayed, however, and on May 22, 1914, found Charles Becker guilty again. Seabury sentenced Becker to die in the electric chair. This time the conviction was upheld, although Becker's appeals postponed his execution for over a year. During that time, Whitman became a celebrity for his muchpublicized victory. He capitalized on his popularity by running for governor and winning the election on November 3, 1914. Ironically, when Becker's appeals ended, he begged for a pardon from the one man who could give it, now-Governor Whitman. Becker's wife Helen even went to Whitman personally, but to no avail. On July 30, 1915, Becker was executed in the Sing Sing prison electric chair.

Becker's long criminal career included an incident when he beat a young prostitute who had been reluctant to pay protection money he demanded. Stephen Crane witnessed Becker's assault on the defenseless woman and was inspired to write his famous novel Maggie: A Girl of the Streets. Becker's trial and execution would also live on due to its publicity and the attention it focused on urban corruption and the efforts of people such as Whitman to combat it.