Reason First: The Tale of Murderous Crooked Cop Charles Becker

A dedicated woman can still hold out and show support for a corrupt cop…even in his death. Charles Becker received a sentence of the death penalty, won an appeal, and then the state rejected that appeal and Becker rode the lightning in Sing Sing.

Before his ultimate demise, Becker had been friends with bookies. He also aided Commissioner Rhinelander Waldo. By way of extortion, Becker aligned himself with gangsters and smoozed with politicians in efforts to sweep their dirt away from the doorstep. As unsavory as his character had projected, because of his role as an officer of the law, no one thought of Becker’s life and actions as monstrous.

Among some of the more unseemly acts that he committed, he took it upon himself to close the Hesper Club which he owned with Herman “Beansie” Rosenthal. After Rosenthal refused to raise Becker’s pay, Becker shuttered the club and put extra eyes and ears on his former business partner.

Soon, Rosenthal implored to the police department to back off of him. He involved himself in interviews with the press. In the summer of 1912, a gang of men gunned him down like a beast in the streets. With Rosenthal’s death, the district attorney Charles Whitman granted immunity to anyone who would take the stand.

“Billiard Ball” Jack Rose sensed that Becker would not be able to free him from the confines of his cell. He testified.

The authorities arrested one of their own on July 29, 1912. Four assassins had been executed already. Immunity slid onto “Billiard Ball” Jack Rose’s plate.

The crooked cop received the volts of justice.

What can be surmised here? Police officers are a part of a proper, rational government. They should be held at the highest of esteem. For their ability to put their lives in harm’s way to protect citizens they should be lauded.

And when they turn sinister, they should be ridiculed, denounced, and depending on the severity of the crime, put to death. With Becker’s case, he represented the lowest of all law enforcement officers. His ugly soul showed himself to be as vicious or even more vicious than a common criminal. His badge compounded the way that he acted.

By becoming involved in seedy acts, Becker tried to rule other men. He attempted to use his power as a cop to influence people around him. He was like an infectious disease that inflicted anyone with whom he came in contact.

This casts a dark pall on the profession of police work. As one of America’s original corrupt cops, Becker stood out among the rest. As a murderous monster, Becker emoted most of all. Instead of employing thinking, he felt that he could get away with anything.

Every policeman swears a Law Enforcement Oath to serve, protect and defend the citizens of a given geographic area. Becker besmirched the shield. He flew in the face of reason and acted as a criminal. This extends before him by centuries and after him in the upcoming decades from this time period. But he is a prime example of the cop who feels a surge of unearned power that goes beyond the badge.

Becker would die under the face of Justice who turned her head against someone who received commission to uphold the law. Police to this day take cuts under the table, run numbers, and cover up murders. They are in Becker’s spiritual company. Though he preceded the horrors of Prohibition, the thought of corruption amongst the ranks of police agencies during that time all the way up to the time of this writing, law enforcement officials continue to tarnish the shield.

Becker’s widow included a silver plate to be displayed on Becker’s coffin that proclaimed that Governor Whitman had “murdered” Becker. The story drips with irony.