OCR Text |
Show eOVEfHR REFUSES TO GfiiIfiEPIilEVE Five Jewish Clergymen Appeal Ap-peal in Behalf of Gunmen Who Are to Die Monday. ALBANY. N. Y.. April S. An im-pnssioned im-pnssioned and dramatic appeal made by five Jewish clergymen of Nuw York for a stay of the execution of j tho four gunnion 'who were convicted of killing . Herman Rosenthal was denied de-nied by Governor Glynn lato today. The convicted inou must die in tho ! electric chair at Sing Sing prison next Monday. The- plea was based on the possibility I of yew evidence developing in tho suc-ond suc-ond trjal of former Police Lieutenant Becker. It so completely unnerved the executive that ho had to retire to his private office for a time boforo ho Could continue his duties. "That was the most difficult experience experi-ence of ni3" life," ho said. It originally was planned that the mother, brother and sister of "Whitoy Lewis" Seidenshner aoid tho sister and tho mother of "Dago Frank" Cirofici should accompany the clergymen and plead for executive interference. The clergymen are all officers or members ot the union of orthodox Jewish Jew-ish congregations of America. 13neh one was permitted to make his pica. The governor, meanwhile, stood nerv- , otisly twitching his ivatehehain. His j faco was drawn and white, his lips quivered aud tears were in his eyes. At times he interrupted the speakers to say that the evidence before him did j not warrant a change of his decision ! not to grant the prisoners' plea for ox- ecutivc clciupucy. "Tf if were my heart alono that was 1 considering this case." he said, "you know what I would do. 1 have s'ent many sleepless nights because I re- , alized that I alone stood between tho ! boys and death. But T have made up my mind. fc wns a choice between sentiment und justice and T had to j sido with justice. T would h.ivo given ! ever' rent E possess not to havo had ! to pass upon this case finally." "Rabbi Jacob Goldstein, chaplain of ' the Tombs and of Sing Sing, who has known thn men intimaloly sinco their incarceration, assorted that, tho throo Jewish boys had told him "in all solemnity that Frank Hirof ici wus not j there at tho time of the shooting." j Tho governor's only repl3' was that 1 ho must rest on the evidence of tho four witnesses who had identified tho gunmen. Then tho clergymen urged that now ovidence might develop in j tho second Becker trial which would throw now light on tho identification. At one juncture Governor Glynn interrupted in-terrupted the appeals by exclaiming: "You're wprd didn't send them to the electric chair. Mine did." "My word mav not have sent them to their deaths." replied Mr. Goldstein, Gold-stein, "but picture mo on flic morning morn-ing of the-execution, if this stjiy is not granted. "Picture me, if vou can, leading lead-ing the thrco boys of mv own faith from the death cell to tho room of doath and triving God's sanction to acts which in my heart I cannot -justify." |