The Life and Bad Times of Charlie Becker; The True Story of a Famous American Murder Trial

Secker & Warburg, London, 1961. First Edition. Hardcover. Good Condition (ex-library)/Good. bibliography. Black coloured boards with silver coloured titles to the backstrip. Plain text dustwrapper with black coloured titles to the front panel and backstrip. "On a July night in 1912, a New York gambler, Hermann Rosenthal, was shot dead outside the Metropole Hotel on West 43rd Street. From this developed probably the most notorious murder trial in American history and revealed a whole city riddled with corruption, from Tammany Hall, the police Department, to the gamblers and thugs of the 'tenderloin' district in midtown. To New York's district attorney, Charles Whitman, corruption was personified in police Lieutenant Charles Becker. From the moment of the murder, Whitman determined, though Becker had not been on the spot, to pin it on the policeman as accessory before the fact. To that end he would use every means, a foul or fair, including as unsavoury collection of prosecution witnesses as had ever given evidence. Two trials and three years later he achieved his object. Becker died in the electric chair at Sing Sing. Whitman, by then Governor of New York State, refused to exercise his prerogative of pardon." -- from the front fold over panel blurb. This is an Ex-Police College Library book. Library stamps to the free front end paper various pages of the text, front fore text edge and to the rear end paper. Softening to the backstrip with a little rubbing of the book corners and lower book edges. Browning and some foxing of the textblock edges with light age toning of the pages. Little rubbing to the dustwrapper edges and panels with stunning to the backstrip. Library notations to the lower text edge. This is the first UK edition. Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. [6], 7-287, [1] pages,. Dust Jacket price-clipped. Please refer to accompanying picture (s). Quantity Available: 1. Shipped Weight: Under 500 grams. Category: Law & Criminal Studies; United States; Inventory No: 0115997. .