Harry Horowitz - Biography

Harry Horowitz (1889 – April 13, 1914), also known as Gyp the Blood, was a Jewish-American underworld figure and a leader of the Lenox Avenue Gang in New York City.

Biography

Harry Horowitz was born in 1889. He served prison terms for burglary and robbery. On 16 July 1912 he and three accomplices murdered gambler Herman Rosenthal outside the Metropole Hotel. The four shot Rosenthal to death, possibly on orders from Police Lieutenant Charles Becker, who was enraged that Rosenthal was talking to anyone who would listen about Becker's ties to criminals and gambling houses. Becker was arrested soon after the Rosenthal killing. Two of the killers were arrested immediately after the killing, but Horowitz and 'Lefty' Louis Rosenberg were not. There was a massive hunt for the missing two, who were found and arrested on 14 September 1912 in an apartment in Glendale, Queens, where they had been hiding for months.

Horowitz and his three accomplices, Rosenberg, Joseph Sidemschner (aka Whitey Lewis), and Francisco Carofico (aka Dago Frank) were convicted in November 1912. There were rumours that an attempt to rescue the criminals would be made during their transfer to Sing Sing Prison after the trial. Sheriff Julius Harburger, responsible for transporting the prisoners, received a number of anonymous notes, among which was one that said:

Sheriff Harburger—watch out when you take Gyp and his gang up the long steps at Ossining. Kitty the Second and his bunch will be there hiding in the rocks to shoot you up and rescue them. A WELL-WISHER.

Their case before the New York Court of Appeals was denied in February 1914, although Becker was granted a new trial. They produced additional witnesses on 11 April, 1914, who swore to their innocence, but New York Supreme Court Justice Goff did not find them credible. Horowitz gave a last statement to the press on 13 April, 1914, stating:

We all knew that the result was decided against us just as soon as we heard Justice Goff was in the case. We had given up expecting mercy either from Justice Goff or District Attorney Whitman.

They were put to death in the electric chair in Sing Sing on 13 April 1914. The next year, Becker also was executed for the crime.

Anecdotes

A story quoted by Herbert Asbury states that on a small bet from one of his colleagues, Horowitz, only 5 foot, 4 and 3/4 inches and 140 pounds, would grab passers-by and break their backs over his knee.

Further reading

• Dash, Mike. Satan's Circus: Murder, Vice, Police Corruption and New York's Trial of the Century, Crown, New York, 2006
• Gustavus, Myers. The History of Tammany Hall. New York: Boni & Liveright, 1917.
• Joselit, Jenna Weissman. Our Gang: Jewish Crime and the New York Jewish Community, 1900-1940. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1983. ISBN 0253158451
• Katcher, Leo. The Big Bankroll: The Life and Times of Arnold Rothstein. New York: Da Capo Press, 1994. ISBN 0-306-80565-0
• Kohn, George C. Dictionary of Culprits and Criminals. Metuchen, New Jersey: Scarecrow Press, 1986.
• Lardner, James and Thomas Reppetto. NYPD: A City and Its Police. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 2000. ISBN 978-0-8050-6737-8
• Pietrusza, David. Rothstein: The Life, Times, and Murder of the Criminal Genius Who Fixed the 1919 World Series. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2003. ISBN 0-7867-1250-3
• Reeve, Arthur Benjamin. The Golden Age of Crime. New York: Mohawk Press, 1937.
• Tosches, Nick. King of the Jews: The Greatest Mob Story Never Told. New York: Harper Perennial, 2006.

External links

• The "Killer Cop" and the Tombs