Another move to delay tonight's scheduled electrocution was made
yesterday. Rabbi Jacob Katz, Hebrew chaplain at Sing Sing who had planned
to spend the waning hours with Lepke today, asked Dewey to defer the execution
at least one more day so it would not fall on the Jewish Sabbath, Saturday.
Rabbi Katz explained is a very busy day for him since he has synagogue
duties outside the prison . . . His appeal failed to move the Governor."
— Sunday News, March 5, 1944
For six years, Buchalter functioned as the head of Murder, Inc.,
the national crime syndicate's enforcement arm.
As many as 100 corpses have been attributed to Lepke himself,
while those under his control may have slain hundreds more.
Buchalter didn't look the part with his suits and the general appearance
of a mildly affluent man of business.
But his wool suits couldn't warm his eyes, said to be like blocks
of ice.
Lepke was convicted in the slaying of Joseph Rosen, a candy store
clerk,
and four years later he was electrocuted, even though if
he'd turned informant he might have lived.
The last plea from his wife went like this.
"At 4:45 p.m. Lepke, scheduled to enter the Sing Sing death chamber
six hours and 15 minutes later,
spurned the tearful plea of his pretty wife, Betty, that he ask
U.S. Attorney James B. M. McNally in New York
to listen to his story of a widespread coalition between crime
and politics.
"Coldly he listened to the desperate voices of his wife and their
22 year old son, Harold,
as they begged him to call Sing Sing's Warden William E. Snyder
and have him communicate with McNally.
"'He'll listen to you, Lou,' Mrs. Buchalter pleaded. 'God knows
you can tell him enough to save you!'
"But the nation's No. 2 mobster, whose last court pleas
had been turned down cold at noon by the U.S. Supreme Court in
Washington, merely shook his head.
"'Look,' he said, 'Suppose I did talk to him. Suppose he asks for
a reprieve. What's the best I could expect?
I'll tell you: They'd give me another six or eight months — at
the most a year.
No. Betty,' he finished, 'if that's the case, I'd rather go tonight.'"
— Sunday News, March 5, 1944
