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The bandit leader twirled his revolver. "I, me, myself," he said, "will shoot the whole lot of you if you do not drive at once to Cuernavaca and give this note to the military commandant there. It is a short note. It reads: 'If we are pursued we will shoot our prisoner. . . .'"
Telegram. A few hours later Mrs. Ruff received at her home in Woodmere, L. I., a telegram from her husband: "Papa kidnaped. No danger. Expect release today." Distracted, Mrs. Ruff sought her mother, Mrs. Rosenthal. She, courageous, left at once, alone, for Mexico City.
Ruse. Most unfortunately the Mexican authorities attempted to deal craftily with the bandits who had finally sent word that they would release Mr. Rosenthal upon payment of $10,000 in gold.*
One General Jesus Lopez des-patched two soldiers in civilian dress to parley with the bandits and assure them that so large a ransom could not be raised for another 24 hours. The soldiers rode out, one carrying over his arm a brakeman's lantern. Though they proceeded to the spot designated for payment of the ransom they saw no bandits.
Vexed, General Jesus Lopez rode out himself with a detachment of soldiers. They espied the bandits, ordered them to halt, fired upon them.
Instantly the bandits thrust Mr. Rosenthal before them. Worn and listless after three nights in the open, he staggered. As the soldiers kept up their fire two bandits drew their machetes, plunged them again and again into Mr; Rosenthal, finally fired two shots into his back. He, reeling, walked ten yards toward his would-be rescuers, pitched forward, dead.
The soldiers of General Jesus
Lopez at once fired again upon the bandits, killed three of them. Upon examination these proved to be General Bonifacio Hinojosa, onetime Mayor of Huitzilac, Miguel Garcia, jail warden of Huitzilac, and one Juan Ortiz.
Aftermath. Secretary Kellogg at once despatched a note to the Mexican Government demanding that every effort be made to punish Mr. Rosenthal's slayers.
The Calles Administration thereupon authorized General Jesus Lopez to take extreme measures.
Promptly three arrested suspects were placed in a line of 50 prisoners and Mr. Ruff, Mr. Rosenthal's son-in-law, was invited to identify them if he could. Frantic, he not only identified the men at once but begged the police to give him a gun that he might shoot them. A few hours afterwards the authorities announced that the three prisoners had been shot by the police as they endeavored to escape.
Meanwhile General Jesus Lopez had been active, had caused his soldiers to hang six bandits from poles near the spot where Mr. Rosenthal was kidnaped.
* The Rosenthal's Manhattan attorney Alfred Lind said in a letter to Secretary of State Kellogg last week: "Mr. Rosenthal's life was worth far more than any ransom which would have been demanded. In all our broad land there could not be found a finer type of American citizen."
Mr. Rosenthal was, in fact, greatly respected by his friends in Manhattan and Brooklyn. He was a member of the Olympic Lodge, Kismet Temple, Ancient Order of the Mystic Shrine of Brooklyn, and owned several tenements which he kept in exemplary repair.