Daily News from New York, New York • 3

DAILY NEWS, THURSDAY, JULY 27, 1922. SISTEM KILLED SISTER BSC A USE SHE: STOLE -HER HUSBAND'S LOVE Mrs. Reisler Vows Innocence of Son fa- f'r Whom Dying Woman Accused "I did it because my father, who is dead, came to me in a dream and told me to put an end to all this business, as he knew what was going on. "In the Jewish religion people believe dreams. I was disgusted with waiting to do it, and I am glad I did it." This was the calm statement of Mrs.

Minnie Reisler, forty-three, when arraigned in the New Jersey Avenue Court yesterday for the murder of her sister, Miss Bertha Katz, twenty-eight. shot and another and another. fired four shots in all. I had six shots in the gun and I wanted to wipe her off the earth. "No, I am not sorry.

I had to do it some day. People no longer can say that they saw my husband with my sister at Rockaway and other places. "I did it because my father, who is dead, came to me in a dream and told me to put an end to all this business, as he knew what was going In the Jewish religion people believe these dreams. I was disgusted with waiting to do it, and I am glad I did it "Alone to Blame." "I alone am to blame. Morria and George and Max came with me because they thought I wanted to beat my husband and my sister.

They did not know that I intended to kill her." Jacob Livingston, an attorney of 299 Broadway, who represents Mrs. Reisler in a separation action that has been pending for months against her husband, has been retained in the homicido cases. He said last night he had available bail of $100,000 in caa any Supreme Court justice will admit the four defendants to bail. Staked Dempsey. John the Barber is nationally known as a promoter of boxing and as a manager of fighters.

It was he who is credited in well informed sporting circles as being-the man who first saw promise in Jack Dempsey, the world's heavyweight champion. Reisler has maintained several barber shops at different times in the Tenderloin section. The story is told that Dempsey, then down and out, found a friend in Reisler, who then had a shop at Broadway and Thirty-sixth Street. John believed that there was great promise in the big boy from Salt Lake and staked him to several hundred dollars and" some matches. Dempsey went ahead and left John the Barber Hat in his wake.

John sued and some of tho suits are still pending. Own Son Quit Him. Johnny Reisler, John the Barber's own son, was his last good fighter. But when Mrs. Reisler started her proceedings against her husband and named Miss Katz, Johnny, or Max, as his real name is, left his father, and since then has been boxing in and about Chicago.

Reisler, who is a big man, is known as John the Barber, John the Barb, John the Trimmer and John the Razor. (Other pictures on paee 1) says she killed her sister. has such a crime been committed. Even whon Mrs. Reisler, her two sons and bicher were arraigned before Magistrate McCloskey in the New Jersey Avenue Court, the drama continued.

There Mrs. Reisler gave vent to further passionate outbursts against her sister and swore that her husband's days, too, were numbered. The unwound like this: Late Tuesday night Mrs. Reisler, with her son Morris, twenty-four, whom Miss Katz accused of the shooting on her deathbed; George, eighteen, and Max Katz, twenty-eight, went to 1735 Sterling Place, Brownsville. There Bertha Katz was living with her widowed moth er, Jennie, who is seventy-two, and Isador Reisler, brother-in-law of Mrs.

Reisler, and his wife. "John the Barber" is also said to have lived there. When Mrs. Reisler, her sons and brother arrived at hte Sterling i-iace address at midnight they found Bertha away. Mrs.

Jennie Katz, Mrs. Reisler's mother, re fused them admittance, so thev sat on the steps to await the return of Bertha, who for five years was secretary to Edgar Allen, chief booker for the Fox Vaudeville Exchange, ana Jacob W. L.oeb, another Fox official, but more recently employed by Arthur Lyons, 131 West For tieth Street, a theatrical agent. Shortly before 1 o'clock Bertha rode up in a touring car driven by John Reisler. When saw his wife, sons and brother-in-law on the steps he stepped on the gas and drove to the Brownsville police station.

There he asked Detective William Donnelly for protection for Miss Katz. Crash Down Door. Donnelly escorted Miss Katz to Sterling Place and saw her safely to her apartment. Mrs. Reisler and her party tried to gain entrance, but the detective refused to allow them to go in and ordered them to leave the vicinit3 They appeared to obey him and he left.

When Detective Donnelly was well out of the way Morris Reisler put his shoulder to the door of the Katz apartment on the ground floor of 1735 Sterling Place. The door crashed in and the woman and three men dashed in. Bertha Katz was just about to retire. She was clad only in night clothing and knickerbockers. A few shouted words.

A shot. A scream. Lull After the Storm. Then came three more shots. Sterling Place was in an uproar.

Robert Brown, who lives next door, Mrs. Reisler asserts that the motive that led to the murder was the theft by her sister of the love of her husband, John, known as John the Barber in sporting circles, and former manager of Jack Dempsey. Contradictory to Mrs. Reisler's confession, Bertha Katz, now dead in St. John's Hospital, in an ante- By Keystone) Morris Reisler Mrs.

mortem statement, told a group of deteetives that Morris Reisler, her nephew, who had been brought with his mother, his brother George and Max Katz, a brother of the two women, to the hospital was the one who shot her. The three men, as well as Mrs.Reisler, are being held on homicide charges. The story of the murder of pretty Bertha Katz might well be a copy of one of the sordid dreams of a Russian dramatist. It is nearly a parallel of Tolstoi's, "Kreutzer Sonata." It is filled with bitterness, hate and revenge on the part of one sister against the other. The sceneof the murderj- which Mrs.

Reisler takes upon herself, instead of being laid in some drear, bleak Russian village, took place in Brownsville. A crowded tenement house and a narrow hall bedroom replace a hovel in a village of the Little Russias. Mrs. Reisler Stormed. But in spite of thesft changes, which give this sororicide an American setting, there were all of the passions, hate and cold-bloodedness that the writers of the Russian school use.

Never before in the history of the New York Police Department OMAN SHOT: FOUR pq DAIIJyiHl' Vol 4. No. 27. 24 P. WOlliJIil The News How Mrs.

Minnie Reisler sent a call to the Brownsville police station. After the shooting Mrs. Reisler, her two sons and brother calmly walked out of the apartment, leav ing her sister, wounded by three of four bullets, lying in a narrow hall bedroom where she had staggered. They all seated themselves on the curbing to await the arrival of the police, who soon came. Miss Katz was taken to St.

John's Hospital. Mrs. Reisler and her party were taken to the Brownsville station. Points to Morris. Captain of Detectives John J.

Gallagher, with Detectives Donnelly, Harry Beck and Reif of his division, then took the Reislers and Katz to the hospital, where they were met by Assistant District Attorney Reuben Wilson. There, they charge, Miss Katz, before she died, pointed to Morris Reisler and said, Morris did it. She later made a similar statement. Her aged mother, questioned before the lour who were held, also charged that Morris shot Bertha. Mrs.

Reisler shouted at her when Morris was accused by his grandmother, "You lie, you lie." Mrs. Reisler, her two sons and brother, were then taken to the New Jersey Avenue police court and held without bail on a homicide charge. Morris acted as spokesman and asked-f or a week to obtain counsel. Mrs. Reisler and her sons gave their address as -50 West 112th Street and Katz said he lived at 1364 Washington Avenue, the Bronx.

John Reisler Not Found. John the Barber, over 'whom the murder occurred, had not been located up until late last night by the police. A son, Max, known as Johnny Reisler, a promising light- Again weight boxer, was in Chicago. He was managed at one time by his father. The arraignment in Magistrate McCloskey's court was one of the most dramatic in Brooklyn's history.

Mrs. Reisler, hate raising her voice to a shrill pitch, told her version of the affair that ended in what she asserts was the murder of her sister by her own hand. "I did the shooting," she exclaimed. "I waited a long time to get her, and I only wish I had been able to get both of them. I am not sorry; I have no regrets.

"He, Too, Will Die Soon." "My son, Morris, didn't know I was going to kill her. I would like to go to the funeral so I could put a lily in her hand and one of my husband picture in the casKet. "Never fear, he will be dead soon, too. Some one else will take care of that. Eight years ago, before my father died, I gave my sister the best I had.

Then she stole my husband. Two years ago he left me. For a short time he paid for my gas, rent and food, but then he stopped paying even tor these. "I sued him for separation because I didn't want him to have "a divorce; that would have been what he wanted, because he could then marry my sister. They have been intimate for about eight years to my knowledge.

I told him that he could have any other woman he wanted, but not to take my own flesh and blood. "A Heart for Others." "When I told him this he. said, 'She is a nice little girl. I like her. That enough for "My husband has a good heart for others.

I stood near Bertha's house in the rain on several occasions waiting to get her. 1 went there last night after midnight, and in a little while my husband and Bertha came along in an automobile. Morris, George and Max were with me. WThen Bertha saw me she told my husband and he stepped on the gas and sped away. We hid, and in a little while my sister came back accompanied by another man.

This was Detective Donnelly. 1 "I asked Detective Donnelly to let me go into the house, but he refused. I waited around until he went away and then I went up and hammered on the door. They refused to let me in, so we smashed the door down. Tired of Waiting.

"Bertha was standing there in a nightgown. We argued for a few moments and then I -drew a .32 caliber revolver and gave her one shot. "Bertha grabbed my wrist, and with the other hand I fired another Scoops the Toivn Vacation Warn in Change of food and water may cause indigestion and the resulting stomach and bowel trouble, lay you up and spoil your pleasure. BELLANS gives quick and Sure Relief and you'd better keep a package handy in your grip. JWDiOESriO' 6 Bell-ans Hot water Sure Relief Jf and 75 Packages Bell- NEWS Iflfil New York.

Wednesday. Jul? S. 1922. 2 'Cent tgg ShSTj FOUR ICIM HELD 1 Fmj 'lirvii) RELATIVES ARRESTED Hisa Bertha Kate, wenr -eisht. wm allot three time Ithia morning fter four of hoc relatives had broken in door of her roartment at 1735 Sterlmi Place.

Brooklyn. The victim was removed ia a senoua toml tjon to i AS SHOWN BY the reprints above, THE NEWTS in an extra edition early yesterday morning printed the first story of the murder of Bertha Katz, in connection with which four members of her family are under arrest..