The Crime of the Century Part 20

"What did he say."

"He said, after talking the matter over, that there was enough good, honest men behind prison bars now, and that I had better keep out of it." He did not believe in the policy of dynamite.

"Did you take the doctor's advice."

"I guess I did," answered Capt. O'Connor in a tone full of suggestiveness.

"How was the request brought to you."

"A man walked into my office about ten o'clock one morning, presented his card, and introduced himself. He said that there were some men going across the water, and that the chances were that I would be called on.

This was on a Monday, and we talked the matter over pretty fully. The Wednesday following I was to meet him again. That morning I walked down town with Dr. Cronin. The man was standing on the steps of the Sherman House. I stopped and spoke to him. He asked me who that man was. I told him Dr. Cronin. He seemed to know the name, at least he recognized it the moment I mentioned it. He said he would see me that afternoon, but after seeing me with Dr. Cronin, he failed to keep his appointment."

[Ill.u.s.tration: CAPT. THOMAS F. O'CONNOR.]

Although pressed to give this mysterious individuals name, Capt.

O'Connor insisted emphatically that he could not remember it. He said he knew Alexander Sullivan, but when asked the question, "do you know whether or not it was he who wanted you to go," he simply replied, "I do not." He went on to say that the request to go on such a mission, would naturally come from the Executive Committee of the order. None except this committee, could know the names of the persons who were sent across the waters. Alexander Sullivan, he had heard, was a member of this executive committee. The other two were Feeley and Michael Boland.

The latter at this time was the Police Recorder of Kansas City.

[Ill.u.s.tration: JURORS EXAMINING FINGER MARKS IN PAINT ON WINDOW BLINDS.]

Peter M'Gehan, of Philadelphia, was another witness. He was at one time supposed to be the man who had driven Dr. Cronin from his residence to his death. In a general way he answered the description given by Mrs.

Conklin, and his appearance in Chicago, at the time when the first steps in the conspiracy were supposed to have been taken, his destination being known only to J. J. Bradley, of the Clan-na-Gael executive, coupled with his loud talk against Dr. Cronin, and his a.s.sociation with the friends of Alexander Sullivan--all these circ.u.mstances caused him to be placed under arrest, although he was subsequently released. Not being found at his place of residence when wanted by the coroner, he was again arrested at his new boarding place, and put upon the stand.

In direct contradiction to the testimony of one of the previous witnesses, Joseph O'Byrne, M'Gehan denied that he had ever said that Dr. Cronin, with McCahey, of Philadelphia, ought to be put out of the way, or removed, or killed, or words implying any such meaning. He knew, however, that Dr. Cronin believed that he entertained such views.

Standing at the corner of Clark and Randolph street one evening with Thomas J. Conway, he saw the physician and Mortimer Scanlon coming along, and the physician, calling him by name, said, "I understand that you have used violent language against me." M'Gehan replied that it was a lie. To this the physician responded "I have been informed that you were sent here to a.s.sa.s.sinate me." This the Philadelphia man denied, saying that the doctor was a "blamed fool," and that the people who were circulating these stories were only trying to make them enemies. M'Gehan was closely questioned as to his movements since his arrival in Chicago, and admitted that he had visited several of the Camps, including the one of which Dr. Cronin was senior guardian, and that he had borrowed money from several of the avowed enemies of the physician, although he had not been acquainted with them before reaching Chicago.

Nothing was developed however to connect him, even indirectly, with the tragedy.

[Ill.u.s.tration: P. M'GEHAN.]

This branch of the case was closed with some very interesting testimony from J. G. Hagerty, a railroad clerk. His story was, that sometime in 1885, a circular had been issued by the Clan-na-Gael, stating that several hundred British detectives had been sent from Scotland Yard for the purpose of finding out the secrets of the Irish revolutionists in this country, and hence all the members were on the _qui vive_ for information as to the possible traitors in their midst. One night while he (the witness) was walking on the street with Alexander Sullivan, the latter had expressed the opinion that the doctor was a scoundrel and a menace to the Irish cause, and that it would be a benefit if the cause were rid of him.

"Did Alexander Sullivan say anything to you that night about having any idea that Dr. Cronin's life ought to be taken" asked the Coroner.

"That was my impression" answered the witness, "that was the view I took of the conversation and I must say that I coincided with him at the time. I believe that men who are trying to get the secrets of people, who are trying to elevate themselves should be exterminated, and I gained that opinion from the reports I had heard, especially from Timothy Crean, who is now dead, and who with other men had been instrumental in scattering this information, which, as I now believe, was scattered for the removal of Dr. Cronin."

"Did Alexander Sullivan use the words that Dr. Cronin ought to be removed," the witness was asked.

"I would not swear that the words were used exactly as you state them, but that was my impression at the time."

"Did you get the impression that that was what he meant."

"Certainly I did."

"Could he at that time or any time later have spoken to others in the same way."

"Most undoubtedly--to hundreds."

"Tim Crean had told me things that Alexander Sullivan had said," went on the witness, "and among them that this man was a traitor. The word traitor to an Irishman's visor calls up a terrible vengeful feeling. It does in me, the Irishmen know what informers are and do not feel leniently toward them. The impression that I got from Mr. Sullivan's talk was that this man should be removed from our ranks in some way or another; that he was a menace to the cause and to the success of the objects which we were trying to accomplish. I must say that at that time and since, Mr. Sullivan was not alone in the opinion as to the removal of men of that description--that is, the removal of them from our ranks, not by death, but that we should get them out of our organization. There was nothing more laudable, considering the actions of Le Caron, who as is now proven to have been Mr. Sullivan's friend, according to the evidence now before you. Le Caron was introduced to me on the evening of that conversation by Mr. Sullivan as a man worthy of our confidence and of the highest character, and coming from such a source, it being understood that Sullivan occupied a high office in the order, and considering the confidence with which he was looked up to by the Irish people at that time, myself, being nothing but a plebian, I could not but believe what he said."

"Did you believe that Dr. Cronin was a traitor."

"Yes; Mr. Sullivan gave me that information; that was his idea. He did not give me any proof, but considering his position, I could not do otherwise than take his ipse dixit for it. I will say, however, that up to the recent revelations I certainly had no idea at all that Mr.

Sullivan could have been the man he is now represented to be. I must say in justice to myself I had no idea that he could have come as near being an accessory to this diabolical 'removal,' as he is now represented to be by the circ.u.mstantial evidence before you."

"Is there anything in your obligation and the const.i.tution of the order that would make you believe that you ought to remove a man if your executive ordered you to do so."

"No sir."

"That you ought to take life?"

"No sir, I would not do it if the order came to me."

"Do you think that a man of less principle or brains might do so?"

"I certainly believe now, to my sorrow, that such might be the result."

After this witness had left the stand it was proven by the evidence of the Sergeants of the Chicago Avenue Police Station that, for some time prior to May the 4th, Coughlin and O'Sullivan, the iceman, were in daily communication over the telephone, and that the latter had several times sent messages to the Detective to come over to his house, his office, or his barn.

ALEXANDER SULLIVAN'S SPECULATIONS.

Considerable time was devoted to the investigation of Alexander Sullivan's speculations through various Chicago Brokers on the Board of Trade. It was first shown that in May, 1882, upon the return of Alexander Sullivan from Paris, where he had been for some two months, the sum of $100,000 had been deposited to his credit in the Continental National Bank of New York. This deposit was in turn transferred to the Traders' Bank of Chicago, where it was credited to "Alexander Sullivan, agent." The books of this Bank, which had failed in 1888, when produced by Bryon L. Smith, the receiver, showed that checks had been drawn by Sullivan against this deposit, payable to John T. Lester & Co., the Board of Trade men, in the following order:--June 1st, 1882, $30,000; June the 6th, $30,000; August 26th, $25,000; Sept. 6th, $5,000; October 6th, $10,000. The entire one hundred thousand dollars, therefore, had within the short s.p.a.ce of less than five months pa.s.sed into the hands of the Brokers. From the books of the firm it was found that between June the 1st and August the 30th, of that year, Sullivan had traded almost daily in railroad and telegraph stocks in blocks ranging from 100 to 5,000 shares each day. It was also shown that between June 1882 and June 1883, he had given his checks to the firm to a total of $133,000, and received from the firm checks and stocks aggregating about $128,000, indicating a loss of but $5,000 on these extensive transactions. These checks, however, failed to find their way back again to the Traders'

Bank. There was no record of any further transactions of this character on the part of Mr. Sullivan until 1886, when he was concerned in some speculations in grain through the house of Morris Rosenfeld & Co. He was a winner up to July, 1887, when the great Cincinnati wheat corner broke, his profits were swept away and he sustained a loss, which he settled by giving his note for an amount somewhere between one and two thousand dollars. This indicated that between the first and the last transactions he had gotten rid of the $95,000 turned over to him by J. T. Lester & Co. What had become of this large sum of money was a mystery. Perhaps it had been lost in speculation, perhaps it had been returned to Patrick Egan, from whom, as was generally supposed, it had originally been obtained.

LUKE DILLON'S PLAIN WORDS.

[Ill.u.s.tration:

Luke Dillon. John F. Beggs. John Moss. Pat McGarry.

Police Capt. Officer Brown. Chief of Police Mrs. T. T. Conklin.

O'Donnell. Hubbard.

PRINc.i.p.aL WITNESSES BEFORE THE CORONER'S JURY.]

It was not until June the 7th, in the closing days of the inquest, that Luke Dillon, one of the nine members of the Executive Committee of the Clan-na-Gael in America, and who had taken a leading and determined part in the movement to unravel the mystery which enshrouded the murder of Dr. Cronin, was called as a witness. Those who were in the court room when he ascended the stand, saw a man above the medium statue, broad shouldered, of well-knit figure, square cut face and well moulded features. His dark blonde hair receded slightly from his forehead; while a full blonde mustache of lighter hue shaded his firm compressed lips.

His chin was square, indicating tremendous energy and great determination of character. His voice was full, resonant and well modulated, and he spoke fluently and yet in a measured way that indicated caution. In answer to the questions of the Coroner he said that he was a member of the Clan-na-Gael, but that there was nothing in the obligation which he had taken that conflicted with the laws of the United States. He went on to say that Dr. Cronin, shortly before his murder, had said to him that the personal ambition of Alexander Sullivan, to rule both in Ireland and American politics would be the cause of his (Cronin's) death, for he felt that the man had no more blood than a fish and would not hesitate to take his life. The witness related the circ.u.mstances connected with the meetings of the trial committee at Buffalo and New York, and the examination proceeded in this wise:

"Can you give the jury any other reason why Alexander Sullivan should be an enemy of Dr. Cronin?"