The Tiffin weekly tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1859-1868, 1866-04-12
Court Of Common Pleas.

OOurL Oh OOUluOu L ledS,
Trial orPATRIcK CRoGuAH, for the
murder of MICHAEL CoNNELL.
This case, which caused no little
excitement in the city, at the time Of
the commission of the deed, and at
the preliminary examination Of the
prisoner before the Justice of tho
Peace, came up for hearing on the 3D.
of this month. The prisoner, Patrick
Crogan, was arraigued for trial under
an indictment for murder in the I'd
degree. The person who was charged
to have come to his death at the hands
of Crogan, was an lrishman, by the
name of Michael Connell, an attachee
of the Gas works. A large crowd of
spectators, both ladies aud gentlemen
were in attendance at the Court House
to hear the trial, and many conjecturcs
were put forth as to the probable re-
suit. The prisoner himself, seemed to
be tho least interested of all, as he
gave no evidence of uneasinoss at his
situation, or else did not realize the
extent of his liability in case he was
found guilty Of the grave oRensc with
which he stood charged. 1t is said
that he had, by permission of the au-
thoritics, supported his wife and chill
dren during his Incarceration, since
August last, by working at his trade
tailoring. His wife and child were
in attendance upon the trial and were
permitted to occupy seats near him
during the proceedings. The trial
was commenced by statement to the
Jury Of the facts relied upon by the
State of Ohio for the conviction OF
the prisoner, and also, q counter state
mcnt of facts to be presented by Tho
defence.
FRANK WARnER, being duly sworr
deposed substantiallyas follows:
lie knew the prisoner when he saw
him. On the 30th day of Angus
last, he (the witness) was coming tc
town from College Hill some time af
ter Z o'clock, p. NJ, and saw Michae
Connell sitting on the steps at the Gas
Factory-witness sat down with him
In half an hour after this Thomas
Neibel, came along and also sat dowr
between witness and Connell. Ate
the s o'clock train came in, Patricl
Crogan, the prisoner, and Martin &c
ry came along, and were talking abou
smoking before going home, and pipe
} were pulled out for that purpose
About this time one John Hearron
came along and witness said to him
good evening, John" and tho roPI
wos chow are you Patrick" John
said to the prisoner, 4" | am going ou
to your neighborhood, you had bette
go along" and they went togethe
over the Rock Greek bridge. The.
were gone ten or fifteen minutes, anC
then the prisoner returned and walket
up in front of us on the pavement
saying to Martin Gerry, don't lister
to these fellows. That is ID
rascal" Michael Connell jumped ul
and said he would not take that -
Connell went and picked up stone
or something in the road. Thom.
as Neibcl and witness got up and wen
across the road, and then witness turn
ed round and dsaw Croghan and Connel
clinch each other, and saw them &C
down together on the pavement. Con
nell on top of Crogan. They fell, he
thought, on their sides but was no
certain. Croghan then got on his
knees and the other man on top oi
him, and was striking him over the
head with something, he could not see
what he had in his hands. He then
saw Connell stagger away from Gro.
CHAN, and saw blood running from
him. Witness then ran after DR.. Nc
Cullom. When he came back Con-
nell was dead. Witness was not gone
moro than 10 or Is minutes. When
Connell went for stone, was the time
when witness and Neibel, went across
the street. Nothing was said could
not tell how soon they fell after wit
ness turned round, but it was near a
minute-not long. Croghan was al
most near enough to Connell to have
struck him. Conncll made for brick
pile and witness heard him say, he
would not take that" and then saw
him reach for something.
CRoss-ExAMISED.--Co Connell was
about the size of prisoner, and was,
he thinks, over 80 years of age. He
used to work at the Gas House, and
he saw him some times lighting the
gas. He was strong healthy man.