The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-09-11
CRONIN'S SLAYERS FREED
BECAUSE OF OFFICIAL STUPIDITY.
A Lake View Policeman Had Them Under
Arrest, But the Captain Let Them Co
Lawyer Forests Desperate Trick
A Jury May he Secured.

CHICAGO, Sept 9.-It seems that although
great deal of matter has been published about
the CronIn murder, the true story Of the discov-
cry of evidence at the Carlson cottage has never
been told until now. 1t is also singular that the
reporters who were working on the case never
discovered that on the night of May Z, three
days after DR.. Cronin was killed. two men, now
supposed to have been Kunze and Cooney,
were arrested and taken to the Lake View
station and discharged in the morning by Capt.
King. A local paper stated recently that there
was a certain Irish officer upon the Lake View
police force who was suspected of direct inn
plieatiOn in the murder of CrOnin. Other such
statements were printed by the same paper in
later issues. Finally the officer determined to
tell his story which is now made public for the
first time
Officer Isaac Robinson has been on the Lake
View force for several years, and has always
borne a good reputation. He is an Irishman by
parentage, but is not member of any Irish
secret society. Robinson had the beat in which
the cottage was located, and it was his duty to
patrol Ashlaud-ave. and the intersecting streets
for several blocks north and south of the
Carlson house At different times before the
murder Robinson noticed men going in and out
of the cottage and noticed lights within it.
He thought the cottage was not occupied and
asked Carlson who the men were that wentinto
it and why the lights were lighted. Carlson
told him that he had rented the place to two
men who sometimes slept in the cottage
and who expected soon to move in their furni-
ture and commence housekeeping. On the
night of May Robinson saw a man crawling
out of the basement of the cottage and daccOsted
L Dt,r1 hut he
believes that Burke was the man who talked
with him that evening. He said that he and
his brother were renting the cottage and that
he had been in the basement simply to see if
there was not good place there to store some
old furniture. Robinson was not satisfied with
the explanation, but he did not think he was
warranted in arresting the man.
At 9 o'clock the next night May Z, Robinson
turned the corner on Roscoe-st. and came
upon two men who were talking together in the
shadow of little real estate office 100 feet
south of the Carlson cottage. They had the
door of the Office open and were talking about
hiding something under the floor. Robinson
decided to make an effort to discover who they
were and what they were doing there. One of
them, who was shorter than the other, spoke IN
broken English, with a German accent and
said that they had lost their way and wanted to
get down town. He said that they were paint
ers, and lived on the west-side. Robinson
asked them why they were standing and
talking the corner if they wanted
to get down town, and why they
did not ask some one in the neighborhood and
find out the way. The tall man, with dark
mustache who spoke with an Irish accent an
swered evasively, and Robinson determined to
arrest them. Just as he started Tor the patrol
box man ran across from the direction of p
O'Sulivans barn and asked what Robinson
was going to do with the men. Robinson
recognized this third person the man he had
seen crawling from the basement of the Carl
son cottage, and told him he was going 10 take
them to the station.house, and if the stranger
said much would take him along. The man
said no more when he saw the officer recog-
niZed him.
Robinson went to the station with the two
men and they were questioned by Capt. Wing.
They gave their names and supposed addresses
and repeated the story they had previously
told to Robinson. No charges were entered
against them the books. consequently the
officer does not remember the names they gave.
They were taken down stairs, kept in custody
until morning and then released by Capt.
Wings orders. whats the use of sending
them to the Bridewel to cost the city of Lake
View % cents a day." said Capt. Wing to
Robinson.
The two men thus discharged, it is now be-
lieyed by Officer Robinson, were KunZe aud
Cooney. Their description answers that of
the two suspects very closely. AT the time OF
their arrest it was not believed that DR.. CroDin
had been murdered, it being supposed he had
left the city of his own accord. Two nights
later Robinson says he saw one OF the men he
had arrested coming out of the cottage after
midnight. He did not accost him, because he
considered he had been rebuked by Capt.
Wing when he discharged the prisoners Rob-
inson talked with the neighbors about the
goings on in the cottage, and concluded that
there must have been a crime committed there.
He told Carlson of his suspicious and
young Carlson went into the cottage and found
the blood stains The thought that Cronin had
probably been killed in the place suggested
itself to Robinson and he told Capt. Wing of
his suspicious. Capt. Wing listened to his
story. but did nothing. Robinson learned
more about the strange occupants in the cot
tage, and again spoke 10 the captain Three
times in succession the officer claims to have
told Wing of his belief that Cronin was killed
in the cottage, but nothing was done until the
week after Cronin's body was found. Lieut..
Seheuttler was sent from the Larrabee-st. sta
ton to Lake View, and, while talking with
Capt. Wing, learned of Officer Robinson's sus-
picions Schuettler went to the cottage and
examined the blood stains and satisfied himself
that the murder had been committed there.
Robinson has not yet been summoned as a
witness by the state.