Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-05-29
THE CRONIN INQUEST.
Important Evidence Given by the
Witnesses Examined.
SEVERAL CONFESSIONS SAID TO HAVE BEEN MADE
BY coUGHLIN AND oTHERs-sTARKEY AND HIS
CONNECTION WITH THE CONGRATULATIONS
AND SMITH SAID TO HAVE BEEN ARRESTED.

ough- Each and every witness summoned was
put through a series of questions such as
called up their remembrance of facts from the
greatest TO the smallest in Importance.
Ihe chief witness was the milkman, Mertes.
SAID he: Il passed the Carlson cottage on the
night OF the murder. L saw buggy contain
ing two men and white horse drive up to the
door. The man seated on the left jumped from
his seat hastily and ran up the steps. He car
ried two packages. Before he had time to
knock at the door it was opened it appearing
TO me that some one waiting inside the
hallway. At the instant the man stepped in
side the door the man in the buggy whipped
up and drove rapidly to the north street,
where he went to the west and
lost to sight. 1 had been driving past
the cottage when 1 saw the man in the buggy
get out and run up the steps and the buggy
drive away. After attending to my business at
grocery near by, returned over the same
road past the cottage on my way home. THIS
was, perhaps, thirty-fve minutes later. SAW
light in the cottage and heard a hammering
| or smashing sound
1t was plainly evident from the above testi-
mony that the man who ran SO rapidly up the
stairway was DIR. Cronin, intent on rendering
succor to some dying man.
THE NEXT WITNESS WAS CARLSON, sR.,
the owner of the cottage, who said:
when the man who called himself Frank
Williams rented my cottage March 90 noticed
that he went over and talked to Sullivan, the
ice man. He apparently talked Familiarity with
him. As the 10th of April approached and the
rent day was coming near, began to think it
strange that my tenant did not occupy the
premises L wanted a reliable tenant. Seeing
the man had talked with Sullivan. / stepped
over and spoke OF his queer conduct in not llv-
ing In the house he had rented, and added
that felt somewhat anxious about my rent and
the permanency of the tenant
Hes all right said Mr.. Sullivan to me-
'He Will pay you all right enough when the
month is up" Mr. Sullivan at first denied
| that he ever the man.
The connection of Iceman Sullivan with the
Cronin mystery and the cause of his arrest and
detention are here made plainly apparent.
YOUNG CARLSON WAS THE NEXT WITNESS.
! for the state. Il was present" said he, when
| the furniture was brought to the cottage-two
days after the rental-March %. Two men,
calling themselves Williams unloaded the truck
The driver remained seated. He did not han
die the goods. L casually stepped up to the
driver and discovered that he was a Swede.
spoke to him In that language and he told me
that he had brought the furniture from III
Clark street"
The story of the men who rented the cottage,
having formerly roomed at III Clark street
where the furniture was taken by A. H. Reyall
IL Co., Is thus verified:
YOUNG MRS. cARLsoNs STORY.
C
She was young Mrs. Carlson, and was attired in
deep black with a heavy mourning veil cover
ing her face. Said she: Il visited NV mother
| ln-law March 20. While at this home-a cot
tage which sits in the rear of the fatal cottage
| a man knocked at the door and entered. He
came from the back part of the premises in the
vicinity OF Sullivan's barn or house. He said
| he desired TO see the cottage which was for
rent. Old Mr.. Carlson took him over and
showed him about the place. They returned
and the man said he wodld take the cottage. at
the same time producing Si2. tie
amount or the first months rent. He
gave his name az Frank Williams While the
receipt for the money was being made out
young Mr.. Carlson asked Mr.. Williams what his
business, calling or profession was This did
not suit Williams, for he looked sullen!v at his
questloner and at all of us. and then lowering
his eyes said: i am employed down town. /
remarked shortly after he left that he seemed
mad at the question. When he departed he
| did not go to the front, toward Ashland avenue
! but started over toward Sullivan's. He seemed
anxious to get out of the house."
The description given by Mrs. Carlson tallies
very closely with that given by Woodruff of the
| man he called King. and who, he said gave him
| the trunk-haUling Job.
MIR. and Mrs. Conklin, at whose house DR.
| Cron!n boarded. were the next witnesses. They
| told now DIR. Cronin was driven away in a buggy
with white horse.
There was report privately mentioned that
when COughlin heard of his indictment he at
once sent for Captain Setback and gave him a
complete statement of all he knew, acknowl-
eging that he had lied from the beginning to
| end about the Smiths from Hancock, Mich. in
order to save himself. and explaining his con-
nection with the conspiracy fully. An attempt
to reach Captain Setback failed and the report
could not be verified.
ali
cerned over his Indictment. and was known to
have had long conversation with detective
after midnight in which he gave the names of
| several persons alleged TO be implicated in the
! murder.
The last reports last night indicated that
| Sullivan, Coughlin and Woodruff were run
| ming race in the "squealing" line in order to
| beat each other In securing immunity from
punishment by becoming a witness for the
state. ltwas said Coughlin was in the lead
WHO WAS THE MAN?
| 1t is stated that the Pinkertons have ascer-
tanned that city Detectives Coughlin and
| Whalen hurried a man off on a northwestern
train on the night of May 4, the date of Dr.
Cronin's disappearance. The police Yesterday
made another investigation of the Carlson
house. and discovered some new nails in the
| floor. 1t was at once inferred that the con-
| spirators had removed some of the boards and
| buried DR.. Cronin's clothes, jewelry and medi-
|
| officers were detailed to pry up the flooring
| but the result of their search has not been
made public.
ALDERMAN McoRMAcK's DENIAL.
| In regard to the story told by private de-
tective named Bruce, printed last evening in
the Daily Ne,rs, to the effect that he (Bruce)
| had been offered a sum of money to kill Dr.
| Cronin. Alderman Mccormack says there is no
| truth in the story whatever. He says it is a
piece of spite work on the part of Bruce. Nc
| Cormack further stated he intends to take legal
steps to have Bruce punished for his false
| statement.
| LUKE DILLON is UNEASY.
| With the exception of W. J. Hynes, the attor-
neys, it is evident that all the prominent Irish
men are shut out of the police conference, and
are totally in the dark in regard to the course
being pursued by the authorities in the Cronin
| investigation.
Luke Dillon, of Philadelphia, has entered a
| vigorous protest against the actions of the Chi
| cago police, and says they are not on the right
| track, and will not listen to suggestions from
men in a position to put them in the right way.
He says it is not sure thing that any Irish So
ciety had anything to do with the murder Of
| Cronin, and is evidently angry to think that
| the police would think of such a thing for a
| moment, and is anxious to turn them from in
| vestigation on that line.
As matter of fact Mr.. Dillon does not know