The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1889-10-14
THEY TACKLED AN HONEST MAN.
Story OF the Plot to srIbe the Jury In
the Cronin Case.

CHICAGO, Oct 12.-One Of the boldest and
most corrupt plots ever bought to the no.
tice of the public was outlined by States
Attorney Longnecker's right hand man,
Mr.. Mills this afternoon. The conspiracy
not only includes county officials, but out
siders of high standing. and several arrests
have already been made but more will fol
low. Not content with bribery of men. an
attempt has been made to drag even inno-
cent women into the plot, and thus gain the
ends which the friends of the defence have
been working ON for the last five months.
States Attorney Longnecker desires me
to say, says Mr.. Mills, who was commits
stoned by the states attorney to talk to re-
porters, that this plot has not been dis
closed, because it would have defeated jus
tice had the information we possessed been
made public. We cannot now give any
names or the details, but an outline Of this
conspiracy can be given to the public. 1t
will be remembered that on Wednesday af-
ternoOn an honest young man, employed as
foreman in a large establishment in this
city was examined and excused for cause"
1t is understood, though not stated by At
torney Mills, that the name of the venire
man attempted to be bribed was George S.
Tachappat He is the foreman for B. v.
Page & Co., oil merchants. "On Thursday
IT.
prominent citizen of Chicago entered the
cout room very privately, and communicated
to the counsel for the state that his foreman
the venire man in question before being
called to the jury box had been approached
by bailiff OF the court, with an offer of
$1,000 to vote fer the acquittal of the defend
ants. He said; This is not ''cock and
bulP' story, and l bring it before you in the
interest Of public justice"
HE then went away, and the next morn
Ing one OF the counsel for the state went
down to the factory of the man whose fore
man had been offered a bribe, and the mo-
ment he saw the foreman he recognized him
as man whose honesty and independence
had impressed itself upon the counsel for
the state while he was sitting in the jury
COX. The man made full statement and
was requested by the counsel for the state to
come to the states attorneys office and re-
peat hislstatement in full. The man, with
tears IN his eyes, said 1T involves friend,
but II 1t involved myself L would uphold the
law and honor The gist Of his statement
to the counsel, which he subsequently gave
in detail to the states attorney is as follows
I'm obedience to summons he came to
the court house on Tuesday afternoon, sat In
the ante-room, but was not called. He
came again Wednesday morning and stayed
In the ante-ro0m again, and about 1870
o'clock man came from the court room into
the ante-room, who was an old friend of the
venire man. The fact also appears that the
wives OF the two men were friends before
they were married, The man who came into
the court room to the venire man suggested
that they 60 out and have cigar, and the
two men went to a neighbOring place. and
alter having cigar while there, the man
from the court room said to the venire man,
DO you want to make some money!"
a. Inc venire man innocently answered,
Certainly do"
livery WE'LL you get on the jury and
stick for an acquittal, and you will have
$1,000. The contract and arrangement can
be carried out with your wife. 1t can be ar
ranged so that she shall wear a certain col
ored dress If the money is paid to her on a
certain day. If the money is not paid to her
on that certain day, she Is to wear different
colorec dress, and the contract is to be off,
rhe venire man turned repr0achfully to
his friend and said, Il am not that kind of a
man, whereupon the bailiff replied, am
working for the court BE then pointed to
buggy standing outside and remarked,
That is my horse and buggy
AL the noon adjournment the yenire man
went back to his place Of business and sub
sequently returned to the court room at 2
called to the jury box, where he remained
until 80 o'clock, when he was excused for
cause. He left the court house, intending to
return to his place of business but, on leav-
ing the court house, met on the stairs lead
ing to the sidewalk the man who had at
him and said: Where were you this noon
time? looked everywhere for you.
They said "We will make 1T 5000,
and - him, make him do it, " 1t was too
late, however, for the venire men had been
excused for ca1se. but he at once returned to
his place of business, having reproached the
man for putting such low estimate upon
him, and reported to his employer what had
taken place, who, the following day, report
ed 1t to the prosecution.
At o'clock, the grand jury agreed to re.
turn indictments against Alexander Hanks,
Mark Salon. f. w. Smith and Thomas Kay-
anagn. Up to 7.20 no indictments were pre-.
ferred. The fifth indictment agreed upon is
against Jeremiah O'Donnell, recently ap-
pointed gauger at South Chicago. At IL D.
Ii. it was reported two additional indct-
ments, seven in all, had been made. The Of
ticial list of indictments gives six names,
Hanks, Soloman, Smith, Kavanagh, O'Don-
nell and Joseph Kohn.