The climax. [volume] (Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) 1887-1897, 1889-12-25
HISTORY OF THE CRONIN CASE.

at Chicago. Below we give a history of
the case, which is in many respects the
most marvellous has ever produced:
Dr. Patrick Henry Cronin seven years
ago came to Chicago to practice his pro-
fessiOn as a physician and surgeon. He
came from st. Louis and located his
Office and residence with the family of
T. T. Conklin, on the second floor of the
building on the northwest corner of Oak
and Clark streets. He afterward moved
TO the Windsor Theater block on North
Clark street, near Division, where he re-
sided with the COnklin family, and he
established his office in the Chicago
Opera House building.
The night Of May last DR.. Cronin
was called to the Carlson cottage in Lake
View and there done to death. His body
was stripped and put into a trunk, car
ried to a catch basin IN the sewer on
Evanston avenue, and there thrown in.
For days afteTward only the fact of his
disappearance was known. The COnk-
Inns and other intimates of the doctor
claimed that he had been murdered, but
MANY people would not credit so CHASTITY
aud fanatic theory. Nobody outside of
the secret society to which the doctor
belonged knew anything Of the internal
feuds and the rancOrOus feeling which
had grown up, and people generally in
clined to easier and less sensational ex-
plantations.
Some said there was a woman in the
case; others that the doctor was not
quite right mentally and had wandered
aimlessly away: still others that he was
n R-fNfe1. graa ha1 70 50, "a
Caron in London, where he would APP
pear before the Parnel commission.
The case was confused in many ways.
but in none more than by the lying dis
patches sent by the mau Long from To-
ronto, who declared that he had seen
and talked with the missing physician
in that city. This story was told with
such detail and circumstantiality that it
imposed on the Chicago papers and the
Chicago public, and was supposed for a
time to be the solution of the mystery.
There were cOnfirmatOry Incidents A
young woman named Annie Murphy,
with no apparent reason for misleading
justice, stated that she saw DR.. CrOnin
riding in a street car on the night of the
murder after the crime had been COM
mitted. She was cOrrObOrated by the
car conductor, and this, taken with
stories about the doctor which were then
so industriOusly circulated, tended to
make every one believe that murder was
the one theory which would not explain
the facts.
A bloody trunk was found, but even
that could not be fitted to any rational
theory of the case. The COnklins and
other Irish partisans of Cronin still de-
clared that it was a case of dastardly
assassination, and they even mentioned
the name Of the man against whom their
suspicion DOinted-a name that CrOnin
himself had given in the remarkable
document he had prepared some time be-
fore his end.
As the DAYS went by the whole mvs-
terry was fading ont of the public mind,
when. Nav %, DR.. Cronin's BODY was
found in the catch basin, where it had
been thrown.
Public indignation blazed, and the
hunt for the criminal was begun with
vigOr that soon produced results. The
cottage where the deed was committed
was foun1 with the blood stains clumsiIy
daubed over with pa MT. In the house
were many evidences of theawful crime,
and the body itself told the tale of
treacherv and death.
Patrick O'Sullivan. an ice dealer, was
the first to be vehemently suspected of
completely. He had made a suspicious
contract for medical services with DR..
CrOnin under suspicious circumstances.
His cards were used to lure the doctor to
the shambles. He was a member Of the
Clan-na-Gael and a sympathizer with
those whom Cronin attacked. When the
man with the buggy came to take Gro
min on his last visit he stated that one of
O1Sullivan's employees had been badly
hurt. The card which the man gave the
doctor was one of a new set which had
only been delivered to O'Sullivan the day
before, May 3, on which, instead of call
ing his firm "P. O'Sullivan & Company, !"
1t was called ''The O'Sulivan Ice com
pany."
Besides, this O'Sullivan was known to
be very intimate with the men who rent
ed the Carlson cottage, Martin Burke
and Pat. COoney, both of whom stated
TO the Carlsons that they were going to
work for O'Sullivan. Not alone this, but
O'SUliivan subsequently told Mrs. Carl
son that he knew her tenants and would
be responsible for the rent. The Evil
liams brothers" really Burke and
COoney, and O'Sullivan were constantly
Atr-tAAANls " ltll AlOAAEAAl-n el41D tllt lCt-
mans relations were most intimate, as
they had been for a long time, and it
was OSullivan's horse that Kunze used
to drive Coughlin out to the Carlson cot
tage on the night Of the murder.
The ringleader of the conspiracy was
Dan. COughlin. a detective attached to
the East Chicago avenue police station.
He hired from Patrick Fl. Dinan's livery
stable the white horse with which DR..
CrOnin was driven out to Lakeview, and.
meeting Oman at the station afterward.
asked him not 10 speak to Capt. Schaak
about it, as he was known to he an enc
my Of Cronln, and n suspicion of that
sort would hurt him. His story was
that he had hired the horse for a friend
from Michigan. Coughlin was a ITEM
Der Of Camp 20 of the Clan-na-(1ael and
one of the most active in the attack on
CrOnin in that society.
The furniture in the Carlson cottage,
and the trunk and the sachel, the frame
of which was subsequently found in a
sewer aRd identified, were bought from
A. II. Revell Company by a man named
J. B. SimOnds, and by him it was taken
10 flat at III Park street, occupied by
Burke and COOney and Kunze. and after
ward removed by the two former to the
Carlson cottage through an expressman,
Martensen. who identified both. Cough
lin, Cooney, Burke and O'Sullivan were
all members of Camp 20, of which John
T. Beggs was senior guardian. Beggs'
election was the first step in the re
mOval7 Of Dr. Cronin. A committee
was appointed in Camp 20. trial was
held CrOnin was sentenced to death,
and the sentence was carried out in a
most dastardly and CHASTITY manner.
On the Sth of November a gang OF
sewer cleaners found in a sewer on
Evanston avenue the clothing worn by
DR.. CrOnin when he was called away
from home on the evening Of May 4. to
gether with his case Of instruments and
other articles which he carried with him.
They were packed in a valise purchased
by Sim0nds at RevelIs at the time the
furniture was bought Al were posi-
lively identified.
O'SULLiVAN MAY CONFESS.
The Weight Of His Guilt WIN Rot Permit