Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-09-10
THE CRONIN CASE.
True History of the Carlson
Cottage Evidence.
OFFICER ROBINsON'S DISCLOSURE
Damaging Evidence Against Burke,
Kunze and CoOney-NO
Jury Yet.

Jury Yet.
ASSOCIATED Press Dispatches to the HERALD. !
CHICAGO, September 9.-It seems that
although great deal of matter has been
published about the Cronin murder, the
true story of the discovery of the evil
dence at the Carlson cottage is now told
for the first time. 1t is also singular
that the reporters who were working on
the case never discovered that on the
night of May 9TH two men, now supposed
to have been Kunze and Cooney, were
arrested, taken to Lakeview Station, and
discharged in the morning by Captain
Wing. A local paper stated recently
that there was certain Irish officer on
the Lakeview police force who was sus-
pected of direct implication in the case.
Other similar statements were subse-
quently printed, and the officer deter
mined to tell his story.
OFFICER ISAAC ROBINSON
Has been on the Lakeview police force
several years and has always borne a
good reputation. He was not member
OF any Irish secret society. At different
times before the murder Robinson no.
ticed men going in and out of the Carl
son cottage, and asked Carlson about it.
Carlson told him he had rented the cot
tage to two men who expected to move in.
On the night of May 9th Robinson saw
man crawling out of the basement
OF the cottage whom he now believes TO
have been Burke. In reply to the Off
GERS queries he said he was one of the
renters and had been looking in the
basement with view to storing furni.
ture. Robinson was not satisfied, but
bad no authority to arrest the man. The
next night he came upon two men talk
ing together in front of little real. estate
Office south of the Carlson cottage. They
had the door of the Office open and were
talking about
HIDING SOMETHING UNDER THE FLOOR,
One OF them, who spoke in broken
English with German accent, told the
officer that they had lost their way and
wanted to get down town. He said they
were painters and lived on theWest Side.
Robinson wanted TO know why thew
stood there talking if anxious to get down
town, and the other man, who spoke
with an Irish accent answered evasively.
Robinson determined to arrest them. AS
he started for tho patrol box a man ran
across from the direction of O'Sullivan's
barn and demanded to know what he
was doing. Robinson recognized this
person as the man he had
seen crawling from the base
ment of the Carlson cottage, and
answered sharply that if the stranger
said much he would take him along too.
The man said no more, and Robinson
took his prisoners to the station, where
they repeated the story they first told
him. In the morning they were re-
leased by Captain Wings orders. that
officer saying: "What is the use of send
ing them to Bridewell, TO cost the civ
twenty. five cents day? ?"
The two men thus discharged, it is
now believed by Officer Robinson, were
KUNzE AND CooNEY.
Their description answers to that of the
two suspects very closely. At the time
of their arrest it was not generally he.
lieved that DR.. Cronin had been muir.
dered. Two nights later Robinson eays
he saw one of the men he had arrested
coming out of the cottage after midnight.
He did not accost him because he con-
sidered he had been rebuked by CAPTAIN
Wing when the prisoner was DISCHARGED
Robinson talked with the neigh
bors about the matter, and con-
cluded there must have been a
crime committed in the cottage.
He told Carlson, and young Carlson went
into the cottage and found the blood.
efQJnG Tho thny1Uhf <Io%
probably been killed in the place sug-
gested itself to Robinson, and he told
Captain Wing of his suspicious. The
Captain listened to the story, but did
nothing: Three times in succession the
officer claims to have told Wing of his
belief that Cronin was killed in the cot
tage, but nothing was done until week
alter Cronin's body was found, when
Lieutenant Schuttler, who was sent
from down town to Lakeview, heard of
Robinson's suspicious and investigated
the matter, and the cottage story was
then made public.
Another officer at the station at Lake.
view says he knows Kunze and that he
WAS not one OF the two prisoners brought
in on the night of May 9TH. He also says
the prisoners were released by the Patrol
Sergeant and not by Captain Wing.
A SENSATION AT THE COTTAGE,
There was a sensational affair at the
Carlson cottage, the supposed scene of
the Cronin murder tonight. Lawyer For
rest, of the defense, with three
companions, drove up to the
cottage early in the evening, and paving
the usual admission fee, entered. Mr..
and Mrs. Lingren, son-in-law and dauph-
ter OF the old Carlson couple, were the
only other persons in the cottage at the
time. They gave the visitors the usual
description of the suppositious incidents
OF the murder, pointing out the blood
stains. These latter are enclosed by a
wooden railing to keep the relic hunters
out. Forrest asked Lindpren the
whereabouts of the house of the ice
man, O'Sullivan, and Lindgren accom-
modatingly escorted him to the window
and described the locality. While thus
engaged Forests companions jumped
over the railing, and with sharp fools
proceeded to remove from the floor and
wall pieces containing blood stains. |
Lindgren, after vainly trying to make
them desist, shouted for assistance. Old
man Carlson came running in with
cooked revolver, but Forests
companions eiezed and disarmed
him. They then re.entered their car.
riape carving with thopo tba ,o,rot.a