Omaha daily bee., 1889-06-07
TIE CRONIN CASE.
Sullivan's Connection With Lester &
Co. Expiained,

CHICAGO, June 6-In the Cronin inquest,
to day. the cashier of John I. Lester & Co.,
brokers, testified that between June l, 1882.
and April l3, 1888 Alexander Sullivan paid
to the firm, on transactions with the firm, the
sum of Sl33, 500; that during the same period
he drew out S115,3lS in checks, and stock
worth $4,000, showing net loss Of about
s4500.
One of Lester & Co.'s bookkeepers was
put on the stand and proceeded to read an
abstract of the transactions IN stocks which
Sullivan had with the firm during the period
mentioned. The list was quite long and was
not all read.
Captain Thomas f. O'Conpor, a member
of the Clan-na- Gael, says that in 1885 man
came to see him. This man, he believed,
lived in Philadelphia but he could not re-
member his name. The man told
him that some men were going
chances were that he (witness) would be
called on to go. O'Connor mentioned this to
his friend, DIR. Cronin, who advised him not
to go; that there were enough good, honest
lrishmen behind English bars who
they arrived, and that he didn't believe
in the dynamite policy. The stranger saw
the witness in DIR. Cronin's company, and he
did not come to see him again.
The only other notable witness of the day
was John f.. Beggs, a lawyer, senior guar
dian (presding ofticer) of Camp No. 20, Clan
na-Gael.
Beggs was cross. examined in a way that,
for freedom and scope, could scarcely be sur
passed. He testified that p. o. Sullivan, the
ice man. is a member of camp 20. Other than
this the relevancy Of the bulk of the witness
testimony was not apparent at this stage Of
the proceedings. The witness declared him.
self a friend of Alexander Sullivan.
The Daily News tomorrow will say: "It
does not appear the Irish cause lost any
money by Alexander Sullivan's banking
operations"
Mr.. Sullivan, when asked what bank his
account was transferred to from the Traders,
promptly replied the Chicago National.
Lawyer A. S. Trude, speaking for Mr.
Sullivan, in an interview said: "Mr. Sulll-
van was simply the agent of persons
or combination desiring to operate
on the board of trade, and his receipts show
the word agent Sullivan did not know
anything about speculations of this charac-
ter-probably could not tell put from a
call His name was simply used on Lester
& Co.'s books by a syndicate of bucket shop
men in order that they might do business on
the board of trade when their orders made it
necessary for them to do so. The syndicate
was made up of such firms as Murphy 81 Co.
Mr. Sullivan met some of these parties in
his law practice and was given large sums
of money with explicit written directions
what to do with it. They or their customers
were gamers or losers by the transactions
made by Lester & Co., not Alexander Sulli-
van.
"The public knows very well that the
board of trade would not sanction Lester &
Co., or any other firm doing an open business
for bucket shops, and this was the
reason for the concealment and the
use of Mr.. Sullivan's name. Mr..
Sullivan never drew check in
favor of any syndicate of bucket shop men for
any sum until he had the money in hand from
them to meet it, Coincident with the time
when he was thus acting as agent for the
bucket shop men, he received from Patrick
Egan large sum of money of which he was
custodian. This sum was transferred from
Paris to Now York and thence to Chicago,
whore it was deposited in the Trad
ers' bank, Sullivan knowing that
there was no loss to him personally
from Lester & Co.'s transactions, he cared
little what bank he drew the money from
He always had syndicate money IN hand be
fore drawing check to their broker"
Mr.. Trude said further, that Mr.. Sullivan
has Mr. Egan's receipt in full for the whole
sum intrusted to his keeping, and can trace
all Of the channels through which the money
was finally disbursed.