, 1889-10-25
THE cR0NIR TRIAL.
States Attorney Longenecker''s
Opening Address.
Capt. Villers and Jas. Boland
In the Witness Box.
No Very Important Testimony
Produced.
The Cronin Trial Begun.

CHICAGO, Oct. 24.-Long before the
hour for converting court in the Cronin
trial this morning hundreds OF spectators
were clamoring for admittance and it
required a small army of bailiffs to keep
at bay the eager ones who demanded to
be passed. At 10 o'clock the court was
called to order and States Attorney
Longenecker began his opening address
to the jury. He reviewed briefly the
long continued sitting of veniremen which
resulted in the selection of the twelve
men before him; defined the duties of the
iurymen. Defining the meaning of the
presumption of innocence. it was. he said,
a mere negative which stood in the way of
conviction in the absence of evidence but
must not be allowed to weaken the force
of evidence given. He next defined the
meaning OF a reasonable doubt which, he
said, must be so stretched as to permit
the jurors to avoid doing their duty.
The states attorney then proceeded to
define murder and set forth what were the
material allegations in the Indictment
which it would be necessary to prove.
They were hat DR.. Cronin was killed;
that the killing was done IN this state;
that it was done without adequate provo
cation. and that these defendants did it.
Then he defined direct and circumstantial
evidence. and spoke of the disappearance
Of DIR. Cronin and the finding of his body
eighteen days aiterward Inc said the state
intended to prove it was a murder as the
result of a conspiracy.
The states attorney then proceeded to
speak of the motive of the crime, and
said IN nr1ar 20 chAm mhaf fka rnnt,.yo
was it became necessary to examine into
the history in this country of an orgeni-
zation known as the United Brotherhood,
commonly called the Clan ma Gael Be-
fore doing this he reminded the jury that
they were not trying the Clan ma Gael,
but the prisoners at the bar.
He her proceeded to sketch a history
of the Clan ma Gael and said the ''tri-
angle was supreme; that the oaths of the
members made their demands superior to
the laws of the nation.
Forrest objected to this line OF statement
as inadmissable in advance of proof.
Judge Mcdonnell said he didn't know
what whould be proved. but warned the
states attorney that he was making these
statements at his wi peril.
The states attorney said he would
prove what he had said, and accept the
responsibility. He proceeded to say that
when Sullivan, Feeley and Boland got
control of the executive board they
changed the plan of work of the organi-
cation, inaugurated a dynamite policy
and implanted in the constitution a clause
commanding perfect and unquestionable
obedience to the commands of the board.
The defense again prayed an exception
to this line of statement.
The states attorney then went on to
say hat the membership did not know
who constituted the triangle, 20 secret
was it, but nevertheless they obeyed its
orders and we're sent on various missions
in England in the way of active work, aud
under assumed names. Nothwithstand-
ing this secrecy these men were betrayed
by the board to the English authorities
and twenty of them we're now in prison.
This was, he declared, to enable the hoard
to steal the funds and when at last a
showing was made the board claimed that
the order owed them $4,000, yet there
was $3.50, 900 in the treasury when they
took charge.
AT this point the states attorney in
troduced DR.. Cronin in connection with
the order and proceeded to sketch a his
tory of his fight against the triangle; told
of Cronin's expulsion, the subsequent
union convention and the trial of Sullivan,
Feelev and Boland by a secret committee
OF which DR.. Cronin was a member in
Buffalo a year ago last August. The
states attorney went on to say that the
committee was in session three days hear
ing evidence which he stated would be in
troduced during the trial.
Cronin wanted this evidence published
to all the IN of the order with the re-
port of the committee. No report was
made to the camps till a day or two after
Cronin's death, and even then Cronin's
part was suppressed. 1t was sent out in
this shape in the belief that his body
would never be found. 1t was insufficient
to make away with DIR. Cronin. but the
same unseen hand that regulated the con-
spiracy from its inception bad To make it
appear also that Cronin was a traitor; for
if Cronin had published his evidence
against the triangle. as he was about to
de, it meant the ruin of the triangle with
the Irish people and to have it published