Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-06-24
MONUAs, JUNE "a, Isss.
Worked-up Confessions.


The Cropin murder has excited SC
much interest, and its rami6cations seem
to reach SO far and in SO many directions,
that there is dagger the public and JUS
tiee may be abused by the false testi-
mony or the false confessions of worth
less liars of the Woodruff stamp.
Perhaps, however, this fellow has
furnished the antidote to his own
poison by the frequency with which
he has confessed, and the pal
pable falsehoods he has so often
given out as truths. The trouble, how
ever, in cases that have assumed, as
this Cronin murder is rapidly assuming,
q partisan and factional character, is that
the reputation of the persons offering
testimony or confessing is lost sight OF,
and what they say is accepted as true by
the partisans of the side it favors. No
one who has read the history of the
'Popish Plot can forget how
Oates and Digby and other
false swearers ma nufactured the
most improbable stories and brought
innocent people to the gallows by tales
that would not have imposed upon the
weakest intellect at time when the
public mind was in its normal healthy
condition. Woodruff would have been
an invaluable tool in the hands of Oates.
He possesses just the kind of invention
and brazen effrontery that Oates could
have turned to account. Well, there is
danger that the public mind may become
partsan in this Cronin affair, and that
Just such wretches as Woodruff may i'm
pose upon it and do great injustice
to innocent men. His fabrication
about Sullivan, for instance, is not lack
ing in certain low degree Of art. He
represents Sullivan as at one point taking
the precaution of having no direct deal
ings with him, and brings in some more
Or less cunnipgly contrived talk. But
afterward he boldly brings Sullivan on
the scene of murder, just when the
deed has been done, and at another
time he makes Sullivan tell confeder-
ate in the horeethief's hearing to "pay
that rent" Most people will doubtless
conclude that such a story as this is too
thin to,wear long. Some will begin to
look for another version in which Wood
ruff willrepudiate the present confession
and try again. There may be two opin-
ions on the subject, whether Woodruff is
merely trying to save himself from the
penitentiary, or whether, beside this OBJ
ject, he has a mission to perform in
bringing ruin upon the Irish leaders in
America. If such loathsome creature
could point out places where anything
more was to be discovered, that would be
matter of fact acceptable so far as il
went; but as regards his word for any
conversation or occurrence it is utterly
valueless. There is danger to justice il
attaching any weight to the confession ot
miserable knaves in jeopardy and will
ing to say what is proposed or suggested
to them in the hope of being allowed tc
escape punishment. The subject of lax
police detective methods in fixing VI
confessions or inducing them by threats
and promises has been discussed on for
mer occasions. II detectives become SC
careless of truth and justice as simply to
want effects, no matter whether the limo.
cent or the guilty suffer, it is time for
good citizens to disfavor the guilty in.
former and the prisoncell confession of
the minor assistant in crime. What a
horrible thing it would be if some mis-
creant had taken steps to fasten apparent
proofs of guilt upon Sullivan. The like
has been done in all countries and all
ages, and many a good man has been
hanged through a deliberate conspiracy,
as a part of which some of his effects
were left at the scene of a murder or
some of a murdered mans effects were
put upon him. 1t is highly probable
that the Cronin murder will be cleared
up because of the cottage and several
facts about its occupancy, but there is
none the less need that the facts should
be patiently followed without more at
tention to the Woodruff stories than
simply to test every indication which
they may happen to contain.