Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1889-06-07

| a. NuSS> " eAe sttuelilCeS now would
! oe worth heaven itself tn the Tories Their
! London Times case is daily nearing an ig-
nomlnious end and closely following comes
the greas congress of irish Americans ut
Philadelphia, where thousands upon thous-
! ands OF dollars, it has been expected, would
\ be subscribed for Parnell At this mo.
mentous iuncture suddenly stands revealed
a horror and scandal second to none in the
/ history of politics. Yon can draw your
| own conclusions. more than half have
mine. !"
People who arc investigating and dis
cussing the problem of Cronin's death are
not dealing with those things which are
intimately connected with his disappear
ance. They are leaving that to the detec-
tives. They are taking facts, conditions,
and theories prior to his disappearance.
They point to the accepted facts that DR..
Cronin and his friends anticipated that he
would be killed. The apprehension was
induced because he had been engaged for
years in a relentless pursuit of others
charged with certain otfense. That
ottense was the Misrepresentation of money
collected by the Irish people for the Irish
cause His endeavors were directed largely
against one man. He was using every
means at his command to ruin and dis
credit that man among mis- fellcw-Irish-
men. These a-priori facts in the minds of
these friends OF Cronin indicat, to them
what was done with him, why, it was done,
and the men who did it. But circumstan-
t!al evidence may be fatally misleading
DR.. Cronin had been for years the per-
sonal and political-Irsh political-enemy
of Alexander Sullivan of Chicago. ex-
president of the Land League He had at
one time accused Sullivan of the mlsappro-
priation of Irish funds to the amount of
about $50, 1000. Sullivan was tried in the
Grammatical for this alleged offense and
acquitted. Cronin presided at that trial.
The acquittal of Sullivan did not satisfy
either Cronin or Sullivan They went at
each osher again. Cronin was forced to
the wall. He was found guilty of treason
to the Irish cause.
But time brought swift changes. Cronin
recovered himself and rallied his friends.
He was reinstated il tho Clan ma Gael.
The charge Of treason was wiped out. He
resumed his relentless pursuit of Sullivan
with an ardor intensified by the bitterness
of his experience By an accident of
business the Traders bank of Chicago
failed. 1t was at this bank that Mr. Sulli-
van did business. The books fell into the
hands of a bailif named Mortimer Scanlan.
he found, it is said, that, or at about the
time Sullivan was accused of having ap-
propriated the Irish funds, he had de-
posted $4,000 to his personal credit.
This is Cronin's story. The murdered
mans friends now hold out an intimation
that Cronin had acquired other proofs
against Sullivan. All of these proofs he
had promised to submit to meeting of the
: Irish National league to take place at
Philadelphia in June.
, trial is now in progress in London
which has for its object the connection OF
+ ParEell with the Irish secret or assassina.
! ton societies. There is no prospect that
it will succeed. There is rumor that some
of the friends of Mr.. Sullivan say that this
So, 900 was paid to Parnell for use ir
l those societies. They say that this being
the fact, the trial being in progress, Mr.
Sullivan cannot disclose what he did will
} this money. 1t would, they say, suppl,
= the British Government with the missin,
link of evidence.
; Among the rumors is ore to this effect
. When LIE Caron was testifying in the Pal
y nell trial he was asked the names of til
other spies besides himself. These name
that were asked for were the names
Irishmen in the employ Of the British go,
, eminent to inform upon their fellow
countrymen. LIE Caron expostulate
against naming them, saying if he did S
| wv
that he should submit list of thes
names to the court and Queen
counsel This was done. From n
one knows where, impalpahle, unsus
tanned, startling, the statement has gon
forth that the name of DIR. Cronin was OF
this list of British spies. The story carrie
with it the statement that Cronin's dut,
was to spy upon the financial methods o
the Irish societies and incidentally to Great,
doubt and suspicion concerning the proper
disposition of the money raised. An &C
ceptance of this belief would make Mr.
Sullivan a martyr to the Vaccinations o
a British spy.
At any rate this story that Cronin wa
spy is af1oat He might have been {
spy. If he was'.a spy and was found tt
men to '.remove' him. That, at al
events, if understood to be their belief
There is provision, it is said, for JUS
such emergencies in the cons titutions Of
the Irish societies. t'Remove'' mean!
kill, abduct, assassinate-anythingt to put
man out Of the way. 1t might be thai
he was killed because he was indeed al
informer. Or, it might be that in orde1
to secure his removal" this story abou
his being spy was fabricated and launched
upon the sea of rumor.
1t might be that Cronin was not SPY
but that the men men who killed him be
lieved that he was. They might havi
been deceived.
HOW THE MURDERED MAN WAS DECoYE1
. FROM HOME.
DR.. Cronin has been a resident OF Chica
go for about seven years. He came her.
from st. Louis with Mr.. and Mrs. I. !
Conklin. with whom he was living at tn
time he was decoyed away. Cronin hat
made his home with the Conklins for tn
past ten years. His rooms in the Conklil
residence. at 40 North Clark street, wer'
luxuriously furnished.
On the evening of May stranger drove
up to DIR. Cronin's office and asked Mrs
Conklin if the Doctor was in. She replied
in the affirmative. He then handed Mrs
Conklin one of o. P. Sulliyan's business
, cards and said that one of Mr.. Sullivan
men had been injured. In few moment
DR.. Cronin and the stranger drove away
He lad his case with him and a small guam
tity Of medicated cotton. That was thelas
Se Sunday % y.n May ai'ye' S. Alderman Maxwell
found a bloody trunk at the junction Q
,, sulzer street and Evanston avenue. jus
nine-tenths Of IL mile south Of where tn
body of DIR. Cronin was discovered.
The Doctor was murdered and taken II
the trunk to where the body was found
and on the way back to the city the trun
\ yuoc 1um nod nff