The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1889-11-14
THE CRONIN MURDER.

WINNIPEG, Man, Nov. 2.-Assistsnt
State Attorney Baker of Chicago had a
long interview with Bob Heffer yester-
day, and from him received a corrobora-
tion of of many of the details connected
with the butchery of Cronin which Gil
lette recounted on Thursday. Burke,
according to Gillette, took quite fancy
to Heffer at first, and was very commu
NEGATIVE with him, telling him many de-
tails about the crime. He told Heffer
that Coughlin was the main actor in the
tragedy and had engaged both him and
Cooney to participate in the crime. He
told Heffer that said sandbags were used
by two of the assassins, while the third
welded a base ball club. Burke was
under the impression that CronIn was
being decoyed to the cottage to attend a
woman patient, -Four men were waiting
in the cottage for him. They listened
for the sound of wheels, and at last the
carriage drove up, and an instant later
the doctor hurried up to the door. He
knocked loudly and hastily, as il he
realized that his presence was urgently
required. Two of the assassins stood
behind the door, ready to strike, while
one of the others from the inner room
called out in loud voice, Come in
The door was quickly opened and the
doctor strobe in. The instant he was 10
one of the assassins slammed the door,
while the other struck the physician a
terrible blow with a sandbag. The doc
tor fell heavily to the floor. Burke al
ways declined to say who struck the first
blow, and this fact, Mr.. Baker says,
makes it quite clear that it was Burke
himself, else he would have mentioned
the name. he always spoke about the
four taking part in the crime and pound
ing the doctor at the same time. The
moment the doctor was down the whole
four rushed on him with sand bags and
clubs pounded the life out of HIM. The
poor man struggled and moaned piteous-
ly. Blood poured from his mouth and
nose, and even his eyes. He struggled
and gasped for breath, and nearly ~
minutes elapsed before he ceased to gasp.
Then the fiends stripped off the blood.
stained clothing from HIM, and one of
them pounded his face 80 as to make il
impossible to recognize the body.
Coughlin then hauled the trunk over
and the body was crammed into it. One
of the quartette went out and brought
and express wagon which had been left
in a convenient place. When they went
to carry the trunk out, blood was drip
ping from it, and it ran on the floor and
on some of their boots. The trunk was
set down and the leaks in the trunk
stopped with cotton batting which was
found in the DOCTORS instrument case.
The trunk and its contents were then
taken to the lake, Coughlin driving the
horse. There was no boat at the point
expected and they tried to shove the
trunk cunt ON the water, but it would
not work. Anxious to get rid of the
body some way, Burke suggested that il
he thrown into catch basis. The suR-
gestion was adoped.
CHICAGO, No. 2.--Charles j. Carlson,
son of the owner of the Carlson cottage,
was the first witness in the Cronin case
this morning. He corroborated the evil
dence of previous witnesses as to the
renting of the cottage to the man who
gave his name as Frank Williams, and
whom he recognized in court as the pris-
oner, Martin Burke. The witness was
subjected to long cross-examination
which did not seem to develop any new
facts. He was followed by Johanna
Carlson, his mother.