The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-05-15
THE DIR. CRONIN MYSTERY.
SOME STARTLING DEVELOPMENTS.
The Driver of the Wagon That Carried the
Trunk to the Park Placed Under Ar
rest-He Makes a Decidedly
Sensational Confession.

CHICAGO, May 10.-The most startling infor-
nation on the mysterious case of the missing
Irish-American. DIR. P. H. Cronin, came out to-
night. bulletin from the city press associa-
tion issued this evening reads as follows:
Frank G. Woodruff, the hOrsethief arrested
at Twelfth-st., has made full confession. He
sneaEed horse and wagon out of Deans barn,
No 4O6 Webster-ave. early Sunday morning,
and met DR.. Cronin, William King and Dick
Fairburn at the barn in the rear of No 52S y.
State-st A trunk, containing the body of q
woman, was placed in the wagon. Woodruff
| drove, King and Farburn rode with him,
Cronin remained behind. Woodruff left the
body and his two companions in Lincoln park
and then drove with the empty trunk to the
| place on Evanston-ave. where it was found.
From conversations between Cronin, King and
Fairburn which Woodruffove he judged
| the body was that of woman killed by an
abortion, perhaps performed by Dr. Cronin."
Thursday evening the Twelfth-st. officers
arrested a young man who was trying to sell a
white horse and a wagon in livery stable near
the police station. The young man offered to
part with the rig for the snm of $40 and the
suspicious of Foley the liveryman were i'm
mediately aroused. He telephoned the station
and the horse-trader was taken into custody.
/ He gave his name as John Brown, and after
answering the routine questions always ad-
dressed to prisoners, his face banched, his
hands began to tremble and he fell IN
/ q dead faint. The officers wondered at
/ the time that the prisoner should appear so
much concerned, but the reason was apparent
/ this morning when he sent for Capt. ODonnell
and said he had something to tell him. He
/ was taken into the captains office, and, IN the
/ presence of several officers, voluntarily
! folded the story OF his connection with the
/ trunk mystery. To-day policemen investigated
his story and found IL cOrrobOrated by many
/ circumstances tending to show its truthfulness.
Brown said his real name was Frank u. Wood
/ ruff; that he was working for Dean d Co,
/ livery-stable-keepers,a at Nos. 404 and 406 Web
ster-ave. His story, told in his own words, is
/ as follows:
"Wednesday night week ago l was in the
\ Owl saloon on State-st. and met man there L
/ had been very well acquainted with several
years before The man was Billy King. His
real name, think, is William ii. King, although
] when first met him he called himself Harry
! BotswOrh. We had a number OF drinks in the
| saloon and then started together to Madson-st.
/ We exchanged condolences and among other
things told him was out OF money. / toll
him how had lost considerable money playing
cards-a great deal more than / could auOrd-
and that | wanted to get something TO do that
would pay me better than working IN the llv-
cry stable. He said to me: 4 can put you on
the way of making some money, and that
easily, too / asked him what it was, but he
said he would not tell me then, but would
later. just before separated he SAID that
he would call me from the stable some evening
and tell me how we could make the stuff.
Saturday evening at dusk, | was in the front
of the stable, when he walked past and mo-
toned to me- | went out and walked down
the street with him. He asked me II could
get a horse and wagon out OF the stable without
any ones knowing it, and told me be would
give me $25 if | would do il. / told him |
could, and we agreed upon place of meeting
/ at o'clock. ! went to bed usual, about IL
\ o'clock, in the room over the stable, but as
/ soOh as the boys were asleep | got out of bed
as nOlselessly as could and walked down the
/ stairway to the floor where the horses were,
/ carrying my shoes all the way in my hands.
/ / had taken the precaution TO leave
/ the wagon out doors In the alley
in the rear before going TO bed,
so all had to do was to get the horse out of
the rear door. ] chose the white horse, be-
cause knew it was good roadster. | muffied
its feet carefully and walked it out over the saw
dust, opened the rear doors and had 1t in the
alley without making the least noise. found
\ King waiting for me at corner on State-st.
/ He got in and we drove TO a barn in the rear
\ of big house on State-st We drove up the
alley between State and Dearborn-sts. to the
barn doors. King said very little to me
while were together in the wagon,
but | remember that he was smoking at the
time, and seemed very anxious about some
thing. AS we wheeled up in front of the barn,
the door was showed open by some one in
side, and two men came out One was Dick
Fairburn. / know Dick quite well, and have
known him for number OtNyears. The other
man, | am sure, was Dr. Cronin. Although il
was quite dark at the time, had several op-
portunities to look closely at his face. He had
a mustache and little goatee, and answers
/ DIR. CrOnin's description in every other way.
] never had seen DR.. Cronin to know that it
was he, and | did not hear any other men adj
dress him as CrOnin. They called
1 him Doe The three men went into
the barn together and returned with a trunk.
They lifted it into the wagon and then two of
them climbed in, leaving Doc at the barn.
We drove straight through the alley to the first
cross street. turned on that and then went up
Dearborn-st. TO the park. As soon as we
reached the park turned into the Lake
Shore drive and started north. / kept the
horse on a run all the time. / heard several
expressions in the conversation between the
men which convinced me that there was body
I in the trunk. Inthe first place, noticed that
| Cronin was anxious for us to hurry. Two or
three times he said, Get out of here, boys; get
| out of here quick and each time Dick an
swered That's all right. that's all right,
/ Doc; we'll hurry up when get started
81 noticed the trunk smelled If there was
decaying flesh in it, and when the horse got
Whl1 ne SnOrte0. W g drove nearly 10 the
north end of the park, then stopped a minute
near some bushes. King and Fairburn were
with me when we left Cronin at the barn. l
remember as | looked at him that one of his
! eyes was blacked as If he had been hit with a
/ fist. at the bushes we lifted the trunk out and
/ held the horse while it was opened. ! then
saw that my suspicious were correct and that
| there was body in the trunk. They lifted it
out in several pieces. / cannot say positively
whether it was the body of a man or woman,
except from one circumstance. / heard King
say: Here is where we leave Allie Farburn
answered: Yes, and if you had let Tom alone
we would have had Doc in here with her.
These remarks passed while they were car
rying the contents of the trunk back into the
bushes. | noticed that each piece was care
fully wrapped up in cotton, or something that
! looked like cotton. King lifted the trunk into
| the wagon, took out his pocket-bOok and
| counted out SIS from a large roll. He
/ passed me the money and told me to drive
on and get rid of the trunk and get the
horse back in the barn. After | left them
/ began to feel rather shaky and whipped the
horse into a gallOp, but had gone not over a
block out of the park before some one yelled at
me. l did not answer, but instead urged the
horse to do faster work. i don't think 1 was
over fifteen minutes on the run. Finally l
dumped out the trunk and turned back. 1t
/ broke open as it fell, but did not wait to see
| in what manner il lay or how the pieces were
placed. j returned to the barn.
"Where did you first meet King?" was asked
of Woodruff.
81 first met him at Port Huron, Mich. I
think he had been following the racese He