Sacramento daily record-union., 1889-06-10
Is DIR. Cronin Still Living? Is Stiu a
Mooted Question.

| SENSATIONAL STORY.
Is DIR. Cronin sdn Living? Is Stfn a
Mooted Question.
CHICAGO, June 9th.-The Times Yesterday
published remarkable story which has
| set some people to thinking, and has re-
! called to their minds some mysterious Incl
| dents in connection with the disappearance
of DR.. Cronin.
1t was o'clock that Saturday night when
he is said to have been called from his
| office. At o'clock the next afternoon his
| friends were hunting the newspaper men
with Cronin's printed circular to prove that
| he had been murdered, and insisting that
| he was the victim of foul play. etc. When
| Long sent the first Toronto special report
| ing an interview with the doctor on Mon
| day, the same friends who had distributed
! the circular on Sunday became furious. in
| stead of rejoicing at the prospect of finding
their friend, as naturally would have been
| the case under other circumstances, and
Immediately denounced the report as a
| pack Of lies and insisted that the doctor
had been murdered.
WOULD RATHER HAVE HAD HIM DEAD.
In fact, it appeared that they would much
| prefer to have his dead body found than
| the live doctor in Toronto
The man who drove the wagon SAYS the
| trunk was hurriedly loaded into the wagon
and driven straight TO the lake, where il
was to have been taken in boat and sunk
| in the middle of the lake, but when they
| were discovered in the act of unloading il
| they turned their steps and hurriedly
pitched the naked body into catch basin.
1t would seem that the body would
never have been stripped had they in
tended to sink it in a trunk in the lake,
| and one of the theories set afioat by this
| mornings story is that the doctor first pre-
pared the circular to pave the way or to
explain the cause of his proposed disap-
pearance; circulated it where it would
reach the public and give the impression
that he had been murdered in Chicago,
and thus stop the possibility of search
being made elsewhere for him.
A STIFF" FROM THE GRAVEYARD.
The idea is further carried out by the
supposition that he secured naked "stifs'
from one of the many medical colleges in
the city, or the graveyards not far distant
from the Carlson cottage, and the place
where the body was found
People who knew Cronin well were not
at all certain, on seeing the corpse, that
it was his until the notables in the Cronin
faction took the lead in declaring posi-
lively that no doubt was possible.
The editor of one Of the leading news
papers of the city, who had frequently met
the doctor, saw the body immediately after
the discovery, and upon returning to the
office, when asked for an opinion, declared
he did not believe that the right body had
been found.
NOT THE RIGHT BODY.
A Catholic clergyman had a similar ex-
in alh
that view. The members of insurance fra
ternities to which Cronin belonged were
| for long time skeptical after the discovery
| OF the body, until silenCed by the appar-
emily overwhelming evidence against their
| own senses.
The motive advanced for such an extra
| ordinay intrigue by DR.. Cronin is that ex-
| pressed in his Overwhelmingly, that his
death would be extensively inquired into"
and the affairs of Alexander Sullivan,
whom the circular increasingly refers to,
would be exposed with a thoroughness
which no other method would accomplish
Cronin is admitted by his friends to have
had an Unsuitable craving for notoriety, and
| such proceeding would be thoroughly in
keeping with the persistency and outland-
lsh expedlents previously resorted to by
him.
READY-MADE CLEws.
1t has been a frequent comment that if
| the traces left by the supposed criminals,
including the placing of the bloody trunk
| in the public road had all been for the pur-
pose OF giving the police clews, there could
have been no better contrivance. The
| tardily offered reward for the finding of the
doctors body has never yet been paid.
The Times story is told in a dispatch
| from New York to that paper, and says:
Inr - D. Ill.
| as one of the Buffalo committeeman who
| signed the report generating Alexander
Sullivan, and who gives it as his belief that
| DR.. Cronin is not dead, made the following
| statement to-day;
81 | refuse to acknowledge that l am the
Rogers referred to in the dispatch. refuse
to acknowledge that l have had anything
| to do with the Clan-na-Gael, or with any
report concerning the charges of Dr. Cronin
against Alexander Sullivan. If 1 am re-
ferred to as not believing that DR.. Cronin is
| dead that is true.
DO NOT BELIEVE HE rs DEAD"
II do not believe he is dead, and would
not be surprised to meet him on the street
| or to see him come into my office this mo-
ment'
What about the alleged Identification
of the body found in Chicago"
There was no genuine Identification, I"
said Mr.. Rogers. " In the first place the
body was not that of man who had died
! by violence. There was no fracture of the
skull-merely few scratches and abrasions
| such as might have been made to any body
| thrown into any such place. The key to
| the whole Tatter lies in the finding of q
| finger in the catch basin. The finger, be-
| heve, was procured from some medical col
| lege. DR.. Cronin's brother pretends to
| identify the body as that of his brother by
| the scar of complaint from which twenty
| five per cent. of the men suffer at one time
| or another. If man had suffered from
such complaint so that a scar would have
been left by which his body could have been
| identified, he would not have survived his
| illness.
Again, Dr. Cronin's sister is said to
have identified the body. When she was
taken to the Cavalry Armory to look at the
| body she was not permitted TO see it for
| half an hour. They kept her waiting until
| she was so excited that when she viewed
| the body it was impossible for her to iden-
| tify the bloated face.
NO REASON FOR CRIME.
81 do not believe DIR. Cronin is dead.
There was no reason for his death. The
| fact that he was engaged in an investiga-
| tiCn-no matter what it might have been
was no reason for the existence of ven
delta against him. The body might have
been placed in the catch basin by men in
| terested in helping the enemies of the Irish
| people. There are evidently some men
| deeply bent on bringing out to the public
| the purposes for which these moneys were
expended. If you have noticed it, the re-
| ports of the alleged Cronin murder in all
the newspapers the first three days were
remarkably alike, as if inspired by the
| same set of men.
| ITO me the whole thing looks more and
more every day as the clever work of some
smart men interested in making it appear
that Cronin was killed. The doctor, feel
convinced, is living, and has been sent out
of the way to help the scheme of an alleged
murder. He may not be cognizant of the
scheme, but he is, all the same, being used
| sklllfully to help it."
! WKAVING THE WEB.