Mower County transcript., 1893-12-27
THE CRONIN MURDER,


JUDGE L0NGENEckER TELLS ABOUT
MARTIN eURkE's CONFESSION,
He Thought He Had Full Story of tho
Cronin Murder, but Burke Changed
Front and Refused to Give Out the
Story-The Cause of the Change Only
Guessed At.
CHICAGO, Dec. s7.-According to a
story in The Times, Martin Burke was
at one time, after his extradition from
Winnipeg, on the verge of making a
complete confession of all the events
connected with the murder Of DIR. Gro
min. Judge Longenecker, at that time
prosecuting, now tells what narrow
escape he had from securing from Burke
a confession which would have changed
the whole complexion of the celebrated
trial of the conspirators who hired the
Carlson cottage for their awful butchery
Judge Longenecker's Story.
Burke reached Chicago in charge of
Chief Hubbard, who had taken immedi-
ate supervision of his extradition, and
had gone to Winnipeg to bring Burke
home, had him carried at once to the
Harrison street station. Here, feel,
made my first mistake. Perhaps ought
to have had him taken to some other
station. I went directly to the
station, where Chief Hubbard and I
held long interview with the prisoner.
I tried my best to get him to confess,
and am confident that I should have
succeeded had nobody else seen him be-
| fore my next visit.
"Burke," said to hun, ''we have got
evidence enough to hang you. There is
not the slightest doubt of that. We
! know that you hired the Carlson cot
tage. We know that you bought the
furniture which was put in it. We
know that you fled to Canada as soon as
the murder was discovered. We know
! all this and a good deal more, and we
can prove all we know. Now we also
know that you were not alone in the
murder. There were others. Now, the
people who are behind the murder don't
care anything for you. It is the others
whom they are going to try to get off,
They will simply use you as scape-
| goat, as a bridge to carry themselves
and the rest over safely. Burke, you
had better use the only chance you have
to save your neck, and turn states
evidence. I talked long while with
him in this strain. Then showed him
letter from his mother. 1t seemed to
be the finishing stroke.
Thought He Would Confess.
"When I left him that afternoon, both
Chief Hubbard and myself felt there
was not the slightest doubt that he would
confess all about it when returned on
the morrow. I left strict orders that
nobody should be allowed to see Burke.
But ex-Mayor Cregier and Stephen D.
May, who was at that time city prose-
cutor, if l remember Alright, procured
admittance and had talk with him. I
don't want to be understood as impugn-
ing the motive of either ex-Mayor Gre
gier or Mr.. May. feel positive that the
ex-mayor was heartily with us in our
efforts to convict Burke. Mr.. May also
had perfect right to see him in his ca
pacity of city prosecutor. It is quite
probable that they both wished to see
Burke from mere curiosity. Mr.. May
had formerly been a partner Of Lawyer
Forrest, who was defending the other
prisoners. Whether anybody else saw
Burke or not that day do not know.
Still, there were plenty of police officials
who had the right of entrance to the
cells.
Burke's Demeanor Changed.
''But the fact remains that the next
morning when Chief Hubbard and
visited Burke, fully expecting to hear
his confession, the prisoners whole de-
meanor had completely changed. In
stead of looking like man who seemed
to have lost the last straw of hope and
had determined to save himself by con-
fession, Burke was defiant. He laughed
at us, and told us that he guessed he
wouldn't confess. AS Burke was leav-
ing the station I told him again that he
was being used as a scapegoat. To
prove it said:
"'Just you tell your Wisconsin law
yer when you see him that you have
made up your mind to confess every
thing and plead guilty. See how quickly y
he will try and persuade you not to
do So
II think that Burke may have done
so, and that his lawyer from Wisconsin
may have wavered little. This may
account for his being supplanted by MI.
Forrest almost Immediately afterward.
have always believed that Burke in
tended to confess, but was braced up
and prevented from telling anything by
the same mysterious power which lent
courage to O'Sullivan and the rest when
ever they began to despair"
QUIET AND PEACEFUL,
No Change in the Situation at Homo