The Crime of the Century; Or, The Assassination of Dr. Patrick Henry CroninHunt, Henry M.
History
The Crime of the Century; Or, The Assassination of Dr. Patrick Henry Cronin
Hunt, Henry M.
Cronin, Patrick Henry, 1846-1889; Trials (Assassination) -- Illinois -- Chicago
"I am not sure. He went up-stairs so fast that I couldn't see much of
him."
"Was he tall?"
"Yes; and I think quite straight and well built."
"What sort of a horse was attached to the buggy?"
"I think it was a light sorrel with a white face. I am sure about the
white face."
"Was it a top buggy?"
"Yes."
"Did you notice the man in it?"
"Not very much, because he went away so fast."
"Did you see how he was dressed?"
"I could only see that he had on a slouch hat. I thought it was a little
funny that they should be going up to the front door, because I had
always noticed that the people who lived around there went in the back
way."
Mertes had said nothing of this experience until he fell in with a party
of friends who were discussing the discovery in the cottage. Then he
added the startling incident of his night trip to the corner grocers,
when he was probably the only man besides the murderers who heard the
physician's death struggles. The authorities arrived at the conclusion
that the loud voices that had startled him were made by the murderers as
they fell on their victim, and that the doctor had been attacked the
instant that he entered the door, being given no chance to defend
himself. Taken in connection with the blows on the body, there was good
ground for the theory that he was first struck over the left eye with a
billy or sand-bag, and then hacked about the head with a hatchet or
ice-pick. The towel that was found about the head might have been used
at the start, to stifle any out-cry, and then to strangle the victim
when it became apparent that horrible butchery would have to be resorted
to to complete the job as it was begun. At the same time it was
acknowledged that this theory was hardly compatible with the broken
furniture, the blood be-spattered walls, and the other apparent evidence
in the room that the physician had made a terrible struggle for life.
THE EXPRESSMAN IS FOUND.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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