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
The wagon was driven at such speed, however, that the officer did not
have time to look into the faces of the two mysterious men or command
them to stop. There was a large trunk in the wagon. Both officers saw
this receptacle. When the wagon had disappeared Officer Smith became
suspicious of the two drivers, and told Officer Hayden so. The two
policemen patrolled their beats until about 3.30 o'clock when they again
met at Clark and Diversey Streets. They had been there but a few moments
when they again heard a vehicle rumbling over the pavement. It proved to
be the same old carpenter's wagon with its mysterious occupants and its
old bay horse. But the trunk was no longer in the wagon. This time
Hayden walked out upon the pavement to look at the men in the driver's
seat. One of them wore a black derby hat. His companion wore a soft hat.
Both were young and muscular. There was no name on the wagon. Officer
Hayden saw all this, but he could not get a good view of the men on the
seat. He did not hail them because he thought the movement of a trunk at
that time of year was not extraordinary. The wagon rolled back toward
Chicago and Officer Hayden dismissed the incident from his mind; but
Officer Smith was greatly disturbed, and told his companion so several
times during the early morning hours.
FINDING THE BLOODY TRUNK.
The officers returned to the station at the usual hour, but neither made
any report of the mysterious wagon or its still more mysterious
occupants. At half past seven o'clock, Alderman Chapman, of Lake View,
was driving along Evanston Avenue, between Graceland and the Roman
Catholic Cemetery. He had reached a point five hundred yards from
Sultzer Street, when he saw three men standing around a trunk which
stood back of a bush, with one end thrust into the ditch which runs
near the thoroughfare. Alderman Chapman alighted and went to the spot.
The cover of the trunk had been forced open. The interior was
bespattered with blood and partially filled with absorbent cotton which
was saturated with gore. Chapman drove hurriedly to the Lake View Police
Station and gave the alarm. Captain Villiers and a detachment of
officers leaped into the patrol wagon and made a furious run to the
lonely spot. When they got there they found a large crowd of gaping men
and boys who had trampled the grass in every direction. The trunk was
taken to the station house. The first thing Captain Villiers did after
he cleared his private room of the curiosity seekers who had swarmed
into the station house, was to make a careful examination of the trunk.
He found enough evidence to satisfy him that a grown person had been
murdered, thrust into it, and then carted to the spot between the two
cemeteries. The trunk was new and large. A man six feet tall could be
cramped into it. A trunk dealer who was summoned to the station house by
Captain Villiers, said at once that it had been made either in Racine or
Milwaukee.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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