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
Sheriff Matson, tall and commanding, appeared in that branch of the
Criminal Court presided over by Judge Shepard, at ten o'clock on the
morning of June 12, at the head of such a procession of prominent
business men as is seldom seen in the precincts of a court room, save on
occasions that stir the entire community. For the third time during his
term of office as sheriff--once in the Anarchist case, then in the
celebrated "boodler" trial, and again on this occasion, the Sheriff had
been ordered to summon a special venire of grand jurors. That he had
taken pains to get good material, and at the same time avoid selecting
any of those that had served on either of the two former occasions, was
apparent when he presented the twenty-three men to the Court. Their
names were called out as follows:
D. B. Dewey,
H. P. Kellogg,
D. A. Peirce,
W. K. Forsythe,
John H. Clough,
J. McGregor Adams,
Jacob Gross,
Francis B. Peabody,
W. H. Beebe,
A. G. Lundberg,
John F. Wollensack,
Isaac Jackson,
H. S. Peck,
W. J. Quan,
John O'Neill,
Louis Hasbrook,
Henry Greenebaum,
C. Gilbert Wheeler,
J. C. W. Rhode,
A. P. Johnson,
George W. Waite,
Henry A. Knott,
W. D. Kerfoot.
JUDGE SHEPARD'S PLAIN WORDS.
The Judge looked approvingly over the double row of intelligent faces
before him, and appointed John H. Clough as foreman. The customary oath
usually administered in cases of special grand juries, where some of
those summoned may be disposed to avoid service, was omitted, and the
regular grand jury oath was clinched with the statement, "so help you
God." After this the excuses of half a dozen of those who considered
themselves entitled to exemption came too late. Commencing his charge by
reading the section of the statute defining the duties of grand jurors,
and fixing the punishment for disclosing grand jury proceedings, Judge
Shepard went on to say:
"The prime matter which will come before you will be the murder of
the late Dr. Cronin. This appalling murder demands a most rigorous
investigation. Dr. Cronin, an American citizen, has been struck
down and killed under circumstances so horribly indicative of
conspiracy, premeditated design and malice, as to warrant the most
searching inquiry. Fortunately the power of a grand jury is fully
equal to the emergency.
"Men who can tell of facts and circumstances that will lead you to
the discovery of the guilty parties can be made to tell. It is just
as much perjury to falsely deny knowledge of a fact as to affirm
its existence. Nothing short of a refusal to testify before you on
the ground that his testimony will tend to criminate himself will
excuse any witness, and he cannot falsely employ that personal
privilege as a protection for another without subjecting himself to
the pains and penalties of perjury.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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