The Crime of the Century; Or, The Assassination of Dr. Patrick Henry Cronin — John Shaqi
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
"A week ago last Wednesday," (May 1) he said, "I was in Sol Van Praag's
gambling house, at 392 South State Street, playing poker. I lost $8,
and, just before 11 o'clock, I got up from the table saying: I ought not
to gamble, I can't afford to lose any money. Just then William H. King,
an old friend of mine, who was standing by, said to me: 'I'll put you on
the road to make a few dollars if you want to.' I told him I was
willing," went on Woodruff, "and that I could be found at D. G. Dean's
livery stable, at 406 Webster Avenue, where I was working. We had
several drinks, and then went down State Street to Madison, where King
left me. He did not say how I was to make the money. But last Sunday he
came up to the stable in the afternoon, and called me out. We went into
a saloon near by, and King said to me: 'I want you to get a horse and
some light rig in which to carry a trunk, about 2 o'clock to-morrow
morning, if you can. I want you to do it quietly, and be sure to come
out before three or four o'clock. If you can't get out as early as that,
I don't want you at all.'"
Woodruff had been talking rapidly. He paused a moment for breath, and
then went on.
WOODRUFF'S LURID STORY.
"The wagon was to be brought to a corner a few blocks from our stable,
where King was to be in waiting. At three o'clock in the morning I
hitched a white horse to a light wagon and drove to the corner, where I
found King. He told me it was all right, and that there was $25 in it
for me. King got into the wagon and told me to drive to the rear of 528
North State Street. When we got there, we met a man that I supposed was
Dr. Cronin, also a sporting man named Dick Fairburn, who I knew to be a
desperate character. They went into the barn and hauled out a trunk. The
man I supposed was Cronin was extremely impatient and nervous, and urged
the others to hurry up. They called him 'Doc.' and when he was inclined
to get mad, Fairburn said, 'all right, Doc., we'll hurry.' When the
trunk was put into the wagon, King and Fairburn got in and the rig
started north, 'Doc.' being left behind. The horse was guided up the
Lake Shore drive to the north end of Lincoln Park. Here a strange man in
a high cart, driving a buckskin-colored horse, approached the wagon from
behind, and the men told me to hurry out of the way. I turned off the
road into a parallel driveway and went up about a quarter of a mile.
Then King told me to stop. While going up the driveway, King gave me
$25, and I heard him say:
'If we'd have let Tom alone, we'd have had the Doc. in here too.'
When the wagon stopped, King remarked as he jumped off:
"Here's where we drop Alice."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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