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
"Then the trunk was opened and a stench came out. The horse became
restless and I had to get out and attend to him. What I saw led me to
believe that the body removed from the box was that of a woman in a
mutilated condition. I saw a leg that had been cut off at the thigh. The
corpse was wrapped in cotton batting. After the remains had been dumped
near a clump of bushes, the batting was placed in the trunk, which was
then thrown into the wagon. Then King said: "Leave us here. You drive
on a piece and hide the trunk some way or another, and then go home."
"I drove on for about fifteen minutes," the fellow resumed, "and then I
stopped at a hole and threw the trunk into it. Then I made straight for
the barn, driving as fast as I could. I reached there at five o'clock,
and managed to get in without any one seeing me."
"How was it possible for you to get the rig out without being detected,"
Woodruff was asked.
"O, that's easy enough," he replied, with a laugh. "You could go there
yourself, almost any night, and do the same thing. Howard (one of the
employes) is usually out, seeing his girl, and as for Charlie (another
employe), you might fire a sixteen-pound cannon under his ears, and he'd
never wake up. I went to bed as usual that night, just about eleven
o'clock, in the room near the stable. I lay quiet until I knew that the
boys were asleep, and then I slipped out and went down the stairway to
the floor where the horses were, carrying my shoes in my hand. I had
left the wagon in the alley outside, so as to be sure of it."
"What kind of a rig was it," asked the Lieutenant.
"It was a red gear wagon, with a black box and a high dashboard in
front. The doors leading to the barn are folding doors, which open
easily, and the floor is sprinkled with sawdust. I got the horse out all
right, after muffling its hoofs, and led it to the wagon in the alley,
where I hitched it up. I am sure nobody saw me when I got back. Somebody
used the mare later in the day (Sunday), and said when she came out, 'It
doesn't seem to me she's fresh, to-day.' I heard it all, but I didn't
say a word."
Woodruff was sharply questioned, with the view of testing his veracity,
but he stuck closely to his statements. He admitted that he had taken
the horse and wagon that he was charged with stealing from Dean's stable
two days before, and inquiry by telephone developed the fact that Dean
had reported his loss at the nearest police station. The prisoner
admitted that he had made up his mind to leave the city just before
being arrested, because he was afraid of Fairburn, who had told him to
say nothing about the midnight ride, and had warned him that if he
"peached" he would kill him (Woodruff), if he had to wait twenty years
to do it. Fairburn, he described as being short, heavy-set, with gray
hair and moustache. He was a desperate man, and one not afraid to commit
murder. King was about thirty-two, six feet tall, stout,
dark-complexioned, and of gentlemanly appearance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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