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
"You can have no doubt that Martin Burke moved this furniture.
Mortensen saw him two or three times afterward; saw him on Chicago
avenue, always walking on the south side of the street leading to
the station, where Coughlin drew his pay for organizing a
conspiracy against citizens of Chicago. It runs on now to the 24th
of March, and what do we find? March 20 the cottage was rented;
March 20 this man Burke moved the furniture in, which was
identified by Mr. Hatfield. Something had to be done to get Dr.
Cronin out there. 'We have got the cottage,' said the chairman of
the committee. 'Yes, I have rented it,' says Burke. 'Yes, it is
near me,' says O'Sullivan. I am reasoning now from evidence. I have
a right to talk that way. Well, on the 24th of March Dan Coughlin
was in Mahoney's saloon on Chicago avenue, and was seen by Quinn
and Riley talking to P. O'Sullivan near the screen. They were
engaged in a whispered conversation and afterward came up into the
crowd. Recollect that before that Patrick O'Sullivan had been
charging that Dr. Cronin had been taking deputies into the
organization. Recollect that he had charged in open camp that
Cronin had been taking in deputies, and a discussion arose there
between Patrick O'Sullivan and Dan Coughlin about deputies. Then it
was that this man Coughlin said 'if a North Side Catholic doesn't
keep his mouth shut he will soon be put out of the way,' or
something to that effect. That was testified to by Quinn and Riley,
and is undisputed. This man Coughlin, whose mind was full of
murder, being chairman of this committee about Cronin, and about
the object of which he was talking to O'Sullivan, they having been
discussing the question of how to get Cronin to the cottage, it was
in his mind, and he broke out without thinking what he was saying,
without thinking that the words would come back at him in future
months. He says: 'A North Side Catholic, if he doesn't keep his
mouth shut, will be done away with.' Who was he referring to? Dr.
Cronin had charged that the triangle had almost ruined their
organization. Dr. Cronin had charged that the man who was the
friend of Coughlin was a thief and a robber. Dr. Cronin had charged
that this man had thrust innocent men into prison in order to cover
up his stealing. Why was Dan Coughlin thinking then of this
subject? Because he and this man were discussing how they could
induce Dr. Cronin to go to the Carlson cottage; because they were
then planning as to how they could get him there after Martin Burke
had rented the place; this I believe to be the true state of his
mind at that time. I believe they talked it over in that way just
as much as if I had heard it from their very lips."
ENTICING CRONIN TO HIS DEATH.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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