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
"It went on; people were looking in every direction; some thought
that Dr. Cronin, was alive, and others that he was dead. The
community was divided upon the question. Now, I say that Daniel
Coughlin--this man signing the pay rolls of the city and drawing
his salary for protecting the innocent--this man who ought to have
raised his club in defense of the injured--Daniel Coughlin was
hunting for the body that was found in the trunk, on the morning of
the 5th of May. At about 7 o'clock, you recollect, this Thiele and
two others, who were out on that Sabbath morning, found the trunk,
a common trunk with a common lock, unlocked with a common key, and
thrown off there, I suppose, by common hands; full of common blood;
full of blood--the bottom besmeared with blood, the cotton sticking
to the sides and bottom as if a hog had been stuck; as if it had
been running over with blood. This trunk was brought to the
station, and this man Coughlin--this cold-blooded wretch--starts
out----"
"We except," said Mr. Donahoe, rising to his feet.
COUGHLIN SEARCHES FOR THE BODY.
"I submit from the evidence," said Judge Longenecker, "if this
evidence does not make it out, I have no right to say so, but if
this evidence nails him to that cross, in this case, he is a
cold-blooded and heartless wretch. Assuming from the evidence that
his hands are red with the blood of Dr. Cronin, we charge that it
was a cold-blooded affair. He goes out and almost stands on the
catch basin where the body lay--hunting for the body that was in
the trunk. On the morning of the 6th, when the newspapers--for
which my friend Donahoe has such contempt--published the fact that
a white horse had driven Dr. Cronin away, the chief of police, when
this was brought to his attention, gave notice to the entire force
to see who had hired a white horse on the 4th of May. A policeman
appears at Dinan's stable and asked if he had a white horse out,
and he said 'yes,' and he goes to Chicago Avenue Station and sees
Captain Schaack, and when he goes there he also sees Daniel
Coughlin. Coughlin wants to know what is the trouble, and asks him
to say nothing about it, 'because,' he says, 'it is understood I am
an enemy of Dr. Cronin, and Cronin is missing.' That was what
occurred on the 6th day of May. This was the first utterance of
Coughlin in reference to the white horse or to there being any
charge that he was responsible for it. He knew then that Mrs.
Conklin and Frank Scanlon had identified the horse, and he knew,
without having to bring a witness from New Jersey, that the horse
that drove Dr. Cronin away was the horse that his friend got from
this stable.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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