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
o'clock or a quarter after, the saloon-keeper says, and you will
remember that Wardell says he left a saloon near by about twenty
minutes after, and just at that time he happened to raise his eyes
and saw in front of him two men, whom he describes, and believes to
be O'Sullivan and Coughlin, and he saw them walk down to and enter
the Carlson cottage. Where was the third man? Do you remember that
about a half hour after that time, about half a mile south of the
Carlson cottage, a wagon was seen with a trunk in it? The two men
who went into the Carlson cottage went in there to help carry out
the trunk containing Cronin's body and the clothes, while the
third man went down and got the wagon that was to take the body and
the clothes away.
"Now, how is that met? We are told that the saloon-keeper is
mistaken, that this man never saw O'Sullivan and Coughlin and
Kunze, but that on the Sunday night Patrick O'Sullivan went there
to that very saloon with the two Hylands, and that they had two
glasses of wine and a cigar each. Gentlemen, you will remember that
the saloon-keeper, who is a German, distinctly said that the
smaller man asked for beer and spoke with a German accent. The
younger Hyland never spoke with a German accent in his life. Which
do you propose to believe--Neiman, the saloon-keeper, who has no
earthly interest whatever in giving false testimony against
O'Sullivan or the friends of Patrick O'Sullivan? These two
strangers who go to see him for the first time are compelled to
stay and take dinner, and are then taken out to the saloon and each
given two glasses of wine and a cigar at the expense of O'Sullivan.
Remember, gentlemen, he had never seen these two Hylands before
that Sunday afternoon. The truth is, that when they say those three
men were in that saloon, the two Hylands and O'Sullivan, they admit
unconsciously the fact that three men were there, as the
saloon-keeper testified; they admit that O'Sullivan was there and
the thing is narrowed down to a simple question of veracity between
the saloon-keeper on the one hand and the Hylands on the other.
There is much more reason, vastly more reason, I submit, why the
evidence of the saloon-keeper, who knew O'Sullivan perfectly,
should be believed in preference to that of the two Hylands, who
are ready to swear anything to help their friend out of a scrape.
Now, what else is disputed?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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