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
And so for hours the friends of the murdered man came in singly, and in
twos and threes, and added their testimony to what had already been
given. Many of them were profoundly affected, and there were many
pitiable scenes of grief as one man after another turned away from the
bloated corpse that was all that remained of the man with whom they had
been so closely associated for years. Captain Wing, when interrogated,
said that the place where the body was found was a particularly lonely
one, the nearest house being over a block away. A hundred yards to the
east was the depot of the Chicago & Evanston railroad. The spot was a
little over three-quarters of a mile beyond the point where the trunk
was found on the morning after the physician's disappearance, and four
miles north of Fullerton avenue. It was surrounded with swampy land, the
few trees growing to the north serving to shut off the view from the
residences that were located in the neighborhood.
All this time the excitement outside was at fever heat. For hours the
streets in the neighborhood were crowded with vehicles, and thousands of
people blocked the approaches to the morgue until the police were
compelled to use their clubs again and again. The station was filled
with Chicago officers, who consulted with those of the suburb upon the
best method to be adopted with the view of running down the assassins.
The tumult continued until midnight, and then the morgue was cleared in
order that a more careful examination of the head might be made by Dr.
Gray. It was first placed in an upright position and photographed, and
when he had finished his examination, Dr. Gray said:
"There are five wounds. No. 1 is on the front parietal suture, just
here," and he took a skull which he had brought with him and used it in
the demonstration. "That could easily have been fatal in itself. No. 2
is on the vertex, to the right of the sagittal suture," and he touched
a point on the skull before him squarely on the top, but a little
forward of the crown. "The skull is not strong there, and a heavy blow
would be fatal. The third wound is one-half inch posterior to No.
2--just here," and he again illustrated by laying his finger almost on
the crown of his object lesson. "The fourth is on the left temple, and
is only one inch long. The rest are about an inch and a half in length.
The fifth is a crushing wound, immediately below the external angle of
the left eye. This one fractured the cheek bone, and must have been
delivered with great force."
[Illustration: THE SKULL SHOWING LOCATION OF WOUNDS THAT CAUSED DEATH.]
"The absence of wounds on the hands," said Walter V. Hayt, a city health
inspector, "would indicate that the first blow, whichever one of these
five it was, was delivered unawares; otherwise there would have been a
struggle which would have left its mark on the hands or arms, either in
striking or warding off blows. He must have been surprised and stunned
at the first blow."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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