The Crime of the Century Part 27

All this time the authorities in Chicago had not been idle. a.s.sistant States Attorney George Baker was first dispatched to Springfield, the State Capital, where the necessary papers were obtained. From here he hastened to Washington, where a requisition and other doc.u.ments were properly "vised" by the State Department, and late on the night of June 24th, immediately upon his arrival from Cape May, where he had been taking a brief vacation, the President of the United States, Benjamin Harrison, placed his signature upon the warrant which authorized the Secretary of State, James G. Blaine, to affix the great seal of the United States to the official doc.u.ments. Without this Presidential warrant, the custodian of the seal in the State Department could not permit even Secretary Blaine to affix it. On the following morning this formality was carried out and the responsibility of the Federal Government in the case came to an end. Burke was again brought before Judge Bain on Thursday, June 27th, and despite the fact that it was known that the extradition doc.u.ments were on their way, a determined effort was made by Counselor Campbell, with whom another prominent lawyer, W. E. Perdue, had been a.s.sociated, to secure the discharge of the prisoner.

The Court decided to proceed with the case, and Officers Collins and McKinnon were called to testify. When they had told what they knew, a remand was granted for a week. Here it was resumed on July 3d, when Expressman Mortinsen repeated his identification of the prisoner, and Joseph Dillabaugh, a Chicago newspaper man, testified that he had seen the body taken from the Lake View catch basin, and was satisfied that it was that of Dr. Cronin. Additional evidence was given on the following day, Elliott Flower and Andrew Yount, representatives of Chicago newspapers, testifying to the location of the Carlson cottage, the blood stains found in it and other material facts. So the case went on from day to day. The evidence of young Carlson was considered necessary, and he was sent on in hot haste from Chicago. It was not until Wednesday, July 10th, that sufficient facts were before the Court upon which to base a decision. This decision, however, was to the point. It held that all the evidence given was admissible and sufficient for the purposes of extradition. It was sufficient to raise a presumption of guilt, and this was all that was necessary. Judge Bain went over the evidence which had been introduced before him, bringing out each little point, showing wherein it was weak and wherein it was strong, and concluded an able and exhaustive review of the case by remanding the prisoner to jail for extradition.

FIGHTING TO THE LAST.

Still Burke did not despair. Under the laws of the Dominion it was open to his counsel to apply for a writ of habeas corpus, in order that the decision of the Court might be reviewed. Nearly three weeks' delay was allowed for this purpose. People wondered that, considering the fact that Burke's available a.s.sets at the time of his arrest footed up little more than $50, he was able to retain two prominent attorneys, whose fees must, even up to this stage of the case, have aggregated more than ten times that amount. They wondered still more, when the announcement was made that the case of the suspect had been taken to a court of last resort, and which comprised Chief Justice Taylor, Judge Kellam and Judge Dubuc. This proceeding was in the form of a pet.i.tion for a writ of habeas corpus, based largely on technical grounds. Elaborate arguments were heard for several days, and in the meantime ex-Senator William Kennedy, of Wisconsin, arrived from the States as special legal adviser to the suspect. This was additional proof that somebody or other, with plenty of money at command, was behind Martin Burke in the effort to prevent his being taken back to Chicago. Again, however, the law was triumphant; the application for a writ of habeas corpus was denied, and the extradition of the prisoner was ordered for the second time.

CANADIAN JUSTICE TRIUMPHS.

Burke's last chance for a long stay in Canada had now disappeared.

Unusual promptness characterized the action of the authorities at Ottawa. Immediately upon the receipt of a telegraphic dispatch from Chief Justice Taylor, to the effect that the appeal had been denied, the warrant of extradition was issued by Sir John Thompson, minister of justice, and mailed to Winnipeg. It arrived at its destination at noon of Sat.u.r.day, August 3rd, and, having been vised by the Lieutenant-Governor and the Provincial Secretary, was served upon Govenor Lawlor. Chief of Police Hubbard had in the meantime arrived from Chicago to superintend the arrangements for the return of the prisoner, and availed himself of the opportunity to highly eulogize Chief McRae for the able manner in which he had worked his part of the case. Day had barely dawned on Monday morning when the Chicago officers were astir. They drove at once to the jail, and the necessary formalities having been complied with, the prisoner was delivered into the custody of Officer Collins, in whose name the warrant had been made out. He was quickly hustled into a covered carriage, Chief Hubbard, Lieutenant Ross and Officer Broderick occupying the opposite seat. A little after six the depot was reached, and the prisoner, who had been handcuffed prior to leaving the jail, was placed in the smoking compartment of the palace sleeping car "Great Falls." Here he was closely guarded by the two police officers, who were well armed, while the Chief and Lieutenant returned to the hotel for breakfast. In a very little while a big crowd had gathered at the depot, but the blinds of the compartment had been carefully pulled down, and the people were compelled to derive what satisfaction they could by gazing at the closed windows. Burke had brought a basket of food and fruit with him from the jail, and through enquiries it was learned that it had been delivered to him the night before, that he had been advised to eat no food which might be offered to him by the officers, as it might be drugged, and that he had also been instructed to have nothing whatever to say to his guards while on the road. These instructions, it was afterward developed, were inspired by a telegram from Chicago, and which had been sent by an unknown man from the Grand Pacific Hotel over the initials "J. G." Shortly before ten o'clock the train pulled out, and Burke had started on what, to him, was destined to be a memorable journey. Chief McRae, representing the Winnipeg, police, Chief Clark of the provincial police, Chief Hossack of the Canadian Pacific detective force, H. McMicken of the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba road, and James McHale, a United States Government officer, accompanied the party as far as Morris, McHale and Hossack, going as far as Neche on the American side of the line.

BURKE'S JOURNEY TO CHICAGO.

Great crowds had gathered at every station where a stop was made, and it was soon found necessary to lock both doors of the car and keep a guard at each. Chief Hubbard and a porter took charge of the front door and allowed the other pa.s.sengers to go in and out as they desired, while Lieutenant Ross took charge of the rear door, which was kept locked all the time. A large and demonstrative crowd was encountered at Grafton, the people climbing over each other to secure standing room on the platforms of the car, and shouting loudly that they would kill the prisoner if they could get their hands on him. Lieutenant Ross, however, induced them to go back to the platform, saying that there would be serious trouble if they continued to make threats. At all other stations along the line until Fargo, Dakota, was reached, the same scenes were repeated, except that the feeling did not run so high, and curiosity seemed to be the main motive. Quite a number of strangers succeeded in getting through the front door of the car at Minto, Dakota, but after reaching the section next to the smoking-room, they were confronted by Chief Hubbard, who forced them to leave the car. At Grand Forks the crowd took entire possession of the train, and none of the pa.s.sengers in the sleeper were able to leave it during the stop. Better order prevailed at Fargo, where the depot police turned out in force and kept the crowd at a respectful distance. The same system was adopted at Moorhead, just across the river, where a stop was made for supper. All this time Burke kept his nerve. He sat near a window with Collins beside him and Broderick opposite. He steadily refused to talk, although Hubbard and Ross took turns at him. To every attempt to draw him into conversation, he had but one reply, and that was that his lawyer had told him not to talk. At times he ate sparingly from the basket with which he had been supplied, but invariably refused the offer of the officers to furnish him with refreshments. When night came he was allowed to lie down on one of the couches of the smoker, but sleep was out of the question, and when a party started to sing in the rear portion of the car immediately adjoining the smoker, Burke, from the inside, joined in the song. There was no crowd at Minneapolis, the guards at the gates keeping every one out. At St. Paul it was the same way. Here Burke was transferred to a special car which had been engaged for the party. He appeared at the door of the sleeper strongly manacled.

There were manacles on his wrists and his feet were chained together so that he could step only a few inches at a time, while the chain was so short that he could not descend the steps of the car. Lieutenant Ross noticed this and, taking him in his strong arms carried him to the ground. He managed to walk slowly to the special car and was lifted aboard, and the blinds and curtains were drawn down on either side.

The Winnipeg party was joined at this point by a.s.sistant State's Attorney Baker and Carlson and Mortensen, the witnesses. On the front and rear platforms of the car two St. Paul detectives were stationed, and several more occupied the rear end of the first coach ahead. On from this point to Chicago the scenes of the day before were repeated. Every station had its crowd, and everybody was wild to see the prisoner. At Kilborne City, where a company of the State militia on its way to camp was encountered, one of the soldiers climbed up to a window, pushed up the blind, and forced his body half way into the car. He was seen by one of the officers in the inside, however, and a rap on the head induced him to get out a great deal quicker than he had got in. Remarkable anxiety to see the suspect was manifested by women at almost every stopping place, and at times they outnumbered the men, asking innumerable questions, and craning their necks in endeavoring to get but a glimpse of the interior of the car. Between St. Paul and Chicago not a member of the Chicago party went out into the open air. Burke sat on the right-hand side next the window, with either Broderick or Collins constantly by him. The rest of the party were distributed over the car in such a way that there was some one at almost every point.

Chicago was reached between nine and ten o'clock on Monday night. The train was stopped at a lonely point in the suburbs, about three miles from the center of the city, much to the chagrin and disgust of an immense crowd that had gathered at the depot. The leg irons were removed from the prisoner, although the handcuffs were left in place. To them an iron chain several feet long was fastened, the other end being held by Officer Collins. The party dropped off the train in the darkness and hastened across the tracks to a carriage in waiting. Half an hour later Martin Burke, handcuffed to two stalwart officers, was ushered to the Chicago Avenue Station, and without being booked or searched was escorted to a cell.

Early on the following morning Senator Kennedy of Wisconsin was on hand at the jail with a demand to see his client. Instructions had been given, however, that no outsider should be allowed to get within talking reach of the prisoner, and the lawyer was so informed. After making several other fruitless efforts to accomplish his purpose, he secured from Judge Baker a writ of habeas corpus, commanding Burke's appearance in court. It was made returnable at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, but at that hour a return was made that the prisoner was in the custody of Officer Collins, as agent of the United States. A new writ was therefore directed against the officer, but before this could be served Burke was transferred to the county jail, where his attorney was allowed to see him. On the following day he was arraigned in court, and, having plead "not guilty," in a low but firm voice, on the charge of having been concerned with others in the murder of Dr. Cronin, he was returned to jail.

PREPARING FOR THE TRIAL.

All this time State's Attorney Longenecker and his a.s.sistants were actively engaged in preparing for the great trial. Motions to quash the indictments were filed for all the prisoners, while there was a separate application in behalf of O'Sullivan for a change of venue. These matters came up before Judge Horton, on August 5th, and the entire case was transferred to that branch of the Criminal Court presided over by Judge McConnell, while August 26th was fixed as the date for the opening for the trial. On that date the six prisoners were arraigned and applications were made in behalf of Burke, Woodruff, O'Sullivan and Coughlin for separate trials. Elaborate arguments were made on these motions, the prosecution making a vigorous resistance. Judge McConnell took the question under advis.e.m.e.nt for a couple of days, and then denied the motions as to all the defendants, with the exception of Woodruff, who, on account of the peculiar circ.u.mstances that had entered into his side of the case, and his numerous confessions, was held to be ent.i.tled to a separate trial.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE SIX PRISONERS IN COURT.]

CHAPTER XV.

THEORIES REGARDING THE DISAPPEARANCE OF THE MURDERED MAN'S CLOTHING--THE HAND OF PROVIDENCE MANIFESTS ITSELF--FORTUNATE DISCOVERY OF THE LAST b.l.o.o.d.y EVIDENCES OF THE CRIME--DR. CRONIN'S APPAREL IS FOUND--IT HAD BEEN SECRETED, WITH HIS CASE OF SURGICAL INSTRUMENTS, IN A CATCH-BASIN, ADJACENT TO THE ONE IN WHICH THE BODY WAS DISCOVERED--SHOES, JEWELRY AND PURSE MISSING--COMPLETE IDENTIFICATION BY HIS FRIENDS--THE SEARCH CONTINUED--A PIECE OF CARPET FOUND--THE CONSPIRATORS' PLANS THWARTED.

"G.o.d moves in a mysterious way; His wonders to perform."

No stronger exemplification of the truth of the old familiar hymn, which commences with the above lines, and which for generations hasn sung, Sabbath after Sabbath, in churches of nearly every denomination throughout the Christian world, had ever before been grafted in the record of a criminal case.

With the arrest and extradition of Martin Burke and his incarceration with the other suspects in the county jail, attention was attracted anew to the question regarding the disposition made of the clothing of the murdered physician, and of the case of surgical instruments which he had taken with him when decoyed from his home. What was supposed, or claimed to be, a thorough search of the sewers and inlets in the neighborhood of the man-hole in which the body was discovered, had been made immediately after the latter event, without, however, bringing anything to the surface which was calculated to shed additional light on the great crime. It was, therefore, nothing but natural that, having in mind the international character of the conspiracy as evidenced by the dispatches from Toronto, regarding the alleged presence of Dr. Cronin in that city, the friends of the murdered man, as well as the prosecuting officials of the county, should arrive at the conclusion that, in a geographical sense, the conspiracy was intended to cover a still wider field. It was upon the failure to find a single trace of the murdered man's apparel, taken in connection with the fact that on the eve of his sudden departure from Chicago, Martin Burke had employed the tinsmith Klahre to seal up a mysterious tin box, and his unwillingness at the time that the contents should be revealed, that laid the ground for the suspicion, which worked itself into a general belief that the tell-tale articles had been shipped across the Atlantic, and that when, in the opinion of the conspirators, the proper time had arrived, they would turn up on the banks of the Seine in Paris, or of the Thames in London, mute evidence of the fact that, as had been claimed, the missing man had actually left Chicago, appeared in Toronto, thence gone to Montreal or some other port, and embarked for England or the Continent, and, further, that, for some cause or other--it mattered not that the world be left in doubt so long as the aims of the conspirators were accomplished--he had consigned himself to a watery grave and left his clothes behind as convincing proof of the fact. But for the discovery of the body, such a programme could, without question, have been carried out in its entirety, and the case would have gone down into history as one of the many mysteries for which no tangible explanation was to be found. After the recovery of the body, however, any proceeding of this kind would have been worse than useless. But the question still remained as to the disposal of the clothing which had been stripped from the bleeding and battered body in the Carlson cottage, and it was not until after a lapse of over six months and while the trial of the accused men was in progress, that the question was satisfactorily answered.

A STARTLING DISCOVERY.

Strangely enough, as in the case of the body, the mystery was solved by employees of the sewer department. On the afternoon of November 8th complaint was made at the Lake View offices that some obstruction existed in the sewer underneath the man-hole at the corner of Evanston and Buena avenues. This point was a mile and a quarter southeast of the catch-basin where the body had been found in May, and about a quarter of a mile from the ditch in which the trunk with its rolls of blood-stained cotton had been thrown. Three men, Michael Gilbert, foreman of the cleaning gang, Michael Reese, and W. W. McMillan, the foreman of the flushing gang, were sent to the place with orders to move the obstruction without delay. The three men raised the cover of the catch-basin and Reese was lowered into it. He had barely reached the bottom when he shouted out that he had found a wooden box that contained something that sounded like iron or tin. He was quickly hauled up, bringing the box with him. It was an oblong affair, about a foot in length, seven or eight inches deep and nearly as broad. In spots it evidenced that it had once been highly varnished and polished. The bra.s.s handle in the centre of the cover indicated that it had been carried as a satchel is carried. Gilbert forced open the case while his a.s.sociates looked on with eager eyes. A single glance at the contents, covered though they were with the filth that had leaked in through the opening, was sufficient, and the three men exclaimed almost with one breath,

"THAT IS DR. CRONIN'S BOX."

The contents were an a.s.sortment of extension splints with which the Doctor had provided himself in antic.i.p.ation of having to treat a fractured leg when he had reached Iceman O'Sullivan's house in Lake View.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE BOX AND ITS CONTENTS.]

Reese was again lowered into the catch-basin and after a few moments exclaimed that he had made a further find. This time he pa.s.sed up the broken frame of a satchel, its coverings entirely consumed by the foul waters of the sewer, a second satchel and a bundle of clothes covered with black, slimy refuse. After a hurried consultation the men decided to notify the police, and a call was sent to the Lake View station.

Within a few moments the patrol wagon--the same one which had driven Dr.

Cronin's naked body to the morgue--was on the scene. Very quickly the instrument box, the leather satchel, the bundle of clothes and the rotted satchel were loaded on a stretcher and carried to the Sheffield avenue station.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE LOAD ON THE STRETCHER.]

Information of the discovery was telephoned to the Central Police Department, and Chief Hubbard responded with an order that the things should be brought down at once. One hour later the filthy packages were spread out on a rubber tarpaulin in the Chief's private office, and the leather satchel, having been washed under the running hydrant, was opened. The first article that was taken out was a book that had swollen to more than twice its natural size. The Chief opened it. On the fly leaf, partially covered with dirt, was the name "Dr. P. H. Cronin,"

written in the bold hand of the man who had once owned the book. In one of the pockets was a package of business cards in a good state of preservation. They read as follows:

DR. P. H. CRONIN,

Physician and Surgeon, Chicago.

Office, 501 Opera House Block, Residence, 468 and 470 North Clark street.

Office Hours: Office Hours: 11 to 1 p.m.; 2 to 5 p.m. 9 to 11 a.m.; 6 to 7:30 p.m.

Nothing more than this was needed to prove that the articles were really those that had once belonged to the physician, and the Chief gave orders that the dirty ma.s.s should be taken to the Chicago avenue station and thoroughly cleaned. By this time, however, the developments of the day had reached State's Attorney Longenecker, who was conducting the trial in the Court House, about half a-mile away, and by his instructions the order was countermanded, and the things were taken to his private office. Mrs. Conklin was sent for, and upon her arrival the bundle of clothes was unrolled. Lieut. Schuettler separated the different pieces, handling the revolting articles as coolly as an ordinary man would a towel, while Mrs. Conklin looked on endeavoring to be more cool and collected than any one else in the little group. The first thing held up was a light spring overcoat of a fashionable pattern. It had been slit up the back by a keen edged knife, and the sleeves were torn clean up to the collar.

IDENTIFYING THE CLOTHING.

Mrs. Conklin's eyes filled with tears, and for a moment it was thought that she would swoon. Quickly recovering herself, however, she said quietly:

"It is Dr. Cronin's coat."

[Ill.u.s.tration: SOME OF DR. CRONIN'S CLOTHES.]

The next garment taken from the foul smelling pile was an ordinary coat of black diagonal cloth, answering perfectly to the description of the one which Mrs. Conklin had said Dr. Cronin wore when he was driven away.

This, too, was almost cut to pieces. Mrs. Conklin bowed her head to indicate that she recognized it. Next the vest was produced, then the trousers, then the drawers, then two white shirts and a collar, and finally the physician's under vest and his big military slouch hat.

Every article, except the latter, had been cut up very neatly, as though a very sharp knife or pair of scissors had been used. The few men present grated their teeth and set their jaws firm at these evidences of the b.l.o.o.d.y butchery, while Attorney W. J. Hynes, bringing his fist down on the table, exclaimed in pa.s.sionate tones:

"The fiends must have cut the clothes from the body after they had finished their murderous work."