Lessons From Historic Crimes When Irishmen Fall Out:::

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 88, 15 April 1939, Page 9 (Supplement)

Lessons From Historic Crimes When Irishmen Fall Out:::

By Capt. Eugene de Beck And Dr. Carleton Simon

SYNOPSIS. After a quarrel with .members of the Clan na Gaol, powerful Irish patriotio society in America, Dr. Patrick Henry Cronin disappeared in Chicago and his body was subsequently found by sewer cleaners. Polios also discovered a blood-spattered cottaos which was rented, but never occupied by men connected with the clan. ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ WORKING patiently, Scheuttler found Martinsen, the expressman, who told of a man resembling "Williams" who hired him to haul the furniture from 1 17, S. Clark Street, to the Carlson cottage.

Examining the rooms at 117 S. Clark Street, the detectives discovered that from one window they could see directly into the offices of Dr. Cronin across the street in the Chicago Opera House Mock. They learned, too, that Cronin had told friends that twice ho had been summoned to "attend patients" in the building under suspicious circumstances; onco he had escaped by a quick flight down stairs.

Working on the feud between factions in Camp £0, the detectives learned something else—which was that, early in March, there had been a secret trial of Cronin by officers and members of Camp 20, including O'Sullivan, Detective Coughlin and Alexander Sullivan as prosecutor. It was whispered among the Cronin members of Camp 20 that the judges had condemned Cronin to death as a traitor.

Three days after discovery of the Carlson cottage as the scene of the crime, Sohcuttlcr, Captain Villiers and Captain Wing found Milkman Mertes, who told them that on the night of May 4 he had seen a horse and bupgy stop at the Carlson cottage and a man, resembling Cronin, had jumped down and hurried np the front steps. The

door had opened. He had heard loud voices—and the door had closed. He was too far away to distinguish words. The police found a woman who had seen a man enter the house, had heard a cry of "Oh, God," followed by a thud and a scream. Scheuttler and Villiers questioned the bartender in the nearest saloon. He admitted that, on the night of May 4, O'Sullivan had come into his place late, accompanied by two men—later identified—and had drunk wine. O'Sullivan already had told the police he had retired early and had not been out of the house that evening.

Once before Cronin had escaped death

1 One night, weeks after the search. e started, Harry Beach, a reporter, -was j leaving Chicago Avenue station. The i streetcar on Clark Street, which would 1 take him to his office, was not in sight. He remarked: "I wonder if they've inquired »t Pat t Dinan's stable?" >, Tat Dinaifa livery barn was a few .- yards around the corner from the police n station. Beach made casual inquiries of .. Dinan. f "1 told the inspector," said the liveryman, concluding Eis story.

Beach printed the discovery that the white horse and the buggy used to haul Dr. Cronin from his home had come from Dinan's livery barn and had been hired by Detective Dan Coughlin, and that Inspector Schaak knew it. Then things really began to happen. Dinan said that on May 4 the detective came to him and asked him to have a rig ready for a friend of his that evening. He said that he would settle. The "friend" came. He objected to the white horse, wanted one less conspicuous. Dinan argued with him and the stranger finally drove away with the white horse. When the quest for the white horse had started Dinan had kept Coughlin's secret because he believed the horse and buggy had been used in police business. Now he decided to see his friend, Inspector Sehaak. At the police station Coughlin stopped him and wanted to know why he had come. Dinan told him and Coughlin said: "Keep quiet. You'll get me in trouble. Everyone knows Cronin and I were enemies."

Dinan went away then. But he watched until Coughlin left; then reported to Schaak and waited. Nothing happened. That is, nothing until Beach printed the story. Then Chicago's indignation broke. The idea that a detective who had once, perhaps twice, sat as judge on Cronin in the clan, and who was suspected of the actual murder, was directing the investigation, with his inspector abetting him, caused angry murmurs. Mayor Crigier suspended Schaak. Coughlin was dismissed from the force. Perhaps never has Chicago been aroused to such a. pitch of excitement as on May 2(5 I when Dr. Cronin's funeral was held. The day was made one of public lamentation. For 24 hours the body lay in State in the first cavalry armoury, guarded by armed Hibernian rifles.

The morning after the funeral a conference of the Mayor, police and leading citizens was held and it was decided to arrest Alexander Sullivan.

Sullivan, hauled at midnight from his bed in his mansion, was cool. Later, legal experts declared that the arrest of Sullivan, at that time, was a tactical blunder. They hinted that the shrewd lawyer had arranged to be arrested, to protest his innocence and secure an acquittal before convincing evidence of guilt could be piled up. Once free on bail, Sullivan used his political influence to set at work a legal machinery that assured his freedom from prosecution. He first obtained release of his bondsmen and later— before evidence sufficient to convict him had been unearthed—managed to get a summary adjudication of the caso against him. He went free. But, although he could not be prosecuted again, when all the facts were known he was condemned by public opinion and his career was wrecked."

"Where were you on the night of Mav 4?"

That question, asked anywhere in Chicago, either as a veiled hint of guilt or as a joke, was an invitation to a fight. Even to-day that question hurled at some veteran Irishman invhss trouble; for that was the question police were asking of everyone.

The police were stalemated. Powerful influences were working against them. Despite the positive identification of the body as that of Cronin, despite the teeth, the hair, the blood and the "Agnus Dei" medal, the Snllivanites still declared Cronin was alive, a traitor, betraying Americans to the British authorities.

The Chicago police were doing remarkable work. For the first time in history they used blood tests. Experts from Rush and other medical colleges took blood from the woodwork of the Carlson cottage, analvsed it and compared it with that in the trunk, and with that from the bod v. The corpuscles were the same. The hair from the head of the body was matched with that in the trunk, and in the murder room.

Still there was small chance to convict anyone of the murder until a nin named Martin Burke drank and tal;ed too much. Burke was an Irishman, member of the Market Street gang, member of Camp 20, friend of Coughlin and of Sullivan, and bitter foe of Cronin. Burke, while drinking, declared Cronin had been a British spv and should have been killed. Hs hinted that he had helped. Police learned of this too late. Burke had vanished.

(To be concluded.)

♦ ♦ * ♦ INSPECTOR PLAYFAIR And the Robber of Bridge, as described on page eight. rj\KE girls had been playing be/.ique for three hours with cards taken from the two new packs. Inspector Playfair had noticed that the cards not required for bezique had hardly been u6ed at all