LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

page.
Portrait of Dr. Patrick Henry Cronin, the Murdered Physician[Frontispiece.]
Portrait of Patrick O'Sullivan, the Ice Man, one of the Defendants[28]
Portrait of Daniel Coughlin, the Detective, one of the Defendants[197]
Portrait of Martin Burke, one of the Defendants[315]
Portrait of John F. Beggs, one of the Defendants[360]
Portrait of John Kunze, one of the Defendants[367]
O'Sullivan and Kunze, from Photograph Taken During Trial[392]
Portrait of Patrick Cooney, "The Fox"[452]
Portrait of Supt. of Police Hubbard[210]
Portrait of Officer Daniel Brown[354]
Portraits of Mr. and Mrs. T. T. Conklin[39]
Portrait of Alexander Sullivan[263]
Portrait of Mertes, the Milkman[187]
Portraits of Five Defendants on Trial[429]
Portraits of the Six Prisoners in Court[332]
Portraits of the Twelve Jurymen[416]-[417]
Portrait of Judge McConnell, Presiding at the Memorable Trial[456]
Portrait of Joel M. Longenecker, the State's Attorney[469]
Portrait of Luther Laflin Mills (the Noted Criminal Lawyer), for the Prosecution[550]
Portrait of George C. Ingham, Attorney for the Prosecution[514]
Portrait of W. J. Hynes, Attorney for the Prosecution[521]
Portrait of W. S. Forrest, Leading Attorney for The Defense[536]
Portrait of Judge Wing, Attorney for the Defense[512]
Portraits of Three of the Carlson Family[168]
Portraits of Principal Witnesses before the Coroner's Inquest[254]
Portrait of Detective Michael Whalen[206]
Portrait of Detective Barney Flynn[464]
Portrait of Lawrence R. Buckley[242]
Portrait of T. P. O'Connor[244]
Portrait of P. M'Gehan[247]
The Court Room, Showing the Great Trial in Progress[413]
The Card of Sullivan Ice Co., that Lured Dr. Cronin From His Home on the Night of the Murder[20]
The Mysterious Wagon[31]
Detectives Inspecting the Spot Where the Trunk Was Found[42]
The Bloody Trunk and Its Contents[35]
Picture of Dr. Cronin Taken After He Was Found In The Catch-Basin with the "Agnus Dei" on Breast[135]
Scene at the Morgue, Showing the Body Lying on Slab and Being Identified by Scanlan and Conklin[140]
The Spot Where the Trunk Was Found[33]
The Skull of Dr. Cronin, Showing the Wounds[143]
The Broken Rocker on which Dr. Cronin Probably Sat when Killed[161]
Blood-Stained Piece of Brass[161]
The Solitary Lamp[161]
The Catch-basin—South View[127]
The Catch-Basin, Showing Fire-plug and Ditch[129]
The Discovery of the Body in the Catch-Basin[131]
Alexander Sullivan's Residence[264]
The Assassins' Den, Showing the Carlson Cottage In Rear[157]
Diagram of the Locality of the Murder[156]
Footprint Found in House[160]
The Coroner's Jury[239]
Jurors Examining Finger Marks in Paint on Window Blind[245]
Jurors Examining Blood Stains in Parlor of Cottage[238]
The White Horse and Buggy that Took Dr. Cronin Away from His Home[199]
Liveryman Dinan's Stable[198]
The Funeral Procession[223]
Dr. Cronin's Apartments in Windsor Theatre Building[18]
Dr. Cronin's Reception Room in Chicago Opera House Building[184]
Dr. Cronin's Office in Chicago Opera House Building[181]
Dr. Cronin's Main Office in Chicago Opera House Building[183]
State's Attorney Longenecker Addressing the Court[296]
Dr. Cronin's Box and Its Contents[337]
The Load on the Stretcher[338]
Some of Dr. Cronin's Clothes[340]
Two Views of Dr. Cronin's Hat[341]
Dr. Cronin's Pocket Instrument Case[342]
Dr. Cronin's Sleeve Button, Comb, R. A. Button, Case, Etc.[343]
Dr. Cronin's Pocket Case[345]
Remains of the Murderer's Valise[346]
The Silver Hypodermic Syringe Case[347]
Dr. Cronin's Surgical Instrument Case[348]
The English Prescription Book[349]
The Judge Hears of the Jury-Bribing Plot[401]
The Knives[466]

CHAPTER I.

A CRIME THAT SHOCKED THE CIVILIZED WORLD—THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER—A SUDDEN SUMMONS—THE INSTINCTS OF HUMANITY TRIUMPH OVER PERSONAL CONSIDERATIONS—LAST MOMENTS AT HOME—PARTING WORDS WITH A FRIEND—DR. CRONIN'S EVENTFUL LIFE—HOW HE WORKED HIS WAY UPWARD ON THE LADDER OF HONOR AND FAME.

Little introduction to this volume is needed. It is the story—told in plain unvarnished words, so that everyone who reads may understand—of a crime that has shocked the people of the United States, and astounded the civilized world. Back of that crime was a conspiracy so wide in its ramifications, so cunningly contrived, so successfully executed, as to rival the diabolical plots and outgrowing tragedies that have been placed at the doors of the secret societies of France, Italy and Spain, by the historians of the Dark Ages. In the United States, as an event of national importance, the crime may be said to rank with the assassinations of Presidents Lincoln and Garfield. In the case of the former, as of the latter, the perpetrator of the crime was a half crazed enthusiast, who imagined that he had a mission to perform in taking the life of the Chief Magistrate of the Republic. An effort was made, it is true, to demonstrate the fact that the assassin of Abraham Lincoln was but the tool of a band of conspirators, but, despite the fact that five of his alleged accomplices suffered an ignominious death upon the scaffold upon conviction for complicity in the appalling crime, the question as to the actual existence of a conspiracy has remained to this day a mooted one. In the case of President Garfield there was not even a suggestion that the assassin acted upon other than his own insane impulse. So far as concerns the Haymarket horror in Chicago, the point as to whether the throwing of the bomb that echoed around the world was the outcome of a conspiracy, or the act of an individual who had inbibed anarchistic principles and doctrines until reason had been dethroned, and a desire for vengeance upon the supposed enemies of the proletaire had generated into an uncontrollable determination, is still unsettled in the minds of many people eminently well versed in the law; as well as in those of a goodly proportion of the masses. So far, however, as the tragic fate of Dr Cronin is concerned, no such doubt may be said to exist. That he fell a victim to a plot, remarkable in its conception and execution; conceived in shrewdness and forethought, and executed by the aid of far-reaching and elaborate machinery; and with remorseless precision, is beyond peradventure. But it serves no purpose to anticipate. The following chapters tell their own story of the manner and methods by which the murder of a law-abiding American citizen, prominent in his profession and of national reputation, was decreed and carried out. It was the first crime of its character in the history of the United States. It will probably be the last.