SELECTED FOR A FOREIGN MISSION.
One of the most sensational episodes of the enquiry, was the examination of Capt. Thomas F. O'Connor. He had been intimately acquainted with Dr. Cronin for several years, and firmly believing that the physician's life was in danger, had advised him to go armed at all times. O'Connor had been present at a meeting of camp 20, when charges had been made against Dr. Cronin, and a committee consisting of Buckley, Coughlin, Frank Murray, John F. O'Malley, and another man had been appointed to investigate them. These charges were to the effect that he had read, before another camp, a circular which was antagonistic to the spirit of the order. After the physician's disappearance, he had seen Coughlin, who had expressed the opinion, that he had gone to London to follow in the foot-steps of Le Caron, as a witness before the Parnell commission.
"Have you ever been requested as a member of this order," asked Coroner Hertz, "to do some secret work."
"Yes, I have," said the witness, after considerable hesitation.
"Can you tell me who asked you to do this work."
"I can not."
"Did you consult any one about doing this work."
"I did sir."
"Whom."
"I consulted Dr. Cronin."
"What did he say."
"He said, after talking the matter over, that there was enough good, honest men behind prison bars now, and that I had better keep out of it." He did not believe in the policy of dynamite.
"Did you take the doctor's advice."
"I guess I did," answered Capt. O'Connor in a tone full of suggestiveness.
"How was the request brought to you."
CAPT. THOMAS F. O'CONNOR.
"A man walked into my office about ten o'clock one morning, presented his card, and introduced himself. He said that there were some men going across the water, and that the chances were that I would be called on. This was on a Monday, and we talked the matter over pretty fully. The Wednesday following I was to meet him again. That morning I walked down town with Dr. Cronin. The man was standing on the steps of the Sherman House. I stopped and spoke to him. He asked me who that man was. I told him Dr. Cronin. He seemed to know the name, at least he recognized it the moment I mentioned it. He said he would see me that afternoon, but after seeing me with Dr. Cronin, he failed to keep his appointment."
Although pressed to give this mysterious individuals name, Capt. O'Connor insisted emphatically that he could not remember it. He said he knew Alexander Sullivan, but when asked the question, "do you know whether or not it was he who wanted you to go," he simply replied, "I do not." He went on to say that the request to go on such a mission, would naturally come from the Executive Committee of the order. None except this committee, could know the names of the persons who were sent across the waters. Alexander Sullivan, he had heard, was a member of this executive committee. The other two were Feeley and Michael Boland. The latter at this time was the Police Recorder of Kansas City.
JURORS EXAMINING FINGER MARKS IN PAINT ON WINDOW BLINDS.
Peter M'Gehan, of Philadelphia, was another witness. He was at one time supposed to be the man who had driven Dr. Cronin from his residence to his death. In a general way he answered the description given by Mrs. Conklin, and his appearance in Chicago, at the time when the first steps in the conspiracy were supposed to have been taken, his destination being known only to J. J. Bradley, of the Clan-na-Gael executive, coupled with his loud talk against Dr. Cronin, and his association with the friends of Alexander Sullivan—all these circumstances caused him to be placed under arrest, although he was subsequently released. Not being found at his place of residence when wanted by the coroner, he was again arrested at his new boarding place, and put upon the stand.
In direct contradiction to the testimony of one of the previous witnesses, Joseph O'Byrne, M'Gehan denied that he had ever said that Dr. Cronin, with McCahey, of Philadelphia, ought to be put out of the way, or removed, or killed, or words implying any such meaning. He knew, however, that Dr. Cronin believed that he entertained such views. Standing at the corner of Clark and Randolph street one evening with Thomas J. Conway, he saw the physician and Mortimer Scanlon coming along, and the physician, calling him by name, said, "I understand that you have used violent language against me." M'Gehan replied that it was a lie. To this the physician responded "I have been informed that you were sent here to assassinate me." This the Philadelphia man denied, saying that the doctor was a "blamed fool," and that the people who were circulating these stories were only trying to make them enemies. M'Gehan was closely questioned as to his movements since his arrival in Chicago, and admitted that he had visited several of the Camps, including the one of which Dr. Cronin was senior guardian, and that he had borrowed money from several of the avowed enemies of the physician, although he had not been acquainted with them before reaching Chicago. Nothing was developed however to connect him, even indirectly, with the tragedy.
P. M'GEHAN.
This branch of the case was closed with some very interesting testimony from J. G. Hagerty, a railroad clerk. His story was, that sometime in 1885, a circular had been issued by the Clan-na-Gael, stating that several hundred British detectives had been sent from Scotland Yard for the purpose of finding out the secrets of the Irish revolutionists in this country, and hence all the members were on the qui vive for information as to the possible traitors in their midst. One night while he (the witness) was walking on the street with Alexander Sullivan, the latter had expressed the opinion that the doctor was a scoundrel and a menace to the Irish cause, and that it would be a benefit if the cause were rid of him.
"Did Alexander Sullivan say anything to you that night about having any idea that Dr. Cronin's life ought to be taken" asked the Coroner.
"That was my impression" answered the witness, "that was the view I took of the conversation and I must say that I coincided with him at the time. I believe that men who are trying to get the secrets of people, who are trying to elevate themselves should be exterminated, and I gained that opinion from the reports I had heard, especially from Timothy Crean, who is now dead, and who with other men had been instrumental in scattering this information, which, as I now believe, was scattered for the removal of Dr. Cronin."
"Did Alexander Sullivan use the words that Dr. Cronin ought to be removed," the witness was asked.
"I would not swear that the words were used exactly as you state them, but that was my impression at the time."
"Did you get the impression that that was what he meant."
"Certainly I did."
"Could he at that time or any time later have spoken to others in the same way."
"Most undoubtedly—to hundreds."
"Tim Crean had told me things that Alexander Sullivan had said," went on the witness, "and among them that this man was a traitor. The word traitor to an Irishman's visor calls up a terrible vengeful feeling. It does in me, the Irishmen know what informers are and do not feel leniently toward them. The impression that I got from Mr. Sullivan's talk was that this man should be removed from our ranks in some way or another; that he was a menace to the cause and to the success of the objects which we were trying to accomplish. I must say that at that time and since, Mr. Sullivan was not alone in the opinion as to the removal of men of that description—that is, the removal of them from our ranks, not by death, but that we should get them out of our organization. There was nothing more laudable, considering the actions of Le Caron, who as is now proven to have been Mr. Sullivan's friend, according to the evidence now before you. Le Caron was introduced to me on the evening of that conversation by Mr. Sullivan as a man worthy of our confidence and of the highest character, and coming from such a source, it being understood that Sullivan occupied a high office in the order, and considering the confidence with which he was looked up to by the Irish people at that time, myself, being nothing but a plebian, I could not but believe what he said."
"Did you believe that Dr. Cronin was a traitor."
"Yes; Mr. Sullivan gave me that information; that was his idea. He did not give me any proof, but considering his position, I could not do otherwise than take his ipse dixit for it. I will say, however, that up to the recent revelations I certainly had no idea at all that Mr. Sullivan could have been the man he is now represented to be. I must say in justice to myself I had no idea that he could have come as near being an accessory to this diabolical 'removal,' as he is now represented to be by the circumstantial evidence before you."
"Is there anything in your obligation and the constitution of the order that would make you believe that you ought to remove a man if your executive ordered you to do so."
"No sir."
"That you ought to take life?"
"No sir, I would not do it if the order came to me."
"Do you think that a man of less principle or brains might do so?"
"I certainly believe now, to my sorrow, that such might be the result."
After this witness had left the stand it was proven by the evidence of the Sergeants of the Chicago Avenue Police Station that, for some time prior to May the 4th, Coughlin and O'Sullivan, the iceman, were in daily communication over the telephone, and that the latter had several times sent messages to the Detective to come over to his house, his office, or his barn.