THE SMITH STORY DISPROVED.
Coughlin's friend, Smith, put in an appearance at police headquarters of his own volition, the following day, only, however, to give a flat refutation of the story told by the detective. "Willard F." instead of "Thomas" Smith was his name. He had come to Chicago from Michigan four years before; had traveled thence pretty well all over the west and south, and eventually had returned to the city. When a boy in Houghton, half a mile from Hancock, he had lived next door to Coughlin, and after coming to Chicago the second time, he had called upon him at the station. On the last occasion he had said something about having been in New Mexico. He volunteered the statement that he was the man that Coughlin had met on Clark street when the latter was in company with Whalen, but strongly denied that he had ever asked his friend to hire a rig; that he had never used one in Chicago, or that he was identified in any way with Irish secret societies. In fact, although born in Michigan, his parents were native born Germans.