Twenty-five years in the Secret Service: The recollections of a spy

by Henri Le Caron

Dr. Cronin was summoned from his home at half-past seven on the evening of May 4, and never returned. On May 22 his naked body, bearing marks of violence, was found in the catch-basin of a sewer. The theory of the prosecution was that he was murdered in pursuance of a conspiracy, and that the accused, together with other persons not in custody, were members of that conspiracy. The jury by their verdict have declared that Dr. Cronin was so murdered, and that all the prisoners save Beggs did conspire to murder him. This conspiracy arose from a bitter quarrel within the ranks of the United Brotherhood, or Clan-na-Gael. The history of that organisation was sketched by State’s Attorney Longenecker in his opening speech. It was founded in 1869, to “free” Ireland by open warfare. Irishmen joined it from “patriotism,” Irishmen joined it for the purposes of American political warfare, and others “for the sake of the money that was in it.” The organisation grew “until now it stretches from ocean to ocean in our land.” It was organised by districts, each with its District Member and District “Camps.” Each “Camp” had a public name, by which alone it was known to the general public. Thus, “Camp 20,” to which several of the prisoners belonged, was called the “Columbia Club,” and other “Camps” were known as “Literary Clubs,” and so on. Prior to 1881 the organisation was governed by an Executive Body, which was composed of the District Members. In 1879 this Board consisted of fifteen members.

In 1881 a National Convention of the United Brotherhood was held in Chicago. At that Convention the Executive Body was reduced to five members, and Alexander Sullivan, Feeley, and Boland were appointed thereon. These three men constituted a majority of the new Board, and, in the State’s Attorney’s phrase, “took charge” of it. “They then adopted,” he says, “what is called the dynamite policy. They called it ‘active work.’ They adopted a policy to blow up property and individuals, and that policy was adopted immediately after they got possession of the Executive Board of the organisation.” Moreover, this new Executive Body inserted a provision in the oath of the organisation binding all members to obey the Executive Body without question. “If they directed a man to go and kill another man in England it had to be done, and they had no right to question the order.” In 1884 this controlling Board adopted the symbol of the Triangle, and issued orders under that designation. The whole object of this Junta was to steal the funds of the organisation, and the State’s Attorney roundly accuses them of endeavouring to effect this object by acts of well-nigh incredible infamy. They pretended to their organisation that great sums were being expended upon “active work.” To lend colour to this fiction they procured a certain amount of such work to be done. They sent emissaries to this country. But they failed to provide them with the funds indispensable for their personal safety. The men were referred to an agent of the organisation in England, and when they had reached this side of the Atlantic precautions were taken that they should not too speedily return. When the dynamite emissary landed in the United Kingdom, “I say to you,” says the State’s Attorney, “that somebody there made known who the man was, and what he was detailed to do, and he was immediately arrested and thrown into prison. To-day the prison doors in England are locked against twenty or more men who were sent there by that Board.”

The next trick of the Triangle, to hide their embezzlement of the funds, was to circulate a rumour that English detectives were watching the Order, and to get the biennial Convention postponed upon that plea. A meeting was held of the friends of the Triangle, “and they destroyed every vestige of work they had done. They destroyed their books, and then sent out a circular showing that the Order was indebted to them $13,000, notwithstanding when they took hold of it they had a fund of $250,000 in the treasury.” Naturally these proceedings led to great dissension in the Order, and finally to a split in its ranks. To the quarrel that thus arose, Dr. Cronin, on the theory advanced by the prosecution, and accepted by the jury, owed his death. Cronin from the first protested against the action of the Triangle. In 1885 he was tried for treason to the Order. Alexander Sullivan prosecuted, and the convict Daniel Coughlin sat on the Trial Committee. Cronin was convicted and expelled. Thereupon Cronin joined a new organisation formed by the seceding members of the Order, and no further steps were taken until June 1888. In that month a joint convention of the two factions was held in Chicago with a view to reunion. At that convention Cronin charged the old Triangle, which had then ceased to exist, with misappropriation of the funds of the Order, and with misconduct towards their emissaries to Europe. It was resolved that the charges should be investigated, and a Trial Committee of six, three from each faction, was appointed to try Sullivan, Feeley, and Boland. Of that Trial Committee, Cronin was a member. A memorandum in Cronin’s handwriting, containing the joint findings of Cronin himself, and one P. M‘Cahey, as members of the Trial Committee, and also minutes of the evidence adduced at such trial, were found amongst Cronin’s papers, and proved at the coroner’s inquest. These documents were, of course, inadmissible at the actual trial, according to a well-known technical rule of evidence, but, as they undoubtedly guided the State’s Attorney and his associates in framing the case against the prisoners, and as, moreover, they possess a very special and personal interest for Englishmen, we do not feel constrained to ignore their contents here.

The Trial Committee, it appears, met at Genesee House, Buffalo, on August 20, 1888. Alexander Sullivan objected that “one of the committee was a malignant enemy of his,” and he named Cronin as that enemy. Feeley and Boland joined in Sullivan’s objection, but Cronin denied that he had any personal enmity to Sullivan and the objection was overruled. Boland then charged the notorious John Devoy, who was a friend of Cronin’s, and attended the Trial Committee, presumably in his interest, with being a British spy. Cronin defended Devoy, the committee settled down to work, and the trial proceeded. The minutes of the evidence taken by this committee, and found in Cronin’s own handwriting, form one of the most startling documents ever produced in any Court. Four principal witnesses were examined in support of the charges made against the Triangle of neglecting to supply the emissaries actually engaged in dynamiting with funds, and of neglecting the families of those emissaries who had perished by explosions, or had been sent to penal servitude in this country. The first witness was himself one of the London dynamiters. The last was the widow of Mackey Lomasney, who was blown up while attempting to destroy London Bridge. The names of the male witnesses are not given. The first witness swore that after the Boston Convention of 1884, one Donovan, “who acted as agent for the body,” and “was then in the employ of General Kerwin,” asked him if “he could furnish enough men to accomplish a certain amount of active work.” The witness procured one recruit. Donovan and John J. Moroney paid their steerage passage, and gave them $100 each “to carry on work.” For further funds they were referred to “the agent on the other side.” The two dynamiters crossed to this country, but the funds were not forthcoming. The agent, it is satisfactory to learn, “was sure he had been betrayed by some one,” and it is yet more gratifying to know that he “is now in prison.” The witness then gives the following account of his exploits in this country, and of the base ingratitude of his employers:—

“At the agent’s request, work was delayed six weeks. I at last told him I would do the work. There were four of us.... I finally induced him to give orders to do the work. This was on Thursday. On Saturday we did it. After the work was done I met him the same evening. He remained in capital city seven days afterward. I was so reduced for funds that I prevailed upon him to give me four pounds of the sixteen he had left. On landing in this country had three-and-one-half pounds.... I at once complained to Donovan and Moroney, and through them to the executive, or General Kerwin, of the treatment I had received, and the culpable neglect of the F. C. About the last of February 1885, Donovan furnished me with $10 with which to reach my home.

“Q. How many operations did you perform?—A. Three. We always bade each other good-bye after each meeting, thinking it might be our last meeting on earth. I have learned that, in order to get back, the other man who went over with me had to sell his clothes to get passage-money. He came with a sprained ankle. In July or August 1885, he received $7 from Moroney.”

Subsequently the witness found that the mother of Cunningham, the dynamiter, was in want. He complained to Moroney and General Kerwin, whereupon Kerwin told him he ought to be expelled. The munificent sum of $100 was finally sent by the “F. C.” (Executive Body) to the mother of their dupe Cunningham, now undergoing in this country the just but awful punishment of penal servitude for life. The witness further ascertained that Mrs. Mackey Lomasney, the widow of Captain Mackey Lomasney, who “was killed in London, and was assured, witness was told, that his family would never want,” was in great distress. The relatives of Dr. Gallagher, another dynamite convict under a life-long sentence, were also in want. A hundred dollars was raised for Mrs. Gallagher. Then comes this terrible statement, a statement which should warn the miserable tools of the Clan-na-Gael what kind of succour they may look for from their chiefs when their “heroism” lands them in the dock. “I requested,” says this same witness, “that the men on trial on the other side should be defended. General Kerwin said that friendless men were better off in such cases.” To the men who have risked their lives at its bidding, the Order, with its ample revenues, grudges the few pounds needed for their legal defence, and coldly abandons them “friendless” to their fate.

The next witness confirms the above statements as to the conduct of the organisation towards Mrs. Cunningham. In July 1885, he succeeded John Moroney as D. M. (District Member), and in October of that year he “went out as an organiser of the National League in the West.” “I saw General Kerwin and told him that he should send money to Mrs. Cunningham, that the lady was hurt on the subject of being neglected by us. He said he would send it.”

The cross-examination of this witness was directed to show that he entertained animus against Kerwin and Boland for endeavouring to defeat his candidature for the presidency of the National League, which candidature, he alleges, had been officially adopted by the Clan-na-Gael. “The slate,” he says, “was Baldwin, Minton, and Carroll for F. C. (Executive Body), and myself as President of the League.” Boland asked him why he would not take the secretaryship.

The third witness, “a member since the beginning of the old organisation,” knew Mackey Lomasney, and remembers his departure for Europe in August 1884, with his brother Jim, and a third conspirator. The witness describes his efforts to obtain relief from the organisation for Mackey Lomasney’s widow. In 1885 he went to Newhaven and saw Dr. Wallace (who was then “D.”), Condon, and Boland. Boland “denied all responsibility,” and alleged that Mrs. Mackey Lomasney had been supplied with plenty of money. The witness called on Carroll. “He professed utter ignorance of the whole affair. I said, ‘By God, you must see her.’ Carroll offered the witness $100, which he refused. I said, ‘You know how to send this, as you have the others; if you respect the memory of the dead, and the widow and the orphan made so by your act, do your duty by all.’” The witness further states that Mrs. Mackey Lomasney continued to be in a poverty-stricken state, without coal or clothing, until August 1886.