Still the visitor persisted, and literally compelled the reporter to drive him to the different points at which he claimed to have seen Cronin, and over the route he followed him the first day. Long took him to the Yong Street Arcade, thence to the Union Depot, thence up to King and Ontario streets; thence to Adalaide and Toronto streets, where Cronin was alleged to have taken a hack, and Long had taken another and followed him. Pressed to give the name of the hackman, his number or his description, Long said that he was in such a hurry that he paid no attention to any of these details. He was reminded that Alexander Craig, clerk at the Rossin House, had declared that no such guests as he, Long, had described were ever at the hotel, that no one had turned up to say that Long and Cronin had been seen in conversation, that the hackman had faded into air, and that Starkey remained the only bulwark of the story.
"Make a clean breast of it," he was urged. "Tell the public the truth regarding the circumstances under which your stories were originated."
"I will never retreat," was Long's reply. "I would drag no one else through the mire of calumny I am now going through."
"How do you happen to know so much about Cronin's St. Louis record?" he was asked.
"I was in St. Louis a little over a year ago and made inquiries about him."
"What prompted you to do that?"
Long declined to answer, but said that he had a copy of the pamphlet entitled, "Is It A Conspiracy?"
This was important, because it was known that a number of copies had been sent to Starkey, whose name figured in the pamphlet as one of Cronin's enemies.
Numerous Toronto Irishmen who were consulted expressed the opinion (some of them to Long's face) that they believed his dispatches had been manufactured out of whole cloth. A final effort was made to induce Long to clear up the mystery surrounding the murder, by disclosing how he was prompted to send the dispatches, and a suggestion was made that, upon the existing facts, he stood in danger of being indicted by the Chicago authorities. This, however, failed of its purpose, and, failing to induce the reporter to unbosom himself in the cause of justice, the matter was dropped.
Further investigations into the movements of William J. Starkey were next made. It was found that the fugitive and a prominent Irish-American from Chicago, had met in Windsor about eight months before, when the Irish-American had paid over to Starkey $8,000 in cash, which had been obtained for him from a Chicago corporation which was under obligations to him. About the middle of February Starkey received a visit from a man from Chicago who was possessed of brains of a high order, and after his return to Chicago a regular correspondence ensued between this individual and Starkey, which ceased only with the latter's departure from Toronto to New York. This occurred on the Sunday morning, following the Saturday night on which Dr. Cronin left his home forever. Up to two weeks before this time Starkey's financial condition had been very bad. Then he suddenly became "flush," and was enabled to invest several thousand dollars through D. K. Mason, member of the great fugitive colony, who, as has before been mentioned, had for five years found it desirable to make his home in Toronto as the result of some little irregularities in warehouse receipts which had transpired in Louisville, his old home. Where Starkey had gone on Sunday, May 4th, was a mystery. From the statement of the train dispatcher at the Union Depot, as well as of a business man who had talked with him just prior to the departure of the train, it was certain that he had left on the noon passenger train of the Grand Trunk. He had not purchased a ticket however, and consequently must have paid his fare to the conductor on the train. His wife insisted that he had been absent from Toronto, continuously from this time, but although the intuitive wifely forecast of danger which induced her to make such a statement was entitled to due respect, it was established by a dozen reputable witnesses, among them, some of his oldest friends, that he had been seen in the city on the Friday and Saturday, one week later, when Long had manufactured his telegrams and interviews.