The arguments were begun by States Attorney Longenecker, who demurred to the application on several technical grounds, dwelling especially on the point that the question as to the guilt or innocence of the accused was a question to be decided in another court. The statement of the accused regarding the insufficiency of the evidence was, he urged, a conclusion which he was incompetent to arrive at.
Mr. Gilbert replied for Sullivan, saying that it would be a practical denial of justice to deprive his client of the right to be admitted to bail. Mr. Trude followed with a lengthy address, in the course of which he said that the bill of rights which guaranteed the inalienable rights of citizens, provided that unless there was positive proof or a strong presumption of guilt, the accused should not be held in imprisonment. Mr. Sullivan he said, had made no effort to run away. He had been at home at night and in his office by day, and hence he did not stand on the same footing as a felon who had been brought back from some State to which he had fled. Further argument followed, and it was finally agreed that the court should read over the evidence taken before a coroner's jury, before announcing his decision. Sullivan was thereupon remanded to jail. Here he was held for forty-eight hours, or until three o'clock of the following Friday afternoon. When brought down to the court room for the second time, he looked careworn and anxious, and there was no smile on his face as he greeted his attorneys.
SULLIVAN RELEASED ON BAIL.
Judge Tuley plunged into his decision without loss of time. He reviewed the evidence which went to show that Cronin had been in fear of his life, particularly from Sullivan, but held that there was no rule of law which would admit this evidence before a jury. Sullivan, he said, had not been shown to have been connected in any way with the obtaining of the horse and buggy, with the renting of the Carlson cottage, or with any of the other preliminaries of the crime.
It was shown, on the other hand, that Sullivan had resigned from the Clan-na-Gael four years before-hand; and, if Cronin had been murdered in the pursuance of the order of any camp, it was not very clear how Sullivan, not being a member of the organization, could have influenced that action. The judge went on to say that the protest made by Sullivan against Dr. Cronin as one of the committee of six, showed the most bitter and malignant hatred of the dead man, but the very fact that this document was not made public until two or three weeks after the killing of Cronin, seemed to argue that Sullivan was not connected with the crime. It was almost impossible to believe that he would have promulgated that protest two weeks after the murder, had he been connected with the conspiracy. The evidence pointed to Sullivan as a person who might have a revenge to gratify, but it failed to show any direct act toward the gratification of that revenge. There was no doubt but what the coroner's jury believed that Alexander Sullivan was connected with the conspiracy, but it was largely influenced by hearsay evidence. Striking out all but legal evidence, no impartial man could think that it would be possible for any jury to convict the petitioner on what remained, and as a man could not be deprived of his liberty on the ground that more evidence would be produced to show him guilty, it was apparent to him (the Judge) upon mature deliberation, that Sullivan was entitled to bail. Upon the announcement of this decision there was considerable discussion regarding the amount of bail, and in the end a bond of $20,000 was agreed on by both sides. As bondsmen, there were then presented Fernando Jones, a real estate dealer and one of the oldest residents of Chicago; Daniel Corkery, a coal merchant; James W. Touhy, an extensive dry goods merchant, and Michael W. Kerwin. The state's attorney asked that they should be sworn and their property scheduled. Mr. Jones affirmed that he was worth $20,000, and as his wealth was in realty, estimated at about $2,000,000, the affirmation was considered quite as good as an oath. Mr. Kerwin scheduled $400,000; James W. Touhy, $175,000, and Daniel Corkery, $100,000. A bond was quickly signed and Alexander Sullivan was once more a free man. His friends crowded around him and congratulated him on having regained his freedom. There were several minutes of hand-shaking, his countenance the while expressing the satisfaction at the turn affairs had taken, and then, with his friends and counsel, he left the court room. The bonds remained in force until November the 8th of the same year, when, no indictment having been returned against him, Mr. Sullivan appeared with his attorney before Judge Baker and demanded that his bondsmen should be released and himself declared discharged from all further connection with the case. The State was at first inclined to resist the application, but on the following day, finding that the law was entirely on Sullivan's side, the objection was withdrawn; the bonds were declared canceled and Alexander Sullivan, by reason of the failure of the grand jury to find sufficient evidence upon which he could be brought to trial, was legally declared innocent of all complicity in the atrocious crime.
TWO ARRESTS IN NEW YORK.
On the same day that the coroner's jury returned its verdict, John J. Maroney and Charles McDonald were arrested in New York on suspicion of complicity in the murder. These arrests were made in accordance with instructions issued by the State's Attorney and Chief of Police, of Chicago, in the belief that Maroney was the man Simonds, who had hired the Clark street flat, and that McDonald answered to the description of the man who drove the Dinan rig. Both men had been prominent in the Clan-na-gael, Maroney especially, having been one of the secret workers for the "triangle." It was claimed by Luke Dillon that he had discovered that Maroney was in Chicago under an assumed name from February 20th to March 20th, that he reappeared on the morning of the day that the physician was murdered under an assumed name, and that he left Chicago for good on the following day. A complaint and information against the two men was sworn out by John J. Cronin, the dead man's brother, and upon this requisitions on Governor Hill of New York were issued by Governor Fifer of Illinois, and entrusted to Detective Farrell. In the meantime the prisoners had been arraigned at the tombs police court in New York, before Justice Hogan, and remanded until the question of extradition could be argued. This, however, did not meet the approval of their friends, of whom over a hundred were in court, and the same afternoon a writ of habeas corpus was applied for and granted by Judge Andrews of the Supreme Court. The prisoners declared that they had been in New York for weeks before and weeks after the murder of Dr. Cronin, and in this they were corroborated by a large number of people. Detective Farrell reached Albany on the following day, but Governor Hill, upon looking over the requisition, promptly denied the application, on the ground that it was not accompanied by an indictment, and that no proof whatever was presented showing that the accused were guilty of the crime charged against them. Upon receipt of this information, Hatfield, the furniture salesman, Martinson, the expressman, and Throgmorton, the real estate agent, started for New York with a view of identifying the prisoners. Upon their arrival, however, they utterly failed to find in either "suspect" the slightest resemblance to the mysterious Simonds, and on the heels of this Judge Andrews in the Supreme Court, handed down a decision upon the matter of the writ of habeas corpus, ordering that the men be discharged from custody, on the ground that there was not sufficient evidence produced before Justice Hogan, in the police court, to justify their committal to prison.