The Crime of the Century Part 25

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 Sat.u.r.day 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 pa.s.senger 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 ent.i.tled 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 Sat.u.r.day, one week later, when Long had manufactured his telegrams and interviews.

Four days after this he was met in New York by Richard Powers, of Chicago, ex-president of the Seamen's Union, and a warm friend of Dr.

Cronin, who taxed him with being concerned in the manufacture of the bogus dispatches. Starkey not only denied this with some show of feeling, but also declared that he was not acquainted with Long. Strange to say, John F. Beggs, the Chicago lawyer who presided at that time over Camp 20 of the Clan-na-gael, was also in New York at that time. On Thursday, May 23d, the day following the discovery of Cronin's corpse, numerous telegrams, in cipher, pa.s.sed between Starkey and Mason, the former's address being given as 135 Fourth avenue, New York. The following day Starkey was seen in conversation with certain members of the executive committee of the Clan-na-gael, and in about a week he reappeared in Toronto, vigorously disclaiming all connection with the movements of his friend Long. All the circ.u.mstances pointed to the fact that the sole object of the Toronto end of the conspiracy had been to distract attention from the scene of the crime, in order that the search for the body, then decomposing in the catch basin, might be discontinued, and, had it not been for the opportune discovery, this portion of the plot would have been entirely successful. No effort, however, was made by those interested in bringing the murderers to justice, to pursue the inquiries in this direction, owing to the fact, that, however important the information obtained, it would not have been admissible before an American court. The result was that the mystery surrounding the "hidden hand" that directed the movements of Long and Starkey had not been dispelled up to the conclusion of the trial.

WOODRUFF'S SECOND CONFESSION.

Another confession was poured by Woodruff into the willing ears of Captain Schaak about this time. In it, the man of many aliases told an entirely different story to that which resulted in his commitment to jail. According to his latest narrative, he was hired to take the wagon to the Carlson cottage, saw Dr. Cronin cross the threshold and pa.s.s through the doorway, and waited until the trunk had been brought out and placed in his vehicle. Then he was told to drive along the route so frequently described. It was the intention of the men, Woodruff went on to say, to sink the trunk in the lake, but they became scared at meeting several policemen, and seeing the manhole of the sewer, and which in the darkness looked much larger than it really was, they directed him to stop. Having lifted off the cover of the man-hole, the men were disgusted to find that the trunk was much too large to go into the opening. Accordingly they decided to take the body from the trunk, put it in the catch-basin and take the trunk back to the cottage. The discovery being made that the key was missing, one of the men broke open the trunk, and a.s.sisted by the other two, forced the body through the manhole and into the catch-basin. The cover replaced, the trunk was again thrown into the wagon and the horse's head turned toward the cottage. After going a short distance, however, the noise of a wagon was heard coming from the south. One of the men, who was sitting on the trunk, threw it out of the wagon into the ditch, and commanded Woodruff to lash his horse and drive as fast as he could to the west. At Fullerton avenue, the men got out of the wagon, while Woodruff drove to the barn. Concerning his previous confession, he admitted that the statement that there was a woman's body in the trunk was untrue, and added that the names of King and Fairburn were those of old friends, and had come to him on the spur of the moment. Inasmuch, however, as the prisoner, having access to the daily papers, could easily have concocted this story from the published reports and surmises, little stock was taken in his second "confession."

CHAPTER XIII.

SULLIVAN'S ARREST CREATES A SENSATION--HIS FRIENDS STAND BY HIM--THE NOTED IRISH LEADER IN COURT--EFFORTS TO SECURE HIS RELEASE--JUDGE TULEY GIVES HIM HIS LIBERTY--ARREST OF MARONEY AND MCDONALD IN NEW YORK--THEIR EXTRADITION REFUSED.

Although, from the nature of the testimony before the coroner's jury, and the numerous developments in other directions, the arrest of the ex-president of the Irish National League of America was not entirely unexpected, it nevertheless produced a profound sensation, not only in the United States, but also across the Atlantic. By many of his friends and acquaintances in Ireland, the news was at first received with incredulity, and afterward, when confirmation had been flashed over the wires, with expressions of astonishment and denunciation of the course of the authorities. Men like Charles Stewart Parnell and Michael Davitt were not slow or conservative of words in giving utterance to the opinion that a serious mistake had been made; that Sullivan was an honest man, a patriot, a true worker in the cause of Irish liberty, and altogether a man whom it would be impossible to convict of ident.i.ty with a conspiracy to a.s.sa.s.sinate one of his enemies. Meanwhile the Chicago friends of the accused lawyer were not inactive. Bright and early on the morning following his arrest they were in conference, for the purpose of determining upon the best course to pursue in order that his freedom could be secured. As a result of their deliberations, Counsellor A. S.

Trude, one of the leading members of the Chicago bar, appeared before Chancellor Tuley upon the opening of the court, and secured a writ of _habeas corpus_, calling upon Sheriff Matson to produce his prisoner in court at three o'clock in the afternoon. The news spread rapidly.

Popular feeling had been re-kindled by the events of the week, and, long before the hour designated, the court room was besieged by a crowd of people anxious to see the distinguished suspect. Sullivan was brought into the court room promptly on time, under escort of the sheriff and a couple of broad-shouldered deputies. Owing to some difficulty in securing a vehicle, and the stoppage of the street cars through an accident, the sheriff and his prisoner had been compelled to walk from the jail to the court room, a distance of nearly one mile, and strange as it may seem, although the route took them through a leading thoroughfare crowded with people coming and going, not one seemed to recognize the official or his companion. No one would have imagined for a moment that the latter had been the occupant of a cell over night. His linen was immaculate, and his attire--a neat fitting Prince Albert suit of black diagonal, with a black cravat tied in a simple knot over the snowy s.h.i.+rt bosom and the turn-down collar--was absolutely faultless.

The occasion was one to try the soul of a strong man, but as he looked over the court room and glanced into the faces of many of his bitterest enemies, his expression was stoical, and he shook hands in a cheerful manner with several friends who were in court to show their allegiance to him. As counsel, he had Attorneys Trude, Windes and McArdle--the two latter his law partners--ex-Senator Duncan and Hiram Gilbert. The people were represented by State's Attorney Longenecker and his a.s.sistant, Frank Baker, the former occupying his favorite att.i.tude of leaning over the bar of the court while the arguments were in progress.

It was developed at the outset that the unconditional release of the prisoner was not desired, but that it was simply sought to secure him his liberty upon substantial bail. The proceedings opened with the reading of the pet.i.tion to which Mr. Sullivan had affixed his signature.

In this he declared that the evidence before the coroner's jury, and upon which his arrest was based, had been wholly insufficient to warrant that action; that there was no competent evidence, direct or circ.u.mstantial, tending to prove that he was guilty of the murder of Patrick H. Cronin, or an accessory thereto, or had guilty knowledge thereof, or knowledge or thought of conspiracy to accomplish the same; that the verdict was based upon a large amount of incompetent and wholly irrelevant testimony calculated to create prejudice, and that the verdict rendered, so far as it reflected upon the conduct of himself (Sullivan) was the result of pa.s.sionate prejudice, created by the admission of such evidence. The doc.u.ment concluded with a declaration that the pet.i.tioner was not guilty of the crime with which he had been charged by the verdict, and that he had had no connection whatever with the murder of Dr. Cronin.

ARGUING ON THE PEt.i.tION.

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.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

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 doc.u.ment 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 pet.i.tioner 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 ent.i.tled 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 a.s.sumed name from February 20th to March 20th, that he reappeared on the morning of the day that the physician was murdered under an a.s.sumed 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.

CHAPTER XIV.

OFFICER COLLIN'S SUSPICIONS--MARTIN BURKE AND HIS RECORD--FORTUNATE DISCOVERY OF THE PHOTOGRAPH OF A CLAN-NA-GAEL GROUP--THE CARLSONS AND OTHERS IDENTIFY BURKE--HIS PECULIAR MOVEMENTS AND HIS FLIGHT--AN INDICTMENT AGAINST HIM--THE CAPTURE IN WINNIPEG, WHILE EN ROUTE TO ENGLAND--STUBBORN FIGHT TO PREVENT HIS EXTRADITION TO AMERICAN SOIL--THE LAW TRIUMPHANT--A MEMORABLE JOURNEY HOME.

There is more truth than poetry in the old saying that it is "always the unexpected that happens." The fleeing criminal is oftentimes in the greatest danger when he imagines himself safe from pursuit. Examine the records of the courts and the detective agencies in scores of the largest cities of this and continental countries, and they will be found replete with sensational narrations of the capture of murderers, forgers, embezzlers--and others charged with offences covered in existing extradition treaties--in distant lands and isolated regions, and among people of strange tongues, where they had fondly hoped that detection or discovery was an impossibility, and that they were safe, for all time to come, from the strong arm of the law that they had violated. So too, a criminal will outwit the keenest of detectives, and nonpluss the most experienced of officers, only through his own lack of caution, to run his neck into the noose in an entirely different direction to that in which he is being sought.

And so it was that to a sharp, keen, wide-awake official of the police department of Winnipeg, Manitoba, was due, in no small measure, the capture, at this juncture, of one of the alleged conspirators whose presence was most earnestly desired by the police authorities of Chicago.

It came about in this way--Officer John Collins, an Irish-American, and an energetic member of the force, had been detailed for special work upon this celebrated case. He was familiar with the proceedings of the Clan-na-Gael. He also knew a man named Martin Burke, who occasionally a.s.sumed that of Delaney as an alias. This individual had been looked upon as a tool of the local Clan-na-Gael leaders, voicing their opinions in bar-rooms and at street corners. He had been particularly violent in his denunciation of Dr. Cronin, and at the saloons on the north side of the city that he was in the habit of frequenting, more especially those in the neighborhood of Chicago Avenue and Market Street, he had been heard to frequently say that Cronin "ought to be killed as a British spy." Little was known as to Burke's antecedents. Even his uncle, Phil Corkell, who kept a small grocery store on the north side, professed to know little or nothing about him. All that the police could learn at the time in tracing his record was that he had reached the United States from Ireland some time in 1886. A year later he turned up in Chicago. He had not been long in the city when he joined the Clan-na-Gaels. The notorious Camp 20 was the one he chose to gain admission to the order.

Dan Coughlin, John F. Beggs, Mike Whelan and other leading lights of the order at this time dominated the affairs of this particular camp. For some reason or other--certainly not because he was particularly sharp or bright, for his uncle described him as a soft sort of a fellow, without any "gumption"--Burke attracted the favorable attention of Beggs, and the latter, aided materially by Alexander Sullivan, procured him employment in the city sewer department. He was a.s.signed to work at the Chicago Avenue pipe yard, which at that time was a hot bed of Irish Nationalists. Accordingly to all accounts he earned no small proportion of his salary by boasting to his fellow workmen of his influential backers. It was his burden of conversation that Alex. Sullivan, Beggs, Coughlin, and other Clan-na-Gael leaders were his staunch friends. He also boasted that he came from the same part of Ireland, on the borders of Mayo and Sligo, in which Michael Davitt and other eminent Nationalists were reared, and he never tired of narrating his experiences with "moonlighting" expeditions in the west of Ireland.

After Le Caron had testified before the Parnell Commission, in London, he varied his conversation, and was eternally denouncing and breathing imprecations upon the "British Spy." Early in 1889 he lost his job in the pipe department. From that time on he had no steady employment.

At the same time he had plenty of money and spent it freely in the Market Street saloons.

This of itself was sufficient to arouse suspicions, for when he was at work he was always in debt. Occasionally he varied his saloon loafing by taking trips to Lake View.

To his a.s.sociates he explained that he had a young female acquaintance in that neighborhood, although it was observed and sometimes remarked that these trips were altogether too prolonged for ordinary courts.h.i.+p.

Afterwards it was recalled that they were taken about the time the mysterious strangers were occupying the Carlson cottage.

BURKE'S PICTURE IDENTIFIED.

It was nothing but natural that, as soon as Dr. Cronin's disappearance had been announced, the bartenders, saloon-keepers, and other intimates of Burke, calling to mind his deep-rooted hatred of the missing man and his apparently endless supply of funds, began to whisper that he must have had something to do with the affair.

"He was surely in it," they said one to another.

These rumors came to the ears of Officer Collins, and the latter lost no time in communicating with Captain Schuettler, who was actively engaged in the case. Schuettler immediately set about getting a photograph of the suspect. Diligent enquiry developed the fact that no single one was in existence.

It was learned, however, that a picture of a group of Clan-na-Gaels was to be found, and that Burke was among them. A few years before, soon after the death of Timothy Crean, a relative of Alexander Sullivan, and at one time a district member of the Clan-na-Gael, a burial lot was purchased in the Mount Olivet Catholic Cemetery, near Was.h.i.+ngton Heights.

It was intended as the "G.o.d's acre" of the Irish Nationalists. Imposing ceremonies marked its dedication, Father M. Dorney, the "stock yards priest," delivering the address upon the occasion. Subsequently a tall obelisk, with the name of Timothy Crean carved in the base with an appropriate inscription, was erected on the lot. It was on the occasion of the unveiling of this obelisk that the Nationalist group was photographed. In the back-ground of the picture, his features showing up clear and distinct among some forty people, was Martin Burke.

It was an easy matter for Collins to locate the photographer that had taken the group, and then, finding that the negative had been preserved, to procure a copy of the picture. This much accomplished, however, the next question was, could Burke be identified?

If he could not, all the rumors, and the suspicions, and the labor would go for naught.

Collins took the picture to the Carlsons.

Without acquainting them of his theories or suspicions, or indicating the object that he had in view; he asked them whether they recognized any one of the group. Charley Carlson, the son, was the first one approached. His finger went down on the face of Burke as that of the man who had rented the cottage. His father and mother put on their spectacles, looked the photograph over, and without the slightest hesitation declared--"That is the man." To make a.s.surance doubly sure, Collins went to Hakan Martinson, the expressman. A single glance over the faces in the picture was sufficient. "That is the man" he said, indicating Burke, "that hired me to haul the furniture from that flat on South Clark Street." Further questioning led him to say that he had frequently seen Burke, about the time of the murder, in and around the saloons and the neighborhood of Chicago Avenue and Market street. This was enough for Collins. He was satisfied that he had struck the right lead. All that was necessary now was to get his hands on the man.

THE FLIGHT AND CAPTURE.