Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 November 1890 — WEARY OF IRON BARS. [ARTICLE]

WEARY OF IRON BARS.

ICEMAN O’SULLIVAN MAKES. A CONFESSION. Be S»ys He Lnred Cronin to the Fatal CvCtage, supposing Only that He Was to Be Hade to Give Up Some Valuable Papers t» His Possession^ — Story of the Murder. [Chicago dispatch.] The cabal of Cronin conspirators has been broken. Patrick O’Sullivan’s love of liberty Is stronger thau his allegiance to the Irish Nationalists. He has made a statement of his connection with the murder of Dr. P. H. Cronin, and by so doing has thrown light in dark places. He is angry, defiant and determined.' 'He is serving a life sentence in the prison at Joliet. He says that he is guilty of nothing more than aiding in a- conspiracy to identify an alleged British spy and to secure some “papers.” O’Sullivan now realizes that the securing of papers was not the chief purpose of tho conspiracy and that Cronin was not a spy. A few days ago an intimate friend called upon the iceman and was furnished with the facts which are the cause of O'Suliivan’s great confidence that he will be given his liberty. The story was told with every indication of sincerity, and may be accepted as the first break in the oath-bound compact. O’Sullivan says that he never was involved in any conspiracy to murder Cronin. He was a member of the Nationalists. and it was common talk among the members that Cronin was a British spy and an enemy to the order. He believed the statements made th him, and as an ardent friend of the Irish cause he came to look upon Dr. Cronin as a traitor to the people of his native land. He was told that Dr. Cronin cou'd be identified as a British emissary, if necessary, and that upon his person could be found papers which would ndt only prove him to be an enemy of the Irish Nationalists but which, unless secured, might be used as evidence against prominent Irishmen. Drawn on by the enthusiasm of his oathbound associates, O’Sullivan says that he entered into the conspiracy with Daniel Coughlin, Martin Bourk, Patrick F. Cooney, and others whose names he will give at the proper time. Drniel Coughlin had absolute charge of the matter and the others acted under his instructions. O’Sullivan does not tell who was next in authority above Coughlin. The iceman says that he was not acquainted with the inner workings of the conspiracy. He was the dupe. It was he who was assigned to look after the securing of the Carlson cottage; he was sent to make a contract with Dr. Cronin to furnish medical services for his (O’Sullivan’s) employes at the rate of SSO a year; he was the one who was to send a card to Dr. Cronin's house in order to inveigle the victim into the ambush of the murderers; he was the man forced out into the open while the others remained under cover and perfected their plans of assassination unknown to him. O’Sullivan says that up to the very hour of the murder he was in ignorance of the real motive of tho preparations which the conspirators had been carefully making for seventy-two days. He knew that the Carlson cottage had been rented and furnished by Martin Bourk, knew of the other arrangements for leading Dr. Cronin into the e But Coughlin repeatedly assured hint pbfit the intention was to get possession of Cronin and examine hint for documents which were valuable to the Irish cad3je and which would prove the treachery of the man who professed to be a friend of Ireland. was at the cottage on the nrghfcoff May 4, 1889, but he- was not in tlie.frbnt room when the fatal blow was struck.'’

The mysterious driver of the white horse- had been sent to Dr. Cronin's residence, carrying one of O’Sullivan’s business cards. The iceman either does not know or refuses to give the name of the driver. The remainder of the narrative can be put in O’Sullivan’s own words as ho has told! ft within the last few days: “There were three of us in the front room of the cottage at 8 o’clock that evening, safd O’Sullivan. “They were Martin Bourk, Patrick Cooney and myself. We- were waiting to see- whether our plan was successful. I was feeling prettjy nervous, for I did not lik e the way Bourk and Cooney acted. I did not see any weapon, and I will always say that I did not go there that night to commit murder,. When the buggy bringing Dr. Cronin drove up the street toward the cottage I weakened and began to realize that there might be trouble—a struggle at least —and so I went out through the back room and down the rear stairway. I stood back of the house trembling with horror as I heard the sounds of the struggle from within.” O'Sullivan’s story in regard to being in the back yard at the time of the killing is corroborated by the testimony of Mrs. Carlson and of the German washerwoman, who saw Dr. Cronin enter the cottage. Both of them testa fled at the trial that some one was standing at the rear o-f the house at the tiimeef the murder. In continuing his story O’Sullivan says that after remaining outside of the house for a time, undecided what to do, ! he went in and found Cronin lying, ap- j pfirentfy dead, on the floor of the front | room. The walls of the room were spattered with blood and there was a pool of blood on the floor. Dan Coughlin was in the. room. He had been waiting up the street and had come in at the front door just after Bourk and Cooney, “the Fox; p had completed their bloody work. As OUSullivan came in the back,.wav Coughlin walked up to the body of Dr. Cronifi lying on the floor and began kicking the dead man in the head. O’Sullivan caught hold of him and told him to stop. Coughlin paid no attention to the iceman, and continued stamping upon the head of the lifeless n;an. Then O'Sullivan drew a revolver and said: “You scoundrel, you have killed this man, and now you Ar.e kicking his dead body. If you don’tstop, I’ll shoot you.” Coughlin dUt of the room at the i>oint of ijdtSslllvan’B revolver. O’Sullivan left '<the house and had nothing to do with putting the body into the trunk and disposing of it. It was his understanding at the time- that Martin Bourk struck the fiVst blow, which dazed and stunned the yfctinj, although it did not prevent him from struggling UDtil he received jjss other death wounds. O’Sullivan will swear, upon the witness-stand, if an opportunity is given him, that he did not furiilsh the weapon with murder fj* committed, and that u one of hid Sq-picks was used it was without his knowledge The. mysterious wound upon: the back of Cronin’s head was caused by a kick from, Coughlin after the victim was dead.

The above Is, to substance, the story told by the Lake View iceman after nearly a year of penitentiary reflection at Joliet. It is the story which wished to tell the jury whon he felt the colls of circumstantial evidence tightening dbout the defendants in the trial. He says that ho placed all the facto ** the disposal of tho attorneys and fait they told him it would be unwise for him to testify. Hopes of acquittal were held out to him, and so, doubting and fearing, he kept quiet under protest If he had been placed on the stand tha whole mechanism of the C4an-na-Gael conspiracy would have been laid bare. Some one might have gone to the gallows, but O’Sullivan thinks he would have gone free. His own life and liberty, his little prbperty and his many friends in Lake View are dearer to him just now than any oath-bound obligation t, men who, as he claims, deceived him.

The prosecution in the Cronin case could never understand why O’Sullivan had been so indiscreet in making his contract with the doomed physician and then sending his busiuess card by the driver, thus furnishing the strongest kind of circumstantial evidence against himself. His present statement, if accepted as true, furnishes the explanation of his conduct. Ho did not observe the secrecy to be expected of one who waa planning a murder which was sure to be investigated thoroughly. When Dr. Cronin had been missing over night, T. T. Conklin, with whom Dr. Cronin had boarded, picked up O’Sullivan’scard from the mantel an'd went out to the Lake View iceman in regard to the physician’s disappearance. It is claimed by O’Sullivan that if he had been a part of the conspiracy to murder he would not have been so careless in having his identity revealed to the Conklin family; neither would he have selected the Carlson cottage, only a few feet from hi’s own house, as a safe place to do the dangerous job. O’Sullivan was careful in his endeavor to keep suspicion away from' Cronin’s mind, but he did not cover' up f his tracks, and he thinks this fact ought to speak eloquently in his behalf. It. is certain that tho State’s Attorney could not satisfactorily explain the Iceman’s boldness in carrying, out his part of the deeply laid plot, while the others were so quiet in their operations.

O’Sullivan’s verbal confession has been in the hands of certain well-known gentlemen for several days. Some of them are interested, at least in sentiment, in the identification and punishment of all who were connected with the groat conspiracy, which had its origin, they say, with men whose political and social station was far above that of jpoughlin, O’Sullivan, Cooney, Bourk and Kunze. One of them, who is acquainted with tho O’Sullivan version of the tragedy, said last evening: “At no time did we believe that O’Sullivan was in the room at the time of the murder. He was in the back yard crouched against the building and cowering with fear. He lost his nerve when he saw the buggy approach. When he saw Coughlin kicking the lifeless man he drew his revolver and attempted to aid the victim of the murder. We believe O’Sullivan’s story, but whets I picked up a morning paper and read that he was anxious to make a public statement on the witness stand the news- seemed too good to be true. I only hope that O’Saltivan will speak out and name the men who used the iceman and the others as their deluded tools. ”