People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 November 1893 — COUGHLIN AT THE BAR. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

COUGHLIN AT THE BAR.

■ Placed on Trial a Second Time for Cranin'. Murder. Chicago Nov. 4.—Daniel Coughlin j was placed on trial Friday morning in Judge R. S. Tnthill’s court for alleged complicity in the conspiracy that encompassed the murder of ; Dr. P. 11. Cronin on May 4, 1889, and the work of securing a jury ! was begun. This is Coughlin’s second trial for the same offense. On the former hearing, it will be remembered, he was convicted and sentenced to imprisonment for life, but was granted a new trial by the supreme court on the ground of incompetency, because of prejudice, of several of the jurors. I The attorneys in the ease arrived Boon after 10 o’clock. For the state there appeared State’s Attorney Kern, Assistant State’s Attorney Bottum and Kickham Scanlan. who has

been retained as special counsel. The defense was in the charge of Daniel Donahoe and ex-Judge Russell M. Wing. The defendant was not brought into coupt until the lawyers were ready to proceed. He was brought over from the jail by Bailiffs Curley and Cool. Coughlin looked in splendid physical condition. When the court adjourned at 1.2 o’clock ten talesmen had been examined by the state’s attorney, of whom nine were excused for cause, each hav ing admitted that he held an opinion amounting to a prejudice as to the guilt or innocence of the accused, to whom he could not give a fair and impartial hearing. One juror, John E. Parr, a painter, of 107 Morgan street, an Englishman by birth, answered Mr. Bottum’s questions satisfactorily and was accepted temporarily by the state. A notable feature of the session was the fact that of the ten talesmen examined five were Irishmen, all of

whom, confessed to a prejudice so strong as to disqualify them as jurors. In view of the answers given by the talesmen the prospect is that the trial will be long. The trial will be very tame compared with the exciting event of four years ago. So crippled is the prosecution in the matter of witnesses and evidence that when the state closes the court may take the case from the jury and order an acquittal. Such a result is looked for by the defense and would not surprise the state. Many of the important witnesses for the state in the former trial are dead and the whereabouts of others are unknown, and the difficulty of securing a conviction is recognized. Their testimony, of course, remains in the record, and this will be put in by the state by placing the official stenographers on the stand and having them identify the documents containing the testimony as the official record of the. case, but this at the best will be unsatisfactory. The few witnesses who are available will be sworn and examined. Not a single new witness will be examined, however, State’s Attorney Kern being absolutely without a particle of additional proof to Vhat presented by the state at the previous trial. The ruling of the supreme court in granting the new trial will also seriously embarrass the state in its presentation of the case. The Murder of Dr- Cronin. I The crime for which Daniel Coughlin is again placed on trial was the murder of Dr. P H. Cronin. Dr. Cronin was prominent in Irish societies and had incurred the enmity of Camp 20, Clan-na-Gael of which Coughlin was a member. On the night of May 4. 1883, Dr. Cronin was enticed from his home on North Clark street by a message that a man had been injured in Patrick O’Sullivan's icehouse in Lake View. Prior to this time O'Sullivan had made a contract with Dr. Cronin to attend any of his men who were injured. It was Saturday evening when Dr. Cronin entered the buggy drawn by a white horse. Not having returned by the following morning. T. T. Conklin, with whom Dr. Cronin lived, notified the police and a search for the missing man was begun. A few days later the police discovered the blood-smeared cottage at 1872 North Ashland avenue, which was only a few steps from O'Sullivan's residence.

The search for Dr. Cronin’s body was continued and on the afternoon of May 21 sewer workmen found the body of the murdered doctor doubled up and jammed in a manhole at the northeast corner of Fifty-ninth place and Evanston avenue, Lake View. About this time it was discovered that the white horse which had driven Dr Cronin to his death had been secured from P. Dinan’s livery stable on North Clark street, near East Chicago avenue, and only a few steps Iron? the police station where Coughlin was attached as a detective. It was also learned that Coughlin had made arrangements for the horse, which was supposed to have been driven by Cooney, "the Fox,” who has never been arrested.

Daniel. Coughlin, Patrick O'Sullivan and Martin Burke were finally tried and convicted of murdering Dr. Cronin in the Carlson cottage and were sentenced to life imprisonment at Joliet. O’Sullivan and Burke • died in confinement and Coughlin was finally granted a new trial. John F. Beggs and John P. Kunze, who were also tried for murder, were acquitted, and Beggs died a short time later. Kunze is still living in Lake View and, aside from Coughlin, is about the only prominent actor in the great crime who has not died or left the city.]

DAN COUGHLIN.