STARTLING INTERRUPTION TO THE TRIAL--VILLAINOUS ATTEMPT TO FRUSTRATE THE
ENDS OF JUSTICE--BOLD EFFORTS TO BRIBE THE SPECIAL VENIRESMEN IN THE
INTEREST OF THE PRISONERS--A "HUNG" JURY WANTED--FORTUNATE DISCOVERY OF
THE PLOT--THE "WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS" OF THE CONSPIRACY--PROMPT ACTION OF
THE PROSECUTING AUTHORITIES--SPEEDY ARREST AND INDICTMENT OF THE GUILTY
PARTIES--CRIME ADDED TO CRIME.
The thirty-seventh day of the trial--or rather of the effort to secure a
jury--was productive of startling developments that temporarily
suspended the further progress of the case. At the morning session there
had been a wrangle between the State's Attorney and Counsellor Forrest
concerning an application by the former for an order upon the
prosecution to furnish the addresses of a number of female witnesses
whose names were upon the back of the indictment. Judge Longenecker, who
did not happen to be in a compliant mood, resisted the application,
declaring that no law was in existence by which he was compelled to make
public property of the location of those upon whom the State relied for
evidence which was to make out its case. It was broadly hinted that the
information was required for purposes that could scarcely be classed as
legitimate, and there were suggestions that if the order was issued some
of the witnesses in question might stand in need of protection. Despite
these arguments, however, the presiding Judge took the other view of the
matter and the defense gained its point. For the balance of the session
the weary grind of examining the special veniresmen went on, but without
result, and when the time for the usual recess arrived not an additional
man of the many examined had been accepted by either side.
SENSATIONAL TURN IN THE CASE.
Promptly at the regular hour for resuming the proceedings, Judge
McConnell put in an appearance. For the first time since the opening day
of the trial, however, the counsel for the State were absent.
Considerable time passed, and still they failed to put in an appearance.
At this juncture a messenger arrived in hot haste, with an intimation
that the Judge's presence was urgently requested in another part of the
building. He returned in a few moments, accompanied by the State's
Attorney. There was a solemn look on both faces, and a whisper
immediately went around the court that a sensation was upon the tapis.
The Judge had hardly taken his seat when Mr. Longenecker, addressing
him, said: "In view of some matters of which I have advised your Honor,
I shall have to ask the Court to adjourn for the present in order to
enable us to complete an investigation we are making."
[Illustration: THE JUDGE HEARS OF THE JURY BRIBING PLOT.]
"I am disposed to think," was the ready response of the Court "from what
I know of the matter, that the request is a reasonable one. The court
stands adjourned until one o'clock to-morrow afternoon."
A buzz of surprise went through the crowded room. Longenecker hurried
away, while counsel for the defense looked at each other with surprise.
The prisoners excitedly asked each other and the spectators: "What's in
the wind? What does this mean." No one could answer.
For the next twelve hours there were scenes about the Criminal Court
building which for mystery and suppressed excitement had never before
been approached in the criminal history of Chicago.
A JURY-BRIBING PLOT.
Hardly had the Court adjourned when the State's Attorney commenced the
investigation which, as he had declared a few moments before, demanded
his presence. The outer door of his office was locked from the inside,
while a stalwart officer stood on guard. In a room across the hall a
half dozen officers were stationed to prevent the approach of strangers.
Assembled in the office were Judge Longenecker, Luther Laflin Mills,
Messrs. Hynes, Ingham and Kickham Scanlan, Assistant State's Attorneys
Neeley, Elliott, Baker and Glennon, Chief of Police Hubbard and Captain
Schuettler. At one time and another a score of detectives hurried from
one room to another, receiving instructions, going away in pairs and
returning with some man or another who would disappear behind the doors
to emerge no more. It was four o'clock in the morning before the
investigation was suspended. Three hours later it was resumed. At ten
o'clock a special grand jury was called by Judge Horton. It assembled at
twelve. Ex-Mayor John A. Roche was appointed chairman. The body retired
to its room and for nearly twelve hours was engaged in an inquiry on the
star-chamber order. More than a score of witnesses were examined, and,
just as the clocks of the city were chiming the hour of midnight, the
members of the Grand Jury entered the Court and returned indictments
against six individuals for conspiring to thwart the ends of justice by
endeavoring to bribe jurors in the Cronin case. These individuals were
Thomas Kavanaugh, steam-fitter; Alexander L. Hanks, court bailiff; Mark
L. Soloman, court bailiff; Fred W. Smith, hardware agent; Jeremiah
O'Donnell, gauger; Joseph Konen, fruit dealer.
The mystery that enveloped the proceedings of the previous day was now
dispelled. The tentacles of the devil fish had reached into the court of
justice. The desperation of the mysterious power behind the five men who
were on trial for their lives for the murder of the Irish physician had
reached a climax. From the moment that the prisoners had first faced
Judge McConnell, their attorneys had waged a stubborn and a bitter war
against the veniremen passed by the State. Eight jurors had, however,
been selected. The peremptory challenges of O'Sullivan, Burke, Coughlin
and Kunze had been exhausted, and Beggs alone of all the prisoners
possessed the right of exercising the power of peremptory dismissal. All
this time the mighty and unseen power behind the prisoners and behind
the lawyers was hard at work. It had never been still from the time that
the doom of the physician had been sealed. Its machinery had ground him
to death and been then torn down, built up again, and set in motion to
conceal the gory corpse. The shafting encircled the entire boundary
within which a juror could be drawn, and the leviathan proportions of
the murderous machine could not be measured until a cog had dropped out
here and there and been carried to the office of the State's Attorney.
The machine had assisted in the escape of Cooney. It had tried its best
to get Martin Burke far beyond the reach of the clutches of the law. It
had inspired the police officers of the State to ignore their duty. It
was probably, at that very time, instructing possible witnesses in the
art of perjury. It had gone farther and had actually attempted to suborn
by bribes the men who had been summoned as jurors in the trial in
progress.
The facts, as narrated first to the State's Attorney and later to the
Grand Jury, admitted of no controversy. George Tschappatt, a German,
who for ten years had been employed as foreman of an extensive lard
manufactory, had been one of the veniremen approached. His wife was a
friend of Mark L. Soloman, a bailiff of the Criminal Court. He was
summoned as a venireman on Monday, and was present at the court room
Tuesday, but was not examined. On Wednesday morning Soloman encountered
him in the ante-room awaiting his turn to be called. Approaching him
with extended hand, he said:
"Hello, Tschappatt, what are you doing here?" And then slapping him
on the shoulder continued: "Have you been summoned as a venireman?"
Mr. Tschappatt replied that he had, and was anxious to be excused,
as he could not spare the time to sit on the case.
"Come outside and have a drink," resumed Soloman. Taking Tschappatt
by the arm they adjourned to a neighboring saloon. While they stood
at the bar sipping a glass of beer, Soloman said:
"Tschappatt, you must have a pretty hard time of it to get along
and support a family. How would you like to enter a scheme where
you could make a thousand dollars?"
Tschappatt innocently replied that he was in on it. "How is the
money to be made?" he asked.
Leading Tschappatt over to one corner of the saloon, the bailiff
revealed the scheme.
"I'll tell you what I want you to do," he said. "Get on the jury,
if you possibly can, and there's a thousand dollars in it for you
if you stick out for an acquittal."
Tschappatt immediately tore himself away from the bailiff's grasp,
and replied emphatically that he would have nothing to do with it.
"You ought to know me well enough, Soloman," he said, "to know that
no amount of money could bribe me to defeat the ends of justice. If
the prisoners on trial are guilty of what they are charged with, I
say hang them, and everybody else who is connected with the
conspiracy. No, sir; you can't bribe me, and you ought to know
that."
With this the venireman attempted to get away from the bailiff, but
Soloman held on to him with a vise-like grasp.
"Don't be a fool, Tschappatt," said Soloman, "you're a poor man,
and ought to know that a thousand dollars is not to be picked up
every day. Now, listen to me, and I'll show you how you can make it
and nobody will ever be the wiser. If you properly answer the
questions put to you by the lawyers you will in all probability be
passed and sworn in as a juror. Now, I'll see that you get the
money--leave that to me. Of course the money won't be given to you,
but your wife will get it, so it will be all the same. On a certain
day that you will appoint she will appear in court wearing a
certain dress that you will designate. By that you will know that
she has received the money, and if she doesn't wear that dress you
will know the reverse. But don't let that trouble you. She'll get
the money.
"Soloman," said Tschappatt, "what kind of a man do you take me for?
You first ask me to sell myself and then you want to drag my wife
into it. I have a good mind to knock you down. You deserve it."
"Well, there's no use getting hot about it," said Soloman. "I
thought I was doing you a good turn, and only that we have known
each other for years I would not have put a thousand dollars in
your way. But you can do just as you please about it--accept it or
reject it. If I were you, however, I would consider the
proposition. It will be many a long day before you get a chance
again to make a cool thousand."
Tschappatt replied that he would not entertain the matter for a
moment, "and if I had known this was the reason," he said, "that
you called me out I would not have come."
They then returned to the criminal court building, Soloman still
talking about the proposition.
Tschappatt rejoined the other veniremen who were waiting in the
ante-room, but did not utter a word of what had passed between him
and the bailiff. At noon time, when the court took a recess until 2
o'clock, Tschappatt went back to the place where he was employed
and worked hard to catch up for the time he had lost. He returned
to the criminal court a few minutes before 2 o'clock. Soloman was
waiting for him at the foot of the stairs.
"Where have you been for the past two hours?" was the greeting from
the bailiff. "I have been looking all over for you. Did you
consider that proposition I made you?"
Tschappatt told him that he had not, and tried to brush him to one
side so he could go up-stairs into the ante-room. Soloman stopped
him, and then offered him $5,000 if he would get on the jury and
stand out for acquittal. This is the language he used:
"We have got to have you on that jury, and you can't get out of it.
Think of it--$5,000 for a few days' work. Are you a fool that you
won't accept it?"
"I gave you my answer this morning, Soloman, and I make you the
same reply now. I will not accept. All the money in Chicago could
not induce me to do as you want me. Now, let me pass on up-stairs?"
"Don't say anything about this," was the bailiff's injunction, and
he followed Tschappatt up into the court-room.
The five bailiffs, one of whom was Soloman, went over to the jail
and brought the prisoners into court. Soloman sat in a chair behind
Kunze.
About the middle of the afternoon Tschappatt was brought in from
the ante-room and took his seat in the jury-box. In answer to the
questions from the attorneys he said he had formed opinions
regarding the case, and did not think he could give the prisoners a
fair trial. He had visited the Carlson cottage, he said, and talked
with some one there about the case. The court excused him for
cause.
During the examination of Tschappatt Soloman kept his eyes on him
continually and was greatly agitated, evidently fearing that he
would tell the court about being approached. When he left the box,
however, he took his secret with him.
As good fortune would have it, on leaving the court room Tschappatt
encountered his employer, Benjamin V. Page, to whom he told this story.
By the latter it was communicated to Mr. Mills, and the prosecuting
officials, with the consent of the court, immediately commenced the
investigation already alluded to. Soloman was sent for and at first
emphatically denied the accusation that had been made against him.
Confronted with the honest German, however, he was forced to admit his
guilt, and make a full statement of his connection with the conspiracy.
From his pocket he produced a slip of paper on which was a list of names
and addresses of jurors whom it was thought could be influenced by
money, and a comparison showed that it contained the names of several
men who were on the special venire, and at that time waiting to be
examined. This list, Soloman said, was given to him by Hanks, one of his
fellow-bailiffs. Upon being interrogated this individual was also
compelled to admit his connection with the affair.
WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS.
With these statements as a foundation, still more important developments
were brought to the surface without much difficulty. It was found that
Fred. W. Smith, a manufacturer's agent, had offered several citizens the
sum of $2,000 each to get on the Cronin jury. Hanks had made an offer to
Joseph Konen, a fruit dealer, of $1,000 if he could succeed in passing
the lawyers and would render a verdict for the defense. Another man had
been offered $1,000 with the same object by Jeremiah O'Donnell, who a
few weeks before had received an appointment in the internal revenue as
gauger for the Calumet District, and the latter in turn had been
approached by Thomas Kavanaugh, a member of a plumbing firm. Hanks
appeared to have been one of the big cogs in the machine, so much so
that he had advanced $1,000 to Soloman for his services as a briber.
Behind Hanks was Kavanaugh, who was an active member of the
Clan-na-Gael. Both were spokes in the big wheel of the machine which had
been buzzing so silently and as they imagined, so successfully. Within a
few hours after the indictments had been returned, the men named therein
had been arrested and incarcerated in jail. The investigation was
continued upon the following day and further facts were brought to light
which warranted the presentation of the matter to the regular Grand Jury
for the October term. This body, after spending two hours in the
examination of witnesses, returned additional indictments against Smith,
Hanks and Soloman, together with an indictment against John Graham,
confidential clerk to A. S. Trude, a prominent member of the bar. The
indictment of Graham was based on evidence tending to show that he had
originally employed the parties that had endeavored to corrupt the
special veniremen. According to the story told by Bailiff Hanks to the
Grand Jury, Graham had offered to pay $2,000 each for two or more men,
saying that money was no object. He had also employed the bailiff to
keep up the drooping spirits of certain of the prisoners by delivering
to them verbal messages of cheer from their friends on the outside,
Graham paying handsomely for this service. He was arrested, but
immediately released on bail, and bondsmen were found for all of the men
concerned in the attempted bribery. Judge Longenecker, and the attorneys
assisting him, however, were convinced that they had yet to reach the
fountain-head of the directing conspiracy, and their next move was the
arrest of Henry N. Stoltenberg, the confidential clerk and stenographer
in the office of Alexander Sullivan. At the same time the residence of
the latter was once more placed under surveillance. After being detained
over night, the clerk was taken before the Grand Jury. His answers to
the questions propounded were regarded as of considerable importance,
more especially his admission that he had received letters from a
prominent Irishman in Toronto, and which had been addressed to him under
cover to a second party. He was then released. Alexander Sullivan's law
partner, Thomas G. Windes, and E. J. McArdle, a young Irish lawyer were
also examined, but both declared that they knew nothing whatever
regarding the matter under investigation.
It was evident by this time that sufficient had been accomplished to
frustrate the purposes of the conspiracy, and, as the resumption of the
search for jurors was imperatively ordered by the court, the effort to
discover the wheels within wheels of the jury-bribing plot was abandoned
for the time being. Enough had been discovered to prove that the men
behind the prisoners were prepared to go to any lengths to prevent a
conviction. As Luther Laflin Mills remarked, in that earnest and
impressive manner which characterized all his utterances:
"The plot was the most damnable and hellish that has ever been concocted
to defeat the ends of justice. It can not be exaggerated. It extends all
over the country, and its ramifications are so numerous and far-reaching
that it seems almost incredible that we have made such progress in
marking them out. It is without parallel in the history of legal
jurisprudence in this miserable effort to defile the laws of Illinois.
When all the facts are known, as they are sure to be sooner or later,
the whole civilized world will be shocked, as it was when the news of
the conspiracy that ended in Dr. Cronin's death was sent out. The public
is entitled to know all the facts, because it ought to know the
obstacles that the officers of the prosecution have had to encounter
from the 4th of May up to the present time. We have sought earnestly
and honestly to prevent a miscarriage of justice in this case, and
thanks to the brave young man who was proof against bribery and his
courageous employer who reported the facts to us, we have broken up a
conspiracy that would have set at naught the labor of months."
[Illustration: SCENE IN THE COURT ROOM DURING THE MEMORABLE TRIAL.]