Chapter XXIII (8)

"Look at it! There never was such a chain of circumstances. The
chain itself is strong, and yet all those circumstances, those
little links, are as strong--so strong that they can not be broken.
And yet this lawyer will stand up here for three days and say there
is not evidence enough to convict! Now, another thing that goes to
add to P. O'Sullivan's link and to show that he was not honest in
that contract is the testimony of this man A. J. Ford. He testifies
that he made a speech in Camp 20, in which he said that there were
men fraternizing with the deputies up in the Washington Literary
Society in Lake View, and he gave this man O'Sullivan as his
authority. There is another circumstance. Why then did O'Sullivan,
if he believed that Cronin was organizing a lodge there--if he
believed that that literary society was taking in men opposed to
the Irish cause--why did he think Cronin was a friend of his, and
why did he go and make a contract with Dr. Cronin? Now, gentlemen,
I have laid down these links; you take it in Camp 20, follow it to
117 Clark street, to the cottage, to Dan Coughlin's horse and
buggy, to the trunk, the body and the clothes. You come back to
Camp 20 and it falls at the feet of John F. Beggs. His lawyer says
that John F. Beggs is the dupe of no man. No, gentlemen; but John
F. Beggs is just as guilty, if he was in this conspiracy, as Martin
Burke, every bit. The learned counsel told you a story here, and it
was very apt. He told you that men who had been defrauding the
government and doing crooked work took a man who was on their track
and put him over the brink of a precipice and swung him back and
forth, and he says one of them climbed up and cut the rope, and an
innocent man, innocently charged, dropped on the rocks below and
was cut to pieces. The men who stood by and laughed while this was
being done were just as guilty as the man who cut the rope. John F.
Beggs, if he was in this conspiracy, is just as guilty as the men
who dealt the blows, every bit. Now, in such a case as that, where
an innocent man was swung out over the rocks--where these men who
were criminals themselves, swung a man over a cliff down to
death--what would you do if you were on a jury to try such men?

"Gentlemen, I am through; I promised you I would hurry up. I do not
believe that if I were to talk from now till next June I would
change your opinion one way or another. If you are settled to turn
these men loose, you will do it; if you believe this evidence is
not sufficient to convict them, why of course you will acquit them.
But I want to call your attention to your responsibility.
Gentlemen, this is a serious matter; it has got down to business. I
have been sitting here for weeks, and indisputed evidence that must
lead your minds to the conclusion that Dr. Cronin was murdered,
evidence that must lead to the conclusion that it was done by a
conspiracy; evidence that must convince your minds that it was a
cold-blooded murder, that it was planned in secret, that it was
done with the coolness of those men who swung the man over the
cliff--you must have come to the conclusion that if there ever was
a murder case in which the extreme penalty of the law was demanded
at your hands by a verdict of that kind, this is one. Remember that
you are not here to acquit guilty men; you are not here to convict
innocent men. Remember that we are here insisting that this
evidence is so overwhelming that you, as honest men, under your
oaths, can not resist this volume of proof, and that it ought to
convince you beyond a reasonable doubt that all five of these men
are guilty of this crime."