All this time State's Attorney Longenecker and his assistants were actively engaged in preparing for the great trial. Motions to quash the indictments were filed for all the prisoners, while there was a separate application in behalf of O'Sullivan for a change of venue. These matters came up before Judge Horton, on August 5th, and the entire case was transferred to that branch of the Criminal Court presided over by Judge McConnell, while August 26th was fixed as the date for the opening for the trial. On that date the six prisoners were arraigned and applications were made in behalf of Burke, Woodruff, O'Sullivan and Coughlin for separate trials. Elaborate arguments were made on these motions, the prosecution making a vigorous resistance. Judge McConnell took the question under advisement for a couple of days, and then denied the motions as to all the defendants, with the exception of Woodruff, who, on account of the peculiar circumstances that had entered into his side of the case, and his numerous confessions, was held to be entitled to a separate trial.
[Illustration: THE SIX PRISONERS IN COURT.]
THEORIES REGARDING THE DISAPPEARANCE OF THE MURDERED MAN'S CLOTHING--THE HAND OF PROVIDENCE MANIFESTS ITSELF--FORTUNATE DISCOVERY OF THE LAST BLOODY EVIDENCES OF THE CRIME--DR. CRONIN'S APPAREL IS FOUND--IT HAD BEEN SECRETED, WITH HIS CASE OF SURGICAL INSTRUMENTS, IN A CATCH-BASIN, ADJACENT TO THE ONE IN WHICH THE BODY WAS DISCOVERED--SHOES, JEWELRY AND PURSE MISSING--COMPLETE IDENTIFICATION BY HIS FRIENDS--THE SEARCH CONTINUED--A PIECE OF CARPET FOUND--THE CONSPIRATORS' PLANS THWARTED.
"God moves in a mysterious way; His wonders to perform."
No stronger exemplification of the truth of the old familiar hymn, which commences with the above lines, and which for generations hasn sung, Sabbath after Sabbath, in churches of nearly every denomination throughout the Christian world, had ever before been grafted in the record of a criminal case.