On the same day that the coroner's jury returned its verdict, John J.
Maroney and Charles McDonald were arrested in New York on suspicion of
complicity in the murder. These arrests were made in accordance with
instructions issued by the State's Attorney and Chief of Police, of
Chicago, in the belief that Maroney was the man Simonds, who had hired
the Clark street flat, and that McDonald answered to the description of
the man who drove the Dinan rig. Both men had been prominent in the
Clan-na-gael, Maroney especially, having been one of the secret workers
for the "triangle." It was claimed by Luke Dillon that he had discovered
that Maroney was in Chicago under an assumed name from February 20th to
March 20th, that he reappeared on the morning of the day that the
physician was murdered under an assumed name, and that he left Chicago
for good on the following day. A complaint and information against the
two men was sworn out by John J. Cronin, the dead man's brother, and
upon this requisitions on Governor Hill of New York were issued by
Governor Fifer of Illinois, and entrusted to Detective Farrell. In the
meantime the prisoners had been arraigned at the tombs police court in
New York, before Justice Hogan, and remanded until the question of
extradition could be argued. This, however, did not meet the approval of
their friends, of whom over a hundred were in court, and the same
afternoon a writ of habeas corpus was applied for and granted by Judge
Andrews of the Supreme Court. The prisoners declared that they had been
in New York for weeks before and weeks after the murder of Dr. Cronin,
and in this they were corroborated by a large number of people.
Detective Farrell reached Albany on the following day, but Governor
Hill, upon looking over the requisition, promptly denied the
application, on the ground that it was not accompanied by an indictment,
and that no proof whatever was presented showing that the accused were
guilty of the crime charged against them. Upon receipt of this
information, Hatfield, the furniture salesman, Martinson, the
expressman, and Throgmorton, the real estate agent, started for New
York with a view of identifying the prisoners. Upon their arrival,
however, they utterly failed to find in either "suspect" the slightest
resemblance to the mysterious Simonds, and on the heels of this Judge
Andrews in the Supreme Court, handed down a decision upon the matter of
the writ of habeas corpus, ordering tha