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Case File: Conroy, Kate née Grundt (1896)
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THE CONROY MURDER!
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THE MORE IT IS EXAMINED
THE MORE ATROCIOUS
IT APPEARS.
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A Defenceless Woman in the Power of a Beast!
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Neighbors and Laborers Listen to Her Dying Screams
and Offer no Assistance When Their Presence
Would Have Saved Her
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CORONER'S INQUEST NOW IN PROGRESS
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A coroner’s inquest on the death of Kate Conroy, who was murdered yesterday at about 11:15 a.m. by her husband, Frank Conroy, was commenced at the scene of the murder by Coroner Smith, of Winthrop, at 8 o’clock last evening. From the hour of the murder the house was guarded by a policeman, and, when the coroner, the jury and the physicians arrived to view the body and the premises, nothing had been disturbed since Conroy completed his butchery and gave himself up to the authorities.
The jury empaneled by Coroner Smith.
The house was surrounded by a crowd of nearly 1,000 people.
[this line starts abruptly and seems to be an error, and seems to leave off from the previous sentence “The jury empaneled by Coroner Smith”] consisted of C. B. Herriman, A. H. Bickford, James Murphy, Henry Holland, C. J. Prager, Allen McTavish, J. A. Parlow, John Tallman, A. R. Porte, Martin Burke, C. W. Tuck and W. W. Fulton. The jury viewed the body and the premises, and retired. The physicians then made a post mortem examination and Coroner Smith took a detailed description of the place and its contents.
The apartments are in a basement of a new tenement erected on Spring street near Ford Avenue. The adjoining basement is occupied as a butcher shop and the apartments on the second and third floors are occupied by tenants. The basement, occupied by the Conroy’s is divided off into rooms by pine board partitions extending to within six inches of the ceiling. The plan of the house is about as given in the following diagram.
The woman, when her husband returned to the home to kill her, had evidently arisen for the day but a short time before, and had not breakfasted to any extent, her stomach containing but a small quantity of partly digested food. She was not dressed to go on the street. Besides her underclothing she had on only a thin calico wrapper. Her corsets and part of a street dress lay on a table opposite her bed-room door.
Her hair was braided and she was at the sink in the kitchen. As there was no evidences that she was engaged in house-hold duties, the probabilities are that she was making her toilet. It was while standing at the sink that the brute assailed her and her desperate battle commenced. Blood stains lead from the sink to the table in the kitchen and circle the table, and it is evident that the bleeding, screaming woman ran around it endeavoring to escape the fury of the beast in whose power she found herself.
She finally fought her way to the hall and there was finished in front of the door leading to the street. The hall bears evidence of a fierce battle. A stand is overturned, a lamp shattered on the floor and a picture torn from the wall. Beside the body of the woman, which lay with the head toward the door, with the loose wrapped saturated with blood wound around her neck, was a pool of blood about three feet in diameter. There was oilcloth and carpet on the floor of the hall, but none in any of the other rooms. Part of the household goods had not yet been unpacked, and were in a large packing case in the kitchen. The furniture was scanty.
On the table in the kitchen lay the knife with which the butchery was done. The blade is twelve inches in length and about 1 1/2 inches in width and curves backward like a scymetar. The blade is bent to one side by its being wrenched from
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the woman’s hands. It was evidently a part of the household equipment. On the sewing machine in the kitchen lay another knife with a slender blade, 8 1/2 inches in length. There was no evidence that this knife was covered with blood and had evidently been laid on the table by Conroy after he killed her.
The post mortem examination last evening was conducted by Dr. E. H. Bridges and Dr. G. C. Madill, assisted by Dr. J. W. Benton, Dr. Moriarty and Dr. O. J. Hutchins. A most thorough examination was made. It was the profession of medicine preparing to meet the profession of law in the courts, in the murder trial to follow, and present positive evidence that cannot be shaken, no matter from what point it is assailed. Every vital organ of the body was examined, and found healthy. The perfection of physical health of the woman was a source of wonder to the physicians. Her brain weighed 51 ounces, two or three ounces heavier than the average female brain. She was 5 feet 7 inches in height and weighed about 145 pounds.
The coroner’s inquest, adjourned until 9 o’clock this morning, opened at that hour. District Attorney Hale had arrived from Canton and with City Attorney R. W. Waterman represented the people, while Thomas Spratt and D. B. Lucey represented the prisoner.
Dr. E. H. Bridges was the first witness called and testified that he was a practicing physician of 30 years standing in this city and had made an autopsy on the body of the murdered woman. He said when he visited the Conroy house at 8 o’clock last evening he found the body of the woman lying across the room with the face completely covered with blood and a clot of blood over the right eye. The clothing was saturated with blood and the hands covered with blood and blood spots on the knees. There were black and blue spots and wounds on the body to the number of 25 or 30.
The black and blue spots were from 1/2 to 1 1/2 inches in diameter. The wounds were all upon the upper part of the arms, the head, face and neck. There was a small wound in the chest two inches above the end of the sternum which extended to the bone. There were several cut wounds on the inside of the hand on the palms and fingers. One finger was cut into the joint. There were abrasions on the arms and a gaping cut wound 3 or 4 inches in length on the inside of the upper arm.
Nearly all the wounds were on the left side of the body and would indicate that they were inflicted from in front the assailant having the weapon in the right hand.
On the left side of the face a flap was raised from the cheek about 1 3/4 inches wide and the cut extended over the eye nearly to the center of the nasal bone. The cut reached to the bone. A little above and back of the ear within the margin of the hair was a cut two or three inches in length, cut to the skull.
The probably fatal wound was in the left side of the throat one-half inch back from the angle of the jaw and extending parallel with the jaw. The wound was gaping and was two inches in length. It extended backward into the back part of the throat and nearly severed the epiglottis and severed the exterior jugular vein and the exterior carotid artery.
Dr. Bridges said that he was of the opinion that the woman died of hemorrhages. The body was nearly exsanguious. He was shown the knife and said that all of the wounds could have been made with such a weapon.
Dr. G. O. Madill was the next witness to testify.
Teddy St. Andrews, who has been with Conroy much during the past few days, said that he overheard these words between Conroy and his wife. Conroy said: “Will you go to Toledo with me” His wife replied “No” Conroy then cursed and said that he would fix her so she would not og about in the way she had been doing.
