Chapter 17 - Officer McCarron Went to Carroll’s Tavern
after the Assassination
Early in the evening of July 5th,
1877, Officers Yost and McCarron, while patrolling the streets of Tamaqua,
stopped at Carroll’s Tavern. Inside, James Kerrigan admitted that he was present
and had interacted with both officers. Through Charles Albright’s closing
arguments, we find that after McCarron summoned a doctor for his dying partner,
McCarron immediately tries to pursue the murderer(s). His actions reflect his
thinking that the murderer returned to Carroll’s Tavern. Albright states:
Charles Albright, Esq.
“But the fact has come out in this
case that after Yost was shot, Barney McCarron went to James Carroll’s house;
of all houses, of all saloons in the town, that is the place he went to; he
went into an alley way, or into the back yard, and tried to see or listen if he
could discover the assassins of Yost, for Yost had seen these men; had made
some remarks which, after Yost was shot, came back to McCarron’s mind, and he
no doubt thought he might apprehend the men at Carroll’s who killed Yost. Why
then did McCarron go to Carroll’s?” (Albright’s closing arguments, West, page
12).
The prosecution tried, but failed to
explain this behavior of Officer McCarron. Several witnesses were present that
could testify to the fact that both Yost and McCarron were in Carroll’s Tavern
early in the evening of July 5th. Again, several witnesses could
present evidence that McCarron returned after Yost was shot. Definitive
evidence and was admitted by the prosecution, that Kerrigan was present.
Kerrigan’s statements that he was present only to assist McGeehan and Boyle
fails to be proven, in that no other witness states that McGeehan and Boyle
were present.