The Rose Man of Sing Sing: A True Tale of Life, Murder, and Redemption in the Age of Yellow Journalism

5. Marine Reporter

5 Marine Reporter On a bright warm July morning in , Chapin was making the rounds of the docks as the Tribune’s new marine reporter. The post was a potentially good beat in a port city like Chicago. Maritime news was considered important, and the stories that one could pick up on the beat, from wrecks to famous passengers, were often widely read. There also was a considerable sense of fraternity among the reporters from the different papers, much like that which existed among police reporters. Although they competed vigorously, they also found time to put aside their rivalries and socialize together frequently. Chapin thought his new post a sufficient elevation in status to change his listing in the city directory from ‘‘reporter’’ to ‘‘marine reporter.’’ After five years of hard work, Chapin had made a comfortable place for himself at the Tribune. In fact, domestic life, too, had become remarkably stable for the Chapins. For the first time since their marriage, they had not moved in two years, choosing to stay put in a boarding house on Sedgwick Street in North Chicago.1 That morning, as on every day but Sunday, the docks were busy. Chicago had one of the nation’s largest ports; some , schooners moved everything from apples to lumber, and grain to coal, back and forth across the Great Lakes. On most days, a tugboat would not have a moment’s rest. While stopping on board the docked tugboat owned by Captain Dunham, Chapin said he overheard talk about the mysterious movements of a schooner. It seemed that on Saturday, the schooner Blake had taken a load of wheat bound for a Canadian port on Lake Ontario. But instead of heading out while the breeze was good, the Blake had been towed to the North Pier, where the tug was dismissed and the schooner was made fast for the evening. Shortly before eleven o’clock, the captain of the Blake rushed ashore and excitedly entered the dockyard’s office. He wanted a tug.2 ‘‘Which line do you use?’’ asked the man on duty. ‘‘Any line,’’ said the captain, ‘‘any that could come as soon as possible.’’ The tug Flossie Thielkie responded to the call, and a few minutes later the Blake was towed out into the dark lake.3 Chapin concluded that under cover of darkness, the Blake had taken on a cargo more sought-after than wheat. Earlier that evening , William McGarigle, a former county hospital warden, had escaped from jail where he was awaiting sentencing on a corruption conviction. A foolish keeper had taken him to his house for his weekly bath. While the sheriff chatted with McGarigle’s wife in the living room, McGarigle slipped out the bathroom window to freedom. Chapin knew McGarigle, and he understood why many might have joined in making the escape possible. Chapin had first met him when he was a police reporter and McGarigle was chief of police. When he became the warden of the hospital, the two dined together frequently. ‘‘At all times genial and jolly, liberal to a degree bordering on prodigality, he was just the sort of man to attract others, and consequently his friends were legion ,’’ said Chapin.4 Unfortunately for Chapin, he wasn’t the only one who had picked up on McGarigle’s trail and the schooner’s odd nighttime maneuvers. The escapee’s physician, Dr. St. John, was questioned the next day by a grand jury. Dr. St. John was part owner of the Blake, and the state’s attorney grilled him for two hours. When he emerged, the Tribune said he ‘‘looked as though he had been through the machinery of a steam laundry.’’ Although Dr. St. John had not confessed to helping McGarigle gain passage on the schooner, the authorities were convinced that McGarigle was on board the Blake, sailing toward Canada.5 By Thursday, sheriff deputies were heading by train up the eastern side of Lake Michigan to the narrow Straits of Mackinaw, three hundred miles north of Chicago, through which all vessels  Marine Reporter  The Rose Man of Sing Sing must pass to reach Canada. ‘‘I figured that I could take a night train,’’ said Chapin, ‘‘follow the sheriff ’s men to the straits, get there ahead of the schooner and be in time to report the capture of the fleeing boodler.’’ Chapin wasn’t, however, the only one with that...