New York Tribune

Sorry as we are that any man should be condemned to suffer the extreme penalty of the law, yet it is impossible not to feel that the verdict of murder in the first degree in the case of Conroy the policeman is just. The crime this wretched man committed was aggravated by terrible brutality. He not only shot down an inoffensive man, but clubbed his dying victim as he dragged him to the police station. The defence of insanity was skilfully managed: but it has little weight in these days. It should be noted that Conroy has always been a desperate ruffian, and that he owed his place on the force to political influence extended by Alderman Kennedy (Tammany Democrat), whose feelings at present no one will envy. Conroy's fate should not only be a warning to all clubbing policemen, but to all ward politicians who urge the appointment of such men as he merely for partisan ends.