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Tragedy
has a way of strengthing bonds and deepening chasms in
family relationships. For the husbands of the Kavanaugh sisters it would be the latter.
In
September, 1905, two years after the fire, a case
made it to probate court, brought by
Thomas Cantwell against his brother in law, Patrick
O'Donnell.
Cantwell accused O'Donnell of having sent one of his
sons to pilfer a key from Ella's purse in the hours
immediately after the Iroquois fire (while the purse
was held at the morgue or in the coroner's office --
reports varied). According to Thomas, Patrick
then went to the bank and removed documents from a
safety deposit box shared by Ella and Louise.
The bank
manager was supposed to restrict box access to a
court-appointed administrator to whom was given a
password with which to identify himself and the
box was marked so as to alert bank personnel that
special access restrictions were in effect.
Cantwell claimed that the bank manager intentionally
looked the other way for a short time, thereby
granting O'Donnell unsupervised access to the box.
Patrick said Cantwell's accusation was fabricated
but admitted that he had gone to the bank and
attempted to access the box. He claimed the
bank prevented him from doing so because he did not
know the password. If he testified as to his
reason for trying to access the box, it was not
reported in the newspaper.
The
bank claimed no knowledge of the situation but
admitted that the manager who had been on duty at that
time had been fired for drunkenness a year after the
suspected box pilfering.
Newspapers did not report whether the dismissed bank manager,
or another bank employee, testified as to whether O'Donnell had
unsupervised access to the box.
In
January, 1906, the judge ruled that since there was no proof the will or
promissory notes existed, O'Donnell could not be
held liable.
The
missing promissory notes were written from Patrick O'Donnell
to Ella Cantwell for $9,000 (or $18,000 – reports
varied) and Ella's will reportedly left $20,000 in
unidentified property to one of Ella and Louise's
sisters who was described as "poor."
If
Patrick was guilty of removing documents from the
box, he might have grabbed Ella's will to be on the
safe side, in case it made specific reference to the promissory
notes. O'Donnell was said to be a millionaire,
but $18,000 in 1904 would be nearly a half million
dollars today, thus a tempting sum for even a
wealthy man.
It
seems possible that Thomas and Patrick may have had
a combative relationship prior to the deaths of
their wives, perhaps a by-product of their mutual
past involvement in the brewing industry. If
so, without the sisters to keep the animosity in
check, conflict might have been inevitable.
 On
the other hand, Cantwell and O'Donnell might have
concocted the deposit box caper as a mutually
beneficial solution. Cantwell's son, a
celebrated defense attorney, was certainly capable of
helping to craft a scenario that minimized the chance
of prosecution. The disappearance of the
will and promissory notes meant that Cantwell did
not have to cough up $20,000 from Ella's estate to
give the sister and O'Donnell didn't have to pay $18,000
to Ella's estate.
I
was unable to learn how Ella Cantwell came to have
such a large sum to loan her brother-in-law.
Pilfering the safety deposit box was obviously
anticipated by Ella and Louise's sister, Emma
Kavanaugh Riordan. Reportedly it was she who
informed the bank that the box should only be
opened by a court-appointed agent. As the sister who was slated to receive the
$20K inheritance from Ella, her
vigilance in protecting Ella's will is
understandable. |
