Pinkerton’s Great Detective
Page 55
Guilty: 2.5 years labor and solitary confinement
Kate Boyle
Perjury during Boyle trial
Pottsville
September 26, 1876
Guilty: 2.5 years labor and solitary confinement
Barney Boyle
Perjury during Boyle trial
Pottsville
September 26, 1876
Guilty: 3 years labor
Edward Monaghan
Accessory before the fact in assault and battery on William Thomas
Pottsville
September 26–27, 1876*
Guilty: 7 years labor and solitary confinement
Thomas Donohue
Accessory after the fact in assault and battery on William Thomas
Pottsville
September 27, 1876*
Guilty: 2 years labor
John "Yellow Jack” Donahue (4)
Murder of Morgan Powell
Mauch Chunk
October 19–24, 1876*+
Guilty: Hanged June 21, 1877
Michael “Muff” Lawler (2)
Accessory after the fact in murder of William Uren
Pottsville
November 13–14, 1876*
Guilty: Sentencing postponedg
Neil Dougherty
Murder of Frank W. Langdon
Pottsville
November 24–30, 1876
Guilty: 9 years labor and solitary confinement
Charles McAllister (2)
Attempted murder of James Riles
Pottsville
November 25–26, 1876
Guiltyh
Thomas Fisher
Murder of Morgan Powell
Mauch Chunk
December 5–17, 1876*+
Guilty: Hanged March 28, 1878
Patrick McKenna
Murder of Morgan Powell
Mauch Chunk
December 5–17, 1876*+
Guilty: 9 years labor and solitary confinement
Alexander Campbell (2)
Murder of Morgan Powell
Mauch Chunk
December 18–19, 1876*+
Guilty: Hanged June 21, 1877
John Campbell
Murder of Frank W. Langdon
Pottsville
January 4–9, 1877
Guilty: 5 years labor
John Kehoe (3)
Murder of Frank W. Langdon
Pottsville
January 9–16, 1877
Guilty: Hanged December 18, 1878
Patrick Hester
Murder of Alexander Rea
Bloomsburg
February 8–24, 1877*
Guilty: Hanged March 25, 1878
Peter McHugh
Murder of Alexander Rea
Bloomsburg
February 8–24, 1877*
Guilty: Hanged March 25, 1878
Patrick Tully
Murder of Alexander Rea
Bloomsburg
February 8–24, 1877*
Guilty: Hanged March 25, 1878
Patrick O’Donnell (1)
Murder of Morgan Powell
Mauch Chunk
April 10–12, 1877+
Mistriali
John Malloy
Accessory before the fact in murder of Morgan Powell
Mauch Chunk
April 13–17, 1877
Guilty: 5 years labor
Michael McGee
Murder of Frank W. Langdon
Pottsville
May 15–17, 1877
Not guilty
Columbus McGee
Murder of Frank W. Langdon
Pottsville
May 18, 1877
Charges dismissed
John Chapman
Murder of Frank W. Langdon
Pottsville
May 18, 1877
Charges dismissed
Patrick O’Donnell (2)
Murder of Morgan Powell
Mauch Chunk
October 9–11, 1877+
Guilty: 4 years labor
Dennis Donnelly
Accessory to murder of Thomas Sanger and William Uren
Pottsville
November 17–24, 1877*
Guilty: Hanged June 11, 1878
James McDonnell
Murder of George K. Smith
Mauch Chunk
April 11–16, 1878+
Guilty: Hanged January 14, 1879
Charles Sharp
Murder of George K. Smith
Mauch Chunk
April 16–20, 1878+
Guilty: Hanged January 14, 1879
Martin Bergin
Murder of Patrick Burns
Pottsville
April 22–27, 1878
Guilty: Hanged January 16, 1879
Peter McManus
Murder of Frederick Hesser
Sunbury
August 12–15, 1878
Guilty: Hanged October 9, 1879
John O’Neil
Murder of Frederick Hesser
Sunbury
August 16–19, 1878
Guilty: Death penalty commuted to life in prison
Notes
* James McParlan testified for the prosecution during the trial.
Jimmy Kerrigan testified for the prosecution during the trial.
a Donahue’s sentencing was postponed due t
o him being scheduled to face trial for the murder of Morgan Powell. He was later sentenced to hang for that murder.
b McHugh’s sentencing was postponed due to him having turned state’s evidence and being scheduled to testify in later trials. He was released after a short time in jail.
c Butler’s sentencing was postponed due to him having turned state’s evidence and being scheduled to testify in later trials. He was released after a short time in prison.
d Slattery’s sentencing was postponed due to him agreeing to turn state’s evidence and testifying in later trials. He was released after a relatively short time in prison.
e Doolin’s sentencing was initially postponed because he was scheduled to testify for the defense in a later trial in Mauch Chunk. He was later sentenced to 7 years labor.
f Mulhearn pled guilty and turned state’s evidence; his sentencing was postponed so that he could testify in later trials. He was released after a relatively short time in prison.
g Lawler’s sentencing was postponed due to him agreeing to testify against Dennis “Bucky” Donnelly. He was released after a relatively short time in prison.
h On appeal, McAllister was granted a new trial, in which he was found not guilty.
i Following a mistrial, O’Donnell was retried and found guilty.
NOTES
The following abbreviations have been used:
AFG Argument of Franklin B. Gowen, Esq., of Counsel for the Commonwealth, in the Case of the Commonwealth vs. Thomas Munley
AP Allan Pinkerton
BF Benjamin Franklin
CAC The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Alexander Campbell. Trial transcript. Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
CAS Charles A. Siringo
CEK The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Edward Kelly. Trial transcript. Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
CvC James Carroll, James Boyle, Hugh M’Gehan, and James Roarity, Plaintiffs in Error, vs. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Defendant in Error
CMD The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Michael J. Doyle. Trial transcript. Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
DvC Thomas Duffy, Plaintiff in Error, vs. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Defendant in Error
DDC Dennis Donnelly, Plaintiff in Error, vs. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Defendant in Error
ECD The Evidence in the Case of Dennis Donnelly
ERN Richardson, Edmund. Notes, Affidavits, and Related Material produced for State of Idaho vs. Steve Adams, District Court, Wallace, Shoshone County, Idaho, February–March, 1907, Western Federation of Miners/International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers Collection, Bound Materials # 73–77, Archives, University of Colorado at Boulder Libraries.
FBG Franklin B. Gowen
FRG Governor Frank R. Gooding
GDB George D. Bangs
GHB George H. Bangs
HML Molly Maguire Papers. Reading Company Law Department Records (call number 1520, Series V). Hagley Museum and Library. Wilmington, Delaware
HSP Molly Maguire Reports. Historical Society of Pennsylvania Society Small Collection (0022B) (box 25, folders 2–3). Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
ISA Pinkerton Papers. James H. Hawley Papers (M12). Idaho State Archives, Idaho History Center, Boise, Idaho
JM James McParlan/McParland
LoC Pinkerton’s National Detective Agency Records (MSS 36301). Manuscript Division, Library of Congress. Washington, D.C.
PAH Molly Maguire Manuscript Collection, American Catholic Historical Society Manuscript Collections (ID MC 12), Philadelphia Archdiocesan Historical Research Center, St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, Wynnewood, Pennsylvania
RAP Robert A. Pinkerton
RCK Report of the Case of The Commonwealth vs. John Kehoe et al . . . for an Aggravated Assault and Battery with Intent to Kill Wm. M. Thomas
RJL Robert J. Linden
SIA State of Idaho v. Steve Adams, District Court, Rathdrum, Kootenai County, Idaho, October 25–November 24, 1907. Trial transcript. Western Federation of Miners/International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers Collection, Bound Materials # 73–77, Archives, University of Colorado at Boulder Libraries.
SIH State of Idaho v. William D. Haywood. District Court, Boise, Ada County, Idaho, June 4–July 30, 1907. Trial transcript. Western Federation of Miners/International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers Collection, Bound Materials # 61–71, Archives, University of Colorado at Boulder Libraries.
TAN Investigation of Shooting of J. A. Ancheta, Governor L. Bradford Prince Papers, 1889–93 (Collection 1959–088). Special reports and issues (microfilm reel number 121). Territorial Archives of New Mexico, State Records Center and Archives. Santa Fe, New Mexico
WAP William A. Pinkerton
Preface
1. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania implicated members of the Molly Maguires in sixteen murders during the trials held from 1876 to 1878. Other sources put the numbers much higher; see, for example, the article from The Miners’ Journal, and Pottsville General Advertiser of March 30, 1867 (reprinted in Dewees, The Molly Maguires, pp. 372–74), in which more than fifty murders were listed as having occurred in Schuylkill County in 1863–67 alone.
2. The following account of McKenna’s activities has drawn heavily from CAC, pp. 613–29; RCK, pp. 92–98; Dewees, The Molly Maguires, pp. 256–74; Among the Assassins!, pp. 14–17.
3. JM, in RCK, p. 93. The use of primary materials and original sources allows a historical immediacy and authenticity that is not otherwise possible. Therefore, in quoting them, the idiosyncratic punctuation and spelling have been retained, corrections being made or [sic] being used only where necessary for clarity.
4. JM, testimony in first trial of James Carroll et al., as recorded in The Daily Miners’ Journal, May 11, 1876; JM, in Among the Assassins!, p. 15.
5. JM, in RCK, p. 94.
6. RCK, p. 95.
7. Ibid.
8. Frank McAndrew, quoted in AP, The Molly Maguires and the Detectives, p. 491.
9. Dewees, The Molly Maguires, p. 267.
10. The Mauch Chunk Coal Gazette, July 16, 1876.
Introduction
1. John W. Ryon, in second trial of James Carroll et al., as recorded in The Daily Miners’ Journal, July 20, 1875.
2. FBG, quoted in AFG.
3. Hurt, “James McPartland,” p. 1.
4. Aurand and Gudelunas, “The Mythical Qualities of Molly Maguire,” pp. 91, 102; emphasis added.
5. For example, Campbell, A Molly Maguire Story; Crown, A Molly Maguire on Trial; Elliott, Introduction; Kenny, Making Sense of the Molly Maguires; Lens, The Labor Wars; McCarthy, The Great Molly Maguire Hoax; Young, Harp Song for a Radical.
6. For example, Dewees, The Molly Maguires; Pinkerton, The Mollie Maguires and the Detectives.
7. Denver Catholic Register, May 22, 1919; Shoaf, “Unwinding the Tangled Skein,” p. 1.
8. The most notable were Kelly, The Outlaw Trail; Baker, The Wild Bunch at Robbers Roost; and Horan, Desperate Men.
9. Horan, Desperate Men, pp. 248–49. It would be years before I had the background to realize that Horan—a reporter and editor for the New York Journal American and the only writer not employed by Pinkerton’s to be allowed extended access to the agency’s archives—occasionally muddled his facts, including the misspelling of McParland’s name and giving him a fictitious middle initial.
10. Grover, Debaters and Dynamiters.
11. That the files were purged before they went to the Library of Congress does not imply that they were sanitized to hide the truth specifically about McParland. John R. Sellers, the historical specialist on the Civil War and curator of the Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress (and one of the indiv
iduals responsible for the acquisition of the Pinkerton’s archives), indicated that many files and reports were never retained in the first place, as agency policy was to deliver them to the employing client at the end of a case, to eliminate the need to store any but the most important materials. Further, he noted, active culling of materials by Pinkerton’s had been going on for decades, ever since a decision was taken to eliminate sensitive files—particularly those related to investigations of labor unions and strikes—that might be subpoenaed or stolen (as actually occurred shortly before McParland’s last major investigation).
In fact, a policy of closing such files was in force more than a century ago. Charlie Siringo, the famous “cowboy detective” who worked for Pinkerton’s for twenty-two years, quoted a 1907 letter from John Cornish, the manager of Pinkerton’s Eastern Division, to George D. Bangs, the agency’s general manager, showing how this was done. “Mr. Goodwin will return this letter to New York, enclosing with it the journal memorandum and any other correspondence he has on the matter,” Cornish wrote. “We do not want anything on file at the Buffalo office in connection with this case. The Lackawanna Steel Company is a client of the Buffalo office and we want to have the Buffalo office in a position to say if ever the question comes up to them that they did not know the work was being done” (Siringo, Two Evil Isms, p. 50).
Yet more limitations on McParland material were brought about because most remaining documents are from the agency’s two primary offices, Chicago and New York. Even when Pinkerton’s consolidated its historic information into the archive that was eventually donated to the Library of Congress, little material from the numerous branch offices was kept. As most documents relating to McParland would have been in the Denver office—where he was based for about three decades—this further decreased the chances of finding relevant items.
12. See, for example, Miller and Sharpless, The Kingdom of Coal; Salay, Hard Coal, Hard Times.
13. JM, quoted in RCK, p. 27.
14. Lin Bartholomew, quoted in The Daily Miners’ Journal, July 24, 1876.