Image: John “Black Jack” Kehoe (Public Domain)

On this day in history, December 18, 1878, John Kehoe, the last of the “Molly Maguires,” is executed in Pennsylvania. The Molly Maguires, an Irish secret society that had purportedly been accountable for some vigilante justice occurrences in eastern Pennsylvania’s coalfields, upheld their acts as efforts to protect abused Irish-American workers. They are often seen as one of the first organized labor groups.

In the initial five years of the Irish potato blight that started in 1845, 500,000 immigrants from Ireland landed in America. The harsh economic conditions threatening the immigrants led many Irish men to the hard coal fields in the mountains of eastern Pennsylvania. Miners worked under treacherous conditions and were brutally underpaid. Small towns owned by mining companies further abused workers by charging rent for company housing. Secret societies like the Molly Maguires sprang up in response to these exploitations, leading intermittent rebel operations to settle worker/owner disputes.

Mine owners became progressively more alarmed about the danger presented by the Molly Maguires. Franklin Gowen, president of the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company, hired the Pinkerton Detective Agency to penetrate the secret society and find proof that could be used against them. James McParland, who later became the most distinguished private detective of the era, took the dangerous position and went undercover within the organization. He created his place in the Molly Maguires for over two years and built faith among his fellow adherents.

In time, several Molly Maguires admitted their parts in the murder to McParland. When he finally left the society in February 1876, the detective’s intelligence led to the arrest and conviction of 20 men.

In the 1870s, the Molly Maguires murdered 24 mine foremen and supervisors and sent “coffin notices” to strike breakers during mining disputes. The secret society carried out arsons, assaults, and murders for years before a Pinkerton detective penetrated the group to defeat them from the inside.

The Molly Maguires battled for better working conditions in the deadly mines of Pennsylvania. But their violent techniques caught up with them when twenty men were sentenced to hang.

The Molly Maguires were a clandestine society of Irish mine workers. They appropriated their name from a secret society in Ireland, where participants dressed in women’s clothing to conceal themselves.

Like the Irish Molly Maguires, the American branch fought against unfairness – including their treatment in the mines. Many Irish immigrants in Pennsylvania’s coal country took employment in the mines.

The Molly Maguires were quiet in the late 1860s when the mineworkers joined a labor group. The Workingmen’s Benevolent Association (WBA) effectively bargained for higher wages – until Franklin Gowen, a railroad man, achieved control over the coal mining industry in Pennsylvania.

Under Gowen’s ruthless regime, the Molly Maguires returned – and so did their violent practices.

Mine workers faced horrific conditions in the 1870s. With no safety protocols, working in the mines took a lethal toll. Owners also made money from the miners by making them live in company-owned housing and shop at company-owned stores.

At the end of the month, most workers owed more money to their employers than they made in income.

After the depression of 1873, mine owners enforced a new agreement on the workers. Their pay was decreased by as much as 20%. In reaction, the miners went on strike.

During the Long Strike of 1875, which lasted for seven months, the owners and miners fought each other. The Molly Maguires began sending anonymous threats to supervisors. Pennsylvania’s governor even sent soldiers to end the strike.

Lower wages were imposed on the miners – but some turned to violent actions to exact retribution against mine owners.

During the Long Strike of 1875, the WBA disbanded, and the miners soon realized the legal system offered few protections to immigrants and working-class people. The Molly Maguires chose to battle for the mineworkers.

The Molly Maguires went after three groups: mine owners, police officers hired by the owners, and strike-breakers. They threatened scabs who took their jobs and attacked mine supervisors.

As the strike continued, the coal owners founded their own police force to assault the miners. Referred to as the “Pennsylvania Cossacks,” the hired thugs beat and murdered miners.

Gowen also decided to hire the Pinkerton Detective Agency. As a countermeasure, Pinkerton sent in an undercover detective. James McParland, an Irish-born detective, went underground for two years to gather information against the secret society. Under the alias James McKenna, McParland joined a local Irish lodge and eventually gained the confidence of the Molly Maguires. McParland sent reports to the Pinkertons, who used his intelligence to target and murder numerous miners. The police apprehended 60 members of the Molly Maguires in 1875, who faced trial.

James McParland was the star witness during the trials from 1875-1877.

But Franklin Gowen played a vital role as chief prosecutor, even though, as the mine owner, he had hired the Pinkertons to gather information on the Molly Maguires. During the trials, with juries comprised of no Irish members, Gowen crafted a case against the Molly Maguires. Outside the court, Gowen distributed pamphlets containing his courtroom speeches. The evidence given in court often fell short of legal obligations. McParland himself faced a complaint of perjury.

Based entirely on McParland’s testimony, the trial condemned twenty men to death. On June 21, 1877, a day referred to as “Black Thursday,” ten members of the Molly Maguires were sentenced to death. Before the condemned men were executed, the Catholic Church excommunicated them, denying them last rites and a Christian burial.

One Pennsylvania jurist criticized the trial. “A private corporation initiated the investigation through a private detective agency. A private police force arrested the alleged defenders, and private attorneys for the coal companies prosecuted them. The state provided only the courtroom and the gallows.”

In December 1878, John Kehoe was arrested and hanged for the 1862 murder of Frank Langdon, a mine supervisor, despite being wrongly accused. Although the governor of Pennsylvania believed Kehoe’s innocence, he signed the death warrant anyway. Kehoe’s hanging was officially called “the Death of Molly-ism.”

In 1979, more than 100 years after his hanging, John Kehoe – the reputed “king” of the Molly Maguires – was given a full pardon by the state of Pennsylvania.

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