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Mcparlans's Job

Mcparlans's Job image
Parent Issue
Day
29
Month
June
Year
1877
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

In the fall of 1873, the Phüadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company, whosc President, Franklin B. Gowen - also the President of the Reading railroad - liad formerly been District Attorney of Schuylkill coimty, beciimo i'ully convinced that these frequeiitly-recurriug outrages were the TOK of a criminal organization with farreaching arms and adequately equipped with every possible means of screening the instrurnents of its nefarious deeds. They determined that the reign of terror must cease. Mr. Gowen had seen its work even while prosecuting offleer of the coimty, and he knew that it could only bo done by secret detectives, and that the detective who operated for rewards, who was only paid upon the couviction of the ofl'ender, was not the man they nceded. He had had experience before, and he applied to the National Detective Agency. Alian Pinkerton, an intelligent and broad-minded Scotchman, replied : "I will secure an agent or an ofneer to ferret out the existence of this society. Wlioever I get is to be paid so niuch a week, no matter if he finds out nothiug. He is bound to me never, under any circumstances, to take a rcward for his services from anybody, and if he spends five years and obtains nothing iu the way of information he must have every month or every week exactly the same compensation as if every week he had traced a new murder, and every month had discovered a new conspiracy. He is never to gain pecuniarily by the success of his undertaking ; but, as a man who goes into this organization as a detective takos his life in his own hands, I will send no man on this mission of yours, Mr. Gowen, unless it Be agreed beforehand, and I can teil him so, that he never is to be known in connection with the enterprise. " On these terms was James MoParlftn engaged. For a better understandiug of the work that this intrepid man undertook, with his life in his hand, I will anticípate a little, in order to explain the working of this order. The Mollies date back to 1842 - more than a generation. French's "Realities of Irish Life" speaks of them when they were known as the Ribbonmen of tIreland. This order sprang up at a time when there was an organized resistance in Ireland to the payment of rents. The malcontents became known as Ribbonmen, and they generally made their attacks upon the agents of the non-resident land-owners, or upon the constables or bailiffs who attempted to collect the rents. Their object was to intimídate and hold in terror all those to whom they owed money, or who were employed in its collection. As a branch of this society, and growing out of it, sprang the men known as Mollie Maguires, and the name of their society simply arose from this circumcfaiioo flaf. in flip rifimmfvafinn fQ tlioiv oftenses they dressed as women, and generally ducked or beat their victims, or inflicted some sucli punishment as infuriated women would be likely to administer. Henee originated the name of the Mollie Maguires. One of the first executions of members of this order was brought about in the same way as the executions of to-day - by the " squealing" of some of the accomplices - and, as the law was then in Ireland, the punishment of death was inflicted jnst as much for a conspiracy to murder as for the actual perpetration of the offense. The order was first known in the coal regions as the Buckshots, and in 1863 the courts of Carbon conuty became powerless to execute their processes in certain cases, and to punish crimináis who belonged to the Buokshots. This was during the war, and the military had to be ealled in aid of the civil authorities, and a military court was organized, called a military commission,which tried some of the offenders known as Buckshots. There is no way of ascertaining when the Mollies succeeded in getting control of the Ancient Order of Hibcrnians, but McParlan discovered that this orgauization in four counties had no other purpose than revenge and murder, and it was pretty well shown that the order never had any othcr object in the coal regiouH. Arriving in the county in October, 1873, he lirst stopped at the lower end, at Port Clinton, and then went all over the county, stopping from a week to a day in a place. Beturning to Philadelphia for a íortnight at the end of November, he came back to Pottsville in December, and remained around about there until February, when he settled in Shonandoah. All this time he was forwarding a daily report to Supt. Ben. Frinkliu at l'liiiadelphia. He joiued the order in Shenandoah on Tuesday, April 14, 1874. The members meant business, and they did not have the order for show. They did not bother themselves about regalia, and such articles in the constitutie! or such by-laws as they had no use for they paid no attention to whatever. They paid thoir dvies to the State order regularly, but they never paraded, never attended ehurch, and never paid a cent for the furtherance of the ostensible objoets of the society. McParlan was finally discovered, and so all motive for keeping him ofT the witness stand disappeared. He first took the staud in the trial of the Yost murderers in May, 1876. President Gowen, in his opening address to the jury in that trial, thus graphically described the result of MacParlan's testimony : Then we knew we were free raen. Then we cared no louger for the Molh'e Maguires. Then wo could go to Patsy Collins, the Gommissipner of this county, and say to him : "Bnild well the walls of the new additionof the prison ; dig the foundations deep, and make them strong ; put in good masonry and iron bard, for, as the Lord liveth, the timo will como when, uide by sidq with William Love, the ïnurdercr of 'Sqnire Owither, you will enter the waüs that you are now building for others." Then we could say to Jack Kehoe, the high constable of a groat borough in thia county : " We have no fear of you." Thtn we could say to Ned Monaghan, chief of pólice, and murderer and ftssaseiu : 'Behindyou the scaffold in preparad for your reception." Then we could ay to I'at Conry, CommisHioner of this county : v'The time has ceased when a Governor of tliin Btate dares to pardon a Mollie Magnire- you have had your last pardon." Then we could say to John Slattery, who w:KalniostelectedJudgcofthiK court i ■' We kuovv Ihat ol you that it were better you had not been born than that it Hhould be known.'1 This is a suuimary of the result of Detective Mci'arian's IViirlcss work : About seventy person have been arrested in the coal región. Oí' those, twelvo have been, by a jury of their countrymen, fpurid gnilty of murder in the first de ree, fonr of murder iu the seeond degive, and four of tíeihíg acceseory U inunlcr, Blïtfeen of conspinicy te murder, six of perjury. out1 of assault with inteni to kill, eight of aiding and abetting a murder, onc of assault and battery, one for aitling in the escape of a murdorer, and several others of losser crimes. The sum total of the time of these seutences to imprisonment foots up to 124 years and eight months. Eleven have receivcd sentenee of death.

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Subjects
Old News
Michigan Argus