Reasons For The Trial And Execution Of The Mollies

The main advocate for the arrest, trial and execution of the Mollies was Franklin Benjamin Gowen, owner of the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Railroad Company. He, along with other large industry leaders, had a deep rooted hatred for all labor unions due to the fact that they threatened their hierarchy and control. According to Gowen, the Molly Maguires were a “noxious weed” of “foreign birth,” which had arrived in the United States from Ireland. “Wherever anthracite is employed is also felt the vise-like grip of this midnight, dark-lantern, murderous-minded fraternity," Gowen continued. "Wherever in the United States iron is wrought, from Maine to Georgia, from ocean to ocean, wherever coal is used for fuel, there the Molly Maguire leaves

Before the trials had even began these men were considered guilty and dead. The first trial to place at Mauch Chunk, presently named Jim Thorpe, in January 1876 and in Pottsville in May, after the Coal & Iron Police, also know as Gowen’s special task force, had rounded up dozens of Irishmen on charges ranging from beatings to murder. During the trials, McParlan gave his testimony stating, “My name is James McParlan, I came into Schuylkill County in October 1873 under the name of James McKenna. I belong to the National Detective Agency commonly known as Pinkerton’s Detective Force. I was sent here by Major Allan Pinkerton of Chicago, the chief. I came to discover as to who were connected with an organization known as the Molly Maguires” (Bloom). In his deposition of the Mollies, he told of the planning and impalement of multiple mining officials that he had witnessed and took part in. When defense lawyers accused the detective of participating willingly in Molly outrages, McParlan responded that he was often unable to forewarn intended victims in time and was forced to appear to participate in the Mollies plans in order to protect not just his undercover mission but very probably his life. This statement was not looked into in depth until years later, after everything was said and done. After being examined and questioned, it was found

They were instrumental in the unionization of the working man which led to cleaner, safer working environments and fair pay for their members. Unions led to government oversight organizations, laws on state wages, minimum wage and working hours. Scholars say the campaign to stamp out the Molly Maguires was an extreme example of the collusion between corporations, government and law enforcement. The juries that convicted the men excluded people of Irish descent, and relied heavily on citizens who spoke Pennsylvania Dutch as their primary language, thus meaning these men were doomed from the beginning (Bonner). Against all odds, these men worked tirelessly day and night for a job that did not support them for all their personal and family need. They needed to provide and survive. Unions were their best chance and their alleged methods may have been extreme, however, they contrived their point. Taking an in depth look, historians now viewed the Molly Maguires and the union as labor heroes, fighting for workers rights against insurmountable odds. The terrible working conditions in the mines and the secretive activism of the Irish mining community made violence, in their eyes and the eyes of the working class, inevitable and justifiable. They also concluded that the violence that occurred was to some degree rationalized and seriously misrepresented by the