The Molly Maguires and the Detectives

"The Molly Maguires and the Detectives" by Allan Pinkerton is a nonfiction investigative account written in the late 19th century. It chronicles Pinkerton’s covert campaign against the secretive Molly Maguires in Pennsylvania’s anthracite coal region, undertaken at the request of railroad executive Franklin B. Gowen, and follows undercover operative James McParlan (alias James McKenna) as he works to infiltrate the organization amid labor strife, violence, and political intrigue. The opening of the book sets Pinkerton’s pledge to tell a factual, unvarnished story of the coal fields and a violent secret society that, he argues, has evaded justice. Gowen solicits Pinkerton to penetrate the Mollies, whose alibis, intimidation, and sway over local politics have thwarted prosecutions, and Pinkerton accepts with strict conditions of secrecy and a plan to embed an Irish Catholic operative. Pinkerton then selects James McParlan, sketches his background and disguise, and launches him under the alias “James McKenna.” McKenna begins by tramping through towns like Port Clinton, Schuylkillhaven, Tremont, Tower City, and Minersville, posing as a job-seeking laborer while building contacts: he’s refused lodging by a drunken landlord, sheltered by an Irish family (with a comic drunk blocking a door), and quietly probes opinions by discussing scathing newspaper pieces on the Mollies with men like the switchman Fitzgibbons. He cultivates leads through saloon talk (including a former member’s hints that Mahanoy City is fertile ground), descends into a working mine to learn the setting, endures a snowbound stage ride and shabby lodging, and finally settles into a modest boarding house, using evenings in bars and card rooms to deepen his cover and map the society’s haunts. Read more