Masked men attack three men and two…
December 1875 CE
Anthony Lukas will write that the attack seemed "to reflect the strategy outlined in Pinkerton's memo". ((Lukas, J. Anthony. Big Trouble: A Murder in a Small Western Town Sets Off a Struggle for the Soul of America, 1997, p. 182.)
The victims had been secretly identified by McParland as Mollies.
One of the men is killed in the house, and the other two supposed Mollies are wounded but able to escape.
A woman, the wife of one of the reputed Mollies, is shot dead.
McParland is outraged that the information he had been providing had found its way into the hands of indiscriminate killers.
When McParland hears details of the attack at the house, he protests in a letter to his Pinkerton supervisor.
He does not object that Mollies might be assassinated as a result of his labor spying—they "got their just deserving".
McParland resigns when it becomes apparent the vigilantes are willing to commit the "murder of women and children", whom he deems innocent victims. (Horan, James David. The Pinkerton Story, Putnam (1951) pp. 151-152)
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