Molly Maguires

The Molly Maguires, if they indeed exist as an organized group and not a label assigned by their enemies, is a 19th century secret society of mainly Irish-American coal miners.

The Molly Maguires are accused of kidnapping and other crimes, largely because of the allegations of one powerful industrialist (Franklin B. Gowen), and the testimony of one Pinkerton detective (James McParland).

Fellow prisoners testify against the defendants, who are arrested by the Coal and Iron Police, who serve Gowen, who acts as prosecutor in some of the trials.

The trusts seem to have focused almost exclusively upon the Molly Maguires for criminal prosecution.

Molly Maguire history is sometimes presented as the prosecution of an underground movement that was motivated by personal vendettas, and sometimes as a struggle between organized labor and powerful industrial forces.

Whether membership in the Molly organization overlapped union membership to any appreciable extent remains open to conjecture.

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