While researching the Molly Maguires for a larger future project, I came across a striking sketch from a July 1877 edition of Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper.
The image depicts workmen inside Schuylkill County Prison in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, constructing the gallows for what would become the largest mass execution in Pennsylvania history.
On June 21, 1877, six men were hanged at Pottsville and another four at Mauch Chunk (modern-day Jim Thorpe) for murders and violence allegedly carried out by members of the Molly Maguires, a secretive Irish labor organization.
The Molly Maguires were accused of carrying out acts of violence against mine operators and law enforcement in the Coal Region, but their trials were deeply controversial.
Evidence was largely based on testimony from James McParlan, a Pinkerton detective who infiltrated the group, leading many historians (and many in the region at the time) to question whether the executions were justice or retribution against labor activism.
Read our story about the day of the executions at Pottsville and Mauch Chunk here.
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I’m always fascinated by the history surrounding the Molly McGuires. Even more so after I learned that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle used the McGuire actions as a basis in his Sherlock Holmes story, The Valley of Fear. Thanks for sharing this history!
Thank you Jake. A powerful post. I wonder if your research has uncovered who the judges and prosecutors were. Was it a jury that convicted in both cases? The film The Molly MaGuires is a powerful telling of this story. So too, is a visit to the Jim Thorpe jail, gallows ever ready and e Don ver haunting.