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Notorious Lives

Black Donnellys

Irish Invincibles.

Great Lives from History: Notorious Lives

Molly Maguires

by Thomas L. Erskine

Clandestine, radical group of Irish American miners

Major offenses: Murder and industrial sabotage

Active: 1860’s-1877

Locale: Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania

Sentence: Death by hanging for some; others jailed

Early Life

The Molly Maguires (mah-GWI-uhrs) originated in Ireland in 1843 and served as a vigilante group, fighting Irish landlords for tenant rights. Its name is said to derive from Molly Maguire, a widow who led violent agitations after being evicted by her landlord. Some historians believe Maguire was only a mythical figure.

The ancestors of the Pennsylvanian Molly Maguires were from Ireland, particularly county Donegal, but there is little evidence that a band of Molly Maguires emigrated to the United States. In fact, the Irish miners in Pennsylvania were split into different warring secret societies, among which may have been the Molly Maguires. The secrecy of these organizations and the lack of any official documents affiliated with the Molly Maguires have given credence to the notion that Benjamin Bannan, the editor of the Miners’ Journal, labeled some violent miners as “Molly Maguires”; the name, whether or not accurate, was subsequently used by the mine owners, the media, and the general public.

Criminal Career

The first murder attributed to the Molly Maguires was that of mine foreman Frank W. Langdon in 1862, but charges for the crime were not brought forth until 1877. There were violent miners who committed industrial espionage and murders, but the group’s membership was officially confined, for the most part, to the Ancient Order of the Hibernians (AOH). The AOH served officially as a self-help organization for Irish immigrants, and the Molly Maguires perhaps existed as a secret organization behind this front.

The first wave of violence associated with the Molly Maguires—assaults, robberies, and four murders—occurred between 1865 and 1868 and was associated with the Civil War military draft. Under the pretext of enforcing the draft, mine operators used police and the Union Army to go into the mines and remove labor activists to serve in the army; the impoverished miners did not have the money to buy their way out of the draft. The second wave began in October, 1874, and was related to cuts in the miners’ wages; the unsuccessful Long Strike of 1875 followed. The miners committed acts of violence, including industrial espionage, arson, assaults, and murders, including six in 1875 alone. Most of these crimes were attributed to the Molly Maguires.

Legal Action and Outcome

Many miners active in the AOH (and presumed to be Molly Maguires) were arrested for murder; the first trial began in 1876. Franklin P. Gowen, head of the Reading Railroad and the most influential mine owner in the area at the time, commissioned the Pinkerton Detective Agency to infiltrate the organization both to spy on the miners and to act as provocateurs (that is, agents who committed acts of violence that could then be blamed on the Molly Maguires). Michael J. Doyle and Edward Kelly were convicted of the murder of John P. Jones and hanged, but James Kerrigan, a third person charged with the murder of Jones, turned state’s evidence, was freed, and continued to inform on other suspected murderers. His testimony and that of Pinkerton operative James McParlan were responsible for the convictions and hanging of seventeen more miners in 1877 and 1879. Other miners were convicted of lesser charges and received jail sentences.

Impact

The hyperbole of the media accounts of the depravity of the Molly Maguires persisted and resulted in the demise of both the Molly Maguires and the AOH. The nascent union movement, of which the Molly Maguires was a part and in which the Workingmen’s Benevolent Association and the Knights of Labor played important roles, was also weakened. For the rest of the nineteenth century, violence in the workplace would be committed primarily by the owners, though there were some sporadic acts of violence committed by workers. The Molly Maguires provided a convenient label to attach to active trade unionists; the trials were designed to destroy such leaders and the unions themselves.

Further Reading

1 

Bimba, Anthony. The Molly Maguires. New York: International, 1932. Early account explaining the collusion between the mine owners, the Pinkertons, the Irish Catholic Church, the police, and the media. Also examines the battle between capital and labor.

2 

Broehl, Wayne G., Jr. The Molly Maguires. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1964. Helpful discussion of the Irish roots of the Molly Maguire movement and a list of the participants in the Molly Maguire riots.

3 

Burke, William H. Anthracite Lads: A True Story of the Fabled Molly Maguires. Erie, Pa.: Erie County Historical Society, 2005. Denies the existence of a Molly Maguire organization in Pennsylvania.

4 

Kenny, Kevin. Making Sense of the Molly Maguires. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Thorough discussion of the group’s agitation. Provides helpful appendixes, including an extensive bibliography and short biographies of the participants.

5 

Pinkerton, Allan. The Molly Maguires and the Detectives. New York: Dover, 1973. Pinkerton’s biased account of the Molly Maguire riots, the source of contemporary antiunion sentiment.

Citation Types

MLA 9th
Erskine, Thomas L. "Molly Maguires." Great Lives from History: Notorious Lives, edited by Carl L. Bankston III, Salem Press, 2007. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=GLN_1421.
APA 7th
Erskine, T. L. (2007). Molly Maguires. In C. L. Bankston III (Ed.), Great Lives from History: Notorious Lives. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.
CMOS 17th
Erskine, Thomas L. "Molly Maguires." Edited by Carl L. Bankston III. Great Lives from History: Notorious Lives. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2007. Accessed March 21, 2026. online.salempress.com.