James McParland

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James McParland^[1] was a Pinkerton agent. Born in Ireland in 1843, he arrived in New York in 1867. He operated a liquor store in Chicago until the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 destroyed his business. He then became a detective.

McParland was noted for success against the Molly Maguires, failure against the leadership of the Western Federation of Miners, and a fictional appearance in a detective novel.

Contents 1 Infiltration of the Molly Maguires 2 The Valley of Fear, McParland "meets" Holmes 3 McParland in Colorado 4 The Steunenberg assassination 5 The Steunenberg trials 6 References

[edit] Infiltration of the Molly Maguires

McParland first came to national attention under the name James McKenna. Using that undercover identity, he infiltrated and helped to dismantle an organization of rebellious Pennsylvania coal miners called the Molly Maguires.

During the 1870s, miners in the region of the anthracite mines lived a life of "bitter, terrible struggle."^[2] Wages were low, working conditions were atrocious, and deaths and serious injuries numbered in the hundreds each year. Conditions were certainly ripe for labor unrest:

Labor angrily watched "railway directors (riding) about the country in luxurious private cars proclaiming their inability to pay living wages to hungry working men."

Some faced the additional burden of prejudice and persecution. The Molly Maguires were Irish and Catholic in a time and place where signs in employment windows often declared, "No Irish need apply." It was a time of rampant beatings and murders in the mining district, some of which were committed by the Mollies.^[3]

Franklin B. Gowen, the President of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, and of the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company, a protestant and "the wealthiest anthracite coal mine owner in the world," hired Allen Pinkerton's services to deal with the Molly Maguires. Pinkerton assigned McParland, who successfully infiltrated the organization, becoming a secretary for one of its local groups. McParland steadily collected evidence of murder plots and intrigue, passing this information along to his Pinkerton manager. He also began working secretly with a Pinkerton agent assigned to the Coal and Iron Police for the purpose of coordinating the eventual arrest and prosecution of members of the Molly Maguires.

Progress was slow, and on December 10, 1876, three men and two women with Molly connections were attacked in their house by masked men. One woman in the house, wife of one of the Molly Maguires, was taken outside of the house and shot dead. McParland was outraged that the information he had been providing had found its way into the hands of killers. McParland protested in a letter to his Pinkerton overseer which declared, in part:

Now I wake up this morning to find that I am the murderer of Mrs. McAlister. What had a woman to do with the case—did the [Molly Maguires] in their worst time shoot down women. If I was not here the Vigilante Committee would not know who was guilty and when I find them shooting women in their thirst for blood I hereby tender my resignation to take effect as soon as this message is received. It is not cowardice that makes me resign but just let them have it now I will no longer interfere as I see that one is the same as the other and I am not going to be an accessory to the murder of women and children. I am sure the [Molly Maguires] will not spare the women so long as the Vigilante has shown an example.^[4]

McParland was prevailed upon not to resign. A man named Frank Winrich, a first lieutenant with the Pennsylvania National Guard, was arrested as the leader of the attackers, but was released on bail. Then another Molly Maguire, a twenty-one year old killer who had also been secretly identified by McParland, was fired upon and wounded by unknown assailants. Later, his house was attacked by gunfire.

Eventually enough evidence was collected on reprisal killings and assassinations that arrests could be made and, based primarily on McParland's testimony, nineteen Molly Maguires were sent to the gallows.

Some writers declare unequivocally that justice was done. Others have argued that,

...punishment had gone too far, and that the guilt of some of the condemned was that of association more than participation and but half established by other condemned men seeking clemency for themselves.^[5]

[edit] The Valley of Fear, McParland "meets" Holmes

Reports about McParland's success against the Molly Maguires came to the attention of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes detective novels. Conan Doyle wrote McParland into The Valley of Fear, creating an encounter between the fictional Sherlock Holmes, and a character whose history loosely recalled McParland's experiences with the Molly Maguires.

[edit] McParland in Colorado

McParland then traveled to the west, where he became the manager of Pinkerton's Denver office. One of his responsibilities was infiltrating and disrupting union activities. He successfully placed scores of spies within the Western Federation of Miners (WFM) union. Some of his agents took part in the strike that came to be called the Colorado Labor Wars. One in particular was charged with sabotaging the union's relief program during the strike. Bill Haywood, Secretary Treasurer of the WFM, wrote about the sabotage in his autobiography:

I had been having some difficulty with the relief committee of the Denver smelter men. At first we had been giving out relief at such a rate that I had to tell the chairman that he was providing the smelter men with more than they had had while at work. Then he cut down the rations until the wives of the smelter men began to complain that they were not getting enough to eat. Years later, when his letters were published in The Pinkerton Labor Spy, I discovered that the chairman of the relief committe (sic) was a Pinkerton detective, who was carrying out the instructions of the agency in his methods of handling the relief work, deliberately trying to stir up bad feeling between the strikers and the relief committee.^[6]

The Pinkerton Labor Spy was an exposé of the detective agency written by Morris Friedman, who had been McParland's private stenographer.

[edit] The Steunenberg assassination

In 1899, Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg crushed a rebellion of miners during a labor dispute in Coeur d'Alene. On December 30, 1905, Governor Steunenberg, now retired, opened the front gate of his picket fence, triggering an explosive device that took his life.^[7] A man using the name Tom Hogan had set the bomb. The man was born Albert Horsley, but was better known as Harry Orchard. The killer left evidence in his hotel room, and did not try to flee.

After the assassination, Idaho's Chief Justice Stockslager drafted a telegram which invited the Pinkerton Agency to investigate.^[8] Idaho Governor Frank Gooding was persuaded to approve the request, and Pinkerton agent McParland soon arrived to lead the investigation.^[9] McParland announced his suspicion that Orchard was "the tool of others."^[10] McParland frequently used the expression inner circle to describe a secret cabal in the Western Federation of Miners when pitching Pinkerton's services to mine owners. McParland's stenographer, Morris Friedman, observed that by portraying the WFM in this manner, the Pinkerton office in Denver had generated "as much, and at times even more business than five other offices of the Agency combined."^[11] Before the investigation began, McParland picked his targets in the WFM for prosecution — President Charles Moyer, and Secretary-Treasurer William D. Haywood.

McParland's first order was to have Orchard transferred from the relatively comfortable Caldwell jail to death row in the Boise penitentiary, even before any trial had occurred. The move was initially resisted by Judge Smith, who would be responsible for trying the case. The local judge anticipated a successful habeas corpus lawsuit against the tactic. McParland gave him "thirty precedents for the move." However, the sheriff in Caldwell also opposed the move.

Governor Gooding arranged a meeting between McParland and Chief Justice Stockslager, and then with Judge Smith. Before Smith arrived, McParland declared the county jail insecure, a potential target for dynamite. He also stated the purpose of the move to death row: "After three days I will attempt to get a confession." Chief Justice Stockslager approved of the move. In a pre-arranged plan, the Governor was called out of the room as soon as Judge Smith arrived, leaving McParland and the two judges alone. With the Chief Justice supporting the move to death row, Judge Smith also agreed.^[12]

On death row Orchard was placed under a constant watch, and his food rations were cut.^[13] The three day wait turned into nine days.^[14] On January 22, the hungry prisoner was escorted into the warden's office and left alone with McParland. The two enjoyed a lavish meal followed by fine cigars.^[15] McParland threatened Orchard with immediate hanging, and said that he could avoid that fate only if he testified against leaders of the WFM. McParland allayed Orchard's skepticism by telling him about "Kelly the Bum," a confessed murderer who became a prosecution witness in the Molly Maguires cases.^[16] McParland said that "Kelly" not only had received freedom as part of the deal, but he had been given "one thousand dollars to subsidize a new life abroad."^[17] McParland also dismissed the possibility that Orchard would face charges in Colorado if allowed to go free in Idaho. McParland had offered a stark choice: an immediate visit to the gallows, or better treatment for the prisoner with the possibility of freedom, a possible financial reward, and the gratitude of the state of Idaho.

Orchard was known to Charles Moyer, having once acted as his body guard on a trip from Denver to Telluride. Orchard had also met Bill Haywood.^[18] And, he had been at the scene of the labor unrest in Coeur d'Alene when Steunenberg had severely punished the union miners for an act of violence. He chose to cooperate.

Orchard was immediately transferred from death row to a private bungalow in the prison yard. He was provided with special meals, new clothing, spending money, his favorite cigars, and a library of religious tracts. The current governor of Idaho stopped by to shake his hand and congratulate him on cooperating.^[19]

McParland then had Western Federation of Miners leaders Bill Haywood, Charles Moyer, and George Pettibone arrested in Colorado, using extradition papers which falsely claimed that the three men had been present at Steunenberg's murder. In his book Roughneck, writer Peter Carlson described the arrest across the state line as a "kidnapping scheme," yet it went unchallenged by Colorado authorities.^[20]

[edit] The Steunenberg trials

McParland rounded up potential witnesses, assembled evidence, checked out potential jurors, and "leaked information that would tarnish the reputations of the defendants and their attorneys."^[21] McParland placed a spy, "Operative 21", on the defense team. The spy operated as a jury canvasser, and was instructed to provide the defense with erroneous reports of the preferences of potential jurors. However, the spy was discovered.^[22]

McParland sought to bolster Harry Orchard's testimony by forcing another WFM miner, Steve Adams, to turn state's evidence. That plan failed,^[23] and in doing so, revealed McParland's methods. He then concocted a plot to turn Moyer against Haywood and Pettibone by having a sheriff claim Pettibone, Adams, and Orchard were plotting to kill Moyer, but that plan wasn't put into action.^[24] A slightly different scheme was tried, but Moyer didn't take the bait.^[25]

At trial, the only evidence against the trio was Harry Orchard's testimony.^[26] But Orchard confessed to acting as a paid informant for the Mine Owners Association.^[27] He reportedly told a companion, G.L. Brokaw, that he had been a Pinkerton employee for some time.^[28] He was also a bigamist, and admitted to abandoning wives in Canada and Cripple Creek. He had burned businesses for the insurance money in Cripple Creek and Canada.^[29] Orchard had burglarized a railroad depot, rifled a cash register, stole sheep, and had made plans to kidnap children over a debt. He also sold fraudulent insurance policies.^[30] To satisfy McParland, Orchard had signed a confession to a series of bombings and shootings which had killed at least seventeen men, all of which he blamed on the Western Federation of Miners.^[31] The original confession was never made public,^[32] but a more comprehensive version released in 1907 included many pages of incriminating allegations.^[33]

Although at first his testimony on the witness stand in the Bill Haywood trial seemed both fantastic and plausible,^[34] the defense pointed out some significant contradictions.^[35] Although Orchard had claimed his instructions came from Haywood and Moyer, the authors of The Pinkerton Story observe,

It was impossible to establish beyond a reasonable doubt through any witness, except Orchard's wife, second and bigamous, the fact of private meetings between him and Haywood.^[36]

The majority of jurors in the Haywood trial found Orchard not to be a credible witness,^[37] and Haywood was acquitted. In a separate trial for George Pettibone, the defense team declined to argue the case, resting upon a not guilty plea.^[38] Pettibone was also acquitted. Charges against Moyer were dropped.

After the cases against the WFM leaders failed, Harry Orchard was tried alone for Steunenberg's murder, was found guilty, and was sentenced to death. However, that sentence was commuted to life, and he lived out the rest of his life in his prison bungalow.^[39]

[edit] References