The Molly Maguires and the detectives

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About this book

"The Molly Maguires and the detectives" by Allan Pinkerton is a nonfiction investigative account written in the late 19th century. It chronicles Pinkerton’s covert campaign against the secretive Molly Maguires in Pennsylvania’s anthracite coal region, undertaken at the request of railroad executive Franklin B. Gowen, and follows undercover operative James McParlan (alias James McKenna) as he works to infiltrate the organization amid labor strife, violence, and political intrigue. The opening of the book sets Pinkerton’s pledge to tell a factual, unvarnished story of the coal fields and a violent secret society that, he argues, has evaded justice. Gowen solicits Pinkerton to penetrate the Mollies, whose alibis, intimidation, and sway over local politics have thwarted prosecutions, and Pinkerton accepts with strict conditions of secrecy and a plan to embed an Irish Catholic operative.