James McParland
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James McParland (''né'' McParlan; 1844,
County Armagh County Armagh (, named after its county town, Armagh) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the southern shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and ha ...
,
Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
– 18 May 1919,
Denver, Colorado Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
) was an American private detective and Pinkerton agent. McParland arrived in New York in 1867. He worked as a laborer, policeman and then in Chicago as a liquor store owner until the
Great Chicago Fire The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned in the American city of Chicago during October 8–10, 1871. The fire killed approximately 300 people, destroyed roughly of the city including over 17,000 structures, and left more than 10 ...
of 1871 destroyed his business. He then became a private detective and
labor spy Labor spying in the United States had involved people recruited or employed for the purpose of gathering intelligence, committing sabotage, sowing dissent, or engaging in other similar activities, in the context of an employer/labor organization r ...
, noted for his success against the
Molly Maguires The Molly Maguires were an Irish 19th-century secret society active in Ireland, Liverpool and parts of the Eastern United States, best known for their activism among Irish-American and Irish immigrant coal miners in Pennsylvania. After a seri ...
.


Infiltration of the Molly Maguires

McParland first came to national attention when, as an undercover operative using the name James McKenna, he infiltrated and helped to dismantle an organization of activist Pennsylvania coal miners called the
Molly Maguires The Molly Maguires were an Irish 19th-century secret society active in Ireland, Liverpool and parts of the Eastern United States, best known for their activism among Irish-American and Irish immigrant coal miners in Pennsylvania. After a seri ...
. During the 1870s, miners in the region of the anthracite mines lived a life of "bitter, terrible struggle." 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."
The Molly Maguires were
Irish Catholic Irish Catholics are an ethnoreligious group native to Ireland whose members are both Catholic and Irish. They have a large diaspora, which includes over 36 million American citizens and over 14 million British citizens (a quarter of the British ...
when there was frequent prejudice against such persons. It was a time of rampant beatings and murders in mining districts, some committed by the Mollies.
Franklin B. Gowen Franklin Benjamin Gowen (February 9, 1836 – December 13, 1889) served as president of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad (commonly referred to as the Reading Railroad) in the 1870s/80s. He is identified with the undercover infiltration an ...
, the President of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, and of the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company, "the wealthiest anthracite coal mine owner in the world", hired
Allan Pinkerton Allan J. Pinkerton (August 25, 1819 – July 1, 1884) was a Scottish cooper, abolitionist, detective, and spy, best known for creating the Pinkerton National Detective Agency in the United States and his claim to have foiled a plot in 1861 to a ...
's services to deal with the Molly Maguires. Pinkerton assigned McParland to the job. McParland successfully infiltrated the secret organization, becoming a secretary for one of its local groups. McParland turned in reports daily, eventually collecting evidence of murder plots and intrigue, passing this information along to Benjamin Franklin, his Pinkerton manager. He also began working secretly with Robert Linden, a Pinkerton agent assigned to the
Coal and Iron Police The Coal and Iron Police was a private police force in the US state of Pennsylvania that existed between 1865 and 1931. It was established by the Pennsylvania General Assembly but employed and paid by the various coal companies. The origins of the ...
for the purpose of coordinating the eventual arrest and prosecution of members of the Molly Maguires. On 10 December 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 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 olly Maguiresin 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 olly Maguireswill not spare the women so long as the Vigilante has shown an example.
McParland was prevailed upon not to resign. Frank Winrich, a first lieutenant with the Pennsylvania State Militia, was arrested as the leader of the attackers, but was released on bail. Then another Molly Maguire, Hugh McGehan, a 21-year-old who had been secretly identified as a killer by McParland, was fired upon and wounded by unknown assailants. Later, the McGehans' home 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, ten 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.
Joseph G. Rayback, author of ''A History of American Labor'', has observed:
The charge has been made that the Molly Maguires episode was deliberately manufactured by the coal operators with the express purpose of destroying all vestiges of unionism in the area ... There is some evidence to support the charge ... the "crime wave" that appeared in the anthracite fields came after the appearance of the Pinkertons, and ... many of the victims of the crimes were union leaders and ordinary miners. The evidence brought against
he defendants He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...
supplied by James McParlan, a Pinkerton, and corroborated by men who were granted immunity for their own crimes, was tortuous and contradictory, but the net effect was damning ... The trial temporarily destroyed the last vestiges of labor unionism in the anthracite area. More important, it gave the public the impression ... that miners were by nature criminal in character ...


The Valley of Fear: McParland "meets" Holmes

Reports of McParland's success against the Molly Maguires came to the attention of
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for '' A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Ho ...
, author of the
Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes () is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a " consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and ...
detective fiction. Conan Doyle wrote McParland into ''
The Valley of Fear ''The Valley of Fear'' is the fourth and final Sherlock Holmes novel by British writer Arthur Conan Doyle. It is loosely based on the Molly Maguires and Pinkerton agent James McParland. The story was first published in the ''Strand Magazine ...
'', creating an encounter between the fictional Sherlock Holmes, and a character whose history loosely recalled McParland's experiences with the Molly Maguires. Conan Doyle had met
Allan Pinkerton Allan J. Pinkerton (August 25, 1819 – July 1, 1884) was a Scottish cooper, abolitionist, detective, and spy, best known for creating the Pinkerton National Detective Agency in the United States and his claim to have foiled a plot in 1861 to a ...
on an ocean voyage, where the writer became fascinated by the "singular and terrible narrative" of the Molly Maguires. Later, however, "Allan Pinkerton's and Arthur Conan Doyle's friendship ended over the rendition of some Pinkerton exploits in fictional form ..." Patrick Campbell, a relative of one of the executed Mollies, who wrote ''A Molly Maguire Story'', learned from a McParland relative that McParland's two brothers, Edward and Charles, also went undercover against the Mollies. Campbell speculates that the break between Pinkerton and Conan Doyle may have resulted because,
he McParland character in ''The Valley of Fear''was portrayed as being very wealthy uggesting a possible 'pay off' ... andPinkerton did not like the fact that he McParland characterwas characterized in the novel as having married a German girl from he anthracite fields ...Brother Charles had actually married the German girl, not James, but Pinkerton must have disliked how close the novel was getting to the truth.


Knights of Labor Railway Strike of 1886

During the
Knights of Labor Knights of Labor (K of L), officially Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor, was an American labor federation active in the late 19th century, especially the 1880s. It operated in the United States as well in Canada, and had chapters also ...
Railway Strike of 1886, McParland worked undercover in Parsons, Kansas for railroad tycoon
Jay Gould Jason Gould (; May 27, 1836 – December 2, 1892) was an American railroad magnate and financial speculator who is generally identified as one of the robber barons of the Gilded Age. His sharp and often unscrupulous business practices made hi ...
. McParland was accused of joining in criminal activity with Jacob McLaughlin of the notorious Grand Central Hotel near the railroad yards. Writer Anthony Lukas recorded that:
For years, its staff had preyed on visitors – notably Texas cattlemen who, having driven their herds up the Chisholm Trail to Abilene returned through Parsons with bulging pockets. The hotel provided everything the footloose cowboy or railway man might require: liquor, drugs, gambling, and prostitutes. But once a man had savored those delights, he was likely to find his pockets picked, his horse stolen. If a guest proved recalcitrant, he was chloroformed, butchered, then buried in the basement or thrown in the Neosho River.
McLaughlin and an associate, Wash Bercaw, spent time in the county jail for liquor violations. They reportedly murdered a cellmate by the name of Frank P. Myers (or Myres), a horse thief who had overheard them in the jail, by drowning him in the river. The two were charged with the murder just as troopers brought the strike under control. But the witnesses to the murder changed their stories, apparently due to behind-the-scenes operations by McParland. The witnesses admitted they had been bribed, and went to jail for perjury. E.C. Ward, McLauglin's lawyer, who had offered the bribes, was disbarred. McLaughlin walked free, and many in the community – judges, lawyers, and merchants – apparently shared the view that the perjured testimony was somehow McParland's doing. A meeting chaired by a local Socialist denounced the "infamous" detective. A statement was issued stating that when money could be made,
... he will do anything, no matter how low or vile, to accomplish his purpose ... There is not today, in the United States outside prison walls, a more conscienceless and desperate criminal than McParland.
Lukas wrote: "What lay behind these accusations is difficult to say," and that it is "hard to imagine" how McParland became associated with "a scoundrel like McLaughlin," but "if the story is accurate," he speculated that the connection must have resulted from activities relating to the strike. Historian and McParland biographer Beau Riffenburgh wrote that McParland's supposed connection with McLaughlin was the invention of sensational journalist George Shoaf and two colleagues at the Kansas socialist publication ''Appeal to Reason''. Shoaf hated McParland passionately for working undercover in the employ of rich capitalists, and launched an "all-out smear campaign" connecting McParland with McLaughlin. Riffenburgh noted that following McLaughlin's trial, two witnesses were convicted of perjury and McLaughlin's lawyer was disbarred, but the report of the three-member commission appointed by the court to investigate the perjury contained no mention of McParland. Riffenburgh concluded:
In a series of outrageous yarns, Shoaf created a story of McParland's involvement at McLaughlin's Grand Central Hotel including cleverly expanding their supposed relationship to include more illegal and immoral activities by McParland. Unfortunately, even though there is no indication of truth in Shoaf's stories, they have occasionally been accepted as accurate.
More than two decades later, McParland would be interrogated about his time in Parsons while under cross-examination by attorney Edmund Richardson. This occurred during the first of three murder trials of Steve Adams, this one taking place in
Wallace, Idaho Wallace, Idaho is a city in and the county seat of Shoshone County, Idaho, in the Silver Valley mining district of the Idaho Panhandle. Founded in 1884, Wallace sits alongside the South Fork of the Coeur d'Alene River (and Interstate 90), appro ...
. Immediately after the questioning, the attorney and the detective had a verbal confrontation in the courtroom. An
Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...
writer wrote that spectators cheered the attorney, and hissed McParland. The detective later argued that the newspaper reporter must have been bribed to write such a story.


Criminal detection

In
Columbus, Kansas Columbus is the second largest city and county seat of Cherokee County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 2,929. It is located approximately 15 miles south-southwest of Pittsburg. History The first ...
, McParland discovered a conspiracy to dynamite Cherokee County's records vault to hide fraudulent mortgages. McParland helped convict train robbe
Oliver Curtis Perry
He helped to apprehend a criminal who committed the largest
bullion Bullion is non-ferrous metal that has been refined to a high standard of elemental purity. The term is ordinarily applied to bulk metal used in the production of coins and especially to precious metals such as gold and silver. It comes from t ...
theft in U.S. history – $320,000 in gold from a
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
smelting company.


McParland in Colorado

In 1885, the Thiel Detective Agency opened an office in
Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
. Allan Pinkerton, who had died two years earlier, left the Pinkerton Detective Agency to his sons. The brothers opened their fourth office in Denver in order to compete with Thiel. They assigned Charles O. Eames to head the Denver office. When it appeared that Eames was running the western branch dishonestly, they assigned McParland to investigate. McParland discovered extensive abuses against clients and against the agency, and reported on them. Everyone was fired except for McParland and
Charlie Siringo Charles Angelo Siringo (February 7, 1855 – October 18, 1928) was an American lawman, detective, bounty hunter, and agent for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Early life Siringo was born on ...
. McParland was named superintendent of Pinkerton's Denver office, and of the Pinkerton's western division. In April 1891, Mrs. Josephine Barnaby was murdered by poison. McParland tricked Thomas Thatcher Graves, her accused murderer, into traveling from
Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...
, to Denver where he was arrested and convicted of the crime. McParland hired gunman
Tom Horn Thomas Horn Jr., (November 21, 1860 – November 20, 1903) was an American scout, cowboy, soldier, range detective, and Pinkerton agent in the 19th-century and early 20th-century American Old West. Believed to have committed 17 killings as a ...
(later executed for murder in
Wyoming Wyoming () is a U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the south ...
), who, while working for Pinkerton killed seventeen men, according to a count by Siringo. While Horn had been working for Wyoming cattlemen, "it was the cattle interests who decreed that he must die", probably to keep him from talking. One of McParland's tasks was infiltrating and disrupting union activities. He successfully placed numerous spies within the
Western Federation of Miners The Western Federation of Miners (WFM) was a trade union, labor union that gained a reputation for militancy in the mining#Human Rights, mines of the western United States and British Columbia. Its efforts to organize both hard rock miners and ...
(WFM) union, and more into the
United Mine Workers The United Mine Workers of America (UMW or UMWA) is a North American labor union best known for representing coal miners. Today, the Union also represents health care workers, truck drivers, manufacturing workers and public employees in the Unit ...
. Some of McParland's agents took part in the WFM strike that came to be called the
Colorado Labor Wars The Colorado Labor Wars were a series of labor strikes in 1903 and 1904 in the U.S. state of Colorado, by gold and silver miners and mill workers represented by the Western Federation of Miners (WFM). Opposing the WFM were associations of mi ...
. One in particular was charged with
sabotaging Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. One who engages in sabotage is a ''saboteur''. Saboteurs typically try to conceal their identitie ...
the union's relief program during the strike.
Bill Haywood William Dudley "Big Bill" Haywood (February 4, 1869 – May 18, 1928) was an American labor organizer and founding member and leader of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and a member of the executive committee of the Socialist Party of A ...
, 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 icwas 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.


The Steunenberg assassination

In 1899, Idaho Governor
Frank Steunenberg Frank Steunenberg (August 8, 1861December 30, 1905) was the fourth governor of the State of Idaho, serving from 1897 until 1901. He was assassinated in 1905 by one-time union member Harry Orchard, who was also a paid informant for the Cripple C ...
crushed a rebellion of miners during a labor dispute in Coeur d'Alene. On December 30, 1905, Steunenberg, five years out of office, opened the side gate of the picket fence at his house in Caldwell, which set off an explosive device that took his life. A man using the name Tom Hogan had set the bomb; he was born Albert Horsley but best known as
Harry Orchard Albert Edward Horsley (March 18, 1866 – April 13, 1954), best known by the pseudonym Harry Orchard, was a miner convicted of the 1905 political assassination of former Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg. The case was one of the most sensational an ...
. 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. Idaho Governor Frank Gooding was persuaded to approve the request, and Pinkerton agent McParland soon arrived to lead the investigation. McParland announced his suspicion that Orchard was "the tool of others." 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." McParland had Orchard transferred from the Caldwell, Idaho jail to death row in the
Boise Boise (, , ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho and is the county seat of Ada County. On the Boise River in southwestern Idaho, it is east of the Oregon border and north of the Nevada border. The downtown area's ...
penitentiary. 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 reportedly opposed the move as well. 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. On death row, Orchard was placed under a constant watch, and his food rations were cut. He was incarcerated next to two death row inmates who were awaiting execution themselves. Relays of guards watched him night and day, but never spoke to him. The three-day wait turned into nine days. 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. 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 The Molly Maguires were an Irish 19th-century secret society active in Ireland, Liverpool and parts of the Eastern United States, best known for their activism among Irish-American and Irish immigrant coal miners in Pennsylvania. After a seri ...
cases. McParland claimed "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". McParland 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. In 1899 Orchard was 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 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. McParland had
Western Federation of Miners The Western Federation of Miners (WFM) was a trade union, labor union that gained a reputation for militancy in the mining#Human Rights, mines of the western United States and British Columbia. Its efforts to organize both hard rock miners and ...
leaders
Bill Haywood William Dudley "Big Bill" Haywood (February 4, 1869 – May 18, 1928) was an American labor organizer and founding member and leader of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and a member of the executive committee of the Socialist Party of A ...
,
Charles Moyer Charles H. "Charlie" Moyer (1866 – June 2, 1929) was an American labor leader and president of the Western Federation of Miners (WFM) from 1902 to 1926. He led the union through the Colorado Labor Wars, was accused of murdering an ex-govern ...
, and
George Pettibone George A. Pettibone (May 1862 – August 3, 1908) was an Idaho miner. Pettibone was best known as a defendant in trial of three leaders of the Western Federation of Miners for the 1905 assassination by bombing of Frank Steunenberg, former governo ...
arrested in Colorado. In his book ''Roughneck'', writer Peter Carlson wrote that the extradition papers falsely claimed that the three men had been present at Steunenberg's murder. Carlson described the arrest across state lines as a "kidnapping scheme." However, under Idaho law, conspirators were considered to be present at the scene of the crime. The extradition was done with the cooperation and involvement of the Colorado authorities, and was later upheld by the US Supreme Court, with one dissent.


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." McParland placed a spy, "Operative 21", on the defense team. The spy operated as a jury canvasser, and may have been instructed to provide the defense with erroneous reports of the preferences of potential jurors. However, the spy was discovered. McParland sought to bolster Orchard's testimony by forcing another WFM miner, Steve Adams, to turn state's evidence. McParland used the same method for eliciting a confession from Adams as he had on Orchard: he told Adams he was merely a "tool," and told him he "would be forgiven his sins," if he confessed. With his wife and children also confined in the Idaho prison, allegedly for their own protection, Adams signed a confession, then later recanted. McParland sought leverage over Adams to force him to re-affirm the confession. Charges against Adams for several murders resulted in two hung juries and one acquittal. As a result of Adams' first trial, in which he was defended by attorneys
Clarence Darrow Clarence Seward Darrow (; April 18, 1857 – March 13, 1938) was an American lawyer who became famous in the early 20th century for his involvement in the Leopold and Loeb murder trial and the Scopes "Monkey" Trial. He was a leading member of t ...
and Edmund F. Richardson, details of McParland's coercive treatment of witnesses when seeking a confession were revealed on the witness stand. McParland had contracted to provide Pinkerton services for
Bulkeley Wells Bulkeley Wells (March 10, 1872–1931), also spelled Buckeley Wells, was an American businessperson involved in mining. Born in Chicago to businessman Samuel Edgar Wells and Marry Agnes Bulkeley, Wells was educated at Roxbury Latin School and ...
, the president and manager of the Smuggler-Union Mining Company in
Telluride, Colorado Telluride is the county seat and most populous town of San Miguel County in the southwestern portion of the U.S. state of Colorado. The town is a former silver mining camp on the San Miguel River in the western San Juan Mountains. The first ...
. Together with Wells and others, McParland planned to have Adams charged with involvement after-the-fact in the murder of mine bricklayer William J. Barney, who had disappeared one week after accepting the position as a guard at the Smuggler-Union mine. There was one difficulty with the accusation: William J. Barney hadn't been murdered; in fact, he was very much alive. McParland tried to turn conspiracy defendant Moyer against co-defendants 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. A slightly different scheme was tried to split the trio, but Moyer didn't take the bait. At the Haywood trial, which was funded, in part, by direct contributions from the Ceour d'Alene District
Mine Owners' Association In the United States, a Mine Owners' Association (MOA), also sometimes referred to as a Mine Operators' Association or a Mine Owners' Protective Association, is the combination of individual mining companies, or groups of mining companies, into an a ...
to prosecuting attorneys, the only evidence against the WFM leader was Harry Orchard's testimony. Orchard confessed to acting as a paid informant for the
Mine Owners' Association In the United States, a Mine Owners' Association (MOA), also sometimes referred to as a Mine Operators' Association or a Mine Owners' Protective Association, is the combination of individual mining companies, or groups of mining companies, into an a ...
He reportedly told a companion, G.L. Brokaw, that he had been a Pinkerton employee for some time. and a bigamist. He admitted to abandoning wives in Canada and Cripple Creek. He had burned businesses for the insurance money in Cripple Creek and Canada. Orchard had burglarized a railroad depot, rifled a cash register, stolen sheep, and had made plans to kidnap children over a debt. He also sold fraudulent insurance policies. 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. The original confession was never made public. but a more comprehensive version released in 1907 included many pages of incriminating allegations. Although at first his testimony on the witness stand in the Bill Haywood trial seemed plausible, the defense pointed out some significant contradictions. Orchard claimed his instructions came from Haywood and Moyer, but the authors of ''The Pinkerton Story'' observe: The defense called two surprise witnesses –
Morris Friedman Morris Friedman was, until 1905,Anthony Lukas, Big Trouble, 1997, page 687. the private stenographer for Pinkerton detective James McParland. Friedman came to the attention of the public when he published an exposé of anti-union actions by the pr ...
, McParland's private stenographer until 1905, who testified about Pinkerton's practices of infiltration and sabotage of the WFM; and McParland's brother, Edward, who had been a shoemaker in the Cripple Creek District during the
Colorado Labor Wars The Colorado Labor Wars were a series of labor strikes in 1903 and 1904 in the U.S. state of Colorado, by gold and silver miners and mill workers represented by the Western Federation of Miners (WFM). Opposing the WFM were associations of mi ...
. Edward testified that he had been working at his cobbler's bench in Victor when national guardsmen: The appearance of his brother Edward was intended "simply to embarrass" the detective, for it recounted "the imperial style of the Peabody administration in Colorado, with which McParland and the Pinkertons had been closely associated." The majority of jurors in the Haywood trial found Orchard not to be a credible witness, 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. Pettibone was also acquitted. Charges against Moyer were dropped. After the cases against the WFM leaders failed, Orchard was tried alone for Steunenberg's murder, was found guilty, and was sentenced to death. However, the sentence was commuted to life, and he lived out the rest of his life in his prison bungalow.


Competitive practices

McParland was a rival to Wilson S. Swain, northwestern manager of the Thiel Detective Agency. During the Stuenenberg investigation, Swain set up shop in Caldwell, Idaho, intimating to county authorities and to the governor that he'd been hired by the mine owners to investigate the crime. When he later presented his bill to the Canyon County Commissioners, they felt that they had been conned. Meanwhile, McParland was interviewed for the investigation by the governor. McParland sought to further undermine the competition:
cParlandnever lost an opportunity to remind daho GovernorGooding that Swain had committed a "cold-blooded murder" on Denver's Larimer Street twenty years before. More often he worked surreptitiously, passing stories he knew would be repeated, impugning Swain's investigative skills, ridiculing his minions, suggesting
wain A wagon or waggon is a heavy four-wheeled vehicle pulled by draught animals or on occasion by humans, used for transporting goods, commodities, agricultural materials, supplies and sometimes people. Wagons are immediately distinguished from ...
was in league with the estern Federation of Miners He'd taken care of Swain all right, he told his superiors, "but done it in such a way that I am not suspected."
The rivalry was significant because, while the Pinkerton agency was associated with Colorado's mine owners, the Thiel agency had been closely tied to Idaho's mine owners. With the subsequent dismissal of the Thiel agency, Colorado's mine owners gained control of the Idaho investigation.


Allegations

When "The Cowboy Detective"
Charlie Siringo Charles Angelo Siringo (February 7, 1855 – October 18, 1928) was an American lawman, detective, bounty hunter, and agent for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Early life Siringo was born on ...
wrote his memoirs about working for the Pinkerton Agency, he accused McParland of ordering him to commit voter fraud in the re-election attempt of Colorado Governor James Peabody.
Charles A. Siringo, a Pinkerton who had worked for more than twenty years as an operative, detective, and spy, and McParland's personal bodyguard in Idaho, declared the agency "corrupt". [His 1915 book charged the Pinkertons with election fraud, jury tampering, fabricated confessions, false witnesses, bribery, intimidation, and hiring killers for its clients ... Documents and time sustained many of his assertions ...]
The Pinkerton Agency suppressed Siringo's books, in one case with an accusation of libel. MaryJoy Martin, author of ''The Corpse On Boomerang Road'' wrote:
McParland would stop at nothing to take down nions such as the Western Federation of Minersbecause he believed his authority came from "Divine Providence". To Carry out God's Will meant he was free to break laws and lie until every man he judged evil was hanging on the gallows. Since his days in Pennsylvania he was comfortable lying under oath. In the Haywood and Adams trials, he often lied, even claiming he had never joined the Ancient Order of Hibernians. Documents showed he had.


Death

McParland died on 18 May 1919 in Denver's Mercy Hospital. He left a widow, Mary, but no children. MaryJoy Martin wrote:
The ''Denver Post'', ''Rocky Mountain News'', and the ''Denver Catholic Register'' filled columns in tribute, recounting his Molly Maguire tales and Harry Orchard triumph, tucking in fiction and numerous lies along the way. It mattered little, since the man had become a legend.


See also

*
Anti-union violence Anti-union violence is physical force intended to harm union officials, union organizers, union members, union sympathizers, or their families. It is most commonly used either during union organizing efforts, or during strikes. The aim most often ...
For Molly Maguires history: *
Molly Maguires The Molly Maguires were an Irish 19th-century secret society active in Ireland, Liverpool and parts of the Eastern United States, best known for their activism among Irish-American and Irish immigrant coal miners in Pennsylvania. After a seri ...
*
Franklin B. Gowen Franklin Benjamin Gowen (February 9, 1836 – December 13, 1889) served as president of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad (commonly referred to as the Reading Railroad) in the 1870s/80s. He is identified with the undercover infiltration an ...
For western mine wars: *
Harry Orchard Albert Edward Horsley (March 18, 1866 – April 13, 1954), best known by the pseudonym Harry Orchard, was a miner convicted of the 1905 political assassination of former Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg. The case was one of the most sensational an ...
, convicted WFM murderer of former Idaho governor *
Frank Steunenberg Frank Steunenberg (August 8, 1861December 30, 1905) was the fourth governor of the State of Idaho, serving from 1897 until 1901. He was assassinated in 1905 by one-time union member Harry Orchard, who was also a paid informant for the Cripple C ...
, murdered ex-governor of Idaho * Steve Adams, accused WFM accomplice *
Charles Moyer Charles H. "Charlie" Moyer (1866 – June 2, 1929) was an American labor leader and president of the Western Federation of Miners (WFM) from 1902 to 1926. He led the union through the Colorado Labor Wars, was accused of murdering an ex-govern ...
, WFM union leader accused of conspiracy to murder *
George Pettibone George A. Pettibone (May 1862 – August 3, 1908) was an Idaho miner. Pettibone was best known as a defendant in trial of three leaders of the Western Federation of Miners for the 1905 assassination by bombing of Frank Steunenberg, former governo ...
, WFM union supporter accused of conspiracy to murder * Frank R. Gooding, Idaho Governor during Steunenberg murder and trials *
Charlie Siringo Charles Angelo Siringo (February 7, 1855 – October 18, 1928) was an American lawman, detective, bounty hunter, and agent for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Early life Siringo was born on ...
, Pinkerton agent and hired gunman *
Coeur d'Alene, Idaho labor confrontation of 1899 The Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, labor riot of 1899 was the second of two major labor-management confrontations in the Coeur d'Alene mining district of northern Idaho in the 1890s. Like the first incident seven years earlier, the 1899 confrontation w ...
, one alleged reason for the Steunenberg murder


Notes


References


Bibliography

*Kenny, Kevin. ''Making Sense of the Molly Maguires'' (1998). . * * * * * * *


External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:McParland, James 1844 births 1919 deaths Date of birth missing Private detectives and investigators Pinkerton (detective agency) Irish emigrants to the United States (before 1923) Labor detectives People from County Armagh