But after tracking them to James' mother's farm in Missouri, the resulting standoff ended in tragedy. In 1875, Pinkerton decided to go after Jesse James and his gang. The Reno Gang were some of the first train robbers in the United States and in the late 1860s Allan Pinkerton chased down Frank Reno himself. As a result, they were denied a Christian burial. And according to Famous Trials, the trials against the Molly Maguires "fueled discrimination against Irish Americans and suspicion of the trade union movement, both of which lingered for decades."Īccording to Smithsonian Magazine, after the Civil War, the Pinkerton agency worked on a number of high-profile train and bank robberies and recovered hundreds of thousands of dollars. Public opinion was also heavily swayed against the Molly Maguires, and before their death, the condemned men were excommunicated by Philadelphia Bishop James Frederick Woods. However, despite the strike ending, the men were still forced by the mine owners to stand trial between 1875 to 1877 in order to "uncover alleged crimes committed by the Molly Maguires."ĭespite the fact that there was no evidence linking the men to the Molly Maguires and the trials provided no evidence that such a secret society even existed in the United States, 20 men were still sentenced to death by hanging. With his help, police arrested 60 miners under the accusation that they were part of the Molly Maguires and with the arrests the strike was defeated. Pinkerton also reportedly physically restrained two journalists in order to keep them from reporting their plan.Īccording to the Pennsylvania Center for the Book, a Pinkerton detective named James McParland, a native Irishman, claimed to have infiltrated the Molly Maguires. Pinkerton and his agents discovered that "conspirators, in league with members of the Baltimore police force, planned to assassinate Lincoln as he rode in an open carriage." But by arranging for the Harrisburg telegraph lines to be cut, Pinkerton was able to ensure that few heard of Lincoln's sudden departure from Pennsylvania back to Washington, D.C. ![]() Instead, he suggests that Scobell was a fictional character invented by Allan Pinkerton.Īlthough Pinkerton was known to exaggerate his exploits, he was in fact responsible for foiling an assassination attempt on Lincoln's life right before his first inauguration in 1861. However, in " The Myth of Ex-Slave Turned Civil War Spy John Scobell," Corey Recko claims there's little-to-no proof that Scobell ever existed. According to the Pinkerton website, one of the men recruited as a Union Intelligence officer was John Scobell, the first Black Union Intelligence officer who had been formerly enslaved in Mississippi.
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