The strike was yet in progress, in November, 1874, and the consequent want of work produced the very result anticipated—the Mollies were as active as a community of hornets whose nest a schoolboy has invaded with a club. There followed a number of sanguinary encounters, some of which terminated fatally. One of these, the shooting and subsequent death of Mr. George Major, Chief Burgess of Mahanoy City, transpired on Saturday, the 31st of October, in the year mentioned. McKenna was in Shenandoah at the time, but received early intelligence of the event. McAndrew, feeling very anxious to learn the full particulars, it was an easy matter to induce him to detail the operative and Chas. Hayes to go to the scene of the encounter and gather them. This they were willing to undertake, starting out from Shenandoah on the second of November.
The request of the Bodymaster formed a good excuse for McKenna, who had early been directed by Mr. Franklin to investigate the murder, to go to Mahanoy City. Without McAndrew's order, suspicion as to his calling might have been created among the Mollies of his division. It was all very proper, when the Secretary was known to have plenty of money, and little else to do, for him to chance around at localities where murders and other crimes had been perpetrated, but at this particular time he was putting on a sorry face, declaring that his income from rents had run several months behind, the county officers suspecting him of leaguing with counterfeiters—hence he could not safely get rid of his bogus currency—and, in fact, dressing very badly 232so that he would not be expected to have funds to expend in too many treats for his guzzling and expensive companions. Furnished with a safe cover, from which to carry on his observations, he at once commenced hunting up the facts connected with the shooting of Major.
The Chief Burgess, as that official—usually the Mayor of a town—is called in the State of Pennsylvania, was not yet dead, but could hardly be expected to live more than a day or two with a bullet resting in a vital part. Major had been shot through the left breast, two inches above the heart.
McKenna went to Clark's house, the known rendezvous of the Mollies, of which I shall have more to say hereafter, and, finding the proprietor alone, started a conversation with him. Clark was an old man, and not a member of the order, but his two sons were Mollies.
"An' how is it about the bit o' scrimmage ye had over here last Saturday?" commenced the operative.
"Oh! it's a bad affair altogether!" answered the landlord of the Emerald House.
"Who fired the shot that brought the Chief Burgess down?"
"That I can't, fur the life of me, tell! There's two stories about it; wan of them puts it on Dan Dougherty—but I belave him jist as innocent as the babe unborn—an' the other charges it on Major's own brother, William, hittin' him be mischance, when firing afther the Hibernian company's boys—for ye must know that the whole trouble came about thro' a quarrel between the Hibernian an' the Citizen fire companies. Wan is wholly made up of our countrymen, an' the other of Modocs—English, German, Welsh an' what not! I suppose ye know that?"
"Yes! But who started the row?"
"I am sure, from what I can learn, that Dougherty didn't! He never has a pistol about him! There was a bit o' fire, on the night, as ye must know, an' both companies was out, an 233we had considerable excitement, an' not a little whisky. Afther the fire, in comin' home, over the strate, the firemen got in a jangle, an' blows were being passed, when the Chief Burgess, Geo. Major, came out, flourished his revolver, and, during the confusion, shot a dog that was barkin' near by. This led to more shootin', an' some one in the crowd took off the Chief Burgess, an' Major's brother shot Dougherty, who has a bullet in the neck, below the left ear! Oh! it's a bad business! A bad business! Do you know, I am thinkin' no good can iver come of it?"
"Yes, a shockin' bad thing!" assented McKenna.
Finding that Clark really knew very little about the minuti, the operative, who had purposely separated from Hayes, went to see other friends, hoping to find some one who might be able to give him information.
Meeting Clark's brother, who was a Mollie, he accompanied him to Dougherty's house, which was only guarded by an old constable, named Litchenberger, who was too tipsy to do either good or harm. Several men were standing around, but the excitement seemed quietly subsiding, and there was little trouble in gaining permission to see the wounded man. They ascended to his room. The injured Mollie was slightly touched in the brain, and barely recognized his friends, but, turning over in bed, exhibited his hurt, which appeared to have been produced by a heavy, large-sized bullet. His left cheek and eye were greatly discolored and puffed up, the side of the neck being quite black. The ball still rested in the muscle, the surgeons thinking it unsafe, at that time, to probe for or attempt its removal. The visitors remained with Dougherty but a few moments, and then repaired to McCann's boarding-house, the landlady of which, at first, said the man inquired for had gone out, she did not know where; but, when the operative and Clark made themselves known by name, she changed her tune and cordially invited them upstairs. The person visited they 234found in bed, but not at all averse to conversation. This was satisfactory to the detective. McCann said these had been no disturbance whatever in the street when Chief Burgess, Major, fired the shot at him, and, before he, McCann, could catch the revolver and take it from him, he discharged three shots.
Hayes, who had joined the others, was anxious that James McCann should swear out a warrant for the arrest of Major, before he would die, charging him with an assault with a deadly weapon. That, he contended, would place McCann on the witness-stand and prevent him from being brought to the bar as a defendant. Others who were present desired McCann to make his escape. McKenna did not venture any suggestion. The general belief was that Major would die, and this was all in the case that gave the Mollies any satisfaction. They were united in protesting that Dougherty must remain where he was, saying that a removal to Pottsville, in his precarious condition, would be sure death for him.
The Chief Burgess succumbed to his wounds Tuesday, November 3, and received burial, with suitable honors, the ensuing day. Dougherty was still unable to be removed, when the operative, having obtained all the information possible, returned with Hayes to Shenandoah, and reported to the division the issue of his trip. He had previously sent Mr. Franklin daily bulletins of his inquiries and their results.
Dougherty was subsequently moved to Pottsville, where he recovered, had his trial, and was acquitted.
Mike Lawler now managed to attach himself once more to the order, having been received by Wm. Callaghan, Bodymaster, into his division at Mahanoy Plane. Lawler still maintained friendly relations with McKenna, despite his aversion to the Shenandoah Mollies, as a body, and one day visited the Secretary in company with Callaghan, who chanced to be in the city on personal business. While the 235three were together, walking leisurely over the mountain, Muff related, with much particularity, a circumstance occurring some eighteen months before. Two Mollies named Doyle, brothers, residing at Jackson's Patch, had recently been attacked and beaten by Sheet Irons. The Mollies had a meeting among themselves and deliberately prepared a scheme to wreak terrible vengeance upon the whole community at the Patch in question. The idea was to burn down every building, after midnight, when all the inhabitants were sleeping, having the torch applied almost simultaneously over the entire place. Afterward the Mollies, well armed with guns and revolvers, were to stand closely guarding the blazing houses, and whenever any—man, woman, or child—attempted to escape, deliberately shoot him or her down. Not one was to be spared to tell the tale. The division went so far, even, as to appoint the night on which this dastardly outrage was to be perpetrated. They convened in Shenandoah for the business, but Lawler—so he claimed—assisted by Callaghan, managed to get up a discussion on another subject, thus diverting the attention of the ringleaders, and they forgot what they had gathered for, adjourning at too late an hour for their purpose, thus postponing operations until a future time. Finally the job was abandoned. Lawler and Callaghan accorded great credit to themselves in having, at the risk of their own lives, saved the unsuspecting inhabitants of Jackson Patch, thus averting one of the most sickening wholesale assassinations that the heart of savage ever conceived. Through inquiries in the proper quarters, which the operative made, he was satisfied that the story he had listened to was not drawn from imagination. Previously aware of the fact that there were men in his division who, to secure revenge, or when under the excitement of enmity or drink, would perform deeds that might make angels weep, and throw the acts of the Indians in the shade, still he was shocked by this recital. He must 236perforce maintain friendly relations with these persons, drink of their liquor, share their orgies and listen to their blood-thirsty plans. It was no pleasant duty to perform.
The strike continued. It was not alone Luzerne County that was interested, but disaffection and desertion of works spread over the anthracite region. It was the intention of the Mollies and the Miners' and Laborers' Association that work should entirely cease. To this end those men who desired to labor for the support of their families were notified. If they failed to stop, they were beaten, or assassinated, and the hand that consummated the deed was hidden in the secret recesses of the hearts of the Mollie Maguires.
On the eighteenth of November McKenna obtained information that a number of outrages had occurred the preceding Saturday—denominated by the Miners' Journal, of Pottsville, as "a horrible day."
In the first instance, a man named Pat Padden was discovered in the streets of Carbondale, dead, with two bullet holes in his skull.
Secondly, Michael McNally was mysteriously murdered in the same locality, and found with his throat cut from ear to ear, and body otherwise mutilated.
"There the inhuman wretches prepared to leave him to die."
In another part of the county, a man, whose name was not learned, had been come upon by some farmers, nearly dead, in a most but painful predicament. It seems he had refused to give heed to the notices the Mollies gave him; was one night taken from his home, carried to the mountains, and thence to a deep morass, where there was nothing surrounding them but water, high trees with branches closely interlocked, and fallen timber. There the inhuman monsters prepared to leave him to die a slow death by starvation. Iron spikes were driven through his coat sleeves, tight to the wrist, the man lying upon his back lengthwise of a solid pine log, the arms bent backward so 237as to form the shape of a cross; then his feet were similarly pinned to the log with the strongest nails. Making sure, as they supposed, that there was no possibility he would escape, the Mollies deserted the place, first having put a gag in his mouth, which they thought he would be unable to remove. For nearly three days, and two horrid, long nights, their victim remained thus secured, praying, at last, for death to relieve him from tortures of hunger and thirst and the dreaded attacks of stinging insects and fierce wild animals. Happily he at last succeeded in releasing the fastenings of the gag, the block of wood fell out, and he made the air resound, about noon of the third day, with his loud and repeated shouts for aid, which were heard by two German woodmen, who at once sought out the cause of the noise. They soon found the man, at once relieved him, and gave him, sparingly at first, food from their well-stored lunch pails. Water was also procured, and in a few hours the victim of the Mollies found himself strong enough to be removed. For some weeks he was a raving maniac and could not tell who he was, where he came from, or the cause of his punishment. When his senses returned he possessed no knowledge of the parties who had perpetrated the outrage. He emigrated from the coal mines, as soon as well enough, and said he "would rather starve in a civilized community than fare sumptuously in a place inhabited by brutes in human form."
Still another. A mining boss, name not heard, but connected with the Erie Breaker, was set upon, beaten, and left for dead, with one of his arms broken.
And another. One Michael Kenny, not a Mollie Maguire, was murdered at Scranton, Luzerne County, and his mangled remains thrown down a steep embankment, where it was supposed they would forever remain undiscovered, but accident revealed their hiding-place. They were encoffined and given burial. The assassins were not known.
238The men at Carbon were nearly all Irish and Welsh, the former mostly Mollies, and there were no members of the Sheet Irons supposed to be in the neighborhood.
The miners still refused any reduction from the basis on which they were laboring when the strike was inaugurated. Some were working, but all expected to suspend by the beginning of the New Year.
An event which made the detective's very blood boil, and still one in which he could not interfere, furnishes the cap sheaf of this array of horrors. It transpired at Fowler's Patch, east of Shenandoah, a little later in the month, and the actors in it were Chas. Hayes, Dan Kelly—called also Manus Kull and "the Bum"—and Ed. Lawler, members of McKenna's own division. They were out on a spree until four in the morning, when they went to the house of a poor old woman, named Downey, who kept a she-been-shop, roused her from her sleep, and, after drinking, robbed her of her money—which was but a small sum—and then forced her to join them in finishing their orgies. They were finally all very drunk, and Kelly took a pail and proceeded to fill it from the landlady's whisky barrel, which sat in a corner, across two large rocks, and the woman interfered. Kelly, at this, had his fiercest passions aroused, and, fired by the liquor, was ready for anything. The woman still resisting, he raised her in his arms, being a muscular and powerful man, carried her bodily to the almost red-hot stove and threw her upon it, face downward, and was holding her there, despite her frantic struggles and loud cries, to be roasted and burned to death, when Hayes came to the rescue, struck Kelly under the ear, knocked him down, and liberated the badly injured old lady. Her hands and face were shriveled, broiled in deep, large patches, and there is no doubt that, had she not been taken off the stove by Hayes, she would have been killed. As it was, she had to remain in bed, and for weeks was not able to sit up. Still no arrests were made.
"He carried her to the almost red-hot cook stove, and threw her upon it."
239Kelly challenged Hayes to fight him, for intermeddling with an affair that, he said, belonged entirely to him, and they walked out in the highway, just at daybreak, all by themselves, the old woman still writhing and screaming with pain, and fought ten rounds, Hayes, though a much lighter man than his antagonist, giving Kelly a severe pummeling and coming out ahead in almost every contest, until Kelly gave it up.
Before they left, however, Kelly visited his intended victim, and, striking his fist in her very face, said, with an oath:
"It's about your time! I'll burn your accursed body up yet! So look out!"
He would have set fire to the building and executed the threat, at the moment, only Hayes insisted that he should leave her, which he did. Hayes sent a physician to the woman's house immediately. He found its sole occupant incapable of answering a single question. The little mind the woman had was for the time quite distracted, and the floor on fire, from the upsetting of the stove. Had she been left alone half an hour longer she and her house would have been reduced to ashes.
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