Some weeks before the occurrence of part of the events narrated in the last chapter, McKenna had suffered from a severe illness, and for several weeks was under the constant care of an eminent physician, at Wilkesbarre, who succeeded in restoring him to comparatively good health, beside giving him back a fair sprinkling of hair for the adornment of his previously shining and denuded scalp. The capillary substance, which had formerly been of a yellow, or light hue, when reproduced was of a dark, glossy brown, adding considerably 463to his personal appearance. In fact, a number of his friends remarked that he was far more proud of the second than the first growth, because it made him more attractive to the ladies. However this may have been, when he again visited Tamaqua and gave further attention to Miss Higgins, it is true that he found more favor in her eyes than he had while sporting the red, straggling, and bushy wig. But he had little time in which to press his suit with Kerrigan's sister-in law, as Mrs. Kerrigan and her relatives were all industriously engaged in preparing testimony to prove the "Babe" innocent of crime. Inadvertently the sisters let fall hints, now and then, as to the course they were pursuing and the parties on whom they relied for making oath to Jimmy's whereabouts the day of the murder. Very naturally, these confidences were incorporated in the detective's reports, and, very naturally again, the prosecution was made aware of this and other portions of the line of defense to be adopted by the prisoners when brought to trial at Mauch Chunk.
Passing over a few weeks, during the expiration of which the Agency was employed in massing testimony in all the cases and placing it in good shape before the District Attorney, I now come to the first indictment of a Mollie Maguire, in this country, with a possible chance for ultimate conviction. This was on the eighteenth of January, 1876, at Mauch Chunk, Carbon County. The parties arraigned were Michael J. Doyle, of Mt. Laffee, Schuylkill County, and Edward Kelly, charged with the murder of John P. Jones. The circumstances of the crime have already been sufficiently detailed. At an earlier date the three murderers, Kelly, Doyle, and Kerrigan, had been jointly put on trial, entering the usual plea of "not guilty," and demanding a severance. The Commonwealth was represented by E. R. Siewers, Esq., the able District Attorney, Hon. F. W. Hughes, of Pottsville, Gen. Chas. Albright, of Mauch 464Chunk, and Hon. Allen Craig. For the defendant, Doyle, the Commonwealth choosing to try him first, appeared Hon. Lin. Bartholomew, Hon. J. B. Reilly, and John W. Ryon, of Pottsville, Daniel Kalbfus, Esq., and Edward Mulhearn, Esq., of Mauch Chunk. On the twenty-first of January a jury had been obtained, consisting of Wm. Bloss, Jonas Beck, Joel Strohl, Dan'l Boyer, jr., Dan'l Remaly, Abraham Henry, Levi West, Levi Straub, Henry Long, Peter Cushman, Thos. A. Williams and Drake H. Long. The trial at Mauch Chunk was well attended by all the celebrities of the Carbon County bar, much surprise being exhibited that at last there seemed a possibility that a Mollie might be convicted of a crime. Great efforts were made by the leaders of the clan to show that not one of the three men charged with the deed could possibly have been present at the killing of Jones, as they really were elsewhere, but their trouble and expense came to naught, from the effective work the detectives had performed and were performing. The witnesses, so confidently expected to appear, were for once abashed and afraid to take the stand. They knew they could not swear to a lie and go unpunished. The old and well tried alibi fell prostrate, no more to be resuscitated, it is to be hoped, in the criminal courts of the Commonwealth. Before the end of the cause, James Kerrigan, of Tamaqua, made known, in a proper way, to the prosecuting officer that he wanted to give State's testimony. After a careful consideration, he was accepted, placed before the court and made a confession about as follows:
"I live in Tamaqua and have been there six or seven years; am a man of family and work in the mines. I have known Alex. Campbell three or four years; met him first at Tamaqua, last September; he lived at Storm Hill and kept a tavern, selling whisky and porter. I did not know John Jones, but was acquainted with Michael Doyle and Edward Kelly. On the first of September last I had been working 465at Alaska Colliery, in Tamaqua, for Mr. Richards, and was returning home from work in the evening, when I went into the hotel, kept by James Carroll, to get a drink. Mr. Lutz, of Tamaqua, was there, also Doyle and Kelly. I was going out, when Carroll followed me to the porch, asking me if I would take those men, Doyle and Kelly, over to Alex. Campbell's, at Storm Hill. I told him I would have to go to work at 11 o'clock, but after he coaxed me I promised. He then made me acquainted with them and I went home to wash myself and get supper, returning at twenty minutes past seven P.M. (I left work at about half-past five P.M., that day.) The colliery was nearly a mile from Carroll's place. When I got back from the house Carroll treated twice and walked with us as far as Freidenburgh's, giving me instructions not to tell any one that might ask where we were going. At the New York depot we met Mr. and Mrs. Griffiths and I bade them good evening. We then walked on to Storm Hill and found Alex. Campbell there, and his little brother-in-law, a boy of fourteen, with him. Campbell called me outside, bidding me wait until he had put on his coat, when he would accompany us to McGehan's, at Storm Hill, first treating us at his own bar. He told his little brother-in-law to say, if any one inquired for him in his absence, that he had gone to a wake. As we went into McGehan's, two or three men were coming out; one I know is named Aubry and I think his given name is William. Alex. Campbell called for drinks and paid for them. Then he began to whisper, up by the bar. The next thing I observed was three revolvers. McGehan got them, and took the chambers out of two and began to oil them out of a can. After fixing them he gave one to Doyle and one to Kelly. Campbell handed one to me, but I refused and would not take it. He wanted me to go with the others and shoot John Jones, but I said I did not know him and would not go. They then agreed I should stay there that night and they 466would go with me to get work in the morning, as they wanted to see and recognize the boss.
"McGehan and Campbell were saying that John Jones had black-listed some men that had been working there, and McGehan was one of the three, another being named Marshall. Parish gave these men a letter to give John Jones and Zehner, to be reinstated, but they ordered the men away from the office, saying there was no work for them. Campbell said if Jones was shot Zehner would then run away. McGehan said: 'By G——, if he does not cool off, after this, we'll give him a ball!' McGehan said he was black-listed at Judd's, also, and there were two men there that he wanted put out of the way, B. Marble and John Turner.
"We started from McGehan's at seven A.M., and came down to the Catholic church and on the rto Micky O'Donnel's tavern, passing Micky at the depot, and went up the railrto Number Six, where Doyle went into a blacksmith's shop and Kelly and I went up to a house above, where we asked a woman if she sold anything. Doyle afterward came up and we got a bowl of milk.
"We then went up to a Mrs. Davis, and finding she sold porter, called for three bottles; she asked Doyle where we came from, and he told her Shenandoah. Then she gave us tea and a good meal. We went out to the slope to look for work, but leaving Doyle and Kelly, I went to McGehan's; still they could not see the boss, so came back and met me. They failed again to find Jones, and about six P.M. we all went to Alex. Campbell's, McGehan carrying the pistols. As a wagon was passing I wanted to go home on it, as I told them my wife would think me lost, but Campbell would not let me. Campbell treated us, on arriving at his bar, and after supper I again wished to start for home, but Campbell objected, wishing me to go up with the others and shoot Jones at the house, as he would be coming from the post-office about that time. While Doyle and Kelly went, 467Campbell made me get down on my knees and promise never to tell or speak of the matter, drunk or sober. He then bade me go up and see where they were. I met them this side of Micky O'Donnel's, and Doyle was sitting on a stone. Kelly said he had been into a house and asked if Jones was at home, and the person said he was not.
"On returning to Campbell's, this house was described to Alex., and he said it was Geo. Hooley's house, not Jones'. We stopped at Campbell's all that night, and they were fooling with the cartridges. Kelly said he would take Campbell's small revolver along in the morning, and shoot Jones as he was going to his work, and not let him off with one ball, but give him three or four. Michael Doyle had the old pistol and the black-jack, and Kelly had the other two. Campbell advised them they need not be a bit afraid, for no one would ever follow them, as Jones was not liked by the Welshmen or any one else. 'You can have this,' said Campbell, handing me a five dollar bill, 'and buy them some whisky and give them enough to pay their way home on the cars.' I gave the bill to my woman when I got to Tamaqua, and she got a pint of whisky of Mrs. Clark, who could not change the bill. I took the liquor out to them at the spring where we were arrested.
"Campbell told Doyle and Kelly to be sure not to be seen at Carroll's in the day-time, but to go in the night and leave the pistols there, and then go home on the cars in the morning. He also told them this the night Carroll came up the railr Then Doyle said: 'By G——, they are after us! There is Carroll!' and he started to run. I joined the society in Campbell's cellar, thinking it the A. O. H. A man named Donahue put me through. I did not know it was the Mollie Maguires until Barney O'Hare was burned out at Tuscarora. Slattery got and paid Alex. Campbell to send the men. I was at Campbell's when they started.
"I made this statement before Doyle's conviction. I 468received no reward from Campbell for showing the men the r and the five dollar bill which we could not change I have since sent my wife from the prison by Wallace.
"The order of Mollie Maguires is an organization to murder, and the men do not speak of their plans at the public meetings but the Bodymasters employ men to do the work for them."
After this, Mrs. Kerrigan turned against her husband and said he might hang. She would not raise her hand to save him.
During the trial, McKenna, who was in attendance, ostensibly as a spectator, but really to find out all he could, came across a man named Durkin, who told him he was ready, in the event that the Mollies were convicted, to blow up the court-house edifice, killing judges, jury, attorneys, officials, and innocent spectators, having procured a can of nitroglycerine, which he had safely deposited in a shop near at hand. The agent informed the desperado that he was very foolish to concoct such a plot, and would be still more silly should he endeavor to put it into operation, as he could make sure of being captured and strung up by the vigilance committee, to the nearest tree. As the attempt was never made, it is probable that the reckless fellow was sufficiently frightened and wisely decided to abandon the idea.
Kerrigan's confession having corroborated, in every important particular, the stories of the other State's witnesses, on the first of the ensuing February the jury returned a verdict of "guilty of murder in the first degree," and, on the twenty-second, the Court sentenced Michael Doyle to death. This was noteworthy as the earliest conviction and disposal of a real Mollie in Pennsylvania, and the news spread rapidly, far and wide, carrying consternation and dismay into the ranks of the organization and shocking the nerves of the leaders everywhere in the State. During the progress of the trial the Mollies had been bold 469and defiant, and many of their principal men were on the spot, expecting, as they expected to live, to witness the defendant's release. How deeply they were disappointed. McKenna was among the first to receive intelligence. He said that the unforeseen result had come upon the order like an earthquake in a quiet village. Everybody was dumbfounded.
Edward Kelly was placed at the bar before Judge Dreher, the twenty-ninth of the succeeding March, and although ably defended, met with a similar fate, a verdict of murder in the first degree having been returned by the jury on the twelfth of April following. Death-warrants were issued by the Governor in both cases, fixing the execution of Doyle for the third of May, and that of Kelly for the fourth of the same month. Writs of error in the Supreme Court, however, superseded the death-warrants, and all of the murderers of John P. Jones, and those implicated before and after the fact, at this date, are still unexecuted. In February, 1877, Edward Kelly made a voluntary confession, clearly showing that he had not been wrongfully charged or convicted, and substantiating the words of Kerrigan to the letter. He did not expect or ask for mercy, but, before dying, desired to purge himself of his crime, and was given the opportunity.
These cases failed in the Supreme Court, and in May, 1877, Gov. Hartranft signed the death-warrants, the executions to take place on the 21st of June following.
Returning to Shenandoah, after the adjournment of Carbon County Court, McKenna rejoined his friends, the Mollies, and silently acquiesced in the "sweet" prayers of all the organization for the "dear" judge and jury that had convicted one of their number. They were terribly mortified and annoyed through the failure of their plans, and were at a standstill.
Jerry Kane took the cue early, and fled from the country. 470Hurley preceded him, and the remainder, now fugitives from justice, stopped awhile to see the full result of the matter.
Barney Dolan, the great, at this time was outspoken against Kehoe, exclaiming in his mild way, that all the pending troubles came from the County Delegate's own inefficiency and unpardonable blundering. He added complacently that, had he been the incumbent of the office of County Delegate, it could never have occurred. He would have taken ten or twelve good men, marched to Mauch Chunk, captured the jail, and released the prisoners. Barney was allowed to have and enjoy his boast, but there were those present who thought even he might not have saved the defendants from conviction.
Kerrigan turning State's evidence was the most stunning blow the Mollies had thus far received, but they knew not, at the time, how much heavier strokes were yet in preparation to fall upon their villainous heads. Some of the tribe, Jack Kehoe included, would not believe the report that a Bodymaster, especially one who knew so much of the cruel crimes of the society as Kerrigan, had assumed the work of informer. He even went as far as to say that some of the State's officers—Capt. Linden very probably—had originated the story for the purpose of inviting a person to do just what they accused Jimmy Kerrigan of doing. He was more inclined to the thought that Ned Monaghan, who had been seen, he alleged, at a suspiciously late hour, coming out of the editorial rooms of the Shenandoah Herald, was engaged in the character of spy, and accused him of having inaugurated the movement by publishing the names of the chief Mollies. "At least," concluded King Jack, "somebody in Shenandoah is at the head of the game for injuring the organization, and I am determined to learn who it may be!"
At this juncture McKenna suggested that, to make his own work more effective, he might be arrested on a trumped-up charge of having been in some way connected with the Yost 471tragedy, after which, when incarcerated with other prisoners, he could safely form plans for learning all their secrets, and possibly obtain important confessions, in the presence and hearing of other witnesses, which would lead to new arrests and at least make sure the conviction of all that had been captured. Linden urged the same thing upon Mr. Franklin and we were about to arrange the scheme in accordance with the line indicated, when a series of startling events transpired, which concluded the chances for such work proving successful. The Mollies thought they had discovered who was the traitor in their ring.
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