![]() 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. The Pinkertons of the Nevada Civil War Volunteers are also members of the Nevada Gunfighters, and proudly portray one of the most progressive law enforcement agencies in history.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. The law states that an "individual employed by the Pinkerton Detective Agency, or similar organization, may not be employed by the Government of the United States or the government of the District of Columbia." Pinkerton's National Detective Agency ceased working for the Federal Government in 1893, after passage of the Anti-Pinkerton Act. By the early 1890s, Pinkerton’s National Detective Agency had 2,000 active agents and 30,000 reserves causing the state of Ohio to outlaw the agency, due to the possibility of it being hired out as a “private army” or militia. ![]() The Pinkertons continued to serve the US Government, relentlessly pursuing outlaws such as Jesse James, the Dalton Brothers, and Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch. At the end of the war in 1866, the first recorded train robbery took place, and the Pinkertons were called to investigate. It was during this time that he recruited the first African American Union Intelligence Agent, John Schobell. ![]() For the duration of the war, Allan Pinkerton would serve as the head of the Union Intelligence Service-the forerunner of the United States Secret Service. In 1861, the Pinkerton Agency foiled an assassination plot against Abraham Lincoln, and guided him safely to his first inauguration.
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