The Church,
the better class of Irishmen, and the Hibernians, however, were
shocked by the doings of the Molly Maguires and utterly disowned them.
They began their career of blackmail and bullying by sending threats
and death notices embellished with crude drawings of coffins and
pistols to those against whom they fancied they had a grievance,
usually the mine boss or an unpopular foreman. If the recipient did
not heed the threat, he was waylaid and beaten and his family was
abused. By the time of the Civil War these bullies had terrorized the
entire anthracite region. Through their political influence they
elected sheriffs and constables, chiefs of police and county
commissioners. As they became bolder, they substituted arson and
murder for threats and bullying, and they made life intolerable by
their reckless brutality. It was impossible to convict them, for the
hatred against an informer, inbred in every Irishman through
generations of experience in Ireland, united with fear in keeping
competent witnesses from the courts. Finally the president of one of
the large coal companies employed James McParlan, a remarkably clever
Irish detective. He joined the Mollies, somehow eluded their
suspicions, and slowly worked his way into their confidence. An
unusually brutal and cowardly murder in 1875 proved his opportunity.
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