“People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.”
―
James McParland in 1907
McParland's legend rode in on backs of Labor
James McParland, one the earliest private eyes in the public view, considered his work to be “a life and death struggle” of good Americans against “the blight” of subversive, radical unionists. He said so, to George Bangs, in Denver, December 5, 1908, according Pinkerton records.In his lifetime, he managed high profile cases in Union vs. Labor conflicts in the East including the Molly Maguires, and later in the mountain West, ranging from the "Butch Cassidy" file (and others belonging to the gang known later as the Wild Bunch), to "Mad Bomber of Cripple Creek," and the assassination of former Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg.
He was born in Ireland in 1843 and worked as a stock clerk, farm worker and circus barker before leaving from Liverpool to New York in 1867. He then lived in Chicago and ran a store selling booze. After a fire destroyed his business in 1871, he joined the Pinkerton Detective Agency.
Molly Maguires
McParland first came to national attention when, as an undercover operative using the name James McKenna, he infiltrated and helped to dismantle an organization of activist Pennsylvania coal miners called the Molly Maguires. During the 1870s, miners in the region of the anthracite mines lived a life of "bitter, terrible struggle." Wages were low, working conditions were atrocious, and deaths and serious injuries numbered in the hundreds each year. Conditions were certainly ripe for labor unrest:
Labor angrily watched "railway directors (riding) about the country in luxurious private cars proclaiming their inability to pay living wages to hungry working men."
The Molly Maguires were Irish Catholic when there was frequent prejudice against such persons. It was a time of rampant beatings and murders in mining districts, some committed by the Mollies.
Franklin B. Gowen, the President of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, and of the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company, "the wealthiest anthracite coal mine owner in the world", hired Allan Pinkerton's services to deal with the Molly Maguires. Pinkerton assigned McParland to the job. McParland successfully infiltrated the secret organization, becoming a secretary for one of its local groups. McParland turned in reports daily, eventually collecting evidence of murder plots and intrigue, passing this information along to Benjamin Franklin, his Pinkerton manager. He also began working secretly with Robert Linden, a Pinkerton agent assigned to the Coal and Iron Police for the purpose of coordinating the eventual arrest and prosecution of members of the Molly Maguires.
On Dec. 10, 1876, three men and two women with Molly connections were attacked in their house by masked men. One woman in the house, wife of one of the Molly Maguires, was taken outside and shot dead. McParland was outraged that the information he had been providing had found its way into the hands of killers.
To give McParland some credit, he protested in a letter to his bosses at Pinkerton:
"Now I wake up this morning to find that I am the murderer of Mrs. McAlister. What had a woman to do with the case – did the [Molly Maguires] in their worst time shoot down women. If I was not here the Vigilante Committee would not know who was guilty and when I find them shooting women in their thirst for blood I hereby tender my resignation to take effect as soon as this message is received. It is not cowardice that makes me resign but just let them have it now I will no longer interfere as I see that one is the same as the other and I am not going to be an accessory to the murder of women and children. I am sure the (Molly Maguires) will not spare the women so long as the Vigilante has shown an example."
McParland was prevailed upon not to resign. Frank Winrich, a first lieutenant with the Pennsylvania State Militia, was arrested as the leader of the attackers, but was released on bail. Then another Molly Maguire, Hugh McGehan, a 21-year-old who had been secretly identified as a killer by McParland, was fired upon and wounded by unknown assailants. Later, the McGehans' home was attacked by gunfire.
Eventually enough evidence was collected on reprisal killings and assassinations that arrests could be made and, based primarily on McParland's testimony, 10 Molly Maguires were sent to the gallows. Some writers declare unequivocally that justice was done. Others have argued that, "... punishment had gone too far, and that the guilt of some of the condemned was that of association more than participation and but half established by other condemned men seeking clemency for themselves."
Joseph G. Rayback, author of A History of American Labor, has observed:
The charge has been made that the Molly Maguires episode was deliberately manufactured by the coal operators with the express purpose of destroying all vestiges of unionism in the area ... There is some evidence to support the charge ... the "crime wave" that appeared in the anthracite fields came after the appearance of the Pinkertons, and ... many of the victims of the crimes were union leaders and ordinary miners. The evidence brought against [the defendants], supplied by James McParlan, a Pinkerton, and corroborated by men who were granted immunity for their own crimes, was tortuous and contradictory, but the net effect was damning ... The trial temporarily destroyed the last vestiges of labor unionism in the anthracite area. More important, it gave the public the impression ... that miners were by nature criminal in character ...
"Now I wake up this morning to find that I am the murderer of Mrs. McAlister. What had a woman to do with the case – did the [Molly Maguires] in their worst time shoot down women. If I was not here the Vigilante Committee would not know who was guilty and when I find them shooting women in their thirst for blood I hereby tender my resignation to take effect as soon as this message is received. It is not cowardice that makes me resign but just let them have it now I will no longer interfere as I see that one is the same as the other and I am not going to be an accessory to the murder of women and children. I am sure the (Molly Maguires) will not spare the women so long as the Vigilante has shown an example."
McParland was prevailed upon not to resign. Frank Winrich, a first lieutenant with the Pennsylvania State Militia, was arrested as the leader of the attackers, but was released on bail. Then another Molly Maguire, Hugh McGehan, a 21-year-old who had been secretly identified as a killer by McParland, was fired upon and wounded by unknown assailants. Later, the McGehans' home was attacked by gunfire.
Eventually enough evidence was collected on reprisal killings and assassinations that arrests could be made and, based primarily on McParland's testimony, 10 Molly Maguires were sent to the gallows. Some writers declare unequivocally that justice was done. Others have argued that, "... punishment had gone too far, and that the guilt of some of the condemned was that of association more than participation and but half established by other condemned men seeking clemency for themselves."
Joseph G. Rayback, author of A History of American Labor, has observed:
The charge has been made that the Molly Maguires episode was deliberately manufactured by the coal operators with the express purpose of destroying all vestiges of unionism in the area ... There is some evidence to support the charge ... the "crime wave" that appeared in the anthracite fields came after the appearance of the Pinkertons, and ... many of the victims of the crimes were union leaders and ordinary miners. The evidence brought against [the defendants], supplied by James McParlan, a Pinkerton, and corroborated by men who were granted immunity for their own crimes, was tortuous and contradictory, but the net effect was damning ... The trial temporarily destroyed the last vestiges of labor unionism in the anthracite area. More important, it gave the public the impression ... that miners were by nature criminal in character ...
James McParland
In 1885, the Thiel Detective Agency opened an office in Denver. Allan Pinkerton, who had died two years earlier, left the Pinkerton Detective Agency to his sons. The brothers opened their fourth office in Denver in order to compete with Thiel. They assigned Charles O. Eames to head the Denver office. When it appeared that Eames was running the western branch dishonestly, they assigned McParland to investigate. McParland discovered extensive abuses against clients and against the agency, and reported on them. Everyone was fired except for McParland and Charlie Siringo.
McParland was named superintendent of Pinkerton's Denver office, and of the Pinkerton's western division. In April 1891, Mrs. Josephine Barnaby was murdered by poison. McParland tricked Thomas Thatcher Graves, her accused murderer, into traveling from Providence, Rhode Island, to Denver where he was arrested and convicted of the crime. McParland hired gunman Tom Horn (later executed for murder in Wyoming), who, while working for Pinkerton killed seventeen men, according to a count by Siringo. While Horn had been working for Wyoming cattlemen, "it was the cattle interests who decreed that he must die", probably to keep him from talking.
One of McParland's tasks was infiltrating and disrupting union activities. He successfully placed numerous spies within the Western Federation of Miners (WFM) union, and more into the United Mine Workers. Some of McParland's agents took part in the WFM strike that came to be called the Colorado Labor Wars. One in particular was charged with sabotaging the union's relief program during the strike. Bill Haywood, Secretary Treasurer of the WFM, wrote about the sabotage in his autobiography:
"I had been having some difficulty with the relief committee of the Denver smelter men. At first we had been giving out relief at such a rate that I had to tell the chairman that he was providing the smelter men with more than they had had while at work. Then he cut down the rations until the wives of the smelter men began to complain that they were not getting enough to eat. Years later, when his letters were published in The Pinkerton Labor Spy, I discovered that the chairman of the relief committee was a Pinkerton detective, who was carrying out the instructions of the agency in his methods of handling the relief work, deliberately trying to stir up bad feeling between the strikers and the relief committee."
Steunenberg assassination
In 1899, Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg crushed a rebellion of miners during a labor dispute in Coeur d'Alene. On December 30, 1905, Steunenberg, five years out of office, opened the side gate of the picket fence at his house in Caldwell, which set off an explosive device that took his life. A man using the name Tom Hogan had set the bomb; he was born Albert Horsley but best known as Harry Orchard. The killer left evidence in his hotel room, and did not try to flee.
After the assassination, Idaho's Chief Justice Stockslager drafted a telegram which invited the Pinkerton Agency to investigate. Idaho Governor Frank Gooding was persuaded to approve the request, and Pinkerton agent McParland soon arrived to lead the investigation. McParland announced his suspicion that Orchard was "the tool of others."
McParland frequently used the expression inner circle to describe a secret cabal in the Western Federation of Miners when pitching Pinkerton's services to mine owners. McParland's stenographer, Morris Friedman, observed that by portraying the WFM in this manner, the Pinkerton office in Denver had generated "as much, and at times even more business than five other offices of the Agency combined."
On death row, Orchard was placed under a constant watch, and his food rations were cut.He was incarcerated next to two death row inmates who were awaiting execution themselves. Relays of guards watched him night and day, but never spoke to him. The three-day wait turned into nine days.
On January 22, the hungry prisoner was escorted into the warden's office and left alone with McParland. The two enjoyed a lavish meal followed by fine cigars. McParland threatened Orchard with immediate hanging, and said that he could avoid that fate only if he testified against leaders of the WFM. McParland allayed Orchard's skepticism by telling him about "Kelly the Bum", a confessed murderer who became a prosecution witness in the Molly Maguires cases.
McParland claimed "Kelly" not only had received freedom as part of the deal, but he had been given "one thousand dollars to subsidize a new life abroad". McParland dismissed the possibility that Orchard would face charges in Colorado if allowed to go free in Idaho. McParland had offered a stark choice: an immediate visit to the gallows, or better treatment for the prisoner with the possibility of freedom, a possible financial reward, and the gratitude of the state of Idaho. Orchard was known to Charles Moyer, having once acted as his body guard on a trip from Denver to Telluride. Orchard had also met Bill Haywood. In 1899 Orchard was at the scene of the labor unrest in Coeur d'Alene when Steunenberg had severely punished the union miners for an act of violence. He chose to cooperate. Orchard was transferred from death row to a private bungalow in the prison yard. He was provided with special meals, new clothing, spending money, his favorite cigars, and a library of religious tracts. The current governor of Idaho stopped by to shake his hand and congratulate him on cooperating.
Big Bill Haywood
McParland had Western Federation of Miners leaders Bill Haywood, Charles Moyer, and George Pettibone arrested in Colorado. In his book Roughneck, writer Peter Carlson wrote that the extradition papers falsely claimed that the three men had been present at Steunenberg's murder. Carlson described the arrest across state lines as a "kidnapping scheme." However, under Idaho law, conspirators were considered to be present at the scene of the crime. The extradition was done with the cooperation and involvement of the Colorado authorities, and was later upheld by the US Supreme Court, with one dissent.
The Steunenberg trials
McParland rounded up potential witnesses, assembled evidence, checked out potential jurors, and "leaked information that would tarnish the reputations of the defendants and their attorneys." McParland placed a spy, "Operative 21", on the defense team. The spy operated as a jury canvasser, and may have been instructed to provide the defense with erroneous reports of the preferences of potential jurors. However, the spy was discovered.
McParland sought to bolster Orchard's testimony by forcing another WFM miner, Steve Adams, to turn state's evidence. McParland used the same method for eliciting a confession from Adams as he had on Orchard: he told Adams he was merely a "tool," and told him he "would be forgiven his sins," if he confessed. With his wife and children also confined in the Idaho prison, allegedly for their own protection, Adams signed a confession, then later recanted. McParland sought leverage over Adams to force him to re-affirm the confession. Charges against Adams for several murders resulted in two hung juries and one acquittal. As a result of Adams' first trial, in which he was defended by attorneys Clarence Darrow and Edmund F. Richardson, details of McParland's coercive treatment of witnesses when seeking a confession were revealed on the witness stand. McParland had contracted to provide Pinkerton services for Bulkeley Wells, the president and manager of the Smuggler-Union Mining Company in Telluride, Colorado. Together with Wells and others, McParland planned to have Adams charged with involvement after-the-fact in the murder of mine bricklayer William J. Barney, who had disappeared one week after accepting the position as a guard at the Smuggler-Union mine. There was one difficulty with the accusation: William J. Barney hadn't been murdered; in fact, he was very much alive.
McParland tried to turn conspiracy defendant Moyer against co-defendants Haywood and Pettibone by having a sheriff claim Pettibone, Adams, and Orchard were plotting to kill Moyer, but that plan wasn't put into action. A slightly different scheme was tried to split the trio, but Moyer didn't take the bait.
At the Haywood trial, which was funded, in part, by direct contributions from the Ceour d'Alene District Mine Owners' Association to prosecuting attorneys, the only evidence against the WFM leader was Harry Orchard's testimony. Orchard confessed to acting as a paid informant for the Mine Owners' Association He reportedly told a companion, G.L. Brokaw, that he had been a Pinkerton employee for some time. and a bigamist. He admitted to abandoning wives in Canada and Cripple Creek. He had burned businesses for the insurance money in Cripple Creek and Canada.
Orchard had burglarized a railroad depot, rifled a cash register, stolen sheep, and had made plans to kidnap children over a debt. He also sold fraudulent insurance policies. To satisfy McParland, Orchard had signed a confession to a series of bombings and shootings which had killed at least seventeen men, all of which he blamed on the Western Federation of Miners. The original confession was never made public. but a more comprehensive version released in 1907 included many pages of incriminating allegations.
Although at first his testimony on the witness stand in the Bill Haywood trial seemed plausible, the defense pointed out some significant contradictions. Orchard claimed his instructions came from Haywood and Moyer, but the authors of The Pinkerton Story observe:
It was impossible to establish beyond a reasonable doubt through any witness, except Orchard's wife, second and bigamous, the fact of private meetings between him and Haywood.
The defense called two surprise witnesses – Morris Friedman, McParland's private stenographer until 1905, who testified about Pinkerton's practices of infiltration and sabotage of the WFM; and McParland's brother, Edward, who had been a shoemaker in the Cripple Creek District during the Colorado Labor Wars. Edward testified that he had been working at his cobbler's bench in Victor when national guardsmen:
"... took him in custody, striking him several times with their gun butts for moving too slowly. After days in a Cripple Creek bullpen, he and seventy-seven others were put on a train and deported to neighboring Kansas ..."
The appearance of his brother Edward was intended "simply to embarrass" the detective, for it recounted "the imperial style of the Peabody administration in Colorado, with which McParland and the Pinkertons had been closely associated."
The majority of jurors in the Haywood trial found Orchard not to be a credible witness, and Haywood was acquitted. In a separate trial for George Pettibone, the defense team declined to argue the case, resting upon a not guilty plea. Pettibone was also acquitted. Charges against Moyer were dropped. After the cases against the WFM leaders failed, Orchard was tried alone for Steunenberg's murder, was found guilty, and was sentenced to death. However, the sentence was commuted to life, and he lived out the rest of his life in his prison bungalow.
Charlie Siringo
Wild Bunch
"I had been having some difficulty with the relief committee of the Denver smelter men. At first we had been giving out relief at such a rate that I had to tell the chairman that he was providing the smelter men with more than they had had while at work. Then he cut down the rations until the wives of the smelter men began to complain that they were not getting enough to eat. Years later, when his letters were published in The Pinkerton Labor Spy, I discovered that the chairman of the relief committee was a Pinkerton detective, who was carrying out the instructions of the agency in his methods of handling the relief work, deliberately trying to stir up bad feeling between the strikers and the relief committee."
In 1899, Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg crushed a rebellion of miners during a labor dispute in Coeur d'Alene. On December 30, 1905, Steunenberg, five years out of office, opened the side gate of the picket fence at his house in Caldwell, which set off an explosive device that took his life. A man using the name Tom Hogan had set the bomb; he was born Albert Horsley but best known as Harry Orchard. The killer left evidence in his hotel room, and did not try to flee.
After the assassination, Idaho's Chief Justice Stockslager drafted a telegram which invited the Pinkerton Agency to investigate. Idaho Governor Frank Gooding was persuaded to approve the request, and Pinkerton agent McParland soon arrived to lead the investigation. McParland announced his suspicion that Orchard was "the tool of others."
McParland frequently used the expression inner circle to describe a secret cabal in the Western Federation of Miners when pitching Pinkerton's services to mine owners. McParland's stenographer, Morris Friedman, observed that by portraying the WFM in this manner, the Pinkerton office in Denver had generated "as much, and at times even more business than five other offices of the Agency combined."
McParland had Orchard transferred from the Caldwell, Idaho jail to death row in the Boise penitentiary. The move was initially resisted by Judge Smith, who would be responsible for trying the case. The local judge anticipated a successful habeas corpus lawsuit against the tactic. McParland gave him "thirty precedents for the move." However, the sheriff in Caldwell reportedly opposed the move as well. Gooding arranged a meeting between McParland and Chief Justice Stockslager, and then with Judge Smith. Before Smith arrived, McParland declared the county jail insecure, a potential target for dynamite. He also stated the purpose of the move to death row: "After three days I will attempt to get a confession." Chief Justice Stockslager approved of the move. In a pre-arranged plan, the Governor was called out of the room as soon as Judge Smith arrived, leaving McParland and the two judges alone. With the Chief Justice supporting the move to death row, Judge Smith also agreed.
Mad bomber of Cripple Creek, Harry Orchard.
On death row, Orchard was placed under a constant watch, and his food rations were cut.He was incarcerated next to two death row inmates who were awaiting execution themselves. Relays of guards watched him night and day, but never spoke to him. The three-day wait turned into nine days.
On January 22, the hungry prisoner was escorted into the warden's office and left alone with McParland. The two enjoyed a lavish meal followed by fine cigars. McParland threatened Orchard with immediate hanging, and said that he could avoid that fate only if he testified against leaders of the WFM. McParland allayed Orchard's skepticism by telling him about "Kelly the Bum", a confessed murderer who became a prosecution witness in the Molly Maguires cases.
McParland claimed "Kelly" not only had received freedom as part of the deal, but he had been given "one thousand dollars to subsidize a new life abroad". McParland dismissed the possibility that Orchard would face charges in Colorado if allowed to go free in Idaho. McParland had offered a stark choice: an immediate visit to the gallows, or better treatment for the prisoner with the possibility of freedom, a possible financial reward, and the gratitude of the state of Idaho. Orchard was known to Charles Moyer, having once acted as his body guard on a trip from Denver to Telluride. Orchard had also met Bill Haywood. In 1899 Orchard was at the scene of the labor unrest in Coeur d'Alene when Steunenberg had severely punished the union miners for an act of violence. He chose to cooperate. Orchard was transferred from death row to a private bungalow in the prison yard. He was provided with special meals, new clothing, spending money, his favorite cigars, and a library of religious tracts. The current governor of Idaho stopped by to shake his hand and congratulate him on cooperating.
McParland had Western Federation of Miners leaders Bill Haywood, Charles Moyer, and George Pettibone arrested in Colorado. In his book Roughneck, writer Peter Carlson wrote that the extradition papers falsely claimed that the three men had been present at Steunenberg's murder. Carlson described the arrest across state lines as a "kidnapping scheme." However, under Idaho law, conspirators were considered to be present at the scene of the crime. The extradition was done with the cooperation and involvement of the Colorado authorities, and was later upheld by the US Supreme Court, with one dissent.
The Steunenberg trials
McParland rounded up potential witnesses, assembled evidence, checked out potential jurors, and "leaked information that would tarnish the reputations of the defendants and their attorneys." McParland placed a spy, "Operative 21", on the defense team. The spy operated as a jury canvasser, and may have been instructed to provide the defense with erroneous reports of the preferences of potential jurors. However, the spy was discovered.
McParland sought to bolster Orchard's testimony by forcing another WFM miner, Steve Adams, to turn state's evidence. McParland used the same method for eliciting a confession from Adams as he had on Orchard: he told Adams he was merely a "tool," and told him he "would be forgiven his sins," if he confessed. With his wife and children also confined in the Idaho prison, allegedly for their own protection, Adams signed a confession, then later recanted. McParland sought leverage over Adams to force him to re-affirm the confession. Charges against Adams for several murders resulted in two hung juries and one acquittal. As a result of Adams' first trial, in which he was defended by attorneys Clarence Darrow and Edmund F. Richardson, details of McParland's coercive treatment of witnesses when seeking a confession were revealed on the witness stand. McParland had contracted to provide Pinkerton services for Bulkeley Wells, the president and manager of the Smuggler-Union Mining Company in Telluride, Colorado. Together with Wells and others, McParland planned to have Adams charged with involvement after-the-fact in the murder of mine bricklayer William J. Barney, who had disappeared one week after accepting the position as a guard at the Smuggler-Union mine. There was one difficulty with the accusation: William J. Barney hadn't been murdered; in fact, he was very much alive.
McParland tried to turn conspiracy defendant Moyer against co-defendants Haywood and Pettibone by having a sheriff claim Pettibone, Adams, and Orchard were plotting to kill Moyer, but that plan wasn't put into action. A slightly different scheme was tried to split the trio, but Moyer didn't take the bait.
At the Haywood trial, which was funded, in part, by direct contributions from the Ceour d'Alene District Mine Owners' Association to prosecuting attorneys, the only evidence against the WFM leader was Harry Orchard's testimony. Orchard confessed to acting as a paid informant for the Mine Owners' Association He reportedly told a companion, G.L. Brokaw, that he had been a Pinkerton employee for some time. and a bigamist. He admitted to abandoning wives in Canada and Cripple Creek. He had burned businesses for the insurance money in Cripple Creek and Canada.
Orchard had burglarized a railroad depot, rifled a cash register, stolen sheep, and had made plans to kidnap children over a debt. He also sold fraudulent insurance policies. To satisfy McParland, Orchard had signed a confession to a series of bombings and shootings which had killed at least seventeen men, all of which he blamed on the Western Federation of Miners. The original confession was never made public. but a more comprehensive version released in 1907 included many pages of incriminating allegations.
Although at first his testimony on the witness stand in the Bill Haywood trial seemed plausible, the defense pointed out some significant contradictions. Orchard claimed his instructions came from Haywood and Moyer, but the authors of The Pinkerton Story observe:
It was impossible to establish beyond a reasonable doubt through any witness, except Orchard's wife, second and bigamous, the fact of private meetings between him and Haywood.
The defense called two surprise witnesses – Morris Friedman, McParland's private stenographer until 1905, who testified about Pinkerton's practices of infiltration and sabotage of the WFM; and McParland's brother, Edward, who had been a shoemaker in the Cripple Creek District during the Colorado Labor Wars. Edward testified that he had been working at his cobbler's bench in Victor when national guardsmen:
"... took him in custody, striking him several times with their gun butts for moving too slowly. After days in a Cripple Creek bullpen, he and seventy-seven others were put on a train and deported to neighboring Kansas ..."
The appearance of his brother Edward was intended "simply to embarrass" the detective, for it recounted "the imperial style of the Peabody administration in Colorado, with which McParland and the Pinkertons had been closely associated."
The majority of jurors in the Haywood trial found Orchard not to be a credible witness, and Haywood was acquitted. In a separate trial for George Pettibone, the defense team declined to argue the case, resting upon a not guilty plea. Pettibone was also acquitted. Charges against Moyer were dropped. After the cases against the WFM leaders failed, Orchard was tried alone for Steunenberg's murder, was found guilty, and was sentenced to death. However, the sentence was commuted to life, and he lived out the rest of his life in his prison bungalow.
Competition
McParland was a rival to Wilson S. Swain, northwestern manager of the Thiel Detective Agency. During the Stuenenberg investigation, Swain set up shop in Caldwell, Idaho, intimating to county authorities and to the governor that he'd been hired by the mine owners to investigate the crime. When he later presented his bill to the Canyon County Commissioners, they felt that they had been conned. Meanwhile, McParland was interviewed for the investigation by the governor. McParland sought to further undermine the competition:
"He never lost an opportunity to remind [Idaho Governor] Gooding that Swain had committed a "cold-blooded murder" on Denver's Larimer Street twenty years before. More often he worked surreptitiously, passing stories he knew would be repeated, impugning Swain's investigative skills, ridiculing his minions, suggesting [Swain] was in league with the [Western Federation of Miners]. He'd taken care of Swain all right, he told his superiors, "but done it in such a way that I am not suspected."
The rivalry was significant because, while the Pinkerton agency was associated with Colorado's mine owners, the Thiel agency had been closely tied to Idaho's mine owners. With the subsequent dismissal of the Thiel agency, Colorado's mine owners gained control of the Idaho investigation.
McParland was a rival to Wilson S. Swain, northwestern manager of the Thiel Detective Agency. During the Stuenenberg investigation, Swain set up shop in Caldwell, Idaho, intimating to county authorities and to the governor that he'd been hired by the mine owners to investigate the crime. When he later presented his bill to the Canyon County Commissioners, they felt that they had been conned. Meanwhile, McParland was interviewed for the investigation by the governor. McParland sought to further undermine the competition:
"He never lost an opportunity to remind [Idaho Governor] Gooding that Swain had committed a "cold-blooded murder" on Denver's Larimer Street twenty years before. More often he worked surreptitiously, passing stories he knew would be repeated, impugning Swain's investigative skills, ridiculing his minions, suggesting [Swain] was in league with the [Western Federation of Miners]. He'd taken care of Swain all right, he told his superiors, "but done it in such a way that I am not suspected."
The rivalry was significant because, while the Pinkerton agency was associated with Colorado's mine owners, the Thiel agency had been closely tied to Idaho's mine owners. With the subsequent dismissal of the Thiel agency, Colorado's mine owners gained control of the Idaho investigation.
Charlie Siringo
Voter fraud alleged
When "The Cowboy Detective" Charlie Siringo wrote his memoirs about working for the Pinkerton Agency, he accused McParland of ordering him to commit voter fraud in the re-election attempt of Colorado Governor James Peabody.
Charles A. Siringo, a Pinkerton who had worked for more than twenty years as an operative, detective, and spy, and McParland's personal bodyguard in Idaho, declared the agency "corrupt". [His 1915 book charged the Pinkertons with election fraud, jury tampering, fabricated confessions, false witnesses, bribery, intimidation, and hiring killers for its clients ... Documents and time sustained many of his assertions ... )
The Pinkerton Agency suppressed Siringo's books, in at least one case with an accusation of libel.
When "The Cowboy Detective" Charlie Siringo wrote his memoirs about working for the Pinkerton Agency, he accused McParland of ordering him to commit voter fraud in the re-election attempt of Colorado Governor James Peabody.
Charles A. Siringo, a Pinkerton who had worked for more than twenty years as an operative, detective, and spy, and McParland's personal bodyguard in Idaho, declared the agency "corrupt". [His 1915 book charged the Pinkertons with election fraud, jury tampering, fabricated confessions, false witnesses, bribery, intimidation, and hiring killers for its clients ... Documents and time sustained many of his assertions ... )
The Pinkerton Agency suppressed Siringo's books, in at least one case with an accusation of libel.
MaryJoy Martin, author of The Corpse On Boomerang Road wrote:
"McParland would stop at nothing to take down (unions such as the Western Federation of Miners) because he believed his authority came from "Divine Providence." To Carry out God's Will meant he was free to break laws and lie until every man he judged evil was hanging on the gallows. Since his days in Pennsylvania he was comfortable lying under oath. In the Haywood and Adams trials, he often lied, even claiming he had never joined the Ancient Order of Hibernians. Documents showed he had."
"McParland would stop at nothing to take down (unions such as the Western Federation of Miners) because he believed his authority came from "Divine Providence." To Carry out God's Will meant he was free to break laws and lie until every man he judged evil was hanging on the gallows. Since his days in Pennsylvania he was comfortable lying under oath. In the Haywood and Adams trials, he often lied, even claiming he had never joined the Ancient Order of Hibernians. Documents showed he had."
Wild Bunch
"By mid-January 1901, the Wild Bunch had gone their separate ways. With the exception of Butch, Sundance and Etta, who traveled to Pennsylvania and New York together, gang members confined themselves to the West. On February 1, 1901, Etta and Sundance posed together for a picture at DeYoung’s Photography Studio in New York after having made a purchase at Tiffany Jewelers. Sundance bought Etta a gold lapel watch. According to historians, on February 20, 1901, the husband and wife and Cassidy boarded the SS Herminius at New York’s Pier 32 under the aliases Mr. and Mrs. Harry Place and James Ryan. The ship was bound ship for Buenos Aires, Argentina. They moved to Cholila and began raising livestock," writes Chris Enss, a New York Times bestselling author who writes about women of the Old West. “Queen of the Wild Bunch” is an excerpt from her book Love Lessons from the Old West: Wisdom from Wild Women.
According to Enss, shortly after the trio arrived in South America, they opened a bank account with $12 thousand in gold notes. According to the February 19, 1950, edition of the American Weekly, Butch told the Buenos Aires bank president that he and his friends were afraid of thieves. When Robert Pinkerton, head of the Pinkerton Agency, learned what the outlaws had done he was outraged. “It shows how daring these people are,” he wrote his brother in 1905. “We hunt them in the mountains and the wilderness and they are in the midst of society….”
"When the political climate in the region began to change, and with rumors that the Pinkerton Agency had picked up a lead on their whereabouts, the three felt it was best to leave the country. They disappeared in the night just as easily as they had done many times before. Pinkerton detectives raided the villa where the trio lived but found nothing that gave them a clue as to where the desperados were headed," says Enss.
"When the political climate in the region began to change, and with rumors that the Pinkerton Agency had picked up a lead on their whereabouts, the three felt it was best to leave the country. They disappeared in the night just as easily as they had done many times before. Pinkerton detectives raided the villa where the trio lived but found nothing that gave them a clue as to where the desperados were headed," says Enss.
Died in Denver
McParland died on May 18, 1919 in Denver's Mercy Hospital. He left a widow, Mary, but no children.
McParland died on May 18, 1919 in Denver's Mercy Hospital. He left a widow, Mary, but no children.
MaryJoy Martin wrote:
"The Denver Post, Rocky Mountain News, and the Denver Catholic Register filled columns in tribute, recounting his Molly Maguire tales and Harry Orchard triumph, tucking in fiction and numerous lies along the way. It mattered little, since the man had become a legend."
"The Denver Post, Rocky Mountain News, and the Denver Catholic Register filled columns in tribute, recounting his Molly Maguire tales and Harry Orchard triumph, tucking in fiction and numerous lies along the way. It mattered little, since the man had become a legend."
