The Murder of John P. Jones, of Storm Hill (Lansford), Pennsylvania, September 3, 1875

Prologue

On Friday, September 3, 1875, Tamaqua found itself in the epicenter of “Molly Maguire” hysteria. Three arrests were made west of Oddfellows Cemetery in the early afternoon. Those arrested were shortly charged in the shooting and murder of John P. Jones a mine superintendent for the Lehigh & Wilkes-Barre Coal Company (LWC), Colliery No. 4, located in present day Lansford, PA.  

Jones had been shot in Storm Hill (near the Lansford Station and telegraph office) in a crowd of people early that morning. Jones was walking to his office near the Lansford Train Depot. The train from Tamaqua was shortly due, and about one hundred people, travelers, railroad men and employees of the LWC, were milling about, nearby.  Two men suddenly appeared near Jones, and commenced firing repeatedly but quickly at Jones, killing him.  The perpetrators then disappeared, as the Tamaqua train arrived, and disembarked its passengers. Several men proceeded to Tamaqua on railroad trucks to station themselves to intercept the perpetrators, if possible, in their believed escape towards Tamaqua. They did not capture them but the citizens and police in Tamaqua became aware of the murder 

Scene of Jones' Murder near the Office of the LWC and the Lansford Depot

The Jones murder and arrests followed another prior murder in Tamaqua proper on July 6 at the corner of Broad and Lehigh Street. Killed at that time was Benjamin F. Yost, a Tamaqua policeman.  That murder had remained publicly unsolved in the intervening two months, even though many believed it was related to the “Molly Maguires”.  An undercover private detective - James "McKenna" McParlan, working for the Pinkerton Agency employed in turn by The Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company was immediately sent to Tamaqua after the Yost murder to investigate any connection with so-called Molly Maguires.

McParlan became aware of a related transaction (conspiracy) in the weeks after the Yost murder occurred and reported his findings. But the decision was made by his employer to not reveal all facts to the authorities to protect its undercover investigation. Moreover, although the record is unclear, McParlan learned of the Jones plot and, half-heartedly at best, warned Jones’ employers; in retrospect, his and his employers' lack of real action likely caused Jones to lose his life.

What McParlan appeared to know that the Jones murder was to be a "quid pro quo" for the Yost murder. The leaders (body-masters) of the Tamaqua Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH) Division, James Kerrigan and James Carroll, who kept the Union House, a tavern on East Broad Street and sort of AOH hangout, met with James Roarity of nearby Coaldale and head of the AOH there. Later, Roarity mentioned this nascent plot to Alex Campbell a liquor-dealer and tavern owner in Storm Hill (Lansford) and previous owner of Carroll’s Union House. Coincidentally, at this time in the neighborhoods of Storm Hill and Summit Hill, it had also determined that another murder was being discussed. - that of Jones. Thus, the idea of an exchange of retributive killings at once suggested itself. Men from Summit Hill in Carbon County would kill Yost and men from Schuylkill County would kill Jones. The Yost murder occurred first and the Jones murder followed two months later.

The Arrest

On September 1, James Kerrigan met with Edward J. Kelly and Michael J. Doyle (from the Pottsville - Mt. Laffee - area) at Carroll’s bar in Tamaqua.  The three traveled to Lansford (Storm Hill) to Alec (Alex) Campbell’s bar there.  In a bit of irony, Campbell had previously owned the Union House Tavern in Tamaqua.  For several days the three observed Jones and on September 3, Jones was shot by Kelly and Doyle.  Kerrigan took them back to Tamaqua using backroads and out of the way paths. They escaped detection until they stopped for lunch near Kerrigan's residence in Newkirk.

James Kerrigan had grown up near Tuscarora and Tamaqua in the 1840s and 1850s.  During the Civil War he served with the Union Army and for two years was in General Philip Sheridan’s cavalry. By 1870 he was back living in the Tuscarora/Tamaqua area.  He was married to Marguerite (commonly called Fanny) Higgins and had at least three children, including a son. He was the Tamaqua Body Master (head) of the AOH. 

Tamaquan, Samuel Beard, coincidentally a law student, who had been in Storm Hill and knew about the shooting (returning quickly to Tamaqua with the news) and William Parkenson who had observed Kerrigan with two unknown men that morning near Oddfellow's Cemetery. Beard and his friend George Priser, put two and two together and searched the area near Kerrigan’s residence west of Oddfellows with a field (spy) glass and saw Kerrigan and two other men from a distance, stopping for lunch and whiskey.  Beard went to the police and a posse was formed to go and arrest the three men. The arrested were placed in the Tamaqua jail, charged with the killing of John P. Jones, at Storm Hill, Carbon County.

Badges of the AOH were found on Kelly and Doyle, and from them a portion of a letter to James Carroll (Union House Proprietor) was also obtained. The two had met up with Kerrigan at Carroll’s Union House Tavern before the three of them proceeded to Storm Hill on August 31/September 1.  Carbon County Deputy Sheriff John Painter then assumed custody of the men and accompanied them first from the Tamaqua police station (behind the US Hotel on Rowe Street to what was then called the New York depot (Tamaqua’s Train Station) accompanied by a squad of LWC Coal & Iron Police. Painter took the prisoners to Mauch Chunk (Carbon county seat) via the New Jersey Central train connection on a special non-stop train directly to Mauch Chunk.

The Trials

Commonwealth v. Doyle

The prisoners demanded separate trials. Michael Doyle was put upon trial first at Mauch Chunk, on January 18, 1876.  This was the first of what became known as the “Molly Maguire” trials.

Defendant, Michael J. Doyle

This trial was to set a precedent for future “Molly Maguire” trials that followed – the extensive use of private prosecutors and private police. Charles W. Parrish, the President of the LWC decided that that coal company would take a hand in the prosecution of the case. First, LWC would pay for the prosecution. Secondly, the lead prosecutor was to be mining company attorney Charles Albright, who added color to the proceeding by appearing in court wearing his full Civil War uniform (he had served as a general in the Union Army) complete with sword. 

During the trial the prisoners were under guard by the Coal & Iron Police. Several days elapsed before a full jury was selected. The majority of jurors were Pennsylvania Dutch (descended from) German immigrants whose first spoken language was not English.

The trial was before Judge Dreher. In addition to Albright, E. R. Siewers, the District Attorney for Carbon County, appeared for the Commonwealth, and with him J.W. Hughes, of Schuylkill County, and attorney Allen Craig of the Lehigh Valley. 

For the defense appeared John W. Ryon and Lin Bartholomew, of Pottsville, James. B. Reilly, member of Congress from Schuylkill County, Daniel Kalbfus and Edward Mulhearn, attorneys of Carbon County. 

At the time of the trial, it was still unknown that James McParlan was, in fact, an undercover detective. The prosecution built its case on solid circumstantial evidence supplied by about 200 witnesses. Anticipating every move by the adversary, the prosecution successfully stymied the defense. Such anticipation did not solely stem from an astute knowledge of courtroom strategy, nor was it the result of clairvoyance. McParlan, as a high-ranking Molly, was privy to most of the defense’s plans, which he relayed to the prosecution. Finding themselves hopelessly outmatched, the defense did not call witnesses. On February 1, 1876, the jury returned a verdict of “guilty of murder in the first degree.”

Mauch Chunk PA Court House 1876

Kerrigan Confesses

During the late stages of the Doyle trial Kerrigan broke. Locked in solitary confinement, the Tamaquan, the Body-master of the AOH (which McParlan conflated with the Molly Maguires), became apprehensive and decided to save himself and turned informer. The confession which contained the principal outlines of McParlan’s prior reports of the plans to kill Jones and their relation to another recent murder in Tamaqua, the Yost (policeman) murder. Now the State/Local authorities could bring that case to trial as they immediately arrested the men implicated by Kerrigan, but they still did not know the presence of undercover agent, McParlan. However, these arrests created a flurry of rumors. Fearing that others involved would leave the area, Coal and Iron Police (acting as the State) rounded up additional Mollies (implicated by McParlan). Since Kerrigan did not know the men arrested by the second posse, the Molly Maguires could only suspect the existence of a second informer. Shortly thereafter, McParlan disappeared from Schuylkill County.

Commonwealth v. Kelly

Next the trial of Edward Kelly for the murder of John P. Jones proceeded beginning on March 29, 1876. The prosecution felt that their case against Kelly was so strong they did not need Kerrigan’s confession. The same counsel appeared on the part of the Commonwealth as in the Doyle case. On the part of the defense, Lin Bartholomew, attorney Daniel Kalbfus, General John D. Bertolette, and attorney, Edward Mulhearn. appeared. Application was also made in this case for a change of venue but this was denied. 

Defendant Edward J. Kelly

Judge Dreher directed a jury to be called. The trial concluded on April 6. The evidence was a repetition of that already given on the trial of Doyle, and was of the same overwhelming character. The whole story of the crime was given in evidence, and the prisoner was identified as one of the murderers. 

Unsurprisingly, the jury found Kelly guilty of first-degree murder, and the judge sentenced him also to be hanged. 

Epilog

Alex Campbell, owner of the Storm Hill tavern where the Jones murder was allegedly planned on September 1 and 2, was also arrested (after Kerrigan’s confession) and successfully prosecuted (June 20-July 1, 1876), despite remarkably flimsy evidence of guilt other than Kerrigan’s confession and McParlan’s testimony (even with no first-hand knowledge of the murder).  This was the fourth “Molly Maguire” trial, after the first trial of the killers of Yost in Pottsville, Schuylkill County.

Kerrigan testified at several other trials - the Yost trials, the conspiracy to reward Thomas Hurley for the murder of Gomer James, the conspiracy to kill William and Jesse Major, the Morgan Powell murder, and in the murder of George K. Smith.  

Kerrigan was never prosecuted for any crimes he admitted to and left the Tamaqua area for the Richmond, VA area. He assumed at times the last name of this wife, Higgins. He died in Manchester, VA in 1898.  After his death his wife applied for his Civil War pension. 

Kerrigan was not the only informer (turned State’s evidence) of the AOH membership. Lawler and Butler had turned.  In addition, Frank McHugh, John Slattery, Michael Doolin and Charles Mulhearn were informants on other cases.

The “Molly Maguire” trials did not end labor unrest of the coal regions. At the tail end of the trials and hangings, one of the first nationwide strikes, the Railroad Strike of 1877 occurred with just as much workplace violence if not more. An effective union did not take place until 1902 when the United Mine Workers were able to successfully represent labor.