Coal and Iron Police
In 1866, a supplement to the act was passed extending the privilege to "embrace all corporations, firms, or individuals, owning, leasing, or being in possession of any colliery, furnace, or rolling mill within this commonwealth".
Beginning in 1873, the Coal and Iron Police worked with the Pinkertons, particularly with a labor spy by the name of James McParland, to infiltrate and suppress the Molly Maguires.
During McParland's undercover investigation, Allan Pinkerton pursued a dual-track strategy, appointing R.J. Linden as head of the local Coal and Iron Police.
The attack was thought to have been motivated by revenge for the alleged murder of mine boss Thomas Sanger by Charles Kehoe, a leader of the Mollies.
Many in the Irish-American working class at the time, and some scholars today, question whether tales of the Molly Maguires were invented by the Pinkertons to justify repression in the anthracite coal fields.
[1] On 16 March 1892 Coal and Iron police officer John Merget was shot and killed when he tried to stop 3 tramps from stealing from a boxcar.
[1] In 1897, at least nineteen striking mineworkers were killed and dozens more were injured while marching to Lattimer, after a posse of deputies and company police fired on the unarmed crowd.
The Lattimer Massacre bolstered sympathy and support for the miners' grievances and marked a turning point in the history of the United Mine Workers of America.
[1] Though the Roosevelt commission's recommendation was not heeded, it added to the public pressure which led to the formation of the Pennsylvania State Police on May 2, 1905, when Senate Bill 278 was signed into law by Governor Samuel W.
[8] The stated purpose was to act as fire, forest, game and fish wardens, and to protect the farmers, but some observers felt that it really was to serve the interests of the coal and iron operators because the same legislation created a "trespassing offense" that wherever a warning sign was displayed a person could be arrested and fined ten dollars.
[11] In 1919, labor organizer Fannie Sellins was beaten and shot by Coal and Iron Police when she intervened to stop the beating of Joseph Starzleski, a mineworker.
[13] In 1929, Michael Musmanno, a Pennsylvania state legislator, fought to banish the Coal and Iron Police after they had beaten worker John Barkoski to death.
The final disbandment was helped along by Musmanno's writing a short story based on the case, which was adapted into the 1935 film Black Fury.
[14] The brutality of the Coal and Iron Police forms the background to some sections in Dos Passos's U.S.A. trilogy, focusing on miners' struggles and strikes in Pennsylvania.
The Coal and Iron Police also feature in the Sherlock Holmes novel, The Valley of Fear, which is based loosely on the breaking of the Molly Maguires.
