The Snitch

    He started his career by manufacturing testimony and sitting on evidence, which led to the hangings of 19 union miners labelled as the "Molly Maguires" in Pennsylvania in 1876.
    He ended it by fabricating the confession of a murderer that implicated the executive board of the Western Federation of Miners in the asassination of Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg.
    In between, James McParland was head of the Denver branch of the Pinkerton Detective Agency, which was basically a professional strike-breaking group of thugs.
    The Molly Maguire case gave McParland his credibility as a spy who was willing to do or say anything to meet his objective, often outlined by company owners, of crushing unions.
    During the "Maguire" case, McParland sat on evidence that would have freed a man.   Instead of being cleansed of guilt through the justice process, the accused had to undergo risky surgery to remove a bullet to prove his innocence.   Also, the last two sent to the gallows knew, along with everybody else, that the governor of the state had sent a pardon to save their lives.   Nevertheless, the execution went off without a hitch, with the pardon coming minutes after they were hung until death.
    Having manipulated justice so successfully in the Molly Maguire case, McParland was given a Pinkerton agency in Denver to head.
    Then in December of 1905, shortly after the Colorado War at Cripple Creek in 1903-04, an explosion ripped through Idaho Governor Steunenberg, killing him almost instantly.   What sounded like a bomb blast to all who heard, echoed to Denver as a ringing cash register to James McParland, who stood to profit immensely from being named detective for Idaho in the case.
    About two weeks after the assassination, McParland was summoned to Idaho by officials there to begin his work on Harry Orchard, the suspect caught with a room full of explosives.
    Although Orchard was a member of the Western Federation of Miners, it was brought out during the trial that he was a spy for the Mine Owners Association (see last month's Union Spirit for mor on the MOA) and on their payroll.
    McParland soon crafted Orchard's confession to say that three members of the Western Federation of Miners executive board; "Big Bill" Haywood, one of the fiercest unionists to walk the earth; George Pettibone and Charles Moyer, were the conspirators behind the assassination.
    Kidnapped from Colorado by state officials, the three mine union leaders were sped to Idaho in record-breaking time according to the Rocky Mountain News and charged with murder.
    A death sentence was a certainty from the start of the trial.   President Theodore Roosevelt condemned the men publically calling them "undesirable citizens", the state of Idaho was almost unanimously against the miners, and McParland's immoral wizadry had been very successful in leading to executions in the past.
    But as the trial went on, the unethical and illegal practices of the mine owners and the Pinkertons were brought out by defense attorney Clarence Darrow.
    Also, Orchard's credibility was questioned vigorously by defense witnesses, who said he was a Pinkerton.   One defense witness did significant damage to the prosecution's case when he said a secret Pinkerton spy, who was a union president in Denver during the day, was the one who introduced Orchard to him.    The list of defense witnesses also included James McParland's own brother.
    Haywood, the first to stand trial, stood to be the first swinging from the rope.   Observers believed that the best Haywood could hope for was a hung jury.   When told that a verdict had been reached, the feeling of failure swelled in the hearts of the defense attorneys who knew their client was innocent.   Haywood himself, knowing death was certain, remained still, his fiery anger glowing red in his cheeks.
    The clerk read the verdict and ended with "Not Guilty".   Pettibone was found not guilty in a later trial and Moyer had the charges against him dropped.
    McParland failed to persuade the jury of a guilt that wasn't there.   Even General Sherman Bell, the military officer detested by the WFM for his part in the Cripple Creek War of 1903/04, said that he never believed Haywood was connected in any way with the assassination.   Bell also held the state's officials in contempt for the way the defendants were kidnapped and added that statehood should be stripped from Colorado because of its corrupt public officials.
    That's how unions were fought in those days.   Company owners bought the courts.
    Now, instead buying hokey law enforcement embodied by spies like McParland, they just buy the politicians who make punitive, anti-worker laws and sign job-destroying treaties.   The latter we can change at the ballot box.

Solidarity