Is it true the Molly Maguirers were all prosecuted by a non-official of The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania?

Question

I think it was Franklin Benjamin Gowen a draft dodger by paying the $300.00 to stay out of the Civil War that prosecuted the Molly Maguirers and was a former D.A. but not a current D.A. but rather a mine owner that wanted The Molly Maguirers to hang!
I think there was a Pinkerton Detective who found no evidence of The Molly Maguirers so another Pinkerton Detective was sent.

Answer 1

Hey,


Hope this answers your question:
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Molly Maguires

(1862–76) Secret organization of U.S. coal miners in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. To protest poor working conditions and employment discrimination in the 1860s, the Irish-American miners formed a group named for an Irish widow who had led antilandlord agitators in Ireland. Acts of sabotage and terrorist murders in the coalfields were blamed on the group, and mine owners hired a Pinkerton detective, James McParlan, to infiltrate the organization. Based on his testimony in the widely publicized trials (1875–77), 10 “Mollies” were convicted of murder and hanged.



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The Molly Maguire trials were a surrender of state sovereignty. A private corporation initiated the investigation through a private detective agency. A private police force arrested the alleged defenders, and private attorneys for the coal companies prosecuted them. The state provided only the courtroom and the gallows.


A " coffin notice", allegedly posted by Molly Maguires in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. It was presented by Franklin B. Gowen, along with other similar coffin notices, as evidence in an 1876 murder trial.