PLAYED A LONE HAND.

Taihape Daily Times, 6 October 1919, Page 6

PLAYED A LONE HAND.

’.DETECTIVE’S AMAZING CAREER

' rTR-lUMPHED OVER SECRET j A _ SOCIETIES. E One of vtlreimost‘ amazing detective careers of all time has closed with the death of James McParlan, in Denver, U.S.A., -at the age of 75. Playing a lone lhand against a widespread criminal organisation which numbered many thousands in its ranks, McPa.rlan triumphed at last and laid its leaders by the heels. The criminal organisaItiori mus that of the infanrovus “Molly iMagui:es’ ’in Pennsylvania. It is many a long day since MeParlan made his great coup in 1875-—but the memory of the?‘ marvellous achievement will not readily be forgotten. ‘ ~ Emigra't‘i~ng from Ulster to America in 1863, MeParlan made a niche for himself in Chicago, but lost his all there in the destructive fire of 1871. then was «accepted for a post as detective in the famous Pinker agency. Alt 'th’a’t time the coal mining regions of {Pennsylvania were infested and terror-' iserd by a powerful secret society of kdesperadc-es known as the “M;0lly Ma;gl_lii‘es.” For several years Ithis lawless’ host of hooligans held sway. Muru Adler‘ followed mnrder. Dynamite, pis:tols, a falling pick, a dropping lift, a {premature blast, or a club were the methods used. Superintendents fell at their posts almost weekly, and railway and mine officials lived in ter.ror‘~of titheir lives and of the lives of their wives and families. .

The police were powerless, and at length Mr Franklin B. GroW‘e-n, the pregident of the Philadelphia. and Beading ‘Coal and Iron Company, i-nvited Mc]Parlan to assist in breaking np the organisation, which had 30,000 members. His orders were to: discover the criminals who infested the coal regions, to learn their insidewzorkings, to give notice of intended outrages, to point outthe 'offenders, and to give secret in’jEorrnat'ion whichewould secure their conivictien. ; 0*“ 0 -'THROW~N OUT AS A TRAMP. Under the name of James McKenna; ZMcParl~an made his way to Pool Clin---!l>O11; He tried to get a lodging at the ‘village tavern, but was ‘thrown out as :1 framp, and had to put up at a rail-. wayhboarding-house. He got me? job running a train in -the mines, and became one of the‘ “Mollies.” He gained |everybß'dy’s confidence. He was secreVtaryi for his local branch of the "‘Maguires.” He led mobs. Once he {fed a gang ‘of desperadoes -against-' »a «colliery where his :own "friends, the detectives, were waiting for them with loaded Winehesters. One day all over the country there appeared the full riftual of ‘the Mollies, and. all their signs and pass-words.

Meanwhile‘ even fhe‘ police were try~_ illg" "to trap the detective, Whom, not knowing, they regarded as one of the misqreants, and once he was severely clufibed for »approa(':hi»ng 71500 near Mr

Gowen. His work was VVOII done, and when ‘the i.ilne came in 186 there were 70 arrests, and McParl-an gave his damning evidence. Invthe illterVal before the trial, many attenipts were i made on the dc’tective’s life by friends jof the prisoners, who itried to poison 3 him, throw him down '3, m.i-ne shaft, and to blow him up with dynamite as he stood in court; Finally 11 men were executed for murder, and many sentenced to imprisoneinnt, "While numbers fled the country. McParlan then disappeared, but ill 1894 he Went't7o live in Denver, sh-fitterea in health and old before his time through the liardships he had undergone. In 1893 la condirtion of things resembling that established by the “Molll;*_v Miiguires“ "in Pennsyl-v-auia, obtained in "the Couer d’Alone district of Idaho and in Czolerado. There were efrequent assassinations and dyna~

miting. . ~ A cage filled with minors was cut adrift and allowed to fall 1400 feet down the shaft. Fourteen miners were blown to atoms at another pit, and. finally Frank Steunenbcrg, an cx-Gov-ernor of zthe”State, was murderccl. McParlan’s «services were enlisted and he again became a miner. He obtained admission to the inner circles of the society, traced 26 murders, and finally 'o=bta‘ine(l a full confession from' the principal ringleader.