Legends of the Old West - PINKERTONS Ep. 2 | “James McParland: The Celebrity Detective”

Episode Date: July 30, 2025

As the violence intensifies in Pennsylvania, James McParland decides its time to bring the Molly Maguire case to a close before he ends up dead. In the aftermath, McParland finds himself as one of the... most revered detectives in the country. He receives a promotion to the Denver office, but he learns he needs to root out corruption before he can proceed with investigations. Thanks to our sponsor, HelloFresh! To get started, check out our plan: HelloFresh.com/legends10fm Join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join Apple users join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes, bingeable seasons and bonus episodes. Click the Black Barrel+ banner on Apple to get started with a 3-day free trial. For more details, visit our website www.blackbarrelmedia.com and check out our social media pages. We’re @OldWestPodcast on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. On YouTube, subscribe to LEGENDS+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: hit “Join” on the Legends YouTube homepage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:00 On December 10, 1875, Pinkerton agent James McParland was at his breaking point. For two years, he had been deep undercover in the Pennsylvania coal mining communities. His assignment had been one of the Pinkerton agency's most dangerous to date, infiltrating the infamous Molly Maguires. The Molly Maguires were a clandestine group of Irish immigrants working in the Pennsylvania coal mines. Their struggle against the mine owners led them to drastic and violent actions against their enemies. Multiple assassinations pushed the mine owners, led by Franklin Gowan, to hire the Pinkertons to help bring the mollies down. Using the alias James McKenna, James McParland ingratiated himself amongst the Irish. He
Starting point is 00:00:59 became initiated in the ancient order of Hibernians, which he believed was a pipeline for the Mollies. For two years, McParland climbed the ranks of the AOH in the community of Shenandoah and managed to prevent multiple murders. But in the latter half of 1875, McParland failed to prevent the deaths of several innocent men, including a police officer. By mid-December, McParland was feeling the pressure and was about to get worse. McParland had heard a rumor in Shenandoah that a couple of Molly Maguires had been killed.
Starting point is 00:01:38 It could have been vigilante justice against men who might have been killers themselves, but the more McParland learned, the more it sounded like cold-blooded murder. At 3 a.m. on December 10th, a boarding house called Wiggins Patch had been awakened by a loud bang. Inside the house were Charles and Ellen McAllister. Charles was up in an instant and he told his wife Ellen to stay in the bedroom. He carefully slipped out the back door and went to the basement. While Charles was gone, Ellen heard another loud bang. Fearing the worst, she ran for the front door. When she opened it, she came face to face with a group of masked
Starting point is 00:02:18 men. One of them fired a shot, and Ellen fell to the ground with a bullet in her chest. The masked killers rushed inside and dragged several male boarders downstairs, but the hostages did not go quietly. One made a break for the nearby woods and survived a hail of gunshots. Another hostage escaped while the masked men were busy interrogating other captives. When a third man tried to flee, he was struck by pistol fire and fell to the ground wounded. The assassins ran up to the injured victim and shot him until his face was reduced to a wreckage and his clothes were smoldering from the heat of the
Starting point is 00:02:56 gunfire. Then the killers fled into the night, leaving a dead man and woman in their wake. They also left a note that read, quote, You are the murderers of Uren and Sanger. The message was easy to decipher. William Uren and Thomas Sanger had been killed by Molly Maguires earlier that year. The masked men wanted revenge against the Molly Maguires, though Ellen McAllister wasn't associated with the secretive group. James McParland was horrified to hear that an innocent woman had been gunned down alongside the Molly McGuyers. After hearing of Ellen's death, McParland informed his boss, Alan Pinkerton,
Starting point is 00:03:37 that he was tendering his resignation, effective immediately. He wanted nothing more than to return to his home in Chicago and leave the violent Molly Maguires behind him. From Black Barrel Media, this is Legends of the Old West. I'm your host, Chris Wimmer. In this season, we're focusing on the famous Pinkerton Detective Agency and two of its most famous operatives, James McParland and Charlie Seringo. This is episode 2, James McParland part 2, The Celebrity Detective.
Starting point is 00:04:22 The In mid-December 1875, James McParland hopped on a train from Shenandoah to Philadelphia. It had been a week since the murder of Ellen McAllister, and his emotions had cooled a bit, but he was still determined to quit the Pinkertons. Even at their most vicious, the Mollys had never killed a woman. The way McParland saw it, the vigilantes who raided the boarding house were worse than the most violent Molly Maguires. As a devout Catholic, McParland's conscience was heavy. For years, he'd been a party to and sometimes a witness of violent and damnable acts. Eating at him was the fact
Starting point is 00:05:06 that he couldn't go to confession because he didn't want to risk exposing his identity. Although the local priest in Shenandoah, a man named Father O'Connor, was not affiliated with the Mali Maguayers, McParland didn't want to take the risk. When he got to Philadelphia, McParland brought his moral crisis to his supervisors. They reassured him that the vigilantes were not acting on information provided by McParland or any other Pinkerton operative. They said McParland couldn't quit now. His role was too important. The investigation was at a critical juncture. Thanks to McParland, law enforcement had already arrested several alleged members of the Molly Maguires for murder. Alan Pinkerton and mine owner
Starting point is 00:05:52 Franklin Gowan needed McParland to help build a stronger case against the Molly Maguires. After careful consideration, McParland relented. On December 23, 1875, McParland took a train back to Shenandoah. As James McParland returned to work, the first trials against the Molly McGuire suspects were beginning. First up were the accomplices of Jimmy Powderkeg Kerrigan for killing the mine superintendent, John P. Jones. McParland's reports were not admitted as evidence to preserve his cover, but the prosecutors had something better than an undercover report.
Starting point is 00:06:36 They had a confession. While in custody, Jimmy Kerrigan turned against his comrades to avoid a harsh sentence. With such a cooperative witness, the trial moved fast. Two months later, on February 23, 1876, Kerrigan's main accomplice was hanged. That same day, McParland traveled to the courthouse and met fellow AOH member Frank McAndrew, the man who had brought McParland into the society. The mood between them was somber, especially since McAndrew had bad news for McParland. McAndrew told McParland it didn't seem probable that Kerrigan was the only man who had talked. McAndrew
Starting point is 00:07:19 and others suspected there was a spy in the ancient order of Hibernians. McAndrew was blunt. Some HOA members were taking bets on whether McParland was an undercover detective. McParland appeared shocked and demanded to know who had been spreading such slander. The answer was John Kehoe, the well-known leader of a neighboring lodge of the AOH, who had essentially declared open season on all AOH enemies. McParland knew he needed to act fast, before the rumor spread too far. He traveled to the Hibernian House, the pub that Keough owned, and confronted Keough about
Starting point is 00:07:58 the allegations. McParland said that if Keough believed he was a spy, they should have a trial so he could defend himself. Keough seemed willing to hear McParland said that if Keough believed he was a spy, they should have a trial so he could defend himself. Keough seemed willing to hear McParland out. He told McParland he'd schedule a trial to determine the truth. Keough promised to meet McParland on a train back to Shenandoah the next day. The next morning, McParland boarded the train and discovered Keough was nowhere to be seen. As the train rolled towards Shenandoah, McParland was certain that he was going to his death. So when the
Starting point is 00:08:31 train arrived at his stop, McParland stayed on board and waited until the train reached the end of the line. Once off the train, McParland went straight to Frank McAndrew's place. If there was one AOH man McParland could count on, it was him. McAndrew allowed McParland to stay the night, but he had more bad news for the undercover detective. As it turned out, McParland's suspicions on the train were right. Men had been waiting for him at the Shenandoah station. McParland's suspicions on the train were right. Men had been waiting for him at the Shenandoah station. McParland knew what that meant. His AOH trial was cancelled, and he was as good as dead. Though Keough was right that McParland was a spy, McParland was still outraged. McParland
Starting point is 00:09:19 knew he was pushing his luck, but he had to confront Keo again, somewhere with witnesses. With Frank McAndrew by his side, McParland stormed into the Hibernian House pub and demanded to know why he wasn't allowed to defend himself. Keo admitted that he had cancelled McParland's trial, but he didn't say why. He simply told McParland to ask Father O'Connor, the local Catholic priest. The next day, McParland went to Father O'Connor, the local Catholic priest. The next day, McParland went to Father O'Connor. Father O'Connor said he knew McParland was a Chicago detective working for the Pinkertons. McParland had no idea how the priest learned the information.
Starting point is 00:09:59 Just as important, McParland didn't understand why O'Connor, a man who was staunchly against the Molly Maguires, would be willing to unmask a detective who was trying to take them down. As McParland's mind raced, he heard a creak on the floorboards outside. He was convinced he'd been followed. Not wanting people to overhear the conversation, he loudly protested Father O'Connor's allegations and vowed to clear his name. But within 24 hours, McParland was on a train heading out of the coal fields, this time for good. When James McParland arrived in Philadelphia, he debriefed with his supervisors.
Starting point is 00:10:43 Then he took a short break from work. For the first time in two years, he was able to regularly attend church and confess his sins to a priest. Unloading the weight he had been carrying was a tremendous relief. But McParland's work wasn't done yet. At the end of April 1876, railroad and coal mine owner Franklin Gowan, the man who had hired the Pinkertons to go after the Molly Maguires, implored Alan Pinkerton to have McParland testify. Though Jimmy Carrigan had confessed, Gowan knew that a detective was a better witness than a criminal who wanted to save his own skin. If Gowan wanted to break the Molly's entirely, he
Starting point is 00:11:23 needed James McParland's comprehensive knowledge of their inner workings to become part of the legal record. Pinkerton approached McParland about the request, which would mean facing the accused in open court. After careful consideration, McParland agreed to testify for Gowan, as well as make his reports available to the prosecution. On May 4, 1876, the Cole and Iron Police made a series of arrests throughout Cole country. Around a dozen men suspected of being Molly Maguires were seized, dragged to the courtroom in chains, and charged with murder.
Starting point is 00:12:06 Among the arrested were John Keough and one of McParland's former lodge members, Muff Lawler. Before Franklin Gowan was appointed president of the railroad company and the Coal and Iron Company, he was an attorney. In a highly irregular move, Gowan decided he was going to prosecute the suspects himself. During the trial, McParland made good on his promise, and he took the stand. For four straight days, McParland laid out the extent of his involvement with the AOH and the Molly Maguires. He detailed all the information he had gathered on the inner workings of the secret societies.
Starting point is 00:12:44 The defense attorneys quickly realized that McParland was the prosecution's strongest witness. Their strategy was to discredit McParland by accusing him of taking part in the worst of the Molly McGuire crimes. In response to the accusations, McParland calmly pointed out that he never killed anyone for the Molly's and did everything in his power to protect their intended victims. To the miners who watched McParland testify, he appeared to be an entirely different man. The man they knew as James McKenna was a boisterous fire brand, not a calm, soft-spoken gentleman. If any of them had any doubts about McParland's
Starting point is 00:13:23 true identity as a detective, his time on the witness stand washed them away. Thanks to McParland's testimony, nearly every defendant was found guilty. The first sentences were carried out on June 21, 1877. Ten men were brought before the gallows and hanged. John Keough was also sentenced to hang, but he appealed his guilty verdict. Throughout 1877 and 1878, Keough fought to overturn the ruling, but to no avail. On December 18, 1878, hundreds of people turned up outside the jail to pay tribute to Keough. Technically, public executions were banned in Pennsylvania, but the crowd watched as
Starting point is 00:14:12 John Keough was hanged. In total, 20 convicted Molly Maguires went to the rope. Meanwhile, the rest of the Molly Maguires quietly melted away. Muff Lawler turned state's evidence and escaped execution. Jimmy Kerrigan relocated to Virginia. Frank McAndrew, the man who had saved McParland's life from John Keough, continued to find menial work for the Reading Railroad Company.
Starting point is 00:14:39 After the executions, Molly Maguire activity completely ended. Franklin Gowin's overall aim to break the morale of workers in the coal fields was a success. And crucial to that success was James McParland, who returned to Pinkerton's service as a celebrity. When the Molly Maguires case officially closed in 1878, James McParland took a sabbatical to Ireland to visit family and recover his health. But the trip didn't go the way he had hoped.
Starting point is 00:15:17 His eyesight worsened and he was prone to regular sickness. Meanwhile, his family had heard what he'd done in Pennsylvania, and many of them shunned him for being an informer. When he returned to the United States, McParland found that he was something of a celebrity. During the Molly McGuire trials, reporters had glommed on to McParland's tales of being a spy, and they were happy to reprint the stories. So while his family in Ireland may have thought he was a traitor, the mainstream press in America treated McParland like a hero.
Starting point is 00:15:51 Not long after he returned home, McParland met a woman, married her, and they had a daughter. Sadly, in 1885, after six years of marriage, McParland lost his wife to tuberculosis. He was now a widower and a single parent. But rather than succumb to grief, McParland buried himself in work. Much had changed about the Pinkerton detective agency in the seven years since the Molly McGuire case. Alan Pinkerton had died and left the company to his sons, Robert and William. Like their father, the Pinkerton brothers respected James McParland. Within days of the death of McParland's wife, the brothers
Starting point is 00:16:30 offered McParland an assignment worthy of his talents. The courthouse of Columbus, Kansas sat peacefully in the heart of town. Attached to the side was a low brick building that served as a vault for local records. Citizens nicknamed the building the Bake Oven due to its odd appearance. The moniker proved prophetic. Around 2 a.m. on August 13, 1885, the vault exploded so violently that every building in town shook. When police arrived, they discovered a pile of rubble and smoldering documents. Years' worth of paperwork had been destroyed in the blast, and the destruction was clearly caused by a bomb. The bombers disappeared, and local authorities called the Pinkertons to help investigate. William and Robert Pinkerton chose James McParland to go to Kansas and pick through the debris.
Starting point is 00:17:30 As McParland sifted through the rubble and learned about the contents in the vault, he noticed something right away. Many of the destroyed papers were deeds and documents related to land acquisitions. McParland found the detail intriguing. He surmised that the explosion wasn't general anarchy or a distraction for the commission of another crime. It was a coverup. Six months later, his theory seemed to be correct.
Starting point is 00:17:58 In January of 1886, a fire broke out near the Columbus courthouse. The few documents which had survived the bake oven explosion had been moved to the Register of Deeds office. It appeared as though someone broke into the office, doused the place with coal oil, and set it on fire. Fortunately, the fire was caught early, but it did damage some of the surviving records from the original courthouse blast.
Starting point is 00:18:25 Now it was clear that someone had something to hide. McParland believed the culprits were forging land deeds and mortgage paperwork. The exact details are vague, but it looked like the suspects were selling property that wasn't theirs to sell, and then they tried to destroy the legitimate documents. With that in mind, McParland examined a local real estate firm which seemed particularly interested in writing summaries of the destroyed records. After weeks of studying the firm's records and contacts, McParland ordered a raid on several local businesses which might be in cahoots with the firm.
Starting point is 00:19:10 Nine men were arrested for fraud, and two were also charged with arson. The primary architect of the scheme was Richard Lawton, the head of the real estate firm. One by one, Parland convinced all the other suspects to testify in order to receive reduced sentences, which left Richard Lawton high and dry. But Lawton decided he wasn't going to be the fall guy. One day during the trial, he claimed to be too sick to go to the courthouse, and he was allowed to hang back. Somehow, Lawton managed to slip by anyone with a badge and he fled to Cincinnati. McParland assigned an agent to bring Lawton back to face justice.
Starting point is 00:19:51 Unfortunately fate intervened. In the summer of 1886, McParland received word from his agent that Lawton had been found dead. On June 24th, Lawton died of heart failure while hiding from McParland's agent. The Kansas fraud case ultimately ended anticlimactically, but it was McParland's first big experience in the West. After that case, he learned he would head farther West to take over the struggling office in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. office in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.
Starting point is 00:20:31 In November of 1887, William and Robert Pinkerton informed James McParland that he was receiving a promotion. McParland's days as a field operative were over. Now he was gonna be assistant superintendent of the Denver office, a relatively new branch of the agency. McParland's appointment to Denver came at the tail end of a series of business complications facing the agency. Since taking over, William and Robert had rapidly expanded the operation. Allen Pinkerton had always insisted on running a tight ship, staffed with agents he could
Starting point is 00:21:03 trust. But his sons believed in staying competitive with other agencies. The whole reason they opened a branch in Denver was to compete against the rival Teal Detective Agency, which also had an office in Colorado. But McParland's move was more than just a promotion. He also had a secondary mission, which was to spy on his own men. As it turned out, the Pinkertons' bid for expansion meant filling offices with less-than-trusted personnel.
Starting point is 00:21:32 The brothers had heard that the Denver office was rife with corruption. And it was McParland's job to determine how deep the problem ran. Over the next several weeks, McParland kept a close eye on the men who worked out of the Denver branch, and he didn't like what he saw. The agents working in Denver frequently overcharged clients, accepted bribes, padded their expenses, and stretched out cases so that they could keep charging for very little work. Even more damning, the superintendent, Charles Eames, allowed it to happen and participated. The office's saving grace was a 33-year-old operative named Charlie Siringo. McParland assessed that Siringo was the only honest man in the Denver office. In early 1888, McParland submitted his report to the Pinkerton brothers.
Starting point is 00:22:27 Enraged by what they read, they cleaned house, firing every agent except Siringo. Then in February, they appointed McParland as Denver superintendent. McParland was functionally given his own unit to run as he saw fit. From that time forward, McParland spent more time dictating assignments than conducting investigations. He became a public figure in Denver, rubbing shoulders with potential clients and pillars of the community. Around town, McParland was known as the gruff detective who raised bulldogs at home. He may not have been personally chasing criminals anymore, but he was the face of the agency out West. Part of making sure the Denver office ran smoothly
Starting point is 00:23:18 was managing his agent's moods. Sadly, two years into his tenure, McParland's best agent, Charlie Saringo, faced a dark and emotional period. In 1890, Saringo's wife Mamie fell ill, which distracted Saringo from his work. McParland was sympathetic to the Saringo family's troubles. McParland's daughter had recently passed away from diphtheria. He had lost his wife five years earlier and he had been a
Starting point is 00:23:45 single parent until his daughter died. Charley Siringo was about to experience something similar. Mamie Siringo's condition worsened and she passed away in August 1890. Siringo was now a single father to a young child. He couldn't handle the loss and he spiraled. In February 1891, a drunken Seringo got into a fight with a police officer outside a pawn shop in Denver. Seringo and the officer drew their guns. Seringo was the faster draw, and he might have shot the officer if another policeman hadn't stepped in. The other officer managed to jam his thumb against the hammer of Saringo's revolver and stop the gunshot. Charlie Saringo was promptly thrown in jail.
Starting point is 00:24:31 When McParland heard about the near-gunfight, he immediately rushed to the jail. McParland was able to negotiate with the police chief to release Saringo, and McParland brought his friend back home. McParland believed from his own experience that the only way for Siringo, and McParland brought his friend back home. McParland believed from his own experience that the only way for Siringo to manage his loss was through work. So McParland sent Siringo back into the field, and McParland turned his own attention to the job of managing his office's image.
Starting point is 00:25:00 Since McParland already had a fairly public profile as a famous detective who had beaten the Molly Maguires, he used his reputation to leverage the press to his own ends. If leaking parts of a story could inform an ongoing investigation, he'd do it. If he wanted to control a narrative using a press conference, he'd do that as well. He became a consummate storyteller in the media, shaping his own image through the eyes of the newspapers. Whether it was helping to solve an arsenic murder or placing syringo among striking miners in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, McParland was always the one to control the narrative. And as the new century began, McParland had his sights on one of the most
Starting point is 00:25:42 famous gangs of the old century. As the 1900s approached, the Pinkerton Agency found itself dealing with the most sensational crimes of the era, train robberies. Train robberies weren't a new phenomenon, of course. Robert Pinkerton had infamously chased the James Younger Gang after a train robbery in 1873. But by 1900, all the outlaws from the wild old days were gone. The James Gang, the Dalton Gang, the Doolan Dalton Gang, the Sam Bass Gang, the Henry
Starting point is 00:26:19 Plummer Gang in Montana, and the Cowboys in Tombstone. They were all gone. So were Black Bart and John Wesley Harden and Billy the Kid, who was either dead in New Mexico or hiding in Texas. But there was one prominent gang still out there, the Wild Bunch, led by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. James McParland, now in his 50s, was one of many Pinkerton agents aiding in the pursuit of the Wild Bunch.
Starting point is 00:26:47 Given his age and rank, McParland himself never took part in the manhunt, but he assigned the case to his most trusted agent, Charlie Siringo. For the next four years, Siringo would traverse most of the western states looking for the Wild Bunch. In the meantime, McParland looked for cases in which he could personally help with the investigation. He was getting antsy from being stuck behind a desk or hobnobbing with city officials. He was constantly on the lookout for opportunities to work as an investigator.
Starting point is 00:27:19 And when he did take to the field, it always provoked interest from the public. On August 6, 1901, more than $200,000 worth of gold bullion vanished from the vault of a smelting company near Vallejo, California. Someone had tunneled under the building and stolen 37 bars without anyone noticing. Pinkerton agents working out of the San Francisco office quickly seized a suspect, but they weren't able to get the suspect to talk. Luckily, James McParland was available to take a crack at the suspect. Since the Molly Maguires case, McParland had developed a unique talent for persuasion.
Starting point is 00:28:04 He knew exactly how to prod suspects to get confessions out of them. It had worked against some of the mollies in Pennsylvania and the fraudsters in Kansas. McParland arrived in San Francisco and cornered the suspected gold thief in his jail cell. McParland claimed that law enforcement already had enough evidence against the man to put him away for a long time, too long for the gold to be of any use for him. The suspect ultimately broke, and he told McParland where he'd hidden the loot. The gold thief hoped he'd get a more lenient sentence for confessing, but he went to prison for 15 years.
Starting point is 00:28:41 Two years later, in 1903, James McParland was at the peak of his influence with the Pinkertons. Of the 20 regional offices throughout the country, he had direct control of eight. That same year, McParland called a press conference in which he essentially declared victory over the Wild Bunch. Butch and Sundance had fled to South America. Other members, Will Carver and Ben Kilpatrick, were in prison. Harvey Logan, known as Kid Curry, was on the run and would allegedly kill himself in 1904. McParland's speech in 1903 was confident and self-aggrandizing. He said the age of the train robber was done in America, thanks to the men under his direction. How much of it was actually his doing remains up for debate, but McParland's position
Starting point is 00:29:31 as a preeminent American detective was assured. Yet, despite the publicity, deep down McParland still wanted something big for himself. It had been almost 30 years since he was undercover in the coal mines of Pennsylvania, and he wanted one more chance at real action. Luckily for him, he was about to find himself in the middle of a sensational assassination case. Next time on Legends of the Old West, a high-profile murder leads James McParland into the field for one final investigation. McParland heads back into the ongoing labor wars, which have only ramped up since his
Starting point is 00:30:14 days in the Pennsylvania coal mines. In Idaho, McParland goes after what he sees as a vast conspiracy, pitting him in a courtroom against one of the greatest legal mines in history. That's next week on Legends of the Old West. Members of our Black Barrel Plus program don't have to wait week to week to receive new episodes. They receive the entire season to binge all at once with no commercials, and they also receive exclusive bonus episodes. Sign up now through the link in the show notes or on our website, blackbarrelmedia.com. This episode was researched and written by Robert Teamstra, who was produced by Joe Guerra. Original music by Rob Valier.
Starting point is 00:31:09 I'm Chris Wimmer. Thanks for listening.

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