Molly Maguires Audio Tour
Villains or Victims! For two decades, violence in Pennsylvania's anthracite region pointed to one thing - the Molly Maguires. In one day, ten of these Irishmen (alleged Mollies), dangled from the hangman's rope; ten more soon followed. Who were the Mollies? Some claimed they were a secret society whose members terrorized the countryside with murder, sabotage and lawlessness. Others claimed they never existed,
that they were a ploy - created by the local coal monopoly and sensationalized by the press - to crush all attempts at organized labor. Historians continue to debate this chapter in our social and labor history.
As you drive the auto tour through Carbon and Schuylkill counties, you will see places that recall the violence in our story: murder and conspiracy sites and burial grounds. But this is not just a legendary story about killings, beatings and hangings. It is a story about an era that drove people to these actions, an account of real people who lived the hard life of the coal fields.