Governor John F. Hartranft

Perhaps it's nothing more than an interesting and moving historical anecdote, but, according to Joseph Wayne, in the days before Kehoe was to hang, his wife, Maryanne, walked roughly 65 miles from her home in Girardville to the state capitol at Harrisburg to plead with Governor John F. Hartranft to spare Black Jack Kehoe's life. This was the same man who only a few years earlier had claimed victory in the election, thanks in small part, perhaps, to the efforts of Black Jack Kehoe and the men of the AOH.

"You have to understand," he told the soon-to-be widow. "I'm a married man with children, too."

"I understand, Governor," she said, then turned and walked home.

It took another 90 years before a Pennsylvania governor found the courage to stand up for Black Jack Kehoe. In 1979, after years of efforts by Joseph Wayne, then Governor Milton Shapp granted a posthumous pardon to John "Black Jack" Kehoe. It was the first time a posthumous pardon was ever issued in the state.

Paying respects at John Kehoe's grave

So far, Kehoe is the only one of the men hanged as Molly Maguires to be pardoned.

In the years since the myth of the Molly Maguires has become a legend. Cell 17, where the black handprint that Alex Campbell left on the day of his death with the declaration, "I am innocent and let this be testimony" is, nowadays, a major tourist attraction in the region.

The years following the Molly Maguire trials were not kind to McParland. After leaving the Pennsylvania coalfields, he turned up in Colorado. There in 1906 while still in Pinkerton's employ, he was involved in what ultimately was found to be an attempt to frame union man William Hayward, the general secretary of the Western Federation of Miners for the murder of Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg. McParland died in 1919.

As for Gowen, his fortunes too seemed to fail. On December 9, 1889, Gowen checked into an ornate room at Wormly's Hotel in Washington, DC. Four days later, on December 13, less than a week before what would have been the 11th anniversary of Jack Kehoe's execution, Gowen was found dead, a small revolver in his hand.

At first, there was speculation that surviving members of the Molly Maguires may have murdered him. There was also speculation that perhaps other enemies, perhaps even some fellow industrialists of the era, had a hand in Gowen's death. In the end, however, the death was ruled a suicide.

Whatever the precise circumstances of Gowen's death may have been, Wayne says he is not above taking some small comfort in its timing.

He recalled a liquor-fueled late night conversation he had many years ago with the author Zelda Popkins in the backroom of what had once been Black Jack Kehoe's saloon.

After more than a bottle and a pack of cigarettes, Potok turned to Wayne and said, "I'd like to think that he committed suicide so near the anniversary of the hanging of Jack Kehoe [because] that was weighing heavily on his mind."

"That's good enough for me, Zelda," Wayne replied.

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