In Search of History: The True Story of the Molly Maguires

An emotional debate still rages over the guilt or innocence of the \"Molly Maguires,\" 30 Irish immigrants executed in Pennsylvania's coal-mining country during the 1870s. Their crime: the murder of 16 men, mainly mine officials. Were the \"Mollies\" bloodthirsty gangsters or the innocent victims of spies, detectives and railroad barons? One thing is sure: Along with those men died a shadowy movement born in Ireland in the early 1800s to earn justice for poor tenant farmers, which resurfaced after the mass Irish immigration to America in the face of oppressive labor conditions. When labor disputes between owners and workers escalated to violence, a series of murders was said to be perpetrated by the secret society known as the Molly Maguires. The media fanned the flames of hostility against the Irish Catholic miners, and the legal system was manipulated to favor the corporate interests of the railroad magnates. This program investigates what happened and visits with the still-passionate descendants of the Molly Maguires.