ABSTRACT
In America, the Molly Maguires found different adversary, in the form of abusive capitalists who controlled the coal and railway industries in eastern Pennsylvania. Most of the violence, in particular the murder of 16 persons between 1862 and 1875, was attributed to the Molly Maguires, a secret society of Irish miners with loose ties to the Irish fraternal association called the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH). The Molly Maguires, it was said, could trace their terrorist roots back to Ireland, where a long legacy of violence between landlords and peasants had been established. Consequently, contemporaries knew of the Molly Maguires only in vague and hostile terms: as transplanted Irish terrorists, who, after assuming identities such as AOH or West Bromwich Albion (WBA), continued to plot death and destruction in America-either for politics, revenge, or money. The trials began in January 1876, although several Mollies were acquitted during earlier trials for the murders of Alexander Rea and Morgan Powell.
