22-03-2025
John ‘Black Jack' Kehoe remembered by great-great-granddaughter
POTTSVILLE — John 'Black Jack' Kehoe was not the leader of the so-called Molly Maguires, and was innocent of the crime for which he was hanged in 1878, a direct descendant said recently at a program at the Schuylkill County Historical Society.
Anne Flaherty, Kehoe's great-great-granddaughter, outlined her argument during a discussion of her new book, 'The Passion of John Kehoe: And the Myth of the Molly Maguires.'
The result of 20 years of research, the book challenges the image of Kehoe and the Molly Maguires as portrayed in 'The Molly Maguires,' a 1970 movie starring Sean Connery and Richard Harris, as well as numerous articles and books.
'Kehoe was portrayed as a terrorist miner in the movie,' she said. 'And as the 'King of the Mollies' in a book by Allan Pinkerton.'
Not only was he not a terrorist, she argued, Kehoe was not a miner.
Kehoe was Girardville's high constable, the equivalent of police chief. He owned and operated the Hibernian House pub, and ran for state representative in 1870.
Similarly, others among the 21 Irish Catholics hanged in Schuylkill, Carbon and surrounding counties between 1877 and 1879 were also not miners.
Flaherty's research puts a new face to the condemned men who went to the gallows in one of the largest mass hangings in American history.
'If they had been miners,' Flaherty said, 'they worked their way out to become area businessmen, tavern operators, tax collectors and political delegates to the Democratic Party.'
Five of those hanged were school directors, she said, and all were members of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, an Irish Catholic fraternal organization. Four of the condemned were members of the Workingmen's Benevolent Association.
Founded in 1868 by John Siney, of Saint Clair, the WBA was one of the first labor unions in the United States. It was active in strikes against coal operators in Schuylkill County.
'These Irishmen were not thugs, and they were not oppressed mine workers,' Flaherty said. 'So we need a new explanation for what went on.'
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Anne Flaherty, left, and William J. Kirwan, descendants of John Kehoe, at a lecture on Flaherty's book, 'The Passion of John Kehoe: And the Myth of the Molly Maguires' at the Schuylkill County Historical Society on March 19, 2025. (RON DEVLIN/STAFF PHOTO)
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John 'Black Jack' Kehoe (SCHUYLKILL COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY)
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The gravesite of John 'Black Jack' Kehoe at St. Jerome's Cemetery along Mahanoy Street in Tamaqua. (FILE PHOTO)
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Anne Flaherty, left, and William J. Kirwan, descendants of John Kehoe, at a lecture on Flaherty's book, 'The Passion of John Kehoe: And the Myth of the Molly Maguires' at the Schuylkill County Historical Society on March 19, 2025. (RON DEVLIN/STAFF PHOTO)
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Flaherty's 512-page treatise lays the blame largely at the doorstep of Franklin Gowen, president of the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad and the Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Co. in Pottsville. She outlines in detail Gowen's connection to New York newspapers, which characterized the condemned men as terrorists.
Responding to a question by William J. Kirwan, of Mar-Lin — Kehoe's great-great-grandson — Flaherty said a letter by Archbishop James F. Wood of Philadelphia did irreparable damage to the accused men's ability to receive a fair trial. The letter was circulated nationally and internationally.
'Bad men are a terror anywhere, but now particularly so in the coal region,' said the letter, first read by Fr. O'Connor in Mahanoy Plane on Dec. 15, 1875. 'Beware of the Molly Maguires.'
Joseph Wayne, Kehoe's great-grandson and the author's cousin, was among the 75 or so persons who filled the historical society conference room to capacity. For years, Wayne has steadfastly maintained that his great-grandfather was not the so-called King of the Mollies.
The trials were basically a sham, he said, where defendants were not allowed to testify, some of the jurors didn't speak English well and the prosecutor was head of the coal company.
'They could have saved time by just taking them over and hanging them,' he said, sarcastically. 'This was all about breaking up labor unions.'
Wayne continues to operate the Hibernian House, which is temporarily closed, more than 150 years after it was founded. Plans are to develop part of it as a coal miner's museum.
Kehoe professed his innocence in a letter written from the 'Pottsville Prison,' in which he appealed for support from friends shortly before he went to the gallows in the courtyard of the Schuylkill County Prison on Nov. 18, 1878.
'Thinking over the cruelties that have befallen me by bribery, perjury and prejudice, I am under a sentence of death for a crime I never committed,' he wrote. 'I am convicted of the beating death of Frank Langdon that was committed in Audenreid nearly 16 years ago.'
Saying he did not get justice, despite evidence that provided his innocence, Kehoe added, 'It was all jug-handled justice.'
Due in large part to Wayne's determination, Gov. Milton Shapp pardoned John Kehoe in January 1979. The pardon was granted after an investigation by the Pennsylvania Board of Pardons.
David Moore, the Board of Pardons agent who investigated the proposed pardon, attended the program in the historical society. He graduated from Pottsville High School in 1962.
'After reading through the case file, I reported there's nothing here,' said Moore, who recommended Kehoe be pardoned.
'The Passion of John Kehoe: And The Myth of the Molly Maguires' is available online and in the Schuylkill County Historical Society.
