However, there is no evidence that an organization called the Molly Maguires ever existed in the U.S.
James McParland, an agent provocateur who worked for the #Pinkerton#Detective#Agency,
and who provided the plans and weapons the men purportedly used in their crimes,
provided the only serious evidence against the men.
The entire legal process was a travesty:
a private corporation (the #Reading#Railroad) set up the investigation through a private police force (the Pinkerton Detective Agency) and prosecuted them with their own company attorneys.
No jurors were Irish, though several were recent German immigrants who had trouble understanding the proceedings.
Nearly everything people “know” today about the Molly Maguires comes from Allan Pinkerton’s own work of fiction, "The Molly Maguires and the Detectives" (1877),
which he marketed as nonfiction.
His heavily biased book was the primary source for dozens of academic works, and for several pieces of fiction, including Arthur Conan Doyle’s final Sherlock Holmes novel, "Valley of Fear" (1915), and the 1970 Sean Connery film, "Molly Maguires."