Daily stories of Pennsylvania : $b prepared for publication in the leading daily newspapers of the state...Godcharles, Frederic Antes
History
Daily stories of Pennsylvania : $b prepared for publication in the leading daily newspapers of the state...
Godcharles, Frederic Antes
Pennsylvania -- Biography; Pennsylvania -- History
Facts brought to light by James McParlan, the Pinkerton detective, who
joined the Mollies under the name of James McKenna and lived among them
until he collected sufficient evidence to send so many to the gallows
that they ceased to function as an organization, are as follows:
On the eventful morning, Hiram Beninger, a carpenter connected with the
colliery owned by Heaton & Company, near Ashland, was on his way to
work, when he noticed two strangers sitting on some lumber near the
carpenter shop, but such being a common occurrence he passed by, but
remembered their personal appearance. John Nicolls noticed three
strangers resting on some idle trucks as he passed by to enter the
colliery, one of whom addressed him, when he returned the salutation and
almost immediately noticed the two others, where the carpenter found
them. He also remembered how they were dressed, and the fact that they
spoke to him, he could recall many details in their clothing and
personal appearance.
About fifteen minutes afterward Thomas Sanger, a boss in Heaton &
Company’s colliery, accompanied by William Uren, a miner, who boarded in
his family and who was employed in the same mine, came along the road,
carrying their dinner pails in their hands.
Sanger was a man greatly respected by his employes and neighbors, about
thirty-three years of age, and while he had long been in the employ of
the firm, he had failed to make any enemies, excepting among the
Mollies. He had been several times threatened, but more recently
believed the anger of his organized enemies was buried, forgotten, or
appeased. This proved to be a great mistake.
Sanger and his companion had not gone far from the Sanger home, when
they were both fired upon and both mortally wounded, by the same strange
men noticed by the carpenter and Nicolls.
Beninger heard the shots, and rushed out of the shop, and saw Mr. Robert
Heaton, one of the proprietors of the colliery, firing his pistol at and
running after two of the murderers.
Two of the five assassins at this moment stopped in the flight, turned
and fired their revolvers at Heaton, but without hitting him. Mr. Heaton
boldly stood his ground and continued to empty his revolver at the
strangers.
The five men then quickly turned and ran up the mountains. Heaton
followed and when opportunity offered he continued to fire at them, but
apparently none was wounded.
It was this dogged and determined courage of Mr. Heaton which made him a
marked man for the nefarious organization of murderers, and which
eventually drove him from the coal regions to reside elsewhere.
Had any of the others who witnessed the exchange of shots between Mr.
Heaton and the Mollies been armed and helped in the uneven chase, some
of them might have been killed or captured.
The assassins made good their escape in the timber and bushes of the
mountains.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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