Michael Doyle

Released
Full name:Michael J. Doyle
Date of death:21. 06. 1877
Age:84† Deceased
Gender:Male
Race:White
Era:1970s
State:New Jersey
Support
Catholic Worker Movement Anti-War Labor Organizing Molly Maguires
Michael Doyle

Biography

Michael Doyle was one of the Irish coal miners hanged as a Molly Maguire in the Pennsylvania anthracite region. He was tried at Mauch Chunk in Carbon County for the murder of the mine boss John P. Jones, in prosecutions driven by the Reading Railroad president Franklin B. Gowen — who acted as a private prosecutor against the union he was trying to destroy, using evidence gathered by the Pinkerton agent James McParland. Doyle was hanged at the Carbon County Prison on June 21, 1877, one of ten men executed in Pennsylvania that day.

This record previously carried a second case and a second life. It had been conflated with Father Michael Doyle, the Camden 28 priest, who is a separate record in this database and who died in 2022.

Case

Carbon County Prison
Charges: Tried for murder as an alleged member of the Molly Maguires, in prosecutions led by Reading Railroad president Franklin B.
Released: Jun 21, 1877
Sentence: Death by hanging at the Carbon County Prison in Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania, on June 21, 1877. Verdict as recorded: Yes — convicted of murder and executed by hanging. Charges as recorded: Tried for murder as an alleged member of the Molly Maguires, in prosecutions led by Reading Railroad president Franklin B. Gowen and built largely on the testimony of the Pinkerton infiltrator James McParland.
Convicted: Yes
Institution State: Pennsylvania

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