On December 18, 1878, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania hanged John Kehoe, Schuylkill County delegate for the Ancient Order of Hibernians, as the king of Pennsylvania's alleged "Molly Maguies". From June 1877 to October 1879, the commonwealth hanged twenty additional AOH men in five counties in its anthracite coal region. It incarcerated dozens more. Thirty years after the first executions, the jailkeeper at Pottsville spoke with a reporter. "They met their death like men", the jailkeeper said. "They were hanged two at a time, and they died as they lived-whole souled, manly men." Ten days after Kehoe's execution, newsman Patrick Ford said: "Jack died with all the coolness and courage of one of the old Christian martyrs." In this book, Kehoe's descendant, Anne Flaherty, unravels the mystery behind these prosecutions; who these Irishmen were, who wanted them hanged, and why. The "how" of these prosecutions makes for chilling reading. The Passion of John Kehoe documents both the faith of the condemned Irishmen and the eventual unmasking of the Pinkerton operative whose testimony condemned them to death.
