Hard Times.

On this day in 1906, famous (or infamous) union leader "Big Bill" Haywood was arrested for the murder of a former Colorado governor in a case that hinged on the work of the famous (or infamous) Pinkerton agent and union infiltrator James McPartland, who had earlier helped destroy the Molly Maguires, an Irish labor group (or possibly a complete fiction concocted by ruthless mine owners to destroy any labor organizing) in the Pennsylvania coal fields.

For me that is plenty enough excuse to give a shout out to the 1970 movie, The Molly Maguires, directed by Martin Ritt (a 50s blacklistee), with Richard Harris playing James McPartland and Sean Connery as Molly Bill Kehoe.  It's a tough dark movie that bombed at the box office.  But then again, no one would even attempt it today.  Not unless one of the leads could whip on his tights and cape and set things right with his superpowers in the third act.  Or there were skeeeery ghosts haunting the mine shafts instead of the ordinary terrors lurking in an unregulated mine.

The Molly Maguires is a big Hollywood movie with big movie stars (no anemic indie budget--the coal separator they built just for a prop still works today) about two hard guys doing hard dirty work. 

So here's to those guys.  Let's all hoist a pint of ale tonight.  Preferably dark.