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John William Tuohy lives in Washington DC

The Murder of the Molly Maguire’s

By
John William Tuohy

In the late 1870's the worst outbreak of Anti-Irish hysteria flared up in the coal mines of central Pennsylvania and resulted in the murder of the so-called Molly Maguire’s. The Irish worked under the most deplorable conditions in the mills and factory in New England and other parts of the East Coast, where flash fires and explosions were an accepted work hazard, where no Government agencies or Unions protected them, where companies owners primary interest was in the bottom line and not a few more dead or mangled workers, men, Women or Children.

The economy was, for all given purpose ruled over and run by a powerful Elite. Only 160 families controlled the nation’s textile, Railroad, Banks, insurance and shipping business, at a time when neither income nor inheritance was taxed. 

For a brief period the civil war had driven the Irish in some parts of the country off of the railroads, and after the war ended large numbers of Irish men took work in the Anthracite coal fields of Northeastern Pennsylvania. Anthracite is a hard coal that burns longer and cleaner than the more plentiful soft coal called bituminous coal but is extremely difficult to remove from the ground.

"To get to the coal" Labor Standard "Miners entered a series of deep and complex tunnels in a small steel cage and then descended hundreds of feet under the ground. Once in the mines the miners crawled on their bellies through the coal dust water and smoke. They work here in this little black hole, all day and every day, trying to keep cool in the summer, trying to keep warm in the winter, picking away among the black coals, bending over until their spins are curved, never saying a word all their live long day,... the smallest boys do not get more than a dollar a day" 

The crew bosses, of whom no manual work was required, exerted graft for privileges in the mines and sometimes took outward bribes so miner could keep his job. Between shake downs they also acted as spies for the owners who were reaping enormous profits from the terror that was their employee’s lives.

Mining, for all that was wrong with it offered two special attractions for the Irishman, it paid on time and in full and it better than any other type they could hope to find. Even then the wages were miserable. 

In 1839 the miners were paid a dollar a day, ten years later the wage had increased to only $1.50 a day and remarkably, that dropped by eight cents in 1850.

Sometimes the miners were not paid at all when the corporations simply dissolved the company the miners had been worker for and reorganized under another name. This was such a frequent occurrence that finally a bill was passed in 1876, requiring the coal companies to pay its miner in cash once a month. 

The mining camps were miles from the nearest town and the miners were forced to use the company stores for supplies and where everything was  priced 15% higher than any other store in the state.

 Sometimes the mine owners didn't bother with the formality of selling products from their stores they simply deducted the difference from its employees paychecks, and they deducted for everything, food from company stores, rent in company houses, and a rent charge for the tools used by the miners to dig the coal. Boys as young as eight were employed in the coal mines to join the adults who worked ten hours a day six days a week, most of the time with Sundays off.

However no child was too young to work in the mines, of the 22,000 miners working in Schuylkill County in 1870, 5,500 were children between the ages of seven and sixteen. The work was as brutal as it was dangerous and no miner could be sure that once he entered the mine that he would ever come out alive. 

There were no provisions for safety or ventilation and Mine inspectors were a thing of the future. Mine owners easily crushed or bribed away any sort of protective legislation and it was not until 1870 that the mines were to have two exits in the event of a collapse, but the second exit was more theory then fact, and even that took the deaths by fire of 179 miners in the great Avondale fire of 1869. 

Nowhere were such laws needed more than in Schuylkill County. In one seven year period 566 miners were killed and another 1,665 injured in work related accidents and in one year, 1871, 112 miners were killed and another 339 injured. 

There was union activity in the coal mines to protest and change the working and living conditions. In 1868, 20,000 miners went on strike for four months to gain the right of an eight hour day. But the strike failed, the Mine owners held out with scab labor, and the miners went back to a 60 hour week. 

In 1876, a coal miner strike almost drove the entire industry bankrupt, the miners couldn't hold out and this strike to, was broken. Other labor flare ups, and there were many, included sometimes violent demonstrations and often bloody clashes with the local police of State militia. In the labor battles that did break out the Miners used guerrilla warfare tactics. To counter those actions the Mining companies hired thugs who could operate without fear of legal retribution, to roam the coal mining towns and terrorize the miners in to submission and out of the labor movement.

As an example, in 1875, in the village of Wiggans patch a squad of company thugs kicked in the front door of minor named Charles O'Donnell who was suspected of union activities. Waiting until one in the morning, the goons blasted their way in to the house, first killing O'Donnell with 14 bullets to the head and then fired several more shots into one of O'Donnell's boarders, a Mrs. Charles McAllister.

When a group of miners wives gathered outside a company store in Tuscarora to protest prices, company official showed up and fired randomly in to the crowd, killing one and wounding several more. A few days later a mine boss named Patrick Varry fired point blank into a crowd of 300 protesting miners, killing two and injuring one. In both cases, the local law enforcement arrested both killers but released them on the grounds that the miners had threatened their lives.

A few days later Edward Coyle, a leading member of the local Hibernians, was found shot to death in side a company storage bin. By the end of 1874 the violence against the miners had grown so serve that even the ultra-conservative Miners National Association suggested that its membership in the area arm themselves.

The Irishmen were a favorite target for company officials since they had already gained a reputation for themselves as rabble rouser more apt to speak their minds, and in many cases in the Coal mines they wrongly accused the Irish of Union activities, (which at that time, was outlawed) even through it was commonly known in Pennsylvania that it was German miners who were behind the labor union forces, a tradition they had carried over from Europe with them.
The anti-Irish anti-Labor forces argued that the Irish were behind the Union activities and got around the law by using the cloak of the Ancient order of Hibernians to conduct Union business, what's more, they said, the A.O.H Irishmen didn't really care about the plight of the working man, they were simply building unions to be used later as political strong base.

However the National Organization of the A.O.H had a strict hands off policy in the matter of Labor unions (in fact the National A.O.H went out of its way at its national convention in April of 1877 to denounce the Molly Maguire’s and threatened to throw out any of its membership that was operating within the organization. Unfortunately all this did was to encourage the public’s belief that such an organization existed.

The Irish were in fact, making great strides in the political make up of most county and other local organizations, across the East Coast and especially in Pennsylvania.
And this was the real threat. In order for corrupt big business to operate effectively, it needed political machines that would cooperate with them, and at that point, all that had proven by the Irish political machines is that they would use politics to help themselves and their own kind.

If the Coal companies were abusing their Irish and other ethnic work forces, it would only be a matter of time before, the Celts would use that political power to correct those abuses.
Reading Railroad President Franklin Gowen, hired the world famous Pinkerton detective agency to uncover all and any labor Union leaders active in his coal mines and to have their activities stopped.

Allen Pinkerton, the legendary founder of the Pinkerton agency was a renowned publicity hound and self-promoter, who made it a quick public fact that he had received almost $250,0¬00.00 by the Mining company (about 2.5 million by today's standards) to uncover Union activity in the coal mines.

It was an outrageous sum of money.

The press reported every single detail of the investigation to explain to itself and the nation why Pinkerton had been paid such an outrageous sum of money and whether or not the famed sleuth and his army of undercover men even deserved such a fee.

Within two weeks of his press conference Pinkerton sent his undercover men in to the Mines. It can only be assumed that Pinkerton figured that the Irish didn't or couldn't read the newspaper that splashed the story of Pinkerton's planned undercover invasion of the Irish camps, and within days of their arrival almost all of Pinkerton's operatives were uncovered and tossed out of the camp.

All except one, a man named James McParlan. McParlan not only breached the camps security he also claimed to have reached the inner most circles of the Mine workers Union, which he said was operated out of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, in a an organization called the Molly Maguire’s.

At best, McParlan was a suspect character. It was reported in the press that he had killed a man in Ireland and that he had once shot and killed a Policeman in upper state New York and that he was already mired in several suspicious investigations for the Pinkerton's in other parts of the country.

It will never be completely clear as to whether or not McParlan uncovered even a shred of real evidence in the coal mines, or whether the he simply fabricated what he later told the courts.

Even the extremely biased Judge at the kangaroo court that tried the Irish miners, found it amazing that, according to McParlan's testimony that he was taken in to the confidence of the Molly Maguire organization after living in the mining camp for less than two weeks.

The fact was, that the Pinkertons had been paid a tremendous amount of money to uncover something and to date they had come up with nothing. What was at stake was the very existence of the Pinkerton Company. What is also a fact, is that once the Pinkerton's entered the coal mining camps the number of assault on companies official doubled as did acts of sabotage against company owned property.

Several weeks after entering the coal mines under the name McKenna, Pinkerton agent McParlan arose from the mines and reported in to his handlers back in Chicago.
Within days a series of arrests were made across the entire coal region. The first tried were miner Michael J. Doyle, Edward J. Kelly and John Kerrigan, all three were accused of the shot gun slaying of mine supervisor John P. Jones.

Shortly after the trail started McParlan assisted in the fourth arrest in the case, that of Alexander Campbell an important member of the local Hibernians. During almost each of the trials McParlan took the stand to say that he had not only uncovered the existence of a secret organization called the Molly Maguire’s, but that he had been allowed in to its membership and knew first hand of each of the planned murders that the Molly's had plotted out.

There may have been a secretive organization called the Molly Maguire’s back in Ireland made up of Irish peasants who rose up by night against their English landlords.
Another story has it that in order to protect their identity, the group dressed as women when it made its midnight attacks against the gentry, and some say the group was led by a women named Molly Maguire, which would seem odd that she would let her name be known after being involved with activities punishable by death.

By 1876, newspaper around the country claimed that any labor strike or violence was led by a local chapter of the Molly's. The first trail was nothing less than a mockery of justice. The court house was surrounded by heavily armed Coal and Iron police who were employed by the Mining company and the States Prosecutor who was later revealed to be on the Mining companies payroll, wore his retired US Army Generals uniform during the length of the trail.

More than 120 witnesses were brought before the court, most of them saying little more then what amounted to the fact that the three miners, Doyle, Kelly and Kerrigan, had been in the region for a while and had been looking for work.

One witness testified that there was nothing unusual about young men roaming the mining towns looking for work since so many of them had been blacklisted by the Mine company for their memberships in the Hibernians.

Aside from Pinkerton Agent McParlan, the prosecution’s chief witness to the shooting swore that he had seen one of the miners hiding behind a row of bushes near the murder scene, yet the killing took place in an open field.

The case was going so well for the miners that their lawyers told the court that they would not present any of their own witnesses since the State seemed to be winning their case for them.

The jury however, returned a guilty verdict against all four men who were sentenced to death by hanging.

Next came the trail of miner James Carroll, also a high ranking Hibernian. Carroll was accused of the shooting murder of Policeman James Yost. Other indicted and tried for the same murder were miners Thomas Duffey, known labor militant who was supposed to have put up the $10.00 bounty for the Policeman shooting.

James Roarity was arrested on the grounds that he provided the weapon used in the shooting and finally Hugh McGeehan and James Boyle both black listed Hibernians who were said to have fired the actual shots that killed the Policeman.

Again the state seemed to have to no actual case against the accused accept that they were known members of Hibernians, however the state did have a star witness (aside from Pinkertons agent McParlan) in the form of John Kerrigan who had already been sentenced to death for the shooting of the Mining supervisor.

It was clear, and almost understandable, that Kerrigan had decided to turn states witness when faced with the grim reality that he was otherwise going to hang for a murder he didn't commit.

An alcoholic, Kerrigan's entire body shook as he testified at the trail of the accused killers of the Policeman. Kerrigan said that he was present when the Hibernians (the accused) planned the Mining Supervisors and the Policeman's killing. It was all the jury needed to hear. A few days later miners James Boyle, Alexander Campbell, James Carroll, Thomas Duffy, Hugh McGeehan, Michael Doyle and Edward Kelly were hung by the neck. In the case of Alexander Campbell, his crime consisted chiefly of owning the boarding house where the murders were supposedly planned out.

Now spurred on by their success in the last two trails the mining companies threw out their net for more suspected labor agitators. Over the next two years, with all opposition to them on the run, the companies cut wages, (from $18.20 in 1869 to $9.80 by 1877) increased hours and laid off hundreds of workers from the mines.

Next came the trials of known labor leaders Thomas Munley, and Charles McAllister for the murder of mine foreman Thomas Sanger and a friend, Robert Urn. Then came the trial of Hibernian Joe Kehoe (again with McParlan as the chief witness) for the murder of a company man named William Thomas. Then came the trial of Patrick Hester, Peter McHugh and Patrick Tully for murder and they went on and on until 1877.

The official record shows that 19 miners were hung by the neck, they were Irishmen one in all, Thomas Munley, James Carroll, James Roarity, Hugh McGeehan, James Boyle, Thomas Duffy, Michael J. Doyle, Edward J. Kelly, Alexander Campbell, John Donahue, Thomas P. Fisher, John Kehoe, Patrick Hester, Patrick Tully, Peter McHugh, Peter McManus, Andrew Lanahan. In the case of two others, Charles Sharpe and James McDonald, both men were hanged right after the State’s Governor had officially pardoned them.

The pardon was thought to be a comprise against the rising tide of public disgust over the butchery and the mine owners desire for complete silence of all its trouble makers. To this day, not a single authentic document exists which proves that an organization called the Molly Maguire’s existed in the coal mines of Schuylkill County, the fact remains that the Molly Maguire’s had to be invented by the Mine owners if for no other reason than to frighten the country and draw its attention to the side of the mine owners.

 There were Irishmen in the coal mines who were actively organizing labor unions, most of the Irishmen were also members of, and in some cases, officer in, the Ancient Order of Hibernians

To keep itself out of trouble the Catholic Church in America openly aligned itself with the Mine owners, which even further widen the belief that the Molly’s existed. In 1889, Franklin Gowen, the President of Reading Railroad committed suicide. In 1907 McParlan was accused of manufacturing evidence in a trail and dismissed from the Pinkerton service. 

Despite that he did achieve a sort of celebrity status. Several dime novel books were written about him and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a renowned Irish hater, used McParland character in several of his books. However McParlan fame was fleeting. He disappeared completely after 1910 and is thought to have been killed by Irish nationalist in the forests of Washington state. In 1970 the Governor of the State of Pennsylvania reopened the case of the Molly Maguire’s and granted all of the condemned men full pardons on the ground that they were innocent in the first place. 



His Excellence, the Irishman John Hughes



His Excellence, the Irishman John Hughes



By
John William Tuohy

When Anti-Irish Catholic fever was at his highest point, efforts were made to defend the made to defend the church in print, most notably by Bishop Michael O'Connor and his paper, the Pittsburgh Catholic, and by Father James Mullon, a tough, former merchant sailor, who used his paper, the Cincinnati Telegraph Journal, to balance the racist and bigoted Cincinnati Journal.
As courageous as this was, these two tiny newspaper had little or no effect overall. They were simply overwhelmed by the Nativists publication, which, in 1849 alone, a slow year for the Anti-Catholic crowd, printed an estimated 2,200,000 pages of anti-Catholic pages in books, newspapers and journals.
The Church did, however, have a few minor victories. Father John Hughes, later Bishop of New York, was stationed in Philadelphia, and decided to join the insanity by sending in a letter to the editors of the Nativist paper, The Protestant, under the pseudonym "Mr. Cramer".
 In these letters, there was a series of them, Hughes/Cramer, brought the charges against the Catholics to what he thought was the height of absurdity. It wasn't. The editors placed an ad in the next edition begging Mr.Cramer/ Hughes to send in more articles on the evils of Romanism.
So Hughes sat down at his desk and penned what he considered to be the most ridiculous letter of his life, accusing the Catholics of being behind everything that had gone wrong to everyone in the world over the past decade. Hughes said that he was positive that he had gone overboard that time, no one, he reasoned, in their right mind could believe such rubble. But they did.
The editors sent Hughes/Crammer a check and asked for more. Hughes wrote several more letters, each more insane then the next, before he became bored with the hoax and wrote to the Catholic Truth Teller, explaining what he had done. The editors over at the Protestant wrote a front page editorial denying Hughes claim and insisted that there really was a Mr. Cranmer out there, someplace, if, in fact he hadn’t already been kidnapped and sent to Rome for execution at the hands of the Pope. After that, the church sent out Hughes, one of its best and brightest scholars, to confront the Nativist’s in public debate, but these were usually disrupted by armed gangs of Know Nothing thugs.
Later, as Bishop of New York, Hughes continued to combat the Nativists and as a result, oddly enough, played a small hand in taking religion out of America’s public school system.
By 1840, hundreds of Parishes were supporting their own schools, with most of this growth took place in the larger Eastern cities where Catholic students were forced to read aloud from the King James bible and history books referred to John Hus as "a zealous reformer from popery" who was "burned at the stake by deceitful Catholics"
 This was so appalling to some Catholics that in one year 20,000 Catholic and mostly Irish students were pulled out of public schools by their parents. Still, at the time, the vast majority of the inner city Catholics were desperately poor and even the minimal cost of a parochial education was well beyond their means. As result, most Catholic remained within the public school system.
In 1840, the New York city schools, public and private, were under the direct control of a private non-profit, corporation called the Public School Society which administered city funds for the schools. The state’s Governor, William H. Seward, a Protestant who was sympathetic to the Catholic's complaints of text book biased, agreed to withhold state funding of the city’s schools until the Public School Society agreed to drop it anti Catholic text from the children’s books which were provided to the schools by the Public School Society. Bishop Hughes then suggested that the withheld funds be given to his burgeoning, but broke, Catholic school system.
A fierce political battle broke out over the issue, and Hughes, using the considerable clout of the Catholic dominated Democratic party, walked away the winner, more or less. While his Catholic school system didn't receive any state funding, the Public School Society was abolished, the anti-Catholic text books tossed out and from that day on all of New York's state and city schools would be run along strictly non-sectarian lines.
But the New York victory left a sour taste in the mouths of Nativist.
 In 1844, the issue came to a head in Philadelphia when the local Bishop, Francis Patrick Kenrick requested that the local government allow Catholic school children to read their own Bible in class, as opposed to the Protestant King James version which they were forced to read every morning at the start of classes. The next day, several newspapers twisted the Bishops simple request to the point that a mob surrounded the Bishops house with torches, intent on burning it to the ground, but were dispersed by the local police before any damage could be done.
The Kensington riots broke out a day later. A group of thugs marched into the Catholic Ghetto of Kensington, outside of Philadelphia, led by a 12 year boy who carried an American flag. A small but determined group of Catholics marched out to meet the mob and defend their homes. Shots were fired and the 12 year boy flew dead on to the ground.  The next day, May 7th, an armed mob of 2,500 marched back into Kensington under a banner "THIS IS THE FLAG WHICH WAS TRAMPLED UPON BY THE IRISH PAPIST!"
Years later one of the residents recalled (During the Mass there was) "The startling clamor of an approaching mob was heard, many a rosy countenance assumed the hue of the lily (the men in the Church rose quietly and strode to the doors) nearer and nearer came the cries, nearer and bearer came the shouts, but the celebrant, if he felt any fear, showed none, as the God of the battles lay before him. Nearer and nearer came the yells and as they passed behind the church the solemn misery nobis was over"
To save their homes and shops from being burned to the ground, non-Catholics placed signs in their windows "No Popery Here!". Before the riot was over, 81 Homes, two Catholic Churches, two rectories, two convents, and a Catholic library were burned to the ground. Forty people were left dead and another 60, including nine Priests, were severely beaten.
In New York, John Hughes, was outraged at the attack. To ensure the safety of his flock, Hughes assembled a make-shift militia of Catholic faithful and pledged them with the oath (You will) resolve, after taking as many lives as you can in defense of your property, to give up, if necessary, your own lives to the same cause"
It was, more or less, for show. The Bishop had gone through the trouble of inviting the press to the gathering as a means to make the local bigots aware, that the New York church, if provoked, defend itself.
After the administering the oath, Hughes turned to the assembled reporters and said "If a single catholic church is burned, (as were those in Kensington) in the city of New York, then this city will become a second Moscow...They (The Kensington Catholics) should have defended themselves and their churches since the authorities could not, or should I say would not, do it for them"
When Hughes was invited to city Hall by Mayor Robert Morris, a Naivest sympathizer, he was asked; "Do you fear some of your Churches too, will be burned sir?"
"No sir” Hughes replied “but I am afraid that some of your churches will be burned. We can protect our own. I come to warn you for your own good."
The Mayor asked if Hughes could at least restrain his Catholic Militia, now an estimated 2,000 strong, from rioting and Hughes replied "I have not the power, you must take care that these men are not provoked"

Not a single Catholic church in New York was harmed.  

The Boston (Irish) Massacre

  
The Boston (Irish) Massacre


By
John William Tuohy

 The Boston Massacre, which might be more aptly known as the Boston Irish massacre, started innocently enough, here at this spot, at about noon on Friday, March 2, 1770 when William Green, a rope maker spotted Private Patrick Walker, an Irishmen in the British regiment assigned to Boston. Green knew that the soldiers were notoriously underpaid and in their off hours held down temporary odd jobs around the city to pick up some extra cash. Green turned to his workmates and smiled and then spoke to the passing infantrymen "Hey, soldier, do you want some work?"
"Yes, I do"
"Then go clean out my shithouse"
More words were exchanged and Private Walker flew at Green but was quickly beaten to the ground by Green and his workmates, one of them picking up a knife that had fallen out of the soldiers pocket and waved it at him. Outnumbered and humiliated, Private Patrick Walker beat a retreat back to his barracks and recruited eight or ten fellow infantry men and returned to the rope works. 
By this time the Rope makers were also reinforced and after a brief fistfight, the British soldiers were beaten back to their barrack. A few days later, the incident was repeated, almost exactly at MacNeils rope makers. Later that night, three troops were missing from roll call and a barracks rumor started that they locals had killed the unaccounted men. 
 It wasn't true of course, but tensions were high on both sides and it was only a matter of time before something broke.
Several days later three soldiers were making their way to their barracks when a small crowd assembled around them. One of the soldiers poked one of the civilians with the butt of his bayonet, a shouting match broke out and more civilians gathered around the three troopers.
The soldiers pulled out their swords and starting swinging them as they walked, nicking a few shoulders and ripping clothes. Several British officers came out to defuse the situation but to no avail.
The crowd of Americans, mostly school boys, grew in size. Someone in the crowd yelled "The Main Guard" and the crowd rushed here, to King Street where they pelted British soldiers with snowballs, ice and curses. Again an Officer came and ordered his men back in to their barracks. The crowd made its way to another guard station manned by Private Hugh White, who had been involved in a fistfight with a local named Edward Garrick a few days before. Now Garrick was in the crowd, and having spotted Private White 
"There's the son of a bitch who knocked me down a few days ago"
The crowd turned on White and hurled ice at him and dared him to step out of his guard house. White replied that he could not leave his station and told the mob that if they did not disburse that he would call the main guard. The mob pelted him again and White fixed his bayonet at ready and then made a great show of loading his musket to warn the mob off. A local bookseller, Henry Knox warned White against firing, telling him that the mob was made up mostly of teenagers.
"Sir, if they molest me, I will fire"
A barrage of ice slammed inches away from Whites head and a chorus of shouts came from the crowd "Kill him" and "Fire damn you fire, we defy you"
More people joined the mob. Private White shouted for reinforcements "Main Guard turn out!"
The town’s people also called for reinforcements. This is what they had been waiting for.
Inside the main Guardhouse, Irish born Captain Thomas Preston paced the floor for an answer. He had sent out scouts to find out what was happening to Private White. Noted for his sound judgment, Preston was lost for an answer.
 He knew that he had no authority to send armed troops out on to the street without the consent of the local officials, a Justice of the Peace, but he also understood that no Justice of Peace could be relied on to brave the mob outside. In the meantime Private White stood alone, surrounded by a growing mob, some armed with clubs the others pelting the young soldier with chunks of sharp ice. As White saw the situation and ordered his subordinate, a Lieutenant James Basset to form a relief column of half a dozen men and bring White back to the barrack.
The Lieutenant rounded up six men. Three of them, John Carroll, Mathew Kilroy and William Warren, had been involved in the rope incident a few days before and a corporal and started to march out to Private White. Preston rethought his command. Lieutenant Basset, he knew, was incompetent. Through family connects Basset had been commissioned an officer at age twelve, and now at age twenty was badly shaken over the mob outside.
 Preston ordered Basset to stay behind and marched his squad outside the Guard house, rounded up White and started to march back to the Guard house. But by then the crowd had encircled the soldiers and made passing impossible. Preston ordered his men in to a semi-circle next to the corner of a customs house. The soldiers stood three feet apart, bayonets at ready with Preston standing directly in front of his men.
A local walked up to Preston and asked if his men intended to fire in to the crowd, Preston assured him that they would not fire in to the crowd, and besides they would have to shoot him first due to where he was standing A Tory made his way to the back of the soldiers and shouted
"Fire, by God, I will stand by you whilst I have a drop of blood! Fire!"
Samuel Gray, one of the men involved in the rope incident, showed up on the scene. Slightly drunk, he started the crowd chanting "Fire Damn you fire!" at the soldiers. A club was thrown through the air and struck Private Hugh Montgomery in the head. Montgomery lifted himself up off the ground and fired a round off in to the crisp New England air.
A man from the crowd, armed with a club, flung himself at Captain Preston but was prodded back by Montgomery’s bayonet. The crowd fell silent and Preston walked behind his men.
The chants "fire, Fire damn you fire" started again. The soldier, all young men and understandably scared, may have thought they heard their officer order them to fire. (Preston had not ordered them to fire or not fire, he may have stood behind his men to avoid being beaten by clubs) When it looked as though the Redcoats would not fire, the drunken Samuel Gray turned to another man in the crowd and said
"My lads they will not fire"
At that very second Private Matthew Kilroy fired a shot from his musket. Kilroy wasn't aiming at Gray or anyone else; by his testimony he had by shooting in to the air.
The bullet went through Gray’s forehead and was said to have left a hole three by two inches. The other soldiers started to shoot. A shot struck and killed six foot two Crispus Attucks who may or may not have been an African American, he was dark skinned, possibly a Mulatto or an American Indian. He had been slave by had escaped in 1751. He had come to King Street leading a band of merchant sailors.
Someone shouted that the mob should advance on to the soldiers to keep them from shooting again, as the crowd Pressed in the Soldiers reloaded and fire in to the mob killing James Caldwell, a local sailor. A second shot killed Irish born Patrick Carr, one other was killed and another wounded. Captain Preston drew his sword and rushed down the firing line shoving the musket barrels in to the air "Stop firing! stop firing!"
Outraged, Preston demanded to be told why his men had fired. They all responded alike, they were sure that they had heard Preston order them to fire. What had actually happened was that Private Hugh Montgomery, having been knocked to the ground, stepped back from his position and shouted to the others "Damn you, Fire!" The other soldiers, assuming that Preston had shouted the ordered, opened fire. By three O’clock that morning, Captain Preston was in jail on charges of murder. The soldiers who had done the actual shooting were indicted for the killings, but were not held in cells. Early that next day Irish born James Forrest, a friend of Preston’s entered Lawyer John Adams office weeping. Forrest wept so often he was referred to around town as the Irish infant. Forrest retained Adams, for one dollar, as Preston’s attorney for the upcoming trial. Adams petitioned the court for a separate trail for Preston and Preston's soldiers balked. Why, they asked the court, should Preston have a better chance of defending himself, when they who had simply been following his orders, should be tried as one. The court disagreed and Preston was tried separately and Preston’s trial would become the first criminal case in New England’s history to run more than one day. The jury found him innocent of all charges in six days’ time.
The soldier’s trial came in early December of 1770. They would be defended by a 26 year old Lawyer named Josiah Quincy with Samuel Adams acting as the prosecution. The most damaging testimony came from the Doctor who treated young Irishman Patrick Carr who had lived for four days after being shot. Carr told the Doctor that he was surprised that the British had not fired sooner, that he thought that the soldiers had been abused beyond reason, that it was his opinion that had they not fired that they would have been assaulted by the mob, that they fired in self-defense and that he had heard the mob scream "Kill them" The clincher came when the Doctor reported that the Irish boy did not blame the soldier who had shot him. It was damaging testimony. When the  Doctor stepped down, Samuel Adams walked over to the all Protestant Jury and pointed out that Carr was an Irishmen who more than probably had been given a Catholic funeral, the Jury, he said, could figure out how much value to put on the words of an Irish Catholic.
For his summation, the soldier’s lawyer called the mob "Irish Teague’s and outlandish jack tars"

Several days later, the jury foreman, an Irishman in name at least, Joseph Mayo, told the court that Privates James Hartigan, William McCauley, John Carrol, Hugh White and William Warren were found not guilty. Privates Mathew Kilroy and Hugh Montgomery, the two men who were known to have fired in to the crowd were found guilty and had their right thumbs seared with a fire brand. All seven men were then transferred by boat to various forts in New Jersey.  

"The Boston Mahatma"


             
"The Boston Mahatma"


By
John William Tuohy

  Martin Lomasney was born in Boston  on  March  3, 1859, the son of Irish parents. He got through several years of grammar school before leaving work as a shoe shiner and errand runner. While still a child, he entered politics and for fifty years was one of the most powerful political leaders Boston has ever had.
   His first taste of  politics came during the Tildon-Hayes campaign in 1875 as a worker for the Democrat leader Michael Wells. When Wells died a few years later, Lomasney already had the nucleus of his political  machine place, organized as the Hendicks Club (est. 1885) 
   The Club was named after his stalwart friend, Thomas A Hendricks (Vice President under Cleveland).   Hiss rise to the status political master was rapid. There w ere set backs of course.
   At noon,  in March of 1894, he was shot while serving as an Alderman by James H. Duncan. . Duncan fired five shots from a revolver, one of which struck Martin in the leg. The other four shots fortunately went astray, though one shot went through the clothing of Councilman Boyle, it caused no injury.   
    Duncan was an oil finisher by trade who owned the house in which he lived in Billerica Street. On 24 January he had been ordered by the Board of Health to vacate the premises. He believed that Martin was responsible for the order. In a conversation with a Policeman after the shooting, when asked why he had shot the Alderman, Duncan said:   "I had good reason for doing it. If you knew as much as I do, you would have done it yourself. He is a villain and anything but a friend of the employed."  
  Lomasney served in the State Senate (1895) and for four terms in the State Legislature (1899 and 1907). However, he never cared much for  the  duties  of office and was happier managing the campaigns of his friends.However, it became his custom to accept the post on the Legislature each third term and to fill the intervening terms with younger men under his patronage.
     In most pre-election conferences Lomasney held the balance of power and it was his habit to remain non-committal until the last possible moment. Even his own counsel were kept guessing as to who was his man for Congress, Mayor, Governor or whatever other post was to be filled. Usually he would then appear, “almost like a god” out of the electionary machinery, and announce his will and nominee.
    He always denied that he was a boss. "A boss gives orders. I don't. When I want something done I ask for it. Just before the election we send out suggestions to the voters. We don't tell 'em how to vote. We just suggest." 
  It Lomasney who gave rise  to Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, who, although an avowed political enemy, was a close personal friend.   During rallies, Martin would rip loose his collar and tie and deliver a roaring demand for a solid vote for his candidate followed by his love of Ireland.   
    In the brutal 1918 elections Lomasney fought against another Irish pol, man named Kane, who was instrumental in getting Martin's cousin's father-in-law, John F Fitzgerald (or Honey Fritz as he was known), removed from his seat in Congress in 1919,  on charges of election frauds.
       Peter Tague, Kane's candidate, had been defeated by 238 votes in 1918 by Honey Fritz. Tague had run on stickers in the election after Fitzgerald had defeated him in the primary by only fifty votes.
    Kane and Tague convinced a congressional investigating committee that along with using mattress voters, Martin Lomasney had seen to it that Tague's stickers were not gummed. The unsticky stickers fell off the ballots in the ballot box leaving Tague's ballots blank and void.
   After working for Fitzgerald's grandson in 1946, Kane said proudly: "I kept the grandfather out of the House of Representatives and I put the grandson in." 
       During the election of 1925, he replied to a  charge  of corruption with  "They've said a lot of things about me, but remember, they've never proved anything".
   Lomasney was never able to get along  with Mayor James M Curley, and  the two were openly antagonistic for many years. On June 13,1922, Lomasney set  in to motion an investigation, passed by the House of Representatives by a vote of 121 to 66,  to have Attorney-General J Weston open an investigation into the first administration of Mayor Curley.
    Lomasney alleged contained evidence of graft and maladministration by Curley  (a charge that dogged him for years) however the investigation died off.  Lomasney made constant threats  to leave the Democratic party, but never did  and it was probably just another of his ploys.

   His final political campaign was in the autumn of 1932 during which he suffered a general physical breakdown. The second attack of pneumonia proved fatal and on August 12, 1933 he died at the Hotel Bellevue aged 73. He had never married.

Matthew Lyon, the Fighting Irishman of Capitol Hill

                                      Matthew Lyon, the Fighting Irishman of Capitol Hill



By
John William Tuohy


One of the worst cases of bad behavior in political life happened in 1798 and involved an Irishman Republican Representative Matthew Lyon against a Connecticut Federalist Roger Griswold, after Lyons spat in the Griswold’s face. All this had been preceded by a round of insults with the entire ugly episode having started over Griswold’s assault on Lyons voting record from the house floor. Griswold responded to the spitting and insults by striking Lyons about twenty times with a hickory cane, which prompted Griswold to respond with a pair of fire tons. All this happened while other members of the house gathered round in a circle in watched the two men beat each other up.
Roger Griswold (May 21, 1762 – October 25, 1812) was governor of Connecticut and a member of the US House of Representatives, serving as a Federalist. Born in Lyme, Connecticut, he was the son of Matthew Griswold and Ursula Wolcott Griswold. His maternal grandfather, Roger Wolcott, his uncle, Oliver Wolcott, and his cousin Oliver Wolcott, Jr., had each served as Governors of Connecticut
A student of the classics, Griswold graduated from Yale College in 1780; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1783 and opened a law practice in Norwich, Connecticut. Eleven years later, he returned to Lyme and was elected as a Federalist to the US House of Representatives. He served from March 4, 1795, until his resignation in 1805. In 1801, he declined an offer to become Secretary of War (Defense) under President John Adams. His grandson, Matthew Griswold, would also serve Connecticut in the House.
In the last years of his term in office, 1803, Griswold and several other New England Federalist politicians, proposed secession from the union due to the growing influence of Jeffersonian Democrats and the Louisiana Purchase which they felt would dilute Northern influence.
Matthew Lyon (July 14, 1749 - August 1, 1822) was born near Dublin, Ireland. He learned his trade as a printer and in 1765, at age 15, immigrated to Connecticut. Arriving to the state as a redemptioner (An emigrant who paid for the voyage by serving for a specified period as a bondservant) Lyons worked on a farm in Woodbury, while continuing his education.
In 1774, the ambitious Irishman moved to Wallingford, Vermont and eventually organized a company of militia and served as its adjutant and was later commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the regiment known as the Green Mountain Boys in July 1776.
He resigned from the Army in 1778 and became a member of the Vermont House of Representatives from 1779-1783, founded the town of Fair Haven, Vermont in 1779, operated various kinds of mills, owned a paper factory and a printing office and published the Farmers' Library, which would become the Fair Haven Gazette. He also returned to the state House of Representatives for ten years. (1783-1796.) In 1797, after several defeats for office, he was elected to the US House of Representatives.
Lyon problems with Griswold started after an exchange of insults which lead to the spitting incident on January 30, 1798. A group of members were chatting informally by the fireplace during a pause to count votes. Lyon, who was a rabid anti-Federalist, accused Griswold of opposing the interests of their constituents in order to enrich himself and noted that he owned a large printing company and might go after Griswold and the other federalists that way. Griswold, who was across the room heard the remark and shouted at Lyon “If you go into Connecticut,” you had better bring your wooden sword.” an allusion to Lyon’s Revolutionary War record.
The insult sprang from a rumor that Lyon had been forced to wear a wooden sword as a symbol of cowardice in 1776 after men under Lyon’s command had mutinied during an isolated and unpopular mission near the Canadian border. A military court investigated the matter and cashiered Lyon and his fellow officers, out of the service. It was a purely political decision made to restore discipline among the raw and undisciplined Continental troops. Lyon, for the benefit of the new Republic, accepted the court’s decision and was later readmitted into the Army at a higher rank. Lyon responded by spitting in Griswold's face. A Federalist member of the House immediately moved to expel Lyon and the House spent two weeks debating the momentous question. On February 14 the House voted in favor of expulsion by a party line vote of 52 to 44, short of the necessary two-thirds majority. For his part, Lyon issued an apology for his action.
Griswold decided to defend his honor on the morning of February 15, when, without any warning, Griswold rushed across the House floor to Lyon who was sitting at his desk writing a letter. He was armed with a thick hickory stick that he had purchased the day before with the single intention of beating Lyon senseless
In a letter, Griswold later described what happened “I gave him the first blow—I call’d him a scoundrel & struck him with my cane, and pursued him with more than twenty blows on his head and back until he got possession of a pair of tongues [i.e., tongs], when I threw him down and after giving him several blows with my fist, I was taken off by his friends.”
Representative George Thacher of Massachusetts recalled “I was suddenly, and unsuspectedly interrupted by the sound of a violent blow I raised my head, & directly before me stood Mr. Griswald [sic] laying on blows with all his might upon Mr. Lyon, who seemed to be in the act of rising out of his seat Lyon made an attempt to catch his cane, but failed--he pressed towards Griswald and endeavoured to close with him, but Griswald fell back and continued his blows on the head, shoulder, & arms of Lyon[who] protecting his head & face as well as he could then turned & made for the fire place& took up the [fire] tongs. Griswald drop[p]ed his stick & seized the tongs with one hand, & the collar of Lyon by the other, in which pos[i]tion they struggled for an instant when Griswald trip[p]ed Lyon & threw him on the floor & gave him one or two blows in the face”
The combatants were separated and Lyon walked over to the House water table, loudly making the statement “I wish I had been left alone awhile.” Griswold then re-approached him and Lyon came at him with a set of fire tongs, setting off a second brawl. Jonathan Mason commented that the incident caused the central legislative body of the United States of America had been reduced to "an assembly of Gladiators."
The ever arrogant Griswold later said “I might perhaps have given him a second beating but the House was called to order.” Griswold, who was born to rank and privilege, ascribed Lyon's temperament to his working class Irish roots. In 1798, he wrote to a friend "The stories of his being sold for his passage from Ireland are likewise true--in short he is literally one of the most ignorant contemptible and brutal fellows in Congress--and that is saying a great deal." As a result of the incident, Lyon had the distinction of being the first member of the House to have an ethics violation charge filed against him for "gross indecency" for spitting on Griswold, although the Ethics Committee recommended censure, the House as a whole rejected the motion to censure him while the blue blooded Griswold will forever be the first congressman to engage in a physical altercation with another congressman.
Lyon was reelected to Congress while in jail in 1798, after he was found guilty of violating the Alien and Sedition Acts, which prohibited malicious writing of the American government or its officials.
Lyon was the first person to be put to trial for violating the acts and charged with criticizing Federalist president John Adams and disagreeing with Adams' decision to go to war against France. He was found guilty and sentenced to four months in jail and ordered to pay a $1,000 fine and court costs. While in jail, Lyon won election to the Sixth Congress. In the election of 1800, it was Lyon cast the deciding vote for Jefferson after the election went to the House of Representatives because of an electoral tie.
Lyon left the Congress in 1801 and moved to Kentucky where he settled in Caldwell County (now Lyon County) and became a member of the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1802. He was reelected to Congresses in 1803 and was appointed United States factor to the Cherokee Nation in Arkansas Territory in 1820. he died Spadra Bluff, Arkansas, August 1, 1822.

Griswold served as a judge of the Supreme Court of Connecticut in 1807, Lieutenant Governor from 1809 to 1811 and Governor from 1811 until his death in Norwich. He is buried Old Lyme, Connecticut.
The sad and strange case of Virginia Tigh

By
John William Tuohy

In 1956 an amateur hypnotist named Morey Bernstein of Pueblo Colorado, busted into the headlines with the claim that he had contacted the dead.
Bernstein claimed that he had hypnotized a local woman named Virginia Tigh. (Sometimes spelled as Tighe)
 While under her spell, Tigh transformed into a young Irish woman named Bridy Murphy who said that she was born in Ireland on December 20, 1798.
   She said she was the daughter of a lawyer named Duncan Murphy from County Cork. She said that she had red hair and that she had married a man named Sean McCarthy, also a lawyer. She reported that she had a long and healthy life, dying at age sixty six after falling down a flight of stairs.
   A local Colorado newspaper serialized the story. Bernstein wrote a book about Bridy Murphy which became a nationwide best seller. Bridy Murphy was now the rage of the country.
   Then Life Magazine launched its own investigation. Reporters were sent to Ireland to find any trace or evidence that a person named Bridy Murphy ever existed. But she didn't exist. Nor did her father or husband.
   A closer look at the whole story showed that there really was a Bridy Murphy...of sorts. Her real name was Mrs. Anthony Corkrell and Virginia Tigh had lived across the street from her in Chicago, when Tigh was a little girl. Whenever she Baby sat for her, Mrs. Cockrell had spun tales of Ireland for the Virginia Tigh.
   As for Bridy Murphy's husband Sean McCarthy, experts concluded that Corkell's son, Sean filled that role. The fall down the stairs that killed Bridy Murphy turned out to be a duplicate description of a fall Tigh's sister had taken as a child. The tale of Bridy Murphy, it turns out, was nothing more than a stroll down the childhood memories of Virginia Tigh.



The Day Nixon Met Elvis


The Day Nixon Met Elvis




By

John William Tuohy

On Saturday, December 19, 1970, Elvis Presley, the quickly fading king of Rock and Roll had an ugly confrontation with his father, Vernon, who was his money manager and chief advisor after Colonel Tom Parker, and Elvis’s wife, over money and Presley’s lavish spending habits.  That month, Elvis had spent more than $100,000 on Christmas presents that included 32 handguns and ten Mercedes-Benzes.

Elvis, not used to being told what to do or how much to spend, stormed out of his Graceland mansion in outer Memphis and began the odd series of events that would lead him to a meeting, in the Oval Office of the White House, with the President of the United States. 
Still angry when he reached airport, Elvis, alone, simply booked a seat on the next flight out, a flight that happened to be going to Washington DC. (Another theory has it that Elvis flew to DC to be close to a woman friend named Joyce Bova, who lived in the District.)

On board the plane, an airline steward saw that Elvis was carrying a pistol and told him he couldn’t bring it on the plane. Elvis refused to leave the gun behind and was asked to leave the plane, however, the plane’s pilot, chased Elvis through the airport and catching up to him, said “I’m sorry, Mr. Presley, of course you can keep your gun.”

Once in DC, Elvis booked a room at the old Hotel Washington and then flew to Los Angeles where he kept a second home. "Elvis called and asked me to pick him up at the airport," Presley aide Jerry Schilling and at 3 AM chilling arrived at the LA airport to drive Presley to his west coast home at Hillcrest Drive in Beverly Hills. Schilling had been living in LA for the previous year, working as an apprentice film editor.

At that point, Elvis was already talking about having the federal government issue him a badge. Elvis had a large badge collection, but the Federal Agents credentials and badge, he would ask government officials for them no less than ten times in two days" represented some kind of ultimate power to him," Priscilla Presley later wrote "With the federal narcotics badge, he [believed he] could legally enter any country both wearing guns and carrying any drugs he wished."
The next day Elvis told Schilling that they were flying to Washington DC "He didn't say why," Schilling recalls, "but I thought the badge might be part of the reason."
Schilling booked the flight and then realized they had no cash. Elvis found a check book he had stored in the LA home but it was Sunday night and the banks were closed. Money machines were still a thing of the future.  Elvis called his limo driver, Gerald Peters,  whom Elvis employed while filming in Los Angeles.

Peters, Elvis called him Sir Gerald because he had once been a driver for Winston Churchill, was well known to the management of the exclusive Beverly Hilton Hotel and on the way to the airport, they stopped at the Beverly Hilton where they cashed a $500 check for the King of Rock and Roll.

On the flight, Elvis moved around the cabin and socialized with the passengers, stopping to speak to a G.I. returning home for the holidays.

“He (Elvis) comes back to me and he goes, “Where’s that money?” Jerry Schilling said “I know what’s going to happen, so I said, “What money?”
And he goes, “The 500 dollars.”
I said, “Elvis, we’re going to Washington. That’s all we’ve got.”

He said, “You don’t understand. This man’s been in Viet Nam. He’s going back home for Christmas.”  Schilling handed over the money to Elvis who gave it to the solider.

Elvis lived most of his short life in a celebrity bubble and he was almost always surrounded by members of the infamous Memphis Mafia, old high school friends and other characters who took care of every detail for the king. When Elvis rushed out of Graceland that Saturday morning, all he carried was his wallet, several dollars and an unused credit card.

When Elvis arrived at the Memphis Airport, he marched over to the Pan Am ticket counter to book a flight to DC. The counter clerk asked how he would like to pay for the ticket and Elvis, realizing only then that he had no money, asked if the airline would send the bill to his manager “Colonel” Tom Parker. The clerk said she couldn’t do that.  A supervisor was called and Elvis offered the supervisor a chance to use the Kings new Cadillac while he was gone, all he had to do was get him a ticket to DC but the supervisor declined the offer. Finally, Elvis remembered that he had been given a credit card for just such emergencies and the ticket to DC was purchased.

On the jet to Washington, Elvis, then 35-years-old, wrote a rambling six-page letter to President Richard M. Nixon.

Dear Mr. President.

First, I would like to introduce myself. I am Elvis Presley and admire you and have great respect for your office. I talked to Vice President Agnew in Palm Springs three weeks ago and expressed my concern for our country.
 The drug culture, the hippie elements, the SDS, Black Panthers, etc. do NOT consider me as their enemy or as they call it The Establishment. I call it America and I love it. Sir, I can and will be of any service that I can to help The Country out. I have no concern or Motives other than helping the country out.
So I wish not to be given a title or an appointed position. I can and will do more good if I were made a Federal Agent at Large and I will help out by doing it my way through my communications with people of all ages. First and foremost, I am an entertainer, but all I need is the Federal credentials. I am on this plane with Senator George Murphy and we have been discussing the problems that our country is faced with.
Sir, I am staying at the Washington Hotel, Room 505-506-507. I have two men who work with me by the name of Jerry Schilling and Sonny West. I am registered under the name of Jon Burrows.
I will be here for as long as long as it takes to get the credentials of a Federal Agent. I have done an in-depth study of drug abuse and Communist brainwashing techniques and I am right in the middle of the whole thing where I can and will do the most good. I am Glad to help just so long as it is kept very Private. You can have your staff or whomever call me anytime today, tonight, or tomorrow. I was nominated this coming year one of America's Ten Most Outstanding Young Men. That will be in January 18 in my home town of Memphis, Tennessee. I am sending you the short autobiography about myself so you can better
Respectfully,
 Elvis Presley
P. S. I believe that you, Sir, were one of the Top Ten Outstanding Men of America also. I have a personal gift for you which I would like to present to you and you can accept it or I will keep it for you until you can take it.

Landing again at National Airport and Elvis and Jerry Schilling rented a limo and had the driver take them by the main gate at the White House where Elvis dropped off his letter. It was 6:30 a.m.
 “I don’t think this is such a good idea,” Schilling told Elvis about dropping off the letter. Still, Elvis ordered the limo driver pull up to the White House’s northwest gate, where he got out and handed the letter to a uniformed Secret Service officer

  Schilling looked at Elvis and realized that wearing his black cape in the dark of the night that “Elvis looks a lot like Dracula” so Schilling climbed out of the limo and explained the note to the cop who agreed to deliver the letter to the president.

The pair returned do the Hotel, which is across the street from the US Treasury Department and a half block from the White House. Elvis took three rooms, and then left to visit the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs for unscheduled meeting with a deputy director who would not approve one of the coveted bureau badges for the superstar.

Meanwhile, somehow, not only was Presley’s letter to the President letter was delivered to the inner sanctums of the White House, it was delivered that day and handed off to White House aide Dwight Chapman who sent a quick memo with Elvis’s letter attached to Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman.

Chapin’s note to Haldeman said that he thought it would be good for the President to meet Presley because the entertainer was "very pro" Nixon. “In addition” he wrote, “if the president wants to meet with some bright young people outside of the government, Presley might be a perfect one to start with,"

In turn Halderman passed the issue to senior Presidential aide Egil "Bud" Krogh, White House Deputy for Domestic Affairs. As fate should have it, Krogh was an avid Elvis fan as well.
Krogh was intrigued by the idea of a Nixon-Presley summit and with Haldeman’s consent scheduled the meeting for 12:30 that afternoon.  Krogh then called the Washington Hotel and set up a meeting through Schilling.
Krogh recalled the events of the meeting:

 “It was December 21, 1970. I got a call from Dwight Chapin, who was one of my best friends on the White House staff. And he said, 'The King is here'. And I said, 'King who?' I looked at the President's schedule and said, 'There aren't any kings on the president's schedule'.
 He said, 'No, not just any two-bit king, the real king. The King of Rock--Elvis. He's right here in Washington and he wants to see the president'. And I thought that was just an elaborate practical joke. . . . We did those things in those days. I felt that this is just a joke, that this wasn't true. But he sent over a letter that he said had been written by Elvis Presley, asking to meet with the president to help him with the drug problem…..
In about an hour, through the OMB security office of the Oval Executive Office building I get a call saying that 'Elvis Presley is here with his two bodyguards'. And they came down the hall to my office and he really was Elvis Presley, dressed in a purple jumpsuit and a white shirt open to the navel with a big gold chain and thick-rimmed sunglasses. And he came in and I must say, I was very impressed with him. I had been a big fan of his during the 1950s.
 He proceeded to tell me about how much he felt for his country. He wanted to help the country, to do what he could. He felt he had an obligation because he'd been given so much. He talked about serving in the military, and felt that that was his duty.
And I thought, 'Well, you know, this guy seems to be saying the things that that Richard Nixon would like to hear, so let's see if we can't set up a meeting'. So I wrote a memo to the president suggesting some talking points and, and Dwight Chapin wrote a memo to then-Chief of Staff Bob Haldeman, to get approval for this meeting. And it came back approved. So I called back over to their hotel and said, 'The meeting's on. Come on over'.

   The meeting was scheduled to last for five minute in the Oval office.

 A few hours later,   at 11:45, Jeff Donfeld, a White House aide, recalled Elvis’ arrival to the White House. He said that another aide called him and said "The king is at the gate. I said, 'What are you talking about? 'He said, 'The king is at the gate.' I didn't have a clue. He said, 'Elvis Presley.' I said, "You've got to be kidding me.' "

It was Elvis at the gates, wearing a tight purple velvet pants, the matching cape, a white point collared shirt unbuttoned to reveal two enormous gold chains. He came bearing gifts, photos of his family and a World War II commemorative Colt .45 pistol with seven silver bullets. mounted in a display case that Elvis had taken from his Los Angeles mansion. Elvis and Schilling were now joined by Elvis bodyguard Sonny West.
Krogh continued;

 “I got a call from the Secret Service telling me we had a little problem, because Elvis had brought a gun in to give the president, a nice Colt automatic with bullets in the display case. I had to go over and explain to them that 'No guns in the Oval Office' was standard policy around here. I hoped he'd understand. .... And he seemed to take that in good grace.
The President’s staff prepared a list of talking points for him that focused on drug abuse and a suggestion that Elvis "Record an album with the theme 'get high on life' at the federal narcotic rehabilitation and research facility at Lexington, Kentucky.”

Finally Elvis was shown into the Oval office, with Jerry Schilling and Sonny West waiting outside. A White House photographer followed Bud Krogh into the meeting.

“We walked in a half an hour later into the Oval Office” Krogh said “and the president got up. It was a little bit awkward at first, because I'm not sure that Elvis really believed that he was there. They had a really weird discussion about a lot of things that had nothing to do with the talking points I had written. Elvis was telling the president how difficult it was to play in Las Vegas. The president said, 'I understand, Las Vegas is a tough town'. And then Elvis said, 'And you know, the Beatles came over here and made a lot of money and said some un-American things'. And the president looked at me, like, 'Well, what's this about the Beatles?'
And then the real reason for the trip finally came out as Elvis said, 'Mr. President, can you get me a badge from the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs?' And the president looked and he said, 'Bud, can we get him a badge?' And I said, 'Well, Mr. President, if you want to get him a badge, we can do that'. He said, 'Well, get him a badge'.
Well, Elvis was so happy about this, he steps around the side of the desk and he goes over and he grabs him. And one of my abiding memories while thinking, 'This is probably the last thing I'll ever do in the Oval Office', was Elvis Presley hugging Richard Nixon, who's sort of standing there looking up, thinking, 'Oh, my God!' You know? And they parted. And then Elvis asked if he could bring in his bodyguards, to which the president said, 'Bud, do we have time for that?' And I thought, 'You're this far into it, why not finish it off'. So, I said, 'Yes, sir, you've got a few more minutes'.
So [Jerry Schilling and Sonny West ] came in and, and the president shook hands with them and told Elvis, 'You've got some big ones here, Elvis'. And he said, 'Yes', and the president went behind his desk, and opened up the bottom drawer to give them each a gift. Well, Elvis just sensed that there was a lot of stuff in that drawer. So he went behind the desk and, as the president is taking out the cufflinks and the paperweights and the golf balls, Elvis is reaching in towards the back of the drawer and taking out the real gold stuff, the valuable presents--because they were sort of lined up in order of expense, or cost. The higher the roller, the more expensive the present.
So Elvis starts taking all these things out, and he says, 'Mr. President, they have wives'. And so he dived back into the drawer again and outcome the presents for the wives. And they walked out of there--of course, this was four days before Christmas--with their hands filled with all of these presidential goodies.
And after that, we got him a badge, which Elvis, apparently, carried with him for a long time. It's on display at Graceland. I went down there after I wrote a little book about this, and the wallet in which the badge had been carried was well worn. It showed that he felt that he'd been given more authority than the badge really suggested. This was just an honorary badge, but he took it like he'd been given a real agent's badge. We had to tell him that there were no federal agents-at-large. That's what he'd asked me about. But that remains one of the more humorous incidents of my time in the White House.”

At Elvis' request, the meeting was never made public, however a year later, attack columnist Jack Anderson ran the story under the headline “Presley Gets Narcotics Bureau Badge" but the story died in the paper.

After lunch and a tour of the White House, Elvis was presented with the badge by Bureau of Narcotics director John Finlator in  Bud Krogh’s office. Finlator promised to send along additional credentials.

Neither Elvis nor the President would survive the 1970s. Almost four years later, Watergate brought down the Nixon presidency. Elvis continued on his road to self-destruction. He died on his bathroom on August 16, 1977. He suffered from glaucoma, high blood pressure, liver damage, and an enlarged colon all of which were possibly caused by his drug abuse.
Presley immediately began showing the President his law enforcement paraphernalia including badges from police departments in California, Colorado and Tennessee. Presley indicated that he had been playing Las Vegas and the President indicated that he was aware of how difficult it is to perform in Las Vegas.

 The President mentioned that he thought Presley could reach young people, and that it was important for Presley to retain his credibility. Presley responded that he did his thing by singing. He said he could not get to the kids if he made a speech on stage, that he had to reach them in his own way. The President nodded agreement.

Presley indicated that he thought the Beatles had been a real force for anti-American spirit. He said that the Beatles came to this country, made their money, and then returned to England where they promoted an anti-American theme. The President nodded in agreement and expressed some surprise. The President then indicated that those who use drugs are also those in the vanguard of anti-American protest. Violence, drug usage, dissent, protest all seem to merge in generally the same group of young people.

Presley indicated to the President in a very emotional manner that he was 'on your side.' Presley kept repeating that he wanted to be helpful, that he wanted to restore some respect for the flag which was being lost. He mentioned that he was just a poor boy from Tennessee who had gotten a lot from his country, which in some way he wanted to repay. He also mentioned that he is studying Communist brainwashing and the drug culture for over ten years. He mentioned that he knew a lot about this and was accepted by the hippies. He said he could go right into a group of young people or hippies and be accepted which he felt could be helpful to him in his drug drive. The President indicated again his concern that Presley retain his credibility.

At the conclusion of the meeting, Presley again told the President how much he supported him, and then in a surprising, spontaneous gesture, put his left arm around the President and hugged him.

In going out, Presley asked the President if he would see his two associates. The President agreed and they came over and shook hands with the President briefly. At this meeting, the President thanked them for their efforts and again mentioned his concern for Presley's credibility."