Books: The Original Irish Mafia

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For Author Arthur Lewis, a onetime newsman who wrote a lively 1963 biography of Millionairess Hetty Green, The Day They Shook the Plum Tree, the story of the Molly Maguires was clearly a labor of love. Lewis comes from Mahanoy City in the heart of the coal fields, where the old wounds are still raw. He notes approvingly that all condemned Molly Maguires died gamely and with style. Two carried red roses to the scaffold. Another joked cheerfully as his hair was cut just before his execution: "Make it good, Al," he told the barber, "or you're liable to lose a customer."