McParland, James P.

James McParland was manager of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency's Denver, CO office. After the assassination of former Idaho governor Frank Steunenberg at Caldwell in December 1905, Governor Gooding called on the Pinkertons to direct the State of Idaho's investigation of the bombing. McParland went to Idaho in 1906 and interrogated Harry Orchard, who had been arrested soon after the murder. McParland obtained a confession that implicated most of the leadership of the Western Federation of Miners in the violence that had rocked the Coeur d'Alene Mining district in 1899. While Orchard was convicted, the case against the WFM leadership did not hold up in court.

From the description of Letter, 1906. (Eastern Washington State Historical Society). WorldCat record id: 42688110

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