Blood Runs Coal: The Yablonski Murders and the Battle for the United Mine Workers of America

Former CIA officer Bradley (A Very Principled Boy) delivers a page-turning study of the 1969 triple-murder of union leader Joseph Yablonski and his wife and daughter, and the crime’s impact on the United Mine Workers of America and organized labor in general. Head of his local district of the UMWA in southwestern Pennsylvania, Yablonksi was locked in a power struggle with union president Tony Boyle, who had provoked outrage by publicly defending the Consolidation Coal Company in the aftermath of an explosion that killed 78 miners in West Virginia. Yablonski challenged Boyle for the union presidency in 1969 and lost, but asked the U.S. Labor Department to “impound the ballot boxes and investigate the election’s irregularities.” Less than a month after the election, three hit men hired by Boyle (with funds embezzled from the UMWA) murdered Yablonski and his family. The killings galvanized a reformist takeover of the union that advanced the interests of rank-and-file members on safety standards, wages, and health benefits. Bradley fluidly interweaves union politics with insider accounts of the murder plot and details of the investigation and five trials it took to bring Boyle to justice. The result is both a juicy true crime story and a tribute to the power of effective labor movements. (Oct.)