Portal:Philadelphia/Selected biography/October 2006

Franklin B. Gowen served as president of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad (also known by the abbreviated name, the Reading Railroad) in the 1870s. During his tenure, he was the special prosecutor in the trial to break up the Molly Maguires, a secret organization of Irish Catholic mine workers known for their acts of violence against the mine owners; the controversial trial resulted in the executions of nearly 20 members of the organization and the organization's official dissolution. Franklin Gowen studied law and was elected District Attorney for Schuylkill County in 1862. In the 1870s, as president of the Reading Railroad, he became the wealthiest anthracite coal mine owner in the world. Throughout his time with the railroad and afterward, he continued practicing law and trying cases. Gowen died of a gunshot wound on December 13, 1889, at Wormly's Hotel in Washington, DC, but there is still a question as to whether his death was suicide or the result of a revenge killing by former members of the Molly Maguires.