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About Coal Country Killing : A Culture, A Union, and the Murders That Changed It All

Coal Country Killing revolves around the cold-blooded 1969 assassination of United Mineworkers of America "reform candidate" Jock Yablonski, and the murder of his wife and daughter in their Pennsylvania farmhouse. But driving the story are the extraordinary efforts of a special prosecutor and his "army" of investigators to bring the gunmen, the union boss who ordered the murders, and his henchmen who saw them carried out, to justice. Initially, three bumbling small-time criminals, dubbed "The Hillbilly Hitmen," were arrested and charged. But they were the tip of the iceberg as the murders were directed by then-UMWA President "Tough Tony" Boyle as revenge for Yablonski running against him in the bitterly contested 1968 union election and to prevent his corruption from being exposed. Legendary Philadelphia homicide prosecutor Richard A. Sprague and his investigators spent nearly nine years doggedly working their way up the ladder of those responsible to the final showdown with Boyle. Written by former New York County Assistant District Attorney Robert K. Tanenbaum, a lifelong friend of Sprague's, and Steve Jackson, Coal Country Killing is a tour de force for those who love justice.