Shadow Kingdom – Episode 3: Strike with All Thy Will

Podcast: Shadow Kingdom
Host: Nicola Minoni (Crooked Media & Campside Media)
Date: September 1, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode chronicles the high-stakes, perilous campaign of Jock Yablonski, a reformer challenging the corrupt leadership of the United Mine Workers of America union in 1969. Through interview clips, narration, and archival audio, it traces Jock’s public and private battles against entrenched power, the threats he and his family faced, and the growing conspiracy to silence him. Woven into the episode is the parallel story of Paul Gilley, an unlikely would-be assassin whose involvement frames the risk and desperation swirling around the movement for union democracy.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Launch of Jock Yablonski’s Campaign

[00:02 – 04:30]

• Jock Yablonski announces his candidacy for UMWA president on May 29, 1969, at the Mayflower Hotel:
  • A high-profile event, orchestrated with the help of Ralph Nader, surprises the press.
  • Theme: Reform focused on health, safety, and a return to union democracy.
• Quote [02:16] – Chip Yablonski recalls Jock’s words:
  “Today I am announcing my candidacy for the presidency of the United Mineworkers of America. I do so out of a deep awareness of the insufferable gap between the union leadership and the working miners.”
• Jock uses poetry to explain his years of silence and new resolve:
  Quote [03:37] – “When ye be an anvil, lie ye very still. When you be a hammer, strike with all thy will.”
• The shock reverberates—no one has challenged the UMWA presidency in 50 years.

2. The Fierce Backlash and Obstruction by Tony Boyle

[05:13 – 13:51]

• Tony Boyle’s machine responds:
  • Boyle leverages the union’s communication channels and resources (pensions, billboards, union newsletter) to smear Jock.
  • Changes balloting rules, increasing nomination thresholds to stymie challengers.
• Quote [08:51] (Boyle’s nickname):
  “Holy Joe Yablonski. This puny opportunist crazed by dreams of power.”
• The union newsletter, under Boyle’s control, becomes the “loyal to Boyle Journal.”
• Insight: Jock runs on shoestring personal savings, Boyle has a $300M war chest.
• The struggle is systemic: how entrenched power bends rules and wields patronage.

3. The Ground Game – Organizing in Coal Country

[13:51 – 16:33]

• Jock’s campaign is a family operation: His son Chip, wife Margaret, and daughter Charlotte coordinate.
• Despite intimidation, local mine chapters slowly start supporting Jock:
  • Black lung reform leaders, miners in Harlan and even hostile unions trickle in nominations.
• Quote [15:48] – Chip Yablonski: “We began to develop a sort of skeleton operation of trusted people in different places.”
• By August 1969, Jock secures required nominations and is officially on the ballot.

4. Escalating Violence and Attempts at Intimidation

[16:49 – 21:00]

• Threats against Jock and his supporters intensify:
  • Physical assault (karate-chopped and left unconscious at a rally)
  • Break-ins at Jock’s offices and key supporters’ homes
  • Sabotage to transportation (tampering with a plane)
  • Intimidating messages (wife's belongings slashed)
• The government refuses pre-election intervention; Nader’s support evaporates.
• Forced into self-protection, the Yablonskis take up arms and private security.

5. The Conspiracy Unfolds: The Would-Be Assassin’s Story

[23:15 – 30:22]

• Introduction to Paul Gilley, the man sent to kill Jock:
  • Gilley, a Cleveland housepainter, is pressured relentlessly by his father-in-law Silas, a miner with violent union ties, and by his wife Lucy.
  • Gilley resists but is manipulated and threatened into participating, largely to protect his wife and himself from union retaliation.
• Quote [23:48] – Paul Gilley: “He said, it sure help out if we get rid of him.”
• The plot is farcically amateur: failed assassination attempts, out-of-focus newspaper clippings as identification, bumbling accomplices.
• Payments and promises from Silas and District 19 union figures complicate Paul’s motivations and deepen his fear of being double-crossed.

6. Jock Outsmarts the Hitmen

[30:10 – 34:08]

• Gilley and his accomplice confront Jock directly in Clarksville, but freeze and fail to act.
• Jock immediately realizes what’s happening and, with his son, follows up by tracking the suspicious car’s license and identifying Paul Gilley.
• Quote [33:39] – Chip Yablonski: “My brother and a friend went into the little town of Clarksville and they found the car that Gilly and [accomplice] were riding around in and took down the license number, Ohio CX457.”
• The episode ends with a cliffhanger: Jock’s team is one phone call away from Paul’s wife, tantalizingly close to turning the tables on their would-be assassin.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Jock’s poetry at the campaign launch (03:37):
  “When ye be an anvil, lie ye very still. When you be a hammer, strike with all thy will.”
  Delivered via Chip Yablonski, this line electrifies the press and sets the episode’s tone.

• Tony Boyle’s dog-whistle tactic (09:41):
  “A dog whistle reminder. Jablonski is a foreign name. Polish. But holy Joe, Yablonski didn't back down.”

• Gilley’s reluctant involvement (25:05):
  “Only reason I went into that was to keep her out of it. But she's the type of person you can't keep out of nothing.”
  Paul Gilley on being manipulated by his family into assassination plotting.

• Jock’s reaction to the attempt on his life (32:49):
  “So Paul and Claude, utterly defeated, drove straight to a local bar. From Jock's point of view, though, this was not over. Jock knew what these men were here for. He knew he'd just come face to face with the threat he'd flagged to Ralph Nader in those smoky first meetings when he said, they'll kill me, Ralph.”

Important Segment Timestamps

• [00:02] Mayflower Hotel press conference setup and announcement
• [02:16] Jock’s campaign speech and motivations
• [03:37] The poetic maxim: “When ye be a hammer, strike with all thy will.”
• [08:51] Boyle coins the nickname “Holy Joe Yablonski”
• [10:18 – 12:03] Boyle manipulates pensions and election rules
• [15:48] Grassroots nominations and family campaign effort
• [17:56] Jock’s physical assault at a rally
• [19:08] Surge of intimidation tactics and lack of outside help
• [23:15] The introduction to Paul Gilley and murder plot origins
• [27:53] Gilley and team track Jock at a rally
• [31:28] Face-to-face confrontation between Paul Gilley and Jock at home
• [33:39] Jock’s team investigates and identifies Gilley

Tone and Style

The episode's storytelling is immersive, tense, and richly atmospheric, mixing first-person interviews and archival news reports. The host, Nicola Minoni, provides brooding narrative bridges, highlighting both the historic stakes and the sense of personal peril facing reformers. The tone juxtaposes the language of labor solidarity with the gritty, often tragic reality of union politics in the 20th century.

Conclusion

This episode of Shadow Kingdom dramatizes the convergence of personal courage, institutional corruption, and the ever-present shadow of violence in the coal fields. It paints Jock Yablonski as a reluctant hero— a man who moves from the “anvil” to “hammer” under the weight of history, and sets into motion a chain of events that will change the mineworkers’ union forever. Meanwhile, the machinations and desperate actions of his would-be assassins underscore the dangers faced by those who challenge entrenched power, and the lines men will cross when they believe everything is at stake.

Next episode tease: The hunter becomes the hunted, as Jock’s team closes in on Paul Gilley, bringing the conspiracy into the open.