Introducing Shadow Kingdom: Coal Survivor

Summary

What A Day: "Introducing Shadow Kingdom: Coal Survivor"

Date: September 1, 2025
Host: Jane Coaston (Crooked Media)
Guest Host/Shadow Kingdom Host: Nicola Minoni
Podcast Partner: Campside Media

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Brief Overview

In this gripping introductory episode, Jane Coaston launches the new limited series Shadow Kingdom: Coal Survivor. The podcast investigates the dramatic, true story of American coal miners’ fight against union corruption and violence in the late 1960s and early 1970s, centering on the rivalry between union leaders Jock Yablonski and Tony Boyle—a struggle that eventually led to murder and a historic reckoning within one of the nation’s most powerful labor organizations.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Setting the Stage: A Union Revolution

• The episode begins with an introduction to the stakes: in 1972, American coal miners ousted corrupt union leaders amid intense violence. Months later, Tony Boyle (the ousted boss) stood trial for ordering the murder of rival Jock Yablonski and his family. Central to the story is Chip Yablonski—Jock's son and the only survivor of the attack—working with friends and allies to reform the union from within.
• Jane sets the tone: “It’s like peeling back the layers of a cold case that changed the entire country.” (00:28)

2. The First Attempted Assassination:

• The narrative dives back to November 1969, detailing the first failed attempt to kill Jock at his Pennsylvania home by Paul Gilly, an unseasoned “hitman” driven more by family ties than ideology.
• Notable Quote (Paul Gilly):
  “I didn’t know who he was... [my] father-in-law told me Yablonski was trying to wreck the union and they wanted to get rid of him.” (03:16)
• The tension is palpable as Gilly contemplates the act but ultimately can’t go through with it upon seeing Jock’s wife. The incident underscores the looming danger Jock faced and the desperate lengths Boyle’s camp was willing to go.
• Quote (Chip Yablonski):
  “That son of a bitch will rue the day that this happened.” (06:06)

3. Union History and Power Dynamics

• Nicola Minoni contextualizes the immense power of the United Mine Workers (UMW), describing how, at its peak, the union’s president could “storm into the White House without an appointment.”
• The union’s leader for decades, John L. Lewis, is described almost mythically—a figure revered nearly as much as Jesus and FDR in mining households.
  Notable description:
  “Every house had three pictures on the wall...One was of Jesus, one was of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and one was of John L. Lewis.” (12:05)
• The transfer of power at the 1964 UMW convention becomes a battle of character and philosophy:
  • Jock Yablonski, charismatic, beloved, and pro-democracy.
  • Tony Boyle, Boyle, hard-lined, authoritarian, opposed to union democracy, and willing to use violence to silence dissent.

4. 1964 Convention: The Turning Point

• The episode covers the electrified atmosphere at the convention when John L. Lewis retires, effectively crowning Tony Boyle as his successor.
• The convention is physically and metaphorically bruising, featuring intimidation tactics and actual violence.
  • Quote (Chip Yablonski):
    “He started to question Boyle... and he was jerked away from the microphone and beaten with clubs.” (22:13)
• Boyle is lauded with a 50-minute standing ovation and showers miners with branded swag—while democracy is violently suppressed.
  • The infamous “Loyal to Boyle” white hard hats become symbolic of division.
• Jock Yablonski is left angry and determined; he initially intended to retire quietly but becomes radicalized by the brutality observed at the convention.
  Quote:
  “So at that point, it became clear that there was a break.” – Chip Yablonski (25:01)

5. The Plague of Black Lung: Fueling the Revolt

• The core of the miners’ growing dissent is black lung disease—a condition devastating entire communities and ignored by both the companies and the union leadership under Boyle.
• The episode offers powerful testimonies from coal miners, especially Eddie Burke, whose father died from black lung.
  Quote (Eddie Burke):
  “He’d walk up a flight of steps, have to stop, catch his breath... It was really bad.” (29:27)
• Company doctors dismiss black lung as coincidence or simple asthma, and survivor benefits are denied. The union refuses to intervene, further fueling rank-and-file outrage.
• Grassroots protests erupt—not against management, but the union itself.

6. Yablonski Publicly Breaks With Union Leadership

• Jock becomes a visible leader in the fight for black lung legislation, championing miners even as Boyle resists and then tries to claim credit.
• Jock manages to pass black lung law in Pennsylvania, becoming a hero among miners and a threat to Boyle’s authority.
  Quote (Chip Yablonski):
  “Against Tony Boyle’s direct orders, Jock managed to get black lung legislation passed... and got the governor to sign it.” (36:44)

7. Boyle’s Paranoia and Escalating Conflict

• Tony Boyle’s insecurity grows as Jock’s popularity soars. He begins surveilling and undermining Jock, even forcibly removing him from his district presidency over trumped-up financial irregularities.
• In a tense 1966 confrontation, Boyle makes Jock resign, stripping away the last shreds of local democracy.
  Quote:
  “That son of a bitch will rue the day that this happened.” – Jock Yablonski (as recalled by Chip, 41:09)

8. Foreshadowing the Deadly Climax

• The episode ends by previewing the coming war for the soul of the union—a battle that will lead to assassination, one of the largest FBI manhunts since the King assassination, and a watershed moment in American labor history.
  Quote (Eddie Burke):
  "You had a union that basically was under dictatorship for eons. Now you've got all this new democracy flowing through the field.” (41:57)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “It’s like peeling back the layers of a cold case that changed the entire country.” – Jane Coaston (00:28)
• “I drove into Clarksville…parked up on that hill just above his house…” – Paul Gilly (02:30)
• “If you worked for a coal company back then, you lived in a coal camp… Everything in the town is owned by the company you worked for.” – Nicola Minoni (27:42)
• “He started to question Boyle... and he was jerked away from the microphone and beaten with clubs.” – Chip Yablonski (22:13)
• “He couldn't get past the fact that he had devoted his life to that union... it tore him apart.” – Chip Yablonski (35:55)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:02 – 01:09: Jane Coaston introduces Shadow Kingdom, gives historical context, and hands off to the series.
• 01:09 – 06:13: The first failed attempt on Jock Yablonski's life by Paul Gilly.
• 09:32 – 21:29: 1964 UMW convention—the “invisible crown” passes to Tony Boyle; dissent is violently suppressed.
• 26:30 – 31:08: Life in company-owned towns and the impact of black lung disease.
• 31:27 – 36:44: The union’s failure to confront black lung; Jock rises to grassroots leadership.
• 36:44 – 41:17: Boyle’s paranoia, Jock’s forced resignation, and the moment of no return.
• 41:40 – End: Next episode teaser: FBI investigation, escalating violence, stakes for the labor movement.

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Episode Tone & Narrative Style

• The episode weaves investigative journalism with first-person oral history and haunting tape—layered with Minoni’s personal connection, thanks to his friendship with Chip Yablonski.
• Tone: Tense, immersive, and cinematic with a blend of suspenseful storytelling and sharp analysis.

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Conclusion

This inaugural chapter of Shadow Kingdom: Coal Survivor sets up a riveting true-crime exposé and historical epic. Through archival voices, survivor testimony, and evocative storytelling, the podcast asks tough questions about how power is seized, abused, and—sometimes—taken back by the people. It elevates a pivotal but underexamined saga of American labor to the stature of a national reckoning.

For those wanting to learn more, the full series is available on the Shadow Kingdom feed and via Friends of the Pod.

Transcript

[Jane]

Hey, it's Jane here. I'm excited to share with you the newest season of our limited series, made in partnership with Campside Media that we know you'll love. Shadow Kingdom coal survivor in 1972, American coal miners cast a historic vote not just for new union leadership, but against the corruption and violence that had taken over their organization. Months later, their ousted boss, Tony Boyle, stood trial for ordering the murder of his rival Chuck Leblonski and his family. Coal Survivor is the unbelievable true story of how Tony Boyle, head of one of the most powerful labor unions in the country, was taken down by a crew of young working class organizers who fought like their lives depended on it. Because they did. At the center of it all is Chip leblonski, Jock's son and the sole survivor of the attack. Along with a crew of friends and allies, Chip set out to reform the union from the inside. I love this show because it has tape, original reporting, and voices no one has heard before. It's like peeling back the layers of a cold case that changed the entire country. Here is the first episode of the series. If you enjoy this episode, you can binge all episodes by subscribing to [e-mail].

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

Friends Friends of the Pod subscribers can listen to the full season of Shadow Kingdom right now. Join friends of the [e-mail] friends campsite media it had been a long year for Jock Yablonsky, maybe the longest year of his life. And it had come at the end of a long and tumultuous decade. It was November of 1969. Jock was tired, so he did what he always did. At 11pm he sat back in his recliner, closed most of the curtains in his Pennsylvania farmhouse, and he turned on the evening news.

[Interviewees / Reporters]

This is Bill Burns in the KDKA television newsroom.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

Jock was so immersed in the news that he didn't notice the man lurking outside his house. The man who had been sent to kill him. A man named Paul Gilly. He'd been hunting Jock Jablonski for for weeks by then. And now he'd made his way to Jock's home, isolated in rural Clarksville, Pennsylvania. This is from an interview I did a few years ago with Paul.

[Interviewees / Reporters]

I drove into Clarksville, that little town there where he lived. I parked up on that hill just above his house, just up on the.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

Hill above it, holding a World War II rifle. The hitmen crept up Jock's porch, watching him through the window, taking in his mark. Jock looked exactly as he'd been described.

[Interviewees / Reporters]

To Paul he was short, heavyset and big bushy eyebrows. And he gray headed. Mostly gray.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

The two men had never met. Paul had never even heard of Jock before his father in law asked him to kill the man. This man with the bushy eyebrows reclining now in front of the news.

[Interviewees / Reporters]

I didn't know who he was. I didn't know any of them. And my father in law was the one that told me about him. He told me Yuplonsky was trying to wreck the union and they wanted to get rid of him.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

His father in law said Jock was trying to wreck the union. The coal miners union. One of the most powerful institutions in America at the time. At his peak, a Union with nearly 500,000 members. One with so much sway that its president could storm into the White House without an appointment. Jacques Jablonski had been a Union leader for 27 years. He knew the rules. You don't question the union. Ever. The union was as untouchable as it was powerful. But Jock had become worried about the direction his beloved union was taking. So he'd done the unthinkable. He begun to publicly criticize the union. Pushing for a change, for a revolution even. It had become a contentious public battle. Headline news. So as Jock tilted back in his recliner, oblivious to the armed man outside, he might have heard his own name on tv.

[Interviewees / Reporters]

Jablonski says the miners want a change. The coal miners in this country want.

[Chip Yablonski]

To be treated like the other industrial workers.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

The killer held his gun, staring point blank at Jacques. One minute ticked by, then another. Then another. There was movement in the house. Possibly Jock's wife doing the dishes. Paul Gilliot was a house painter, not an assassin. He barely had it in him to kill Jock. He definitely couldn't kill Jacques's wife too. So Paul backed away from Jacques house. This would have to be just a dress rehearsal, a scouting trip. But it wasn't the end. Their paths would cross again and again against a ticking clock. A race between a reluctant killer and a revolutionary. From crooked media and campside media, this is Shadow Cole. Survivor Episode 1 the Invisible Crown I'm your host, Nicola Minoni.

[Chip Yablonski]

Detention. You could cut it. You could see it.

[Interviewees / Reporters]

His eyes inventory the world from behind. Satanic bronze. Only one institution that the coal miners can depend upon.

[Chip Yablonski]

This is going to be a showdown.

[Interviewees / Reporters]

Boyle doing nothing for the widows. Boyle doing nothing for the pensioners.

[Chip Yablonski]

That son of a bitch will rue the day that this happened.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

Several years ago, I did something impulsive. I quit my job to make a podcast. It all began when my friend Mario gave me a lead about the death of Roberto Calvi, AKA God's banker. That lead turned into a multi year odyssey to find Calvi's killer, which involved Mafia soldiers, spies and far right terrorists. And while I was investigating God's banker, another story came across my radar. A story that hit close to home. You see, I grew up hearing the story of Jacques Jablonski's revolution because his son Chip is a family friend. Chip and his buddies got involved in his dad's revolution way back in the 60s. And pretty much every Thanksgiving since, they get together, have a little too much to drink, and retell the story. A story about secret assassins and a rebellion that rocked the American labor movement. I was a teenager at those Thanksgiving dinners, so I mostly ignored them. I figured they were either exaggerating or tipsy or both. But recently, Chip got sick, and I heard that he wanted to record his side of the story. I had microphones and audio editing software already, so I figured it was worth a shot to reach out. And a bit to my surprise, Chip agreed. We talked for hours and hours, which turned into days and days. And his story sounded unbelievable. But the more I researched, the more I followed up with eyewitnesses, the more obsessed I became. This all went beyond unions and politics and family dramas. There's a question at the heart of this story that captured my imagination. How do you take back power when bullies have hijacked the system? The answer to that question is this story. A story of how one of the most influential unions in American history turned murderous and remade itself. A story that'll take us through one of the largest FBI manhunts ever. And to men so powerful they could cripple the US Economy with one phone call. For one man, my friend Chip. It's just the story of his father. Stay with us. The stage was set for Jock Yablonski's revolution on an actual stage in Florida in 1964, five years before Paul Gilly stood outside Jock's home with a gun. Union delegates had gathered near Miami for their big convention. As they did every four years, they discussed pressing issues at these conventions, passed new union rules, drank a lot. And at this particular convention, a spark would be lit. The first spark of Jock's revolution. The first moment he began to split with the union he'd loved and served for almost 30 years.

[Chip Yablonski]

It was the detention. You could cut it, you could see was like one pebble after another. And it started. I trace it back to the 1964 convention.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

This is Jock's nephew Stephen Jablonski. Jock stood in the ballroom of the Americana Hotel as his fellow union members gathered, buzzing. This year's convention would be on the evening news, the country watching Congress, watching the White House too. This was a day most people had never seen. It was a day that Jacques Jablonski felt like he'd been waiting for for half of his lifetime. After more than 40 years, the head of the United Mineworkers, the UMW, was finally retiring and he'd chosen his replacement. It came to two possible heirs, Jock or Jock's rival, Tony Boyle. So this moment was a convention, but it was also a coronation, the crowning of a new king. And if king sounds like hyperbole, then you haven't met Jock's boss, John L. Lewis. You can't find a description of John L. Lewis that doesn't sound biblical.

[Interviewees / Reporters]

His jaw is massive, his hair a lion's mane, and his eyes inventory the world from behind. Satanic brows.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

That's right, Satanic brows. John L. Had the ear of the President. He could summon members of Congress at any time. How? Because this was a man who had the power to turn off the power to the entire United States with one strike. He ruled over the coal miners for decades. But he also reshaped American labor far beyond the mines. If you've heard of the AFL cio, he created the CIO presiding over an America where one third of workers were in a union. He was a force behind minimum wage laws, the eight hour workday employer, health care. John L. Won so many battles for coal miners they near worshiped him. Here's a former miner, Bill Tattersall. When I grew up in the coal fields, every house had three pictures on the wall.

[Interviewees / Reporters]

One was of Jesus and one was.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

Of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and one was.

[Interviewees / Reporters]

Of John L. Lewis.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

In inverse order, John L. Lewis was their God. So whomever John L. Was about to appoint as his heir at the convention would be stepping into the shoes of not exactly Jesus, but not, not Jesus. Jock watched anxiously from the convention floor as one by one people lauded his boss's remarkable career.

[Interviewees / Reporters]

He is God's instrument on this earth. Stands with Abraham Lincoln as the emancipator of the working people, forever enshrined as king in our hearts.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

Jacques Jablonski worshiped John L. Lewis, perhaps even more deeply than most. After all, John L. Had plucked him from relative obscurity to be his right hand man. Jock started running coal as a teenager, then began to help local mines to unionize when he was in his early 20s. Very quickly, he climbed the UMW ranks. He was elected unanimously to chair his local office, then to run the largest district in the union. The miners loved him, which is not to say Jock was a saint.

[Chip Yablonski]

You wouldn't want to screw with him.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

Jock's son there, my friend Chip.

[Chip Yablonski]

And I take it that over the years, there probably were people that regretted having done so, but there just was a connection that he made with people.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

Jock had a magnetic sort of charisma. He was tough enough to tumble with the miners, but he was unquestionably sincere. So naturally good at defusing fights and galvanizing supporters that John L. Lewis started to rely on Jock as this sort of secretary of state, the diplomat of coal. Like he dispatched Jock to the coal fields after mining accidents. Jock's nephew Stephen, again, he would be.

[Chip Yablonski]

There for days when something like that.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

Happened, like literally days.

[Chip Yablonski]

Yes.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

Jock's own father died in a mining accident, and his mother was denied survivor benefits, which risked sending the family into desperate poverty. So perhaps Jock was trying to do onto others what no one had done for his grieving mother.

[Chip Yablonski]

I represent the union, and I care. I care deeply.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

On the other hand, there was Jock's rival, Tony Boyle. The two could not be be more different. Go to a Jock Yablonsky speech and you'd see a man with a suit jacket off, sleeves rolled up, roaring out in that gravelly voice of his that.

[Interviewees / Reporters]

There is only one institution that the coal miners can depend upon, and that institution is right here, the United Mine Workers of America.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

Go to a Tony Boyle speech for a drier performance.

[Interviewees / Reporters]

First, the Labor Department called the president of this union and asked if he would serve on a committee where Jock.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

Was a bull of a guy, short but with a linebacker's neck and presence. Tony was a physically small man, but also puffed up, his demeanor like a balloon, just one breath of air from popping, always on edge, his eyebrows forever creased downward in a V like the Grinch. But it's likely Tony Boyle felt similar feelings as Jock did, as he, too sat watching the praise rain down on John L. Lewis, the outgoing president, because Tony had also been plucked from obscurity by John L. Lewis, but kind of for the opposite reason. Where John L. Looked to Jock as his secretary of state, he looked at Tony as his sort of secretary of defense, because Tony loved a good fight. Tony's family immigrated from Scotland to Montana, trying to catch the gold rush, but they just missed it. So they found coal mining and poverty instead. Tony was desperate to escape his family's fate and quickly climbed out of the mines and up the union ladder, making a name for himself by being the guy you could send in to fight a rival union. See, before John L. Took over the umw, there were several unions for coal miners. And these unions would compete for members like rival gangs. The way the UMW became the mine workers union was by aggressively eliminating the other unions, often through physical force. Tony was one of John L's favorite soldiers. Everywhere a rival union popped up, he would dispatch Tony to battle them. This is an ally of Tony's talking about the time Tony fought a rival union in Montana.

[Interviewees / Reporters]

They kicked his ribs loose, they knocked his teeth out. Fighting for the United Mine Workers of America. He won't tell you these things, but.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

I know Tony would absolutely tell you these things. He loved the fight. The man good at inflicting wounds for the union against the man good at healing them. This was the choice John L. Lewis had to make. Whether to hand off his immense power to Jock, his Secretary of State, or Tony, his secretary of defense. So it's no wonder the convention hall was buzzing that day. And these were always lively affairs. The one time in four years some of these men ever saw each other. Days of food, booze, live music. As much a party as a convention.

[Interviewees / Reporters]

Strikes be over, Celebrate drink and drink and take and strike. Striking business.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

But I imagine the convention hall quieted as the time came for the coronation. Jock and Tony fidgeting in their corners of the hotel ballroom. It would be a choice that mattered in that moment more than it might have even a decade before. New forms of fuel were encroaching on coal, making coal jobs more scarce. And the jobs that did exist were increasingly done by machines. Plus, new mining methods were injuring miners at much higher rates. Most troubling of all, a terrifying disease called black lung was killing thousands of miners across the coal fields. And so the lives of the miners hung in the balance as after 40 years at the helm, John L. Lewis gave up his throne to Mr. W.A. tony Boyle.

[Interviewees / Reporters]

Therefore, be it resolved that this convention assembled pledge our unaltering allegiance to Mr. W.A. boyle as he wears his an invisible crown.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

Jock looked on with a sense of resigned bitterness as his rival took the stage. Bands playing raucous music as the miners gave Tony a 50 minute standing ovation. Conference staff handed out souvenir alarm clocks, Zippo lighters and transistor radios to the miners, all stamped with Tony's name and picture. As the applause died down, the floor was open to questions. A chance for people to ask questions to their leader. A Chance to learn what kind of a king Tony would be.

[Chip Yablonski]

There were microphones stationed around the room.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

Jock's nephew, Stephen. Again, miners lined up and started asking questions.

[Interviewees / Reporters]

We paid dues, Cessman, and support our union. However, we are not allowed to vote for or against any officers of our district.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

This was one of the most contentious questions in the union democracy, whether the minors should be allowed to elect the leaders of their districts. You can think of the union like the U.S. and districts like states. Technically, union democracy is a legal right under federal law. But outgoing president John L. Lewis had believed democracy was too messy, that the union needed just a single voice, his voice, in order to beat the powerful coal companies. So, using questionable legalese, John L. Took control of nearly all union districts. It would be like the US president taking over 40 states, handpicking the governors and taking over state budgets. Jock was pro democracy, had been elected president of his home district, District 5, one of the very few districts allowed to do this. So he probably nodded as this miner spoke at the mic.

[Interviewees / Reporters]

But we West Virginia delegates want democracy. Let the rank and file have a little say. So instead of being controlled by few.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

Tony Boyle, however, was the one taking the reins. And he would not have liked this line of questioning. Tony agreed with John L. Especially now that he was the dictator. He actively campaigned against democracy.

[Interviewees / Reporters]

We'd be derelict if we didn't tell the delegates here at this convention, our officers up front, that this is how our people feel.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

As the miners continued their questioning, Jock could see a different group of people approach the microphone.

[Chip Yablonski]

Around each microphone, there were two guys who wore white hard hats, miners hats, with a decal saying, loyal to Boyle.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

Loyal to Boyle. It was like a collective intake of breath in the room. The man at the mic continued, and.

[Chip Yablonski]

He started to question Boyle.

[Interviewees / Reporters]

We're not satisfied.

[Chip Yablonski]

And he was jerked away from the microphone and beaten with clubs.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

Tony's men beat him with clubs, beat him for opposing the new leadership, beat him until he was so bloody they had to call a recess.

[Chip Yablonski]

I mean, it was ugly.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

It felt like a warning shot from the new king, as if to say, hey, Jock, you lost. I'm in charge now. Do not forget that. Jock and Tony had worked together for decades alongside John L. Lewis. They didn't love each other, but they'd worked together just fine. It didn't look like that was going to continue. As if to underscore his point, Tony prepared a special musical number for the close of the convention.

[Interviewees / Reporters]

I got a. Well, I got a request here from your president. He asked me for A song called Harlan County Boys. But I sing it any Harlan county commentary.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

The boys of Harlan County, Kentucky, were no boys. They were the mafia of the coal mines. They'd killed dozens of police, coal operators and rival union gangs to ensure the supremacy of John L. Lewis union. It appeared Tony was turning them into his own private army. Now, a lot of the men in those loyal to Boyle hard hats were from Harlan County. And now they were getting a serenade commissioned by union president Tony Boyle.

[Interviewees / Reporters]

Which side are you on? Which side are you on? Which side are you on? Which side are you on? My daddy was a miner I'm a miner's son I'll stick with the union Till every battle's won which side are you on? Which side are you on?

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

It all seems so petty, so unnecessary to Jock. He wasn't happy Tony got the job, but he had no intention of challenging him. After all, Jock was just a year from retirement. He had a stake in a local racetrack, loved opera, was close with his wife and kids. Plus, he was deeply loyal, if not to boil, to the union. So for cohesion's sake, he'd planned to just tuck his tail between his legs and ride into the sunset on his pension. But then Tony beat the hell out of guys from Jock's district. And so he left the convention fuming. The first match lit, the first step toward revolution.

[Chip Yablonski]

So at that point, it became clear that there was a break.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

He'd have to fight the union head on. To change things, he'd have to take on his new boss, the king, Tony Boyle.

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[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

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[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

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[Interviewees / Reporters]

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[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

The Florida convention was over. Hotel staff were sweeping up confetti and flyers with Tony's face on them. On the beach, Jacque Blonsky was making peace with his defeat. He'd lost the union crown to Tony, okay, but he was still president of his local district. Maybe he'd let it go, let Tony be Tony. But flying back to Pennsylvania, he just couldn't. He kept looking into this mysterious disease that was popping up. People were calling it black lung, like the plague. And what he found enraged him. Perhaps the story would have ended here with a disappointed jock and a powerful Tony had it not been for black lung disease. Miners desperately needed Tony to help them. They kind of felt like only Tony could help them because there was something fairly unique about the coal industry at that time. Normally, if you worked for a coal company back then, you lived in a coal camp.

[Eddie Burke]

And I didn't know the difference, you know, until I got up in years.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

That's a miner named Eddie Burke. And the difference is this. By coal camps, he means a town, but a town owned by, controlled by, even named after the coal company you worked for.

[Eddie Burke]

The company's name was carbon fuel. And, you know, the coal camp was named carbon. In West Virginia, it would be like.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

Growing up in fedex, West Virginia, where everything in the town is owned by fedex. You go to FedEx Elementary School. Your kids play at FedEx Community Park.

[Eddie Burke]

And you had a company store, a doctor's office, the swimming pool, a beauty shop.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

And there were whole regions like this dotted with coal towns. So your kids regional soccer championship would be something like FedEx Junior High versus UPS Middle School. The company controlled everything, and this wasn't always great. For instance, sure, you could go to the company store down the street, but it was nothing compared to the nearest supermarket 50 miles outside of town.

[Eddie Burke]

You just had more of a variety. The prices were cheaper out in the.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

Real world, but if you had a problem with that or anything else, well.

[Eddie Burke]

I mean, you didn't have a mayor. If you had any problems, you'd go to somebody in upper management.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

They controlled everything, including medical care.

[Eddie Burke]

If you had a cold or you had the flu or whatever you had, you go to the company doctor.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

Eddie and his family didn't have much cause to call the company doctor until he was about 15. That's when Eddie started to notice a change in his otherwise vibrant dad, who worked in the local coal mine.

[Eddie Burke]

Couldn't hunt like he used to. He'd walk up a flight of steps, have to stop, catch his breath, like, taking the deep breaths, you know, and, you know, sort of fighting to get some air in there. You know, it's really bad.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

Eddie's dad's lungs were drawing in air, but weren't getting any. Like he was drowning a little bit every day. But on land, lungs look tough, but the way they get oxygen to us is through these really fragile little conveyors. Each is like a millionth of an inch wide, and coal dust scars them A little each time you inhale it, until one day, your lungs are as porous as fishing nets, and the air goes right through them. And as tens of thousands of coal miners like Eddie's dad found themselves gasping for air, they went to the company doctor. The company doctors were telling them it's a coincidence, happenstance, that a large swath of men who can't breathe just happened to be coal miners. They'd be told it's probably just asthma. Or the company doctors suggested that the miners perhaps smoke a little less. Just, you know, relax. Miners, here's a coal executive.

[Interviewees / Reporters]

We have, frankly, been surprised at the great amount of tension about this disease.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

A disease that became known as black lung. But since this disease didn't exist when people like Eddie's dad died of it, the company would refuse to pay survivor benefits because, you know, it wasn't the company's fault.

[Eddie Burke]

So he gets nothing. There's nobody. His survivor widow gets nothing. Nothing. And that just says, that's just wrong. Something wrong there.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

So miners like Eddie, stonewalled by the coal companies and their doctors, of course, began to petition the union for help in pressuring the companies to address this problem.

[Eddie Burke]

You know, the company's only going to give out what the union makes them do. So I like me and four or five other guys, hell, let's go down the union office in Charleston, find out.

[Interviewees / Reporters]

What was going on.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

Outside a convention in the real world. This is the moment a union is made for. Jock and Tony's union was here to protect workers from harm when no one else would. And look, coal companies were huge at the time. The power grid, it relied on coal. And almost no one realized how dirty it was to burn. And these workers need their union perhaps more than any other union in America, because these workers are completely captive to the companies that own their towns, their schools, their doctors. And so the miners, like Eddy, started to gather in protest all across the coal fields, but not the kind of protest you might expect.

[Interviewees / Reporters]

At first glance, it almost looked like a union meeting. Locals of the United Mine Workers from all over the city, but in defiance of the union. To the miners, the union has been dragging its speed on black lung just as much as the coal operators.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

These protests were not organized by the union. They were in defiance of the union. As men like Eddie went to their local union offices and asked for help.

[Eddie Burke]

They said, well, you're not getting them. You know, just basically told us to.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

Get the hell out, get the hell out and shut the hell up. Just like at the convention when Jock's Supporters asked for more local democracy. One miner told an NBC reporter about pleading with the union for help.

[Interviewees / Reporters]

We asked them, try to get them to help us, and they just turn us down. Tell them they ain't gonna stick their neck out for us, but their hands are tied.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

We can't help you because the union said our hands are tied.

[Interviewees / Reporters]

Well, who's tied their hands? Did they tell you? No, they didn't tell us.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

They could not get a straight answer from the union, which is to say, from Tony Boyle. These protests went on for years with Jock becoming more and more outspoken. Yet as time went on, Tony Boyle kept to his routine. Almost every day, Tony woke up and looked at a picture of himself. He hung pictures of himself in the bedroom, pictures of Tony in the bathroom, pictures of Tony in the living room. And all these portraits of Tony would watch him as he got dressed in colorful shirts and wide mod ties. Tony would reapply his light brown hair dye around a mostly bald head and he might kiss his daughter, also named Tony, goodbye. Then Tony Boyle would be driven to the downtown D.C. headquarters in his black Cadillac and walk up a marble staircase to his office closed off to visitors by a brass gate. On his way, he tried making dirty jokes to secretaries, but he'd forget the punchlines. He'd refer to himself in the third person, muttering, they're all out to get Tony Boyle. Tony Boyle would spend most of the day alone in his office. He was prone to insecurity that festered as people compared him to the labor God, John L. Lewis.

[Chip Yablonski]

After he was elected, he negotiated a horrible contract.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

Chip Yablonski, Chalk's son again.

[Chip Yablonski]

And he resented the miners who thought he hadn't done a good job.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

As Tony started getting beat up in the press about these contracts, he began responding ever erratically, trying his hand at, I don't know, slam poetry.

[Interviewees / Reporters]

Boyle's doing nothing for the widow. Boyle doing nothing for the pensioners. I'll give you this, I'll give you that. I'll give you pie if I can reach high enough in the sky. In the suite. By and by.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

As Tony kept himself isolated, his insecurities spiraling Jock was spending more and more time with the miners across the coal fields almost doubling down on his secretary of State role after he'd lost the presidency and as he traveled, increasingly he watched men like Eddie Burke's father struggle to breathe and be ignored by the man who'd sworn to protect them. More and more it troubled him.

[Chip Yablonski]

He couldn't get past the fact that he had devoted his life to that union. And he, he really cared about these men and it tore him apart.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

So on the doorstep of his retirement, instead of peacefully gliding into the sunset, Jock chose to dive into the fight. To break publicly with the union he'd been loyal to for decades. Jock started speaking out in favor of the black lung laws Tony was resisting.

[Interviewees / Reporters]

In every coal mining state in America to get proper compensation. Compensation for people who are suffering from co workers pneumoconiosis. Now I know that the operators are going to fight these things.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

Working alongside miners, Jock became a leader in the campaign to pass black lung laws, Lending what power he still had to the rank and file.

[Chip Yablonski]

Against Tony Boyle's direct orders, Jock managed to get black lung legislation passed in the Pennsylvania legislature and got had the governor sign it.

[Interviewees / Reporters]

But a committee of doctors is convinced enough about the danger of coal dust to take action. For weeks, having voted in the affirmative, I declare the bill will take effect.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

For as long as there have been coal mines, men have been dying of black lung. Now, for the first time, this was being officially acknowledged because of Jock and in spite of Tony. And so Tony does an about face and goes on the offensive. He starts publicly telling anyone who would listen, hey, I've been fighting for black lung laws all along.

[Interviewees / Reporters]

The union has been trying desperately to get these things passed session after session.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

But the miners knew the truth. They knew that it was Jock who had supported them in their time of need. Jock had always been popular with them. He was a man of the people. And so privately, Tony's natural insecurities started to spin into a sort of paranoia and anger at JOC Tony started having Jock tracked. He sent men on his payroll to Jock's district. And in the shadows, they began to monitor him, his movement, his finances. Tony, exiled Jock's brother, who was a union leader in nearby Ohio, sent him to a post in Colorado. He scrambled to reassure the union brass. I have Jock under my control. He even started asking Jock to introduce him at public appearances in these really groveling ways. And remember, at this point, Jock is still a loyal union man in need of a pension. So even though he's privately clashing with Tony on black lung, publicly, he's in line.

[Interviewees / Reporters]

Tony Boyle has moved the mine workers of America forward to a greater degree than any other president of any labor organization anywhere in the world.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

But none of this seemed to hurt the growing bond between Jacques Jablonski and and the miners grateful for his black lung support. In fact, it only continued to grow. So In June of 1966, Tony called Jock and asked him to come in from District 5 in Pennsylvania to the UMW headquarters in Washington D.C. if there.

[Chip Yablonski]

Was a Rubicon, that probably was as close to it as any other event.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

Jock's son, Chip, again, he asked me.

[Chip Yablonski]

To go to Washington with him. He said, this is going to be a showdown with Boyle. And he was worried, physically concerned. That's the reason he had asked me to go to D.C. with them. And I waited in the park outside of the mine workers headquarters.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

Chip watched his father walk into the headquarters of the union he'd given his life to. And inside, Tony gave JOC an ultimatum. He said, I've been looking into the finances of District 5 and I've noticed some, let's say, irregularities. These were almost definitely trumped up. Tony said, I need you to resign your position as president of District 5. If you do that, I'll let those irregularities let them slide. And then the twist of the knife. Tony said, if you won't resign, I'll have no choice but to remove District 5's autonomy, the thing Jock had fought so hard to keep for his men, their freedom, their own little democracy in their little corner of this monarchy. It seemed like an hour passed until Jock walked out of the headquarters and back to his son Chip.

[Chip Yablonski]

And my dad said, well, he made me sign the letter. I had to give up the District presidency.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

And as they walked away from the park, the Union Castle looming in the distance, Jock turned to his son and.

[Chip Yablonski]

Said, that son of a bitch will rue the day that this happened.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

The fight over black lung was just the first battleground in a war between Jock and Tony. A war that would be fought in the DC halls of power and in the depths of mountains. It was a war that would threaten to destroy these men and everyone close to them. That's coming up next on this season of Shadow Kingdom.

[Interviewees / Reporters]

The FBI tonight has engaged in its most intensive murder investigation since the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. It's disturbing and evil beyond words to describe. We ask why and who. They swore us to secrecy.

[Chip Yablonski]

They said, do not tell anybody.

[Eddie Burke]

I mean, you had a union that basically was under dictatorship for eons. Now you got all this new democracy flowing through the field.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

I did anything I had to because there's no turning back at this point.

[Interviewees / Reporters]

Peeve was out there hollering, it jammed. It jammed.

[Chip Yablonski]

It wouldn't shoot, it wouldn't fire. It was just bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. And I'm saying, hang on, you son of a bitch.

[Interviewees / Reporters]

I hereby solemnly swear to almighty God, I will tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Well, we're here today to tell everybody that we intend to stay here.

[Narrator / Host (Nicola Minoni)]

Shadow Kingdom is a production of Crooked Media and Campside Media. It's hosted and reported by me, Nicola Minoni. The show is written by Joe Hawthorne, Karen Duffin and me. Joe Hawthorne is our Managing producer. Karen Duffin is our story editor. The associate producers are Rachel Yang and Julie Denishe. Sound Design, mix and mastering by Erica Hwang. Our theme song and original score are composed by me and Mark McAdam. Cello performed by Linnea Weiss with additional sound design Support from Mark McAdam. Studio Engineering by Rachel Young and Ewan Lytramuin. Fact checking by Amanda Feynman Our executive producers are Me Nicolomini along with Sarah Geismer, Katie Long, Mary Knopf and Allison Falsetta from Crooked Media. Josh Dean, Adam Hoff, Matt Sher and Vanessa Gregoriadis are the executive producers of Campside Media.

[Jane]

Thanks for checking out Shadow Coal Survivor. If you love the show as much as we do, you can listen to full episodes on the Shadow Kingdom feed now or binge all episodes by subscribing to Friends of the [e-mail] friends did you know?

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