Matewan, West Virginia. May 19, 1920. Police Chief Sid Hatfield sits in the town square. He's declined bribes and payoffs to help protect the coal miners of Matewan but the Baldwin Felts detective ...

While Kenehan and his story are fictional, the setting and the dramatic climax are historical; Sid Hatfield, Cabell C. Testerman, C. E. Lively and the Felts brothers were real-life participants ...