James Coyle
Religious Leader
Irish-American priest who was murdered by a Ku Klux Klan member and Southern Methodist Episcopal pastor E. R. Stephenson. At the time of his death, Coyle was leading the congregation of The Cathedral of Saint Paul in Birmingham, Alabama.
After graduating from Ireland's Mungret College, he attended Italy's Pontifical North American College. He became an ordained Roman Catholic priest in 1896.
He secretly performed the wedding of E.R. Stephenson's daughter and a Roman Catholic Puerto Rican man. This act led to his murder at the hands of Ruth Stephenson's enraged father.
The son of Margaret Durney and Owen Coyle, he was born and raised in Drum, Ireland.
Attorney and Ku Klux Klan member Hugo Black, who later served as a United States Supreme Court Justice, was the defense attorney for E.R. Stephenson during Stephenson's trial for Father Coyle's murder.