The Scotia widows

On March 9, 1976, a violent explosion, fueled by high concentrations of methane gas and coal dust, ripped through the Scotia mine in the heart of Eastern Kentucky coal country. The blast killed fifteen miners who were working nearly three and a half miles underground; two days later, a second explosion took the lives of eleven rescue workers. For the miners' surviving family members, the loss of their husbands, fathers, and sons was only the beginning of their nightmare. In The Scotia Widows, the author recounts the epic four-year legal struggle waged by the widows in the aftermath of the disaster. Stern shares a story of loss, scandal, and perseverance and the plaintiffs' fight for justice against the titanic forces of "Big Daddy Coal."