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| Allan Pinkerton founder of The Pinkerton Detective Agency |
Yesterday I was telling you about how Allan Pinkerton, founder of the Pinkerton Detective Agency, came to America and got his start in the business. We left off with Allan being hired by the railroads to protect it's interests, not only from without but from within. It was during this period that Pinkerton expanded on his techniques for spying on employees, techniques that would form "a central part of his future detective operations."
Something especially interesting I discovered, was that Pinkerton "hired the nation's first female detective." Kate Warne approached Pinkerton with the idea that as a woman, she could "worm out secrets in many places to which it was impossible for mail detectives to gain access." Pinkerton liked it and signed her on. Later he recalled that she never let him down.
By this time, Pinkerton was also aiding local and federal authorities. Although many cities had police departments by the 1860s, there was a serious lack beyond the city's borders and it was this void that Pinkerton filled with the creation of his National Detective Agency.
(tomorrow, the Civil War period...)
First female detective? Yeah, I bet she was effective!
ReplyDeleteScary to think of no law to protect you. Pinkerton filled a big void there.
It was a big empty country back then.
DeleteI too am loving the first female detective bit!! Yay!!!! Take care
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I know, I almost forgot about that.
DeleteI used to work for Pinkerton in Dublin, Republic of Ireland!
ReplyDeleteCool!
DeleteSounds like a fascinating guy - and I was taken by the first female detective part as well. I am already picturing potential for fiction works based on historical fact here. :)
ReplyDeleteOh, there's definitely lots of stuff in the history of the Pinkertons that would be fun to embellish :)
Deletethat is such a detailed and well planned back story!
ReplyDeleteThis is all true stuff, Dez, about the Pinkertons, but they DO figure in my fictional tale, PARADISE :)
Deleteoooh, I thought you personally invented them :) How delightful!
DeleteHey, he's about equal opportunity. Got to love this guy!
ReplyDeleteYup - and he and his wife also helped with the underground railroad.
DeletePinkerton's is seriously a wonderful. I have always secretly longed to write something that included them. Unfortunately, this would involve doing so,etching historical, which scares the crap about of me. I flirt with it. Lots of history in my work, but nothing in period. Someday!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing!
I like writing historical fiction. There are so many ways to twist it.
ReplyDeleteI think females would be natural detectives in a male-dominated world.
ReplyDeleteThey certainly had some advantages.
DeleteI did a little research on this stuff myself awhile ago, since I rely on the U.S. Civil war for a lot of my battle knowledge and tactics. Shocked to learn there were so many female spies who were active. Makes sense Pinkerton had one of his own. :)
ReplyDeleteJust re-reading some of this reminds me of how many there were just during this period alone AND how well they were used.
DeleteAh, there's so much interesting history that revolves around the Pinkertons.
ReplyDeleteYou are right there!
DeleteIt's kinda interesting that he hired a female detective, and there were female spies and soldiers back then. It's as though society pulled females back from doing some of those things for a time in our history, and then women had to fight tooth and nail to regain what they once had. (I wonder if that first female detective made the same pay as the males.)
ReplyDeleteTen bucks says she didn't.
DeletePinkerton had a colorful history. Neat that he hired the first female detective.
ReplyDeleteHe was also a staunch abolitionist.
Delete:)
ReplyDeleteThis is good! I'm moving to the next post right now.
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