P is for Pinkerton, Alan, and the Pinkerton Dective Agency

My theme for A- Z is the year my book takes place: 1881. I"ll be posting about people, places, and random facts about the year as it relates - however distantly - to my book, West of Paradise.

Today we have P for Alan Pinkerton and the Pinkerton Detective Agency.

Alan Pinkerton founded the Pinkerton National Detective Agency in 1855. Last spring I wrote a series of five posts about the Pinkertons and how they figured in my novel. If you want to read more, check out the following:

Part one - the Founding
Part two - the first female detective
Part three - the Civil War Period
Part four - the Adams Express Robbery (my personal favorite)
Part five - ghouls in the graveyard

Today the Pinkertons are still in business, and to see a complete timeline, go here.


ps the new header pic is courtesy of my son. The bird is a Common Eider, though really, he's anything but.

M is for Masterson, Bat

My theme for A- Z is the year my book takes place: 1881. I"ll be posting about people, places, and random facts about the year as it relates - however distantly - to my book, West of Paradise.

Today we have M for Bat Masterson, who worked as a buffalo hunter, Indian scout, sheriff (Ford County 1877-1879) and deputy US marshal (1879), but mostly made his living as a saloon keeper and gambler.

In West of Paradise, I placed Bat Masterson in Tombstone as a Faro* dealer (or banker) at the Oriental Saloon where Alanna takes a fancy to him. However, while it's true he was a Faro dealer at the Oriental, he left Tombstone in April and so was not present in the town for the actual gunfight which took place in October. 


* Faro was a 17th century French card game played between a banker and any number of players. It was banned in France but continued to be played in England and was eventually exported to the United States where it became wildly popular "due to its fast action, easy-to-learn rules, and better odds than most games of chance."

G is for Garfield, James

My theme for A- Z is the year my book takes place: 1881. I'll be posting about people, places, and random facts about the year as it relates - however distantly - to my book.

Today, we have James Garfield, the 20th President of the United States, who was assassinated on March 4, 1881, a mere four months after being inaugurated. 

The crime took place at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station (pictured above). The President was on his way to deliver a speech at Williams College when he was shot twice from behind by assassin Charles J. Guiteau, a "disillusioned Federal office seeker."

The first bullet grazed President Garfield's arm harmlessly, but the second could not be found, and Garfield soon became ill due to infection. On September 6 the President was moved to the Jersey Shore, but the fresh air did nothing to aid in his recovery and on September 19, 1881, President Garfield succumbed to his wound.

Back in college I took an interesting class on assassinations. Yeah, I'm weird that way.  


ps my apologies for Sunday's way early post for those who saw it. Needless to say I did NOT look carefully enough at the date I wanted it to post...

E is for Earp, Wyatt

My theme for A- Z is the year my book takes place: 1881. I'll be posting about people, places, and random facts about the year as it relates - however distantly - to my book.

Today's post is for Wyatt Earp. Not a bad looking guy, eh?

 Wyatt Earp was born in 1848 and lived until 1929. As a boy he repeatedly tried to follow his brothers into war (the Civil War). After his first wife died he moved to Kansas where he allegedly frequented the saloons, gambling houses, and brothels, and had a few close calls with the law enforcement. But after helping track down a wagon thief, Earp joined the police force in Dodge City where he would make the acquaintance of Doc Holliday.

In 1879 Wyatt moved to Tombstone, Arizona to join his brothers, hoping to get rich off the silver mines. When that didn't pan out (haha) he returned to the law and as Deputy Town Marshal in Tombstone, took part in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral on October 26, 1881.

In my novel, West of Paradise, Jack (our hero) is a history buff and actually gets to see the gunfight, which occurs just before all hell breaks lose for a second time in Tombstone.

Thankfully I'm a bit of a history buff, too, so I had a lot of fun with the research.

D is for Dodge City

My theme for A- Z is the year my book takes place: 1881. I'll be posting about people, places, and random facts about the year as it relates - however distantly - to my book.

Dodge City was made famous in the early 1880's both as a frontier settlement and a cattle town. There were more gunfighters working in Dodge City at one time or another than any other town in the West, among them Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson, both of whom have small roles in my novel. Additionally, Dodge City boasted the usual array of saloons, gambling halls, and brothels - including the famous Long Branch Saloon, which some of you might recall from the show, Gunsmoke. Then again, I may just be dating myself.

The Eye That Never Sleeps - part five

So today I said I'd tell you about my Pinkerton agents, the fictional ones who inhabit the pages of my novel, PARADISE (scheduled for release next year!!!). I can't tell you much without giving things away but their names are Jim Woolbridge and Larry Sweet and they are quite opposite in character and temperament. Jim is the slow methodical type, a pipe smoker and a rule follower. Larry, on the other hand, is a sharp dresser, a people person, and it is he who generally questions suspects. My main character Jack doesn't like either of them when he first meets them.

And now for the last tale I'm going to tell you about the Pinkertons...


By the late 1870s the Pinkerton Agency was primarily managed by Robert and William Pinkerton due to their father's failing health. Among the stranger cases (I had never heard of this before reading it!) was one in which the Pinkertons assisted the Secret Service "in finding and arresting the ghouls who had attempted to steal the body of Abraham Lincoln from it's marble sarcophagus in the Springfield memorial."

Jim Kinealy, a counterfeiter and leader of a small gang, came up with the plan to steal the body and demand a ransom for its return. Unfortunately one of his gang squealed to a woman who tattled to the police. Kinealy escaped but two other counterfeiters (Terence Mullin and John Hughes) thought they'd make a go of the caper and took in Lewis C. Swegles, a horse thief and 'roper' (aka stool pigeon). He informed a Chicago Secret Service operator who called in the Pinkertons for assistance.

Nevertheless, in spite of the preparations made to capture the criminals, Swegle failed to "warn the detectives in time and an accidentally discharged pistol allowed the criminals to escape." They were apprehended a short while later but because there was nothing in Illinois statutes that covered grave robbing the only charge that could be made against the pair was "conspiracy to steal the coffin, which was valued at $75." Both men were sentenced to a year in prison.

And that ends our history lesson, which I hope you all found interesting. At the very least, I'll bet you didn't know that anyone tried to steal Lincoln's body or that ghouls were grave robbers. As for Allan Pinkerton, founder of the agency, he died on July 1, 1884, with his family at his side. The Agency he founded lives on.


The quoted material came from two books: The Eye That Never Sleeps, A history of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency by Frank Morn and The Pinkertons: The Detective Dynasty That Made History by James D. Horan. 

The Eye That Never Sleeps - part four

The Adams express robbery is probably one of my favorite cases. This occurred on January 6, 1866 when the Adams Express en route to Boston was robbed of $700,000 in cash, bonds and jewels. Pinkerton was called in and he joined his sons (now part of the business) in New York. 

At that time The Adams Express "carried" between New York and Boston via an indirect route. Among the employees was the messenger, whose only task was to check the padlocks on the express car - which was allegedly "thiefproof" - at each of the six stops.

At first Moore (the messenger) claimed that he discovered one of the two doors of the iron car ajar when they reached New Haven. However, upon closer questioning Moore admitted he had only checked the doors once, at Bridgeport.

Pinkerton flooded the area with operatives and it wasn't long before a Pinkerton operative discovered a bag of $5,000 in gold coins that had been left behind at Cos Cob where the thieves had exited the train. Livery Stables were checked and in Stamford two unidentified men had apparently tried to hire a horse and buggy the night of the robbery. They were refused since the owner didn't know them. A description was given and the men were trailed to Norwalk where one of them was identified as John Grady, a brakeman on the railroad.

From Norwalk station the investigation led them to an old man named Tristam who had, according to witnesses, refused to check his bag, holding it possessively on his lap throughout the journey. Back in the city, they trailed Tristam to the Lower East Side and a run down tenement on Division Street. The apartment was raided and $113,762, still in the Adams Express bags, was found. Tristam was picked up in a tavern a few blocks away and soon confessed, giving up John Grady, and two other men who were not associated with the railroad.

This little escapade is the one that features in my novel,PARADISE. Tomorrow I'll introduce you to my Pinkerton agents and tell you one last story.

The Eye That Never Sleeps - part three

Pinkerton (left) with President Lincoln

During the Civil War, "Pinkerton had two wartime duties to perform:  investigating suspicious people within the Union territory and gathering information from behind Confederate lines." This was a profitable time for the Agency, and not only in terms of cash but in experience as well.

One of the most notable cases Pinkerton investigated during this time was that of Rose Greenhow, a wealthy widow and Washington socialite who counted among her frequent guests Jefferson Davies, John C. Calhoun, and James A. Seddon, later the Secretary of War. Under the direction of Colonel Thomas Jordan (a Virginian), Rose Greenhow and her cadre of female spies sent an amazing amount of information - including blueprints of forts and military strength - via clerks, bankers, and army officers to Richmond. At one point her ring of spies had spread as far as Texas.

Finally, Pinkerton and his men observed through a window Rose Greenlaw accepting a map from an officer who then described the strength of the fortification shown on the map. Greenlaw and the officer then left the room, returning an hour later, after which the officer left. Pinkerton followed the man to the barracks where the officer, suspecting he'd been followed, alerted the provost and had Pinkerton arrested. HOwever, Pinkerton was able to get a message to the Assistant Secretary of War who, after hearing the evidence presented, summoned the suspected officer. A search of his room revealed enough evidence to convict him and have Rose Greenlaw arrested. She spent a number of months under house arrest before being transferred to the Old Capitol Prison. Eventually she was released and sent to Richmond where she was hailed as a hero and "reigned like an exiled queen."

In 1864, while trying to return to the Confederacy from Europe, the ship she was on ran aground near Wilmington, North Carolina. Although she managed to escape in a rowboat, it capsized and Rose Greenhow drowned, "weighed down by $2,000 worth of gold sewn into her underclothes."

The Eye That Never Sleeps - part two

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...)

The Eye That Never Sleeps

No, not that eye (but it is a great 'eye' pic, don't you think?); I'm talking about the Pinkerton Detective Agency, which happens to play a part in my novel, PARADISE. Having decided to use the agency, my next task was to learn all I could so that whatever ended up in the book would be true to history.

Here, in five parts, I'll tell you a little about the Pinkertons, their founder, and how they figure in my tale.

PART ONE

The Pinkerton Detective Agency was founded in 1855 by Allan Pinkerton - a Scottish immigrant and son of a policeman. Pinkerton and his new bride settled in Chicago first, and then Dundee, where he worked as a cooper. However, it wasn't long before he was drawn into what would become his life long profession.

At that time counterfeit currency was a huge problem and although Pinkerton himself wasn't affected, the people upon whom he depended for business were. When he "accidentally" discovered the counterfeiter's  camp he wasn't long in returning with the county sheriff who was so impressed he asked for Pinkerton's help. Although initially reluctant Allan agreed to look out for counterfeiters on a "part-time basis."

By early 1850 Pinkerton was well-known as a deputy in Kane County and had come to the attention of the federal government which hired him to investigate counterfeiting. Additionally, he became a special agent for the Chicago post office which had seen a rise in mail robberies. Apparently, the folks who sorted the mail had figured out which envelopes had money in them and which didn't. Pinkerton sent a decoy letter which soon resulted in the arrest of one Perry Denniston and his brother Theodore. At the apartment of the latter, $4000 was found pasted to the backs of wall pictures.

By this time, railroad expansion brought to light a weakness in the local police force. The problem was that once the train left the city it was essentially unprotected until it reached its destination. If cargo was stolen or passengers robbed, the railroad had no recourse. Of additional concern were the employees themselves such as the conductor who could let friends ride for free, sleep on the job, or pocket the money collected for tickets. In 1855, six mid-western railroads gave Pinkerton $10,000 "and the North West Police Agency was created."


(to be continued tomorrow.)

Samuel Johnson

Today I thought I'd share some fun insults from a book I have on my desk called, Samuel Johnson's Insults. But first, I'll tell you about the man...

Dr. Johnson - as he was often called - was a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor, and lexicographer. In 1755, Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language was published after nine years of work. It has been described as "one of the greatest single achievements of scholarship," and considered the pre-eminent British dictionary until the completion of the Oxford English Dictionary (also known as the OED). According to my little book, Johnson's "was an age of insults. Never has abuse been served up with more zest than in the eighteenth century." For example, "when the earl of Standish complained that his former friend, the libertine John Wilkes, '[would] die either on the gallows, or of the pox,' Wilkes replied, 'That must depend on whether I embrace your lordship's principles or your mistress.'"*

Here then, are a few insults from the book:


footlicker: A slave; an humble fawner, one who licks the foot.

looby: A lubber; a clumsy clown.

pettifogger: A petty small-rate lawyer.

slubberdegullion: A paltry, dirty, sorry wretch.

toper: A drunkard.

 
Now, go forth and see if you can't make use of one of these words today. I'm sure you can find at least one footlicker in your travels.



*Sources: Wikipedia, and, Samuel Johnson's Insults, ed. by Jack Lynch