Pinkerton, founded as the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, is a private security guard and detective agency established in the United States by Allan Pinkerton in ...
Pinkerton (detective agency)
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This article is about the Pinkerton detective agency. For the Canadian television show of a similar name about the agency, see
The Pinkertons.
, founded as the
Pinkerton National Detective Agency, is a private
security guard and detective agency established in the
United States by
Allan Pinkerton in 1850 and currently a subsidiary of
Securitas AB.
[1] Pinkerton became famous when he claimed to have foiled a
plot to assassinate president-elect Abraham Lincoln, who later hired Pinkerton agents for his personal security during the
Civil War.
[2] Pinkerton's agents performed services ranging from security guarding to
private military contracting work. Pinkerton was the largest
private law enforcement organization in the world at the height of its power.
[3]
During the labor strikes of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, businessmen hired the Pinkerton Agency to
infiltrate unions, supply guards, keep
strikers and suspected
unionists out of factories, and recruit
goon squads to intimidate workers. One such confrontation was the
Homestead Strike of 1892, in which Pinkerton agents were called in to reinforce the
strikebreaking measures of industrialist
Henry Clay Frick, acting on behalf of
Andrew Carnegie.
[4]
The ensuing battle between Pinkerton agents and striking workers led to
the deaths of seven Pinkerton agents and nine steelworkers.
[5] The Pinkertons were also used as guards in coal, iron, and lumber disputes in
Illinois,
Michigan,
New York,
Pennsylvania, and
West Virginia as well as the
Great Railroad Strike of 1877 and the
Battle of Blair Mountain in 1921. The organization was pejoratively called the "Pinks" by its opponents.
The company now operates as "Pinkerton Consulting & Investigations, Inc.
d.b.a.
Pinkerton Corporate Risk Management", a division of the Swedish
security company Securitas AB. The former Government Services division,
PGS, now operates as Securitas Critical Infrastructure Services, Inc.
[6]
Origins
In the 1850s,
Allan Pinkerton
met Chicago attorney Edward Rucker in a local Masonic Hall and formed
the North-Western Police Agency, later known as the Pinkerton Agency.
[7][8][9]
Historian Frank Morn writes: "By the mid-1850s a few businessmen saw
the need for greater control over their employees; their solution was to
sponsor a private detective system. In February 1855, Allan Pinkerton,
after consulting with six midwestern railroads, created such an agency
in Chicago."
[10]
Government work
In 1871, Congress appropriated $50,000 to the new
Department of Justice
(DOJ) to form a suborganization devoted to "the detection and
prosecution of those guilty of violating federal law." The amount was
insufficient for the DOJ to fashion an integral investigating unit, so
the DOJ contracted out the services to the Pinkerton National Detective
Agency.
[11]
However, since passage of the
Anti-Pinkerton Act
in 1893, federal law has stated that an "individual employed by the
Pinkerton Detective Agency, or similar organization, may not be employed
by the Government of the United States or the government of the
District of Columbia."
[12]
Chicago "Special Officers" and watchmen
- July 27, 1877: J.J. White, who had been hired as a "Special Officer" during a strike, was shot and killed.[13]
- July 19, 1919: Hans Rassmuson, Special Officer, was shot and killed.[14]
- March 12, 1924: Frank Miller, Pinkerton Watchman, was shot and killed.[15]
Molly Maguires
Main article:
Molly Maguires
In the 1870s,
Franklin B. Gowen, then president of the
Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, hired the agency to "investigate" the labor unions in the company's mines. A Pinkerton agent,
James McParland, using the alias "James McKenna", infiltrated the
Molly Maguires, a 19th-century
secret society of mainly Irish-American coal miners, leading to the downfall of the labor organization. The incident inspired
Arthur Conan Doyle's
Sherlock Holmes novel
The Valley of Fear (1914-1915). (A Pinkerton agent also appears in a small role in
The Adventure of the Red Circle, a 1911 Holmes story. A 1970 film,
The Molly Maguires, was loosely based upon the incident as well; the film starred
Richard Harris,
Sean Connery and
Anthony Zerbe.)
Homestead Strike
On July 6, 1892, during the
Homestead Strike, 300 Pinkerton detectives from New York and
Chicago were called in by
Carnegie Steel's
Henry Clay Frick to protect the
Pittsburgh-area
mill and strikebreakers. This resulted in a fire fight and siege in
which 16 men were killed and 23 others were wounded. To restore order,
two brigades of the
Pennsylvania militia were called out by the Governor.
As a legacy of the Pinkerton's involvement a bridge connecting the nearby Pittsburgh suburbs of
Munhall and
Rankin was named
Pinkerton's Landing Bridge.
Detective Frank P. Geyer
In 1895 detective
Frank Geyer tracked down the
murderer of the three Pitezel children, leading to the eventual trial and
execution of the United States' first known
serial killer H. H. Holmes. His story is told in his book,
The Holmes-Pitezel Case.
[16] Pinkertons had previously apprehended Holmes in 1894 in Boston on an outstanding warrant for
insurance fraud perpetrated in Chicago.
Steunenberg murder and trial
Harry Orchard was arrested by the Idaho police and confessed to Pinkerton agent
James McParland that he assassinated former Governor
Frank Steunenberg of Idaho in 1905. Orchard testified (unsuccessfully) under threat of hanging
[17] against
Western Federation of Miners president
Big Bill Haywood, naming him as hiring the hit. With a stirring defense by
Clarence Darrow,
Haywood and the other defendants of the WFM were acquitted in a
nationally publicized trial. Orchard received a death sentence, but it
was
commuted.
[18]
Outlaws and competition
Pinkerton agents were hired to track western outlaws
Jesse James, the
Reno Gang, and the
Wild Bunch (including
Butch Cassidy and the
Sundance Kid). On March 17, 1874, two Pinkerton Detectives and a deputy sheriff, Edwin P. Daniels,
[19] encountered the Younger brothers (associates of the
James–Younger Gang); Daniels,
John Younger, and one Pinkerton agent were killed. In
Union, Missouri
a bank was robbed by George Collins, aka Fred Lewis, and Bill Randolph;
Pinkerton Detective Chas Schumacher trailed them and was killed.
Collins was hanged on March 26, 1904 and Randolph was hanged on May 8,
1905 in Union. Pinkertons were also hired for transporting money and
other high quality merchandise between cities and towns, which made them
vulnerable to the outlaws. Pinkerton agents were usually well paid and
well armed.
G.H. Thiel, a former Pinkerton employee, established the
Thiel Detective Service Company in
St. Louis,
Missouri, a competitor to the Pinkerton agency. The Thiel company operated in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.
Due to its conflicts with
labor unions, the word
Pinkerton continues to be associated by labor organizers and union members with
strikebreaking.
[20] Pinkertons, however, moved away from labor spying following revelations publicized by the
La Follette Committee hearings in 1937.
[21] Pinkerton's criminal detection work also suffered from the police modernization movement, which saw the rise of the
Federal Bureau of Investigation
and the bolstering of detective branches and resources of the public
police. Without the labor and criminal investigation work on which
Pinkertons thrived for decades, the company became increasingly involved
in protection services, and in the 1960s, even the word "Detective"
disappeared from the agency's letterhead.
[22] In July 2003, Pinkerton's was acquired along with longtime rival, the
William J. Burns Detective Agency (founded in 1910), by
Securitas AB to create Securitas Security Services USA, Inc., one of the largest
security companies in the world.
Badge history
- 1870–1925—Solid Silver Badge Engraved Lettering
- 1925–1930—Silver Colored Eagle Badge with Blue Lettering
- 1930–Present—Gold colored shield with Black Lettering
Appearance in popular media
- The Pinkertons have been mentioned in season 1 and featured in seasons 2 and 3 of the HBO series Deadwood, and also the 1980 movie The Long Riders, where Pinkerton agents are depicted investigating criminal activity of the James brothers.
- In "False Colors" the eighth episode of the first season of the 1989 TV show The Young Riders, a detective named Pinkerton is working with the security of a gold shipment.
- In the fourth season episode "Havre de Grace" of Boardwalk Empire, the character Roy Phillips is revealed to be a detective working for the agency.
- The protagonist of the video game BioShock Infinite,
Booker DeWitt, is an ex-Pinkerton, known for his violent methods in
putting down strikes. Given his description, he was probably part of a goon squad and involved in the Homestead Strike.
- The character Captain Homer Jackson in the BBC series Ripper Street is also revealed as an ex-Pinkerton agent in series one.
- Two Pinkerton Agents were featured in the movie The Legend of Zorro.
- The Pinkertons are featured in the 3:10 to Yuma remake featuring Russel Crowe and Christian Bale, appearing at the start of the film defending a carriage from bandits.
- In Ian Fleming's James Bond novels, Felix Leiter worked for Pinkertons.
- Three Pinkerton Agents were featured in the first season episode "Husbands & Fathers", of the BBC America show Copper.
- In 1966 Irwin Allen series The Time Tunnel on episode 12 "The Death Trap", Mr. Pinkerton, with the help of the two main characters, saved President Lincoln.
- In the Sherlock Holmes novel The Valley of Fear, Birdy Edwards is a Pinkerton agent. In the Sherlock Holmes novel Moriarty by Anthony Horowitz, Frederick Chase claims to be a Pinkerton agent.
- In Penny Dreadful season 1 episode 8 "Grand Guignol" Ethan Chandler is confronted by 2 Pinkerton agents in a bar as his past catches up with him.
- In the 1994 western film Bad Girls the three main characters are being tracked down by two Pinkerton agents.
- The song "Ballad of a Well-Known Gun" on the 1970 Elton John album Tumbleweed Connection references 'the Pinkertons' – "The Pinkertons pulled out my bags and asked me for my name".
- 2012 The Hatfields and the McCoys Season 1 Part 1
- The song "Book, Saddle, And Go" on the 2013 Clutch album Earth Rocker references 'Pinkerton Man' – "Pinkerton man, murdering bastard, I’m gonna get even, get even with you, Get even with you".
- The Pinkertons, a scripted one-hour syndicated starring Angus Macfadyen as Allan Pinkerton, debuted in 2014.[23][24]
- Cole Hauser plays Charlie Siringo, a Pinkerton investigating Lizzie Borden, in the 2015 mini-series The Lizzie Borden Chronicles.
- In Laird Barron's short story "Bulldozer", the Pinkerton protagonist
Jonah Koenig hunts down a wanted criminal who also happens to dabble in
profane occult rituals.
- Many Louis L'Amour books contain references to the Pinkertons, including Milo Talon
- Maria "Belle" Boyd, a lead character in Cherie Priest's steampunk novel Fiddlehead, works for the Pinkerton detective agency.
- In the 1997 James Cameron film "Titanic (1997 film)", Spicer Lovejoy, Caledon Hockleys valet and bodyguard was an ex-Pinkerton detective.
See also
References
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