Allan Pinkerton: America’s Most Famous Private Eye

today's video is sponsored by nordvpn give yourself options online go to nordvpn.com bio to get a two-year plan at a huge discount plus a free gift more on them in just a bit we never sleep that was the slogan that greeted everyone who walked through the doors of the most famous detective agency in the world the pigmentons not to mention that their logo of a vigilant unblinking eye gave the world the term private eye the detective agency was founded by alan pinkerton a scottish immigrant and a subject for today's video he came from humble beginnings and he led a quiet remote life building barrels until fate thrust him into the middle of the action and as it turned out pinkerton took to adventure like a duck to water [Music] alan pinkerton was born on the 25th of august 1819 in glasgow scotland in one of the poorest and most crime-ridden areas of the city known as the gorbals he was the second of two sons of william pinkerton an isabelle mcqueen alongside robert pinkerton who was five years older than him his father's job is somewhat uncertain some sources say he was a police sergeant others say that he was a jailer either way what mattered was that william pinkerton was injured on the job and he died when alan was still a child leaving the family in dire financial straits both pinkerton boys had to find work which meant that allen had to forego finishing school in order to support his family allen showed up in the 1841 census with his occupation listed as journeyman cooper aka a barrel maker while his older brother was a blacksmith for some reason a nine-year-old boy named john robertson is also listed as a part of the household although we're not exactly sure where he fits in since the census didn't include the relationships between the family members reckless also show that alan pinkenton married the following year to a woman named joan carfrae another native of glasgow the two stayed married until his death and their three children together while working as a cooper alan pinkenton became involved in chartism a movement for reforms that benefited the working class as you might expect the government was not too thrilled with this development and tried to suppress this new crusade as much as possible although many charters protests were peaceful there were occasionally dustups with the police things took a turn for the worse in 1842 after the chartists gathered over 3 million signatures for their petition to be discussed in parliament yet they were still turned down this led to a wave of strikes and riots throughout the uk and the state responded in kind by arresting many men involved with the chartist movement following a scuffle with the law alan pinkerton found that roy warren had been issued for his arrest so with few other choices he decided to leave scotland under the shroud of darkness and sail to america with his new wife and begin another chapter in their lives given his circumstances it's bitterly ironic that the pinkertons themselves would eventually become anti-union-hired goons used as tools by american industrialists to oppress the working class pinkerton's arrival to the new world was inauspicious to say the least he had to work as a cooper on the ship in order to pay for his passage for himself and his wife after a four week voyage the vessel got caught in ice off the coast of nova scotia forcing all the passengers to leave everything they had behind and row to safety in lifeboats in picking his own words by the time the trip came to an end in montreal they only had their health and a few pennies the newlyweds intended destination was chicago because pinkerton had a friend there old bobby fergus from the gorbals however they had to spend an extra week in montreal so the cooper could work a bit and earn enough money for the trip to illinois things went better for them once they arrived in chicago fergus allowed them to stay with him until they got settled and even found allen a job with lill's brewery once again as a cooper this was their life for about a year or so eventually though pinkerton thought he would be more successful if he owned his own cooperage consequently in 1843 the couple relocated to the small town of dundee in kane county illinois which as you might guess from the name was mainly inhabited by scottish immigrants there alan pinkerton built a little cabin for himself and for joan next to the fox river right in the path of ranchers and farmers traveling to and from the market he also had a shed where he toiled every day from sun up to sundown wake up at 4 30 go to bed at 8 30 seven days a week no drinking no smoking no dancing no shenanigans of any sort just all barrels all the time that was pinkerton's regimen and with that kind of dedication his cooperage business thrived his wife considered those days the best of their lives but destiny had other plans the career switched a private eye landed in pinkerton's lap by chance he knew of this little remote island that had good trees which he often visited for lumber one day in 1847 he noticed that somebody else had been there as well and had left behind the remnants of a campfire pinkton's curiosity was peaked so he returned several times all sneaky-like trying to see who else was coming to a secret spot after a few failed attempts during the day he decided to try it at night and he hit pay dirt pinkton stumbled upon a ring of counterfeiters he notified the cane county sheriff luther dearborn and together they staked out the island again after the sheriff witnessed the criminals first hand he formed a posse and took down the entire ring pinkerton received a lot of the credit for the bust but even so he still intended to return to his old job however a short while later he got his second case once again without him actually looking for one the owner of the general store in town asked him for help identifying another counterfeiter pinkerton was reluctant but he agreed not only did he identify the criminal a man named john craig but he also gained craig's confidence and arranged for a deal in chicago where the counterfeiter was arrested ultimately craig escaped custody after bribing a policeman but pinkerton's reputation was made after that the cooper still wanted to go back to cooping but this time he wasn't as sure as before all of a sudden life in the middle of nowhere building barrels from dusk till dawn seemed a little boring therefore when sheriff dearborn offered him a position as deputy pinkerton jumped at the chance he still built barrels but he swapped his tools for a cudgel when the sheriff had need of him around the same time pinkerton became involved with the underground railroad the secret network used to help slaves escape into canada or the american free states as a staunch abolitionist pinkerton remained involved with this movement for decades and offered his home as a safe house this brought him into conflict with the dundee baptist church they already weren't fans of him because pinkerton was not a religious man but he also wasn't the calm and subtle type alan pinton was a roaring angry scot and if he had a problem with you you best believe he'd let you know rather loudly the relationship between the two sides worsened when the elders of the church began accusing pinkerton of selling ardent spirits when in fact the cobbler was a tea totaler who never touched alcohol pinkton started to get fed up with life on the frontier and even his beloved cooperage business was getting a little too monotonous but faye once again intervened and pinkerton was offered the position of deputy sheriff in cook county headquartered in chicago he accepted the spot and soon enough he sold his cooperage packed everything into wagons and moved to the big city now a quick question how many times have you been on the internet and noticed creepy ads that seemed tailored to your internet search history or speaking of search history how many times have 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press reported of the incident the pistol was of large caliber heavily loaded and discharged so near that mr pinkerton's coat was put on fire two slugs shattered the bone five inches from the wrist and passed along the bone to the elbow where they were cut out by a surgeon together with pieces of his coat for his efforts in 1849 pinkerton had the honor of being appointed chicago's first police detective he only held the position for one year though before leaving due to political interference as he put it but his reputation was enough to immediately secure him a new post as a special agent with the united states post office once again pinkerton excelled at his job and earned mentions in the local press which boldly proclaimed that as a detective mr pinkerton has no superior and we doubt if he has any equal in this country with that kind of praise being lavished upon him the ambitions of the former frontier cooper grew and soon enough he'd quit his job with the post office in order to open his own detective agency in the early 1850s alongside chicago attorney edward rucker alan pinkerton founded the northwestern police agency quickly rebranded to the pinkerton national detective agency in order to take full advantage of his name recognition contrary to popular belief though this was not the first known private detective agency in europe french criminal terms criminalist eugene badock whom we've already covered here on biographics fyi beat him by a couple of decades and even in america there was a pair of saint louis policemen who opened their own private guard service during the 1840s the first years of the agency's existence were fruitful and efficient but not exactly full of high-stakes skin of the teeth action most of their work was done for the ever-expanding railroads and involved either protection services or theft investigations this was the main course complemented with side orders of fraud counterfeiting bank robbery and even the occasional murder the company's initial success and steady growth allowed pinkerton to build up a network of underlings that he could trust including kate warren america's first female detective oddly enough pinkerton's most exciting exploit at this time did not even include his detective agency but rather his anti-slavery activities pinkerton was well acquainted with john brown arguably the most radical abolitionist leader in the country who was more than willing to use violence in order to free slaves brown was executed in 1859 after a failed attack at harpers ferry virginia where he intended to rail the federal armory arm the slaves and stage a liberation movement that would extend as far south as possible john brown's failed raid became a poodle moment in american history leading up to the civil war but he had a lesser-known successful raid earlier in the year which involved allen pinkerton in january 1859 john brown led a raid in missouri liberating around a dozen slaves however his band killed a farmer during the raid so they had the u.s marshals on their trail as they sought to reach canada in the early hours of march the 11th 1859 the entire group was in chicago banging on alan pinkerton's door pinkerton took them all in no questions asked but if they were to make it to canada they needed money for food clothes and supplies more than pinkton himself could provide even so the detective resolved to get that money one way or the other he knew there was a chicago judiciary convention scheduled that day so he sent two friends with a subscription list of all the city's prominent abolitionists who would be at the meeting they however returned empty-handed saying that the delegates refused assistance at that point pinkerton took matters into his own hands he tucked his revolver under his coat and traveled to the convention hall where a hush silence fell over the crowd as soon as he entered pinkerton's voice boomed throughout the room and he said gentlemen i have one thing to do and i intend to do it in a hurry john brown is in this city at the present time with a number of men women and children i require aid and substantial aid i must have i am ready and willing to leave this meeting if i get this money if not i will bring john brown to this meeting and if any u.s marshal dare lay a hand on him he must take the consequences i am determined to do this or have the money everyone there knew pinkerton better than to call his bluffs so slowly but surely almost every politician judge and businessman in the room approached the detective and dropped a bill in his hat a few minutes later pinkerton left the conventional with 500 to 600 and then he escorted brown and his troop out of the city when the american civil war erupted in 1861 alan pinkerton fought on the union side no surprises there given his strong feelings about slavery he served as head of the union intelligence service for the first few years of the war under commanding general george mcclellan who already had a cordial relationship with pinkerton from their pre-war days when mcclellan worked as a railroad engineer and threw a lot of business pinkerton's way the intelligence agency served as a forerunner to the u.s secret service but its most famous some would say infamous moment actually came before the civil war even started when pinkerton and his network of spies may have saved the life of his new president-elect abraham lincoln it became known as the baltimore plot and ostensibly it was an attempt to assassinate lincoln while passing through maryland on his way to his inauguration as the 16th president of the united states as we've said this was before the civil war had started which in the minds of many had become inevitable at that point but some still believed that they would be able to stave off the succession of the confederacy if they got rid of lincoln as you're probably aware link was not assassinated in 1861 anyway and since nobody was ever convicted and no solid evidence was ever found there is still ongoing debate whether or not the baltimore plot was even real the idea that lincoln wasn't very popular in slave states is hardly a shocking revelation immediately after winning the election scores of hate mail and threats began pouring into his office enough to give twitter a run for its money but it was samuel morse felton president of the philadelphia wilmington and baltimore railroad who heard rumors that something more concrete and sinister was being planned because alan pinkerton had extensive experience providing protection for trains and his aggressive anti-slavery sentiments were beyond any doubt it was natural for felton to turn to him for help the detective used several of his agents to infiltrate rallies hang out secret societies and any other pro-slavery meetings and gathered enough information to believe that the threat was real and that the attack would happen in baltimore so why baltimore well in february president-elect abraham lincoln had embarked on a 70-stop railway tour of the country starting in illinois and culminating with his inauguration in washington d.c that included a lot of places where he could have been waylaid but baltimore was the perfect spot for two reasons one maryland was a slave state full of people who hated lincoln's guts and two there was a city law that forbade steam engines from passing through town so even if lincoln was aware of a plot against him he still had no choice but to get out of his train get into a horse-drawn railcar ride that until the end of town and then get out again and enter a waiting steam train that created a lot of opportunity for an ambush and pinkerton became convinced that an assassination attempt would take place in baltimore it was on february 21 1861 that pinkerton met lincoln for the first time and brought the threat to his attention the president was in philadelphia in the middle of his whistle-stop tour and were staying at the continental hotel the problem was that lincoln's itinerary and schedule had been published in the press so his would-be killers knew where he would be to the minute pinkerton urged him to change his routine and make an unannounced pass through baltimore but lincoln was reluctant to do so however later that same day he received a letter from senator william h c wood his soon-to-be secretary of state who had investigated the threat on his own and pretty much told him the same thing as pinkerton this swayed lincoln so the following evening the president secretly met with pinkerton and the detective escorted him to the train station lincoln put on a disguise and boarded a different train that passed through baltimore at night once the president was out of maryland pinkerton wired a telegram that simply said plums delivered not safely which presumably would make lincoln the nuts meanwhile the president's retinue and his family boarded their scheduled train the following morning and lincoln made it safely to his inauguration kate warne the aforementioned female detective accompanied the nutty president on this trip according to legend she never closed an eye while lincoln was in her charge hence the pinkerton slogan we never sleep whether or not the baltimore plot truly existed we cannot say but it certainly convinced lincoln of pinkerton's detective bonafides which was why he was put in charge of union intelligence during the early days of the war pinkerton personally led the investigation that exposed aspiring in washington however he didn't really cover himself in glory when he was sent to the front lines alongside the army of the potomac it turned out that military espionage done amidst the chaos and confusion of war wasn't really his forte it wasn't for lack of bravery several times pinkerton went into enemy territory himself together intelligence despite the high likelihood that he would be recognized however his reports with estimates on enemy size and movements were often filled with errors or exaggerations and during war a kind of stuff was quite important at the same time pinkerton found himself trapped in a political war he was an ardent ally of the aforementioned general george mcclellan but mclennan and lincoln didn't get along at all eventually the general was relieved of his command and when mclennan left so did pinkerton even so following the war demand for the pinkertons was high however by this point the company grew to the point that alan pinkerton mostly delegated to other people he rarely did any grunt work himself and spying was out of the question since he had become too well known furthermore in 1869 pinkerton suffered a stroke that nearly killed him and left him temporarily paralyzed so even though he eventually returned to the office his days of personally chasing down criminals were over he led his sons robert and william pinkerton do most of the heavy lifting that being said the pinkertons and some of their most notorious cases after the civil war in 1866 they began pursuing the reno gang who were responsible for the first peacetime train robberies in the country on this occasion alan pinkerton did join in the hunt and he almost got shot twice for his troubles but managed to escape unscathed both times during the early 1870s the pinkertons were put on the trail of the infamous jesse james and his gang this case however gave the detective agency their biggest black eye with the public their first failure occurred in 1874 when an undercover detective named joseph witcher was identified and murdered by the james gang the vengeful pinkerton was out for blood so his men organized a raid on the james farm in january 1875. in a foolhardy move one of the detectives tossed an explosive into the house killing jesse james eight and a half-year-old brother archie with the blood of an innocent child on their hands the pinkertons were vilified in the press and alan pinkerton gave up chasing jessie james suffering a very public and humiliating defeat in the minds of the average working man the pinkertons would soon gain a sinister reputation not due to the botched raid but something else entirely their violence against the labor movement just like he loathed alcohol and slavery alan pinkerton was steadfastly anti-union which in his mind did more harm than good to the working class during the mid-1870s there was a famous case where a pinkerton agent named james mcfarland infiltrated an irish working-class secret society named the molly mcguires collected evidence against them and got 20 of them sentenced to death for their roles in violent labor conflicts from that point on the pinkertons became the go-to service for every rich industrialist in the country who wanted to ensure that his workers didn't unionize but there was no more espionage counterintelligence or any other kind of detective work involved the pinkertons were simply armed goons there to break up any would-be strikes almost always using violence alan pinkerton defended his actions until his dying day which occurred on july 1 1884 some said that he died from gangrene of the tongue after biting it during a fall but others reported a more mundane cause of death such as a stroke on malaria after his death his sons took over the company and maintained their strike breaking services overseeing some of the bloodiest labor union crashes in the history of the country that resulted in hundreds of deaths and injuries and forever tainted the pinkerton name [Music] you

Channel: Biographics

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Keywords: biographics, biography, biographies, people, famous people, simon whistler

Id: XQ0byzPA8F0

Length: 20min 50sec (1250 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 14 2022