![]() When the two sides exchanged gunfire, nine strikers and seven Pinkerton agents were killed. The company's most infamous strike-busting operation came in 1892, when 300 Pinkerton employees fought with workers at the Homestead, Pennsylvania, steel plant owned by Andrew Carnegie. Starting in the 1870s, Pinkerton detectives also began to work for industrial companies as spies and strikebreakers, and they quickly became despised by American labor. Much of its business came from banks and express companies, who wanted to deter robberies. After the war, promoting itself with the slogan “we never sleep,” the company opened offices in New York City and Philadelphia. During the Civil War, the company provided intelligence to the Northern armies that was not particularly accurate. By late 1850s, Pinkerton employed 15 operatives. One of the first private detective agencies in the United States, this company worked for the Illinois Central and other railroads. By the beginning of the 1850s, Pinkerton and a partner had established the North-Western Police Agency, which had its offices at Washington and Dearborn Streets in Chicago. Bloomington: Indiana Univ.Allan Pinkerton emigrated from Scotland to the United States in 1842, when he was 23 years old he soon settled in the town of Dundee, northwest of Chicago. "The Eye that Never Sleeps": A History of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. The Pinkertons: The Detective Dynasty That Made History. The agency provides investigative services, uniformed security officers, security systems, and other products and services associated with personal and business security. The Pinkerton agency remains in existence and has its headquarters in Encino, California. Pinkerton agents also pursued, unsuccessfully, Butch Cassidy (Robert Parker) and the Sundance Kid (Harry Longabough) as the pair robbed trains and banks in the southwestern United States in the late 1890s. Robert Pinkerton, the son of Allan, led the group that followed and captured the Younger Brothers Gang in 1874. Pinkerton agents chased bandits across the United States after the Civil War, including the gang led by Jesse and Frank James. After a long and highly publicized trial in which Pinkerton agents were witnesses, nineteen miners were hanged for crimes committed during the strike. Some agents infiltrated the Molly Maguires, a secret organization of Pennsylvania and West Virginia coal miners. In the late 1870s, coal mining operators in Pennsylvania hired Pinkerton agents to disrupt union organizing. When a crime was committed in town, the sheriff could send descriptions by witnesses to the agency, and the agents would provide a photograph and a detailed description of the suspect to law enforcement agencies in nearby communities. Agents would clip out newspaper stories about a criminal and include this information in the criminal's file. By the 1870s the Pinkerton agency had the largest collection of mug shots in the world. The "mug shot" soon was adopted by police departments. A Pinkerton innovation was photographing criminals after arrest. Pinkerton agents were employed to capture bank robbers, counterfeiters, and forgers, but they also were used to infiltrate labor unions and disrupt strikes.Īllan Pinkerton established offices throughout the country. It was one of the first private detective agencies in the United States, and its agents played an important role in law enforcement in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. The Pinkerton National Detective Agency was founded in 1850 in Chicago by Allan Pinkerton. ![]()
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