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LTC Stephen F.
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Thank you, my friend Maj Marty Hogan for making us aware that August 25 is the anniversary of the birth of Scottish-American detective and spy Allan J. Pinkerton best known for creating the Pinkerton National Detective Agency.
"When the Civil War began, Pinkerton served as head of the Union Intelligence Service during the first two years, heading off an alleged assassination plot in Baltimore, Maryland while guarding Abraham Lincoln on his way to Washington, D.C. as well as identifying troop numbers in military campaigns. His agents often worked undercover as Confederate soldiers and sympathizers to gather military intelligence."

CBSRMT ~The Pinkerton Method 745
"The story of the legendary Pinkerton Detective Agency and how they got started with nabbing train robbers with a pursuit in Missouri involving the death of an innocent railway worker."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKSxod66gaY

Images:
1. Allan Pinkerton. Library of Congress
2. Allan Pinkerton with President Abraham Lincoln.
3. Allan Pinkerton (seated right) with his agents working for the Union Army Secret Service


1. National park Service summary
Allan Pinkerton
Quick Facts
SIGNIFICANCE: Abolitionist and founder of the predecessor to the Pinkerton National Detective Agency
PLACE OF BIRTH: Glasgow
DATE OF BIRTH: August 25, 1819
PLACE OF DEATH: Chicago, IL
DATE OF DEATH: July 1, 1884
PLACE OF BURIAL: Chicago, IL
CEMETERY NAME: Graceland Cemetery
Allan Pinkerton was a cooper, abolitionist, and founder of the North-Western Police Agency, predecessor of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. Forced to emigrate from Scotland in 1842 because of his radical, populist views, Pinkerton first established himself as a cooper in Dundee, Illinois but soon gravitated to police work. He was appointed deputy sheriff of Kane County, Illinois in 1846, then deputy sheriff of Cook County, then special agent for the U.S. Post Office in Chicago. Around 1850, he organized America's first private detective agency specializing in railway thefts. Its motto was "We never sleep" and its logo - a prominent, unblinking eye - came to be associated with all future "private eyes."

His agency protected President-elect Abraham Lincoln during his journey from Springfield to Washington in February 1861, and when war erupted, Pinkerton was appointed chief of intelligence for Union army commander George McClellan. In the early months of the Civil War, McClellan's cautious nature was often reinforced by Pinkerton's inflated estimates of Confederate troop strength.

After the war, the Pinkerton Agency continued to expand. It helped bring to justice a number of prominent railway express robbers but failed to apprehend the nation's most notorious: the James Gang. Ironically, given Pinkerton's early pro-labor views, the Pinkerton Agency became involved in suppressing labor organizing activity and strikes in the 1870s. The violence it helped foment during the 1892 Homestead Mill strike led to laws in 26 states that banned private guards from participating in labor disputes.

In the early 20th century, as public police forces became more professional and the public became less tolerant of the sometimes ruthless tactics employed by private police forces, the Pinkerton Agency gravitated away from detective work and toward security. The Pinkerton National Detective Agency lives on today as Pinkerton Consulting and Investigations, a division of the Swedish security company Securitas AB.

2. PBS Background from pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/james-agency/
"Scottish emigrant and abolitionist Allan Pinkerton founded America's first detective agency and successfully brought down some of the country's most ruthless criminals. But in 1874 he tried to take on the James brothers, and he failed.

The man dubbed America's first "private eye" was born near Glasgow, Scotland, on July 21, 1819. Involved as a young man in radical politics, he was forced to emigrate to America in 1842. Pinkerton and his wife settled in the Chicago area, where Allan worked as a barrel-maker. By accident he discovered the lair of a gang of counterfeiters and had them arrested. The resulting celebrity led to his appointment as a deputy sheriff and then special agent for the U.S. Post Office, where his success in catching criminals continued. Around 1850 he formed Pinkerton's National Detective Agency, with the motto "We Never Sleep" and an unblinking eye as its symbol. This would lead to the description of independent detectives as "private eyes."

In addition to being a noted crime fighter, Allan was also a committed abolitionist. When in late 1858, John Brown freed 11 slaves in a raid on two Missouri homesteads and set out to take them to freedom in Canada, Pinkerton raised some $500 and arranged for transportation from Chicago to Detroit. His agency protected President-elect Abraham Lincoln during his trip to Washington to be sworn in, and Pinkerton served as chief of intelligence for Union general George mcClellan during the Civil War. After the conflict was over, Pinkerton's agency continued to grow; his agents infiltrated America's first-train robbing gang, the Reno brothers of Indiana, and he collected photographs of known criminals to aid in their apprehension and capture. In early 1874, after a train robbery by the James gang in Gads Hill, Missouri, the Adams Express Company asked Pinkerton to bring the brothers Frank and Jesse James to justice. Express companies were paid to carry valuables on the railroads, and they, rather than the train companies, typically suffered the largest losses during robberies. Pinkerton accepted the assignment and sent one of his detectives to Clay County, Missouri, to investigate.

Botched Raid
That detective, a man named Joseph Whicher, arrived in early March 1874 and made his way to the James homestead, despite being warned by a former sheriff that "the old woman [Zerelda] would kill you if the boys didn't." Whicher was found murdered the next day. His death scared off the express company, but not the old abolitionist Pinkerton, who vowed vengeance on the outlaws who still espoused the Confederate cause. "There is no use talking," he wrote of the James brothers, "they must die." In January 1875, a group of Pinkerton detectives and sympathetic locals raided the James farm, but their plans went awry when an incendiary device they tossed into the house exploded, wounding Zerelda and killing Jesse's eight-year-old half-brother Archie. Public opinion rallied to the James family as never before, and the Pinkerton agency was excoriated for the raid. Stung with his worst defeat, Pinkerton gave up the chase.

After the Raid
Allan Pinkerton died in 1884, just two years after Jesse James, but his sons William and Robert took over the running of the agency. Pinkerton detectives were often hired as muscle for factory management during bitter labor strikes. It was the bloodshed during the srtike at Andrew Carnegie's Homestead Mill in 1892 that led to laws in 26 states that banned bringing in outside guards during labor disputes. But the agency continued to flourish; by 1995 the company, which had switched its focus almost entirely to security services, had 250 offices and 50,000 employees worldwide."

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SMSgt Lawrence McCarter
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For a number of years I had worked for Pinkerton Security and Investigations as an Operations Manger in a Pinkerton, Framingham, MA District Office with 85 Accounts and over 350 Security Officers under My supervision. I also had two Pinkerton Area offices in Manchester NH by Hyannis (Cape Cod) MA also under My management control. The History of the Pinkerton International Detectives started in 1850 and in the Western US during the 1800s were the only ones pursuing criminals across state and territorial lines. It was the Pinkerton's that were first to have wanted posters with picture of criminals being sought During the civil war it was the Pinkerton's that were a major source of Intelligence gathering for the Union Army and also protection of Government officials. The US secret service when it came into being followed and adopted the Pinkerton methods of operation and structure.

My last assignment was with Pinkerton Government Services on an Armed Federal Contract which also wee were trained in use of force, taking people into custody and as a supplement to to USAF Law Enforcement.
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SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth
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Great bio share sir.
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