Pinkerton Detective Agency

Lore & Background

The agency became famous after claiming to have foiled the Baltimore Plot to assassinate President-elect Abraham Lincoln in 1861. During the American Civil War, General George B. McClellan appointed Pinkerton head of the Union Intelligence Service, where he conducted espionage against the Confederacy and provided Confederate troop estimates. Following the war, the Pinkertons began conducting operations against organized labor. During the Homestead Strike of 1892, Pinkerton agents were called in to reinforce strikebreaking measures, leading to a violent confrontation that resulted in the deaths of three Pinkerton agents and nine steelworkers.

The agency also infiltrated the Molly Maguires in the 1870s, leading to the downfall of that secret society. In 1893, Congress passed the Anti-Pinkerton Act, which prohibited the federal government from hiring Pinkerton agents as substitutes for federal employees.

Reader's Guide

The Pinkerton Agency was founded in Chicago in the mid-1850s by Allan Pinkerton and Edward Rucker. Historian Frank Morn notes that by February 1855, Pinkerton, after consulting with six midwestern railroads, created the agency. The agency began hiring women and minorities shortly after its founding because they were useful as spies. In 1871, Congress appropriated $50,000 to the Department of Justice to form a suborganization for detecting federal law violators, but the amount was insufficient, so they contracted the services to the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. The agency's involvement in strikebreaking, particularly the Homestead Strike, led to the Anti-Pinkerton Act of 1893, which states that 'individuals 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.'

Origins and Early Expansion

In the 1850s, Allan Pinkerton, a Scottish immigrant, met Chicago attorney Edward Rucker in a local Masonic Hall. The two men formed the North-Western Police Agency, later known as the Pinkerton Agency. 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.' The Pinkerton Agency began to hire women and minorities shortly after its founding because they were useful as spies, a practice uncommon at the time.

Civil War Intelligence and Presidential Security

Among the business's early operations was to safely deliver the newly elected President Abraham Lincoln from Springfield to Washington, D.C., in light of an assassination threat. Pinkerton detective Kate Warne was assigned and successfully delivered Lincoln to the U.S. capital city through a series of disguises and related tactics that required her to stay awake throughout the entire long journey. As a result, the business adopted an open eye as its logo and the slogan 'We never sleep.' Allan Pinkerton also served in the 'Secret Service' intelligence division of the U.S. War Department. These actions preceded and laid the groundwork for the establishment of the United States Secret Service, which was founded on July 5, 1865, though it initially focused on counterfeit money and did not provide full-time presidential security until 1901.

Labor Conflicts and Government Relations

Following the Civil War, the Pinkertons began conducting operations against organized labor. During the Homestead Strike of 1892, 300 Pinkerton agents were called in by Carnegie Steel's Henry Clay Frick to protect the Pittsburgh-area mill and act as strikebreakers. This resulted in a firefight and siege in which 16 men were killed and 23 others were wounded. The governor of Pennsylvania mobilized state law enforcement and the National Guard, and private and government forces broke the strike.

The event caused outrage across the country and prompted Congress to pass the Anti-Pinkerton Act in 1893, which severely curtailed the relationship between the federal government and the agency. The act states that 'individuals 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.'

Undercover Operations and Modern Evolution

In the 1870s, Franklin B. Gowen, president of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, hired the agency to investigate 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 organization. During the 20th century, Pinkerton rebranded itself as a personal security and risk management firm. The company has continued to exist in various forms to the present day; it is now a division of the Swedish security company Securitas AB, operating as Pinkerton Consulting & Investigations, Inc., doing business as Pinkerton Corporate Risk Management. The former Pinkerton Government Services division, PGS, now operates as Securitas Critical Infrastructure Services, Inc.