Allan Pinkerton

He discovered that he had a real knack for catching criminals, and in 1852 formed his own company, the Pinkerton Detective Agency--the first of its kind in the country--and was soon hired to track down and capture a bandit gang responsible for a series of train robberies. His success in that endeavor resulted in his getting more business and his agency expanded. Pinkerton was extremely careful in the selection of his agents and the Pinkerton Agency soon developed a reputation--among both law-abiding citizens and criminals--as being tough, tenacious and incorruptible, which was more than could be said for many of those in "official" law enforcement at that time, especially in the West and Southwest. The agency's reputation--it never gave up until its quarry was either captured or killed, no matter how long it took--was such that merely a rumor that "the Pinkertons are after you" was enough to cause many a bandit gang to break up and flee the area (the company's logo, a large black and white eye, was responsible for the coining of the term "private eye"). After the Civil War Pinkerton set out to capture the infamous James Gang led by the notorious brothers Frank James and Jesse James, a task that took the agency the better part of ten years. Several times they came close to capturing the gang. On one occasion they raided the James homestead, missing the brothers by just minutes; frustrated, one Pinkerton man tossed a lit stick of dynamite into the James home. The resulting explosion severely injured Mrs. James, who lost an arm. Eventually Jesse was murdered for the reward by two of his own gang members, and Frank surrendered not long after that.

Allan Pinkerton was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1819. As a young man he became involved in the struggle for voting rights for Scots. Disappointed with the movement's failure, and chafing under the political restrictions existing in the U. K. at the time, he emigrated to the U. S. Traveling throughout the Midwest, he finally settled in Chicago and secured a job as a deputy sheriff.