What were the Pinkertons? The Pinkertons were a detective agency set up by Allan Pinkerton in 1850.
The Pinkerton detective agency started out with fairly noble goals, but it ended up becoming hired muscle for large corporations. In the 20th century, the company shifted more toward private security, and it still exists today as Pinkerton, now owned by Securitas. In its heyday, the Pinkerton detective agency was seen as a forerunner of later federal investigative and protective bodies, because it carried out some of the kinds of work that public agencies would later take over.
The Pinkerton detective agency would never have started if Allan Pinkerton, born in Scotland, had not emigrated to the United States. He had been involved in the Chartist movement for reform in Britain and left after a warrant was issued for his arrest. He had trouble finding work and ended up making barrels.
It was while he was looking for wood that his detective career got its start. He found a group of people in the woods who were counterfeiting money, and he gathered enough information for the local sheriff to arrest them. This helped launch his reputation, and he moved into detective work in the Chicago area before setting up a private agency that later became the Pinkerton National Detective Agency.
He was helped by railroad companies, and in the early days his Pinkertons worked as guards for railroads and express companies moving money and valuables across the American West. This brought them into conflict with a number of notorious gangs of the time. They also ended up acting as bodyguards and providing security for a number of famous people. Most noticeably, they helped get president-elect Abraham Lincoln safely to Washington in 1861 after a suspected assassination plot in Baltimore. Pinkerton was also notable for hiring women, and Kate Warne, often described as America’s first female private detective, played a major role in protecting Lincoln.
The Pinkerton detective agency became famous for hunting outlaws and sometimes pushing the boundaries of the law themselves. They were celebrated as gun-toting, outlaw-hunting detectives. This image was helped quite a lot by the many popular books published under Allan Pinkerton’s name. Pinkerton’s detective agency protected people, protected valuable goods, and tried to catch criminals. In 1870, they created what they called their “Rogues’ Gallery,” a large collection of criminal photographs and records. This was an early version of the kind of centralized criminal files later used by law enforcement agencies.
Allan Pinkerton had fled Britain because of his efforts to help the working class, and he still had a lot of sympathy for them. However, he also distrusted unions and opposed strikes. In the 1870s, he and his Pinkertons were involved in spying on unions and helping break labor actions. The company later became deeply involved in anti-union activity, including the campaign against the Molly Maguires and other labor disputes. This may seem like he was going against his roots, but he believed strikes went against the rights of property owners.
The Pinkertons may have remained closer to the image of heroes if Allan Pinkerton had not suddenly died in 1884. His two sons, Robert and William Pinkerton, took the company deeper into strikebreaking territory. The Pinkertons became a kind of hired army for rich and powerful companies. They had once been admired, but by the 1890s they had become widely hated. In 1892, around 300 Pinkerton agents were sent in to break up the Homestead Strike at Andrew Carnegie’s steel works. The confrontation left at least 10 people dead and many more injured.
Through the rest of the 19th century and into the early 20th century, they became strongly associated with breaking unions. Public opinion turned against them, and after Homestead Congress passed what became known as the Anti-Pinkerton Act, which restricted the federal government’s use of agencies like Pinkerton. Over time, the company moved further into protection and security work. These days, Pinkerton is involved in threat intelligence, risk management, investigations, and other security roles.
They do still appear in anti-union controversies in the modern era. In 2020, Amazon was reported to have used Pinkerton operatives to monitor warehouse workers and labor activity. In Starbucks’ case, it was reported in 2022 that the company hired a former Pinkerton employee into an intelligence role during its union battles. And this is what I learned today.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton_(detective_agency)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Pinkerton
https://www.history.com/articles/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-pinkertons