modus operandi, and other details for every man they tracked. The filing system was so thorough and contained so many names that for some crimes the Pinkertons could simply cross-reference a witness’s description with the type of crime and pull together a list of suspects to round up. The Pinkerton corporate files from the years 1853 to 1999 are now at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. They consist of an astonishing 63,000 items.
Pinkerton developed a code of ethics for his operatives, to establish the boundaries of the work the company would do, and the clients it would work for. Some of the same ethical dilemmas Pinkerton was attempting to stave off still recur in today’s private intelligence outfits. In his “General Principles,” written in the 1850s, Pinkerton wrote that the role of a detective is “a high and honorable calling.” He laid out some rules to help keep it that way:
The Agency will not represent a defendant in a criminal case except with the knowledge and consent of the prosecutor; they will not shadow jurors or investigate public officialsin the performance of their duties, or trade-union members in their lawful union activities; they will not accept employment from one political party against another; they will not report union meetings unless the meetings are open to the public without restriction; they will not work for vice crusaders; they will not accept contingent fees, gratuities or rewards; the Agency will never investigate the morals of a woman unless in connection with another crime, nor will it handle cases of divorce or a scandalous nature.
Pinkerton’s modern-day successors have broken nearly every one of these rules. Pinkerton’s own agency sometimes found the rules hard to follow, especially those regarding unions, and the agency became a combatant in the epic battles between labor and capital during the late nineteenth century. Despite their pro-union rules, the Pinkertons would come to be seen as the enemies of the labor movement in the United States.
O VER TIME , A LLAN Pinkerton became an expert in every type of crime that afflicted his corporate and individual clients. His book Thirty Years a Detective (1884) * is divided into chapters detailing the criminals he saw, including “the society thief,” “hotel thieves,” “steamboat operators,” “confidence and blackmail,” and something he called “the Boodle Game,” in which con men sent anonymous letters enticing their targets to engage in financial shenanigans. † The boodle game seems to have been a forerunner of the Nigerian e-mail scams of today. People who’d been suckered into losing money on the schemes were often so embarrassed that they didn’t report the crime to the police.
The Pinkerton Agency battled corporate thieves, stalked bank robbers, and chased Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and the Jesse James gang across the Wild West. During the Civil War, Pinkerton agents foiled an early attempt to assassinate President Lincoln and sent spies into the Confederacy to monitor its military strength and political developments. One of Pinkerton’s agents, Timothy Webster, was hanged in Richmond in 1862 as a Union spy. He was the first American executed for espionage in nearly 100 years.
Pinkerton was already at the height of his powers in the 1850s when he sent undercover agents to nail Nathan Maroney, manager of the Montgomery, Alabama, office of the Adams Express Company, which transported goods by railcar. In 1855, Pinkerton received a strange letter from Edward Sanford, an executive at Adams. Sanford told Pinkerton that $40,000 had been stolen from a company pouch somewhere between Montgomery, Alabama, and Augusta, Georgia. Sanford’s letter included key details of the company’s own internal investigation, including that the leather bag containing the money had been locked when the cash went missing. With nothing to go on but the details contained in the letter, Pinkerton made an
Pinkerton developed a code of ethics for his operatives, to establish the boundaries of the work the company would do, and the clients it would work for. Some of the same ethical dilemmas Pinkerton was attempting to stave off still recur in today’s private intelligence outfits. In his “General Principles,” written in the 1850s, Pinkerton wrote that the role of a detective is “a high and honorable calling.” He laid out some rules to help keep it that way:
The Agency will not represent a defendant in a criminal case except with the knowledge and consent of the prosecutor; they will not shadow jurors or investigate public officialsin the performance of their duties, or trade-union members in their lawful union activities; they will not accept employment from one political party against another; they will not report union meetings unless the meetings are open to the public without restriction; they will not work for vice crusaders; they will not accept contingent fees, gratuities or rewards; the Agency will never investigate the morals of a woman unless in connection with another crime, nor will it handle cases of divorce or a scandalous nature.
Pinkerton’s modern-day successors have broken nearly every one of these rules. Pinkerton’s own agency sometimes found the rules hard to follow, especially those regarding unions, and the agency became a combatant in the epic battles between labor and capital during the late nineteenth century. Despite their pro-union rules, the Pinkertons would come to be seen as the enemies of the labor movement in the United States.
O VER TIME , A LLAN Pinkerton became an expert in every type of crime that afflicted his corporate and individual clients. His book Thirty Years a Detective (1884) * is divided into chapters detailing the criminals he saw, including “the society thief,” “hotel thieves,” “steamboat operators,” “confidence and blackmail,” and something he called “the Boodle Game,” in which con men sent anonymous letters enticing their targets to engage in financial shenanigans. † The boodle game seems to have been a forerunner of the Nigerian e-mail scams of today. People who’d been suckered into losing money on the schemes were often so embarrassed that they didn’t report the crime to the police.
The Pinkerton Agency battled corporate thieves, stalked bank robbers, and chased Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and the Jesse James gang across the Wild West. During the Civil War, Pinkerton agents foiled an early attempt to assassinate President Lincoln and sent spies into the Confederacy to monitor its military strength and political developments. One of Pinkerton’s agents, Timothy Webster, was hanged in Richmond in 1862 as a Union spy. He was the first American executed for espionage in nearly 100 years.
Pinkerton was already at the height of his powers in the 1850s when he sent undercover agents to nail Nathan Maroney, manager of the Montgomery, Alabama, office of the Adams Express Company, which transported goods by railcar. In 1855, Pinkerton received a strange letter from Edward Sanford, an executive at Adams. Sanford told Pinkerton that $40,000 had been stolen from a company pouch somewhere between Montgomery, Alabama, and Augusta, Georgia. Sanford’s letter included key details of the company’s own internal investigation, including that the leather bag containing the money had been locked when the cash went missing. With nothing to go on but the details contained in the letter, Pinkerton made an
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