ATDTDA (1): Pinkertons

[Tim Strzechowski]

"We can't pay you as well as the Pinkertons might, but maybe we could work out a deferred arrangement, small percent of profits down the line instead of cash right now" (p. 25).

The Pinkerton National Detective Agency was a private U.S. security guard and detective agency established by Allan Pinkerton in 1850. Pinkerton had become famous when he foiled a plot to assassinate President-Elect Abraham Lincoln. Pinkerton's agents performed services ranging from security guards to private military contracting work. During its height, the Pinkerton Detective Agency employed more agents than the standing army of the United States of America, causing the state of Ohio to outlaw the agency due to fears it could be hired out as a private army or militia.

During the labor unrest of the late 19th century, businessmen hired Pinkerton guards to keep strikers and suspected unionists out of factories. The most notorious example was the Homestead Strike of 1892, when Pinkerton agents killed several people while enforcing the strikebreaking measures of Henry Clay Frick, acting on behalf of Andrew Carnegie, who was abroad. The agency's logo, an eye embellished with the words "We Never Sleep" inspired the term "private eye." The "Pinkertons" were also used as guards in coal, iron and lumber disputes in Illinois, Michigan, New York and Pennsylvania, as well as the railroad strikes of 1877.

The company now operates as a division of the Swedish security company Securitas AB. [...]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton_National_Detective_Agency

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USApinkertonD.htm

http://americanhistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa062002a.htm

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/james/peopleevents/p_pinkerton.html


And when visiting Chicago, you must take a walking tour of Graceland Cemetery and see:

http://www.graveyards.com/IL/Cook/graceland/pinkerton.html

http://www.graveyards.com/IL/Cook/graceland/

http://www.gracelandcemetery.org/

http://www.prairieghosts.com/grace.html

BTW, let me know if you're ever in town and want to do Graceland's walking tour.  Having done it a million times, I'd enjoy a chance to do it again ... and it's within stumbling distance of various North Side pubs.

Tim


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