ATDTDA (1): Pinkertons

[David Casseres]

In the early 80's, when I was working for Apple Computer Inc., the company
contracted with Pinkerton for security services.  Along with a few others, I
went around muttering about bad karma, but the muttering fell on deaf ears.
I suppose Pinkerton had some sort of imagined glamor in the eyes of
management of that young company.

I have no idea how long the arrangement lasted.

On 1/25/07, Tim Strzechowski <dedalus204 at comcast.net> wrote:

> 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.
>
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