Illegal hunter

Allen Pinkerton flew into a rage when he heard the news. Joseph Whitcher, a trusted agent of Pinkerton National Detective Bureau, was found in the forest of Missouri. He was tied up, tortured and shot another victim in jesse james. Jesse james is a gangster sent by Whitcher to hunt him down. Pinkerton was not only angry at the failure, but also humiliated. He vowed to catch James and declared that "when we meet, it must be the death of one or both of us."

Pinkerton devoted his life to cracking down on criminals like jesse james, and was once called "the greatest detective of this era" by the Chicago Tribune. In the past forty years, he and his agents have caught bank robbers and frustrated those who embezzled public funds. But Pinkerton was not the first private investigator in America. The humble Scottish immigrant unwittingly got involved in a criminal struggle. Born in Glasgow, Scotland

Allan pinkerton helped support his family as a laborer after his father (a policeman) died in the line of duty. When Pinkerton was young, he spoke out for the democratic reform in Britain and was persecuted for his radicalism. 1842, politics forced Pinkerton and his wife Joan to immigrate to the United States. The couple finally came to Dundee, a small town 40 miles from Chicago, where Pinkerton set up a cooperative or barrel business.

/kloc-one day in 0/847, Pinkerton ran out of barrel props and went to an uninhabited island in a nearby river to find more wood. There, he found the remains of a camp. This incident made him suspicious, so he came back at night and found a group of counterfeiters making money. No one in Pinkerton can tolerate crime. When the sheriff was arrested, so were the gang. When counterfeiting was rampant, local businessmen praised Pinkerton as a hero and began to ask him to investigate other incidents.

Pinkerton wrote in his memoir 1880: "I suddenly realized that from every quarter, I was asked to undertake some work that required detective skills." . He is very good at carrying out assassinations to catch forgers, and the sheriff of Kane County, Illinois appointed him as his deputy. 1849, Pinkerton was appointed as the first full-time detective in Chicago, and he gave up the barrel business forever. 1850, he founded Pinkerton detective agency and set up the first office in downtown Chicago. To 1866, the agency has branches in new york and Philadelphia.

/kloc-In the middle of the 0/9th century, the police force was small, often corrupt, and unwilling to track suspects outside its jurisdiction. People can't feel the police watching them. Pinkerton took advantage of this shortcoming and created the Pinkerton Protection Police Patrol, which is a team of uniformed night watchman who is responsible for protecting enterprises. Soon, these people, known as "Pinkerton Men", although some secret agents are women, are equally important to law enforcement and regular police. With the westward advance of the railway, a new task appeared: chasing fugitives.

/kloc-The outlaws of the 0/9th century are romanticized in popular culture, but they are actually dangerous, ruthless and often cruel. Criminals like jesse james and his brother Frank murder anyone who stands in their way; 1874 The murder of Joseph Whitcher is a typical act. James has been an active bank and train robber since 1866, and he is also an unreformed southern separatist. Pinkerton works for the underground railway company and watches trains in abraham lincoln town. He is particularly eager to bring jesse james to justice. Pinkerton's

Institutions usually succeed in catching criminals. At the end of his life, Pinkerton wrote a series of popular books based on the story of true crime, the most famous case prototype of his institution, which inspired later detective writers. In the book Bank Robbers and Detectives, Pinkerton explains his behavior with "energetic and indomitable determination" and "never give in before ensuring success". Pinkerton (1862) set up his own detective agency in 1850, and set up the first office in downtown Chicago. To 1866, the agency has branches in new york and Philadelphia. The picture shows Pinkerton and abraham lincoln, who worked for the underground railway and guarded Lincoln's train. (Library of Congress) In 2000, Pinkerton donated a large number of historical crime files and photos of Mark to the Library of Congress. The whole drawer is dedicated to jesse james (Pinkerton et al. in Antioch, Maryland, 1862). (Library of Congress)

In the late 1960s, Pinkerton captured the first organized train robber Renault Brothers gang in the United States, and Pinkerton himself chased it all the way to Windsor, Ontario. During the same period, Detective Pinkerton arrested several famous bank and train robbers, and some even recovered thousands of dollars in stolen money. Once, Pinkerton followed another gang from new york to Canada, where they were arrested and collected nearly $300,000 in cash. The organization is known for its tenacity. Citizens are intimidated by criminals and regard Pinkerton as a hero.

After wiles was murdered, Pinkerton sent more agents to hunt down James and his gang. 1875 65438+ 10, a group of Pinkerton and a local group got the news and rushed to James' mother's Missouri farm. Mother Zeiler da Samuel is a despicable, ugly and strong-willed slave owner and separatist. Samuel is still angry at the result of the war. She thinks that Jesse and Frank, the newly married sons, are freedom fighters in the oppressed southern States, not just robbers and murderers. Late one night, when a commando led by Pinkerton appeared on her farm, she refused to surrender.

Then there was a confrontation. Someone threw lanterns into the dark house, allegedly to help visibility. Once there was an explosion, a group of people ran in and found Samuel's right arm blown off. Her third husband, Reuben Samuel, and their three children were among them. To the horror of detectives, jesse james's half-brother, 8-year-old Archie, was lying on the ground and was fatally injured.

The death of Archie Samuel is a public relations nightmare for Pinkerton Detective Agency. Agent Pinkerton not only failed to capture Jesse and Frank James again (the two brothers were tipped off and were not at home that night), but also a little boy was killed and Zeiler da Samuel was asking blood out. Prior to this, public opinion mostly supported the Pinkerton family. A sensational biography published a few years after James's death described the explosion as "a despicable thing" ... it was cowardly and totally unforgivable. "Although Pinkerton insisted that it was the local people, not his people, who dropped the bomb, this tragedy greatly shaped the legend of jesse james and tarnished the reputation of Pinkerton Society.

This is the first time that the man who once said "I don't know the meaning of the word' failure'" has been defeated. In another seven years, James will end his life in the hands of an accomplice seeking a reward of 1 10,000 dollars.

Although public recognition declined, Pinkerton's detective agency continued to operate after Archie Samuel's incident. Pinkerton's men arrested more criminals; The Irish mob that smashed Molly mcguire; Chase Buchi Cassidy and Sundanskide went to Bolivia, and the bandits were killed by local law enforcement officers. By the end of 19, the organization was increasingly involved in labor disputes and always stood on the side of management. This action did nothing to help the organization's reputation, especially Pinkerton's people inadvertently incited a deadly riot in a steel plant in Haustead, Pennsylvania in 1892. The name "Pinkerton" soon became a derogatory term for the working class.

Pinkerton died in July of 1884 at the age of 18. He called him "the sworn enemy of hooligans" in the obituary of the Chicago Tribune. At that time, his son William took over the organization's headquarters in Chicago, and his son Robert took over the business in new york. In the 20th century, the agency gradually shifted its focus from detective to private security, and kept the family business until Allen's great-grandson Robert Pinkerton II died in 1967. He left a company with 18000 employees and 63 branches in the United States and Canada.

As a subsidiary of an international company called Securitas Group, Pinkerton provides private guarantees for enterprises and * * * all over the world. Pinkerton consulting and investigation services protect containers from * * * attacks, conduct background checks for many Fortune 500 companies, and protect senior executive and general counsel John Pinkerton. Moriarty said that he said, "We are proud to be able to claim that it has dropped directly to 1850." To some extent, he said, "even the FBI and the Secret Service are descendants of the Pinkerton Secret Service."

Although Pinkerton no longer pursued criminals, the organization kept a large number of historical crime files and facial photos, which were not donated to the Library of Congress until 2000. The collection includes a whole drawer of jesse james.

Amy Crawford, a former editorial assistant at the Smithsonian, studied at the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University.