Alan Pinkerton: The Private Detective Who Saved Lincoln’s Life and Built America’s Contract Security State

Alan Pinkerton is perhaps the most over-achieving barrel-maker who ever lived. After practicing his trade in rural Illinois for a few years in the 1850s, the Scottish immigrant busted up a counterfeiting ring, which got the attention of Chicago’s police department, offering him a job as a detective. From here he worked as an intelligence agent in the Civil War (preventing an assassination attempt on Lincoln’s life), then pursued high-profile outlaws like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and protected scabs in the Homestead lockout, for which his private detective agency became notorious.

Pinkerton has been an enduring source of fascination since the nineteenth century. But the details of his impact, business empire, and private life have been incomplete. Today’s guest is Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones, author of “Allan Pinkerton: America's Legendary Detective and the Birth of Private Security.” We discuss the accomplishments, contradictions, controversies, and legacies of the founder of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency.

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