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of American history tellers early and ad

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free right now. Joined Wonder He Plus

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and the Wonder Yeah or on Apple

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podcasts. Imagine

0:24

it's a brisk morning and late February.

0:26

nineteen hundred. You're. Sorting letters at

0:28

the post office and Circle Ville Utah,

0:30

a small farm town where you work

0:32

as the deputy posts mistress glance out

0:35

the window looking west toward the snow

0:37

capped peak of Circle the Mountain. Feels.

0:39

Like a storm's coming. Then. You

0:41

see a man approaching from the south of

0:43

town on horseback. As. He nears.

0:45

You can tell it's the same man who

0:47

visited your family's ranch a few days earlier.

0:50

Value or our feeding the chickens. He.

0:52

Seems sweet on you, but he was

0:54

also nosy asking about your family. Few

0:57

moments later he walked through the door.

0:59

Morning Ma'am wins picking up out there

1:01

seems are we may get a little

1:03

rain so maybe even snow. You

1:06

give him a quick not a return to

1:08

the letters you been sorting. He seemed friendly

1:11

enough handsome to but there's something about him

1:13

the makes you wearing. You need a male

1:15

something mister or you just coming to talk

1:17

about the weather? Bomb! The I'm headed for

1:19

Arizona this afternoon. Need to leave before the

1:21

weather gets worse. Won't see much civilization for

1:24

the actually week, so I thought I'd see

1:26

a pretty face before I leave. Flattery will

1:28

get you nowhere. Mister. Were. Can't blame

1:30

a fella for trying. Well, you

1:32

best be get and go and soon if you

1:34

want to reach the next town before sundown. Man

1:36

doesn't seem to take a hint. He. Stands

1:38

looking at the noticeboard with flyers for

1:41

local events and posters for wanted men.

1:43

Now. Yesterday you were tell him he was just

1:45

you and your younger brother Dan running the family

1:48

farm where the rest of the family go. You

1:50

mention an older brother robert. Now.

1:52

You're suspicious. What it? what did you say?

1:54

brought you to town again? I. Guess

1:57

you could say I'm here on business and what

1:59

business might that? The

2:01

man reaches into his best pocket pulls out

2:03

a small car. While. You seem like

2:05

a nice lady, so all complete. He.

2:07

Says the court on a toner. Scott

2:10

A picture of your brother on the

2:12

front wearing a bowler hats. You flip

2:14

it over and read the description that

2:16

says criminal occupation, bank robber. Blood.

2:18

Runs cold as you realize this man is not

2:20

here to flirt with you. He's. Here to

2:23

get you to ran out on your brother.

2:25

I work for the Painter To National Detective

2:27

Agency. This is your brothers mug car. We've

2:29

been looking for him for a while now

2:31

and you may know him as Robert Butts.

2:33

I know him by another name, but. As

2:37

the Pinkerton stairs you down you try

2:39

to hide your nervousness. he forces smile.

2:41

Determined to find a way to brush

2:43

this guy often. One, your brother, Butch

2:45

I don't know anyone by that name.

2:47

he must be mistaken. Maybe check to

2:49

tell next over our won't do you

2:52

any good. Play coins, Robert or butcher,

2:54

whoever he is. Rob some important people

2:56

and they paid men like me to

2:58

find him. And when's the last time

3:00

you saw you run? You consider stalling

3:02

some more, but you hesitate. This man

3:04

is glaring at shoes you can see.

3:06

A cold determinations. Of

3:09

Seasons didn't have to give our society. American

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What I once. Americans

4:26

our history years.

4:46

In the late eighteen hundreds, Pinkerton

4:48

detectors joined other law enforcement officers

4:50

and chasing down to of the

4:52

nation's most audacious and elusive bank

4:54

robbing outlaws, Butch Cassidy and his

4:56

accomplice The Sundance Kid. But.

4:58

After the turn of the Century,

5:00

a new federal agency was created,

5:02

the Bureau of Investigation, and it's

5:04

agents would overtake the Pinkerton's as

5:06

the nation's most trusted. Lorna. As

5:09

a result, the Penitent Agency would

5:11

return to the lucrative for controversial

5:13

business endeavors of helping to counter

5:15

labor unions and protecting corporate interests.

5:17

But one country to operative would

5:19

leave the agency altogether only to

5:22

write some of the most iconic

5:24

detective novels and the English language.

5:26

This is the final episode in

5:28

our three part series on the

5:30

Pinkerton Detective Agency. Apologize. In

5:36

the winter of eighteen eighty seven, a

5:38

devastating blizzard feel much of livestock in

5:40

Wyoming and Montana where sixteen year old

5:42

Harry long ago had been working as

5:44

a ranch hand. As a result,

5:46

this young man soon turned to petty

5:48

crime and was arrested for stealing a

5:50

horse outside of Sundance, Wyoming. And.

5:53

When he was released from jail and eighteen

5:55

eighty eight long ago had a new nickname

5:57

the Sundance Kid. Six. years

5:59

later bank robber from Utah named Robert

6:01

Leroy Parker was also arrested for horse

6:03

theft and spent two years in a

6:06

Wyoming prison. He soon took on

6:08

the nickname Butch Cassidy and recruited the Sundance

6:10

Kid into his gang of thieves. In

6:13

the 1890s, Butch Cassidy and the

6:15

Sundance Kid robbed banks and trains throughout

6:17

the West from Montana down to New

6:19

Mexico. The two worked together

6:21

and with a revolving cast of fellow

6:23

thieves with nicknames like Deaf Charlie, Tall

6:26

Texan, and Flat-Nosed Curry. These

6:28

desperadoes were known in the press as the

6:30

Hole in the Wall Gang, for the caverns

6:32

of eastern Wyoming where they often hit out.

6:35

Sometimes known as the Wild Bunch, this

6:38

loosely organized gang managed to elude the

6:40

various sheriffs, deputies, and armed posseys that

6:42

chased them through the mountains and canyons

6:44

of the western states. But

6:46

in June of 1899, they used dynamite to

6:49

blow up a safe inside a train car in

6:51

Wilcox, Wyoming, making off with $50,000 in cash, bank

6:55

notes, and gold. The director of

6:57

the Union Pacific Railroad, E.H. Harriman,

7:00

finally had enough. He hired

7:02

the Pinkerton Agency to track down Butch Cassidy,

7:04

the Sundance Kid, and all the other gang

7:06

members, offering a reward of $10,000 for

7:10

each man. The Pinkertons assigned to

7:12

the case were led by James McParland, the

7:14

same agent who had infiltrated the Molly McGuire's

7:16

in the 1870s and

7:19

now ran the Pinkertons Denver office. McParland

7:21

sent scores of agents to pursue the

7:24

Wild Bunch as they continued to pull

7:26

off a string of robberies through Wyoming,

7:28

Utah, Montana, Colorado, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico,

7:30

and Plessis. The gang hit

7:33

trains and banks in all these states and

7:35

then vanished into the rough western wilderness. Bank

7:38

presidents, railroad companies, and western governors

7:41

all funded manhunt that included Pinkerton

7:43

agents alongside sheriffs, posseys, and vigilantes,

7:45

but the gang constantly slipped through

7:48

their fingers. By the

7:50

next year, 1900, the Pinkertons

7:52

were finally closing in on the gang's

7:54

whereabouts, but feeling the heat, Butch and

7:56

Sundance fled from Texas to New York,

7:58

and in 1901, boarded

8:00

a steamer bound for Argentina. Determined

8:03

to get his men, Pinkerton agent

8:05

Frank DiMeo followed them to Buenos Aires

8:07

and finally confirmed that they were hiding

8:09

in a log cabin in southwest Argentina.

8:12

But the U.S. Vice Consul in Buenos Aires

8:14

told DiMeo to wait until after the

8:16

rainy season to attempt a raid. But

8:18

before that could happen, DiMeo was

8:20

ordered back home. The companies

8:23

that had been funding the manhunt decided Butch

8:25

and Sundance were no longer a threat, and

8:27

they stopped paying the Pinkertons to bring them

8:29

back from South America. By that

8:31

time in 1903, most of the other gang

8:34

members had been arrested or killed. But

8:36

it took five more years until 1908 for the

8:38

Bolivian Army and police to

8:41

catch up to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

8:44

In a shootout in the Bolivian village of

8:46

San De Cente, both outlaws were killed. The

8:49

demise of the Wild Bunch finally brought an

8:51

end to the era of Pinkertons casing desperados

8:53

on horseback. And as a

8:55

new century dawned, the agency would

8:57

become more sophisticated and more controversial.

9:04

Imagine it's January 25th, 1906. You're

9:07

a prisoner being held in a jail cell

9:09

on Murderer's Row at the State Penitentiary in

9:11

Boise, Idaho. You're charged with rigging a bomb

9:14

that killed the state's governor as he opened

9:16

the front gate of his home. You

9:18

know that if you're found guilty, you'll likely be

9:20

hanged for the crime. Today

9:22

you've been led to the Warden's Office

9:24

where you once again face Pinkerton Detective

9:26

James McCarlin. He came to visit

9:28

a few days ago, but now he's back. As

9:31

you enter the room, you see he's standing

9:33

behind the Warden's desk, smoking the cigar and

9:35

leaning against his walking cane. He

9:38

points his cane at a metal chair in front of the

9:40

desk and motions for you to take a seat. Then

9:44

he sits down in the Warden's leather chair. Well,

9:48

it's nice to see you again. You get that bath

9:50

you asked about? You nod. The

9:53

guards hadn't let you bathe or shave for a week

9:55

and they'd hardly fed you. McCarlin

9:57

had offered to help if you agreed to meet with him

9:59

again. Yeah, yeah, and they let me walk

10:01

the yard for an hour. Got a nice meal, too.

10:04

And all you're doing? I told the

10:06

warden it'd be in everyone's interest if you were

10:08

treated well. Everyone's interest. Well,

10:10

what's that supposed to mean? Well, son, that's

10:12

what I want to discuss. You

10:15

know you're guilty of killing the governor. We found all

10:17

the evidence we need in your hotel room. But I

10:19

know you didn't act alone, and I

10:21

was hoping you might tell me about the man who put you up

10:23

to it. With his droopy

10:25

gray mustache, wire rimmed glasses, and

10:27

soft Irish brogue, McParlin seems more

10:30

like a priest than a detective.

10:32

What difference does it make when I tell you? They're still going

10:34

to hang me. Well, not

10:37

necessarily. But the lawyers representing you

10:39

work for the union, Western Federation

10:41

of Miners. And that means their

10:43

job isn't to defend you, it's to

10:45

protect the union and its leaders. So

10:48

you want me to snitch? Is that it? Well,

10:50

snitch isn't the word I'd use. I'd

10:52

suggest just telling the truth, you know? You

10:55

seem like a smart man. Are you religious? I

10:58

know my Bible. What's that got to do

11:00

with anything? Well, if you do know your Bible, you

11:02

know the stories of St. Paul and King David. What's

11:05

your point? My point is that those

11:07

men were sinners, too. But God forgave them. And

11:09

He'll forgive you, too, as well. But you

11:11

have to repent. Repent to who? You

11:14

or God? McParlin doesn't

11:16

answer that. What stands to let you know the

11:18

meeting's over? Well, listen, it's a simple equation. If

11:20

you come clean and I am able to bring

11:22

down the men who hired you, you

11:25

get saved from the gallows. You

11:27

quickly realize you won't get a better deal than that,

11:29

so you decide to take it. Okay.

11:33

Well, come back again tomorrow and I'll tell

11:35

you my story. All of it. After

11:39

the Pinkerton leaves and the guards return you

11:41

to your cell, you try to pray. Maybe

11:44

the man's right. Maybe it'll feel good

11:46

to repent and admit you murdered the governor

11:48

and at least a dozen others. All

11:51

that bloodshed was done on behalf of

11:53

the leaders of the Western Federation of

11:55

Miners. On

12:00

December 30, 1905,

12:02

former Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg was killed

12:04

by a bomb planted outside his home.

12:07

Investigators immediately suspected the assassination was

12:09

payback for Steunenberg's attempts at breaking

12:11

the miners' union and the arrests

12:13

of hundreds of activist miners. Albert

12:16

Horsley, a former miner who went by

12:18

the name Harry Orchard, was charged with

12:20

planting the bomb. Pinkerton agent

12:23

James McParland worked with investigators

12:25

to extract Orchard's confession, and

12:27

in late January of 1906, Orchard

12:30

admitted to being a paid assassin and

12:32

saboteur for the Western Federation of Miners,

12:34

whose leader was a man named William

12:36

Big Bill Haywood. With

12:38

the help of Harry Orchard's confession, Haywood

12:40

and other union leaders were tried in

12:42

1907, but their

12:44

lawyer Clarence Darrow successfully argued that

12:47

the case was actually part of

12:49

a vast conspiracy against the entire

12:51

labor movement. He accused McParland

12:53

of forcing Orchard's confession and framing

12:55

Haywood and the others, and

12:58

he accused the Pinkerton Agency of spying with the

13:00

support of, as he put it, the money of

13:02

all the mines and all the mills behind them.

13:05

This trial made national news and was

13:07

a reckoning for the Pinkerton Agency. Across

13:10

the U.S., protesters rallied in support of

13:12

the miners and vilified the Pinkertons. The

13:15

protesters were egged on by Attorney

13:17

Darrow, who scorned McParland and other

13:19

Pinkerton agents as liars and mercenaries.

13:22

In the end, the union leaders were acquitted. Harry

13:25

Orchard was sentenced to death, but the new

13:27

governor commuted his sentence to life in prison.

13:30

The case was a disappointing setback for

13:32

the Pinkerton Agency and a personal failure

13:35

for McParland. But despite

13:37

the negative publicity, the Pinkertons recovered

13:39

and continued to grow. By

13:42

1910, there were 20 Pinkerton offices employing

13:44

hundreds of agents across the U.S.,

13:46

including Robert Pinkerton's son, Allen, the

13:49

third generation of Pinkerton men to

13:51

join the company. The agency

13:53

also had thousands of temporary agents standing

13:55

by in its Reserve Corps, available to

13:57

work as guards and watchmen on short

13:59

notice. notice. But critics continued

14:01

to claim that Pinkertons had become

14:04

an unregulated private army. Fearful

14:06

that the agency could be used as

14:08

a private militia, more and more states

14:10

outlawed the hiring of Pinkerton guards during

14:12

labor strikes. And while

14:14

James McParlin's star dimmed after the

14:16

Frank Steunenberg assassination, other agents made

14:18

names of their own. Charles

14:21

Soringo was an Irish-Italian former cowboy

14:23

from Texas who joined the Pinkertons

14:25

in 1886. For

14:28

two decades, he worked on some of

14:30

the agency's highest-profile cases. Reporting

14:32

to McParlin, Soringo spent most of

14:34

his Pinkerton years undercover, infiltrating gangs

14:36

of robbers and miners' unions throughout

14:38

the West. He had briefly

14:41

managed to get close to Butch Cassidy's

14:43

wild bunch posing as a murderer on

14:45

the run, and he even visited Cassidy's

14:47

hometown in Utah to interrogate his sister.

14:49

But despite arresting a couple of gang members, he

14:52

never managed to catch Butch or Sundance. And

14:55

so by 1910, Soringo had become

14:57

disillusioned with the agency and resigned to

14:59

write a book about his experiences. But

15:01

when William and Robert Pinkerton learned about

15:04

the book, they sued to prevent its

15:06

publication, where it would bring bad publicity.

15:09

As a result of this lawsuit, Soringo

15:11

was forced to change the title of

15:13

his book from a Pinkerton's cowboy detective

15:16

to just a cowboy detective. Then he

15:18

fictionalized all names and called his

15:20

memoir a novel. And when he

15:22

later tried to write another expose of the

15:24

Pinkertons, he was sued again. The

15:27

lengths that William and Robert went

15:29

to to prevent Soringo from publishing

15:31

anything salacious about their business were

15:33

proof that Alan Pinkerton's publicity-savvy sons

15:35

knew they needed to protect the

15:37

name and reputation of their 60-year-old

15:39

agency. And by now,

15:41

William and Robert had established notable crime-fighting

15:43

reputations of their own. William

15:46

made headlines in 1901 when he convinced

15:48

an art thief to return a stolen

15:50

painting after chasing the thief from London

15:52

to Paris to Istanbul and Brussels. But

15:55

the artwork's recovery did more than garner

15:57

positive press. It deepened Pinkerton's

16:00

story. the relationship with Scotland Yard, the

16:02

British Police Force. That. Same

16:04

year they invited William to England

16:06

to exchange information on investigative techniques.

16:08

And while they are the newspapers

16:10

referred to William as the Sherlock

16:12

Holmes of America. This. Name

16:15

only became more appropriate when William

16:17

also became friends with Sherlock Holmes

16:19

creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Would

16:21

based homes a bursary Professor Moriarty on

16:24

the very sees that William Pinkerton had

16:26

chase through Europe. Doyle would

16:28

later feature more Pinkerton exploits In is

16:30

worth sometimes mentioning the agency by name.

16:33

But back in the Us to

16:36

Pinkerton Agency face growing competition from

16:38

a number of rival detective agency

16:40

some of them created by x

16:42

Pinkerton's as well as another challenge

16:44

or a nascent federal law enforcement

16:46

organization called the Bureau of Investigation

16:49

and admit this increasing competition from

16:51

federal and private law enforcement agencies,

16:53

the Pinkerton's would soon lose one

16:55

of their top agents. American

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500 500. That's audible.com slash

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tellers or text tellers to 500 500. In

19:01

August of 1907, Robert Pinkerton

19:03

died suddenly on board a passenger ship

19:05

while sailing from New York to Germany.

19:08

Newspapers praised the 59 year old agent

19:10

as the greatest thief catcher in the

19:12

world, but also noted that he was

19:14

despised by organized labor. Robert's

19:16

older brother William, now 62, became

19:19

the sole head of the agency and would

19:21

be responsible for leading it through another new

19:23

era of change. A year

19:25

after Robert's death in 1908, the

19:28

federal government created its first nationwide

19:30

police force. The Bureau of

19:32

Investigation, later named the Federal

19:34

Bureau of Investigation, was created

19:36

to investigate interstate crimes. And

19:39

in time, the FBI would deeply cut

19:41

into Pinkerton's business. A

19:43

few years earlier, William Pinkerton had

19:46

played a supporting role in creating

19:48

the FBI's predecessor, the National Bureau

19:50

of Criminal Identification. That agency

19:52

was launched in Chicago in 1897

19:55

by the National Police Chiefs Union in

19:57

order to share information on criminals nationwide.

20:00

William donated his company's massive collection of

20:02

criminal photographs to this new agency, which

20:04

moved to Washington in 1902. The

20:08

Criminal Identification Bureau was later folded

20:10

into this new bureau investigation, part

20:13

of the Department of Justice. And

20:15

the FBI quickly adopted many methods of

20:17

criminal investigation that had been pioneered by

20:19

the Pinkerton Agency. One

20:22

revolutionary contribution was the Pinkerton's

20:24

so-called Rogues Gallery. Pinkerton's

20:26

was a collection of mugshots and case histories

20:28

used to track wanted men, the

20:30

predecessor of the FBI's Most Wanted

20:33

list. The agency printed these

20:35

on small index cards, each with a

20:37

wanted man's photo on the front and

20:39

a list of physical attributes, distinguishing marks

20:41

and scars, aliases and crimes on the

20:44

back. The Pinkertons also kept

20:46

detailed case files containing news clippings,

20:48

rap sheets, known associates and areas

20:50

of expertise for every criminal in

20:52

its system. These files

20:54

were an early model of what later

20:56

became the FBI's Criminal Database. The

20:59

FBI also took the new art of

21:01

fingerprinting from the Pinkertons, something William had

21:03

learned during his visits to Scotland Yard.

21:06

But though the Pinkertons gave the FBI

21:08

many of its tools and resources, the

21:10

rise of a federal investigating agency posed

21:13

a direct threat to the Pinkertons' bottom

21:15

line. Criminal cases that

21:17

had been the Pinkertons' bread and butter were

21:19

now handled for free by the FBI. This

21:22

forced William Pinkerton to once again grow

21:24

the security side of the business, and

21:27

he soon landed two lucrative contracts, one

21:29

which provided Pinkerton guards to the American

21:31

Bankers Association and its network of 3,000

21:33

banks. The other

21:36

contract expanded the agency's work for

21:38

a national alliance of ghoulery sellers.

21:41

Pinkerton agents also began to specialize

21:43

in specific types of investigations, such

21:45

as jewel heists and gambling fraud

21:47

at casinos and racetracks. As

21:49

William put it at the time, the evolving

21:51

work of the modern Pinkerton agent

21:53

takes more brains and less muscle,

21:56

although we have some good hard fights to fight

21:58

too. So slowly. as

22:00

they recurred to their crime-fighting roots,

22:02

the public's memory of the Pinkertons

22:05

as violent strike-breakers receded. Then,

22:07

in 1914, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

22:09

published his fourth and final Sherlock

22:11

Holmes novel, The Valley of Fear.

22:14

This story featured a Pinkerton agent named

22:16

Bertie Edwards, who was based on James

22:19

McCarland and his undercover infiltration of the

22:21

Molly McGuire's. Doyle had learned

22:23

about McCarland from William Pinkerton personally,

22:25

when they sailed together across the

22:27

Atlantic. But William Pinkerton

22:29

was furious that Doyle used this

22:31

confidential information without asking permission. He

22:34

even threatened to sue Doyle, though he eventually backed

22:36

down. Doyle wrote letters of

22:38

apology, but the friendship between the two

22:41

men never recovered. William Pinkerton

22:43

professed his hatred of all fictional depictions

22:45

of his agents and called Doyle's stories

22:47

bunk. He once told a reporter,

22:49

that sort of rot gives people the wrong idea

22:52

about the way we work. Still,

22:54

the publicity from Doyle's book contributed to

22:56

the revival of the agency's public image.

22:59

It also bolstered the reputation

23:01

of the agency's longest-serving agent,

23:03

James McCarland. And soon, McCarland

23:05

would get another boost from even more

23:08

detective stories. Imagine

23:14

it's November 23, 1921.

23:16

It's a cool morning as you walk along Pier 35 at

23:18

the San Francisco wars. You

23:20

and your wife live nearby in a small apartment

23:23

on Eddie Street. And after spending

23:25

time in a hospital recovering from a

23:27

persistent case of tuberculosis, you're just returning

23:29

to work. You've been thinking

23:31

of quitting the Pinkerton Detective Agency, but

23:34

your wife is pregnant and rent is due,

23:36

so you decided to take on one last

23:38

case. You just hope your weakened lungs will

23:40

hold out. Now

23:42

you're about to board the steamship SS

23:44

Sonoma, which left Sydney, Australia six weeks

23:46

ago. When it docked yesterday, the

23:48

crew discovered that $125,000 of gold was missing from

23:51

the storeroom. Your boss has sent you and

23:56

another operative to search the ship and find

23:58

the gold. You're the one. lead agent, but the

24:01

other guy is younger and eager, and you're trying

24:03

to best not to get too annoyed by his

24:05

enthusiasm. Should we start by questioning the

24:07

passengers? No, no, the city police already

24:09

questioned them. How about the crew? City

24:11

police are on it. Maybe we should take

24:13

a look at the strong boxes. Didn't one

24:15

of them have a brand new lock on it, but

24:18

the captain's key couldn't open it? Yeah, that's right. Why

24:20

would the thieves put a new lock on an empty

24:22

lock box? Why were the other

24:24

two strong boxes untouched? My

24:26

guess is the gold was stolen early in the

24:28

journey, but the thief didn't want anyone to notice

24:31

during the crossing. Well, if we can't interview people

24:33

or examine the evidence, what are we supposed to

24:35

do? We need to search for the gold. The

24:38

crew checked everyone getting off and didn't find the loot.

24:40

That means it must be on the ship. And

24:43

you heard the boss. If we can't find it

24:45

today, we're supposed to stay on board and return

24:47

with the ship to Australia. The

24:49

kid's eyes open up wide. You

24:51

can tell he kind of likes this idea.

24:53

Well, all right. I'm game. Hey, let's climb

24:56

up that smokestack. Take a good look around.

24:58

I'm up high. I think

25:00

the crew already looked up there. That's

25:02

what they said. But maybe this was an inside job.

25:04

We should check it out. You

25:06

know the young agent is right. You're just

25:09

not sure you can climb a ladder a hundred

25:11

feet above deck, finding it hard

25:13

to breathe. Well, okay. Go ahead.

25:16

I'll be right behind you.

25:18

Young agents sprints up the ladder and reaches the

25:20

top of the smokestack before you've made it even

25:22

halfway. He shouts down to you.

25:24

Hey, I found something. You

25:26

look up and see he's standing on a small

25:28

ledge, reaching his arm into the

25:30

sooty opening of the smokestack. I think I

25:32

got it. He pulls up a

25:35

rope and at the end of it is a filthy

25:37

canvas bag. All right. What

25:39

is it? It's here. It's here. The young

25:41

agent struggles with the heavy bag, but manages

25:43

to bring it down to the deck. Both

25:46

open it and see it's filled with gold

25:48

coins. The kid is beaming. You

25:51

know, your boss will be pleased and you're believed

25:54

you won't have to travel across the Pacific to

25:56

Australia. You're also thinking Maybe

25:58

it's time to retire. Stay home

26:01

and do the same you been dreaming

26:03

about. write books, Samuel.

26:08

Dashiell Hammett was born in Eighty Ninety

26:10

Four and rural Maryland to an alcoholic

26:13

father and a mother who suffered from

26:15

tuberculosis. Eager. To escape a rough

26:17

and impoverished childhood he replied to and and

26:20

for a job with a Pinkerton Detective agency.

26:22

Him at joined in nineteen fifteen at the age

26:25

of twenty one. He worked out

26:27

of the Baltimore office, mainly on cases

26:29

requiring surveillance and stakeouts. And

26:31

then after serving a world War One,

26:33

he worked for Pinkerton in Spokane, Washington

26:35

and San Francisco. In his

26:38

last case as a Pinkerton, how much

26:40

helped investigate the system gold coins from

26:42

a passenger ship docked in San Francisco.

26:45

Later ham it would fictionalized this incident

26:47

in his best known book The Maltese

26:49

Falcon. And which private detective Sam

26:51

Spade solve the case of a stolen

26:53

figurine on board the passenger ship lot

26:56

along. But. Suffering from tuberculosis

26:58

and disillusioned with the agency, strike breaking

27:00

work came at last the agency and

27:02

nineteen twenty two and picked up right.

27:05

His. First Story was published that year. And

27:08

in Nineteen Twenty Three, he began writing

27:10

greedy detective stories for the Pulp crime

27:12

magazine Black Mask. Him at

27:14

later said that writing reports for Pinkerton

27:16

taught him how to write peacefully and

27:18

with appreciation for the language of streets

27:20

actors. In. His work he managed

27:22

to avoid a tramp at other X agents

27:25

fell into when trying to write about the

27:27

agency. Rather, Than name the

27:29

Pinkerton's can call the agent in his

27:31

early stories and first books the Continental

27:33

Up or just the off to work

27:36

for the Continental Detective Agency. The

27:38

name was inspired by Hammers first office

27:40

with Pinkerton in Baltimore Continental Trust Building,

27:43

and he said his first novel, the

27:45

Glass Key on Baltimore's Green Streets. His.

27:48

Character: the continental op board resemblance

27:50

to him. A sometimes sickly aspiring

27:52

writer with a taste for cigarettes

27:54

and whiskey. And. Hammett stories

27:57

reflected the realize experiences with The

27:59

Pinkerton's. Featured minors and mind

28:01

bosses in the fight against writers

28:03

and strikebreakers. He. Brought a dark

28:05

poetry to the language of the gumshoe. Speeding.

28:08

Getaway cars leaked gunfire and streets

28:10

where the color of smoke. And

28:12

grimy sky above a mining towns looks

28:14

like it came from a smelting. stacked.

28:17

Cops were bowls and trucks were mutters.

28:20

One. Hammett biographer said his Pinkerton experiences

28:22

were like a set of tools he

28:24

runs through and sharpened when he needed

28:26

them. For historians. But. Payments

28:28

coworkers also inspired many of his

28:30

fictional characters. And. His first

28:32

novel read Harvest the Continental off work

28:35

for a supervisor referred to as just

28:37

the Old Man, someone who had no

28:39

more warmth and him than a hangman

28:41

rope. It. Was James May Part

28:43

who died in nineteen nineteen. That was the

28:46

inspiration for the old May. And.

28:48

Ham it's words. The fictional Mcparland could

28:50

spit icicles in July and was known

28:52

among agents as punches pilots for sending

28:55

men out to be crucified on suicide

28:57

missions. For. Justice Allen Pinkerton

28:59

had been accused of sticks realizing his

29:01

exploits and so called true crime detective

29:03

books. Hammett. Would face claims

29:05

of embellishing his Pinkerton work. He.

29:07

Later defend his farfetched recollections of

29:10

splintered and years claiming they

29:12

were authentic enough. Ammo.

29:14

It's hard boil. Detectives were gritty,

29:17

flawed are drinkers, impetuous, violent,

29:19

and bitter. Far. From the

29:21

cerebral and refined Sherlock Holmes. Parents.

29:24

Detectives would become American icons

29:26

idolized and literature and film.

29:28

But. Soon the Great Detective Dynasty

29:30

this helped create that stereotype was

29:33

again in transition. In.

29:35

Late Nineteen Twenty Three. A year after

29:37

Hammers departure from the agency, seventy seven

29:39

year old William Pinkerton died. He.

29:42

Was buried in the family plot beside

29:44

his brother, father and to his his

29:46

father's favorite agents Kate Worn and Committee

29:48

Webster. A few years before his

29:50

death. William. pinkerton spoke at a

29:52

meeting of the international chiefs of police

29:55

and warned that the nation's increasing industrialization

29:57

would bring new types of crime and

30:00

sophisticated criminals. He

30:02

also predicted growing political and labor

30:04

unrest as tensions between corporations and

30:06

unions heated up. He

30:08

had hoped that his agency would be on

30:11

the front lines of that turbulent era, but

30:13

instead as acts of extreme violence rocked the

30:15

nation, the Pinkertons would find

30:17

themselves sidelined. Switched

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That's netsuite.com/tellers.

31:29

netsuite.com/tellers. In

31:38

1910, a dynamite explosion ripped through the

31:41

offices of the Los Angeles Times, killing

31:43

20 and injuring more than 100. This

31:46

incident triggered a massive manhunt, but city

31:48

officials did not turn to the Pinkertons.

31:51

Instead, they hired a new investigative

31:53

firm run by a former Secret

31:55

Service agent, the William J. Burns

31:57

National Detective Agency. later,

32:00

when bombs exploded on Wall Street,

32:02

killing dozens, the Federal Bureau

32:04

of Investigation responded, and again called

32:06

in Burns and his agents, not

32:08

the Pinkertons. William Burns

32:10

himself soon became the FBI's director,

32:13

widely recognized as the nation's top

32:15

lawman. In 1924, though,

32:17

Burns was replaced by J. Edgar Hoover,

32:20

who would maintain an iron grip on

32:22

the FBI for the next 50 years.

32:25

By the 1920s, the Pinkertons

32:27

reigned as America's foremost detectives was

32:29

waning. In fact, the entire

32:31

private detective industry that the Pinkertons had

32:33

pioneered entered a period of transition. Now

32:36

that federal investigative agencies like the

32:38

FBI and Secret Service have become

32:40

well established. At the same

32:42

time, city police departments matured and began

32:45

to invest more public funds into local

32:47

law enforcement, creating better trained

32:49

and better equipped municipal police and

32:51

sheriff's departments. These public law

32:53

officers now took on cases that had

32:56

previously been handled by Pinkertons and other

32:58

private detectives. So to keep

33:00

revenue streaming, the agency tried to

33:03

carve out specialized areas of

33:05

focus, including handling smaller capers

33:07

such as counterfeiting, forged checks,

33:09

and even shoplifting. Bank

33:11

robberies never seemed to slow, nor did

33:13

break-ins at jewelry stores. And

33:15

with the rise of the automobile through the mid-1920s, armed

33:18

truck robberies replaced train thefts as

33:20

bandits began using Model T fords instead

33:23

of horses. And the

33:25

rise of the American middle class

33:27

meant regular citizens could now afford

33:29

to hire private detectives to investigate

33:31

such things as marital complaints, house

33:33

thefts, estate fraud, missing person cases,

33:35

and insurance fraud. The Pinkertons

33:37

took on hundreds of these smaller jobs

33:40

while continuing their investigative work for banks

33:42

and jewelers. Meanwhile, corporations continued

33:44

to hire Pinkertons to spy on

33:46

their employees and unions, which became

33:48

the agency's primary source of income.

33:51

All throughout this era of change,

33:54

the agency's old guard desperado chasers

33:56

were gradually replaced by new hires,

33:58

many of them college grads. or businessmen

34:00

who would never chase a train robber on

34:02

horseback or an art thief across Europe. After

34:06

William Pinkerton died in 1923, the

34:08

company passed on to his nephew Alan, who

34:10

was named for his grandfather, the agency's founder.

34:13

When the younger Alan died in 1930, his

34:16

son Robert took over, the fourth generation

34:18

to lead the company. It would

34:20

also be the last. Robert

34:22

was a Harvard-educated stockbroker whose father had

34:24

bought him a seat on the New

34:26

York Stock Exchange. But while his

34:28

father and uncle had been detectives since they were

34:30

teenagers, Robert had never worked for the

34:33

agency. When he took charge of the family

34:35

business in 1930, he admitted, I

34:37

really had to start from scratch. He

34:40

would learn quickly, though, leading the company through

34:42

the first rough years of the Great Depression.

34:45

Then, with Franklin Roosevelt's election as president

34:47

in 1932, and the passage of New

34:49

Deal legislation in 33, the

34:52

country entered the progressive era of the

34:54

mid-30s. New laws now

34:56

governed unions and workers' rights, and the

34:58

agency was suddenly back in the spotlight,

35:00

once again accused of primarily working on

35:03

behalf of big business and against the

35:05

labor in classes. But

35:07

public opinion wasn't the only threat. Soon

35:09

the agency would have to defend itself

35:11

before a formidable opponent, angry

35:13

members of Congress. Imagine

35:19

it's September 26, 1936.

35:21

You're the great grandson of Alan Pinkerton,

35:23

and it's been six years since you took

35:26

over the detective agency he founded. You

35:28

spent the past few years learning the business

35:30

and leading the agency through the Depression. But

35:33

ever since Congress passed the National

35:35

Labor Relations Act last year, government

35:37

regulators have been questioning your company's

35:39

contracts with big business. Today

35:42

you're seated in front of a hostile Senate

35:44

committee that's subpoenaed you and the heads of

35:46

four other top detective firms. The committee

35:48

is led by Wisconsin Senator Robert La Follette,

35:50

who's been grilling you for an hour, but

35:52

it seems he's just getting warmed up. Now

35:54

is it true that a third of your

35:56

business comes from spying on innocent employees? I

35:58

wouldn't put it in the Senate. that way,

36:00

Senator? Well, how would you put it? Please

36:02

answer the question. Uh, I believe that

36:04

a man running a business should be allowed to

36:07

keep tabs on his employees. You mean

36:09

spying on people, right? Recruiting informants?

36:11

Creating chaos? Sometimes it's the

36:13

employees creating chaos. Our job is

36:15

to prevent that. By paying undercover union

36:17

men to spy and snitch on their fellow

36:19

workers, huh? By turning employees against each other?

36:21

By getting rich off the backs of the

36:23

common man? You adjust your

36:26

tie, feeling the sweat under your shirt collar.

36:28

As we've presented to this committee, and I

36:30

have it here in my files, I'll

36:32

show you, our work for these

36:34

companies has resulted in finding thousands

36:36

of people guilty of crimes like

36:39

arson, assault, kidnapping, and even murder,

36:41

all in connection with labor disputes. Yeah,

36:44

but I don't need to remind you that your

36:46

agency does not have the best reputation when it

36:48

comes to labor disputes, does it? We

36:50

all know what happened at Homestead in 1892. People

36:53

died, and your agency was responsible. Actually,

36:56

wait, you might not remember. Were you

36:58

even born yet? Senator, I- Now listen,

37:00

young man. We're here today because labor

37:02

espionage has grown too far. Too

37:05

far. As we learned yesterday,

37:07

General Motors spent $1 million last

37:09

year on detective agencies like yours.

37:12

That's money that could have been spent

37:14

on better working conditions. With respect, Senator,

37:16

without the work we do, these companies

37:18

would suffer. It's the workers

37:21

who suffer. They are the ones

37:23

being intimidated and threatened when they try to

37:25

bargain for better pay and better conditions. Also,

37:27

if this work is so important to companies,

37:30

why all the secrecy, huh? Why

37:32

did your agency destroy records when we

37:34

subpoenaed you? My agency has done

37:36

nothing wrong. We've broken no law. Well,

37:39

we'll see about that. What I am

37:41

sure of is that the corporate spying

37:43

system in this nation, which your agency

37:45

pioneered, breeds fear, suspicion,

37:47

and animosity in the workforce. Labor

37:50

espionage causes more strikes than it prevents.

37:53

It's wrong and it needs to stop.

37:58

You shift nervously in your seat. feeling

38:00

the heat of the interrogation. You

38:02

want to defend your agency and the legacy

38:04

of your family, but you're finding it hard to

38:06

avoid such harsh criticism of your work on

38:08

behalf of big corporations. With new

38:10

labor laws and increased public scrutiny, maybe

38:13

it's time for your agency to make a change.

38:20

By 1936, the Pinkerton Detective Agency had

38:22

27 offices and grossed more

38:24

than $2 million annually. A

38:26

third of that income came from so-called

38:29

industrial espionage. The agency supplied more

38:31

than 1,000 agents to companies

38:33

like General Motors, and its labor spies

38:35

had infiltrated all of the top unions,

38:37

from auto to textile and mine workers.

38:40

A years-long congressional inquiry led

38:42

by Wisconsin Senator Robert La

38:44

Follette looked into industrial espionage,

38:46

private police agencies, and strike-breaking

38:49

services. Committee hearings revealed

38:51

that the scope of labor spying was far

38:53

more entrenched than the general public was aware.

38:56

More than 200 private detective agencies were

38:58

providing labor spies to companies in more

39:00

than 100 cities. The

39:03

results of these hearings and the subsequent

39:05

public outcry led to widespread reforms. Agency

39:08

President Robert Pinkerton admitted during testimony that

39:10

his company did supply labor spies to

39:13

GM and others, but he publicly vowed

39:15

to end that practice. In

39:17

early 1937, he summoned his board of

39:20

directors to Chicago and informed them that

39:22

the agency would stop all labor investigation

39:24

work. Pinkerton then made

39:26

a remarkable public announcement, stating, "...our

39:29

agency has always felt that the employer had a right

39:31

to know what his employees were doing, but the sentiment

39:33

throughout the country is such that it looks as if

39:36

we were on the wrong side of the fence." He

39:39

added, "...times have changed, and we are

39:41

out of step." Robert Pinkerton

39:43

later told the New York Times that

39:45

his company had done nothing illegal during

39:47

its industrial spying and strike-breaking era, but

39:50

that it was also a phase of our business

39:52

that we are not particularly proud of, and we're

39:54

delighted we're out of it. As

39:56

a result of this pullback from labor

39:58

espionage activities, the agency suffered financially

40:01

for years. Its income dropped

40:03

nearly 40% in the late 1930s. During World

40:06

War II, it recovered by providing

40:09

security protection for manufacturing plants, and

40:11

the agency remained in family hands until 1967,

40:15

when Robert Pinkerton renamed the company

40:17

Pinkerton's Inc. and stepped down. A

40:20

new president took over, and for the first

40:22

time in more than a century, someone outside

40:24

the Pinkerton family would run the agency. Into

40:28

the second half of the 20th century,

40:30

the Pinkertons continued to thrive, becoming less

40:32

of an investigative agency and more of

40:34

a modern global security force. Pinkerton

40:37

guards protected race tracks, sporting

40:39

events, fairs, hospitals, schools, and

40:41

other institutions. The company

40:43

created a security training school and

40:46

developed sophisticated alarm systems and other

40:48

technological advances. In 1982,

40:50

the agency was sold to American

40:52

brands, and five years later was

40:54

sold again to California Plant Protection.

40:57

At the time, the company had 250 offices

41:00

and more than 50,000 employees worldwide. In 1999,

41:02

Pinkerton was sold once more

41:06

to the Swedish conglomerate Securitas AB,

41:09

creating one of the largest security

41:11

firms in the world. It

41:13

was renamed Pinkerton Consulting and

41:15

Investigations, and has become a

41:17

high-tech cybersecurity enterprise. When

41:20

Alan Pinkerton founded his agency in the 1850s,

41:23

the progressive abolitionist barrel maker from

41:25

Scotland unwittingly launched an iconic enterprise,

41:27

one that has survived to become

41:29

one of America's oldest companies, alongside

41:32

the firms whose railcars it once

41:34

protected, from American Express to Wells

41:36

Fargo. Pinkerton, his sons,

41:38

and their agents chased Confederate spies,

41:41

Wild West bandits, and international art

41:43

thieves, but also courted

41:45

controversy with their violent union-busting

41:47

and strike-breaking activities. Take

41:50

their legacy as America's preeminent detective

41:52

agency endures, and as the forerunners

41:54

of the FBI and Secret Service,

41:56

the agency helped to fundamentally shape

41:58

modern law enforcement. in America.

42:03

From Wandry, this is episode 3 of

42:05

the Pinkerton Detective Agency from American History

42:07

Tellers. On the next

42:09

episode, I speak with S. Paul

42:11

O'Hara, an Associate Professor of History

42:13

at Xavier University, about Alan Pinkerton's

42:15

careful curation of the Pinkerton's mythology,

42:17

as well as his own. If

42:23

you like American History Tellers, you can

42:26

binge all episodes early and ad-free right

42:28

now by joining Wandry Plus in the

42:30

Wandry app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime

42:32

members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music.

42:35

And before you go, tell us about

42:37

yourself by filling out a short survey

42:39

at wandry.com/survey. If

42:44

you'd like to learn more about the Pinkerton's,

42:46

we recommend The Lost Detective by Nathan Ward

42:48

and The Eye That Never Sleeps by Frank

42:51

Morn. American History Tellers

42:53

is hosted, edited, and produced by

42:55

me, Lindsey Graham for Airship. Audio

42:57

editing by Christian Peraga. Sound

42:59

design by Molly Bot. Music by

43:01

Lindsey Graham. This episode is

43:03

written by Neil Thompson, edited by Dorian

43:05

Marina. Produced by Alita

43:08

Rizanski. Our production coordinator is

43:10

Desi Blaylock, Managing Producer Matt

43:12

Gantt, Senior Managing Producer Ryan

43:14

Moore, Senior Producer Andy Herman.

43:17

Executive Producers are Jenny Lauer Beckman and

43:19

Marshall Louis for Wandry. I

43:28

feel like I was blindsided because it's a

43:30

competition show. From

43:32

the producers of Jury Duty and The Bachelor,

43:34

we have scoured the earth for the 14

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greatest reality contestants that

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were available during our production window. Comes

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a reality competition show about reality

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competition shows. Nobody is dared to

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find out who is the actual

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best at just being on a

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reality show. I'm your host, Media

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Daniel Posh. It's winner go home.

43:56

Each episode are contestants for this

43:58

new challenge. that's a sweet

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and last of life sales for a chance

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to win $200 million. Because

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this is about to be ugly, crying, lots

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of fighting. I have to offend

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myself. Celebrating 25 years of

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reality TV with your favorites. I'm here,

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Diarrhea. You cannot do this to me.

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What in gay hell have I got

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myself in? The Goat. Stream free on

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Amazon Freebie or Prime Video.