pinkertons det

bought  by securitas<div>
</div><div>historical context for Tigerswan</div><div>
</div><div>uber1 </div><div><a href="https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/6950F840-FB80-FCB0-D505-8AB1FA685F08#-320">
</a></div><div><a href="https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/6950F840-FB80-FCB0-D505-8AB1FA685F08#-320">https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/6950F840-FB80-FCB0-D505-8AB1FA685F08#-320</a></div><div>
</div><div>sun valley?
<div>=</div><div>1020 intercept</div><div>
</div><div>Pinkerton, a private security company with a long, checkered history — including a period as, effectively, Andrew Carnegie’s personal militia used to break up strikes — said in a statement on Monday that Dolloff was not directly employed by the firm but was dispatched by a subcontractor.Even after the Denver police statement, several of the trolls, including Ian Miles Cheong, a Malaysian blogger with a big following among American conservatives, continued to pretend that anti-fascists were behind the shooting of Keltner. On Sunday, Cheong sarcastically invoked former Vice President Joe Biden’s description of antifa as an idea rather than a group in a caption for a video that showed the dead man at work making hats in 2012.On Sunday, a leader of the pro-Trump youth movement Turning Point USA, Charlie Kirk, also made the false claim. “A conservative was just gunned down in the streets by ANTIFA and not a single ‘mainstream’ news outlet has asked Joe Biden to condemn the organization he called ‘just an idea,'” Kirk tweeted to his 1.8 million followers. “We don’t have a media in this country anymore,” Kirk added. “We have activists posing as journalists.”Kirk’s comment on the difference between journalism and activism is unintentionally ironic, given that many prominent right-wing activists posing as journalists on Twitter refused to retract their false claims that Dolloff was an antifascist gunman even after The Denver Post had corrected and explained the error in its report.On Sunday afternoon, the police tried again to quash the rumors that continued to spread online. “Further investigation has revealed that, at the time of the shooting, the suspect was acting in a professional capacity as an armed security guard for a local media outlet, not a protest participant,” the Denver Police Department wrote on Twitter.Rather than correcting their own false reports, however, several of the most influential Twitter conservatives, joined by 4chan trolls, began scouring the web for evidence that Dolloff was somehow secretly an antifa assassin.Failing to find any such thing, they then moved the goalposts quite some distance, by treating scraps of evidence, gleaned from Twitter and Facebook accounts that appeared to be Dolloff’s, of his past support for Sen. Bernie Sanders and the Occupy Denver movement, and then acting as if that somehow proved that the killing was politically motivated.Complicating evidence about Dolloff’s views available on those social-media accounts, like words of praise for the conservative commentator Charles Krauthammer, were ignored in the effort to make the case that he was a left-wing radical.Like President Donald Trump, many of his online supporters have sought to delegitimize protests for racial justice and against fascism by amplifying acts of violence by anyone on the left and pretending that there is no difference between fringe extremists and the mainstream of the movements against police brutality and white supremacy. The frenzied search for evidence of Dolloff’s politics was part of that effort.Lauren Boebert, a far-right Republican candidate for Congress who has embraced the deranged QAnon conspiracy theory popular in parts of Colorado, also ignored the police statement that Dolloff was a security guard, not a protester, when she tweeted on Sunday that the fatal shooting in Denver was an example of “the violence perpetrated in the streets by ANTIFA, BLM & other radical leftist groups.”In fact, the visual evidence of what happened on Saturday in Denver appears to show something different and more complex than an attack by a man with left-wing politics on a man with the opposite views. The images seem to show that Keltner, who was wearing a T-shirt with a slogan that mocked the Black Lives Matter movement, initiated the skirmish with Dolloff, who responded by wildly escalating the violence, replying to a slap in the head by taking out his gun and firing a single, deadly shot.As the speculation over the gunman’s unknown motives spiraled out of control online, The Denver Post released all 71 of the photographs Helen Richardson shot before, during and after the killing, along with metadata from her camera that provides the exact second each frame was created.Taken together, Richardson’s photographs and video recorded during the incident by another witness show that Keltner first got into a heated confrontation with a counter-demonstrator in a “Black Guns Matter” shirt as he left the “patriot muster” in nearby Civic Center Park. That man was seen aggressively harassing several of the right-wing demonstrators near the exit to the rally.After another conservative stepped in to separate the two men, Keltner, a 49-year-old Navy veteran who made cowboy hats, appeared to take exception to two other men who were observing the argument at close range: the reporter for Denver’s NBC affiliate, 9 News, and Dolloff, his bodyguard.One of Richardson’s images shows Keltner moving away from the initial argument and pointing in the direction of Dolloff and the journalist he was guarding. In another frame, captured six seconds later, Keltner and Dolloff appear together for the first time, as the guard appears to use his hands to block the demonstrator from approaching the journalist.[DENVER, COLORADO - OCTOBER 10: Two men clash after dueling rallies in Downtown Denver on October 10, 2020 in Denver, Colorado.  The confrontation led to the man on the right fatally shooting the man on the left of the photo. The shooting happened as opposing rallies by far-right and far-left activists were ending. The shooter has been identified as Matthew Dolloff. He is being held for investigation of First Degree Murder in connection with this shooting. (Photo by Helen H. Richardson/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images)The first image of Lee Keltner, a right-wing demonstrator with an American flag mask, encountering Matthew Dolloff, the bodyguard who killed him on Saturday in Denver, appears to show the guard holding him back from approaching the journalist he was hired to protect, in the blue shirt. Photo: Helen H. Richardson/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images]One second later, according to the metadata, after Keltner had hit Dolloff, the guard reached for the gun in his waistband. He then raised it and fired at Keltner, who raised his arm and released a burst of pepper spray in the same second.What led Keltner to strike Dolloff in the head, hard enough to knock off his cap and sunglasses, remains unknown, but Richardson, the photojournalist, wrote on Instagram early Sunday morning that Dolloff escalated the encounter to shocking, deadly violence incredibly quickly. Richardson wrote: “the two exchanged heated words, the patriot hit the man in the face, then backed up to spray what looked like pepper spray at him. Literally in that split second the man who had gotten hit by the patriot pulled out a gun from his waistband and shot the patriot.”“It isn’t clear who fired first,” Richardson added.In the final seconds of video that showed the initial argument that preceded the shooting, recorded by a conservative who had just left the rally, the sound of the spray being released can be heard just before the gunshot rings out, and Keltner is seen collapsing to the pavement.It was not until Tuesday evening that the video recorded by the News 9 journalist who was the closest witness to the incident was finally posted online by the station. That video, which starts with Keltner arguing with the man in the “Black Guns Matter” shirt, shows that he suddenly noticed that the confrontation was being filmed by the journalist on his phone. The video then shows that Keltner ordered the reporter to put his camera away, and when he did not comply, moved toward him. “Get the cameras out of here or I’m going to fuck you up,” Keltner can be heard saying.Apparently responding to being blocked by Dolloff, Keltner then said, “Don’t fucking touch me, motherfucker,” and struck the bodyguard.The 9 News video stops just before the shot is fired, but resumes during the arrest as the journalist tells the police that he has a press badge and Dolloff was protecting him.Elijah Schaffer, a freelance producer for Glenn Beck’s Blaze TV who has distorted acts of violence at left-wing protests in the past, also ignored the Denver police statement to portray the entire incident as a politically motivated killing.Just after the police statement was released, Schaffer drew attention to an excerpt from a video livestream from the scene which showed that, in the immediate aftermath of the killing, the man in the “Black Guns Matter” shirt, whose provocative behavior had initiated the conflict with Keltner, was loudly celebrating his death. Schaffer tried to fit the man’s appalling reaction into a simple political frame by falsely describing him as “an Antifa protester.”Video shot by another reporter for 9 News, Marc Sallinger, appeared to show that man, who had provoked the initial argument with Keltner but was not involved in the shooting, being arrested by the police a short time later.</div><div>=</div><div>tigerswan intercept pt 2</div><div><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1; margin: 1em 0px; font-kerning: normal; font-feature-settings: 'kern' 1;">Modern-Day Pinkertons</h3>The privatization of law enforcement and its subjugation to corporate interests are hardly a novelty, though the increased militarism of the domestic policing of dissent has taken on sinister overtones in the wake of the so-called global war on terror.In the late 19th century, Allan Pinkerton’s National Detective Agency offered private detective and security services to public and corporate clients. The “Pinkertons,” as they were known, relied heavily on undercover agents and often acted as agents provocateur, triggering violence as much as they engaged in surveillance and propaganda.Through their involvement as armed guards during labor conflicts, the Pinkertons “became a shorthand for the abusive power of unchecked capitalism,” Paul O’Hara, a history professor at Xavier University who wrote a book about them, told The Intercept. To workers, the Pinkertons were “hired thugs for capital” and “a symbol of corporate power,” he wrote. Their activities led to two congressional investigations and the Anti-Pinkerton Act of 1893, which barred the federal government from contracting with the Pinkertons and similar groups. But the act largely failed in its intent, and the Pinkertons set the stage for public partnerships with mercenary groups continuing to this day.TigerSwan never responded to The Intercept’s repeated requests for comment, oscillating instead between following and blocking these reporters on Twitter. The company did, however, retweet a comment by a reader of The Intercept. He had called TigerSwan “modern day Pinkertons.”</div><div></div><div><a href="https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/october-2016/who-are-those-guys-s-paul-oharas-eminventing-the-pinkertons/em">https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/october-2016/who-are-those-guys-s-paul-oharas-eminventing-the-pinkertons/em</a></div><div>
</div><div>In  the 1969 film <em style="text-align: justify; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the titular characters are pursued incessantly by a shadowy, faceless posse. Over and over, the hero bandits ask themselves, "Who are those guys?" History tells us that "those guys" were hired agents from the famed Pinkerton's National Detective Agency, but for S. Paul O'Hara, Butch and Sundance's question runs much deeper. The historian's latest book casts the Pinkertons as shape-shifters who influenced the expansion of industrialization during the Gilded Age and whose exploits left a powerful imprint on Victorian popular culture.</div><div>
</div><p class="p" style="margin: 0px 3px; padding: 0px 0px 2rem; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1.35; text-align: justify; text-indent: 25px;">Inventing the Pinkertons; or, Spies, Sleuths, Mercenaries, and Thugs: Being a Story of the Nation's Most Famous (and Infamous) Detective Agency (now <a class="extLink" href="https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/content/inventing-pinkertons-or-spies-sleuths-mercenaries-and-thugs" title="Inventing the Pinkertons; or, Spies, Sleuths, Mercenaries, and Thugs" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; transition: color 0.12s ease, background-color 0.2s ease;">available from John Hopkins Univ. Press</a>) wades through the mythology that surrounds the 150-year-old company whose agents tracked the real Butch Cassidy and his gang in the final years of the American Old West. Allan Pinkerton, an immigrant from Glasgow, established the organization in the 1850s in response to railroad companies' desire for a private detective system to fend off thievery and employee fraud. The agency gained worldwide recognition and praise for its novel investigative tactics, professionalism, and toughness, and eventually expanded the scope of its services beyond just protecting railroad shipments. Pinkerton's men conducted espionage for the Union during the Civil War and supposedly foiled an assassination plot on Abraham Lincoln. Other high-profile cases followed, including a search for infamous outlaws Frank and Jesse James. But when Gilded Age conglomerates began to hire Pinkerton agents as muscle against worker dissent, popular support foundered.<p class="p" style="margin: 0px 3px; padding: 0px 0px 2rem; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: 1.35; text-align: justify; text-indent: 25px;">O'Hara, an associate professor of history at Xavier University, found inspiration for his work while teaching a US survey course. He noticed that the Pinkertons served as a useful framing device for teaching his students about the post–Civil War narrative. The Pinkertons' pursuit of former Confederate Jesse James tied into Reconstruction politics, as southern Democrats praised the outlaw for "redeeming the South" and frustrating northern interests. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, who fled to South America in 1901, symbolized the closing of the western frontier. Finally, the themes of industrialization and immigration were related to the Pinkertons' brutal work to quell labor unrest—undercover Pinkerton agents were routinely assigned to infiltrate ethnic neighborhoods, unions, and secret societies to root out anarchists and other militants, heightening existing cultural tensions.<p class="p" style="margin: 0px 3px; padding: 0px 0px 2rem; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1.35; text-align: justify; text-indent: 25px;">During the research process, O'Hara joked to his colleagues that the Pinkertons were like a 19th-century Forrest Gump—always present, as if by accident, in the background of pivotal moments in American history. The Pinkerton story has been told before, but previous accounts have ignored this omnipresence and focused only on certain aspects of the agency. One of the most influential books about the Pinkertons, Frank Morn's "The Eye That Never Sleeps": A History of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency (1982), for example, is a business history that examines the changing nature of the police industry. Scholars have also written about the Pinkertons in the context of labor, the West, and the Civil War, but Inventing the Pinkertons captures a broader scope, connecting the agency's cultural reputation to 19th-century struggles for power and order. Also, as reflected in the book's deliberately protracted title, O'Hara's writing borrows elements of sensationalist Victorian detective novels, one of his main sources of research on the Pinkerton image.<p class="p" style="margin: 0px 3px; padding: 0px 0px 2rem; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: 1.35; text-align: justify; text-indent: 25px;">Diverting from his original plan to write a more straightforward history, O'Hara chose to "embrace the melodrama" that characterized all contemporary accounts of the agency, including overwrought newspaper reports, dime novels, and even self-affirming tales written by Allan Pinkerton himself. Folklore followed the Pinkertons wherever they went and allowed both supporters and critics to sensationalize the agency's controversies to almost absurd degrees. Gilded Age readers craved cheap, melodramatic literature filled with acts of gallantry and frontier justice—"fact" was a malleable concept, and contradictions were the norm. Pinkerton detectives were frequent characters in these stories. Some tales romanticized the agents and their deeds; others romanticized the criminals and bandits. O'Hara argues that the public accepted this contradictory folklore because it seemed to mirror the disorienting rise of industrialism, in which labor and capital competed for leverage in the late 19th century.<p class="p" style="margin: 0px 3px; padding: 0px 0px 2rem; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: 1.35; text-align: justify; text-indent: 25px;">In fact, O'Hara argues, the evolution of the Pinkertons from gentlemen crime-stoppers into armed mercenaries was vital to the formation of American monopoly capitalism. By way of the Pinkertons, O'Hara asserts, "American capitalists implemented and enforced new structures of order on industrial frontiers." In the postbellum period, as industrialization expanded to new areas throughout the country, capitalists became increasingly concerned with preventing crime and disorder among their work-forces. These barons distrusted state and local police forces, choosing instead to rely on privately hired guards like the Pinkertons to break strikes or arrest alleged conspirators. The Pinkertons thus became "capital's private army," procuring roles of power that previously belonged to the state and legitimizing the use of force to keep order.<p class="p" style="margin: 0px 3px; padding: 0px 0px 2rem; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: 1.35; text-align: justify; text-indent: 25px;">
After PR disasters like the Homestead Strike and the passage of prohibitive legislation limiting the federal government's ability to hire private investigators, state entities such as the National Guard began to take back authority that states had once allowed the Pinkertons to wield force freely. Today, Pinkerton's National Detective Agency is known simply as Pinkerton. The company is exceedingly proud of its roots, calling itself "the industry's leading provider of risk management services and solutions for organizations throughout the world." While its range of services has adapted to modern consumer demands, the word "detective" is still a part of its identity: the iconic "eye that never sleeps" remains the Pinkerton logo. The company's website also features a historical timeline detailing many of its famous assignments; the Homestead Strike is absent. It is only natural that Pinkerton would craft a laudatory image of itself, but all too obvious that many of the juicier parts of the story have been scrubbed.These new roles resulted in the agency's involvement in divisive events that damaged its reputation as a trusted brand of enforcement and order. In 1892, Pinkerton guards hired by Carnegie Steel battled with striking steelworkers in Homestead, Pennsylvania. Three Pinkerton agents and seven strikers were killed. This and other instances of industrial violence caused the media to label the Pinkertons as "thugs" working in the service of a corrupt, plutocratic elite. <em style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Harper's Weekly, for example, called the Homestead Strike "one of the most serious and disastrous riots that has ever occurred in America," placing blame on the Pinkertons and their employers for provoking the fighting.<p class="p" style="margin: 0px 3px; padding: 0px 0px 2rem; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: 1.35; text-align: justify; text-indent: 25px;">Ironically, 21st-century private security firms bear more resemblance to the Gilded Age detective agency than the present-day form of Pinkerton itself. One of these private companies, Blackwater, received widespread publicity and condemnation for its role in 2007's Nisour Square massacre during the Iraq War. Comparisons between Blackwater and the 19th-century agency have only served to complicate and grow the Pinkerton mythos even more. According to O'Hara, Blackwater and similar organizations "reconfirm the lessons learned about the Gilded Age Pinkertons: it is problematic for the state to privatize the authority to kill."<p class="p" style="margin: 0px 3px; padding: 0px 0px 2rem; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1.35; text-align: justify; text-indent: 25px;">Since its inception, personnel within the Pinkerton detective agency have worked meticulously to buoy the company's reputation against a society that has cast them alternately as heroes and villains. In embracing these contradictions, O'Hara rightly keeps "Who are those guys?" an open question.<div></div><div><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Inventing-Pinkertons-Spies-Sleuths-Mercenaries/dp/1421420562">https://www.amazon.com/Inventing-Pinkertons-Spies-Sleuths-Mercenaries/dp/1421420562</a></div><div>
</div><div>=</div><div>interview</div><div>
</div><div><a href="https://dailyhistory.org/Inventing_the_Pinkertons:Interview_with_Paul_O%27Hara">https://dailyhistory.org/Inventing_the_Pinkertons:Interview_with_Paul_O%27Hara</a></div><div>
</div><div>...Pinkerton’s National Detective Agency was a private firm established by Allan Pinkerton in 1850 to provide detective services and police protection to banks and railroads. City police forces, which were just being created, tended to focus on riot prevention and social order, so private police or ‘special’ police often provided extra services to paying clients. Quickly, Pinkerton’s developed two distinct divisions: a detective branch where undercover agents could uncover embezzlement, counterfeit, or other crimes and a ‘protective patrol’ which could provide armed guards. Because of its close association with railroad businessmen such as George McClellan, the detective branch morphed into an espionage and counter-espionage service during the Civil War. In the years following the war, railroads and banks hired the firm to protect its interests from bandits such as Jesse James, striking miners in Pennsylvania, and rustlers and squatters in the west. By the 1870s, undercover agents would also be hired to expose criminal immigrant conspiracies, anarchist societies, and potential labor organizations. They became labor spies. Meanwhile the protective patrol began to take on an ever larger role in patrolling mill towns, breaking strikes, and busting heads during labor conflicts. By the time Henry Frick brought 300 Pinkerton guards to Homestead, Pennsylvania, the firm was already notorious as capital’s private army.</div><div>...</div><div>The origins of this book came out of my experience teaching the US survey to college students. Every January I would get a fresh batch of students and we would pick up the master narrative in 1865, but, with the epic story of the Civil War gone, the first couple of weeks of the class always felt a bit disjointed. We would spend one week talking about Reconstruction and Redemption in the post war south, then the following week we shifted to the post-war west. Then we moved to urban industrialization and immigration, and so on. One of the things that I developed to connect it together was a running narrative of the Pinkertons. Thus our discussion of southern redemption ended with Jesse James as an unrepentant southerner hunted by northern railroads; our discussion of the west started with James the ‘western’ outlaw and ended with Butch Cassidy and the closing of the west. We could then segue into industrialization and immigration with the Molly Maguires and the Homestead Strike. All of these subthemes built toward the Populist party and its call for the abolition of the Pinkertons. It helped the class hang together.In so doing, it became clear to me just how broadly involved and pivotal the agency was to the Gilded Age. There were so many important events covered in Pinkerton fingerprints. Slowly my thinking about the agency began to shift; they became less a framing device to connect various parts of the narrative and more of a driving force in the rise of monopoly capitalism after 1865. The presence of the same agency confronting counterfeiters, railroad bandits, cattle rustlers, immigrant miners, anarchists, Mexican revolutionaries, steel strikers, and so others, began to show just how interconnected the rise of capitalism was in the Gilded Age and just how transformative the new “rules” of the market (and the armed detectives who enforced these rules) were.Why did a private security firm become so prominent?Simply put, the Pinkerton agency became prominent because, for many Americans, there was a fear of disorder and a perceived need for order and the Pinkertons looked like the only people capable of providing that order. In an age of territorial expansion, Pinkertons served as law and order where the state had no other representation. In an age that feared immigrant radicalism, Pinkertons uprooted ‘criminal’ conspiracies. In an age of bloody labor conflict, Pinkertons were the muscle of industry. This desire for order also led city and state officials to create professional police forces, construct urban armories, and mobilize a national guard. However industrialists often found such institutions of order unreliable. Instead they turned to privately hired agents to insure order; for the most part state and federal officials were happy to let this happen.Moreover Allan Pinkerton built his agency into a powerful and lucrative business by exploiting these perceptions of order and disorder. Through a series of books chronicling the adventures of his detectives, he tied his reputation directly to the emerging literary genre of detective novels. Such stories guided readers through a newly modern world because they promised that crime was an abnormality that could be contained and that the power to place the world in order (a power held by the detective) always proved stronger that the criminal’s power to disrupt social order. At the same time, sensationalist descriptions of Pinkerton agents also fed readers’ guilty pleasures of criminal worlds and anarchic chaos. Labor periodicals, exposés, and dime novels, however, would offer a very different understanding of the Pinkerton agent. Counter narratives offered Pinkertons as the hired mercenaries of a new social order intent on crushing traditional communities. If one reason for the firm’s prominence was a perceived need for order, the other is the fact that everyone talked about them.The Pinkertons had a fearsome reputation and were seen as extremely competent in the 19th Century. Was that an accurate description of the company?Reputation was tremendously important to Allan Pinkerton and his agency, but the firm’s reputation was also complex and contradictory. The meaning of the agency was layered in myth and counter-myth, narrative and counter-narrative. Allan Pinkerton crafted his agency’s reputation upon new ideals of professional and moral detectives capable of delving into the depths of the criminal underworld. For certain audiences, then, the Pinkerton’s did have a well-deserved reputation as highly competent and professional lawmen. However fans of Jesse James or defenders of the Molly Maguires countered with infamous tales of hired mercenaries doing the railroad or mining companies’ dirty work. This reputation was less about competency than ruthlessness, recklessness, and fearsomeness. Even amongst businessmen, some saw the Pinkertons as the armed men holding back the tides of anarchy, while others saw reckless thugs who exacerbated conflicts and spurred public outrage. Still others, especially the publishers of dime novel fantasies, portrayed the Pinkertons as incompetent fools, the almost comedic foils for the novel’s heroes. As for accuracy, each of these versions could, depending upon the location, the perspective and the teller of the tale, be an accurate description of the agency.This ambiguity of reputation shaped the meaning of the Pinkertons and continues to shape how we view them. Even now when American popular culture reenacts the Pinkertons we tend to fall into one of two stories- they were either courageous law men bringing justice and order to unruly places or they were armed thugs in a time where moneyed interests could buy their own justice. New popular history books, children’s books, television shows, etc. continue to peddle in one of these two versions of the Pinkertons. And one can certainly see why, they are a collection of really great stories. However, not only is this a vastly oversimplified choice of how to understand the agency but maybe more importantly this dichotomy of Pinkerton fame and infamy actually has a history just as long and just as complicated as the agency itself.How does your book add to our understanding of 19th-century America? What is the core message you want your readers to take away from your book?I think a cultural history of the Pinkerton agency reshapes our understandings of 19th-century American capitalism and the rise of the nation state. Largely focusing on the biographies of leading industrialists or the lost artisanal traditions of workers, scholars have long shown how managers within new corporations changed the rules of the game in their favor; they became the “visible hands” of the market. Explorations into the history of capitalism have given us a broader sense of how a market economy which commodified every exchange and dislocated older communities rose in the 19th century. Between 1850 and 1930 new forms of order and new rules emerged. If corporate managers were the “visible hand” of the market, then the Pinkertons were the market’s visible fist; they were the shock troops of industrial order. Yet this was no laissez-faire system. Because of their unique role as sub-contractors with the postal service, the treasury, and other governmental agencies, the Pinkertons were as much a visible hand of the state as they were of capital.As for a core message, I think that this is a book about, on the one hand, the rise of a particular form of industrial capitalism and the use of private agents to enforce the market’s new rules and, on the other hand, it is a study of how stories get told, repeated, reinvented, and mythologized. Taken together, I think the book shows how important the cultural process of storytelling was to politics and economics. 19th-century capitalism was as much a belief system as an economic system and its heroes, villains, and fairy-tales mattered; there was a performativity and folklore to American industrial capitalism and social order.As you were researching this book, what surprised you the most?
The second thing that really surprised me was the importance of reputation, storyline, mythology and brand. Allan Pinkerton’s success really came less in the competency of his agents than his ability to craft and control the way his agents were discussed in the broader popular culture including not only the press but the emerging genres of detective fiction and dime novels. In many ways the agency is really a fascinating case study in brand management. But therein lay the problem. While the Pinkerton family might have wanted to control the storyline about their agency and agents, they could not. Instead counter narratives of Pinkerton agents as thugs, mercenaries, bad men, etc. became just as much a part of the fabric of American popular culture as the image of the dashing and bold detective and spy.I fully expected the agency to show up as the armed muscle of industrial capitalism, and that was certainly the case. Whether it was hunting train robbers, harassing cattle rustlers, breaking strikes, “infiltrating” secret societies, etc., the Pinkertons were almost always present to function essentially as capital’s private army. But two things surprised me the deeper I dug into the agency’s history. The first was the really complicated role between the state and the agency. From the 1850s through the early 1890s, Pinkerton detectives were often vested with a quasi-official authority; they worked in an unclear space between official and private. They were capital’s private army while also functioning as an arm of state power. This ‘official’ authority included work with the Treasury and the Post Office, spy work during the Civil War and the Spanish-American War, deputization by local sheriffs, and coordination with urban police. It was this blurry line that gave rise (and name) to accusations of ‘pinkertonism’ or the control of the legal system by corporations and plutocrats.The second thing that really surprised me was the importance of reputation, storyline, mythology and brand. Allan Pinkerton’s success really came less in the competency of his agents than his ability to craft and control the way his agents were discussed in the broader popular culture including not only the press but the emerging genres of detective fiction and dime novels. In many ways the agency is really a fascinating case study in brand management. But therein lay the problem. While the Pinkerton family might have wanted to control the storyline about their agency and agents, they could not. Instead counter narratives of Pinkerton agents as thugs, mercenaries, bad men, etc. became just as much a part of the fabric of American popular culture as the image of the dashing and bold detective and spy.How would you recommend using Inventing the Pinkertons in the classroom?It is relatively short, fairly accessible, and full of self-invented and self-aggrandizing characters such as Allan Pinkerton, Jesse James, Charlie Siringo, Tom Horn, Butch Cassidy, James McParlan, Arthur Conan Doyle, Jack Kehoe, Albert Parsons, Big Bill Haywood, Clarence Darrow, Kate Warne, and others. I think that if someone were looking to cover the Gilded Age for a US survey, this book, because of the scope of the Pinkerton agency, covers a lot of different areas. Otherwise, I think classes that want to analyze the cultures of capitalism and labor, the constructed tales of the west, the making of folklore and narrative, the evolution of crime and criminality, or the language of immigration and order will find something useful and interesting within these pages.</div><div></div><div>http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/pinkerton_detective_agency</div><div>
</div><div><ul style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><li style="line-height: 20px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; list-style: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: transparent; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Anti-union_organizations_in_the_United_States" title="Anti-union organizations in the United States" style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background: transparent;">Anti-union organizations in the United States</a></li><li style="line-height: 20px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; list-style: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: transparent; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Anti-union violence</li><li style="line-height: 20px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; list-style: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: transparent; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Baldwin-Felts" title="Baldwin-Felts" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background: transparent;">Baldwin-Felts</a> detective agency</li><li style="line-height: 20px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; list-style: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain" title="Battle of Blair Mountain" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease;">Battle of Blair Mountain</a></li><li style="line-height: 20px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; list-style: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Coal_and_Iron_Police" title="Coal and Iron Police" style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Coal and Iron Police</a>, a Pinkerton-supervised private police force in Pennsylvania</li><li style="line-height: 20px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; list-style: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Colorado_Labor_Wars" title="Colorado Labor Wars" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease;">Colorado Labor Wars</a></li><li style="line-height: 20px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; list-style: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: transparent; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/George_Samuel_Dougherty" title="George Samuel Dougherty" style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background: transparent;">George Samuel Dougherty</a>, private detective for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency from 1888–1911</li><li style="line-height: 20px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; list-style: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: transparent; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Morris_Friedman" title="Morris Friedman" style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background: transparent;">Morris Friedman</a>, author of Pinkerton Labor Spy</li><li style="line-height: 20px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; list-style: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Dashiell_Hammett" title="Dashiell Hammett" style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition-duration: 0.3s, 0.3s, 0.3s, 0.3s, 0.3s; transition-timing-function: ease, ease, ease, ease-in-out, ease; transition-property: background-color, border, color, opacity, outline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Dashiell Hammett</a>, author and former Pinkerton operative.</li><li style="line-height: 20px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; list-style: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: transparent; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Historian <a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/J.Bernard_Hogg" title="J. Bernard Hogg" style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background: transparent;">J. Bernard Hogg</a>, public reaction to Pinkertonism and the Labor Question</li><li style="line-height: 20px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; list-style: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: transparent; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Industrial_Workers_of_the_World" title="Industrial Workers of the World" style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background: transparent;">Industrial Workers of the World</a></li><li style="line-height: 20px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; list-style: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: transparent; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Labor spies</li><li style="line-height: 20px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; list-style: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: transparent; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Joe_Lefors" title="Joe Lefors" style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background: transparent;">Joe Lefors</a>, tracker for the Pinkerton Detectives</li><li style="line-height: 20px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; list-style: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Frank_Little(unionist)" title="Frank Little (unionist)" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease;">Frank Little</a>, American labor leader; lynched in 1917, allegedly by Pinkerton agents.</li></ul></div><div>=</div><div>
</div><div><p style="margin: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"> Battle of Blair Mountain was the result of economic exploitation of workers during a period of social transformation in the southern West Virginia coalfields.<a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain#cite_note-FOOTNOTEBlizzard2005-5" style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background: transparent;">[5]</a><a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain#cite_note-FOOTNOTENida20103-6" style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background: transparent;">[6]</a> Beginning in 1870–1880, coal operators had established the <a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Company_town" title="Company town" style="background: transparent; text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease;">company town</a> system.<a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain#cite_note-FOOTNOTECorbin1998-7" style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background: transparent;">[7]</a><a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain#cite_note-FOOTNOTESavage1990-8" style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background: transparent;">[8]</a> Coal operators paid private detectives as well as public law enforcement agents to ensure that union organizers were kept out of the region.<a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain#cite_note-FOOTNOTECorbin1998-7" style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background: transparent;">[7]</a> In order to accomplish this objective, agents of the coal operators used intimidation, harassment, espionage and even murder.<a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain#cite_note-FOOTNOTECorbin1998-7" style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background: transparent;">[7]</a> Throughout the early 20th century, West Virginia coal miners attempted to overthrow this system and engaged in a series of strikes, including the Paint Creek-Cabin Creek strike of 1912, which coal operators attempted to stop through violent means. Mining families lived under the terror of <a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Baldwin-Felts" title="Baldwin-Felts" class="mw-redirect" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease;">Baldwin-Felts</a> detective agents who were professional strikebreakers under the hire of coal operators. During that dispute, agents drove a heavily armored train through a tent colony at night, opening fire on women, men, and children with a machine gun.<a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain#cite_note-FOOTNOTEShogan200418-9" style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[9<span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">]</a> They would repeat this type of tactic during the <a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Ludlow_Massacre" title="Ludlow Massacre" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease;">Ludlow Massacre</a> in Colorado the next year, with even more disastrous results.<a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain#cite_note-FOOTNOTEMcGuireReckner2003-10" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease;"><span style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px;">[10<span style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px;">]</a>By 1920, the <a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/United_Mine_Workers" title="United Mine Workers" style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background: transparent;">United Mine Workers of America</a> (UMWA) organized most of West Virginia. The southern coalfields, however, remained non-unionized bastions of coal operator power. In early 1920, UMW president <a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/John_L.Lewis" title="John L. Lewis" style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background: transparent;">John L. Lewis</a> targeted <a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Mingo_County,West_Virginia" title="Mingo County, West Virginia" style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background: transparent;">Mingo County</a> for organizing. Certain aspects of Mingo made it more attractive to union leaders than neighboring Logan County, which was under the control of the vehemently anti-union Sheriff Don Chafin and his deputized army.<a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain#cite_note-FOOTNOTEShogan200413-11" style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background: transparent;">[11]</a> Mingo’s political structure was more independent, and some politicians were pro-union. Cabell Testerman, the mayor of the independent town of <a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Matewan,West_Virginia" title="Matewan, West Virginia" style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background: transparent;">Matewan</a> was one supporter of the union cause. He appointed 27-year-old <a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Sid_Hatfield" title="Sid Hatfield" style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background: transparent;">Sid Hatfield</a> as town sheriff.<a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain#cite_note-FOOTNOTEShogan200413-11" style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background: transparent;">[11]</a> As a teenager, Hatfield had worked in the coalmines and he was sympathetic to the miners' condition. He also claimed to be a member of the notorious Hatfield family of the <a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Hatfield-McCoy_feud" title="Hatfield-McCoy feud" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background: transparent;">Hatfield and McCoy feud</a>. These men provided union organizers an opportunity to gain a foothold, and unionizing accelerated rapidly in the county.<a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain#cite_note-FOOTNOTESavage199012-12" style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background: transparent;">[12]</a>In response to the organizing efforts, coal operators used every means to block the union. One of their primary tactics of combating the union was firing union sympathizers, blacklisting them, and evicting them from their homes. Their legal argument for evictions is best stated by S.B. Avis, a coal company lawyer; “It is like a servant lives at your house. If the servant leaves your employment, if you discharge him, you ask him to get out of the servants’ quarters. It is a question of master and servant.”<a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain#cite_note-13" style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background: transparent;">[13]</a><a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain#cite_note-FOOTNOTEShogan200416-14" style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background: transparent;">[14]</a> The UMW set up tent colonies for the homeless miner families, and soon a mass of idle and angry miners was concentrated in a small area along the <a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Tug_Fork_River" title="Tug Fork River" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background: transparent;">Tug Fork River</a>.<a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain#cite_note-FOOTNOTESavage199018-15" style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background: transparent;">[15]</a> Even with the coal operators’ suppression, by early May 3,000 out of 4,000 Mingo miners had joined the union.<a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain#cite_note-FOOTNOTEShogan200413-11" style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background: transparent;">[11]</a> At the Stone Mountain Coal Company mine near Matewan, every single worker unionized, and was subsequently fired and evicted.<a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain#cite_note-FOOTNOTEShogan200418-9" style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background: transparent;">[9]</a><p style="margin: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">On May 19, 1920, 12 Baldwin-Felts agents arrived in Matewan, including Lee Felts, and promptly met up with Albert Felts who was already in the area. Albert and Lee were the brothers of Thomas Felts, the founder and director of the agency. Albert had already been in the area, and had tried to bribe Mayor Testerman with 500 dollars to place machine guns on roofs in the town, which Testerman refused.<a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain#cite_note-FOOTNOTESavage199016-16" style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background: transparent;">[16]</a> That afternoon, Albert and Lee along with eleven other men set out to the Stone Mountain Coal Company property. The first family they evicted was a woman and her children, whose husband was not home at the time. They forced them out at gunpoint, and threw their belongings in the road under a light but steady rain. The miners who saw it were furious, and sent word to town.<a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain#cite_note-FOOTNOTESavage199020.E2.80.9322-17" style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background: transparent;">[17]</a><p style="margin: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">As the agents walked to the train station to leave town, Sid Hatfield and a group of deputized miners confronted them and told the agents they were under arrest. Albert Felts replied that in fact, he had a warrant for Sid’s arrest.<a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain#cite_note-FOOTNOTESavage199021-18" style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background: transparent;">[18]</a> Testerman was alerted, and he ran out into the street after a miner shouted that Sid had been arrested. Hatfield backed into the store, and Testerman asked to see the warrant. After reviewing it, the mayor exclaimed, “This is a bogus warrant.” With these words, a gunfight erupted and Sid Hatfield shot Albert Felts. Mayor Testerman fell to the ground in the first volley, mortally wounded. In the end, 10 men were killed, including Albert and Lee Felts.<a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain#cite_note-FOOTNOTESavage199021-18" style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background: transparent;">[18]</a>This gunfight became known as the <a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Matewan_Massacre" title="Matewan Massacre" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background: transparent;">Matewan Massacre</a>, and its symbolic significance was enormous for the miners. The seemingly invincible Baldwin-Felts had been beaten by the miners’ own hero, Sid Hatfield.<a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain#cite_note-FOOTNOTESavage199026-19" style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background: transparent;">[19]</a> Sid became an immediate legend and hero to the union miners, and became a symbol of hope that the oppression of coal operators and their hired guns could be overthrown.<a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain#cite_note-FOOTNOTESavage199028-20" style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background: transparent;">[20]</a> Throughout the summer and into the fall of 1920, the union gained strength in Mingo County, as did the resistance of the coal operators. Low-intensity warfare was waged up and down the Tug River. In late June, state police under the command of Captain Brockus raided the Lick Creek tent colony near Williamson, West Virginia. Miners were said to have fired on Brockus and Martin’s men from the colony, and in response the state police shot and arrested miners, ripped the canvas tents to shreds, and scattered the mining families’ belongings.<a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain#cite_note-FOOTNOTESavage199060-21" style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background: transparent;">[21]</a> Both sides were bolstering their arms, and Sid Hatfield continued to be a problem, especially when he converted Testerman’s jewelry store into a gun shop.<a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain#cite_note-FOOTNOTESavage199050-22" style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background: transparent;">[22]</a>On January 26, 1921, the trial of Sid Hatfield for killing Albert Felts began. This trial was in the national spotlight, and it brought much attention to the miners’ cause. Hatfield’s stature and mythical status grew as the trial proceeded. Sid Hatfield posed and talked to reporters, fanning the flames of his own stature and legend. All men were acquitted in the end, but overall the union was facing significant setbacks.<a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain#cite_note-FOOTNOTEShogan200498-23" style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background: transparent;">[23]</a> Eighty percent of mines had reopened with the importation of replacements and the signing of <a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Yellow-dog_contract" title="Yellow-dog contract" style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background: transparent;">yellow dog contracts</a> by ex-strikers returning to mines.<a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain#cite_note-FOOTNOTEShogan200481-24" style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background: transparent;">[24]</a> In mid-May 1921, union miners launched a full assault on nonunion mines. In a short time, the conflict had consumed the entire Tug River Valley. This “Three Days Battle” was finally ended by a flag of truce and the implementation of martial law.<a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain#cite_note-FOOTNOTESavage199053-25" style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background: transparent;">[25]</a> The enforcement of martial law was from the beginning decidedly against the striking miners.<a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain#cite_note-FOOTNOTESavage199057-26" style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background: transparent;">[26]</a> Miners in the scores and hundreds were arrested without habeas corpus and other basic legal rights. The smallest of infractions could mean imprisonment, while those on the other side of this ‘law and order’ were immune.<a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain#cite_note-FOOTNOTESavage199058-27" style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background: transparent;">[27]</a> The miners responded with guerrilla tactics and violence against this oppressive state-sanctioned system.<a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain#cite_note-FOOTNOTESavage199058-27" style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background: transparent;">[27]</a>In the midst of this tense situation, Sid Hatfield traveled to McDowell County on 1 August 1921 to stand trial for charges of dynamiting a coal tipple. Along with him traveled a good friend, Ed Chambers, and their two wives.<a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain#cite_note-FOOTNOTEShogan2004154.E2.80.93156-28" style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background: transparent;">[28]</a> As they walked up the courthouse stairs, unarmed and flanked by their wives, a group of Baldwin-Felts agents standing at the top of the stairs opened fire. Hatfield was killed instantly, while Chambers' bullet-riddled body rolled to the bottom of the stairs. Over Sally Chambers' protestation, one of the agents ran down the stairs and shot Chambers once more in the back of the head point blank.<a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain#cite_note-FOOTNOTEShogan2004157.E2.80.93158-29" style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background: transparent;">[29]</a> As Sid and Ed’s bodies were returned to Matewan, word of the slayings spread through the mountains. The miners believed that Hatfield was slain in cold blood, and it soon appeared the assassins would escape punishment.<a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain#cite_note-FOOTNOTESavage199073-30" style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background: transparent;">[30]</a>Hatfield’s death enraged the miners, and they began to pour out of the mountains to take arms. Miners along the Little Coal River were among the first to militarize, and began actions such as patrolling and guarding the area. Sheriff Don Chafin sent Logan County troopers to Little Coal River area, with the end result the troopers were apprehended, disarmed, and sent fleeing by the miners.<a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain#cite_note-FOOTNOTESavage199075-31" style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background: transparent;">[31]</a> On 7 August 1921, the leaders of the UMW District 17, which encompasses much of southern West Virginia, called a rally at the state capitol in Charleston. These leaders were Frank Keeney and Fred Mooney, who were veterans of previous mine conflicts in the region. Both were local, and were well read and articulate. Keeney and Mooney met with Governor Ephraim Morgan, and presented him with a petition of the miners’ demands.<a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain#cite_note-FOOTNOTEShogan2004164.E2.80.93165-32" style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background: transparent;">[32]</a> Morgan summarily rejected these, and the miners became even more restless. Talk began to spread of a march on Mingo to free the confined miners, end martial law, and organize the county. But directly in the way stood Blair Mountain, Logan County, and Sheriff Don Chafin.<a href="http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain#cite_note-FOOTNOTEShogan2004166-33" style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background: transparent;"><span style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background: transparent;">[<span style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">33<span style="text-decoration: none; border: 0px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; transition: background-color 0.3s ease, border 0.3s ease, color 0.3s ease, opacity 0.3s ease-in-out, outline 0.3s ease; background: transparent;">]</a>...</div><div>
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</div><div>Pinkertons became famous for a possibly apocryphal/elaborated story on saving Lincoln from assasination plot on the way to his first term (including dressing him in drag); [Secret Service did not yet exist, and was mostly concerned with counterfeiting initially?  Scary number of asasination plots , jackson smack one down with a can, Teddy was wounded but saved by a thick speech in his breast pockets, "i cannot ,friends, speak so long or eloquently as I would like, but i have been, as i remarked before, been shot...)[AG Bell used the first metal detector to find the bullet in garfield? but thwarted by steel springs in mattress, so the doctors kept going back in to look for the bullet, killed the poor man slowly by infection].  At its height, the largest private agency in the world, so Ohio outlawed it (though/ b/c Patterson at NCR was a client)[mentor to Watson, who sold IBM machines to the Nazi to track Jews?]. </div><div>=</div><div>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton(detective_agency)</div><div>
</div><div>Pinkerton, founded as the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, is a private <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_guard" title="Security guard" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">security guard</a> and detective agency established in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States" title="United States" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">United States</a> by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Pinkerton" title="Allan Pinkerton" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Allan Pinkerton</a> in 1850 and currently a subsidiary of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Securitas(Swedish_security_company)" title="Securitas (Swedish security company)" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Securitas AB</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton(detective_agency)#cite_note-1" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[1]</a> Pinkerton became famous when he claimed to have foiled a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltimore_Plot" title="Baltimore Plot" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">plot to assassinate president-elect Abraham Lincoln</a>, who later hired Pinkerton agents for his personal security during the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War" title="American Civil War" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Civil War</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton(detective_agency)#cite_note-Green-2" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">[2]</a> Pinkerton's agents performed services ranging from security guarding to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_military_contracting" title="Private military contracting" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">private military contracting</a> work. Pinkerton was the largest <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_police" title="Private police" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">private law enforcement organization</a> in the world at the height of its power.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton(detective_agency)#cite_note-3" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">[3]</a> By the early 1890s, the Pinkerton National Detective Agency employed more agents than there were members of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army" title="United States Army" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">United States Army</a>.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">citation needed</a>]During the labor strikes of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, businessmen hired the Pinkerton Agency to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_spy" title="Labor spy" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">infiltrate unions</a>, supply guards, keep <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strike_action" title="Strike action" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">strikers</a> and suspected <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_union" title="Trade union" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">unionists</a>out of factories, and recruit <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goon_squad" title="Goon squad" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">goon squads</a> to intimidate workers. One such confrontation was the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestead_Strike" title="Homestead Strike" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Homestead Strike</a> of 1892, in which Pinkerton agents were called in to reinforce the<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strikebreaker" title="Strikebreaker" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">strikebreaking</a> measures of industrialist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Clay_Frick" title="Henry Clay Frick" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Henry Clay Frick</a>, acting on behalf of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Carnegie" title="Andrew Carnegie" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Andrew Carnegie</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton(detective_agency)#cite_note-4" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">[4]</a> The ensuing battle between Pinkerton agents and striking workers led to the deaths of seven Pinkerton agents and nine steelworkers.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton(detective_agency)#cite_note-5" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">[5]</a> The Pinkertons were also used as guards in coal, iron, and lumber disputes in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illinois" title="Illinois" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Illinois</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan" title="Michigan" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Michigan</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York" title="New York" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">New York</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania" title="Pennsylvania" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Pennsylvania</a>, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Virginia" title="West Virginia" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">West Virginia</a> as well as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Railroad_Strike_of_1877" title="Great Railroad Strike of 1877" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Great Railroad Strike of 1877</a> and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain" title="Battle of Blair Mountain" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Battle of Blair Mountain</a> in 1921. The organization was pejoratively called the "Pinks" by its opponents.The company now operates as "Pinkerton Consulting & Investigations, Inc. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doing_business_as" title="Doing business as" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">d.b.a.</a> Pinkerton Corporate Risk Management", a division of the Swedish security company Securitas AB. The former Government Services division, PGS, now operates as Securitas Critical Infrastructure Services, Inc.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton(detective_agency)#cite_note-6" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[6]</a><div id="toc" class="toc" style="border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 7px; display: table; zoom: 1; background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249);"><div id="toctitle" style="direction: ltr; text-align: center;">
</div><ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0.3em 0px; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton(detective_agency)#Origins" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">1 Origins</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton(detective_agency)#Government_work" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">2 Government work</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-3" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton(detective_agency)#Chicago.22Special_Officers.22_and_watchmen" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">3 Chicago "Special Officers" and watchmen</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-4" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton(detective_agency)#Molly_Maguires" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">4 Molly Maguires</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-5" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton(detective_agency)#Homestead_Strike" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">5 Homestead Strike</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-6" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton(detective_agency)#Detective_Frank_P.Geyer" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">6 Detective Frank P. Geyer</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-7" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton(detective_agency)#Steunenberg_murder_and_trial" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">7 Steunenberg murder and trial</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-8" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton(detective_agency)#Outlaws_and_competition" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">8 Outlaws and competition</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-9" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton(detective_agency)#Badge_history" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">9 Badge history</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-10" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton(detective_agency)#Appearance_in_popular_media" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">10 Appearance in popular media</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-11" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton(detective_agency)#See_also" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">11 See also</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-12" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton(detective_agency)#References" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">12 References</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-13" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton(detective_agency)#Further_reading" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">13 Further reading</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-14" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton(detective_agency)#External_links" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">14 External links</a></li></ul></div><h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); line-height: 1.3; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Origins</h2><div class="floatright" style="clear: right; float: right; position: relative; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em 0.5em; border: 0px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:We_never_sleep.jpg" class="image" title="Original company logo" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><img alt="Original company logo" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c4/We_never_sleep.jpg/180px-We_never_sleep.jpg" width="180" height="164" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/We_never_sleep.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/We_never_sleep.jpg 2x" data-file-width="215" data-file-height="196" style="border: none; vertical-align: middle;" /></a></div>In the 1850s, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Pinkerton" title="Allan Pinkerton" style="background: none; text-decoration: none;">Allan Pinkerton</a> met Chicago attorney Edward Rucker in a local Masonic Hall and formed the North-Western Police Agency, later known as the Pinkerton Agency.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton(detective_agency)#cite_note-Companion-7" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[7]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton(detective_agency)#cite_note-Frontier-8" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[8]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton(detective_agency)#cite_note--9" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[9]</a>Historian Frank Morn writes: "By the mid-1850s a few businessmen saw the need for greater control over their employees; their solution was to sponsor a private detective system. In February 1855, Allan Pinkerton, after consulting with six midwestern railroads, created such an agency in Chicago."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton(detective_agency)#cite_note-Morn-10" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[10]</a><h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); line-height: 1.3; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Government work[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pinkerton(detective_agency)&action=edit&section=2" title="Edit section: Government work" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">edit</a>]</h2>
However, since passage of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Pinkerton_Act" title="Anti-Pinkerton Act" style="line-height: 22.3999996185303px; text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Anti-Pinkerton Act</a> in 1893, federal law has stated that an "individual employed by the Pinkerton Detective Agency, or similar organization, may not be employed by the Government of the United States or the government of the District of Columbia."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton(detective_agency)#cite_note-12" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">[12]</a>In 1871, Congress appropriated $50,000 to the new <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Justice" title="United States Department of Justice" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Department of Justice</a> (DOJ) to form a suborganization devoted to "the detection and prosecution of those guilty of violating federal law." The amount was insufficient for the DOJ to fashion an integral investigating unit, so the DOJ contracted out the services to the Pinkerton National Detective Agency.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton(detective_agency)#cite_note-A-11" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[11]</a><h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); line-height: 1.3; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Chicago "Special Officers" and watchmen[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pinkerton(detective_agency)&action=edit&section=3" title="Edit section: Chicago " special="Special" officers="Officers" and="and" watchmen="watchmen" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">edit</a>]</h2><ul style="margin: 0.3em 0px 0px 1.6em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: url(data:image/svg+xml,%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%221.0%22%20encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%3F%3E%0A%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20version%3D%221.1%22%20width%3D%225%22%20height%3D%2213%22%3E%0A%3Ccircle%20cx%3D%222.5%22%20cy%3D%229.5%22%20r%3D%222.5%22%20fill%3D%22%2300528c%22%2F%3E%0A%3C%2Fsvg%3E%0A); line-height: 22.3999996185303px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;">July 27, 1877: J.J. White, who had been hired as a "Special Officer" during a strike, was shot and killed.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton(detective_agency)#cite_note-13" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[13]</a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;">July 19, 1919: Hans Rassmuson, Special Officer, was shot and killed.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton(detective_agency)#cite_note-14" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[14]</a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;">March 12, 1924: Frank Miller, Pinkerton Watchman, was shot and killed.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton(detective_agency)#cite_note-15" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[15]</a></li></ul><h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); line-height: 1.3; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Molly Maguires</h2><div class="hatnote relarticle mainarticle" style="font-style: italic; padding-left: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Main article: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molly_Maguires" title="Molly Maguires" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Molly Maguires</a></div>In the 1870s, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_B.Gowen" title="Franklin B. Gowen" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Franklin B. Gowen</a>, then president of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia_and_Reading_Railroad" title="Philadelphia and Reading Railroad" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Philadelphia and Reading Railroad</a>, hired the agency to "investigate" the labor unions in the company's mines. A Pinkerton agent, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_McParland" title="James McParland" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">James McParland</a>, using the alias "James McKenna", infiltrated the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molly_Maguires" title="Molly Maguires" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Molly Maguires</a>, a 19th-century <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_society" title="Secret society" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">secret society</a> of mainly Irish-American coal miners, leading to the downfall of the labor organization. The incident inspired <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Conan_Doyle" title="Arthur Conan Doyle" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Arthur Conan Doyle</a>'s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherlock_Holmes" title="Sherlock Holmes" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Sherlock Holmes</a> novel <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Valley_of_Fear" title="The Valley of Fear" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">The Valley of Fear</a> (1914-1915). (A Pinkerton agent also appears in a small role in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventure_of_the_Red_Circle" title="The Adventure of the Red Circle" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">The Adventure of the Red Circle</a>, a 1911 Holmes story. A 1970 film, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Molly_Maguires(film)" title="The Molly Maguires (film)" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">The Molly Maguires</a>, was loosely based upon the incident as well; the film starred <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Harris" title="Richard Harris" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Richard Harris</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sean_Connery" title="Sean Connery" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Sean Connery</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Zerbe" title="Anthony Zerbe" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Anthony Zerbe</a>.)<h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); line-height: 1.3; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">
Main article: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestead_Strike" title="Homestead Strike" style="font-style: italic; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; text-decoration: none; background: none;">Homestead Strike</a></h2><h2 style="margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); line-height: 1.3; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Homestead Strike</h2>On July 6, 1892, during the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestead_Strike" title="Homestead Strike" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Homestead Strike</a>, 300 Pinkerton detectives from New York and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago" title="Chicago" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Chicago</a> were called in by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnegie_Steel" title="Carnegie Steel" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Carnegie Steel</a>'s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Clay_Frick" title="Henry Clay Frick" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Henry Clay Frick</a> to protect the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittsburgh" title="Pittsburgh" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Pittsburgh</a> area mill and strikebreakers. This resulted in a fire fight and siege in which 16 men were killed and 23 others were wounded. To restore order, two brigades of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_State_Police" title="Pennsylvania State Police" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Pennsylvania militia</a> were called out by the Governor.As a legacy of the Pinkerton's involvement a bridge connecting the nearby Pittsburgh suburbs of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munhall,Pennsylvania" title="Munhall, Pennsylvania" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">Munhall</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rankin,Pennsylvania" title="Rankin, Pennsylvania" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">Rankin</a> was named <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton%27s_Landing_Bridge" title="Pinkerton's Landing Bridge" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">Pinkerton's Landing Bridge</a>.<h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); line-height: 1.3; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Detective Frank P. Geyer</h2>In 1895 detective <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Geyer" title="Frank Geyer" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Frank Geyer</a> tracked down the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder" title="Murder" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">murderer</a> of the three Pitezel children, leading to the eventual trial and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment" title="Capital punishment" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">execution</a> of the United States' first known <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_killer" title="Serial killer" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">serial killer</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.H.Holmes" title="H. H. Holmes" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">H. H. Holmes</a>. His story is told in his book, The Holmes-Pitezel Case.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton(detective_agency)#cite_note-16" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[16]</a> Pinkertons had previously apprehended Holmes in 1894 in Boston on an outstanding warrant for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insurance_fraud" title="Insurance fraud" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">insurance fraud</a> perpetrated in Chicago.<h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); line-height: 1.3; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Steunenberg murder and trial[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pinkerton(detective_agency)&action=edit&section=7" title="Edit section: Steunenberg murder and trial" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">edit</a>]</h2><div class="hatnote relarticle mainarticle" style="font-style: italic; padding-left: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Main article: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Steunenberg" title="Frank Steunenberg" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Frank Steunenberg</a></div><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Orchard" title="Harry Orchard" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Harry Orchard</a> was arrested by the Idaho police and confessed to Pinkerton agent <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_McParland" title="James McParland" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">James McParland</a> that he assassinated former Governor <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Steunenberg" title="Frank Steunenberg" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Frank Steunenberg</a> of Idaho in 1905. Orchard testified (unsuccessfully) under threat of hanging<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton(detective_agency)#cite_note-17" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">[17]</a> against <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Federation_of_Miners" title="Western Federation of Miners" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Western Federation of Miners</a> president <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bill_Haywood" title="Big Bill Haywood" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Big Bill Haywood</a>, naming him as hiring the hit. With a stirring defense by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_Darrow" title="Clarence Darrow" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Clarence Darrow</a>, Haywood and the other defendants of the WFM were acquitted in a nationally publicized trial. Orchard received a death sentence, but it was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commutation_of_sentence" title="Commutation of sentence" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">commuted</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton(detective_agency)#cite_note-18" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">[18]</a><h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); line-height: 1.3; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Outlaws and competition</h2>Pinkerton agents were hired to track western outlaws <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_James" title="Jesse James" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Jesse James</a>, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reno_Gang" title="Reno Gang" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Reno Gang</a>, and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butch_Cassidy%27s_Wild_Bunch" title="Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Wild Bunch</a> (including <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butch_Cassidy" title="Butch Cassidy" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Butch Cassidy</a> and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundance_Kid" title="Sundance Kid" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Sundance Kid</a>). On March 17, 1874, two Pinkerton Detectives and a deputy sheriff, Edwin P. Daniels,<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton(detective_agency)#cite_note-19" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">[19]</a> encountered the Younger brothers (associates of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James%E2%80%93Younger_Gang" title="James–Younger Gang" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">James–Younger Gang</a>); Daniels, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Younger" title="John Younger" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">John Younger</a>, and one Pinkerton agent was killed. In <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union,Missouri" title="Union, Missouri" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Union, Missouri</a> a bank was robbed by George Collins, aka Fred Lewis, and Bill Randolph; Pinkerton Detective Chas Schumacher trailed them and was killed. Collins was hanged on March 26, 1904 and Randolph was hanged on May 8, 1905 in Union, Mo. Pinkertons were also hired for transporting money and other high quality merchandise between cities and towns, which made them vulnerable to the outlaws. Pinkerton agents were usually well paid and well armed.G.H. Thiel, a former Pinkerton employee, established the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiel_Detective_Service_Company" title="Thiel Detective Service Company" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Thiel Detective Service Company</a> in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St.Louis" title="St. Louis" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">St. Louis</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missouri" title="Missouri" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Missouri</a>, a competitor to the Pinkerton agency. The Thiel company operated in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.Due to its conflicts with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_union" title="Labor union" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">labor unions</a>, the word Pinkerton continues to be associated by labor organizers and union members with<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strikebreaker" title="Strikebreaker" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">strikebreaking</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton(detective_agency)#cite_note-20" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[20]</a> Pinkertons, however, moved away from labor spying following revelations publicized by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Follette_Committee" title="La Follette Committee" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">La Follette Committee</a> hearings in 1937.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton(detective_agency)#cite_note-21" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">[21]</a> Pinkerton's criminal detection work also suffered from the police modernization movement, which saw the rise of the<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Bureau_of_Investigation" title="Federal Bureau of Investigation" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Federal Bureau of Investigation</a> and the bolstering of detective branches and resources of the public police. Without the labor and criminal investigation work on which Pinkertons thrived for decades, the company became increasingly involved in protection services, and in the 1960s, even the word "Detective" disappeared from the agency's letterhead.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton(detective_agency)#cite_note-22" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">[22]</a> In July 2003, Pinkerton's was acquired along with longtime rival, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J.Burns_International_Detective_Agency" title="William J. Burns International Detective Agency" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">William J. Burns Detective Agency</a> (founded in 1910), by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Securitas_AB" title="Securitas AB" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Securitas AB</a> to create Securitas Security Services USA, Inc., one of the largest <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_guard" title="Security guard" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">security</a> companies in the world.<h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); line-height: 1.3; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Badge history[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pinkerton(detective_agency)&action=edit&section=9" title="Edit section: Badge history" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">edit</a>]</h2>1870 -1925—Solid Silver Badge Engraved Lettering1925 - 1930—Silver Colored Eagle Badge with Blue Lettering1930–Present—Gold colored shield with Black Lettering</div><div>
</div><div></div><div>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Siringo</div><div>
</div><div>Siringo was born in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matagorda_County,Texas" title="Matagorda County, Texas" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Matagorda County, Texas</a>, to an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_people" title="Irish people" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Irish</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigrant" title="Immigrant" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">immigrant</a> mother and an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italians" title="Italians" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Italian</a>immigrant father from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piedmont" title="Piedmont" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Piedmont</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Siringo#cite_note-1" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[1]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Siringo#cite_note-2" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[2]</a> He attended public school until reaching the age of 15, when he started working on local <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranch" title="Ranch" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">ranches</a> as a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowboy" title="Cowboy" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">cowboy</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Siringo#cite_note-3" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[3]</a>In March, April and May 1877, Siringo was in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_City,Kansas" title="Dodge City, Kansas" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Dodge City, Kansas</a>, during an alleged confrontation between <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clay_Allison" title="Clay Allison" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Clay Allison</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyatt_Earp" title="Wyatt Earp" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Wyatt Earp</a>, who was a Deputy Marshal at the time. Earp later claimed, after Allison's death in 1887, that he and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_Masterson" title="Bat Masterson" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Bat Masterson</a> had forced Allison to back down from an impending confrontation. Siringo, however, later gave a written account of that incident which contradicted Earp's claim, stating that Earp never came into contact with Allison, and that two businessmen, cattleman Dick McNulty and the owner of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Branch_Saloon" title="Long Branch Saloon" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Long Branch Saloon</a>,<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalkley_Beeson" title="Chalkley Beeson" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Chalkley Beeson</a>, in Dodge City actually defused the situation.After taking part in several <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cattle" title="Cattle" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">cattle</a> drives, Siringo stopped herding to settle down, get married (1884), and opened a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchant" title="Merchant" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">merchant</a> business in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caldwell,Kansas" title="Caldwell, Kansas" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Caldwell, Kansas</a>. He began writing a book, entitledA Texas Cowboy; Or Fifteen Years on the Hurricane Deck of a Spanish Pony. A year later, it was published, to wide acclaim, and became one of the first true looks into life as a cowboy written by someone who had actually lived the life.<h3 style="margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom-style: none; line-height: 1.6; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Pinkerton service</h3>
He was immediately assigned several cases, which took him as far north as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska" title="Alaska" style="line-height: 22.3999996185303px; text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Alaska</a>, and as far south as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexico_City" title="Mexico City" style="line-height: 22.3999996185303px; text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Mexico City</a>. He began operating <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undercover" title="Undercover" class="mw-redirect" style="line-height: 22.3999996185303px; text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">undercover</a>, a relatively new technique at the time, and<a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Infiltrate" class="extiw" title="wiktionary:Infiltrate" style="line-height: 22.3999996185303px; text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">infiltrated</a> gangs of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robbery" title="Robbery" style="line-height: 22.3999996185303px; text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">robbers</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rustling" title="Rustling" class="mw-redirect" style="line-height: 22.3999996185303px; text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">rustlers</a>, making over one hundred arrests.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Siringo#cite_note-TD-Siringo-4" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[4]</a>In 1886, bored with the mundane life of a merchant, Siringo moved to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago" title="Chicago" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Chicago</a> where first-hand observation of the city’s labor conflict (which he attributed to foreign <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchism" title="Anarchism" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">anarchism</a>) moved him to join the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton_National_Detective_Agency" title="Pinkerton National Detective Agency" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Pinkerton Detective Agency</a>, using <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunfighter" title="Gunfighter" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">gunman</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Garrett" title="Pat Garrett" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Pat Garrett</a>'s name as a reference to get the job; having met Garrett several years before. With 2,000 active agents and 30,000 reserves, the forces of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency were larger than the nation’s standing army in the late-19th century. The Pinkertons provided services for management in labor disputes, including armed guards and secret operatives like Charles A. Siringo.In the early 1890s he found himself assigned to office work in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denver,Colorado" title="Denver, Colorado" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Denver</a> office of the agency, work which he greatly despised. During that time, he worked with noted Pinkerton agent, gunman, and later <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination" title="Assassination" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">assassin</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Horn" title="Tom Horn" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Tom Horn</a>. He greatly admired Horn's talents and skills in tracking down suspects, but reflected later that Horn had a dark side that could easily be accessed when need be.In 1892, Siringo was assigned to a case in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idaho" title="Idaho" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Idaho</a>, where he went <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_spies" title="Labor spies" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">undercover</a>, working as a miner to feed union information to the employers. Despite his hatred for labor unions, he later stood against a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynch_mob" title="Lynch mob" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">lynch mob</a> to protect <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawyer" title="Lawyer" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">attorney</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_Darrow" title="Clarence Darrow" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Clarence Darrow</a> from being hanged.In the late 1890s, posing as "Charles L. Carter", an alleged gunman on the run from the law for a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder" title="Murder" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">murder</a>, he infiltrated <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outlaw" title="Outlaw" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">outlaw</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butch_Cassidy" title="Butch Cassidy" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Butch Cassidy</a>'s Train Robbers Syndicate. For over a year, using information he would gather, he severely hampered the operations of Cassidy's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Bunch" title="Wild Bunch" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Wild Bunch</a> gang, but without a large number of arrests. After they committed the now famous train robbery near <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilcox,Wyoming" title="Wilcox, Wyoming" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Wilcox, Wyoming</a>, in which they robbed a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Pacific" title="Union Pacific" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Union Pacific</a> train, he again found himself assigned to capture the Wild Bunch.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Siringo#cite_note-TD-Siringo-4" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[4]</a> On that case, Siringo often coordinated with Tom Horn, who was by that time working for large cattle companies as a stock detective ("hired gun"), but who also was retained by the Pinkerton Agency on contract to assist in the robbery investigation. Horn was able to obtain vital information from explosives expert Bill Speck that revealed to investigators who the suspects were who had killed Sheriff Josiah Hazen,<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Siringo#cite_note-5" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[5]</a> who had been shot and killed during the pursuit of the robbers.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Siringo#cite_note-6" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[6]</a>Several members of the gang were captured as a result of information Siringo gathered, including the capture of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kid_Curry" title="Kid Curry" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Kid Curry</a>, who escaped but was again cornered and killed during a shootout with law enforcement in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado" title="Colorado" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Colorado</a>. It was Siringo's information that help track him down on both occasions. Butch Cassidy and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundance_Kid" title="Sundance Kid" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Sundance Kid</a> both fled to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_America" title="South America" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">South America</a>, feeling their luck was running out in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States" title="United States" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">United States</a>. They were later allegedly killed by Bolivian police in a shootout there following a mine payroll robbery. During the work on the Wilcox Train Robbery, he first came into contact with lawman <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Lefors" title="Joe Lefors" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Joe Lefors</a>, who later would arrest Tom Horn for a murder that Horn has since been largely vindicated for. Siringo crossed paths with Lefors several years later while working other cases. Siringo found Lefors incompetent, at best, and greatly despised him.
Angry with the agency after it sabotaged the publication of his cowboy memoirs, Siringo publishedTwo Evil Isms: Pinkertonism and Anarchism, a revealing chronicle of Pinkerton methods and deception. Siringo wrote that he had been instructed to commit voter fraud in the re-election campaign of Colorado Governor <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hamilton_Peabody" title="James Hamilton Peabody" style="line-height: 22.3999996185303px; text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">James Peabody</a>. Siringo stated, "I voted eight times, as per [Pinkerton supervisor] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_McParland" title="James McParland" style="line-height: 22.3999996185303px; text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">McParland's</a> orders—three times before the same election judges".<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Siringo#cite_note-7" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[7]</a> The election was unique due to fraud by Democrats and Republicans, resulting in Colorado having three different governors seated during the course of one day.Siringo retired in 1907, and began writing another book, entitled Pinkerton's Cowboy Detective. The Pinkerton Detective Agency held up publication for two years, feeling it violated their confidentiality agreement that Siringo had signed when he was hired and objecting to the use of their name. Siringo gave in, and deleted their name from the book title, instead writing two separate books, entitled A Cowboy Detective and Further Adventures of a Cowboy Detective.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Siringo#cite_note-TD-Siringo-4" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[4]</a>The Pinkerton Agency once again succeeded in suppressing the book. They attempted to have Siringo prosecuted for libel, requesting extradition from his ranch near <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Fe,New_Mexico" title="Santa Fe, New Mexico" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Santa Fe, New Mexico</a> to Chicago. However, the governor of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Mexico" title="New Mexico" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">New Mexico</a> denied the extradition request.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Words_to_watch#Unsupported_attributions" title="Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Words to watch" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">who?</a>] Pinkerton operatives bought up all copies available at newsstands and obtained a court order confiscating the book’s plates. In the book, Siringo (who, even when alienated from the Pinkertons, never displayed any sympathy for the labor movement) described among other things, how he infiltrated and undermined miners' unions in northern Idaho during the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coeur_d%27Alene,_Idaho_labor_strike_of_1892" title="Coeur d'Alene, Idaho labor strike of 1892" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">1892 Coeur d’Alene strike</a>.</div><div></div><div>http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2011/06/the-second-battle-of-blair-mountain</div><div>
</div><div><h1 class="post-title" style="letter-spacing: -1px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1em;"><a href="http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2011/06/the-second-battle-of-blair-mountain" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to The Second Battle of Blair Mountain" style="text-decoration: none;">The Second Battle of Blair Mountain</a> June 17, 2011 | <a href="http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/author/erik-loomis" title="Posts by Erik Loomis" rel="author" style="line-height: 16px; text-decoration: none;">Erik Loomis</a></h1><div class="at-above-post addthis_default_style addthis_toolbox at-wordpress-hide" data-title="The Second Battle of Blair Mountain" data-url="http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2011/06/the-second-battle-of-blair-mountain" style="line-height: 18px;"><div class="atclear" style="clear: both;"><div class="at-above-post-recommended addthis_default_style addthis_toolbox at-wordpress-hide" style="line-height: 18px;"><div class="atclear" style="clear: both;">Miners experienced awful conditions in the coal regions of West Virginia in the early 20th century. Coal companies ruled the region like a fiefdom. Impoverished workers had few connections with the outside world and could be thrown out of their homes or off their land at the whim of the company. Miners died from from a lack of oxygen, from explosions, and from mine collapses. They died prematurely outside the mines from black lung disease and other untreated health problems. Organizers like Mary “Mother” Jones and the United Mine Workers of America tried to organize workers. Many miners joined the UMWA but found themselves fired and blacklisted from the industry. Coal companies used Pinkerton and Baldwin-Felts security services to intimidate, beat, and sometimes kill the miners. Miners fought back any way they could, sometimes using violence against the companies and their hired goons.This story is perhaps best known for modern people through John Sayles’ excellent 1987 film <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093509/" style="text-decoration: none;">Matewan</a>, which explores the 1920 shootout between miners and Baldwin-Felts thugs in the small town of Matewan, West Virginia, just over the Kentucky border.Building upon the resistance at Matewan, the next year, in 1921, West Virginia miners revolted in a far more organized way. For five days in the late summer, miners in Logan County went to war with owners, their thugs, and police in an attempt to organize with the UMWA. By this time, the union had made significant progress in organizing West Virginia miners, but this area of southern West Virginia remained almost entirely union-free. Baldwin-Felts agents then killed Sid Hatfield, the Matewan sheriff who had sided with the miners in 1920. Responding to Hatfield’s murder, the miners poured off the jobs, carrying weapons to stand up for their rights. Gun battles took place that led to the deaths of 30 strikebreaking thugs and around 100 miners. President Warren Harding called in the Army to crush the strike. The UMWA saw its membership in West Virginia plummet and it remained weak until the New Deal.The Battle of Blair Mountain is considered the largest insurrection in the United States since the Civil War.The story does not end in 1921. While the open violence subsided after Franklin Roosevelt became president, the coal companies continued to control the politics and society of West Virginia. Miners continued to die of black lung and live in poverty, proud of their union but worried about their futures. Matewan and Blair Mountain became long-past events but remained in local historical memory.Fast forward ninety years. In 2011, the coal industry has changed dramatically. Coal companies control the politics and business of West Virginia nearly as much as they did in 1921. But coal is under attack nationally for its effect on climate change, its lack of safety precautions, and the destruction of the West Virginia mountains for mountaintop removal. This process flattens the tops of mountains, dumping the dirt and rock into streambeds below, choking waterways, reshaping the geology, and destroying livelihoods. The UMWA has far smaller numbers than at its mid-20th century heyday. Those who are left find themselves torn. They still don’t trust the companies, but they also don’t trust the environmentalists looking to end mountaintop removal. Mountaintop removal has eliminated thousands of jobs, as have other forms of mechanization. The companies tell the people of West Virginia that ending this form of mining would cost the remaining jobs. And how are workers going to feed their families without work? Yet it is their friends and families who see their land destroyed and water polluted by the detritus of mountaintop removal. They love their mountains–the hunting, the fishing, the offroading, the wildness. Many remember their history too, still seeing the UMWA as the organization that best represents their quest for a decent and respectable life.This leads us back to Blair Mountain. Historical preservationists and union activists have lobbied for years to get Blair Mountain listed under the National Register of Historic Places. In 2009, they finally succeeded. Then, in an unprecedented move, a few months later it state historic preservation office delisted it. There are 2 main reasons for this. First, memories are long in West Virginia. The coal companies did not want the resistance at Blair Mountain remembered. Conservatives have declared war on telling American history from the perspective of labor, African-Americans, Latinos, feminists, gays and lesbians. The Texas State Board of Education’s adoption of controversial history texts last year and the Tea Party’s ahistorical interpretation of the Founding Fathers as founding this nation as both Christian and holding modern conservative values are two examples of this.In West Virginia, this battle has taken place on a local scale for years. In 1974, one of the nation’s first history textbook controversies occurred in Kanawha County, where a local revolt against so-called “revisionist history” in the classroom connected with white resentment over the civil rights movement to galvanize the attention of conservatives nationwide. Remembering the history of coal, of Mother Jones, and of Blair Mountain represents West Virginia’s culture war between different versions of both the past and the present.Second, coal companies desire Blair Mountain for mountaintop removal mining. While the state has not approved a mining permit, companies such as Massey Energy, responsible for last year’s accident at a mine with repeated and egregious safety violations which cost the lives of 29 workers, have mined heavily in the area. Blair Mountain has become a symbol not only for labor activists, but for environmentalists who see mountaintop removal as one of the greatest tragedies in America today.Labor and environmentalists have had fractured relationships over the past three decades. That includes in West Virginia, where the remaining miners rely on strip mining for their well-paid jobs in an impoverished area. But tenuous steps have brought the two sides toward an understanding based upon mutual interests. UMWA president Cecil Roberts, descended from one of the Blair Mountain fighters, called for labor and environmentalists to work together in a <a href="http://blogs.wvgazette.com/coaltattoo/2011/02/22/umwas-cecil-robert-we-are-all-in-this-together/" style="text-decoration: none;">February 2011 editorial in the Charleston Gazette-Mail</a>, noting that<blockquote style="margin: 0px 20px 15px; padding: 15px 20px 1px; border: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); line-height: 18px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">all God’s children have a right to prosper in a safe and livable environment (at home and on the job) where they can thrive without fear of sickness, disease or injury caused by the irresponsible actions of corporations motivated solely by profit at any cost.</blockquote>This past week saw activists engage in the March on Blair Mountain, a five day event, capping in a June 11 rally of 1000 people, including country singer Kathy Mattea, to save this historic place, remember all those who lost their lives in the mines and from black lung to feed their families, and protest over the environmental catastrophe that is shredding the West Virginia mountains. <a href="http://marchonblairmountain.org/?p=1289" style="text-decoration: none;">Said miner Chuck Nelson</a>, “Here we are 90 years later and we’re still fighting the same issues―unsafe conditions in non-union mines. I worked underground for 21 years and UMWA was the best friend a miner could have. We’re going to save Blair, Coal River Mountain, Twilight, communities in eastern Kentucky, and Ison Rock Ridge. We’re going to save all these communities because we’re rising to a new level.”Blair Mountain is not on the radar screen of most Americans. We have forgotten our labor history. But modern West Virginia is barely known by people either. Except as a subject for inbreeding jokes, it remains a backwater surrounded by more prosperous states. Mountaintop removal has received a fraction of the coverage spent on efforts to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, yet the damage done to West Virginia’s land and people far outpaces what petroleum exploration will do in the faraway Alaska wilderness.Ultimately, as Chuck Nelson hinted at, the Second Battle of Blair Mountain is not just about an obscure historical event in a remote part of a rural state. It is a symbol of who controls our history, our workers, and our environment. Can companies do whatever they want, whether it is forcing states to take places off the National Register when the history is inconvenient, subjecting workers to unsafe mines, or destroying mountains, waterways, and human health? Or does the government have an obligation to listen to people who want to remember our history, protect our workers, and save our natural environment for our descendants? The outcome at Blair Mountain will play a role in answering these questions.</div><div></div><div>billy mitchell air force bombs</div><div>
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