Allan Pinkerton, was born in Glasgow, Scotland 25 Aug, 1819. He came to America in 1842 to escape imprisonment, he settle down in Chicago, Illinoise. Pinkerton started his famous career in Algonquin when he helped break up counterfeiters that operated on a deserted island on the Fox River. he became a deputy sheriff of Kane county 1846, four years later Pinkerton opened a small detective agency in Chicago.

In February 1861 Pinkerton agents picked up a rumor of a possible assassination on Abraham Lincoln on his way to his inauguration in Washington. Pinkerton got up with Lincoln and told him about the rumor and persuade him to take an earlier train.

During the civil war Pinkerton and his men worked for the Union Army secret service. and after the war Pinkerton kept on working for the railroad companies that kept on growing.

after a train robbery in Indiana 1866 the Pinkerton agency were hired to track down the bandits. The Reno gang, who were a big gang, hanged out in Seymour, Indiana. It required big efforts for the Pinkerton´s to crush the gang, but the did it successfully. But they totally failed in the attack against the James brothers. Besides that their famous "criminal gallery" with photographs and descriptions of criminals were a big help in the fight against the criminality in the wild west. Allan Pinkerton died in Chicago, Illinois 1 July 1884

 

 

Pinkerton Government Services (PGS)