The Pinkertons Part Two

Welcome back to my Pinkertons article. Had to break it into two parts, but that's ok. I'm glad to be here, and I'm glad you're here as well.

1871 Fire

The Great Chicago Fire burned from October 8th to the 10th. The fire killed some 300 people, destroyed roughly 3.3 square miles of city including over 17,000 structures, and left more than 100,000 residents homeless. The fire began in a rural neighborhood, and the wooden constructions prevalent in the city led to the widespread flames. The fire is said to have started in or around a small barn belonging to the O'Leary family. The shed next to the barn was the first building to be consumed by the fire.

Speaking of, why are so many homes in America constructed of pressboard and weak #2 pine? And with that being the case, shouldn't they cost less than $750,000? C'mon, America.... I'm disappointed in you.

City officials never determined the cause of the blaze, but the rapid spread of the fire, due to a long drought in that year's summer, explains the extensive damage of the wooden city structures. There has been much speculation over the years on a single start to the fire; O’Leary’s cow, which knocked over a lantern, because cows and those lanterns, men gambling inside the barn who knocked over the lantern, because random gamblers in someone’s barn, or...just related to other fires in that area during that time.

Nah. That’s wild. Police, do your job. Investigate. The Pinkertons would have investigated the crap out of that.... Why weren't they asked to investigate? *Anime sigh of exhaustion*

The following I found from Wikipedia and theclio.com.

In 1871, the Chicago Fire Department had 185 firefighters and 17 horse-drawn steam-pumpers to protect the entire city. I don’t know if that’s very little because I have no idea how many firefighters and steam-pumpers, whatever those are, other cities had back then.

The initial response was quick, but Matthias Schaffer, watchman, whatever that is, made a mistake. He sent the firefighters to the wrong place, and the blaze erupted unchecked. Then, an alarm sent from the area near the fire also failed to register at the courthouse where the fire watchmen were.

I’m guessing Schaffer was at the courthouse with other watchmen? It sounds like watchmen sit at the courthouse and wait for an alarm to go off before dispatching...so they’re dispatch. Ok...moving on. The firefighters were also tired from having fought other fires throughout the week. Needless to say, the Great Chicago Fire was out of control.

The original Pinkerton Detective Agency office was located at 69 W Washington St, Chicago, Illinois. The building, called The Kendall block was then replaced by the Kendall block II in 1971. The Kendall block II, and 92 & 94 Washington Street, were destroyed during the Great Chicago Fire. A new Kendall block III was built in 1873 and remained until 1940. In 1962 a new building called the Cook County Administration Building was built and stands today to serve offices for the local government.

I also read that Allan Pinkerton himself helped in the reconstruction of his office, but I’m not sure just how much physical effort or planning he added. It was said that he was undaunted by the fire, immediately stating that there would be a new Pinkertons office.

1876 The Molly Maguires

Oddly enough, James McParland does not show up anywhere on the Pinkerton website. This struck me hard because, supposedly, McParland was the Pinkerton agent who infiltrated the Irish terrorists. After Googling around a bit, I found the following from the Seton Hall University website:

The Molly Maguires no longer exist and there are some historians who question whether the group ever did exist or if the Ancient Order of the Hibernians carried out the violent acts that the Molly Maguires were accused of.

James McParland, born 22 March 1844, arrived in New York in 1867. He worked as a laborer, policeman and then in Chicago as a liquor store owner until the Great Chicago Fire destroyed his business. He then became a private detective and labor spy, noted for his success against coal mining labor organizations in Pennsylvania.

I’m just guessing he worked for The Pinkertons at this point even though the text from the Seton Hall U website does not state this. See how convoluted this is getting? Moving on....

McParland first came to national attention when, as an undercover operative using the name James McKenna, he infiltrated and helped to dismantle an organization of activist Pennsylvania coal miners called the Molly Maguires. During the 1870s, miners in the region of the anthracite mines lived a life of "bitter, terrible struggle." Wages were low.Working conditions were atrocious, and deaths and serious injuries numbered in the hundreds each year. Conditions were certainly ripe for labor unrest.

Yeah, but I think all the mines were like this back then, so….

According to Wikipedia, the Molly Maguires were Irish Catholic when there was frequent prejudice against such persons.

Being born in Italy, myself, and having been raised Roman Catholic, I’m not sure what the distinction is, and I won’t bother to find out, but I find it strange that Americans in the 1800s actually cared about such a distinction. Pretty sure the mine owners simply wanted to extract cheap labor from foreigners, and the Irish at least spoke the same language...unlike those blasted Italians.

Apparently, the Mollies didn’t like this, so they started kidnapping and beating mine operators and supervisors, and so the Pinkertons were brought in. Pinkerton assigned McParland to the job, and he successfully infiltrated the secret organization.

It doesn’t sound like they were very secret, does it?

McParland turned in reports daily, (I doubt this very much as the Mollies would have kept an eye on him, but ok). Anyway, McParland passed on evidence of murder plots, to Benjamin Franklin, his Pinkerton manager.

I haphazardly looked in into this Benjamin Franklin. It’s obviously not the Founding Father, but guess what?! I couldn’t find any intel on this guy either. A lot about the Pinkertons is very sus, and the deeper I go, the less I believe in the “legend”.

Jack also began working secretly with Robert Linden, a Pinkerton agent assigned to the Coal and Iron Police in order to coordinate the eventual arrest and prosecution of members of the Molly Maguires.

On the 10th of December 1876, three men and two women with Molly connections were attacked in their house by masked men. One woman in the house, wife of one of the Molly Maguires, was taken outside and shot dead. McParland was outraged that the information he had been providing had found its way into the hands of killers. Then, another Molly Maguire, Hugh McGehan, a 21-year-old who had been secretly identified as a killer by McParland, was fired upon and wounded by unknown assailants. Later, the McGehans' home was attacked by gunfire.

Eventually, enough evidence was collected on reprisal killings and assassinations that arrests could be made, and based primarily on McParland’s testimony, ten Molly Maguires were sent to the gallows.

I don’t understand how the Mollies being attacked was evidence of their involvement in terror attacks against mine operators, but this script is not about the Mollies. Maybe, the next one will be?

Continuing….

Joseph G. Rayback, author of A History of American Labor, has observed:

"The charge has been made that the Molly Maguires episode was deliberately manufactured by the coal operators with the express purpose of destroying all vestiges of unionism in the area.... There is some evidence to support the charge.... The crime wave that appeared in the anthracite fields came after the appearance of the Pinkertons, and many of the victims of the crimes were union leaders and ordinary miners. The evidence brought against [the defendants], supplied by James McParlan…."

Wait, wait, wait, wait…. James McParlan? It’s supposed to be James McParland...with a D at the end. This just gets more convoluted. Last interruption...for now...allegedly.

"James McParlan, a Pinkerton, and corroborated by men who were granted immunity for their own crimes, was tortuous and contradictory, but the net effect was damning. The trial temporarily destroyed the last vestiges of labor unionism in the anthracite area. More important, it gave the public the impression that miners were by nature criminal in character."

"Reports of McParland’s success (the D is back now) against the Molly Maguires came to the attention of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes detective fiction. Conan Doyle wrote McParland into The Valley of Fear, creating an encounter between the fictional Sherlock Holmes, and a character whose history loosely recalled McParland's experiences with the Molly Maguires.

Allegedly, as there is no actual proof, Conan Doyle met Allan Pinkerton during an ocean voyage, where the writer became fascinated by the "singular and terrible narrative" of the Molly Maguires. Later, however, "Allan Pinkerton's and Arthur Conan Doyle's friendship ended over the rendition of some Pinkerton exploits in fictional form."

I mean, whatever. Who cares? It's like Macklemore opening his mouth. No one actually pays attention.

Patrick Campbell, a relative of one of the executed Mollies, who wrote, A Molly Maguire Story, learned from a McParland relative that McParland's two brothers, Edward and Charles, also went undercover against the Mollies. Campbell speculates that the break between Pinkerton and Conan Doyle may have resulted because: "Pinkerton did not like the fact that the McParland character in the novel had married a German girl from the anthracite fields". Brother Charles had actually married the German girl, not James, but Pinkerton must have disliked how close the novel was getting to the truth.

Ok...again, we don't even know if James McParland was real, much less his brothers. Anyway, the Kehoe foundation states that the Ancient Order of Hibernians is America’s oldest Irish Catholic Fraternal Organization founded concurrently in the coal mining region of Pennsylvania and New York City in May, 1836. The Order can trace its roots back to a series of similar societies that existed in Ireland for more than 300 years. Today, the AOH exists in America, Canada, Ireland, England, Wales, and Scotland, however, while the organizations share a common thread, the American AOH is a separate and much larger organization.

Honestly, all this sounds like a future topic, but I'm seriously trying to find out if The Pinkertons actually knew what they were doing. Right meow, it sounds like the fake news we see everyday. Continuing....

All of Pennsylvania’s Irish Catholic men charged as “Molly Maguires” belonged to the Ancient Order of Hibernians, which is said to be an Irish Catholic benevolent society that remains active. However, in the 1870s, the order had divisions throughout the United States, the British Isles, and Canada.

I have to break in again. How did anyone know these guys were part of the AOH anyway?Wasn't it a secret society? Yeah, I know, "James McParland" infiltrated, but I just don't know. Moving on.

AOH officers charged as Mollies showed a talent for electoral politics. They helped naturalize Irishmen as U.S. citizens, with the right to vote in local, state, and national elections. Some alleged Mollies helped sway the Irish vote towards liberal Republican candidates, marking a radical change in the voting habits of Pennsylvania’s large Irish Catholic electorate.

By 1876, the second year of Pennsylvania’s Molly Maguire prosecutions, estimates for AOH membership ranged to more than 700,000 Irishmen countrywide.

Wait! 700,000 Irishmen in America in 1876? One sec. OMG! Apparently, there were nearly 5 million Irish people in the US by 1900. I did not expect that!

The society collected dues from members and paid them out as benefits: in Pennsylvania’s coal region, as disability, death, or funeral benefits. Delegates held meetings, dispensed disciplinary action, oversaw the recruitment of new members, and led their men in the order’s annual St. Patrick’s Day parade.

Good.

These hardly sound like a secret society, but it is possible the Mollies were a more violent sect of the AOH. It also sounds more like the Pinkertons and the mine operators concocted everything because the Irish wanted fair wages and benefits.

Many AOH men charged as “Mollies” served as AOH officers. The substantial intelligence, skill, and charisma of these Irishmen helped them achieve elected office. At least four alleged Mollies served as AOH county delegates. At least four served as divisional presidents in the regional mine workers’ union. At least four served as school directors. Others served as tax collectors, tax assessors, and township supervisors. At least one executed Hibernian had served as overseer of the poor. They were churchgoers and family men, deeply embedded in their communities.

The Kehoe Foundation seeks to bring forward materials that suggest that Pennsylvania’s alleged “Molly Maguires” in fact honored their revised 1871 AOH charter--the charter where “Love guides the whole design.”

1884 The contested Death of Allan Pinkerton

On July 1st of 1884, in Illinois, Pinkerton died in Chicago. It is usually said that Pinkerton slipped on the pavement, and bit his tongue, resulting in gangrene, but this is highly contested.

Contemporary reports give conflicting causes, such as that he succumbed to a stroke he had a year earlier, or to malaria, which he had contracted during a trip to the South. At the time of his death, he was working on a system to centralize all criminal identification records; this kind of database is now maintained by the FBI, which is about all the Pinkertons had to do with the FBI, which is to say...nothing. A database of criminals is fairly logical.

Pinkerton was then buried between his wife and Kate Warne, his first female detective, in the family plot in Graceland Cemetery, Chicago, which, uh...ok. He's also a member of the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame.

So, who contested his death? I have no idea. According to The New York Times: CHICAGO, July 1, "Allan Pinkerton, the head of the famous detective agency, who has been dangerously ill for the last three weeks, died at 3:05 o'clock this afternoon at his residence, No. 554 West Monroe-street. Some time ago Mr. Pinkerton fell and bit his tongue, and gangrene, which set in, resulted in his death."

Sounds like a legit obituary to me.

The Pinkerton Detective Agency did not die with Allan or his moldering tongue.

Sorry, Allan. It does sound like that’s how ya’ died.

His sons, Robert and William continued their father’s efforts, although with a major change. Unlike their father, they did not appreciate strikers or workers’ rights. Instead, they preferred supporting employers, businesses, and corporations.

Well, I mean, it still seems like Allan busted up some Irish miners, who just wanted better working conditions, so….

The 1892 Homestead Strike

According to aflcio.org, the 1892 Homestead strike in Pennsylvania, and the ensuing bloody battle instigated by the steel plant’s management, remain a transformational moment in U.S. history, leaving scars that have never fully healed after five generations.

I'm not sure why these "scars" haven't healed, but whatever.

The skilled workers at the steel mills in Homestead, seven miles southeast of downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, were members of the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers who had bargained exceptionally good wages and work rules. Homestead's management, with millionaire Andrew Carnegie as owner, was determined to lower its costs of production by breaking the union.

Because of course he was! Why pay your employees, who make you rich, what they’re worth?!

Carnegie Steel Co. was making massive profits, a record $4.5 million just before the 1892 confrontation, which led Carnegie himself to exclaim, "Was there ever such a business!"

And to put it in perspective, that’s over 150 million dollars today, in 2024. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!

But he and his chairman, Henry Frick, were furious workers had a voice with the union. "The mills have never been able to turn out the product they should, owing to being held back by the Amalgamated men," Frick complained to Carnegie.

So, Dick, I mean Frick, wanted the workers to make them even more money than the RECORD!

Apologies, I’m getting upset, and by now, I’ve had a few shots of Makers…. Continuing.

Even more galling for them was that, as Pittsburgh labor historian Charles McCollester later wrote in The Point of Pittsburgh, "The skilled production workers at Homestead enjoyed wages significantly higher than at any other mill in the country."

So management acted…. Because the workers are earning how much? I don’t know. I couldn’t find it, but, I Googled: how much did American steel workers earn in 1892? The answer is between $4 and $7.50 an hour, which in 2024 money is between $35 and $45 and hour.

All things considered, that’s not bad money, but let’s include that there were no health benefits, no paid time off, no overtime, workers probably clocked in at around 60 hours a week, and I doubt there was any retirement or pension, so that money per hour might be unreasonable, calculating everything else, especially when work conditions are horrible. Anyway….

First, as the union's three-year contract was coming to an end in 1892, the company demanded wage cuts for 325 employees, even though the workers had already taken large pay cuts three years before, allegedly. During the contract negotiations, management didn’t make proposals to negotiate. It issued ultimatums to the union. The local newspaper pointed out that: "It was not so much a question of disagreement as to wages, but a design upon labor organization."

Carnegie and Frick made little effort to hide what they had in mind. Their company advertised widely for strikebreakers and built a 10-foot-high fence around the plant that was topped by barbed wire.

They had money for that, huh? Labor and materials? Was the fence built of steel from their own plant?

Management was determined to provoke a strike. Meanwhile, the workers organized the town on a military basis. They were: "Establishing pickets on eight-hour shifts, river patrols, and a signaling system," according to McCollester.

Frick did what plenty of 19th century businessmen did when they were battling unions. He hired the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, which was notorious for such activities as infiltrating its agents into unions and breaking strikes, and which at its height had a larger work force than the entire U.S. Army.

I have found no evidence of the Pinkertons acting as strike busters before this event unless you count the Molly Maguires, which were not a union proper, so…. Do with this what you will.

When Frick plotted to sneak in 300 Pinkerton agents on river barges before dawn on July the 6th, word spread across town; they were arriving and thousands of workers and their families rushed to the river to keep them out. Gunfire broke out between the men on the barges and the workers on land. During the bedlam, the Pinkertons surrendered and came ashore, where they were beaten and cursed by the angry workers.

At the end of the battle seven workers and three Pinkertons were dead. Four days later, 8,500 National Guard forces were sent at the request of Frick to take control of the town and steel mill.

Rich people can summon the National Guard, evidently, in the 1800s, and isn't that kind of overkill? There weren't 8,500 people total between The Pinkertons and the mill workers.

After winning, Frick announced, "Under no circumstances will we have any further dealing with the Amalgamated Association as an organization. This is final." In November, the Amalgamated Association collapsed.

According to labor historian, David Brody: "The daily wages of the highly skilled workers at Homestead shrunk by one-fifth between 1892 and 1907, while their work shifts increased from eight hours to 12 hours."

So, they may have been working 8 hours a day, but how many days a week? And now 12 hours with still no overtime? The past was rough.

That was not the only measure of the steel workers’ defeat. As Sidney Lens pointed out in his classic, The Labor Wars: From the Molly Maguires to the Sit-Downs, "Membership in the Amalgamated Association plummeted from 24,000 to 10,000 in 1894 and down to 8,000 in 1895. Meanwhile, the Carnegie Steel Co.'s profits rose to a staggering $106 million in the nine years after Homestead, and for 26 long years—until the last months of World War I in 1918—union organizing among steelworkers was crushed."

Ok, so there were 24,000 steel workers against, like, 300 Pinkertons? I don't know if I believe this. Sources are kind of sketchy.

Let's also put this into perspective: $106 million 9 years after the Homestead Strike. 9 years plus 1892 is 1901. $106 million in 1901 is worth over $3 billion dollars. I still have credit card debt…. Carnegie Steel Co. couldn't pay their employees a little more?

I love America, but sometimes I wonder what a fair wage is. Just saying....

Now, please understand that I found zero evidence that the Pinkertons were strike busters until 1892, and it doesn't sound like they were the ones responsible for dismantling the steelworkers' union, but the Anti-Pinkerton Act was signed in 1893, so let's get on to that!

1893 The Anti-Pinkerton Act

According to gao.gov, Over the years, we have had numerous occasions to interpret and apply the so-called Anti-Pinkerton Act, 5 U.S.C. 3108 (1976). It occurs most frequently in connection with protests against the award of contracts for guard services, but occasionally arises in other contexts as well. The act provides: (and here it’s all in caps, so...I’m not going to retype it in lowercase. Why are there two cases anyway? Does Japanese congee have two cases? I’ll stop drinking...tomorrow.)

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.

THE ORIGINAL ANTI-PINKERTON ACT WAS ENACTED AS PART OF THE SUNDRY CIVIL APPROPRIATION ACT OF AUGUST 5, 1892, 27 STAT. 368. IT WAS MADE PERMANENT THE FOLLOWING YEAR BY THE ACT OF MARCH 3, 1893, 27 STAT. 591. THE LEGISLATION WAS THE RESULT OF CONGRESSIONAL CONCERN OVER THE USE OF PRIVATE DETECTIVES AS STRIKEBREAKERS AND LABOR SPIES BY PRIVATE INDUSTRY IN THE LABOR DISPUTES OF THE 1880'S AND 1890'S, A PRACTICE WHICH GAVE RISE TO ACTS OF VIOLENCE AND BECAME AN EMOTIONALLY CHARGED ISSUE. THE ACT WAS GIVEN ITS PRESENT WORDING BY THE 1966 RECODIFICATION OF TITLE 5 OF THE UNITED STATES CODE, PUBLIC LAW 89-554, 80 STAT. 378, 416 (5 U.S.C. 1-- 8913 (1970). MANY BILLS HAVE BEEN INTRODUCED OVER THE YEARS TO REPEAL OR MODIFY THE ACT, BUT NONE HAVE BEEN ENACTED. A COMPREHENSIVE DISCUSSION OF THE ORIGINS OF THE ACT IS CONTAINED IN S. REPT. NO. 447 (TO ACCOMPANY S. 1543), 88TH CONG., 1ST SESS. (1963). IT HAS BECOME APPARENT IN RECENT YEARS THAT THE ACT HAS OUTLIVED THE CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH PRODUCED IT, AND WHETHER THE ACT CONTINUES TO SERVE A USEFUL PURPOSE HAS BEEN FREQUENTLY QUESTIONED.

Yes, this is all super legal jargon that I wanted to simplify, but I’m not a lawyer, and I don’t understand any of this anyway. Feel free to blow past it!

INTERPRETATION OF THE ACT BEGAN SHORTLY AFTER ITS ENACTMENT, AND HAS EVOLVED THROUGH A SERIES OF DECISIONS BY THIS OFFICE AND ITS PREDECESSOR, THE OFFICE OF THE COMPTROLLER OF THE TREASURY. IN BRIEF, THE DECISIONS HAVE HELD THAT THE ACT APPLIES TO CONTRACTS WITH "DETECTIVE AGENCIES" AS FIRMS OR CORPORATIONS AS WELL AS TO CONTRACTS WITH OR APPOINTMENTS OF INDIVIDUAL EMPLOYEES OF SUCH AGENCIES; THAT IT PROHIBITS THE EMPLOYMENT OF A DETECTIVE AGENCY OR ITS EMPLOYEES REGARDLESS OF THE CHARACTER OF THE SERVICES TO BE PERFORMED, BUT DOES NOT PROHIBIT THE EMPLOYMENT OF A "PROTECTIVE AGENCY"; THAT IT APPLIES ONLY TO DIRECT EMPLOYMENT AND DOES NOT EXTEND TO SUBCONTRACTS; THAT IT DOES NOT EXTEND TO A WHOLLY OWNED SUBSIDIARY OF A DETECTIVE AGENCY IF THE SUBSIDIARY ITSELF IS NOT A DETECTIVE AGENCY. IN DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN A DETECTIVE AGENCY AND A PROTECTIVE AGENCY, WE HAVE CONSIDERED THE NATURE OF THE FUNCTIONS THE AGENCY MAY PERFORM UNDER ITS CORPORATE CHARTER AND STATE LICENSING ARRANGEMENTS, AS WELL AS THE FUNCTIONS IT IN FACT PERFORMS. 8 COMP.GEN. 89 (1928); 26 ID. 303 (1946); 38 ID. 881 (1959); 41 ID. 819 (1962); 44 ID. 564 (1965); 55 ID. 1472 (1976); 56 ID. 225 (1977).

THESE ADMINISTRATIVE DECISIONS EVOLVED WITHOUT THE BENEFIT OF JUDICIAL PRECEDENT SINCE, UNTIL RECENTLY, THE ANTI-PINKERTON ACT HAD NEVER BEEN INTERPRETED OR DISCUSSED IN A REPORTED DECISION OF ANY COURT. IN 1977, THE FIFTH CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS CONSTRUED THE ACT IN CONNECTION WITH UNITED STATES EX REL. WEINBERGER V. EQUIFAX, 557 F.2D 456 (5TH CIR. 1977), CERT DENIED JANUARY 16, 1978 (46 U.S.L.W. 3445), REHEARING DENIED MARCH 6, 1978 (46 U.S.L.W. 3556). IN THAT CASE, THE PLAINTIFF-RELATOR CONTENDED THAT THE DEFENDANT, A CREDIT REPORTING COMPANY, WAS A DETECTIVE AGENCY FOR PURPOSES OF THE ACT, WAS THEREBY BARRED FROM DOING BUSINESS WITH THE GOVERNMENT, AND THAT ITS BILLING OF THE GOVERNMENT FOR SERVICES RENDERED VIOLATED THE FALSE CLAIMS ACT, 31 U.S.C. 231-32. THE COURT OF APPEALS AFFIRMED THE DISTRICT COURT'S DISMISSAL OF THE COMPLAINT FOR FAILURE TO STATE A CAUSE OF ACTION. IN SO DOING, THE COURT CONCLUDED AS FOLLOWS:

IN LIGHT OF THE PURPOSE OF THE ACT AND ITS LEGISLATIVE HISTORY, WE CONCLUDE THAT AN ORGANIZATION IS NOT "SIMILAR" TO THE (QUONDAM) PINKERTON DETECTIVE AGENCY UNLESS IT OFFERS QUASI-MILITARY ARMED FORCES FOR HIRE. 557 F.2D AT 463.

WE HAVE CAREFULLY CONSIDERED THE COURT'S DECISION AND FIND OURSELVES IN ESSENTIAL AGREEMENT WITH IT. WE NOTE THAT THE COURT DID NOT DEFINE "QUASI- MILITARY ARMED FORCE," NOR DO WE SEE THE NEED TO ATTEMPT IT HERE. NEVERTHELESS, IT SEEMS CLEAR THAT A COMPANY WHICH PROVIDES GUARD OR PROTECTIVE SERVICES DOES NOT THEREBY BECOME A "QUASI-MILITARY ARMED FORCE," EVEN IF THE INDIVIDUAL GUARDS ARE ARMED, AND EVEN THOUGH THE COMPANY MAY ALSO BE ENGAGED IN THE BUSINESS OF PROVIDING GENERAL INVESTIGATIVE OR "DETECTIVE" SERVICES.

IN THE FUTURE, WE WILL FOLLOW THE DECISION OF THE FIFTH CIRCUIT IN EQUIFAX IN INTERPRETING AND APPLYING THE ANTI-PINKERTON ACT; THAT IS, THE STATUTORY PROHIBITION WILL BE APPLIED ONLY IF AN ORGANIZATION CAN BE SAID TO OFFER QUASI-MILITARY ARMED FORCES FOR HIRE. PRIOR DECISIONS OF THIS OFFICE INCONSISTENT WITH THE EQUIFAX INTERPRETATION WILL NO LONGER BE FOLLOWED.

I’m so sorry if you read all that, but it’s important to note that there was an Anit-Pinkerton Act, and mostly because Allan’s sons were, as you’d call them, bell ends, like the end of my pe…..

The CIA/FBI were established in 1947?

The Pinkertons filled the roles of the Secret Service and FBI before such organizations existed, and at one point even acted as security for President Abraham Lincoln. However, the agents’ reputation for violence eventually caused the organization to fall out of public favor.

According to salon.com

The organized investigation of suspicious behaviors has evolved in two directions. One is in the case of detective work, dealing with activities that endanger individual citizens. The other, integrally linked avenue is in intelligence, investigating threats to the state. Flowing out of the same font, the modern incarnation of these entwined investigative avenues are largely the creation of two people. In Europe, Eugene-Francois Vidocq may be considered the godfather of the former criminal turned secret agent who is largely responsible for the development of the modern, entwined arts of intelligence gathering and criminal investigation, but Stateside, his parallel, no less influential, was Lincoln’s spy master during the Civil War, Allan Pinkerton.

Maybe, we’ll do an article on Eugene? Eh? Huh? But why do people say that the Pinkertons became the FBI and CIA?

Well, the FBI was established in 1908. This is after Allan’s death. Even according to fbi.gov; On July 26, 1908, Attorney General Charles J. Bonaparte appointed an unnamed force of special agents to be the investigative force of the Department of Justice. The FBI evolved from this small group.

Doesn’t name any Pinkerton. And the CIA?

The United States Central Intelligence Agency dates from September 18, 1947, when President Harry S. Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947 into law. So there ya’ go.

The Pinkertons...where are they now?

The company has continued to exist in various forms--they say, but which forms--to the present day and is now a division of the Swedish security company Securitas AB, operating as Pinkerton Consulting & Investigations, Inc., doing business as Pinkerton Corporate Risk Management.

According to Securitas.com, fun aside, I worked for Allied Barton Security when I was in college. I lived in Florida at the time. No! I am not Florida Man! I might be, though, but I never smoked meth. Oh, God, let’s move on. Allied Barton is now Allied Universal, but when I worked for them, I protected the Bank of America building in Tamp, Florida. No one cares.

Anyway….

Securitas AB and Pinkerton Inc. have signed a definitive merger agreement for Securitas to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Pinkerton. Pursuant to the agreement, Securitas will pay US$ 29 per share for each outstanding share of Pinkerton common stock, for an aggregate consideration of approximately US$ 384 million.

Just had a flashback. I invest my money. I remember when T-Mobile bought out Sprint, and everyone who owned Sprint thought they’d get a T-Mobile share for every Sprint share they owned, but that isn’t how it works. If you own $1,000 worth of Sprint, you either get payed out, or you own the equivalent of T-Mobile in money, not shares. Like, if you own 10 shares of Sprint worth $1,000, you own $1,000 worth of T-Mobile, not 10 shares of T-Mobile for your 10 shares of Sprint, for better or worse, but I digress….

Pinkerton currently has approximately 12.2 million shares of common stock and options corresponding to 2.3 million shares of common stock outstanding. The average share price over last month has been US $20, but no one cares about stocks. I mean, I do, but never mind.

Apologies, I lost my train of thought. I’m invested in litecoin, and it has not performed very well this time around (2024). I was supposed to be discussing what happened to the Pinkerton Detective Agency after becoming Securitas AB.

According to SecurtiasAB.com, they mostly do corporate security, like computer security for corporations. Boring. Anyway, in 1998, Pinkerton’s total annual sales were about $1 billion U.S. (in 2024, $8 billion) with an operating margin of approximately 3 percent, whatever that means. Operating capital employed as of December 31, 1998, amounted to US$ 88 million (today $686 million).

So what do they do? That's what you want to know. Mostly install CCTV cameras and alarms.

Alarms include design, installation, and maintenance of electronic security systems, and also includes alarm monitoring with their central station, remote video verification, remote access control and building control, and alarm response with patrol dispatch.

Pinkerton, or Securitas AB, is the world’s second largest investigation firm. Its services include intellectual property and counterfeiting investigations, corporate due diligence and internal fraud investigations, personal protection and employee screening. Pinkerton’s consulting practice provides risk assessments, crises and incident management and international terrorism studies.

And it goes on, boringly, but are they still the Secret Service or FBI, or CIA? No.

Remember General McLellan from the Civil War? It was in the previous chapter. He was friends with Allan Pinkerton from back when McLellan was V.P. of the Illinois Central Railroad, which was before the Civil War. That’s how Allan was selected to spy for The Union against The Confederacy, because having friends in high places can make you rich, but the Secret Service of the time wasn’t what it is today.

They were secret because they were undercover spies, not because...well, I don’t know why they call them Secret Service today. They’re not secret at all. Just ask Trump. I guess it’s just because Allan helped to unfurl the first Lincoln assassination plot...assuming he didn’t fakely set it up.

Where was I? Right, the Secret Service, which was initially designed to combat counterfeiting. It’s no longer part and parcel with the Pinkerton Detective Agency, nor Securitas AB, nor swedish.intel.gov.

(I'm so sorry about this, but the website is no longer loads and I don't know why.)

The pinkertons may have laid...lain? The foundation for modern detective work, but that seems about it, maybe that and undercover work, which any plain clothes officer will tell you is usually boring data collection and analysis.

Current Controversy

In 2020, they were hired by Amazon to spy on warehouse workers for signs of union activity, but I’m not sure if it was the Pinkertons or just Securitas. I can’t find evidence of it being the actual Pinkertons, so do with that what you will. In 2022, it was reported that Starbucks had hired a former Pinkerton employee as part of their union busting efforts.

I think I also heard they went after someone for selling a Magic the Gathering card on ebay. Hold on. I gotta’ dig into this one.

According to plygon.com:

Magic publishers sent Pinkerton agents to a YouTuber’s house to retrieve leaked cards. Do I have to dig deeper? Isn’t the headline stupid enough?

Ok….

"When Magic: The Gathering cards turned up on YouTube last week, publisher Wizards of the Coast sent private investigators from Pinkerton to retrieve them. The resulting confrontation reportedly frightened one woman to tears, and resulted in the confiscation of nearly two dozen boxes of cards by private investigators. Wizards confirmed the incident to Polygon. Meanwhile, the presenter denies anything illegal occurred.

At some point on April 20, YouTube channel oldschoolmtg published a video showing the opening of a box of collector booster packs from March of the Machine: The Aftermath — just one of 22 boxes it said were purchased from an acquaintance. Little has been revealed about the set so far, which is not expected to arrive in stores until May 12. As a result, the video was quickly downloaded and used as fuel for reaction videos all over the internet."

Later, on April 22, oldschoolmtg published another video explaining what had happened.

“I got up and recorded some videos,” the presenter said in the video. “Right after I got done with the video, dogs started barkin’ because somebody was knocking at the door. I come out and the wife’s answering the door and it was the Pinkertons.

"The name Pinkerton should ring a bell for our American readers. The modern-day Pinkertons are descended from the original Pinkerton Detective Agency, which was founded in Chicago, Illinois more than 170 years ago. The company has played a role in major historical events, not the least of which was its stint as a violent, strike-breaking private paramilitary force in the late 19th and early 20th century. Pinkerton, now a subsidiary of Paragon Systems, currently counts security and loss prevention among its many services."

Wizards confirmed to Polygon the Pinkertons were involved in the incident. The presenter at oldschoolmtg described agents as “big heavy-hitter guys” who frightened his wife. "The Pinkertons arrived with contact information for someone at Wizards of the Coast and, after speaking with them, the presenter said they made the decision to pull their original videos down.

“He was very apologetic about making my wife cry first thing in the morning by sending these heavy-duty lawmen [to] come collect stuff and talk about stolen products and jail time,” the presenter said in the video. “But they don’t believe we stole anything — which we didn’t. I don’t know if they believe anybody really stole anything or if it was just an accident or whatever. But they wanted the product back so they could try and figure out where the hole was so they could plug the hole.”

Wizards of the Coast can confirm that yes, this is part of their investigation, a representative told Polygon.

In the video, the presenter goes on to extrapolate what they think happened in this situation. It’s possible, they say, that someone, somewhere in the distribution chain accidentally mistook March of the Machine product for March of the Machine: The Aftermath product.

“Somebody screwed up and sent out the wrong cases to the gentlemen that I bought the boxes off of, because when he sold me the stuff he said he was selling me March of the Machine collector’s boxes — not Aftermath. [...] He didn’t really even know what Aftermath really was, I don’t think.”

Polygon has reached out to oldschoolmtg for more information.

Engaging private investigators to retrieve stolen or missing trading cards is not a particularly new or novel strategy for game publishers. Just last week, Polygon reported on another similar incident dating back to 2021 involving products from The Pokémon Trading Card Game, which were also retrieved with the help of a private investigator.

Conclusion

You may wonder why I haven’t yet referenced the James Mackay book, Allan Pinkerton, The First Private Eye. Well, for one, the title is misleading, but I bought it and read through it. I have neglected to mention anything from the book until now. The reason is that I find the book to be very biased in favor of Allan Pinkerton.

There’s nothing wrong with that. I, myself, believe he was an upstanding gentleman, but the second problem I had with the book is that Mackay states himself that not only did he research all sorts of documents, but he even read through what salvaged letters Pinkerton wrote.

He then goes on to dismiss those letters as misleading and contradicting. So he’s telling us not to believe the words of the man he so admires? Furthermore, I found the following to be extremely confusing.

On page 15, Sir Fielding supposedly made a comment about a town, Glasgow, which was perfectly fine during his life and only turned to ruin 50 years after his own death. It's a whole, weird thing. Either the town was perfectly fine as Mackay says a few pages later, or it was already slums during the life of Fielding. It can’t be both, and so I think back to the words of Corey Recko (the guy that doubts John Scobell ever existed).

Are all these authors, biographers, and scholars of Allan Pinkerton simply referencing each other, and then dismissing Allan’s own words?

Who were the Pinkertons really? All we know is who they are now…. They are Securitas AB, and they mostly work for corporations in order to prevent corporate espionage...via corporate espionage.

By the way, there is zero proof that the Pinkertons were involved in the case of H.H. Holmes, A.K.A., Mr. Mudget. I read through James Mackay's account, and H.H. Holmes is never mentioned. Only Wikipedia states that the Pinkertons were after Holmes for insurance fraud. There is also no proof that the Pinkertons investigated insurance fraud aside from the Wikipedia entry that states the Pinkertons investigated H.H. Holmes for insurance fraud, so do with that what you will.

Thank you for reading. I hope you learned something. I hope you do your own research on anything you read or hear. Don't blindly believe anything even if comes from Joe Scarborough. Please visit my website, StoriesbyDennis.com.