Pinkerton and his agency, with their reputation

for skillful investigations and clever undercover

work, became famous and wealthy.
Pinkerton’s next challenge came in 1861 when
his old friend George McClellan summoned him
to Washington to provide espionage and
counterespionage services for the Union.
Adopting the cover identity of ―Major E. J. Allen,‖
Pinkerton left the detective part of his business
in the hands of his sons Robert and William and
began ferreting out Confederate spies, uncovering
Confederate secrets, and investigating fraud and
History corruption within the Union.
Allan Pinkerton was born in 1819 in Scotland.
He emigrated to the United States in 1842 and
moved to Chicago. There he followed his chosen
trade as a cooper (barrelmaker) until a fateful
day in the mid–1840s. At that time, ―wild cat‖
bank currencies and counterfeiting were running
rampant in America (as they still are in some
parts), and this caused problems for Pinkerton’s
business. Frustrated with the inefficient police
work applied to the problem, Pinkerton
undertook to investigate the matter himself—and
soon found a secret counterfeiter camp and
helped the county sheriff arrest the crooks.
Word of Pinkerton’s diligent investigation
reached the Treasury Department, which hired
As a spymaster, Pinkerton has excelled.
him to continue investigating counterfeiting. He
He and his men were responsible for unearthing
was also appointed deputy sheriff of Kane
many Confederate spies, including ―Rebel
County, Illinois. After a couple of years, he gave
Rose,‖ Rose Greenhow, and for foiling a plot to
up sheriffing to become a special agent for the
assassinate President Lincoln in 1861.
Post Office. In 1850, he founded his first
Undercover Pinkertons have also penetrated
company, the Private Detection Agency.
the Confederacy to spy on its military units,
Soon railroads began hiring him as an
railroads, and leaders, discovering many facts
investigator. The railroads needed someone to
that have proved crucial to the Union war effort.
keep an eye on things for them, since their
After several years of operating the Union
trains often passed outside of the jurisdiction of
intelligence apparatus as an informal
county sheriffs or town marshals. With $10,000
organization which was connected to his
in funding from the railroads, Pinkerton founded
company, Pinkerton helped establish the Bureau
the North West Police Agency in 1855.
of Military Information (also known as the BMI)
Pinkerton soon renamed his company the
as a formal part of the United States
Pinkerton National Detective Agency and began
government. However, to this day, Pinkerton
offering his services to businesses and private
operatives still do the bulk of the BMI’s work as
citizens nationwide, though the bulk of his
private investigators and spies. Allan Pinkerton
business continued to come from the railroads.
headed the BMI until 1869, when a cerebral stroke
In Chicago, he also established the Pinkerton
forced him to relinquish day-to-day control of the
Protective Patrol, a private security service. As
agency. It was no longer possible for him to
private detective work became more popular,
maintain the disciplined work ethic he and his
superiors expected of him. He stepped down in favor
of Colonel George Sharpe, a former operative of
his, and moved to Philadelphia to assist his sons
in running the Pinkerton Agency. Since then, he
has written several books detailing his exploits
as a private investigator before the war started.
It is thought that he continues to do undercover
investigations and espionage work on behalf of the
Union and private employers.
The responsibilities of the Pinkerton Agency
were increased by General (now President) Grant
on April 9, 1864, following the Union’s subsequent
military defeats.
The high officials of the Union government realized
that something about the world had changed.
―Weird‖ things were happening all over the country,
and something needed to be done about these
―unusual‖ changes.
Pinkerton and his operatives, cool-headed and
used to investigating strange behavior, were
deemed perfect for the job. Allan Pinkerton was
summoned to a meeting with Grant himself.
Grant, acting on orders from President Lincoln, gave
Pinkerton and his agency the duty to investigate
and determine an appropriate course of action in
dealing with the supernatural occurrences.
Pinkertons were to look into supernatural events, but
they were also to keep them hush-hush and prevent
other folks from talking about them.
Pinkertons Today
Today the Pinkerton National Detective
Agency employs thousands of operatives all over
the country—at least 4,000–5,000 by the best
estimates—with plenty more ―Troubleshooters‖
(see below) available at any time. It is divided
into three bureaus, which are all overseen by
Allan Pinkerton himself. The Eastern Bureau,
with its main offices in Washington, DC, New
York, and Philadelphia, is run by Allan Pinkerton.
Its main responsibility is espionage and
counterespionage on behalf of the Union, from
Atlantic to Pacific. The Central Bureau,
headquartered in Chicago and with another
office in Cincinnati, maintains the fine Pinkerton
detective tradition. Run by Pinkerton’s sons
Robert and William, it provides private
investigation and security services for
businesses all over the United States, primarily
for the railroads.
The Western Bureau is easily the most
mysterious part of the Pinkertons, and it’s the
section of the organization most like the
Rangers. Based in Denver, it’s run by a tall, lanky
man known only to the outside world as ―the
Ghost.‖
Western Bureau operatives have friends in
Washington and a lot of authority. Local law
enforcement is required by United States federal
law to cooperate with them and provide them
with any assistance necessary, and not even a
state governor or prominent mayor can tell them
what to do.
Pinkertons have four ranks. The highest is bureau
chief. There areonly three of these, of course (four
if you consider that Robert and William jointly run
the Central Bureau; Robert is based in Chicago,
William in Cincinnati). Below the bureau chiefs are
captains; captains are in charge of all Pinkertons in
an entire state or territory. Next are lieutenants.
Few Pinkertons ever reach this rank. Most remain
as operatives, the lowest rank in the agency. Allan
Pinkerton himself is referred to as ―the Principal.‖
Pinkerton’s motto is ―We Never Sleep,‖ and its
symbol is a wide-open eye.
Daily Life of a Pinkerton
Pinkerton men and women are called ―operatives‖ or
―Pinks‖ in everyday slang.
It costs $6–8 per day to hire an operative, and
the operatives themselves are usually paid about
$2 per day a much better rate of pay than
many town marshals or deputies.
Pinkertons are expected to be straight arrows. going on. Troubleshooters that show promise are
They aren’t allowed to drink to excess at any often hired as full-time operatives and sent to
time or to act in any way which might cast the Denver or Chicago for training.
agency or its employees in a bad light.
What Pinkertons value more than anything in
their operatives are honesty, integrity,
competency, and initiative. The ability to keep your
mouth shut is also a prime consideration. A lot of
them don’t have any background in the law at all
before coming to work for the agency. The only
formal training they receive is in how to shadow
and observe a suspect.
Since Pinkertons aren’t real lawmen in the
ordinary sense of the word, they do not wear
uniforms or badges, but their authority,
particularly for investigating weird phenomena,
comes straight from United States law. Local
officials who try to thwart them find themselves
removed from office by the Union Army mighty
quick. Operatives are often brought in as
―outside help‖ or as experts when the local law
is having trouble, and because of their
mysterious and haughty attitude to their job,
they aren’t all that popular with many people.
Their mysterious nature sometimes gives them a
malevolent aura. They don’t care, though, as long
as they can get their job done.
Because of the sensitive nature of their work,
Pinkertons communicate with their home office
in code. They identify themselves only by their
initials or by code numbers, and they maintain
the strictest confidence about their work at all
times. Although we have captured examples of
this code, we have not yet been able to break it.
Like us, the Pinkertons have no qualms about
recruiting the opposition to work for them.
Pinkertons are also willing to make use of some
of the amazing advances in technology that
have occurred over the past 10 years or so. All
operatives are issued one of those fancy Gatling
pistols seen in the Smith & Robards catalog.
Due to the Pinkerton operative’s dangerous
and demanding work, the agency often has a
high rate of turnover. In a particularly
demanding situation, an operative can hire local
assistance known as ―troubleshooters.‖
Troubleshooters get half the pay of a regular
operative, are hired on a per-job basis, and are
told as little as possible about what’s really