author
Allan Pinkerton
1819–1884
A Scottish-born cooper turned detective, he built one of the most famous private investigative agencies in American history and became closely tied to Civil War-era espionage. His life mixes reform politics, anti-slavery work, and the fast-changing world of 19th-century crime and security.
8 Audiobooks
The Spy of the Rebellion Being a True History of the Spy System of the United States Army during the Late Rebellion
by Allan Pinkerton
The Expressman and the Detective
by Allan Pinkerton
The Somnambulist and the Detective; The Murderer and the Fortune Teller
by Allan Pinkerton
The Spiritualists and the Detectives
by Allan Pinkerton
Bucholz and the Detectives
by Allan Pinkerton
Mississippi Outlaws and the Detectives Don Pedro and the Detectives; Poisoner and the Detectives
by Allan Pinkerton
The Burglar's Fate, and The Detectives
by Allan Pinkerton
The Molly Maguires and the detectives
by Allan Pinkerton
About the author
Born in Glasgow in 1819, Allan Pinkerton trained as a cooper, or barrel maker, before emigrating to the United States in the 1840s. He settled near Chicago, where his knack for noticing suspicious activity pulled him toward police work and eventually into detective work.
In 1850 he founded the agency that became the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. He is widely remembered for helping shape private investigation in the United States and for his role in Civil War intelligence work, including the often-retold story that he helped uncover a plot against Abraham Lincoln before Lincoln took office.
Pinkerton was also connected with abolitionist causes, and his career reflected the turbulence of his time: immigration, reform politics, war, and the growth of modern policing. He died in 1884, but his name remained famous long after, becoming almost shorthand for the private detective.