A Real Case File of the Pinkerton Detectives

 

By Jennifer Uhlarik

 

Happy early Thanksgiving, HHH Readers! I hope you all have a wonderful holiday planned with plenty of good food, family, and friends. Thanks for stopping by in this
busy week to read on the Heroes, Heroines, and History blog. I know I speak for all the bloggers when I saw we are thankful for each of you!

 

If you’ve been following my posts from the last two months, I talked about Allan Pinkerton—the founder of the Pinkerton National Detective agency and the cutting-edge things he did—as well as Kate Warne, the first female Pinkerton detective. This month, I thought I would continue the Pinkerton theme by sharing a fun case file from the Pinkertons so you can see how thorough the agency was in their work. I present to you “The Expressman and the Detective,” as Allan Pinkerton referred to this case.

 

In 1854, a year after the Adams Express Company’s founding, the vice president of this company contacted Allan Pinkerton with a request for him to find the missing $10,000 that was stolen from a locked money pouch while said pouch was being transported between Montgomery, Alabama, and Augusta, Georgia. From the start, Pinkerton believed that the job had to have been done by someone within the company, and he said as much in his written response to the vice president. For a full year, the man didn’t get back to Pinkerton. However, in the summer if 1856, he wrote again with an urgent request. Please meet him in Georgia, as another $40,000 had gone missing from a sealed pouch.

 

George Bangs,
Pinkerton Detective

Pinkerton and one of his detectives, George Bangs, met the express company’s VP and learned that he’d had the manager of the Montgomery office, Nathan Maroney, watching the goings-on for any nefarious dealings. The money had been placed in the pouch, sealed, and yet didn’t make it to its destination. The vice president was adamant that it was not an inside job. Whoever had taken the money had used a razor to cut a square hole in the bag—inside the outer pocket, so that it was concealed from public view—and the money was removed through the hole. They’d originally thought it was one of the messengers who carried the money, but they’d interviewed any number of them and found none of them to be worth pursuing for these thefts. 

 

At this point, both Allan Pinkerton and George Bangs began to suspect Maroney, the Montgomery branch manager, of the thefts. At one point, he’d worked for a circus that had gone out of business due to someone embezzling all their funds—but in his dealings with the Adams Express Company, he seemed to have an impeccable reputation and good standing in the Montgomery community.

 

Two years after the $40,000 went missing, Nathan Maroney took a lengthy leave of absence from his job. Those investigating the case followed the man as he traveled in the East among other places. Based on their observations that he was buying expensive clothes for himself and his wife, as well as staying in fine hotels beyond what his Adams company pay should afford him, and also gambling heavily on racehorses, he was arrested. But the arrest was weak, and Maroney’s bond was paid by the Montgomery community, who respected Maroney highly and felt the arrest was out of line.

 

Soon after his release, Pinkerton set out to get unequivocal proof of Maroney’s guilt. He had Maroney rearrested in New York, on conspiracy charges this time. He was placed in the same cell as a forger, who had many appointments with his attorney.

Allan Pinkerton

 

Pinkerton also had people watching Mrs. Maroney, who began spending her time between New York and Pennsylvania after her husband’s second arrest. Interestingly, while she stayed at Pennsylvania’s Merchant’s Hotel, she met and began spending much time with a handsome young man with long black hair who wooed the frightened woman with sweet words and kind attention. She also met and began to confide in Madam Imbert at the hotel. Almost daily, she would see both of her new acquaintances, taking long walks with the gentleman, as well as having long, friendly conversations with Madam Imbert. 

 

When Maroney found out through an anonymous letter about his wife’s handsome suitor, he called her to the jail. She dutifully went to visit him and explained that the long-haired man, named Mr. De Forest, was just a friend. During the visit, Maroney also told her he’d had reason to speak with his cellmate’s attorney about this frustrating incarceration. The attorney assured him that his jail time could end quickly, and he was willing to represent Maroney to the court, but it would be a costly endeavor. Maroney told his wife to collect money and bring it to him at the jail.

 

She left there, not knowing what to do. She returned to The Merchant’s Hotel in Pennsylvania and found Madam Imbert. Mrs. Maroney soon learned that dear Madam Imbert was at the hotel, convalescing after falling into a longstanding melancholy mood, which came on because her husband was serving a ten-year prison sentence, and the courts had ruled that she could not see or speak to him during that time. The common theme of a husband being incarcerated brought Mrs. Maroney to tears, and she shared a tiny bit of her own husband’s troubles.

 

Not long after, Mrs. Maroney took another trip, this time to Montgomery, with Pinkerton Detectives watching her every move. She and her young daughter checked into a hotel and attempted to call on friends of her husband—but the formerly amicable attitude of Montgomery residents had cooled toward Nathan Maroney, and no one would entertain a visit from his wife.

 

Upon her return to Pennsylvania, Mrs. Maroney visited Madam Imbert in her hotel room, visibly upset by something. It was then she confided in her friend what her husband had done—having stolen $50,000 from his former employer. However, before Madam Imbert could comfort the poor woman, she departed to write her husband a letter. 

 

The letter was intercepted by the Pinkertons. In it, they discovered that yes—Nathan Maroney had stolen the $50,000, and Mrs. Maroney had moved it from its original hiding place to a new location. They continued to watch her for any chance she might lead them to the money. But the woman never did.

 

It was only when Mrs. Maroney asked Madam Imbert to travel to New York with her to meet her husband in prison that the case finally took a turn. Nathan Maroney was duly impressed with his wife’s friend and encouraged her to trust Madam Imbert. Mrs. Maroney did, indeed, trust her with the details of where the stolen money had been moved. It now rested 18 inches beneath a cellar in a local Pennsylvania home. The two women visited the site, dug up the money, and gave it to the attorney who had promised Maroney help in ending his incarceration. Little did Maroney know, that “attorney” was none other than Pinkerton operative George Bangs, who promptly returned the missing $50,000 (minus $485, which had been spent by the thief) to the Adams Express Company. In addition, Maroney also confessed to his cellmate what he had done. His cellmate was Pinkerton operative John White, who had been undercover the whole time, winning Maroney’s trust to gain the details needed for a conviction. Upon his confession and the recovery of the money, Maroney was taken back to Montgomery where he stood trial and was convicted. He was given a ten-year prison sentence for his crimes.

Kate Warne,
Pinkerton Detective

 

The heartbroken Mrs. Maroney took her young daughter and moved to Chicago. Madam Imbert also returned to Chicago, never revealing to the expressman’s wife her true identity…Kate Warne, Pinkerton Detective. Nor did she reveal that Mr. De Forest, the handsome gentleman suitor was also a Pinkerton sent to spy on her. In fact, Kate Warne as Madam Imbert and Mrs. Maroney kept a friendship for a while after their respective moves to Chicago, until they naturally drifted apart.

 

Jennifer Uhlarik discovered the western genre as a pre-teen when she swiped the only “horse” book she found on her older brother’s bookshelf. A new love was born. Across the next ten years, she devoured Louis L’Amour westerns and fell in love with the genre. In college at the University of Tampa, she began penning her own story of the Old West. Armed with a B.A. in writing, she has finaled and won in numerous writing competitions, and been on the ECPA best-seller list several times. In addition to writing, she has held jobs as a private business owner, a schoolteacher, a marketing director, and her favorite—a full-time homemaker. Jennifer is active in American Christian Fiction Writers, Women Writing the West, and is a lifetime member of the Florida Writers Association. She lives near Tampa, Florida, with her husband and fur children.

Coming April 1, 2025

 

Love and Order by Jennifer Uhlarik

 

Separated as children when they were adopted out to different families from an orphan train, the Braddock siblings of Callie, Andie, and Rion have each grown up and taken on various jobs within law enforcement and criminal justice. When the hunt for a serial killer with a long history of murders reunites the brother and sisters in Cambria Springs, Colorado, they find themselves not only in a fight for justice, but also a fight to keep their newly reunited family intact. How will they navigate these challenges when further complicated by unexpected romances?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kate Warne: Pinkerton

By Jennifer Uhlarik

 

Last month, I shared with you about Allan Pinkerton and the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, which he founded. In that article, I promised to share about Kate Warne, the first female detective. So let’s explore this remarkable woman’s life.

 

Kate was born in Erin, New York in 1830, although her exact date of birth is not known. Her early life is a bit of mystery. Her obituary supposedly stated that her parents were honest and industrious people, but also poor. Through other records, it is known that she hoped to become an actress, though that dream never materialized in her performing on stage. By the age of twenty-three, Kate had already been married—and widowed. Soon after that, she moved with her parents and brother to Chicago where she went to work cleaning houses. However, the work didn’t challenge her. She desired a job where she could use her mind. It was in 1856 that this bold woman saw an advertisement in a Chicago newspaper for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. Allan Pinkerton was looking for help, and Kate decided to apply.

 

She marched herself into the office, advertisement in hand, and told Pinkerton she was there to apply. At first, the famed detective thought she meant for a secretarial position, though she quickly corrected him by showing him the newspaper ad. She wanted to be a detective.

 

While Pinkerton considered himself to be open-minded, he is on record as having stated, “It is not the custom to employ female detectives!” Kate Warne argued that women have a great eye for detail, were great observers, could get into places men couldn’t, would easily win the trust of the wives or girlfriends of their suspects, and could also cause men to become braggarts with only a little encouragement. In addition, her childhood desire to become an actress was an asset, in that she assured Allan Pinkerton she could play any role asked of her. Her passionate arguments convinced him, and she became his first female detective. 

 

At the time of her hiring, there were nine detectives in the agency’s employ—among them Pinkerton himself, as well as a former police officer, a former watch maker, a former bookseller, a fine English gentleman, an athletic sort, and even an extremely handsome gent they employed specifically to flirt and woo the women from whom they were trying to gain information. Within two days of her hiring, Kate was given her first case, and she and these men teamed up to work their magic for the next eleven years together. (Tune in next month when I’ll share the specifics of one of their intricate cases). 

 

As the country headed into 1861 and the Civil War, Kate Warne was one of the detectives who investigated threats by various secessionists to do damage to the railroads. She was particularly good at infiltrating these southerner’s social gatherings, playing the role of a wealthy Southern woman. She was able to secure specific information that, not only were they attempting to harm the railroads, but they were planning to assassinate newly elected president Abraham Lincoln during his “whistle stop tour” of the nation on his way to the inauguration. The weakest point in the journey was Baltimore, Maryland, where the President-Elect would have to disembark one train, travel approximately a mile via carriage, and board another train to complete the journey. But with knowledge of the plot ahead of time, Kate Warne was able to dress President-Elect Lincoln as her invalid brother, usher him to a different train, and slip past the secessionists undetected. During the entire operation, Warne stayed awake, earning the agency their iconic tagline: “We Never Sleep.”

 

Throughout the Civil War, Kate Warne worked closely with Allan Pinkerton and other agency operatives to ferret out information of Southern troop movements and tactical plans. Again, Kate used her acting ability to play the role of the rich Southern socialite and infiltrate social gatherings. She proved most helpful in spying and gathering intel to help the Union.

 

During this time, Allan Pinkerton also made her the head of his Female Detective Division, giving her the title of Female Superintendent of Detectives. While Kate was the first female detective, she was not the last. But Pinkerton so trusted her, he made her the trainer for every female detective who came along after her—right up until her death in 1868.

 

Kate continued to work with the Pinkertons until she contracted and succumbed to “congestion of the lungs” (or pneumonia). She was buried in Graceland Cemetery in Chicago. Years later, upon his passing, Allan Pinkerton was buried next to her, with his wife’s grave on the other side.

 

Very little of Kate Warne’s life is documented, outside of her work with the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, and even that information suffered a great loss when agency records burned in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Despite these facts, Warne’s legacy lived on in the Pinkerton Detective Agency, where she was said to be a source of inspiration, and where female detectives continued to be hired after her passing.

 

It's Your Turn: Were you familiar with this trailblazing woman? What do you find most inspirational about her?

 

Jennifer Uhlarik discovered the western genre as a pre-teen when she swiped the only “horse” book she found on her older brother’s bookshelf. A new love was born. Across the next ten years, she devoured Louis L’Amour westerns and fell in love with the genre. In college at the University of Tampa, she began penning her own story of the Old West. Armed with a B.A. in writing, she has finaled and won in numerous writing competitions, and been on the ECPA best-seller list several times. In addition to writing, she has held jobs as a private business owner, a schoolteacher, a marketing director, and her favorite—a full-time homemaker. Jennifer is active in American Christian Fiction Writers, Women Writing the West, and is a lifetime member of the Florida Writers Association. She lives near Tampa, Florida, with her husband and fur children.

 

Coming April 1, 2025

 

Love and Order by Jennifer Uhlarik

 

Separated as children when they were adopted out to different families from an orphan train, the Braddock siblings of Callie, Andie, and Rion have each grown up and taken on various jobs within law enforcement and criminal justice. When the hunt for a serial killer with a long history of murders reunites the brother and sisters in Cambria Springs, Colorado, they find themselves not only in a fight for justice, but also a fight to keep their newly reunited family intact. How will they navigate these challenges when further complicated by unexpected romances?

 

 

 

Allan Pinkerton--A Man on the Cutting Edge

By Jennifer Uhlarik

 

It’s been a bit of a dry spell in my publishing journey. My last novel, Love’s Fortress, was published in March of 2022, but I’m excited to say that on April 1, 2025, my fifteenth story, Love and Order, will be coming out. This one is different in a couple of ways from anything else I’ve published. For one, it’s my first true mystery. For another, it’s told in the form of three interconnected romance novellas, sort of in the format of an episode of the TV show, Law & Order. The novel revolves around three orphaned siblings who were separated when they got adopted to different families in different locations from an orphan train. As adults, they each have gone into some form of law enforcement or criminal justice (Pinkertons, bounty hunters, and attorneys—OH MY!) and are reunited as they try to bring a serial killer to justice. Each part of the larger novel focuses on one of the siblings and their part of the case, from investigation all the way through courtroom drama (with some bounty hunter action mixed in), and each novella has its own romance. So, in gearing up for my next new release, I thought we’d visit some of the fun stuff I got to research in writing this tale. Today, we’ll look at Allan Pinkerton and the Pinkerton National Detective Agency.

 

Allan Pinkerton

 

Scottish-born Allan Pinkerton was born on August 21, 1819, the son of a retired police officer. Unfortunately, his father died by the time Allan was ten, forcing the boy to leave school and train as a cooper (a barrel-maker). As an avid reader, Allan’s education continued through the many books he read on a variety of topics.

 

In 1842, Pinkerton came to America and settled in Dundee Township, Illinois, where he set up his own barrel-making business. He worked to build a snug cabin, sent for his wife who was in Chicago at the time, and happily conducted business in Dundee.

 

Prairie Pirates

 

But Pinkerton was an abolitionist who allowed his home to be used as a stop on the Underground Railroad. It was this fact which caused him to come under the scrutiny of the Banditti of the Prairie—a loose alliance of outlaw gangs which operated in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and beyond. These gangs were best known for an escalating list of crimes such as burglary, livestock theft, stagecoach robbery, highway robbery, counterfeiting, and even murder. They didn’t care for a do-gooder like Pinkerton aiding slaves in their flight to freedom, so they burglarized his home. 

 

Not one to take the burglary lying down, Pinkerton took note of those he saw on his trips into the woods as he searched for timber to make barrel staves. It was here, he began noticing the comings and goings of some from this Banditti group.

 

A wise and patient man, Pinkerton watched and waited, keeping track of who he saw, where, and what they were doing. After some time, he presented the Chicago police with a detailed report on what he’d found, and they were able to take down the gang, which was thick into a counterfeiting scheme. For his trouble, he was asked to become Chicago’s very first police detective in 1849.

 

Hiring The First Female Detective

 

Pinkerton’s stint with the Chicago Police lasted only about a year. In 1850, he and attorney Edward Rucker started what would eventually come to be called the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. Early jobs for the agency included supporting other abolitionists in their meetings, as well as investigating robberies of the Illinois Central Railroad. It was this connection that led Pinkerton to meet and befriend the up-and-coming attorney, Abraham Lincoln, who was the contact person on all Illinois Central Railroad cases.

 

One day in 1856, Allan Pinkerton was surprised to find widow Kate Warne in his Chicago office. She presented his newspaper ad requesting detectives and said she wanted the job. It took some convincing, though he decided to take the chance on her. It ended up being a good gamble for them both. Warne was hired as the first female detective in the United States, and the Pinkertons got an amazing operative who became the head of the Pinkerton’s Female Detective Bureau. (I’ll give you more details of Kate Warne in next month’s post).

 

Predecessor to the United States Secret Service

 

The Presidential Election of 1860 was a tumultuous one. When Abraham Lincoln was elected in November of that year, he became the first Republican candidate to win a presidential election—and the already-divided nation was driven apart even further. States threatened to secede, and people plotted to take out President-Elect Lincoln. It became evident that some of those threats were credible and might happen during Lincoln’s 70-city Whistle Stop Tour, leading up to his inauguration in early 1861.

Allan Pinkerton sent Kate Warne undercover to ferret out the “Baltimore Plot.” It was in Baltimore where President-Elect Lincoln would have to take a carriage from on train station to another to continue his journey, and in that vulnerable transfer, Southern sympathizers and secessionists planned to do him in. Once the details were discovered, Pinkerton and Warne concocted a plan to disguise Lincoln as the invalid brother of Kate, also in disguise, and were able to safely get him away to a separate train and on into Washington D.C. for the inauguration. Because of the Pinkerton Agency’s involvement in protecting the President-elect, it is often viewed as the precursor to the modern-day Secret Service.

 

Forerunner of the U.S. Army Counterintelligence Unit

During the Civil War, Allan Pinkerton worked closely with General George B. McClellan, who commanded the Army of the Potomac. Pinkerton worked as a spy, often going undercover into enemy territory to gather intelligence on troop numbers and locations of the Confederate Army. It has been widely debated whether he helped or hurt the Union with his spying. Some have said he so overinflated the numbers of troops the Union would be facing that it caused McClellan to act too cautiously. However, others stated that the numbers and intelligence he delivered was really quite accurate, but that the inflation came from some less trained operatives or from McClellan himself. Regardless, the type of data and his procedures in gathering it are often viewed as a model or precursor for the United States Army’s Counterintelligence Unit.

 

One of the First Criminal Databases

 

Allan Pinkerton was meticulous about keeping records—so much so that he is also
credited with creating one of the earliest criminal databases. Known as “the Rogue’s Gallery,” this database included mugshots and case histories on Pinkerton cases. He and his operatives would include physical descriptions, known birthmarks, scars, and other distinguishing marks; any aliases; known friendships or alliances with other “rogues”; newspaper articles and clippings about the criminals and their exploits; extensive rap sheets of their past crimes; and any areas of expertise for the person in question. Around the time of his death, Pinkerton was working to centralize this database with other similar databases from other detective and law enforcement agencies, similar to the FBI’s criminal database in use today.

 

It's Your Turn: What cutting-edge aspect of Allan Pinkerton’s life or detective agency did you find most surprising? Why?

 

Jennifer Uhlarik discovered the western genre as a pre-teen when she swiped the only “horse” book she found on her older brother’s bookshelf. A new love was born. Across the next ten years, she devoured Louis L’Amour westerns and fell in love with the genre. In college at the University of Tampa, she began penning her own story of the Old West. Armed with a B.A. in writing, she has finaled and won in numerous writing competitions, and been on the ECPA best-seller list several times. In addition to writing, she has held jobs as a private business owner, a schoolteacher, a marketing director, and her favorite—a full-time homemaker. Jennifer is active in American Christian Fiction Writers, Women Writing the West, and is a lifetime member of the Florida Writers Association. She lives near Tampa, Florida, with her husband and fur children.

 

Available for Pre-Order (Coming April 1, 2025):

 

Love and Order by Jennifer Uhlarik

Separated as children when they were adopted out to different families from an orphan train, the Braddock siblings of Callie, Andie, and Rion have each grown up and taken on various jobs within law enforcement and criminal justice. When the hunt for a serial killer with a long history of murders reunites the brother and sisters in Cambria Springs, Colorado, they find themselves not only in a fight for justice, but also a fight to keep their newly reunited family intact. How will they navigate these challenges when further complicated by unexpected romances?

 

 

 

They Never Sleep: The Pinkertons

by Kathleen Y'Barbo
          
Allan Pinkerton was a Scottish immigrant and barrel maker who accidentally discovered a talent for catching criminals—in his case counterfeiters using a neighboring island in the Fox River as their base. Meanwhile, Allan’s brother, Robert, was also using his wits to catch bad guys, first as a railroad contractor and then as a provider of guards for the Wells Fargo coach line.

            The brothers joined forces in 1850, and the Pinkerton National Detective Agency was born along with the motto “We Never Sleep”. Their three-story Chicago building boasted their logo, an eye painted in black and white, that was the origin of the term private eye.

            According to the Pinkerton Agency’s website, www.pinkerton.com/historywww.pinkerton.com/history, the Pinkerton Code is as follows:

• ·      Accept no bribes
• ·      Never compromise with criminals
• ·      Partner with local law enforcement agencies
• ·      Refuse divorce cases or causes that initiate scandals
• ·      Turn down money rewards
• ·      Never raise fees without the client’s pre-knowledge
• ·      Keep clients apprised on an ongoing basis

            Pinkerton agents were well trained and well paid. Their expertise in surveillance was beyond comparison. Allan Pinkerton was an early proponent of using female agents, determining that often it was the lady who was least suspected of being a detective.

            One famous lady Pinkerton was the widow, Kate Warne, thought to be the clean-shaven person standing behind Mr. Pinkerton in the photograph from the Library of Congress archives. Kate Warne, a woman who it is claimed walked into the Pinkerton offices seeking a secretarial job only to leave as a detective, is one of the more memorable Pinkertons, and definitely the first female agent.

            Among Mrs. Warne’s many accomplishments was the detection of a plot against President-elect Abraham Lincoln. Not only did she learn of the plot, but she also saved the president’s life by helping to smuggle him into Washington DC for his inauguration disguised as her invalid brother. Later, during the Civil War, it has been alleged that Mrs. Warne was quite adept at fitting in on both sides of the lines and brought back valuable intelligence to the Pinkerton offices. Quite the accomplishment considering women were not yet accepted as valuable members of any other crime fighting organization.

            Such is the legacy of agents such as Warne and her fellow Pinkertons that the agency is still in existence today. Now called Pinkerton Government services, they employ more than 4,000 security officers and claim a 90% government security clearance rate. Thus, even today, Pinkertons are on duty. 

Bestselling author Kathleen Y’Barbo is a multiple Carol Award and RITA nominee of forty-five novels with almost two million copies of her books in print in the US and abroad. A Romantic Times Top Pick recipient of her novels, Kathleen is a proud military wife and an expatriate Texan cheering on her beloved Texas Aggies from north of the Red River. To find out more about Kathleen or connect with her through social media, check out her website at www.kathleenybarbo.com.

Flora Brimm, a not so prim and proper Natchez belle with four fiances whose untimely deaths kept them from arriving at the altar has just discovered she is the subject of a Pinkerton investigation and just may be engaged to a jewel thief. Meanwhile Pinkerton agent and inventor Lucas McMinn is trying to decide whether the lovely lady is part of the solution or the problem. Southern historical with a dash of steampunk, Flora's Wish is in stores now.