History of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency By Donna Schlachter -- with Giveaway

Allan Pinkerton. Courtesy Wikipedia

Allan Pinkerton, who founded the agency in the 1850s, came to the United States from Scotland, settling in Chicago. After meeting an attorney, the two decided to set up the North-Western Police Agency to address increased crime in the area and the nation. Originally, investigations were limited to policing employees for business owners to deter theft and embezzlement, but within five years, Allan Pinkerton created his own agency to specifically investigate railroad crimes.

Abraham Lincoln. Courtesy Wikipedia

One of the company’s earliest assignments was to safely deliver President Abraham Lincoln to Washington DC following an assassination threat. 

 

It was for this case that the first Pink Lady, Kate Warne, was assigned. She successfully delivered the president through a series of disguises and elaborate ruses, including duplicate trains and carriages. In fact, the case was important and difficult enough to require her to stay awake through the entire long journey. Thus began the company’s logo of an open eye and the slogan, “We never sleep.” 

Kate Warne. Courtesy Wikipedia

After the Civil War, the Pinkertons were hired by business owners to keep unions from organizing at their companies. The agency used a variety of operations, including infiltrating unions to gain information; supply guards to employers to keep organizers off the premises and to protect against property damage; bar strikers from properties; and recruiting goon squads to intimidate workers.
 

In 1871, the US government funded the Department of Justice to detect and prosecute anybody violating federal law. However, the fifty thousand dollars appropriated to fund the department wasn’t enough to form an internal investigation unit, so the Pinkerton National Detective Agency received a sub-contract to perform those duties.

Homestead, PA. Courtesy Wikipedia

In the 1870s, a Pinkerton operative, working undercover as James McKenna, infiltrated the Molly Maguires, a 19th-century secret society of Irish-Americans. He was so successful that the labor organization collapsed.

 

 

Frank & Jesse James. Courtesy Wikipedia

The agency was hired to track western outlaws Jesse James, Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid, and others. A number of notorious criminals were captured with the agency’s assistance. Pinkerton agents were well-armed, so they were often hired to transport money and other high-quality merchandise.  

 

While in the early years, the company enjoyed support from the public, their activities in strikebreaking earned them the reputation as being involved in violent crackdowns on striking workers, most notably, the Great Railroad Strike of 1877.

 

In 1892, the agency was hired to protect Carnegie Steel, owned by Andrew
Carnegie. During this strike, fights broke out between workers and strikebreakers. Three hundred Pinkerton agents were called in to protect the steel mill and strikebreakers. The governor mobilized state law enforcement and the National Guard. Private and government forces broke the strike, and the workers went back to work. When the air cleared, sixteen men lay dead. A large public outcry against their tactics decried the violence and treatment of strikers.

In fact, the Anti-Pinkerton Act of 1893 specifically says that no individual employed by that agency could work for or contract for the federal government

In the late nineteenth century, the Pinkertons were hired as guards for various natural resource companies, including coal, iron, and lumber, and acted in various disputes in Illinois, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.

I used Kate Warne as the basis for the heroine in my story, Kate. As a young widow in the 1850s, Kate marched into the Pinkerton office and said she wanted a job. Allan Pinkerton thought she meant a clerical job, but no. Kate wanted to be a detective. And she turned out to be one of his best “men”, paving the way for many more female detectives in the coming years.

Kate Warne was a feisty woman with definite ideas of how she wanted her life to go, and so is Kate. While Kate Warne never remarried, I wanted my Kate to balance family and a professional career, a relatively new concept in the 1870s.

Today, most career paths are open to men or women, but that wasn’t always the case.

Giveaway: Answer this question to be entered into a random drawing for an ebook copy of A Pink Lady Thanksgiving – had you ever thought to enter a career or accept a job that would normally have gone to someone of the opposite gender? 

 

I’ll go first. I once wanted to be a veterinarian in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. A teacher told me they didn’t want women officers, and I believed him. I “settled” for a career in accounting.

Please leave your comment along with your email address disguised like this: donna AT livebytheword DOT com

About Donna:
A hybrid author, Donna writes squeaky clean historical and contemporary suspense. She has been published more than 50 times in books; is a member of several writers groups; facilitates a critique group; teaches writing classes; ghostwrites; edits; and judges in writing contests. She loves history and research, traveling extensively for both.

www.DonnaSchlachter.com Stay connected so you learn about new releases, preorders, and presales, as well as check out featured authors, book reviews, and a little corner of peace. Plus: Receive a free ebook simply for signing up for our free newsletter!

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Resources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton_(detective_agency)

How Often Did Banks REALLY Get Robbed in the Old West?—and a Giveaway

I’m so excited! In just a few short days, it’s RELEASE DAY! My latest novella, The Brigand and The Bride, releases in The Mail-Order Brides Collection on February 1. Of any novella I’ve written so far, I think this one is my favorite. The heroine is a woman trying to escape her outlaw brother’s control. The hero is a man convicted of bank robbery.

Now if you watch very many western movies, there’s often a bank robbery. It’s a common staple in older western films. I can think of plenty of scenes I’ve watched where they use dynamite to blow the bank safe, or several masked robbers step in and empty the bank’s coffers at gunpoint, then gallop away on horseback.

But how often did banks really get robbed in the Old West? Truth be told, not near as often as the old western flicks would lead you to believe. That’s not to say that banks were never robbed—they were! But it certainly didn’t happen “regularly,” as one might believe from the cinema’s portrayal.

So what are the details of some of the real bank robberies of the Old West, you might ask? I’m so glad you did!

Jesse and Frank
James
(Photo in Public Domain)

Historians believe the first bank robbery to occur in the United States was perpetrated by none other than Frank and Jesse James. On February 13, 1866, they marched into the Clay County Savings Association in Liberty, Missouri, and escaped with $60,000 (that’s $883,533.86 in today’s dollars!). Why did they rob the bank? Well, aside from greed, the bank owner had served as a Union militiaman during the Civil War, and Frank and Jesse James were bitter ex-Confederates. With the Civil War being over for only a year, they were still fighting for their cause. During their escape, a single bystander was injured by gunfire, but the robbers were not caught.

The Youngers
(l-r: Bob, Jim, and Cole,
pictured with sister Henrietta)
(Photo in Public Domain)

With that success under their belts, the James brothers soon teamed up with the Younger family—Cole, Jim, John, and Bob—and several other outlaws to form the James-Younger Gang. They headed to the American Southwest where they committed a series of robberies—on both banks and stagecoaches—from the 1860s into the early 1880s. The James-Younger gang met its end when Jesse was killed by Robert Ford on April 3, 1882, and his brother Frank surrendered in October of the same year. Several of the Youngers also ended up in prison around the same time span.

Butch Cassidy
(Photo in Public Domain)

One of the most notorious bank robbers was Robert Leroy Parker, born on April 13, 1866. He was the oldest of thirteen children, and left his home in Beaver, Utah, as a teenager to find the riches he didn’t have with his family. Initially, he worked as a cowhand at various ranches with brief stints as a butcher interspersed between. It was during this time he befriended Mike Cassidy, a horse thief and cattle rustler. Their friendship would change the direction of Robert Leroy Parker’s life. Wanting to be like his friend, ol’ Robert changed his name—to Butch Cassidy.

Cassidy’s first major bank robbery happened in Telluride, Colorado, in 1889. There, he and three other cowboys robbed the bank of $20,000 ($508,176 in today’s dollars). With his ill-gotten gain, Cassidy bought a ranch in Wyoming. He continued to steal horses and cattle, and the law did catch up to him. In 1891, he spent two years in prison.

The Wild Bunch
(front row l-r: Sundance Kid, The Tall Texan, and Butch Cassidy.
back row l-r: Will Carver and Kid Curry)
(Photo in Public Domain)

The time away didn’t lessen Cassidy’s resolve. Once he was freed, he continued

his lawless ways, teaming up with several others in the gang known as “The Wild Bunch.” They robbed a bank in Montpelier, Idaho, for $7,000, then hit a series of other banks and trains. Butch Cassidy was said to have never killed a man during any of his escapades, though the safes he robbed didn’t fare so well. He and his gang were known to blow the safes up if those guarding them wouldn’t comply and open them.

Since the Union Pacific continued to get hit by this infamous gang, they finally employed the Pinkerton Detective Agency to stop them. The Pinkertons drove Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch into South America, where Butch and fellow gang member, The Sundance Kid, are said to have continued robbing banks until their deaths in a shootout in Bolivia.

The thing I find crazy about both gangs is that they were elevated to almost hero status. People followed the newspaper articles about their exploits, seemed excited to see them in action, and some even bragged that they’d been robbed by one gang or the other.

So I started out saying that the robbing of banks wasn’t anywhere near as prevalent in the Old West as the cinema once portrayed it. Just how often were banks robbed in the days of old? One statistic I saw said that in a 40-year time span, from 1859-1899, there were a whopping ten bank robberies in the U.S. and its territories. Perhaps that’s because banks weren’t on every street corner like they are today. Or maybe it is because the people of that era often carried guns, and a robber would’ve risked his own injury or death to rob banks and trains. However, we have historic proof that gangs like the James-Youngers and The Wild Bunch made a lifestyle of robbery, which fuels the myth that they were much more common than they really were.

I do have to say, it was rather fun to use a bank robbery in my story, The Brigand and The Bride, even if the real history says such events weren’t all that common.

It’s Your Turn: Did you know that bank robberies weren’t as common in the Old West as western films and books make them out to be? Do you like stories that contain this staple of western lore, even though it may not be as true to life? Leave your answer to both questions, plus your email address, and I’ll enter you in a drawing for an autographed copy of The Mail-Order Brides Collection.

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 won and finaled in numerous writing competitions. 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 and lifetime member of the Florida Writers Association. She lives near Tampa, Florida, with her husband, college-aged son, and four fur children.

The Mail-Order Brides Collection

What kind of woman would answer an advertisement and marry a stranger?

Escape into the history of the American West along with nine couples whose relationships begin with advertisements for mail-order brides. Placing their dreams for new beginnings in the hands of a stranger, will each bride be disappointed, or will some find true love?

Perfect for the Preacher by Megan Besing
The Outlaw’s Inconvenient Bride by Noelle Marchand
Train Ride to Heartbreak by Donna Schlachter
Mail Order Mix-Up by Sherri Shackelford
To Heal Thy Heart by Michelle Shocklee
Miss-Delivered Mail by Ann Shorey
A Fairy-Tale Bride by Liz Tolsma
The Brigand and the Bride by Jennifer Uhlarik
The Mail Order Mistake by Kathleen Y’Barbo

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

By Miralee Ferrell

I'm celebrating outlaws of the old west this month. Okay, so I'm not REALLY celebrating the outlaws, but rather the re-release of an older title of mine late this month under the new title, Outlaw Angel (first publ as Love Finds You in Sundance, Wyoming). And since it's set outside of Sundance, famous for the Sundance Kid, I thought it would be fun to explore the backgrounds of Sundance and his pal, Butch.

Did any of you ever watch the movie starring Robert Redford and Paul Newman? It's one of my all-time favorite westerns, truly a classic. And fun, to boot! I realize the writers probably took a bit of creative liberty with the historical aspect of that movie, but hey, it's entertainment, right? In fact, here's a fun short clip from the movie from YouTube. 

Butch Cassidy was born Robert Leroy Parker in 1866 as the oldest of 13 children. His parents and

grandparents were Mormon, and settled in Beaver, Utah where they started farming and raising cattle.  The story goes that his Parker's (Butch) first run-in with the law was at the age of 13. He'd started working for a neighboring ranch to help bring in money for his large family. He rode to a nearby store to buy a new pair of overalls for work, but the store was closed. He broke in, took the overalls, but left a note explaining he'd come back when they were open to pay. The storekeeper had him arrested, and this left Parker holding a grudge against authority, possibly the trigger that set him on the wrong side of the law. 

Here's a mug shot of Parker (Butch Cassidy) after one of his run-ins with the law. As an older teen he worked for a rancher who taught him to ride and shoot, but the man, Mike Cassidy, got into trouble with the law and fled the area. Several years later, at the age of 23, Parker took part in his first train robbery, where he and a couple of cohorts got away with the tidy sum of $20,000.00, a huge sum during that time period, Parker changed his last name to Cassidy, whether to protect his family name, honor his mentor, or both, no one knows. The nickname of Butch may have come a little later while working at a butcher shop in Wyoming.

Used from/www.history.com/news/history-lists/6-things-you-might-not-know-about-butch-cassidy

The Sundance Kid was born Harry Alonzo Longabaugh and got his outlaw start along with his nickname and an 18-month jail term in 1887, after stealing a horse near Sundance, Wyoming. Sundance met the woman who would become his companion, Etta Place, and later became affiliated with the Wild Bunch, which Butch Cassidy had also joined. Sundance and Etta lived in a tent near Butch at Robber's Roost, a remote outlaw hideout in SE Utah for a time while pulling off train robberies and other crimes. 

Although the academy-award-winning movie depicted Sundance and Cassidy as best friends, they actually weren't. They worked together, but Cassidy's best friend was another outlaw member of the Wild Bunch, William 'Elsy' Lay. Ten years later, during a train robbery in 1899, Lay killed a sheriff and was given a life sentence, but was released in 1906 after helping stop a prison riot. 

At the turn of the 20th century, outlaw Butch Cassidy surrendered his Colt .45

while seeking amnesty from the governor of Utah. His request denied, the famous robber continued his life of crime—without his trusty revolver.

A gun once owned by the legendary train and bank robber Robert LeRoy Parker, better known as Butch Cassidy, fetched $175,000 at auction. According to reports, the Colt .45 went to an anonymous online bidder. Owned by the famous bandit in the late 1890s, the revolver was described in a video released by its auctioneers as “the most fully documented Butch Cassidy gun in existence.” Along with its strong paper trail, the amnesty Colt’s unique characteristics have piqued the interest of collectors and historians. Most intriguing are numbers scratched inside the gun’s right grip, which some believe are the combination to an undiscovered safe in a Denver bank.

With the Pinkerton Detective Agency on their trail, both Butch and Sundance

The Wild Bunch--Cassidy Far Right

fled to Bolivia in 1901. The Pinkerton Agency sent a notice to banks there to be on the lookout for the two men. Eventually, their hideout was discovered and a battle ensued. However, when a man later identified the bodies, there was speculation whether the two men killed were actually Sundance and Cassidy. 

Although descriptions of the deceased bandits bore some resemblance to the legendary robbers, no photographs of the bodies were ever taken to provide proof.

With no conclusive evidence to confirm the deaths of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, rumors took root that the pair had once again eluded the long arm of the law, and sightings of the duo in South America, Mexico and the United States continued for decades to come.

Family members fueled the stories by insisting that the men had never been killed and instead returned to the United States to live into old age. Cassidy’s sister, Lula Parker Betenson, wrote in her 1975 book “Butch Cassidy, My Brother” that the outlaw had returned to the family ranch in Circleville, Utah, in 1925 to visit his ailing father and attend a family wedding. According to Betenson, Cassidy told the family that a friend of his had planted the story that one of the men killed in Bolivia was him so that he would no longer be pursued. She claimed that Cassidy lived in the state of Washington under an alias until his death in 1937. Betenson said her brother was buried in an unmarked grave in a location that was kept a family secret.

Coming the end of July--Outlaw Angel--previously Love Finds You in Sundance, Wyoming, with an epilogue added not in the original book

Angel Ramirez is tired of living a lie.
But can she learn to live like a lady?

On the run from a dangerous outlaw, Angel works her way across several states disguised as a boy and working as a varmint tracker and horse wrangler. After taking a job on a Wyoming ranch owned by a bachelor and his widowed sister, she finally reveals her true identity and must fight to prove her worth as a ranch hand while somehow discovering her role as woman.

Hiring a woman doesn’t sit well with Travis Morgan, and the dark-haired beauty is causing a ruckus among his cowboys. Just as Angel decides she’ll never be able to please her boss, an unexpected surprise arrives from across the ocean and makes trouble on the ranch. Will Angel leave with the person who’s come so far to claim her?

Miralee Ferrell is a best-selling and award-winning author with 19 books to her credit and another releasing this year. She lives in Washington state with her husband, two dogs, 2 cats, and 14 chickens, and loves traveling to various places for historical research. You can connect with Miralee, learn more about her books, and sign up for her newsletter at her website, or join her author group on Facebook.