Pinkerton

Pinkerton
CJS/250
August 27/28, 2010
Al Garcia

Pinkerton
Today when someone thinks of policing in the old west they think of people such as the Earp Brothers and the O.K. Corral or Pat Garrett and his trials with Billy the Kid. It seems as though the majority of people have forgotten about the man who had the largest effect on policing in the west, Allan Pinkerton. Pinkerton is probably best know as the man who chased down notorious bad guys such as Jesse James and Butch Cassidy. The actuality of it is that Allan Pinkerton’s whole life was dedicated to public and private security.
Allan Pinkerton did not start out in the security field as many may think. Actually, he was originally a cooper or a “barrel maker” in Scotland. It was not until he migrated to the United States he found himself as a part-time Deputy Sheriff of Dundee, Illinois. However, as fate would see it Pinkerton moved back to Chicago. There Pinkerton was known for his exceptional detective skill and was hired on multiple occasions to put those skills to the test. It was the time that Pinkerton tracked down two kidnappers that got him the most attention from the Cook County Sheriff's department. For they are the who hired him to track the kidnappers down. The capture of the kidnappers along with a few other jobs landed him a full-time job as the Cook County Deputy Sheriff. However, this new full time job was not the only thing Pinkerton was doing. While he was not on duty he was doing private detective work.
See, the term “private eye” can be traced back to Pinkerton's detective agency's logo. It was an open eye. The agency in which he opened around 1850. The agency was first called The North-Western Police Agency but later renamed The Pinkerton National Detective Agency. The agency was a hug success. It offered both public security as well as private. The agency was hired to protect President Abraham Lincoln. They actually stopped an early assassination attempt on President Lincoln. Due... [continues]

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