Biography of Allan Pinkerton

Biography of Allan Pinkerton

Derek Fullmer

University of Phoenix

Introduction to Security

CJS/250

Jenelle Velarde

May 10, 2012

Biography of Allan Pinkerton

Allan Pinkerton was born on the day of August 15, 1819 in Glasgow Scotland. At a young age, Allan Pinkerton's father died as a police sergeant in the Glasgow Police Department. Later in life, Allan Pinkerton got involved in Chartism which he sought political and social reform; he also became a barrel maker. Even though Pinkerton was an abolitionist, his activities soon led to an arrest warrant for him that cause him to flee to the United States in 1842.

Once Allan Pinkerton was in the United States he settled in Chicago Illinois before he moved to a nearby town called Dundee a year later. During his time in Dundee he invested and created his own barrel making factory. However, since Allan Pinkerton was someone who was against slavery he also made his shop available for slaves to hide because most of them had escaped through the Underground Railroads. On the other hand, Pinkerton came across a gang of counterfeiters when he was gathering materials for his business on a nearby island. During this time he teamed up with the local sheriff and his primary job was to stake out the gang's hideout which led the sheriff to the arrest of the counterfeit gang. Due to his actions of helping out the sheriff and making other similar accomplishments, the people of Kane Country made Allen Pinkerton the deputy sheriff in 1846. Later on, Pinkerton also became the deputy sheriff of nearby Cook County in Chicago.

In the year of 1850 in Chicago Illinois, Deputy Sheriff Allan Pinkerton left his position to open his own private detective agency. Even though the Pinkerton National Detective Agency was one of the first of its kind they had many cases and specialized in railway theft cases. Many of the agency's accomplishments include capturing the $700,000 in the Adams Express company theft in 1866 and Pinkerton also discovered and exposed a plot to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln in February 1861. Allan Pinkerton's discovered that the conspirators planned to kill the president in Baltimore while he was on his way to his inauguration speech. For his discovery and actions he was later hired by President Lincoln to start the Secret Service to get military intelligence in the Southern States during the Civil War. At this time, Allan Pinkerton went under the name Major E.J. Allen.

After the Civil War in 1865 Allan Pinkerton decided to return back to Chicago Illinois to run his Detective Agency until he passed away