The name of this famous detective has long been a household name. His detective agency “Pinkerton” (founded as the “Pinkerton National Detective Agency”) is still working. It is considered one of the best of its kind.
On 25 August 1819, Allan Pinkerton was born in the family of a police sergeant in Glasgow (Scotland). He started his career as an ordinary police officer. In 1842, he moved to the United States and settled in the town of Dundee near Chicago. There he continued to engage in cooperage and opened his own shop. Pinkerton revealed his talent as a detective only when one of his customers turned out to be a fraudster. Pinkerton personally found and captured the criminal. After this incident, he was elected local sheriff. He had been great at this job until the moment he decided to leave the police service. Then he moved from the suburbs to Chicago. He established one of the first private detective agencies there. It became the most famous one as well. The logo was a wide-open eye. The slogan – the phrase “We Never Sleep”. The agency specialized in railroad thefts. It was also responsible for preventing the first assassination attempt on President Lincoln.
Pinkerton accumulated a huge number of interesting stories after many years of detective practice. He decided to publish books. It was rumoured that he specifically hired writers. After the death of Allan Pinkerton, the agency was headed by his sons. Since then, the leadership of the detective agency has gone through some changes. However, it always kept the name of its founder.
President of the Union of Criminalists and Criminologists
Igor M. Matskevich
Translated by Elizaveta Ovchinnikova
