PINKERTON AGENCY

Evening Star, Issue 18532, 15 January 1924, Page 3

PINKERTON AGENCY

DEATH .OF FAMOUS SLEUTH.

STRANGER THANT EKTITON. In the unexpected -demise of William Allan Pinkerton., one of the owners of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, who passed away at the age of seventy-eight at Los Angeles, California, America lost her most famous sleuth, for he was one of the first-noted American criminologists to advocate and practise humanitarian methods in dealing with felons, and ho was credited with having reformed more safe-blowers and hank thieves than any other man in the United States (writes the ’Frisco correspondent of the Auckland ‘Star’). Primarily a thief-taker, Pinkerton spent more than fifty years of his life running down criminals of all classes, yet he always stood ready to proffer a helping hand to the unfortunate malefactor whose repentance was genuine, and whoso desire lo reform was sincere.

Knowing criminals and their methods, their weaknesses and their human side, Pinkerton never sympathised with the theorist and the, sentimentalist who sought, to reform desperate men by kind words. Rut he did know that a little help and a little encouragement at the right time and in the right place were frequently more effective than imprisonment. Scores of former criminals scattered over the United States are now living honest and useful lives as a result of the reform measures practised hy the arch-enemy of their criminal days. While Pinkerton and his men were responsible for sending thousands of criminals to the penitentiary, “ Billy ” Pinkerton had a heart as -big as all outdoors, and when a man h'ad “ done his bit” there was no quicker one to hold out a -helpful hand than this greatest of all detectives of his time. SOFT OF HEART. Pinkerton, who looked more like an alderman than the ordinary conception ot a detective, was square of jaw, determined of brain, and soft of heart. He had a- great human sympathy for the men he hunted. He knew what their lives were. Ho studied crime and the solution of it, not from the point of view of the police, but from the angle of the crooks themselves. Pinkerton felt that if he knew the ways of the crooks he always would have a foundation upon which to work when a crime was committed. This theory and a firm conviction that Sherlock Holmes's deduction “stuff” was “all bunk,” brought Pinkerton the success which made him not clone 'the best-known criminal export in the world, but which also made him one of the rich men of the -world. Hie Pinkerton fortune is estimated as high as _20,000,0C0d01, most of it inverted 'n Chicago real estate, but much of it in gilt-edge stocks, such as Pullman. Ca-r securities. Pinkerton’s career as a detective has extended over all the yearn since the Civil War. He ran away from home to enlist in the Union army. H-is father, Allan P. Pinkerton, the founder of the Pinkerton Agency, and also given credit for -the organisation of the United States Secret Service, intervened on behalf of his son and had him transferred to tho intelligence service -of the army, whore his inherited traits were o'winfinito value. Pinkerton's life story has in it all the thrill and cc-lor of the dime novel. His exploits range all the way from the trailing of the James's hoys to the capture of two other brothers who " put over a big job ” on that most unapproachable of all institutions, the Bank of England. Pinkerton has been' .said to have been instrumental in the breaking up of the James outlaw gang. Neither Jesse nor his brother Frank, however, ever served time. But their associates, Cole and Bob Younger, were sent to Coventry in the Stilhvater Gaol in Minnesota. The James boys were national heroes to the youngsters of -a generation ago, and correspondingly the Pinkertons were cordially hated by the boys, who looked upon the James’s band as modem Robin Hoods, always .courteous and lofty-minded in their stealing. Pinkerton always held that successful detective work was nothing more than painstaking attention to details, a good memory, and luck. He could easily have pointed to the solution in New York City of the bank messenger murder three weeks prior to his death as confirmation of his statements.

But Pinkerton always pointed to the famous Bank of England robbery as his justification. He was in London at the time. He had sent a suit of clothes to a tailor’s shop to be pressed, and, calling for the wearing apparel, he was amazed to see one of the Bidwell brothers enter the establishment. He knew this dangerous criminal was in London for no good purpose, and he also suspected that his brother was around. For some reason or other Pinkerton had a presentiment that the Bank of England was the goal of Austin and George Bidwell. Ho went around to the bank and warned the officials, but the bank authorities thought this was an American joke of some sort, and one of them is reported to have ejaculated ; “ You are spoofing, old thin?.” To this Pinkerton is said to have retorted: “ All right, but he on your guard.” THE LONDON BOBBERY, Pinkerton sailed for home. There was no wireiess in those davs, and ho did not know that the Bidwell boys had perpetrated the robbery on the venerable financial institution until he landed in New York. He smiled broadly when later ha received a, cablegram from the bank enlisting his services in capturing the robbers, who got about a million dollars on their haul The chase was a long and tedious one. Bui the Bidwells eventually fell into the hands of the Pinkertons at Havana, Cuba. What Billy Pinkerton charged the Bank of England for his services he never told. But he always wore a grin when he thought of it. Pinkerton's specialty was bank robberies and bank protection. The very fact that he numbered a bank among his clients was sufficient to protect that institution. For Pinkerton, believing there was honor among thieves, used to warn all his crooked friends that they were to “lay off” certain banks. Pinkerton also protected all the Eastern American race Backs, and his men were everywhere. There was no place so free of pickpockets and other petty thieves as the tracks which had Pinkertons for their guards. But Billy also indulged in the solution of hiiher crimes, and he onco regained a famous Gainsborough painting. Pinkerton was bom in Dundee, Illinois, and was educated in public and private schools, and when ready for college entered Notre Dame University. He married at the age of twenty, but his “better half” passed away in 1895. Two daughters survive him.