The Great Train Robberies: FBI emerges from train robberies investigations

The Great Train Robberies: FBI emerges from train robberies investigations

Alan Pinkerton was the first private detective in the United States and the founder of a detective agency. The working methods of the Pinkertons formed the basis for the formation of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in America. The American Sherlock Holmes began his career as a private investigator on the railroad, where he practiced his own methods of intelligence and undercover work.

Scotsman Alan Pinkerton had no intention of working in law enforcement. He was first a tailor and later a cooper. Radical views led the man to the Chartist movement, which fought to change the political system of Great Britain. Running away from the police, the activist and his family emigrated to America. There, Alan tried to work by profession, but got into jam again. He became an accidental witness to the work of counterfeiters and helped the sheriff to catch them. Then he was asked to find the people who had forged the invoices. The man coped with this. Probably, it was all about genes – Alan’s father was a policeman.

Pinkerton began his security career as a deputy sheriff in Chicago. He had his own methods of work, which were different from the current ones. Therefore, Alan was in the civil service for a short time and opened his own business. In 1852, the Pinkerton detective agency was launched, which included 11 special agents. For the first time in history, there was a woman among the detectives.

At that time, train robberies became widespread. And the big companies hired Pinkertons to protect their property. The agency had virtually no competitors, and the police had limited resources. So, only 20 policemen guarded law and order in Chicago.

Business preferred the services of Alan’s agency, because it did not operate locally at railway stations, but accompanied trains throughout the country.

Pinkerton introduced the practice of creating a thieves’ filing cabinet. He is the author of undercover work and spy tricks. “We never sleep” was the company’s slogan.

On the eve of the Civil War, a federation supporter, President of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railways Samuel Felton, invited the Pinkertons to forestall sabotage. The detectives quickly found Confederate spies who wanted to sabotage. They talked about the preparation of an assassination attempt on President Abraham Lincoln, who was to travel from Philadelphia to Washington. Therefore, the train with the legendary 16th President of the United States moved under the protection of the Pinkertons and proceeded through Baltimore not during the day, as planned, but at night.

Alan’s detectives uncovered a robbery of a bank express in the amount of $700000. As it turned out, on October 6, 1866, the criminals boarded a passenger train near Seymour, Indiana. Masked men entered the mail car and took the key to one of the safes from the guard. Having robbed it, the thieves simply threw the second safe out of the car. Then the bandits gave a sign to the driver to make a stop and safely disappeared from the scene.

Pinkerton identified the members as the infamous Reno Brothers gang. Almost all victories over the famous bandits of the Wild West, including Butch Cassidy, Sundance Kid, Jesse James, were won by Pinkerton’s people.

Subsequently, Alan wrote several detective stories and memoirs. They give an idea of the life of the Americans of that time and the peculiarities of the train operation. The most popular was The Expressman and the Detective, which can be found on the Internet.

Railway magazine “Railway Supply”

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The Great Train Robberies: How train robbery supported Poland’s Independence

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