Allan Pinkerton: A Brief Biography

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Allan Pinkerton Allan Pinkerton, Private Eye was one of America's first undercover agents, a Civil War scout, and guardian of President Lincoln. Allan Pinkerton was born in Glasgow, Scotland on August 25, 1819. Pinkerton was a bright and energetic youth who often avoided his schoolwork to wander off for days hunting in the forests north of Glasgow or fishing in the Clyde River (http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/gangsters_outlaws/cops_others/pinkerton/1.html). Pinkerton was the son of a police sergeant who was killed in a political riot that broke out in a city square, when Allan was a child. His father’s death left his family in poverty. Pinkerton fatherless left school and began working at a young age to help support his family. Allan first worked as a runner for a pattern maker, then as an apprentice in the McCauley Cooperage Works, barrel makers (http://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/nation/jb_nation_pinkerto_1.html). He became one of their sharpest craftsmen, often making…show more content…
They intended to kill Lincoln in Baltimore during a stop on his way to his inauguration. Pinkerton later warned Lincoln of the threat, and the president-elect's itinerary was changed so that Lincoln would pass through the city secretly at night. Lincoln later hired Pinkerton to organize a "secret service" to obtain military information in the Southern states during the Civil War (http://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/nation/jb_nation_pinkerto_1.html). In Tennessee, Georgia and Mississippi, he performed his own investigative work and traveled under the false name "Major E.J. Allen." After the war in 1865, Pinkerton resumed management of his detective agency. By this time, the U.S. Secret Service had been established to fight counterfeiting. By 1901, the U.S. Secret Service’s mission included protecting the president
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