The Pinkertons became the most famous detective company in the U.S. But were they noble or notorious? We get to the bottom of it all in today's episode.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Chapter 1: What is the Pinkerton Detective Agency?
Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's Chuck, and there's Jerry, and this is Stuff You Should Know. And we're keeping an eye on you, sucker. Did I throw you off when I pre-recorded? No. I'm always expecting anything from you.
We do our usual countdown, everyone, so we can sync sound. And you do that. Here's a little how the sausage is made. You do that by counting down and then each of us clapping. So you have a spike in the audio wave file that the engineers and editors can align so we match up.
Right.
And I clapped, but this time I also said, Schlemiel, hoping you would say.
Oh, you set me up, huh? I'm sorry. That's okay. Well, here, let me say it now. Schlemazel.
There you go.
Okay. Are you ready to get on with our sausage party?
Gross.
Yeah, sure. Okay. That was nice of you to kind of give that behind-the-scenes tour to everybody, Chuck.
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Chapter 2: Who were the founders of the Pinkerton Agency?
No, he he may have single handedly added years on to the Civil War when he told McClellan, General McClellan, that he estimated the Confederates had between, I think, 100 or 200000 troops. Yeah, I saw 200. Yeah. So at the time, Robert E. Lee had 40,000 to 45,000 troops. So he grossly overestimated it. And McClellan had something like 76,000 troops.
So they could have very easily overwhelmed the Confederacy early on had Pinkerton not overestimated the troops. And I also saw McClellan didn't vet that information at all. He just took it on face. Yeah. And by the way, all of you Civil War buffs, if you can go back and unsend your emails, it's not William McClellan, it's George B. McClellan. I'm sorry, I misspoke.
Oh, I think I said William too, didn't I? Or did I?
I led you down the wrong path.
So Pinkerton would eventually leave his role in military intelligence. I think this was in 1862 after McClellan, who had hired him, was demoted. Essentially, he lost his whatever. Not role. Huh? Position.
Position.
Yeah, I guess he lost his position as rank leader or whatever. Those are made up terms. Not going to be emailed by Civil War buffs at all. And then he said, all right, let me go back. You know, he still had his private detective agency. So let me go back to doing that.
And I guess we can talk a little bit about some of the other innovations, you know, aside from hiring women to work as as infiltrators and moles. He and I believe we've talked about this in one of our crime episodes. Yes. Did we do one on mugshots or just. I think it came up because criminal databases, maybe.
Yeah. Alphonse Bertillon or Bertillon. He he and I think like the 1840s came up with the idea of mugshots, fingerprints using like head measurements to basically create a database of criminals so that they couldn't pose as other people. And I guess that Pinkerton heard about this and brought it to the United States.
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Chapter 3: What were the Pinkertons known for?
So, best B-A-R-B, right? Yeah. All right. Just call me Barb from now on.
Okay, Barb.
I have a beloved aunt named Barb. I do too. Or Emily does. So she's sort of my aunt as well.
Yeah, you can claim her. All right. So there's another thing that Pinkerton did to really kind of help establish his agency as like just nationally recognized and also kind of heroes. They were considered heroes across the United States. Because they went after bad guys and they usually got their man. They were very persistent and dogged. Sometimes they would pursue criminals for years.
Like it wasn't like, well, we tried for a month and we gave up. Like they would just keep going until they found the person. They would pursue them into Canada sometimes, into Mexico and beyond. And I guess one of the reasons why they were revered is because they had a code of conduct that was like strictly implemented and It was things like we will take no bribes. Sure.
Which was a big one at the time. Oh, yeah. Probably still is now. We'll never compromise with criminals. Yeah. We will partner with local law enforcement when possible.
Okay.
This one stood out to me. I thought this was kind of upstanding. They wouldn't take divorce cases or any case that could create a scandal for anybody.
Yeah.
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