"'All history proves that no one can hug a secret to his breast and live (...) This is especially noticeable in persons who have committed criminal acts.' When a trusted employee is suspected of stealing from the Adams Express Company in Alabama, the organization reaches out to the Pinkertons, the world’s first private detective agency. Recounting true events, ‘The Expressman and the Detective’ (1874) tells a fascinating and suspenseful story of an investigation in which all that can prove a person’s guilt is a confession. Allan Pinkerton, the founder of the agency, assigned agents to shadow the suspect, others to gain his trust and he was among the first to hire a female detective. The London Times famously called him 'a man at once deeply admirable and quite obnoxious.'
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Allan J. Pinkerton (1819-1884) was a Scottish-American detective and founder of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. He recounted his first big investigation in ‘The Expressman and the Detective.’ A dedicated abolitionist, he offered his Illinois home as a stop on the Underground railway for escaping slaves."
"Allan Pinkerton (1819-1884), a Scotsman by birth and a barrel-maker by trade, settled in Chicago in its infancy and founded the Pinkertons, the world's first detective agency. Though events associated with the agency after his death have tarnished the name, Pinkerton himself was one of the original human rights advocates. He was a dear friend to John Brown, an advisor to Abraham Lincoln, and 80 years ahead of his time in hiring female detectives. He was also stubborn, irascible, and an egomaniac.
The Expressman and the Detective (1874) is Pinkerton's first attempt at putting his real-life experiences into novel form. Though many later works attributed to Pinkerton are understood to have been ghostwritten, this is the work of the man the London Times calls "a man at once deeply admirable and quite obnoxious." (Summary by Pete Williams)"
