Lincoln's Spymaster: Chapter 13–Epilogue

Looking out the window, the passengers could gaze at the dense woods, narrow valleys, deep gorges, and steep hills that were carpeted with brush and pine trees.

But clergyman Thomas Hagerty wasn’t looking out the window. The scenery had quickly become monotonous. Instead, he was reading a good book.

But before one of the masked bandits stepped off, he spoke a few lines of Shakespeare with a dramatic flourish.

And another one left behind a note. Using a pseudonym, Jesse James had written it especially for the newspapers.

But Pinkerton would never recover from one lasting effect of the stroke. It had forced him to slow down and relinquish some control of his detective agency.

I rule my office with an iron hand. I am self-willed and obstinate… I must have my own way of doing things.

While the building was still smoldering, he hired a team of carpenters to rebuild it.

In the three years since Pinkerton’s last investigation, Jesse’s reputation as a hero had grown into a mythic, Robin Hood-like image. His targets were greedy and ruthless bankers and railroad tycoons.

“He is utterly devoid of fear, and has no more compunction about cold blooded murder than he has about eating his breakfast.”

The coroner was notified, and he examined the body.

At the inquest, a jury gave the verdict “death from gunshot wounds at the hands of persons unknown.”

“We established the fact beyond all cavil that two hours after Whicher made known his stratagem to the sheriff, that the official was seen to stealthily enter the house of the [Samuel] family and forewarn them of the trap that was being laid for the [James] boys,” said Bob Pinkerton.

“We established the fact beyond all cavil that two hours after Whicher made known his stratagem to the sheriff, that the official was seen to stealthily enter the house of the [Samuel] family and forewarn them of the trap that was being laid for the [James] boys,” said Bob Pinkerton.

The sheriff emphatically denied it, calling Bob a “villainous slanderer and falsifier.”

Boyle, who was still ahead of them, pulled out his pistol, put spurs to his horse, and took off.

Holding the reins with his right hand, Lull desperately tried to regain control of his horse.

The James-Younger Gang had killed two of Pinkerton’s detectives within a week. Pinkerton was seething and out for blood.

On January 26, 1875, eight Pinkerton detectives, all armed with weapons, trudged through the wet snow with several trustworthy Clay County citizens.

Jesse’s family called it a bomb, and the Clay County newspaper called “the act…not only indefensible but cowardly and barbarous.”

The Pinkertons vehemently denied it was a bomb.

Despite the robberies and murders the James-Younger Gang had committed, the fireball explosion garnered an outpouring of sympathy for the James family and a tirade against the Pinkertons.

The Kansas City Times newspaper printed a scathing editorial with the blaring headline, PINKERTON’S VENDETTA.

The Kansas City Times newspaper printed a scathing editorial with the blaring headline, PINKERTON’S VENDETTA. It read in part:
PINKERTON determined to avenge the death of his men. He sent a force to surround the residence of DR. SAMUEL at night, hoping to find the JAMES boys there, but determined anyhow to leave his mark and take a terrible vengeance on the family.

But in this case justice looks only to the fact that the cowardly vengeance of baffled detectives makes indiscriminate war on a whole family.

The citizens…are greatly terror stricken as anytime during the war.

In a letter to the Nashville Banner newspaper, Jesse wrote:
[Pinkerton] may vindicate himself with some, but he better never dare show his Scottish face again in Western Mo…or he will meet the fate of his comrades, Capt. Lull & Whicher.

Joe Witchers [sic] came to Clay County, Mo…and went to the honorable sheriff…with ten thousand lies, and that night he was kidnapped and got his just deserts; and it was in revenge for that the Pinkerton force tried to destroy an innocent, helpless family.

The grand jury indicted eight Pinkerton detectives, including Allan, for the murder of Archie Samuel.

Newspaper editor John Edwards had no need to publish his letters and perpetuate an image of a Southern hero.

For Allan Pinkerton, Jesse James would always be the outlaw who not only tarnished his good reputation but the one who also got away.

In a letter to his son Bob, Pinkerton wrote, “I paid the penalty of having lost my men but I will not bandy words regarding those great men in the detective business…. I must say my end is accomplished and in that I am content.”

The debt which the coal counties owe to these men cannot be overestimated, nor can the personal qualities of untiring resolution, daring and sagacity, in both principal and agents be too highly praised.

Still walking with a cane, Pinkerton was now slightly stooped and his hands shook from palsy.

Early one morning, while Pinkerton was out taking his daily walk, he stumbled and lost his balance. Hitting the ground hard, Pinkerton bit his tongue and developed gangrene, making him dangerously ill.

The newspaper hailed him as “the great detective” and “a bitter foe to the rogues.”

Pinkerton had blazed the trail for detective and spy work.
And to this day, his legacy continues.

They also keep detailed records of criminals, just like Allan Pinkerton’s original and highly prized Rogues’ Gallery, which was his collection of criminal mug shots, biographies, and methods of operations. In fact, Pinkerton’s Rogues’ Gallery was the basis for the FBI’s Criminal Identification Bureau.

He negotiated one of the largest contracts ever for the agency when three thousand banks formed an alliance and hired them to provide security, with an eye on preventing robberies, forgeries, and swindles.

The racetracks hired Pinkerton guards against pickpockets, ticket forgers, and drunks. Cheating was also a problem. So Pinkerton’s National Detective Agency created a horse-identification system to thwart “ringers,” so a slow horse couldn’t be substituted with a fast look-alike horse.

In 1982, Pinkerton’s was sold to American Brands, a huge corporation. Six years later, the company changed hands again when its archrival, California Plant Protection (CPP), acquired Pinkerton’s. In 1999, Securitas, a Swedish company, bought Pinkerton’s, making it the largest security firm in the world.