Scott here with another episode of the History Unplugged podcast.

In the 19th century, before career fields were specialized, you had to be a jack of all

trades. Perhaps nobody did that better than Alan Pinkerton. He was a Scottish immigrant

to the United States who first worked as a Cooper, or barrel maker. But after busing up a counterfeited

ring, he was hired by the city of Chicago as its first detective, and he later opened up a detective

agency. He investigated railroad crimes, and this got him on the radar of a young Abraham Lincoln,

who did legal work for the same companies, and provided protection for Lincoln during the

Civil War, foiling an assassination plot, and doing the work of an early secret service.

He then became head of the Union Intelligence Service, deploying undercover agents

across Confederate territories, collecting data on troop movements, and unfortunately, possibly

providing inflated troop numbers to Union General McClellan, causing the war to get off

to a slow start.

After the war, he developed

America's private security industry, providing armed guards for railroads, businesses, and public events,

which addressed the need for protection as the U.S. expanded westward. His agency was also involved

in labor surveillance and strike breaking, infiltrating labor unions, and suppressing union activities.

Pickerton's work bore the espionage, investigation, security,

that influence modern institutions like the FBI, the Secret Service,

private agencies like Blackwater.

To look at his life and how his influence led to much more private security

than there is public security in the United States,

we're joined by today's guest, Roderie Jeffries Jones, author of Alan Pickerton,

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