PINKERTONS Ep. 5 | “Charlie Siringo: Into the Mines”

Legends of the Old West

Black Barrel Media

Society & Culture, Arts, History, Documentary

4.8 • 3.4K Ratings

🗓️ 20 August 2025

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the late 1880s, James McParland joins the Denver office and quickly becomes superintendent. With McParland at the helm, Charlie Siringo receives assignments involving labor unions in the West. In 1891, Siringo goes to the Idaho Panhandle with orders to infiltrate a local labor union in a case which would nearly cost him his life. Thanks to our sponsor, HelloFresh! To get started, check out our plan: HelloFresh.com/legends10fm Join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join Apple users join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes, bingeable seasons and bonus episodes. Click the Black Barrel+ banner on Apple to get started with a 3-day free trial. For more details, visit our website www.blackbarrelmedia.com and check out our social media pages. We’re @OldWestPodcast on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. On YouTube, subscribe to LEGENDS+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: hit “Join” on the Legends YouTube homepage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	On a cold spring morning in 1888, Sheriff Cyrus Shores escorted a scruffy, slender man into a jail cell in Montrose, Colorado.
0:23.0	The man was Charles Lawrence,
0:29.9	an accused wife killer from Wyoming. Sheriff Shores found Lawrence in his county and agreed to send him back to Wyoming to stand trial. Except Charles Lawrence was actually Charlie Seringo, and he was
0:36.3	hired by Shores to investigate three men
0:39.1	suspected of robbing a train. Those three men were now Seringo's cellmates. Since becoming a
0:46.8	detective for the Pinkerton agency, Charlie Seringo was always playing a character. But before
0:52.4	becoming an operative, Seringo had spent 15 years as a cowboy
0:56.3	in his home state of Texas. His extensive time on the range gave him tracking skills and the
1:02.6	ability to handle tough characters. Seringo had retired from cowboy life and moved to Chicago,
1:09.3	but no sooner had he arrived then the Haymarket affair exploded.
1:14.0	The violence convinced Sorringo he needed to become a detective. Once hired, the Pinkertons sent
1:20.2	Seringo to Denver. For two years, Seringo went undercover and infiltrated various gangs in order to
1:26.5	bring lawbreakers to justice,
1:28.7	which was why he was now undercover in a Montrose jail cell in the spring of 1888.
1:40.4	Seringo introduced himself as Lawrence to his new cellmates, two brothers known as Smith and their friend Ed Rhodes.
1:48.0	Seringo regaled them with false tales of his outlaw exploits, and his cellmates believed the lies.
1:55.0	They welcomed him as a fellow Desperado, and for the next two weeks, the four men swapped stories of crimes they had committed in Kansas,
2:02.8	Colorado, and Wyoming. Seringo was such a good actor, his cellmates were willing to share
2:08.3	some of their most intimate secrets, including the train robbery, which was the primary goal of
2:13.9	Seringo's mission. That train robbery had occurred back in November 1887. The three
2:21.1	robbers boarded a train outside Grand Junction, Colorado. They robbed the passengers, fled to
2:27.1	Green River, Utah, and hid for several months. Somehow, the details aren't clear, the three robbers
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Black Barrel Media, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Black Barrel Media and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.