The Pinkerton Detective Agency

Short History Of...

Noiser

History

4.8 • 4.1K Ratings

🗓️ 17 November 2025

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

⁠A Short History of Ancient Rome⁠ - the debut book from the Noiser Network is out now! Discover the epic rise and fall of Rome like never before. Pick up your copy now at your local bookstore or visit ⁠⁠noiser.com/books⁠⁠ to learn more. The Private Eye has long been a fixture of popular culture - from Sherlock Holmes, to Philip Marlowe, to Jessica Fletcher. But behind the fictional detectives lies a real figure whose influence shaped the very idea of the private investigator: Allan Pinkerton. After fleeing Scotland for the US under murky circumstances in the mid-1800s, he reinvented himself as a crime fighter and founded America’s first detective agency. Soon, his name was everywhere. His agents guarded trains, infiltrated gangs, and uncovered a plot to kill a president. But how did a poor Scottish immigrant build a private army more powerful than the police? How did his methodologies shape surveillance, and influence the foundations of the FBI? And what happened when his agents went head-to-head with legendary outlaws like Jesse James or Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid? This is a Short History Of The Pinkerton Detective Agency. A Noiser podcast production. Hosted by John Hopkins. With thanks to Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones, a historian, and author of Allan Pinkerton, America’s Legendary Detective and the Birth of Private Security. Written by Sean Coleman | Produced by Kate Simants | Production Assistant: Chris McDonald | Exec produced by Katrina Hughes | Sound supervisor: Tom Pink | Sound design by Oliver Sanders | Assembly edit by Anisha Deva | Compositions by Oliver Baines, Dorry Macaulay, Tom Pink | Mix & mastering: The Soundhouse Studios If you enjoyed this episode, you might also like to listen to the full story of the Baltimore Plot – when the Pinkerton Agency used cunning, guile, and disguise to foil an attempt on Abraham Lincoln’s life as he travelled to his presidential inauguration. You’ll find it as part of the Detectives Don’t Sleep series from the Noiser Network. Follow this link to listen right away: https://www.noiser.com/detectives-dont-sleep/the-baltimore-plot Get every episode of Short History Of… a week early with Noiser+. You’ll also get ad-free listening, bonus material and early access to shows across the Noiser podcast network. Click the subscription banner at the top of the feed to get started. Or go to noiser.com/subscriptions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode is sponsored by Cadbury Heroes.
0:05.2	If the past teaches us anything, it's this.
0:08.4	One great individual can change a moment, but when a group of great individuals come together,
0:13.6	that's when history is made.
0:16.0	Take the codebreakers at Bletchley Park, Turing, Clark, Welchman, each a genius in their own right, but together
0:22.6	they cracked the uncrackable code that won the war. Or those heroic swashbucklers, Dark Tannion
0:27.7	and the three musketeers, one for all and all for one. Or even nine of Cadbury's best chocolates
0:33.7	in one single tub. All heroes, no zeros, every last one of them. Cadbury Heroes.
0:40.1	Great on their own. Magic together. Get your fix now, wherever you get your treats. That's Cadbury Heroes.
0:46.3	Nine delicious chocks in one single tub. All heroes, no zeros.
1:03.0	It's 1847, and in Dundee, Illinois, a narrow skiff is gliding quietly and steadily along the tree-lined Fox River. On board, scanning the riverbank, is a cooper or barrel maker, Alan Pinkerton. His single paddle dipping gently into the water to guide his vessel along.
1:15.6	He's in his mid-twenties, sleeves rolled, muscles taught from work.
1:21.6	His boots are scuffed, his hands thick with calluses, and he moves with measured purpose, eyes narrowed and searching.
1:33.8	A couple of days ago, while scanning the banks for tall, straight timber to use in his coop
1:39.3	ridge, he happened upon a small encampment on an island in the river. Knowing that the spot offers little in the way of hunting,
1:47.0	and from the remnants of scrap metal and rough moulds he found,
1:50.0	he immediately suspected it to be the sight of some illicit practice.
1:56.0	Counterfeiting has already taken root in Illinois,
1:59.0	threatening to flood small towns like Dundee with worthless currency and ruin honest trade.
2:04.6	For a man trying to build a business and a life here, turning a blind eye isn't an option.
2:10.6	Today, he is back to investigate further.
2:23.3	As he nears a part of the river that splits around a small island, he picks up the scent of a campfire and something else too.
	...

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