PINKERTON DEAD.

Hokitika Guardian, 9 February 1924, Page 4

PINKERTON DEAD.

WORLD-FAMOUS DETECT!YJ

TRACKING CRIMINALS EUR ttf YEARS.

I.OS ANUKUJS, California, Dec. 9. Tilt* death is announced of William Pinkerton, the detective.

j William Allan Pinkerton had been i tracking criminals for d~ years, air; ! for .‘lll years he had been at the head ! of the largest detective agency in the I world, employing a stall of more than I 1.b01.l men. If was his lather who j built up lie- business to which he

succeeded :<ml made tin; name ol Pinkerton, a synonym for detective throughout. the I'niletl Sua.->. He; );n her. Allan Pinkerton, »as tino! a Clawrow police sergeant. Jin loo! no ambit ion to follow in nis Jath- < stops, and became a cooper, but, failing, to score any success at this trade, lie emigrated and settled ill tile I'niiod States in it little town not far west of Chicago. I Invse-.stealiug and forgery were rife tli.ie, and Allan Pinkerton, as an nniateor. caught so many horse-thieves and forgers that he was made the town’; sheriff. f; CAT! DING I’ll MSI DENT?. fionn ho went to Chicago and took ill, special (kteelive work. It was as a ie.--.ilt of liis success tlia.t his agency orew ramifications all over the l nit eel States, and the American Presidents engaged Pinkerton's men to guard them. It was Allan Pinkerton who saved Lincoln's life when it was attempted at Baltimore before the assassination at Washington. | William. Allan's son. wn- horn in | Illinois on April 7. It'll'. At l-> he | entered the I'nited Stales Army's j secret service and served through tlm Civil War with the army nl Potomac. lan it. he entered his father’s business a,, a clerk, and gradually worked his nay up until, when ids lather died. I lie "became the head of Pinkerton’s. ! Assisting him was his brother lvob- ! ert. who (lieil on hoard a liner on his j way to England in lOOfh The two | brothers were the first to utilise the resources of the telephone for entrapping rogues and assassins. One of lheir foes was Walter Sheridan, said to he the originator ol the extensive Bank of England forgeries involving e| ,000,OOf), for which the llidwclh were punished. PIIOTOCK.UMI THICK.

Al'tov commuting wlmlosnK' robberies lie failed to roll tlio National Rank of Cleveland,. Ohio, io Hill. A confide r:i to had got hold ol' Cti,‘JU: i in no to-', but was caught as h<- ivib carrying ilioin away, and Sin ri<h*>i was arrested as an accomplice, lie wa-virtuou-lv iin I i trna n t and 1 1 i bail was reduced nocnrdi 11 oI v to L'l.llltl. Slictiilan sacrificed the money and look In bis heels. The Pinkerton's diilieulty was io find a photograph with which to idcutil'v the fugitive. Other moan- lailine. some lit their men broke into the home ol some of Sheridan's relatives and stole the necessary likeness. Thousand- oi copies ol this were distributed throughout the country, am! in a lew weeks Sheridan was caught. Another Pinkerton triumph was the iv'-ororv ol the Ruelioss ot De»ousliireks (oiinshoroindi, w hich was stolen limn Ale.si's Agncw's gnlerv in lle.ndstrect on May 2d. Hid. The nest year a man named Kllint, who hud wall bed while the Cain-borough was .|,,l t . t.y nis confederate Adam Worth was captured by the Pinkerton- Hr a Mew York robbery. H,. was adveu seven years’ penal ~ rviinde and while in gaol he sent Pollen Pinkerton am! If ted t make terms with him lor the redtietio ol' his sentence, lie ottered to restor the missing Duchess. Robert l’inkei lon drew I'rnni him tlie" whole -lory c the robbery ol the painting, and vi solved io net. lint Worth, till in l.ondon. leurne of IfllioU's confession and lelt Io Smith Africa, lie was not captures until lie was surprised trying to ro the huliioii wagon oi a bank ai l.iogr This re-ulted ill his -ponding sevei years in pri.-oli. When iie came out. in Hit's. I K , K , mm by a fin-mi of ilm Pnikertons am was induced to go to Chicago, when lii* offered in restoro the painting: oi terms. DiHieuliies arose, and ii wa not until Afarch 1 DO! that Mr More lam! Aciicw received the picture hack Worth died in Knglaml in 1902. In HID there was a great strike at Nome stead, near Pittsburg, in tin ('anicgio Steel Works. The striker: were a -mixed army of all nalionali ties, li-arfiod wive entanglements snr founded the woi'lts, which flic striker. l held, and ;; couple of machine-gum kept blacklegs at a distance. Pinkerion was called upon, and be scnl alone nil army, ill an-wored shot with shot and its superior discipline won the day. SANK AS DKCOY. On one occasion Unhurt Pinkerton was commissioned to convey C 100,0(10 in bonds across the tTuited Sic-'" Thieves got wind of the trip and raided the train, gagging and binding the guard, and tumbled Robert Pinkerton's safe on to the line. They jumped alter it from the moving train and spent a long time getting the safe open, ft contained only waste paper. Meanwhile Pinkerton "was being whirled along with the bonds sewn inside ill lining of his clothes.

It was while William Pinkerton wain England in connection with a Haitimore bank robbery in 1873 that lie accidentally became mixed up with the Hank of England forgery case, by which Cl, non, ooo was to have been stolen. ■■[ was in a shop in the Strand." lie said later, "when Flidwoll and McDonnell walked in. I thought they were in prison in the States. Then while I was on my way home the frauds were discovered.'’ As a matter of fact. William Pinkerton, after meeting Hidwell. warned Scot laud Yard and sent home for records and photographs of the gang. Then, when Hidwell escaped the country. Pinkerton engaged a tramp steamer in the Edited States and arrived in Havana at (lie same time as the criminal.

JOY OF P.OBBFItY. One of the stories Wiliam Pinkerton used to tell was that of .James E. Cluthrio, a college graduate, a man of culture, admitted to good society, who nevertheless was an export, forger and an habitual burglar. Chicago had been the scene of a score of burglaries in wealthy houses, statuary and 01 tides classed as "im-po.-.-i 1 de of disposal" being stolen. From the hanker,- of a woman who had gone abroad i'l.OdO was obtained. A little later the bank advised Pinkerton's that they had some more suspicious cheques. A man was sent down to the bank. Presently the man who had presented the cheques appeared. He was arrested and at the police station he was .-topped just in time from swallowing a piece of paper. This was found to be a receipt for tho rent of a barn. In the barn £OO,OOO worth of stolen property was found, plunder from burglaries referred to. All the time Guthrie, for it was he had been studying or working in an office, and one bad suspected that he was a criminal. He confessed that he stole the things he could not get rid of for the sheer joy of the thing. Although aged 76, William Pinkerton when last in London, in 1922, did not look more than 55. He might havtfjiasst-d for a prosperotw'b.-.nker.

quiet. gTey-haired. and full of vigour. Criminals. he used i» soy. are made not born. Ho nil's loin! of praising the eflieienev of Scotland A or.l. and in 1911 caused its finger-print system to be adopted in Ids own country. The agency steadfastly reluied to touch divorce casts.