Pinkerton, founded as the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, is a
private security guard and detective agency established in the United
States by Scotsman Allan Pinkerton in 1850 and currently a subsidiary
of Securitas AB. Pinkerton became famous when he claimed to have
foiled a plot to assassinate president-elect Abraham Lincoln, who
later hired Pinkerton agents for his personal security during the
Civil War. Pinkerton's agents performed services ranging from security
guarding to private military contracting work. The Pinkerton National
Detective Agency hired women and minorities from its founding, a
practice uncommon at the time. Pinkerton was the largest private law
enforcement organization in the world at the height of its
power.During the labor strikes of the late 19th and early 20th
centuries, businessmen hired the Pinkerton Agency to infiltrate
unions, supply guards, keep strikers and suspected unionists out of
factories, and recruit goon squads to intimidate workers. One such
confrontation was the Homestead Strike of 1892, in which Pinkerton
agents were called in to reinforce the strikebreaking measures of
industrialist Henry Clay Frick, acting on behalf of Andrew Carnegie.
The ensuing battle between Pinkerton agents and striking workers led
to the deaths of three Pinkerton agents and nine steelworkers. The
Pinkertons were also used as guards in coal, iron, and lumber disputes
in Illinois, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia as
well as the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 and the Battle of Blair
Mountain in 1921.The company is now a division of the Swedish security
company Securitas AB. It operates as "Pinkerton Consulting &
Investigations, Inc. d.b.a. Pinkerton Corporate Risk
Management".[citation needed] The former Government Services division,
PGS, now operates as Securitas Critical Infrastructure Services,
Inc.[dead link]In the 1850s, Allan Pinkerton, Scottish detective and
spy, met Chicago attorney Edward Rucker in a local Masonic Hall and
formed the North-Western Police Agency, later known as the Pinkerton
Agency. Pinkerton (detective agency) Biography, NetWorth, Height, Age, Weight, Family, Married, Son, Daughter