Allan Pinkerton - Bank Robbers and the Detectives

BANK-ROBBERS
AND THE
DETECTIVES.

Why, how are you Barnes, I am glad to see you.

BANK-ROBBERS

AND

THE DETECTIVES.

BY

ALLAN PINKERTON

Black Squirrel Books

an imprint of The Kent State University Press
Kent, Ohio 44242 www.KentStateUniversityPress.com

This facsimile and edition was produced using a scan of a first-edition copy of Bank-Robbers and the Detectives. The original edition is part of the Borowitz Collection in the Kent State University Special Collections and Archives and is reproduced with permission.

BLACK SQUIRREL BOOKS
Frisky, industrious black squirrels are a familiar sight on the Kent State University campus and the inspiration for Black Squirrel Books, a trade imprint of The Kent State University Press.
www.KentStateUniversityPress.com

Published by The Kent State University Press, Kent, Ohio 44242
All rights reserved
ISBN 978-1-60635-414-8
Manufactured in the United States of America

No part of this book may be used or reproduced, in any manner whatsoever, without written permission from the Publisher, except in the case of short quotations in critical reviews or articles.

First published by G. W. Carleton & Co., Publishers, New York, 1882.

Cataloging information for this title is available at the Library of Congress.

24 23 22 21 20 5 4 3 2 1

EXPLORING THE
BOROWITZ COLLECTION

Cara Gilgenbach
Special Collections and Archives, Kent State University

The Borowitz Collection, from which the editions of the Pinkerton detective stories are taken, was officially gifted to Kent State University in 1989 by Albert and Helen Borowitz of Cleveland, Ohio. The collection includes primary and secondary sources on crime as well as works of literature based on true crime incidents.

Albert and Helen Borowitz, both scholars themselves, built a scholarly collectionone that affords more than sufficient breadth and depth to support any number of research inquiries. The Borowitz Collection reflects the multidisciplinary expertise of Albert Borowitz (a Harvard graduate with degrees in classics, Chinese regional studies, and law) and his late wife, Helen Osterman Borowitz (a Radeliffe graduate and art historian with literary interests). In addition to collecting, Albert Borowitz is himself a scholar of true crime, having published over a dozen books and many articles on the topic, most notably his masterwork, Blood and Ink: An International Guide to Fact-Based Crime Literature.

The Borowitz collection is an extensive one, documenting the history of crime, with primary emphasis on the United States, England, France, and Germany from ancient times to the present day. It includes groups of materials on specific criminal cases that have had notable impacts on art, literature, and social attitudes. This provides the researcher with a wealth of material on those cases and their cultural effects. The collection includes nearly 15,000 volumes of books and periodicals, complemented by archival and manuscript collections. Special areas of note include an excellent collection of Sherlock Holmes and other Arthur Conan Doyle early editions; nonfiction and fiction works related to Jack the Ripper; nineteenth- and twentieth-century British and American crime pamphlets and broadsides; a Wild West collection; crime-related photographs, playbills, postcards, and other ephemera; and artifacts, graphics, and memorabilia related to crime.

The Borowitz Collection includes numerous works of detective stories, both fiction and nonfiction, including books from the Pinkerton Detective Agency series, which embody the collections central theme, namely how real-life elements of crime infiltrate creative works and works of the imagination. Although true crime is the primary focus of the Borowitz Collection, it also contains notable holdings in several other topics and genres, including a vast collection of sheet music spanning more than two centuries of popular musical taste and distinguished literary collections.

The collection provides rich sources to users as diverse as crime historians, film documentarians, museum curators, television and radio producers, antiquarian book dealers, novelists, and faculty and students of history, American studies, womens studies, and criminal justice, to name just a few. Kent State University is proud to steward this collection, and the present project to republish the Pinkerton detective stories is a further outgrowth of our desire to make these interesting and informative resources available to a wider audience.

CONTENTS.

I N presenting the story of THE BANK ROBBERS AND THE DETECTIVES, I have attempted to depict an operation which occupied my attention for a long space of time.

From the inception of this case until its conclusion, I never doubted the correctness of my suspicions, or despaired of eventual success, and the result fully proved the fact that on my first examination into the affair I had selected the proper persons upon whom to operate.

The proneness of humanity to temptation is fully exemplified in this case, and while it may occasion some surprise that a man of high social standing, of good business capacity, and enjoying the confidence of the community, should be guilty of the crime for which he was afterwards punished, it is only one more of the many instances which have come under my observation, where an ambition to become suddenly rich and a desire to gratify extravagant tastes have led men, hitherto honorable and upright, to the commission of crimes which have brought shame and disgrace to themselves, and have left the stain of dishonor upon their wives and children.

During the progress of this investigation, I was many times disheartened at the unfortunate operations of circumstances over which I could exercise no control; but in spite of every obstacle I was ultimately successful in maintaining the dignity of law, of capturing the thief, and of restoring to the proper persons nearly the full amount of the money which had been stolen from them.

That this result was accomplished by well-directed and untiring energy, and by a determination not to yield until success was assured, will appear upon a perusal of the narrative, and in the end the convicted man, despondent and despairing, was condemned to long years of imprisonment, and his prospects for life shattered by his own hand.

In all of the incidents related the fictitious has been avoided, and the real and actual only has been recorded.

ALLAN PINKERTON.

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS,

November, 1882.

BANK-ROBBERS

AND

THE DETECTIVES.

T HE business of investigating crime and evil doing generally, is by no means always active. It has its quiet periods, as have other occupations; but, different from most of these, its seasons of dullness and activity succeed each other with no apparent regularity. Just as merchants at times find themselves pressed with orders beyond their means of supply, and at others are fated to days and weeks of idleness, so with my business; save that mischief throughout the range of my operations seems to be continuous, and even when the people are best behaved, I still find some work to be done.