that story begins with allan pinkerton. he is a tough nut. he is hard to get to know. that is scrappy, grizzled, quick to anger. he began his career in scotland. he got into trouble with the law in scotland. he came to america as a cooper, a barrelmaker. and he moved here to illinois. and it looks like he is going to go on quietly making barrels for the rest of his life in dundee, illinois and one day he is out cutting wood for barrel states, he comes across the remains of a campfire and something doesn't look right to demand pecan to understand what people were doing in this remote spot. why they would have been there in the middle of the night. he spent a couple days investigating of, he waits around to see what happens. he discovers this remote island is being used by gang of counterfeiters. he comes back with the local sheriff, he leads a raid to that round the mall up and the next thing you know pinkerton is a lawman and soon after is that by slow degrees he works his way through the ranks and becomes something entirely new, a private detective. he sets up busines

allan pinkerton founder of the agency, spent his youth marching for the rights of working men in his native scotland and came under fire literally for doing so. allan pinkerton founder of the agency, ran a station on the underground railroad here in illinois helping fugitive slaves on their way north to freedom. he was a friend of john brown, the fire and brimstone abolitionists. even though the assistance he gave to brown in the days leading up to harpers ferry put him on the wrong side of the law. he is a lawman by day, a lawbreaker by night and believe me i am not putting him up her sainted and i'm not looking to apologize for some of the terrible things that he did in that happened on his watch and especially later on. but there is a story here that never gets told and it's the story of a barefoot cooper who becomes a world-famous detective and makes his bones protecting america's railroads. the illinois central railroad and illinois central also has a lawyer on retainer and his name is abraham lincoln. there -- there by is the tale. the bottom line is lincoln and pinkerton come

the book is the story to a large extent of allan pinkerton, famous detective of the ninete