Editing Pinkerton (detective agency)

{{short description|American private law enforcement agency}}
{{redirect|Pinkertons|other uses|Pinkerton (disambiguation)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2022}}
{{Infobox company
| name = Pinkerton
| logo = Pinkerton logo.svg
| logo_size = 125px
| vector_logo = 
| type = [[Subsidiary]]
| foundation = {{circa|1850}}; {{Years or months ago|1850}}, [[Chicago]], Illinois, U.S.
| founder = [[Allan Pinkerton]]
| location = [[Ann Arbor, Michigan]], U.S.
| origins = 
| services = Security management, [[risk management]] consulting, investigations, employment screening, protective services, security, crisis management, intelligence services
| key_people = 
| area_served = Worldwide
| industry = [[Private police]]
| products = 
| revenue = 
| operating_income = 
| net_income = 
| num_employees = 
| parent = [[Securitas AB]] (1999–present)
| divisions = 
| dissolved = 
| footnotes = 
| homepage = {{URL|https://pinkerton.com}}
}}

'''Pinkerton''' is an American [[private investigator|private investigation]] and [[security company]] established around 1850 in the United States by Scottish-born American [[cooper (profession)|cooper]] [[Allan Pinkerton]] and Chicago attorney Edward Rucker as the '''North-Western Police Agency''', which later became '''Pinkerton & Co.''' and finally the '''Pinkerton National Detective Agency'''. At the height of its power from the 1870s to the 1890s, it was the largest private law enforcement organization in the world.<ref>{{Cite journal |author=TM Becker |year=1974 |title=The place of private police in society: An area of research for the Social Sciences |journal=Social Problems |volume=21 |issue=3 |pages=438–453 |doi=10.2307/799910 |jstor=799910}}</ref> It is currently a subsidiary of Swedish-based [[Securitas AB]].<ref>{{cite web |url= http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=6529009 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130728190638/http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=6529009 |url-status= dead |archive-date= July 28, 2013 |title=Pinkerton Government Services, Inc.: Private Company Information – Businessweek |work=investing.businessweek.com|access-date=September 25, 2012}}</ref>

Pinkerton became famous when he claimed to have foiled the [[Baltimore Plot]] to assassinate President-elect [[Abraham Lincoln]] in 1861. Lincoln later hired Pinkerton agents to conduct espionage against the Confederacy and act as Lincoln's personal security during the [[American Civil War]].<ref name="Green">{{cite book| last =Green| first =James| year =2006| title =Death in the Haymarket: A Story of Chicago, the First Labor Movement, and the Bombing that Divided Gilded Age America| publisher =Pantheon Books| isbn =0-375-42237-4| url =https://archive.org/details/deathinhaymarket00gree}} p. 43</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Today in History – August 25 |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/august-25/ |access-date=April 21, 2022 |website=Library of Congress}}</ref>  As such, Pinkerton and his agency are sometimes seen as the forerunners of the [[United States Secret Service]].

Following the Civil War, the Pinkertons began conducting operations against organized labor.<ref name=":0" /> During the labor strikes of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, businesses hired the Pinkerton Agency to [[Labor spying in the United States|infiltrate unions]], supply guards, keep [[Strike action|strikers]] and suspected [[trade union|unionists]] out of factories, and recruit [[goon squad]]s to intimidate workers.<ref name=hm>{{Cite web |title=The Strike at Homestead Mill |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/carnegie-strike-homestead-mill/ |access-date=April 20, 2022 |website=www.pbs.org |language=en}}</ref> During the [[Homestead strike|Homestead Strike of 1892]], Pinkerton agents were called in to reinforce the [[Strikebreaker|strikebreaking]] measures of industrialist [[Henry Clay Frick]], who was acting on behalf of [[Andrew Carnegie]], the head of [[Carnegie Steel Company|Carnegie Steel]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carnegie/sfeature/mh_horror.html|title=Strike at Homestead Mill|publisher=Public Broadcasting System|access-date=June 27, 2015|archive-date=April 8, 2000|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000408223823/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carnegie/sfeature/mh_horror.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> Tensions between the workers and strikebreakers erupted into violence, which led to the deaths of three Pinkerton agents and nine steelworkers.<ref>{{cite book | last =Krause | first =Paul | year =1992 | title =The Battle for Homestead, 1890–1892: Politics, Culture, and Steel| publisher =University of Pittsburgh Press | isbn =0-8229-5466-4 | url =https://archive.org/details/battleforhomeste00krau }} pp. 20–21</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last1=Krause|first1=Paul|url=http://archive.org/details/battleforhomeste00krau|title=The battle for Homestead, 1880–1892: politics, culture, and steel|last2=Krause|first2=Paul|last3=Paul Avrich Collection (Library of Congress) DLC|date=1992|publisher=Pittsburgh : University of Pittsburgh Press|others=Internet Archive}}</ref> During the late nineteenth century, the Pinkertons were also hired as guards in coal, iron, and lumber disputes in Illinois, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia and were involved in other strikes such as the [[Great Railroad Strike of 1877]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-12-03 |title=This Infamous Anti-Labor Company Is Still Targeting Workers |url=https://www.teenvogue.com/story/who-were-the-pinkertons |access-date=2022-11-25 |website=Teen Vogue |language=en-US}}</ref>

During the 20th century, Pinkerton rebranded itself as a personal security and risk management firm. The company has continued to exist in various forms to the present day and is now a division of the Swedish security company Securitas AB, operating as '''Pinkerton Consulting & Investigations, Inc.''', doing business as '''Pinkerton Corporate Risk Management'''.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://cases.justia.com/federal/district-courts/new-york/nysdce/1:2019cv00338/508224/1/2.pdf |title=Press Kit |website=Justia Law |date=2018 |access-date=February 9, 2021}}</ref> The former '''Pinkerton Government Services''' division, PGS, now operates as '''Securitas Critical Infrastructure Services, Inc'''.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20121019084817/http://www.linkedin.com/company/pinkerton-government-services LinkedIn]</ref>

==Origins==
In the 1850s, [[Allan Pinkerton]], a Scottish immigrant, met Chicago attorney Edward Rucker in a local [[Freemasonry|Masonic Hall]]. The two men formed the North-Western Police Agency, later known as the Pinkerton Agency.<ref name = "Companion">{{cite book
| editor1-last =Foner
| editor1-first =Eric
| editor2-last =Garraty
| editor2-first =John Arthur
| date =1991
| title =The Reader's Companion to American History
| publisher =Houghton Mifflin Books
| isbn =0-395-51372-3
| url =https://archive.org/details/readerscompanion00fone
}} p. 842</ref><ref name = "Frontier">{{cite book
| last =Robinson
| first =Charles M
| year =2005
| title =American Frontier Lawmen 1850–1930
| publisher =Osprey Publishing
| isbn =1-84176-575-9
}}p. 63</ref><ref>{{cite book
| last =Horan
| first =James David
|author2=Howard Swiggett
 | year =1951
| title =The Pinkerton Story
| publisher =Putnam
}} p. 202</ref> Pinkerton used his skills in espionage to attract clients and begin expanding the agency. Historian Frank Morn writes: "By the mid-1850s, a few businessmen saw the need for greater control over their employees; their solution was to sponsor a private detective system. In February 1855, Allan Pinkerton, after consulting with six midwestern railroads, created such an agency in Chicago."<ref name = "Morn">{{cite book
| last =Morn
| first =Frank
| year =1982
| title =The Eye That Never Sleeps: A History of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency
| publisher =Indiana University Press
| location =Bloomington
| isbn =0-253-32086-0
}} p. 18</ref> The Pinkerton Agency began to hire women and minorities shortly after its founding because they were useful as spies, a practice uncommon at the time.<ref name="Seiple 2015 p. ">{{cite book | last=Seiple | first=Samantha | title=Lincoln's spymaster: Allan Pinkerton, America's first private eye | publisher=Scholastic Press | location=New York | year=2015 | isbn=978-0-545-70901-9 | oclc=922643750 }}</ref>

==Forerunners to the Secret Service==
{{Expand section|date=June 2023}}<!-- agency spy work against the CSA is mentioned in the lead summary but not found in the article body -->

[[File:We never sleep.jpg|thumb|"We Never Sleep" logo]]

Among the business's early operations was to safely deliver the newly elected [[President of the United States]], [[Abraham Lincoln]], from Springfield to [[Washington, D.C.]], in light of an assassination threat. Pinkerton detective [[Kate Warne]] was assigned and successfully delivered Lincoln to the U.S. capital city through a series of disguises and related tactics that required her to stay awake throughout the entire long journey. As a result of the public notoriety of this success, the business adopted an open eye as its [[logo]] and the slogan "We never sleep".<ref>{{cite web |last1=O'Reilly |first1=Terry |title=How a detective used a disguise to save the life of a president |url=https://www.cbc.ca/radio/undertheinfluence/how-a-detective-used-a-disguise-to-save-the-life-of-a-president-1.5881935 |website=Under the Influence |publisher=CBC |access-date=January 22, 2021}}</ref> Allan Pinkerton around this time also served in the "Secret Service" intelligence division of what was then known as the [[United States Department of War|U.S. War Department]]. 

These actions preceded and laid the groundwork for the establishment of the [[United States Secret Service]], which is tasked with serving current and former U.S. Presidents' security to this day. The official Secret Service was founded on July 5, 1865,<ref>{{cite web |title=Those Other Secret Services |url=https://www.secretservice.gov/thoseothersecretservices |website=secretservice.gov |publisher=[[United States Secret Service]] |access-date=April 28, 2023}}</ref> less than three months after the [[assassination of Abraham Lincoln]].

==U.S. government contractor==
[[File:Pinkerton escorts hocking valley leslies.jpg|thumb|250px|Pinkerton guards escort [[strikebreaker]]s in [[Buchtel, Ohio]], 1884]]

In 1871, Congress appropriated $50,000 (about {{inflation|US|50000|1871|fmt=eq|r=-3}}) to the new [[United States Department of Justice|Department of Justice]] to form a sub-organization devoted to "the detection and prosecution of those guilty of violating federal law." The amount was insufficient to form an internal investigating unit, so they contracted   the services to the Pinkerton National Detective Agency.<ref name="A">{{cite journal
 |first       = Ward
 |last        = Churchill
 |author-link  = Ward Churchill
 |date        =Spring 2004
 |title       = From the Pinkertons to the PATRIOT Act: The Trajectory of Political Policing in the United States, 1870 to the Present
 |journal     = The New Centennial Review
 |volume      = 4
 |issue       = 1
 |pages       = 1–72
 |url         = https://www.jstor.org/stable/41949420
 |doi         = 10.1353/ncr.2004.0016
 |jstor = 41949420
 |s2cid = 145098109
}}</ref>

However, as news leaked about the Pinkertons' involvement in strikebreaking, lawmakers began pushing against government contracts with the Pinkertons.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bilansky |first=Alan |date=2018 |title=Pinkerton's National Detective Agency and the Information Work of the Nineteenth-Century Surveillance State |url=https://www.utexaspressjournals.org/doi/10.7560/IC53104 |journal=Information & Culture |language=en |volume=53 |issue=1 |pages=67–84 |doi=10.7560/IC53104 |hdl=2142/97810 |s2cid=159007191 |issn=2164-8034|hdl-access=free }}{{dead link|date=May 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> The Pinkertons reached their zenith in the 1870s and 80s, which saw them frequently engage in violent crackdowns against striking workers. The most notable example of this was the involvement of the Pinkertons in the [[Great Railroad Strike of 1877]]. However, it was [[Homestead strike|the confrontation in Homestead, Pennsylvania]], in 1892 that led to a national outcry against the Pinkerton Detective Agency.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Antkowiak |first=Bruce |date=2011 |title=The Pinkerton Problem |url=https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/dlr115&div=26 |access-date=April 21, 2022 |website=heinonline.org}}</ref> Following the strike, [[United States Congress|Congress]] took swift action against the Pinkertons and passed the [[Anti-Pinkerton Act of 1893|Anti-Pinkerton Act]] in 1893, which severely curtailed the relationship between the federal government and the agency.  The act states that "individuals employed by the Pinkerton Detective Agency, or similar organization, may not be employed by the government of the United States or the government of the District of Columbia."<ref>5 U.S. Code 3108; Public Law 89-554, 80 Stat. 416 (1966); ch. 208 (5th par. under "Public Buildings"), 27 Stat. 591 (1893).  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in ''U.S. ex rel. Weinberger v. Equifax'', 557 F.2d 456 (5th Cir. 1977), ''cert. denied'', 434 U.S. 1035 (1978), held that "the purpose of the Act and the legislative history reveal that an organization was 'similar' to the Pinkerton Detective Agency only if it offered for hire mercenary, quasi-military forces as [[strikebreaker]]s and armed guards. It had the secondary effect of deterring any other organization from providing such services lest it be branded a 'similar organization.'" 557 F.2d at 462; ''see also'' {{cite web
| title =''GAO Decision B-298370; B-298490, Brian X. Scott'' (Aug. 18, 2006).
| url =http://www.gao.gov/decisions/bidpro/298370.htm
| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20160304001958/http://www.gao.gov/decisions/bidpro/298370.htm
| archive-date =March 4, 2016
| url-status =dead
}}</ref>

==Molly Maguires==
{{Main|Molly Maguires}}

In the 1870s, [[Franklin B. Gowen]], then president of the [[Philadelphia and Reading Railroad]], hired the agency to investigate the labor unions in the company's mines.  A Pinkerton agent, [[James McParland]], using the alias "James McKenna", infiltrated the [[Molly Maguires]], a 19th-century [[secret society]] of mainly Irish-American coal miners, leading to the downfall of the organization.

The incident inspired [[Arthur Conan Doyle]]'s [[Sherlock Holmes]] novel ''[[The Valley of Fear]]'' (1914–1915). A Pinkerton agent also appears in a small role in "[[The Adventure of the Red Circle]]", a 1911 Holmes story. A 1970 film, ''[[The Molly Maguires (film)|The Molly Maguires]]'', was loosely based on the incident.

==Homestead strike==
{{Main|Homestead strike}}

[[File:Homestead riot harpers 3c26046v.png|thumb|upright|Pinkerton men leaving a barge after their surrender during the [[Homestead Strike]]]]

[[File:Frick to Carnegie letter about the arming of the Pinkertons.jpg|thumb|Frick's letter describing the plans and munitions that will be on the barges when the Pinkertons arrive to confront the strikers in Homestead]]

On July 6, 1892, during the Homestead Strike, 300 Pinkerton agents from New York and [[Chicago]] were called in by [[Carnegie Steel Company|Carnegie Steel]]'s [[Henry Clay Frick]] to protect the [[Pittsburgh]]-area mill and act as strikebreakers. This resulted in a firefight and siege in which 16 men were killed and 23 others were wounded. Following the confrontation, the [[List of governors of Pennsylvania|Governor of Pennsylvania]], [[Robert E. Pattison]], mobilized state law enforcement and the National Guard. Private and government forces broke the strike, and workers returned to the steel mill.<ref name=hm/>

The strike, dubbed "The Battle of Homestead" by local media, ignited a firestorm around the United States.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Battle of Homestead |url=https://riversofsteel.com/attractions/pump-house/the-battle-of-homestead/ |access-date=April 28, 2022 |website=Rivers of Steel |language=en-US}}</ref> Americans were outraged at the conduct of the Pinkertons and how strikers were treated. The Homestead Strike of 1892 is regarded as a turning point in American labor history and prompted Congress to begin a crackdown on the Pinkertons.<ref>{{Cite web |title=1892 Homestead Strike |url=https://aflcio.org/about/history/labor-history-events/1892-homestead-strike |access-date=April 28, 2022 |website=aflcio.org}}</ref> As a legacy of the Pinkertons' involvement, a bridge connecting the nearby Pittsburgh suburbs of [[Munhall, Pennsylvania|Munhall]] and [[Rankin, Pennsylvania|Rankin]] was named [[Pinkerton's Landing Bridge]].

==Steunenberg murder and trial==
{{Main|Frank Steunenberg}}

[[Harry Orchard]] was arrested by the Idaho police and confessed to Pinkerton agent [[James McParland]] that he assassinated former Governor [[Frank Steunenberg]] of Idaho in 1905. Orchard testified (unsuccessfully), under threat of hanging,<ref>Peter Carlson, ''Roughneck: The Life and Times of Big Bill Haywood'', W.W. Norton & Company, 1983, p. 90 {{ISBN?}}</ref> against [[Western Federation of Miners]] (WFM) president [[Big Bill Haywood]], naming him as having hired the hit. With a stirring defense by [[Clarence Darrow]], Haywood and the other defendants of the WFM were acquitted in a nationally publicized trial. Orchard received a death sentence, but it was [[Commutation of sentence|commuted]].<ref>Peter Carlson, ''Roughneck: The Life and Times of Big Bill Haywood'', W.W. Norton & Company, 1983, p. 140</ref>

==Outlaws and competition==
Pinkerton agents were hired to track western outlaws [[Jesse James]], the [[Reno Gang]], and the [[Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch|Wild Bunch]] (including [[Butch Cassidy]] and the [[Sundance Kid]]). On March 17, 1874, two Pinkerton detectives and a deputy sheriff, Edwin P. Daniels,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.odmp.org/officer/17114-deputy-sheriff-edwin-p.-daniels|title=Deputy Sheriff Edwin P. Daniels|work=The Officer Down Memorial Page (ODMP)}}</ref> encountered the Younger brothers (associates of the [[James–Younger Gang]]) in Roscoe, Missouri; Daniels, [[John Younger]], and one Pinkerton agent were killed. In [[Union, Missouri]], a bank was robbed by George Collins, aka Fred Lewis, and Bill Randolph; Pinkerton Detective Chas Schumacher trailed them and was killed. Collins was hanged on March 26, 1904, and Randolph on May 8, 1905, in Union. Pinkertons were also hired to transport money and other high-quality merchandise between cities and towns, which made them vulnerable to outlaws. Pinkerton agents were usually well paid and well armed.

George Thiel, a former Pinkerton employee, established the [[Thiel Detective Service Company]] in [[St. Louis]], [[Missouri]], a competitor to the Pinkerton agency. The agency operated in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.

==Modern era==
Due to its conflicts with [[Trade union|labor unions]], the word ''Pinkerton'' continues to be associated by labor organizers and union members with [[Strikebreaker|strikebreaking]].<ref>{{cite book| last =Williams| first =David Ricardo| title =Call in Pinkerton's: American Detectives at Work for Canada| publisher =Dundurn Press| year =1998| location =Toronto| isbn =1-550023-06-3| url-access =registration| url =https://archive.org/details/callinpinkertons0000will}}</ref> Pinkertons diversified from labor spying following revelations publicized by the [[La Follette Committee]] hearings in 1937,<ref>{{cite book
| last =Morn
| first =Frank
| year =1982
| title =The Eye That Never Sleeps: A History of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency
| publisher =Indiana University Press
| location =Bloomington
| isbn =0-253-32086-0|pages=188–189}}</ref> and the firm's criminal detection work also suffered from the police modernization movement, which saw the rise of the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] and the bolstering of detective branches and resources of the public police. With less of the labor and criminal investigation work on which Pinkertons thrived for decades, the company became increasingly involved in protection services, and in the 1960s, even the word "detective" disappeared from the agency's letterhead.<ref>{{cite book| last =Morn| first =Frank| year =1982| title =The Eye That Never Sleeps: A History of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency| publisher =Indiana University Press| location =Bloomington| isbn =0-253-32086-0|page=192}}</ref> The company now focuses on threat intelligence, risk management, executive protection, and active shooter response.<ref>Kevin Doss, Charles Shepard (2015), ''Active Shooter: Preparing for and Responding to a Growing Threat'', Oxford, United Kingdom. {{ISBN|9780128027844}}</ref>

In 1999, the company was bought by [[Securitas AB]], a Swedish security company, for $384 million,<ref name=newrep>Jones, Sarah (March 23, 2018) [https://newrepublic.com/article/147619/pinkertons-still-never-sleep "The Pinkertons Still Never Sleep"]. ''[[The New Republic]]''</ref> followed by the acquisition of the [[William J. Burns International Detective Agency|William J. Burns Detective Agency]] (founded in 1910), a longtime Pinkerton rival, to create (as a division of the parent) Securitas Security Services USA. {{Citation needed|date=December 2023}} Today, the company's headquarters are located in Ann Arbor, Michigan.<ref>[https://www.securitasinc.com/who-we-are/about-securitas-usa/our-history/ About Securitas USA] (company site)</ref>

In December 2018, Securitas AB issued a [[cease and desist]] notice to video game company [[Take-Two Interactive]] over the use of the Pinkerton name and badge imagery in ''[[Red Dead Redemption 2]]''. They demanded royalties for each copy of the game sold, or they would take legal action. Take-Two maintained that the Pinkerton name was strongly associated with the Wild West, and its use of the term did not infringe on the Pinkerton trademark.<ref name="GamesIndustry Pinkerton">{{cite web |url=https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2019-01-15-rockstar-threatened-with-legal-action-over-red-dead-redemption-2s-pinkerton-agents |title=Rockstar threatened with legal action over Red Dead 2's Pinkerton agents |last=Handrahan |first=Matthew |work=[[GamesIndustry.biz]] |publisher=[[Gamer Network]] |date=January 15, 2019 |access-date=June 23, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190115142536/https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2019-01-15-rockstar-threatened-with-legal-action-over-red-dead-redemption-2s-pinkerton-agents |archive-date=January 15, 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref> By April 2019, Securitas AB had withdrawn its claim.<ref name="GamesIndustry Pinkerton Dismiss">{{cite web |url=https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2019-04-11-take-two-rockstar-dismiss-complaint-against-pinkerton |title=Take-Two, Rockstar dismiss complaint against Pinkerton |last=Valentine |first=Rebekah |work=[[GamesIndustry.biz]] |publisher=[[Gamer Network]] |date=April 11, 2019 |access-date=April 11, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190411195341/https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2019-04-11-take-two-rockstar-dismiss-complaint-against-pinkerton |archive-date=April 11, 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 2020, they were hired by Amazon to spy on warehouse workers for signs of union activity.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |author=Katie Canales |year=2020 |title=Amazon is using union-busting Pinkerton spies to track warehouse workers and labor movements at the company, according to a new report |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-pinkerton-spies-worker-labor-unions-2020-11 |journal=Business Insider}}</ref> In 2022, it was reported that [[Starbucks]] had hired a former Pinkerton employee as part of their [[union busting|union-busting]] efforts.<ref>{{Citation |title=Katie Halper: Starbucks Hires Ex-Pinkerton, CIA Officer To Wokeify Union-Busting | date=August 6, 2022 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mn6vuCBxYk |language=en |access-date=September 13, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Puterski |first=Steve |date=4 April 2023 |title=County records show Fletcher's Pinkerton security detail cost $2M |url=https://thecoastnews.com/county-records-show-fletchers-pinkerton-security-detail-cost-2m/ |access-date=7 May 2024 |work=[[The Coast News]] |quote=Starbucks, the subject of a federal investigation into union busting, is alleged to have hired a former CIA officer and Pinkerton employee to monitor unionizing employees, according to media reports.}}</ref>

In 2020, Matthew Dolloff, an unlicensed security guard contracted through Pinkerton, shot and killed Lee Keltner, a conservative protester, in Denver, Colorado. Dolloff had been contracted by Pinkerton to guard a camera-crew working for [[KUSA (TV)|9News]]. The camera crew had been assigned to cover rival political groups protesting in Denver. Keltner had told a cameraman to stop filming him; Dolloff then approached Keltner. Keltner slapped Dolloff before spraying him with [[bear spray]], and moments later Dolloff shot Keltner. Dolloff was arrested, investigated for first-degree murder, and charged with second-degree murder. The charge was later dropped.<ref>{{cite web |last1=D'Angelo |first1=Bob |title=Security guard being investigated for 1st-degree murder after gunfire erupts near Denver protests |url=https://www.kiro7.com/news/trending/1-killed-2-custody-after-gunfire-erupts-near-downtown-denver-rallies/BIKIAOQLPFAXHEEK57BKKX5JII/ |website=KIRO7 |date=October 11, 2020 |access-date=10 March 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Schmelzer |first1=Elise |title=Denver DA to drop murder charge against unlicensed security guard who shot man at protest |url=https://www.denverpost.com/2022/03/10/matthew-dolloff-charges-dropped/ |website=The Denver Post |date=March 10, 2022 |access-date=10 March 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Schmelzer |first1=Elise |title=No statewide regulation of Colorado security guards creates patchwork of standards, lack of transparency |url=https://www.denverpost.com/2020/10/18/colorado-security-guard-licensing/ |website=The Denver Post |date=October 18, 2020 |access-date=10 March 2023}}</ref>

In 2023, [[Wizards of the Coast]] hired Pinkerton to seize products from the ''March of the Machine: The Aftermath'' card set for the trading card game ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' from [[YouTuber]] Dan Cannon of ''oldschoolmtg.'' Cannon had published a video on YouTube showing the contents of an order received ahead of the release date from a local game store.<ref name="kotaku">{{cite web | last=Jiang | first=Sisi | title=Magic: The Gathering YouTuber Says Pinkertons Threatened Him With $200k Fines, Jail | website=[[Kotaku]] | date=2023-04-25 | url=https://kotaku.com/magic-the-gathering-pinkerton-youtube-wotc-mtg-1850372856 | access-date=2023-05-08}}</ref> Pinkerton used intimidation and legal servings to force compliance.<ref name="kotaku" /> According to Wizards of the Coast, this was done after several attempts had been made to contact the individual in private, with no response.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hall |first=Charlie |date=2023-04-24 |title=Magic publishers sent Pinkerton agents to a YouTuber's house to retrieve leaked cards |url=https://www.polygon.com/23695923/mtg-aftermath-pinkerton-raid-leaked-cards |access-date=2023-04-25 |website=Polygon |language=en-US}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Anti-union organizations in the United States]]
*[[Anti-union violence]]
*[[Anti-Pinkerton Act of 1893]]
*[[Baldwin–Felts Detective Agency]]
*[[Battle of Blair Mountain]]
*[[Coal and Iron Police]], a Pinkerton-supervised former private police force in Pennsylvania
*[[Colorado Labor Wars]]
*[[Dashiell Hammett]], author and former Pinkerton operative
*[[Frank Little (unionist)|Frank Little]], American labor leader; lynched in 1917, allegedly by Pinkerton agents
*[[George S. Dougherty]], a leading private detective for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency from 1888 to 1911
*[[Industrial Workers of the World]]
*[[Labor spying in the United States]]
*[[List of worker deaths in United States labor disputes]]
*[[Morris Friedman]], author of ''Pinkerton Labor Spy''
*''[[Pinkerton (album)#Pinkerton's Inc. lawsuit|Pinkerton]]'' (1996), an album by American rock band [[Weezer]] temporarily held from release by the detective agency
*[[Timothy Webster]], Pinkerton agent who served as a [[American Civil War spies|Union spy]] in the American Civil War

==References==
'''Notes'''
{{reflist}}
* {{Cite book |last1=Doss |first1=Kevin |last2=Shepard |first2=Charles |title=Active Shooter: Preparing for and Responding to a Growing Threat |date=2015 |publisher=Butterworth-Heinemann |isbn=9780128027844 |location=Oxford, UK |language=en}}

'''Further reading'''
* {{cite book |title=The Pinkerton's Labor Spy |url=https://archive.org/details/pinkertonslabor00friegoog |last=Friedman |first=Morris |author-link=Morris Friedman |year=1907 |publisher=Wilshire Book Co. |location=New York |access-date=July 8, 2009}}
*{{cite book
| last =Jeffreys-Jones
| first =Rhodri
| year =2003
| title =Cloak and Dollar: A History of American Secret Intelligence
| publisher =Yale University Press
| isbn =0-300-10159-7
| url =https://archive.org/details/cloakdollar00rhod
}} <!--Available to view on google.com/print-->
* Obert, Jonathan (2018) [https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/sixshooter-state/pinkertons-and-police-in-antebellum-chicago/7FE2413F5777B7D55BFDBED09EEC7DF8 "Pinkertons and Police in Antebellum Chicago"] in ''The Six-Shooter State: Public and Private Violence in American Politics''. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
* O'Hara, S. Paul (2016) ''Inventing the Pinkertons; or, Spies, Sleuths, Mercenaries, and Thugs'' Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press.
* {{cite book |title=A Cowboy Detective: A True Story of Twenty-Two Years with a World-Famous Detective Agency |url=https://archive.org/details/cowboydetectivet00siririch |last=Siringo |first=Charles A. |author-link=Charlie Siringo |year=1912 |publisher=W. B. Conkey Company |location=Chicago |access-date=July 8, 2009}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Pinkerton National Detective Agency}}
* {{official website|http://www.pinkerton.com/}}

[[Category:Pinkerton (detective agency)| ]]
[[Category:1850 establishments in Illinois]]
[[Category:1999 mergers and acquisitions]]
[[Category:American companies established in 1850]]
[[Category:American subsidiaries of foreign companies]]
[[Category:Companies based in Chicago]]
[[Category:Companies based in Ann Arbor, Michigan]]
[[Category:Anti-union violence in the United States]]
[[Category:Labor-related violence in the United States]]
[[Category:Labor detectives]]
[[Category:Private investigators]]
[[Category:Private intelligence agencies]]
[[Category:Strikebreakers]]