Latest news with #Pinkerton
Daily Mirror
22-07-2025
- Daily Mirror
Exactly who is automatically eligible for free UK bus pass amid major update
Eligibility for who can get an older person's bus pass could change depending on where you live. Millions of people in the UK are currently eligible for free bus pass. However, a recent update could see the scheme opened up to more residents. A concessionary bus pass is only available to specific groups of people. This scheme is available to help people who might otherwise find it difficult to get around, without worrying about the cost. There are two types of free bus passes in the UK, which can be used on local buses. These are an older person's bus pass and a disabled person's bus pass. As per a recent update, there is the potential for the age limit for older person's bus passes in England to be reduced. Currently it is only offered to those of State Pension age. But, as reported by the UK Government has confirmed that local councils in England have the authority to lower the age threshold for the older persons' bus pass. This revelation came to light in a written response from Liberal Democrat MP Dr Al Pinkerton. Dr Pinkerton, MP for Surrey Heath, asked whether an assessment had been carried out on the "potential merits of extending free bus pass eligibility to people aged over 60." As concessionary travel is a devolved matter, the age at which someone qualifies for free bus travel varies between Scotland, England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, people aged 60 and above are entitled to this benefit, while in England, it's typically tied to the State Pension age. Transport minister Simon Lightwood, in his written reply, affirmed that "local authorities in England have the power to offer concessions in addition to their statutory obligations, such as lowering the age of eligibility". He added that any additional concessions would have to be 'funded by local authorities from local resources". See below for an explanation of who is currently eligible for free bus travel in the UK. Older person's bus pass The Government website explains that in England you can get an older person's bus pass when you reach State Pension age, which is currently 66 for both women and men. However, in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, you can apply for this pass once you reach 60. If you live in London you can also get bus travel for free at the age of 60 with the 60+ London Oyster photocard on the TFL website, which also includes free travel on trains and other public transport. Age UK advises that other areas may also offer travel concessions for people who are over 60. 'It's a good idea to check with your local council to see what help is available,' the charity says. For more information on how to apply for the older person's bus pass visit the Government website here. Disabled person's bus pass In England there is no central provider of the disabled person's bus pass. To find out if you're eligible and how to apply, you need to get in touch with your local council. You can find your local council and apply for a disabled person's bus pass on The criteria for a disabled person's bus pass in England is generally that you must be five years old or over, and: Severely sight impaired (blind) or sight impaired (partially sighted) Profoundly or severely deaf Are without speech Have a disability or injury which has a substantial and long-term effect on your ability to walk Have no arms or have long-term loss of the use of both arms Have a learning disability, that is, a state of arrested or incomplete development of mind which started before adulthood and includes significant impairment of intelligence and social functioning Would be refused a licence to drive a motor vehicle, should an application be made under Part three of the Road Transport Act 1988, under section 92 of the Act (physical fitness), otherwise than on the grounds of persistent misuse of drugs or alcohol Your condition will need to be permanent or last at least 12 months. If you live in Scotland, Wales, or Northern Ireland the way to apply is slightly different. You can find out more on the Government website, here.
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Roy Pinkerton's 'small, hopeful newspaper in Ventura' had a countywide vision
Editor's note: This story is part of a series to celebrate the Ventura County Star's 100th anniversary. Please pick up the June 15 edition in newsstands for our commemorative edition. There were newspapers in Ventura County when Roy Pinkerton arrived in Ventura 1925 to start his own. The city itself had two, one of which was already half a century old, for a population of about 5,500 people. Pinkerton considered the existing papers 'unenterprising,' he later wrote, parochial in their news coverage and lacking any circulation outside their home city. His newspaper, the Ventura County Star, would be different. 'The key word is 'county,'' Pinkerton wrote in his 1962 memoir, 'The County Star: My Buena Ventura.' The Star would cover the entire county: the booming oil town of Ventura, the four other cities and the farmland between them. The first issue of The Star rolled off a rented press in downtown Ventura on June 15, 1925. A year later, Pinkerton's paper was delivering its daily afternoon editions as far east as Piru and as far south as Camarillo. In the first edition's front-page editorial, Pinkerton told readers The Star would 'represent no clique, no faction.' It would be 'the organ of no party; in politics it will be truly independent, but not neutral.' 'We propose to print the news honestly and decently and fearlessly,' the editorial stated. 'We propose to comment upon it with independence. We expect to speak neither in platitudes nor in hokum. We expect to be broad minded and good natured.' For the rest of the 20th century, Pinkerton's creation grew, buying some of its competitors and driving others out of the market in an intense newspaper war. One hundred years after Pinkerton set up shop in a temporary garage in Ventura, his newspaper remains the dominant local news source for the entire county. Roy Pinkerton was born in 1885, on a farm in northwestern Minnesota, 100 miles from the Canadian border. When he was 20, he moved to Tacoma, Washington, to take a job as a reporter with the Tacoma Times. He graduated from the University of Washington with a journalism degree in 1911, a rarity for a newspaperman of the time. After bouncing around to a few papers in Seattle and Los Angeles, he returned to the Tacoma Times as its editor, at the age of 29. For the next decade, Pinkerton edited newspapers in Seattle, Cleveland and San Diego. In 1923, after his marriage to Flora Hartman ended, he met Aidrie Kincaid, a reporter in Seattle. They were soon married. By 1925, Pinkerton had caught the entrepreneurial bug. 'I decided I'd had enough of working for a salary,' he recalled in 1963, in a speech to the Ojai Valley Retired Business and Professional Men's Club. Pinkerton left the San Diego Sun and teamed up with one of its founders and owners, publishing executive W.H. Porterfield. The pair had $25,000 with which to start a newspaper — the equivalent of about $458,000 in 2025 — and no idea where this new venture would be located. They chose Ventura on a little more than a whim, but not a lot more. 'I consulted with no bankers, I talked with no merchants about how they would regard a new advertising medium. … I took no polls, make no market analysis — did not even know the terms,' Pinkerton wrote. 'I had arrived at the state of mind more through 'falling in love' with the community than by way of a conventional and objective investigation.' He did talk to as many petroleum geologists as he could, and they convinced him that the recently discovered oil fields in and around Ventura meant the region would grow and prosper enough to support a bigger, better newspaper. Roy and Airdie Pinkerton moved to Ventura on April 12, 1925, Easter morning. They hired one other employee as a reporter and one as the business manager. They couldn't find a building to rent, so they had one built, and while it was under construction they worked out of a garage on the property. They rented a printing press and other equipment, hung a sign outside soliciting subscribers, and sold subscriptions door to door. One afternoon, Pinkerton wrote in his memoir, 'three tall, dour, middle-aged men' walked into their makeshift office. One of them asked 'What's your religion?' and Pinkerton answered, 'That, sir, is none of your damn business.' They walked out, and that was the end of the Pinkertons' troubles with the small local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. By the time The Star began publishing in June, it had 850 subscribers, paying 50 cents a month for home delivery. Pinkerton wrote in his memoir that he 'often marveled' that the Star published its first edition just two months after he moved to town and started work. 'Some things were done faster in the twenties than they are in the sixties,' he wrote. Roy and Aidrie Pinkerton had a daughter, born in 1926, along with two sons from Roy's previous marriage. Airdrie Pinkerton worked full-time as a reporter until she was eight months pregnant. 'In those days a pregnant woman's place was in her home and I had defied local custom, covering my beat in a maternity costume,' she wrote in a chapter of her husband's memoir. She came back in 1928 and covered court trials and other beats, until she retired in 1936. It was a semiretirement; the couple lived in Ojai but traveled extensively, visiting 70 countries. Airdrie contributed travel articles to The Star to go with her husband's dispatches on politics and military affairs. Roy Pinkerton remained editor of the The Star until he retired in 1961. By then, circulation had grown to 25,000. Pinkerton was also the editorial director of John P. Scripps Newspapers. In 1928, John Scripps, then 16 and an heir to a prominent San Diego publishing family, had invested $30,000 of his inheritance into The Star. That got Pinkerton out of some debt he had been left with when Porterfield, his original business partner, died the year before. The Scripps investment turned The Star into the first link in a chain of newspapers, which later became part of the E.W. Scripps Company. The Scripps newspapers were acquired by Gannett in 2016, forming the nation's largest local news company. In its early years under Scripps ownership, The Star bought out both of its competitors in Ventura. In 1937, after buying the Ventura Free Press, it renamed itself the Ventura County Star-Free Press. The name was shortened back to the Ventura County Star in 1994. Both during and after Pinkerton's tenure as editor, The Star either acquired or started smaller newspapers in the rest of the county, including in Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley and Camarillo. At first, those papers kept their original names. In Simi Valley, for instance, the newspaper owned and published by The Star was called the Simi Valley Enterprise & Star. By the late 1990s, The Star was in the process of rolling those papers into one publication, with one name. On April 30, 1998, the Ventura County Star printed its first truly countywide edition. Roy Pinkerton's vision had been fulfilled. Pinkerton died in 1974, at the age of 88. Four years earlier, his successor as editor of The Star, Julius Gius, had asked him for some words of wisdom to mark the retired editor's 85 birthday. Pinkerton said that if he had his life to live again, he'd do some things differently, Gius wrote in his column. But there was one decision he had no second thoughts about: If he were back in 1925, 'I would start a small, hopeful newspaper in Ventura.' A century of local history and big news stories Founder Roy Pinkerton's countywide vision 'Bigger than life': The face of the Star-Free Press 100 years, only nine editors How Star is living up to founder's vision in 2025 The paper's first editorial How The Star has evolved with the times Tony Biasotti is an investigative and watchdog reporter for the Ventura County Star. Reach him at tbiasotti@ This story was made possible by a grant from the Ventura County Community Foundation's Fund to Support Local Journalism. This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Ventura County Star founder Roy Pinkerton's countywide vision
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The Milwaukee Night Market returns June 11. Here's what to know about food, parking, music
The Milwaukee Night Market is officially back, starting with the first market of the summer on June 11. The free-to-attend outdoor market will take over West Wisconsin Avenue with live music, a dance floor and more than 100 vendors selling food, drinks and local goods. Wednesday's market is the first of four slated for summer 2025. Since its founding in 2014, the Milwaukee Night Market has grown to draw more than 100,000 attendees each year, according to its website. In 2021, the Westown Association acquired the market from from NEWaukee, a local engagement agency, and has been operating it since. Here's everything you need know about the 2025 night market, from vendors and entertainment to parking and street closures. The first night market of the summer is Wednesday, June 11 from 5 to 10 p.m. It will be on West Wisconsin Avenue, between North 2nd Street and North Vel R. Phillips Avenue. The subsequent markets will also run from 5 to 10 p.m. in the same location on the following dates: July 16 Aug. 13 Sept. 10 More than 100 vendors are slated for the June 11 market, ranging from food and beverage trucks to local artists. Food and drink vendors include Amy's Candy Kitchen, I LOVE TAMALES, Sweet Smoke BBQ, Little Havana Express, Miller Time Pub, Rose Mob Grill, Tots on the Street and WAN's Thai Cuisine, among others. In terms of makers, henna artists, bookstores, ceramic studios, floral vendors and jewelry makers will be among the dozens in attendance. You can find a complete list of vendors here. Here's the entertainment schedule for the Milwaukee Night Market, which will also feature an open-air dance floor: 5:30 and 6:15 p.m. – Evan Christian 6 p.m. – Water Street Dance 6:45 p.m. – Professor Pinkerton 7 p.m. – Brudny of Sound by Design 8 p.m. – Nico At Nite If you live in the area, prepare for all-day street closures during the market. The following areas will be closed to traffic from 10 a.m. on June 11 to 1 a.m. on June 12. West Wisconsin Avenue from North 2nd Street to North Vel R. Phillips Avenue North Dr. Martin L. King, Jr. Drive from West Wisconsin Avenue north to the nearby alley North 2nd Street from West Wisconsin Avenue south to the skywalk North 2nd Street from Wisconsin Avenue north to the alley adjacent to the City parking garage Alley on the west side of North 2nd Street and north of West Wisconsin Avenue Parking is available at The Avenue for a flat rate of $3 during all four night markets. You can enter the garage from 615 N. Plankinton Ave. or 258 W. Michigan St. There are additional parking structures, surface lots and street parking options in the surrounding area — but you should be prepared to park a little further away and walk, given street closures and the popularity of the market. If you want to avoid hunting for parking, there are several public transportation options that will bring you right to the market. The following Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS) routes stop near the market: Connect 1 and 30 stop at Plankinton and Wisconsin. GreenLine, 15, 18, and 57 stop at Water and Wisconsin. Routes 12, 19, 31, 34, 80, 81 and BlueLine stop at 6th and Wisconsin. View routes and schedules at You can also take The Hop, Milwaukee's free streetcar, to the night market. Either get off at the Wisconsin Avenue Southbound stop, just across the river from the market, or get off at the the Intermodal Station stop and walk three blocks north to the 3rd St. Market Hall, which leads to the market. Find the route map and schedules at This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee Night Market 2025: dates, street closures, parking, vendors
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
ArcBest taps CH Robinson veteran to fix asset-light business
Transportation and logistics provider ArcBest announced Thursday that it has hired a former C.H. Robinson leader to head operations at its struggling asset-light logistics business. Mac Pinkerton, former president of C.H. Robinson's (NASDAQ: CHRW) flagship North American Surface Transportation (NAST) business, will join ArcBest (NASDAQ: ARCB) as chief operating officer of asset-light logistics, effective Jan. 5. Pinkerton will succeed Steven Leonard, who will retire next month after 24 years with ArcBest. (This is part of a planned succession announced earlier this year.) Leonard served as chief commercial officer and president of asset-light logistics for a two-year period ending in February shortly after his retirement was announced. He has served as the segment's chief operating officer since. Pinkerton was with C.H. Robinson for 27 years, serving in various leadership roles, before departing the 3PL in early 2024, six months after the company hired a new CEO.'We're excited for Mac to join our team. He brings a depth of experience, a passion for customers and extensive supply chain knowledge,' said ArcBest Chairman and CEO Judy McReynolds in a news release. 'We're confident in his ability to drive increased value for customers and shareholders.' ArcBest's asset-light unit, which includes the late-2021 acquisition of truckload brokerage MoLo Solutions, logged a seventh straight operating loss during the 2025 first quarter. Like other 3PLs and freight brokers, the segment has struggled during a prolonged freight recession. The unit is again expected to book a small operating loss in the second quarter. Asset-light will report to ArcBest President Seth Runser during the transition FreightWaves articles by Todd Maiden: Truckload spot rates to continue upward trend, RXO says Activist investor pushes Forward Air to execute 'value-maximizing sale' FedEx taps leaders from within for LTL spinoff, to Wall Street's dismay The post ArcBest taps CH Robinson veteran to fix asset-light business appeared first on FreightWaves. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
The Herald Scotland
04-05-2025
- The Herald Scotland
From the Gorbals to the Wild West, the detective who never slept
As the exhausted Isabella gathered her newborn into her arms, she may have wondered what the future might hold. She'd already buried three children – a Glasgow bairn in those days only had an 88 per cent chance of seeing its first birthday. f Allan Pinkerton's birthplace at Muirhead Street and Ruthergen Loan in the Gorbals. (Image: Library of Congress/Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones) And although her son was from an old Gorbals family, with relatives who had become prominent citizens, this was early 19th century Glasgow; there was terrible poverty, violence, disease and slums. What would become of her newborn baby? As it turned out, Isabella need not have worried too much about Allan Pinkerton. For his destiny lay 3500 miles across the Atlantic where he'd rub shoulders with the richest and most famous in the world, become acquainted with political giants and earn his living from snaring the dregs of the criminal underworld. From humble beginnings, he would become one of America's most famous men and entertain presidents to capitalists at a lavish home that paid tribute to his roots. Called The Larches, it featured 85,000 larch trees imported from Scotland to remind him of home, a golf course and resident Scottish artist to paint historic scenes from Scottish history. By his death in 1884, the founder of Pinkerton's National Detective Agency (PNDA) had achieved near legendary status, with crime-bashing skills that attracted praise from the none other than Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Unlike Sherlock Holmes, Allan Pinkerton was the real deal – the world's most famous detective. As Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones, an emeritus professor at the University of Edinburgh and author of a new book that explores Pinkerton's life in forensic detail, points out, it was down to him that plans to assassinate Abraham Lincoln as made his way to be inaugurated President of the United States, were thwarted. At Antietam, Maryland, site of the 1862 Civil War battle. From left to right, Allan Pinkerton, President Abraham Lincoln, and General George B. McClellan. (Image: Library of Congress, LC- B817-7949/Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones) While intelligence he later supplied to President Lincoln and helped plan strategy in the early stages of the Civil War. And Pinkerton operatives famously chased down outlaws like Butch Cassidy and Jesse James at a time when American public policing was in its infancy, bounties were generous and the west was definitely wild. With his agencies dotted around the country's major cities, Pinkerton advertised his services for hire with a poster featuring an all-seeing eye and the slogan: "We never sleep". But as well as crimefighter, Pinkerton was also a fierce abolitionist who helped runaway slaves travel the Underground Railway to reach freedom and safety in Canada. While his undercover agents and sometimes brute force were employed to keep the wheels of American industry turning in the face of crippling and violent strikes. Pinkerton's agency would become a byword for criminal detection, spying and undercover operations. But now Rhodri has turned detective on Pinkerton, to plough through rare documents and recently digitised historical records that reveal fresh detail of the man, his crime-fighting agency and his Gorbals roots. He has now gathered his findings into a new book which explores the impact of his Gorbals upbringing and his astonishing rise to fame as the most famous detective of his times. Rhodri's curiosity over Pinkerton was ignited years ago as he carried out PhD research into US industrial violence. But uncovering important documents that would tell his whole story involved the sleuthing skills of a PNDA agent. 'For years, I was frustrated by evidential gaps,' he explains. 'The Great Fire of 1871 gutted every building in Chicago except the fire station. The PNDA had its HQ in that city. 'When that building went up in flames, so did many of the Pinkerton records. 'In the mid-1930s, there was a more wilful destruction of evidence. 'The US Senate opened an investigation of labour espionage. The response of Allan Pinkerton's great grandson, Robert A. Pinkerton II, was to destroy as many records as he could before federal investigators seized them. 'Finally, in 1999 Pinkerton, Inc., as it was now called, was taken over by Securitas and donated its remaining archives to the Library of Congress.' The records dated from the company's founding in 1850 to 1938, spanning mug shots and criminal files, to Pinkerton family photographs with the likes of Abraham Lincoln. Among them were documents relating to Jesse James, one of the wild west's most notorious outlaws. A prime target for railroads and banks desperate to halt his crime spree, Pinkerton and his ruthless agents were hired to track him down. With some of the records at risk of being lost, paperwork rich in detail was shared with Rhodri via Pinkerton historian and archivist Jane Adler. He then scoured online material made available by ProQuest, which digitises historical records, including Pinkerton archives. 'I set out to be the first scholar to exploit this facility in a systematic manner,' adds Rhodri. 'My research yielded some surprising findings.' Author Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones has explored rarely seen material to uncover new insight into the life of Allan Pinkerton (Image: Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones) Among it, evidence of sometimes devious methods to catch criminals, crush workplace rebellions and thwart strikes. 'From private collections, I had letters written by employers complaining that private detectives played both sides: the detectives exaggerated the likelihood of strikes and disorder to win contacts from employers, then ensured that the unions survived, serving as eternal sources of revenue,' says Rhodri. And, says Rhodri, his surprisingly liberal approach to giving women the opportunity to work alongside his agents in roles fraught with risk. Although Pinkerton rose to fame and fortune in America, it as the Gorbals that moulded him. Pinkerton's father William was a blacksmith's son who stood six feet tall – unusual for the times – and who passed on his muscular physique to his son. Read more by Sandra Dick: A handloom weaver, when demand slumped, he found another job that may have influenced the young Pinkerton's future role, as a prison officer at Glasgow City's jail. His son inherited his towering presence, tall and muscular, he was more than able to hold his own in a Gorbals fistfight. 'All accounts agree that Allan was endowed with a strong will, nerves of steel, deductive powers, and a shrewd capacity to understand his fellow human beings,' writes Rhodri. His half-brother James, however, may also have shaped Pinkerton's future career - a 'wastrel who took regular advantage of the local whorehouses and drinking.' Gorbals' poverty and hardship no doubt inspired Pinkerton to join the extreme left Chartist movement that demanded a more democratic political system. He joined rowdy protests and supported the use of physical force to obtain their objectives. When the movement shifted to less violent protest, he set up the Northern Democratic Association with the motto: 'peaceably if we may, forcibly if we must.' Having been a visible figure within the movement, Pinkerton then fades from view for two years, eventually re-emerging in 1842 heading from the Broomielaw bound for Canada with his young bride, Joan. While some theories suggest he went into hiding from the police, Rhodri suspects Pinkerton may have been lying low after being suspected of informing on his former Chartrist comrades. 'He arrived in America equipped with the baggage not just of revolution, but also of counter-revolution,' he adds. Pinkerton and his wife settled at a Scottish community near Chicago called Dundee. Allan with his wife Joan Pinkerton. (Image: Library of Congress, LC-DIG-ds-07127/Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones) He was running a cooperage business when by chance, he came across an encampment of counterfeiters dealing in forged coins. It ignited a passion: the toil of making and repairing barrels scarcely compared to the thrill – and cash bounties – that came with hunting down criminals and bringing them to justice. A major boost for his new detective agency was Chicago's role as a railway hub, where Pinkerton was employed to root out swindlers and robbers. While the growing city was also home to one Abraham Lincoln. Pinkerton would later claim the president would never have been assassinated had his agents been employed to look after his security. Among the most intriguing facets of Pinkerton's character, is that while he was a gruff son of the Gorbals and a strict disciplinarian at home, he was also an early feminist who championed the role of women in his rapidly expanding agency. Read more by Sandra Dick: 'Within his family, he was a patriarch in what was then the usual manner,' says Rhodri. 'But he was a feminist who had a women's division in his agency. 'For those times, it was pretty forward-thinking.' The women often worked as undercover agents, with one taking a leading role. 'In the Graceland Cemetery on Fair View Avenue, Chicago, the Pinkerton family plot has a corner in which are buried his two most esteemed operatives,' says Rhodri. 'One is Kate Warne. 'It was Kate who befriended the wives of pro-slavery elements in Baltimore, discovering by this indirect means details of the plots to assassinate Lincoln. Kate Warne pictured in 1866 became a key figure in Allan Pinkerton's detective agency (Image: Chicago History Museum, ICHi-075012/Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones) 'Thereafter, she spied with consummate skill having been secretly insinuated into the Confederate capital, Richmond, Virginia.' Kate became the head of the female detectives' division of the PNDA. 'Allan later explained his decision to place his trust in a woman with the words, 'we live in a progressive age, and in a progressive country'.' Perhaps part of his support for women came from his tough Gorbals roots where women faced challenging lives revolving around childbirth and child loss, poverty and hard work often, like Isabella, at one of the area's weaving mills. Meanwhile, Rhodri adds that another underappreciated element of Pinkerton's legacy is his contribution to the modern security state. 'Both the FBI and the CIA borrowed his methodologies, for example his nationwide rogues' gallery and the Pinkertons' habit of kidnapping suspects without regard to habeas corpus. 'More than this, Pinkerton foreshadowed that striking post-9/11 development, the privatisation of American national security. 'By 2006, 70 per cent of the $28 billion spent on US national intelligence went on private contracts.' But his reputation is also smeared by anti-labour approaches in a nation renowned for them, which seem at odds with his earlier years of protesting for greater rights for working people. 'His 'operatives' penetrated unions, advocating rash strikes and identifying troublemakers who were then fired and blacklisted,' adds Rhodri. Pinkerton's interference in workers' efforts to fight for better conditions sometimes had deadly consequences. 'Pinkerton operatives worked as armed 'guard' intimidating workers on the picket lines. Pinkerton advert with the slogan We never sleep (Image: Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, DE/Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones) 'In the 1870s, on the pretext of combatting a secret society, the Molly Maguires, that supposedly carried out acts of terrorism in the Pennsylvania coal mining region, Pinkerton's operative James McParland penetrated local workers' unions. 'He gathered what the courts accepted as evidence and 20 men, today regarded as martyrs, went to the gallows.' After his death Pinkerton's agency, by then managed by his sons, continued to attract criticism. In one case, a Pinkerton detective's testimony that led to the execution of four protesters following an explosion during a workers' rights rally, was discredited. Then in 1892, 300 armed Pinkerton agents clashed with workers at the Homestead Steel mill, near Pittsburgh, the pride and joy of Dunfermline-born steel magnate, Andrew Carnegie. The battle made a villain of Carnegie and sealed the reputation of the Pinkertons as enemies of the working class. Wild West outlaw Jesse James was hunted by Allan Pinkerton's detectives (Image: Library of Congress, 2005682818./Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones) He died in 1884, after a fall when– perhaps ironically for someone whose agents often relied upon loose lips - bit his tongue, leading to gangrene. A 'Marmite' character, says Rhodri, he was forged in Scotland and moulded by America's wild frontier, slavery, feminism, workers' rights and carceral reform. 'He was rich, his home had all the trappings of grandeur, and he was a household name. 'But there was a dark side to his character,' he adds. 'He had an incredible life.' Allan Pinkerton: America's Legendary Detective and the Birth of Private Security by Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones is published by Georgetown University Press.
