| In 1833 a French soldier called Eugène | | | | security. It is sometimes claimed, probably with |
| François Vidocq, a French soldier, criminal | | | | exaggeration, that at the height of its existence |
| and privateer, founded the first known private | | | | the Pinkerton National Detective Agency |
| detective agency, "Le Bureau des | | | | employed more agents than the United States |
| Renseignements Universels pour le commerce et | | | | Army. |
| l'Industrie" (Office of Intelligence) and hired | | | | During the labor unrest of the late 19th century, |
| ex-convicts. | | | | companies sometimes hired operatives and armed |
| Official law enforcement tried to shut it down | | | | guards from the Pinkertons and similar agencies |
| many times. In 1842 police arrested him in | | | | to keep strikers and suspected unionists out of |
| suspicion of unlawful imprisonment and taking | | | | their factories. The most famous example of this |
| money on false pretences after he had solved an | | | | was the Homestead Strike of 1892, when |
| embezzling case. Vidocq later suspected that it | | | | industrialist Henry Clay Frick hired a large |
| had been a set-up. He was sentenced for five | | | | contingent of Pinkerton men to regain possession |
| years with a 3,000-franc fine but the Court of | | | | of Andrew Carnegie's steel mill during a lock-out |
| Appeals released him. Vidocq is credited with | | | | at Homestead, Pennsylvania. Gunfire erupted |
| having introduced record-keeping, criminology and | | | | between the strikers and the Pinkertons, resulting |
| ballistics to criminal investigation. He made the first | | | | in multiple casualties and deaths on both sides. |
| plaster casts of shoe impressions. He created | | | | Several days later a radical anarchist, Alexander |
| indelible ink and unalterable bond paper with his | | | | Berkman, attempted to assassinate Frick. In the |
| printing company. His form of anthropometrics is | | | | aftermath of the Homestead Riot, several states |
| still partially used by French police. He is also | | | | passed so-called "anti-Pinkerton" laws restricting |
| credited for philanthropic pursuits - he claimed he | | | | the importation of private security guards during |
| never informed on anyone who had stolen for | | | | labor strikes. The federal Anti-Pinkerton Act of |
| real need. | | | | 1893 continues to prohibit an "individual employed |
| After Vidocq, the industry was born. Much of | | | | by the Pinkerton Detective Agency, or similar |
| what private investigators did in the early days | | | | organization" from being employed by "the |
| was to act as the police in matters that their | | | | Government of the United States or the |
| clients felt the police were not equipped for or | | | | government of the District of Columbia." |
| willing to do. A larger role for this new private | | | | Pinkerton agents were also hired to track |
| investigative industry to was to assist companies | | | | western outlaws Jesse James, the Reno brothers, |
| in labor disputes. Some early private investigators | | | | and the Wild Bunch, including Butch Cassidy and |
| provided armed guards to act as a private militia. | | | | the Sundance Kid. The Pinkerton agency's logo, an |
| In the U.S., the Pinkerton National Detective | | | | eye embellished with the words "We Never |
| Agency was a private detective agency | | | | Sleep," inspired the term "private eye." |
| established in 1850 by Allan Pinkerton. Pinkerton | | | | It was not until the prosperity of the 1920s that |
| had become famous when he foiled a plot to | | | | the private investigator became a person |
| assassinate then President-Elect Abraham Lincoln. | | | | accessible to the average American. With the |
| Pinkerton's agents performed services which | | | | wealth of the 1920s and the expanding of the |
| ranged from undercover investigations and | | | | middle class came the need of middle America for |
| detection of crimes to plant protection and armed | | | | private investigators. |