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Many people credit Allan Pinkerton with developing America's first detective agency, but few realize he also trained the first female detective. However, it wasn't exactly his idea. He wasn't even sure it was a good idea, but Kate Warne insisted that she could go places and do things that no male agent could. When François Eugene Vidocq started the Suretè in Paris in 1811, he'd employed female undercover operatives, but none had made it a career. Pinkerton broke entirely new ground, but once he hired Kate, she became indispensable. He even entrusted her with one of the riskiest and most responsible jobs ever to land on his desk. Because Kate Warne died young and her records were lost, her legacy is difficult to establish, but her bold spirit makes her one of the most valuable women in forensic history.
A Mind of Her Own
Allan Pinkerton arrived in the U. S. from Scotland in 1842. He became Chicago's first police detective before he partnered with an attorney to found the organization that would evolve into the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. "The Eye," as Pinkerton came to be known, developed a reputation for reliability and expertise. "We never sleep," was his company motto and he trained agents for undercover operations, railroad security, government espionage, and the pursuit of the West's most notorious bandits. His early efforts during the Civil War gave rise to the Secret Service.
In 1856, a delicate young woman came into Pinkerton's office. He assumed she was looking for clerical work, but she said she was there in response to an ad he'd just placed for a new agent. Once an aspiring actress and recently widowed, Kate Warne was ready for any assignment. As unseemly as it was in those days for a woman to be bold, she'd made up her mind. Pinkerton studied her, and he would later record his impression: "[she was] a slender, brown-haired woman, graceful in her movements and selfpossessed. Her features, although not what could be called handsome, were decidedly of an intellectual cast. . . her face was honest, which would cause one in distress instinctly [sic] to select her as a confidante."
Pinkerton asked her why she thought she could do this kind of work....