WayitWas3

Trackers, Trailers and Bounty Hunters in America's Past

Pinkerton Detectives
Wells Fargo Detectives
Stockman Associations

Private Detectives: Yet another class of man was available to further dampen the enthusiasm of would-be criminals. These men and women were the closest thing to full time bounty hunters, possessed of a single-mindedness, steadfastness and imagination which enabled them to remain on a criminal's trail for years. They were the private detectives, employed by those forces who had money enough worth protecting and money enough to pay for such service. Express companies and banks like Wells Fargo, and railroad organizations like Union Pacific all had the need for a little extra-legal protection, touch of dissuasion or outright retribution. (Image)

One group, the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, stands out for providing the cream of fugitive trackers in 19th century and beyond. Also incredibly busy chasing outlaws were the Wells Fargo detectives who had to live up to their early motto: "Wells Fargo, We Never Forget". Combine this with "We Never Sleep" the Pinkerton's logo, wrapped around an open eye. Clearly, fugitives weren't getting much rest.

The Pinkertons: The Pinkerton National Detective Agency was formed in 1850 by a truly amazing Scottish emigrant, Allan Pinkerton and carried on by his sons William and Robert. Allan's story of poverty turned comfort through enterprising, imagination and guts is told best by Richard Wilmer Rowan in his book, PINKERTONS; A Detective Dynasty, 1931. (Image)

The Pinkertons were the ones who were called upon when Rangers, in-house detectives and the law had failed to conclude a chase or mystery. Allan Pinkerton was the first Chief of Chicago's Police Department. Allan Pinkerton was there to guard Lincoln personally at his innaguration, and to head up the Union Army's counterintelligence task force. Pinkerton was again there when the government decided it needed a model for the newly formed F.B.I.. The Pinkertons logo, an open eye, is the root of the term 'Private Eye'.

With offices in New York, Philadelphia, Denver, and Los Angeles, their detectives were responsible for ending the criminal exploits of Western frontier bandits, East coast spies and head-rolling gangsters. Men like Billy the Kid, the Reno Brothers, the James Brothers, Nathan Maroney, the 'Invincible' Piper, Jack Canter, H.H. Holmes and several Mollies of the Molly Maguires all were hounded by the Pinkertons.

One of the Pinkertons most cunning agents, Charles Siringo who had relentlessly trailed Billy the Kid until the end, actually published a book in 1912 titled, A Cowboy Detective.

Wells Fargo: Wells Fargo took crime and its erratication seriously. By 1882, they were requiring their stage coach drivers to fill out 'hold-up' report forms. Their private detectives would search as long and hard for the $50 embezzler as the thousand dollar bandit. They spent more on crime's prevention and retribution than they ever lost to bandits. Their typical payout for information leading to arrest was $100, thought by many to be quite chintzy. Even so, in 1885 the banking and express giant issued nearly $75,000 in these and other rewards. Combined with salaried detectives, special officers and attorney's fees, Wells Fargo spent over $500,000 in that year alone.

Wells Fargo's most memorable case revolves around the trailing and eventual capture of another gentleman bandit, Charles Boles, alias Black Bart.

Boles was excruciatingly polite during his Sierra foothill stagecoach hold-ups, never taking from the passengers. Later he would reveal he never even loaded his gun! While he wasn't relieving some 28 total stages of their bank box, Boles lived as an unobtrusive man-about-town in San Francisco, hobnobbing with even some in the city's police force.

James B. Hume, top Wells Fargo agent enlisted the help of Harry Morse and between the two they pieced together the trail which led to Boles. The clue that broke the case was a handkerchief, dropped by the fleeing Bart after an unsuccessful hold-up in the same spot where he pulled his first heist, Funk Hill in Staninslaus county. The kerchief contained a laundry mark which the tenacious Morse eventually traced to the laundry shop in San Francisco still frequented by Boles, and it was there they apprehended him.

Wells Fargo also successfully utilized the services of Apache trackers in their manhunts through the mountains of Arizona and New Mexico. Native American trackers were perhaps the most skilled and most under-documented of the wild West's bounty hunters.

Range and Stockmen Associations: Laramie County, Wyoming and Young County, Texas saw the beginnings of what would become larger, more powerful citizen groups known as Stockmen Associations. These Associations hired detectives to act as their own personal rangers, sometimes luring marshals away with higher salaries and better horses. Their detectives often wielded considerable power, crossing state boundaries in pursuit of those rustlers and thieves who'd taken one cow too many. Greatly feared for their ruthless methods used to ensure a thief wouldn't get another chance, their like included:

Tom Horn, who was a criminal come-federal-marshal-come-range-detective but a dirty one who'd ambush you with a one shot, long range, high-powered buffalo rifle -- he was eventually hanged for killing a child;
and Frank Canton, whose fame was found through the killing of an entire slew of outlaws - by the time Frank got to 'em he was doing everyone a favor. (Image)

With the introduction of telephones, all these detectives were able to make critical gains on their prey, utilizing and coordinating special field agents from afar. The railroads also swung the odds in favour of the law abiding. Train Companies could send a fresh posse via rail to start the chase from the scene of the crime or even ahead, along the bandits escape route.

(TM)