No. 444
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
December 17, 2019

Allan Pinkerton.

The Eye that Never Sleeps.
December 17, 2019
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Tag: 1890

Jack the Garter Stealer.

A bold and eccentric individual, who is alarming the girls and puzzling the authorities of Exeter, Mass.

6/12/2017

They Ran a Snide Game.

A “friendly” poker scheme exposed at Bogota, N. J., by one of the players squealing.

6/13/2016

A Pair of Turtle Doves.

J. C. McLean, of Anderson, Ind., discovers that his wife is of a too-loving nature.

5/23/2016

Gambler Vs. Cook.

James Toohey, a Covington, Neb., scullion, gets awfully mad and fatally stabs a man about town named Erwin.

4/18/2016

Concerning Sensational Methods.

There is a class of publications whose lives depend upon their successful appeal to vicious instincts.

6/1/2015

Willie Craig Was a Girl.

But what a lovely sensation she created among the Henderson, Tenn. sweet girls and susceptible boys before her sex was discovered.

5/11/2015

Said She Would and Did.

Mrs. Cary cures her husband of flirting by ascending in a balloon at Buffalo, N. Y.

4/27/2015

She Went into the Scrimmage.

Mrs. Miller Forcibly Removes Her Two Sons form a Football Game at Bridgeport, Conn.

12/8/2014

Giddy Young Girls.

12/1/2014
A while back, I did a post sharing some outstanding examples of that little-discussed, but thoroughly endearing phenomenon I’ve dubbed “libelous tombstones.”  Epitaphs are usually solemn and respectful things, but surprisingly often, they are used as vehicles to insult the dead (and the living,) make defamatory remarks, and generally raise hell.  And I for one applaud them for
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Strange Company - 10/20/2025
"As his son I am proud of hisefforts to succeed in life"Jefferson Randolph Smith IIIArtifact #93-2Jeff Smith collection(Click image to enlarge) oapy's son hires a legal firm to stop the defamation of his father's name. At age 30, Jefferson Randolph Smith III, Soapy and Mary's oldest son, was protecting his father's legacy and his mother's reputation from "libel" and scandal. He was also
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Soapy Smith's Soap Box - 10/13/2025
Halloween in New York City these days is much more about treats than tricks. But in the decades around the turn of the 20th century, going door to door to collect candy in a plastic pumpkin wasn’t yet a thing. So how did the youngsters roaming Gotham in the days of ash barrels and elevated […]
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Ephemeral New York - 10/20/2025
Youth With Executioner by Nuremberg native Albrecht Dürer … although it’s dated to 1493, which was during a period of several years when Dürer worked abroad. November 13 [1617]. Burnt alive here a miller of Manberna, who however was lately … Continue reading
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Executed Today - 11/13/2020
Captain McGregor of the No. 8 Engine Company on Fifth Street in Baltimore saw a woman come out of the house across the street and collapse on the pavement on the afternoon of January 8, 1889. He ran to the woman and found her covered with blood. “Ida did this,” she told him. She said, in German, that her servant, Ida Kessel, had demanded money from her and, upon being refused, assaulted her
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Murder By Gaslight - 10/18/2025
The good-looking thirty-seven year old gentleman handling the reins behind the glossy matched pair pulling the spanking-new carriage drew the attention of more than one feminine eye.  Pacing down French St. at a sharp clip, the lady next to him, dressed neatly in a tailor-made suit with the latest in millinery fashion, smiled up at her coachman. Behind the lace curtains on the Hill section of Fall River, tongues were wagging about the unseemly pair. Lizzie Borden, acquitted of double homicide just six years earlier had come into her money and also her style of spending it on the good things in life.  Just what was going on between Lizzie and that coachman, unchaperoned and traveling together all around town? Chief among those who disapproved of the new coachman was sister Emma, who had been perfectly satisfied with Mr. Johnson, the former coachman who had managed their father’s Swansea farm. This new addition to the house on French St. was far too “at home” and casual for Emma’s proper standards. He did not behave sufficiently as a servant who ought to know his place. His presence in their home was causing gossip and attention, a deplorable situation for the retiring, modest older sister. Handsome Joe would have to go and Emma made sure of that in 1902 after three years of Joe’s service to the Borden sisters. Lizzie was not well-pleased with the dismissal. Ever since Emma Borden packed her bags and left French St. for good in 1905, friends, neighbors and now historians wonder what caused the split between two sisters who had been so close all their lives. Much has been made of the passing and short friendship Lizzie formed with actress Nance O’Neil as a possible cause of the rift, as well as “theater people” in the house and strong drink. Most likely it was a combination of things but one thing was for sure- Emma’s dismissal of the good-looking young coachman whom Lizzie had hired to drive her around town was a factor. 1900 census listing Joe, Annie Smith (housekeeper) Lizzie and Emma So, where did he come from and what became of Joseph Tetrault (also Tetreau and Tatro)?  Born on February 9, 1863 in Kingston, R.I. of French Canadian parents, he worked as a hairdresser/barber on Second Street in Fall River at one time.  Later we find him living a short distance away on Spring Street at a boarding house owned by Lizzie and Emma after the murders in 1892. His parents, Pierre Tetreau dit Ducharme and  his mother,Almeda Fanion were from Rouville, Quebec and had moved to Kingston, Rhode Island. Pierre worked in a woolen mill and had nine children with his first wife, Marie Denicourt, and six more with  second wife, Almeda. The last six included : Edward Peter 1861-1940 Joseph H.  1863-1929 Mary Elizabeth “Mamie” 1865-1956 Frederick A. 1871-1947 Francis “Frank” 1875-1935 Julia E.  1877-1973 We can only imagine the conversation between Lizzie and Emma about Joe Tatro – the arguments put forward, even heated discussions, but in the end, Lizzie had her way and in 1904 rehired Joe to resume his duties on French Street.  Added to Emma’s unhappiness about Nance O’Neil and other factors, Emma and Lizzie parted company in 1905. Joe remained driving Miss Lizzie until 1908, and for whatever reason, decided to move on. The 1908 directory lists him as “removed to Providence”. Joe never married. Perhaps he remembered his childhood in a house full of siblings and half siblings and parenthood never appealed to him. He decided to try his luck out in Ohio where his youngest sibling, Julia, had gone, now married to Alfred Lynch and where eventually all his full siblings would find their way. Al Lynch worked as a supervisor in a machine works in East Cleveland and he and Julia had two sons, Alfred Jr. and an oddly -named boy, Kenneth Borden Lynch.  One has to wonder about this last name.  Lizzie had two beloved horses, Kenneth and Malcolm. Was this a connection to Joe’s happy past on French Street where he had driven that team of horses?  Lizzie presented Joe with a handsome heavy gold watch chain when he left her in 1908.  The watch fob had an onyx intaglio inset of a proud horsehead to remind him of their days on French St. Joe’s youngest sibling Julia, who married Al Lynch. She was the mother of two sons including Kenneth Borden Lynch Sadly, Kenneth Borden Lynch was to marry, produce one son, and one day while attending to his motor vehicle, was run over by a passing Greyhound bus. Kenneth Borden Lynch, Joe’s nephew Joe Tatro developed cancer of the stomach and died at the age of 66 ½ from a sudden stomach hemorrhage on August 10, 1929.  His last occupation was one of a restaurant chef.  He was a long way from those carefree Fall River days.  He was buried in Knollwood Cemetery on August 12th from S.H. Johnson’s funeral home. His last address at 1872 Brightwood St. in East Cleveland is today just a vacant lot in a tired old residential neighborhood. He shared the home with another married sister, Mary R. Tatro Asselin.  There are still a few direct descendants of his immediate family alive, and they are aware of his connection to Lizzie Borden. Whatever memories of her, Joe took with him to the grave. (Photographs courtesy of Ancestry.com, Newspapers.com, The Cleveland Plain Dealer and Zillow.com)
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Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 10/16/2025
  [Editor’s note: Guest writer, Peter Dickson, lives in West Sussex, England and has been working with microfilm copies of The Duncan Campbell Papers from the State Library of NSW, Sydney, Australia. The following are some of his analyses of what he has discovered from reading these papers. Dickson has contributed many transcriptions to the Jamaica […]
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Early American Crime - 2/7/2019
Buying the Christmas Turkey. | Burlesque Comes to America.

Allan Pinkerton.

نحن لا ننام أبدا

Allan Pinkerton, and the organization he founded in 1850, Pinkerton’s National Detective Agency, embodied all the traits that have come to be associated with the mythic American private detective. They were tough, honest, incorruptible, fair-minded, dogged and independent. The Pinkerton logo—a vigilant eye with the motto “We Never Sleep” –was the source of the term “private eye.” But not everyone has been pleased with Pinkerton’s work. Some detractors, then and now, have characterized the Pinkertons as little more than a private army for capitalists.

آلان بينكرتون

Pinkerton came to America from Scotland with his young bride at age 24 and set up a cooperage in Dundee, Illinois. After accidentally discovering a counterfeiting operation, Pinkerton contacted the sheriff of Kane County and assisted the sheriff and his men in arresting the counterfeiters. This series of events led Pinkerton to turn to a career in law enforcement and in 1849 became the first detective in the Chicago Police Department.

He left the police department less than a year later due to “political interference,” and after a brief but successful stint as Special Agent for the U.S. Post Office, Pinkerton opened his own detective bureau, Pinkerton’s National Detective Agency.  One of the company’s first clients was the Illinois Central railroad who had been plagued by train robberies. He was hired by the company’s vice-president, George McClellan; the contract was drawn up by Illinois Central’s attorney, Abraham Lincoln.

Pinkerton’s was not the first private detective agency in America. In an era with no national law enforcement and when state and city police forces were notoriously corrupt and inefficient, private forces had sprung up in most eastern cities. But these organizations tended to provide private substitutes for regular police functions such as recovering stolen goods.; Pinkerton’s was the first agency to specialize in the type of undercover operations commonly associated with modern detective work.

Pinkerton’s agency also differed from other law enforcement groups, public and private, in the high moral standards set for the organization and its operatives. In a document entitled General Principles Pinkerton outlined the company’s moral parameters:

"The Agency will not represent a defendant in a criminal case except with the knowledge and consent of the prosecutor;  they will not shadow jurors or investigate public officials in the performance of their duties, or trade-union officers or members in their lawful union activities; they will not accept employment from one political party against another; they will not report union meetings unless the meetings are open to the public without restriction; they will not work for vice crusaders; they will not accept contingent fees, gratuities or rewards. The Agency will never investigate the morals of a woman unless in connection with another crime, nor will it handle cases of divorce or of a scandalous nature."

وردي 2 Allen Pinkerton, Pres. Lincoln, Maj. Gen. McClernand

Following the Presidential election of his long-time associate, Abraham Lincoln, Allan Pinkerton uncovered a plot to assassinate the President-elect in Baltimore, en route to his inauguration. He convinced Lincoln to change his travel plans, probably saving his life. When the Civil War broke out, Pinkerton, who had always been an ardent abolitionist, rallied to the Union cause, volunteering his agency's services. He established the Secret Service, and supplied intelligence for another of Pinkerton’s old friends, George McClellan, now General of the Army of the Potomac.

After the Civil War the Pinkerton Agency, hired by railroad and express companies, actively pursued outlaw gangs and train robbers, such as the James gang and the Reno gang. “The eye that never sleeps” was well known to outlaws of the old west who had reason to fear the incorruptible and unyielding Pinkertons.

The Pinkerton name began to tarnish when the agency became involved in the labor struggles at the end of the 19th century.  In 1873 they were hired by the Philadelphia and Reading Railway, Coal and Iron Companies to investigate the Mollie Maguires, a particularly violent Irish-American secret society that had been terrorizing northeastern Pennsylvania in the name of labor reform. An undercover operation by the Pinkertons led to the arrest and execution of twenty Molly Maguire members. The question of whether these hangings were justified is still debated today.

In 1892, eight years after Allan Pinkerton’s death, the Carnegie Steel Company hired the Pinkertons to break a strike at the Homestead Steel Works, south of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Workers opened fire on a barge containing 300 Pinkerton agents. The resulting battle lasted several hours and caused the death of three Pinkerton agents and seven strikers.  Though they were outnumbered ten-to-one the Pinkertons have been portrayed as the aggressors. 

At the start of the 20th century, it became apparent that America needed a public law enforcement agency at the national level. In 1908 the Federal Bureau of Investigation was established, using Pinkerton’s National Detective Agency as its model. The Pinkerton agency still thrives today as Pinkerton Consulting & Investigations, a leader in the field their founder virtually invented.


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