What is the Pinkerton Detective Agency? Podcast hosts Josh and Chuck discuss how they thwarted "an assassination plot" for Abraham Lincoln

The Pinkerton Detective Agency was the main topic of discussion in the latest episode of the Stuff You Should Know podcast, which aired on April 3, 2025. Notably, hosts Charles "Chuck" Bryant and Josh Clark highlighted the time when the agency successfully saved Abraham Lincoln from an assassination attempt many years ago.

The Pinkerton Detective Agency, founded by Scottish immigrant Allan Pinkerton in 1850, protected trains by catching robbers and solving thefts. In 1861, a Corsican barber in Baltimore, Cipriano Fadendinei, was reportedly involved in a plot to assassinate Abraham Lincoln.

The plan was allegedly supposed to be executed when Lincoln was travelling through Baltimore to Washington, D.C. Charles further stated:

“Pinkerton, you know, found out about this and was like, you’re not going to kill my buddy. I’m going to thwart your plan.”

Josh responded that the plan allegedly aimed to prevent Lincoln from arriving at his inauguration. He then opened up on the steps taken by the Pinkerton Detective Agency to save Lincoln, stating:

“So as Lincoln got told Baltimore, they enacted a plan where he was taken off of the train at a stop, I think like Harrisburg or something right before Baltimore, and he was disguised and he basically played the brother of a woman named Kate Warren, who was a detective who will talk about in a second.”

Clark claimed that Kate accompanied Lincoln on a separate train and stayed awake throughout the night to ensure his safety until he reached Washington. Josh then addressed the impact of everything that happened and said:

“That kind of coined this term or this slogan they adopted, we never sleep and led to the logo which was this open eye, like the all seeing eye that’s watching you, that never sleeps.”

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Pinkerton Detective Agency was formed in 1850: History and other details

According to the agency’s official website, Pinkerton has been active since the Civil War. The credit behind its establishment goes to Allan Pinkerton, who left school midway and arrived in the United States in 1842.

Glasgow World stated that Allan Pinkerton was initially involved in the barrel-making business. During this time, he found a group of counterfeiters and immediately reported them to the local sheriff, leading to the group’s arrest. He later joined the Chicago Police and subsequently worked for the U.S. Post Office.

Around the same time, Pinkerton also established another private detective company called the North-Western Police Agency.

Pinkerton became well-known among everyone, specifically when train robberies increased. During this time, Allan joined the Union Intelligence Service as the head. The agency’s work began receiving more praise since it was similar to the duties taken by the U.S. Army Counterintelligence Special Agents, as per Glasgow World.

According to Pinkerton Detective Agency’s official website, they began guarding the Illinois Central Railroad in 1855. Fifty-one years later, the agency had built almost twenty offices around the U.S. Its corporate headquarters were established in New York City in 1960.

Although Pinkerton Detective Agency was associated with different cases over the years, it notably helped to escort Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa through the Atlantic Ocean in 1962. Around three years later, it came to be known as Pinkerton’s Inc.

In 1998, Pinkerton also helped in the evacuation of various expatriates due to the Asian Currency Crisis. Eventually, by 2013, the agency became active in risk wheel and end-to-end delivery, as revealed on the website. Since 2014, the agency’s headquarters have been located in Ann Arbor, Michigan.