[PINKERTON ALLAN]: (1819-1884)

[PINKERTON ALLAN]: (1819-1884) Scottish-born American detective, spy, and abolitionist who is best known for creating the Pinkerton National Detective Agency in the United States in the mid-nineteenth century. An interesting A.L.S. on behalf of Pinkerton by an employee, four pages (separate leaves, stapled together at the head), folio, Chicago, 28th June 1882, to Messrs. Hamlin & Race, on the attractive printed stationery of Pinkerton´s National Detective Agency. The letter takes the form of a continuation of the report of Operative E.E., covering the 23rd & 24th June, and states, in part, ´Messrs. Foss & Seeger informed E.E. that William Gutillis had worked for them in the Novelty Carriage Shop about five days.....that he was regarded as a suspicious character and that it was his bit brace that was taken from the shop on the night of the robbery.....E.E. found him at his borading house.....He took Gutillis out for a walk, and asked him if he saw any suspicious-looking men around last Tuesday. He replied that he did not; that he was laid up on Tuesday with a lame foot; and that the robbers spoiled a brace for him.....He permitted E.E. to read a letter from his sister who advised him to return to the path of rectitude, from which he had so heedlessly wandered. She wrote in a despairing way to her erring brother, seeming to know that he had done something calculated to bring sorrow and trouble on his family.......One Andrews, a brick mason, told E.E. that he had in his employ a young man named William Tranter whom he regarded as a suspicious character; that Tranter had told him that he was not compelled to work; that he got well paid for being a detective; and that a box came to Tranter from Rockford filled with guns, revolvers and buckskin suits......E.E. went to Gutillis´ boarding house, and had a long talk with him, becoming pretty well convinced that he had nothing to do with the robbery, although the burglars used his chisel and brace. Frank Williams, brother-in-law of Charles Still, a former partner of Mr. Hamlin, is a crook, having been several times arrested for stealing in Charles Vail´s bakery......´. Some light age wear, VG