The P.I. Post: History of the P.I. & the First Female Detective
Welcome to the next installment in my P.I. Post series.
In these posts, which you’ll find on the blog about every other month in between the Nonfiction Nuggets series, I’ll be sharing details on P.I. topics, unique stories and interesting case reviews. I don’t intend to share specific details about cases (I’ll share links for further reading when appropriate for anyone who would like more information), but some posts might offer information on subject matters that might be difficult for sensitive readers. I’ll try to offer specific warnings when appropriate, but please take care as you read each post.
The next topic in the P.I. Post is about the people behind the history of private investigating. If you aren’t a private investigator like I was, you probably haven’t thought about how the job of private investigating came to become a profession. There’s a first for everything, and others learn from the mistakes of those brave enough to try something new or who decide to forge a new path even if others say it isn’t possible. Is there something you’re interested in where you might have wondered…who was the first person to ever do this?
I would ask: who was the first person to work as a private investigator?
Now, many people might automatically respond that the first private investigator was Sherlock Holmes. However, Sherlock is a fictional private detective created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Sherlock was a character who had a special way of solving crimes by using powers of observation beyond the limits of the average person. Sherlock was “born” around 1887 when he first appeared in a story before featuring in a series beginning in 1891. Most stories involving Sherlock are set in my favorite eras, Victorian and Edwardian, and while Sherlock isn’t the first fictional detective, he is definitely the most well-known.
So who was the first real private investigator? Let’s visit the year 1833…
The first known private detective agency was founded in 1833 by a man who was a French soldier, a privateer and also a criminal. His name was Eugene Francois Vidocq and he hired ex-convicts to work for him. This didn’t bode well with local law enforcement, who tried to shut his agency down many times. Eventually, in 1842, Vidocq was arrested for various crimes after he solved an embezzlement case, but he believed the circumstances surrounding his arrest was a set-up. He was sentenced to five years and was later released by the Court of Appeals. Vidocq would have been an interesting detective to work with and he must have had a fairly brilliant and inventive mind. He was progressive for his time, introducing record-keeping, criminology and ballistics to the field of criminal investigations, and he also made the first shoe impressions using plaster casts.
Who hasn’t heard of the Pinkerton Detective Agency?
Actually, it was the Pinkerton National Detective Agency formed in 1850 by Allan Pinkerton. If Allan Pinkerton rings a bell, you may have heard about his agency, or possibly about how he became famous when he stopped a plot to assassinate President-Elect Abraham Lincoln in 1861. The Pinkerton Agency was a big deal, with many employed agents. Many of those agents were hired as armed guards during the union unrest in the United States in the late 19th century (which later resulted in the enactment of the anti-Pinkerton law in 1893 prohibiting government hiring of Pinkerton agents). Agents from the agency were also hired to find outlaws from the old west, such as Jesse James, Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid, the Reno brother and the Wild Bunch. I can imagine the Pinkerton agents were kept very busy during the days of the Wild Wild West.
When did the term private detective become private eye?
I’ve never really used the term “private eye” but it is a term I’ve heard often by others or in the movies. What I didn’t know is where that term came from. Apparently, the Pinkerton agency’s logo was an eye adorned with the words, “We Never Sleep,” and that is what inspired the expression “private eye.”
Whether we use the title private eye, private investigator or private detective, there is one crucial aspect to working in this field. I was a licensed “private investigator,” the term used by the state where I was employed, and I have never used the term “private detective” when describing myself or what I did when I was hired to conduct investigations. No matter what we call ourselves, there is the expectation that witnesses should not be confused by whether a professional is a private investigator or a police detective. There’s a huge difference and it’s a no-no to let any witness believe you might be law enforcement.
My top question would be: who was the first female private investigator?
Meet Kate Warne. Kate was born in New York and was widowed when she was only 23. One day she walked into the Pinkerton Agency at the Chicago office to reply to an ad in the newspaper. It was assumed she was in need of finding clerical work, but she made it clear she was replying to an ad that had been placed for detectives. Of course, hiring a woman for that type of work at that time was unheard of and even Pinkerton noted that it wasn’t “the custom to employ women detectives!”
However, Kate was very persuasive and in hindsight, Pinkerton was brilliant when he listened to what she had to say as she described how she might be of use to him as a detective. Most importantly, she described how a female detective could be useful when it came to digging up secrets that might be impossible for a male detective to uncover and how a female detective could easily become friends with the wives and girlfriends of suspected criminals under observation.
Pinkerton decided to hire Kate and she became the first female detective, at least in America, in 1856. Her value was solidified two years later when Kate was involved in an embezzlement case where she befriended the wife of a suspect who stole $50,000. Kate learned valuable information that led to the suspect’s arrest and conviction, which resulted in a ten-year sentence and the reimbursement of over $39,000 of the stolen funds.
Kate Warne becomes Pinkerton’s Top 5 detectives
Allen Pinkerton named Kate one of his top 5 detectives in a time when the profession was ruled by men. That was just one of her accomplishments. In 1860, Pinkerton started a new Female Detective Bureau and he placed Kate in charge of that department as the Supervisor of Women Agents. For years, Kate played a huge role as a top detective for the agency, taking on undercover roles in high-profile cases, whether as a mistress to Pinkerton (no one suspected she was also a detective), or a friend to a suspect’s wife or girlfriend and once she even played the part as a fortune teller in an attempt to flesh out a potential murderer. She was also a key player in preventing the assassination attempt on Lincoln in 1861, and she took care of most of the arrangements that were necessary to smuggle Lincoln into Washington D.C.
If I could meet someone from the past, Kate Warne would be top on my list. She took charge of her future during a time when women weren’t allowed to even think about doing such things, much less actually do them. Pinkerton gave her the opportunity, but after she commanded his respect and expressed herself with intelligence and grace that he couldn’t deny.
She had a passion and she made it happen!
Kate was only around 35 years old when she died, but she accomplished more in her lifetime than most women ever thought possible during the era she lived. Truth be told, she accomplished more than most women do in current times. Kate is a true testament to the saying, if there’s a will, there’s a way.
So now you know some of the history behind the P.I. profession and more importantly, to me as a former female private investigator, history about the first female detective. I don’t imagine Kate had any idea that someone like me would be reading about her accomplishments 150+ years after her death. She did what she did because it was her passion, not because she thought she’d make history and end up in books or an encyclopedia years later.
Passion is what made me decide to become a P.I. and then a mystery writer. When passion takes the wheel and drives us, we want to do more, be more, and I guess if we’re lucky, we might even wind up in a book or two someday so others can read about our accomplishments. In the meantime, living the life we believe we’re meant to live is what it’s all about. Even though Kate had a relatively short life, I bet she’d be the first to say it was a fulfilling one.
