Page 24 - WAD 2023 March

FEATURE A DAILY DOSE

OF HISTORY

Kate Warne

Born in upstate New York in 1830, Kate Warne challenged
gender expectations and took on the boys to become a
detective for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency
at the age of 26. PINKERTON

Credit: https://www.facebook.com/DailyDoseofHistory/about

(1833 – January 28, 1868)[1] was an American law enforcement On another case she extracted a confession from a suspect while
officer known as the first female detective, in 1856, in the Pinkerton posing as a fortune teller. Pinkerton was so impressed that he
Detective Agency and the United States. created a Women’s Detective Bureau within his agency and made
Kate Warne the leader of it.
In 1856, twenty-three-year-old widow Kate Warne walked into the
office of the Pinkerton Detective Agency in Chicago, announcing In her most famous case, Kate Warne may have changed the history
that she had seen the company’s ad and wanted to apply for of the world. In February 1861 the president of the Wilmington and
the job. “Sorry,” Alan Pinkerton told her, “but we don’t have any Baltimore railroad hired Pinkerton to investigate rumors of threats
clerical staff openings. We’re looking to hire a new detective.” against the railroad. Looking into it, Pinkerton soon found evidence
Pinkerton would later describe Warne as having a “commanding” of something much more dangerous—a plot to assassinate
presence that morning. “I’m here to apply for the detective position,” Abraham Lincoln before his inauguration.
she replied. Taken aback, Pinkerton explained to Kate that
women aren’t suited to be detectives, and then Kate forcefully and Pinkerton assigned Kate Warne to the case. Taking the persona of
eloquently made her case. “Mrs. Cherry,” a Southern woman visiting Baltimore, she managed
to infiltrate the secessionist movement there and learn the specific
Women have access to places male detectives can’t go, she noted, details of the scheme—a plan to kill the president-elect as he
and women can befriend the wives and girlfriends of suspects and passed through Baltimore on the way to Washington.
gain information from them. Finally, she observed, men tend to
become braggards around women who encourage boasting, and Pinkerton relayed the threat to Lincoln and urged him to travel to
women have keen eyes for detail. Pinkerton was convinced. He Washington from a different direction. But Lincoln was unwilling to
hired her. cancel the speaking engagements he had agreed to along the way,
so Pinkerton resorted to a Plan B. For the trip through Baltimore
Shortly after Warne was hired, she proved her value as a detective Lincoln was secretly transferred to a different train and disguised
by befriending the wife of a suspect in a major embezzlement case. as an invalid. Posing as his caregiver was Kate Warne. When
Warne not only gained the information necessary to arrest and she afterwards described her sleepless night with the President,
convict the thief, but she discovered where the embezzled funds Pinkerton was inspired to adopt the motto that became famously
were hidden and was able to recover nearly all of them. associated with his agency: “We never sleep.” The details Kate
Warne had uncovered had enabled the “Baltimore Plot” to be
thwarted.
22 W.A.D Beyond Global