A mockery of sexism: how Kate Warne became the first female detective and saved Lincoln

Kate Warne from the popular TV series The Pinkertons is a real-life woman. She became the first detective in the world and had a hand in solving many complex crimes. Let's talk about how she did it.

"Sorry, but we don't need a secretary"

Little is known about Kate Warne's childhood. She was born in 1833 to a large poor family in the state of New York. In her youth, the artistic and eloquent Kate dreamed of becoming an actress, but her parents were against such a frivolous pursuit. Instead, she was given in marriage and forced to take care of the household.

But Kate's family life did not last long: her husband died shortly after the wedding. And the widowed girl got the opportunity to manage her life as she wants. However, to the surprise of those close to her, she rejected her dream of a stage and instead came to detective agency Allan Pinkerton.

It was a hot summer day in 1856. When Kate appeared at the office, she heard: "Sorry, but we don't need a secretary." To which the girl smiled and said that she came to the agency because she saw an advertisement for a detective vacancy.

Interviewed by Allan Pinkerton himself. In his book, he later described Kate as “a powerful person; a slender brown-haired woman, graceful in her movements, whose features, although one could not call them beautiful, definitely belonged to an intellectual warehouse; and her eyes looked honest, because of which a person in trouble was instinctively ready to choose Kate as a confidant.

At the time, no one was hiring female investigators. Therefore, Pinkerton asked what made Warne apply for such a position. With her usual eloquence, Kate confidently stated that she could be useful: "I can see and hear things that you will never see or hear."

Indeed, in the middle of the 19th century, when women were forbidden to work in the police, a young girl would hardly have been suspected of a private detective. She could be spy and to extort secret information from suspects who have lost their vigilance. This was her strongest asset.

In addition, "women are more observant and attentive to details", added Warne.

So Kate Warne became part of Allan Pinkerton's detective agency. From that day began her stellar career.

"How a chameleon can transform into different roles"

Shortly after Pinkerton hired Warne, he gave her a case that the whole country was talking about at that moment - robbery Adams Express for $50,000 (about $1.5 million today). The money was stolen from a sealed safe on a train from Alabama to Georgia.

Suspicion fell on two people: an Alabama shipping manager and a security guard who accompanied the safe along the way. However, none of them took the blame, so the company decided to fire both of them.

Soon, Pinkerton was informed that manager Nathan Maroney, suspected of a crime, began to give large tips in New Orleans restaurants. Then Kate Warne decided to ingratiate herself with his wife. She changed her northern accent to a southern one and began dropping in at Mrs. Maroney's for tea.

Another Pinkerton agent, under the guise of an experienced thief, meanwhile was able to talk to the kidnapper and find out that it was he who was behind the theft. However, no one knew where the money was.

Kate Warne's friendship with Mrs. Maroney helped here. The detective learned that the woman was going to Alabama to help her husband pay off from the investigation. This required an amount equal to two annual salaries of Nathan.

Of course, after the Adams Express robbery, he had that kind of money. And the wife had to deliver them to a bribed lawyer. But at the very moment when the unsuspecting Mrs. Maroni was getting a suitcase with money from a hiding place, Kate Warne and her colleagues caught her red-handed.

Being greatly impressed by the work of the detective, Pinkerton in 1860 offered Warne to head a branch of his agency - the Women's Detective Bureau.

There she was able to hire other female detectives and teach them the tricks of espionage and surveillance. It is not known exactly how much employees attracted Warne, but under her leadership, the Chicago bureau expanded to several regional branches and still exists.

"Allan implicitly believed in her abilities, - speaks acting vice president of the agency, Brian McNairy. “He liked to say that Kate had never let him down.”

“The fact that men underestimated women was an advantage for her”

In 1861, the American Civil War broke out. The northern states, where mostly emigrants and people from the lower classes lived, were opposed to slavery spreading on their lands. The southern ones, educated by wealthy European landowners, did not want to give up the opportunity to have cheap labor.

So when in 1860 he won the presidential election abolitionist Abraham Lincoln, this did not please the southerners.

To conduct the inauguration ceremony from his home in Springfield, the president had to travel to Washington. The path ran through Baltimore, where the conspirators were already waiting for him, who were supposed to kill him.

Wherein Lincoln considered himself a people's choice and preferred to travel without protection. Therefore, fearing the intrigues of the separatists, the head of the railway hired pinkertonsto prevent the assassination of the future president.

Kate Warne entered the game under the pseudonym Mrs. Cherry. She again pretended to be a wealthy heiress from southern Alabama and befriended the wives and sisters of men who intended to assassinate Lincoln. The separatists flirted and gossiped with her without worrying that this charming beauty would tell anyone about their plot.

According to the Pinkerton investigation, the plan was this: on the afternoon of February 23, 1861, Abraham Lincoln would arrive at Calvert Street Station in Baltimore to transfer to another train - to Washington. At this point, the conspirators will stage a scuffle to distract the police. And the person who is selected from the separatist group by lottery will shoot the president.

Then it was decided to change the time of Lincoln's arrival: he arrived at the station earlier, at 3:30 in the morning. The President had to put on complex makeup and pretend to be a person with a disability. He was modestly dressed: he wore a loose gray overcoat and a felt hat pulled down over his face, as well as a shawl. Kate Warne also played the role of his sister - a nurse caring for her brother.

Kate later wrote that Lincoln was friendly, although she was surprised that he would be led through Baltimore by a woman and not by a troop of cavalry.

Having seduced or bribed the head of the train, Warne ensured that they were given separate compartment. Without a wink of eyes, the girl guarded the peace of the president until her arrival in Washington. Some believe that this is what later inspired Pinkerton's idea for the motto for his agency: "We never sleep."

When Lincoln successfully reached the capital, the agents sent a coded message: "Plums have nuts." The plums were Pinkertons, and the nut was the president himself.

Kate was not particularly impressed with him: "Mr. Lincoln is very nondescript and so tall that he cannot lie straight in his bunk." He, on the contrary, then spoke with admiration about the girl detective.

"Kate warns"

All four years, while the Civil War was going on in the United States, Warne was one of the most effective spies. And shortly after graduation, in the Chicago office of the Pinkertons, there was a fire, which destroyed all archives. Therefore, historians do not know all the cases of Kate Warne, but only the loudest ones - those that got into the media.

For example, she was involved in the investigation of the murder of a bank teller and the theft of $130,000. The police had a suspect, but he did not want to admit to what he had done. Then, according to the old tradition, Warne entered into the confidence of his wife and found out from her the circumstances of the murder and the location of the money.

And in another famous case, Kate Warne played a role fortune tellers. In a few sessions, she managed to get a confession from a woman who planned to kill people. She wanted to poison her own brother to become the sole heir to the fortune, and get rid of her lover's wife so that she would not stand in her way.

The artistry of Warne, which she decided to use not on stage, but in detective investigations, served her well. Pinkerton called Kate one of the top five agents. Moreover, it was rumored that they were connected not only by a working relationship.

Therefore, when at the age of 35 a girl fell ill pneumonia, Pinkerton spent long hours at her bedside. However, the doctors were unable to save her. Kate Warne died on January 28, 1868.

The Ohio newspaper also wrote, "She was undoubtedly the finest female detective in America, if not the world."

As a mark of respect, Pinkerton decided to bury her at his family's private plot in Chicago. Later, he himself rested next to her.

After Pinkerton's death, the agency passed into the hands of his son, who immediately abolished the women's detective department and stopped hiring girls.

And only at the beginning of the 20th century, thanks to the actions suffragistswomen were able to work in the police. And even then only with teenagers and other girls. That is, they performed, rather, the function of social workers than operatives and investigators.

Therefore, the fate of Kate Warne is so amazing: she was able to get ahead of her time. You can honor the memory of the first female detective now: anyone can find her grave at Graceland Cemetery. On the tombstone, her name is spelled incorrectly - without the last letter. Because of what the inscription reads ironically as Kate Warn, or "Kate warns."