ALLAN PINKERTON
by Carl R. Green & illustrated by William R. Sanford
The colorful life of the US's first private investigator is filled with contradictions: His reputation for honesty as a detective was unshakeable, but he embroidered freely on his adventures in his bestselling memoirs; he supported several popular causes and ran a station on the Underground Railroad, yet worked to smash the Molly Maguires. Writing in short, simple sentences, Green and Sanford (Mysterious Mind Powers, 1993, etc.) coherently describe the high and low points of Pinkerton's career as well as some of his innovations in law enforcement technique that are still in use: employing female agents, creating a ``rogues' gallery'' of criminal files. Black-and-white photographs and reproductions appear on approximately every other page. This well-documented entry in the Outlaws and Lawmen of the Wild West series will appeal more to less practiced readers than will Wormser's Pinkerton: America's First Private Eye (1990). (map, notes, glossary, bibliography, index) (Biography. 9-11)