[ INVESTIGATIVE FILES JOE NICKELL Joe Nickell has been a Pinkerton operative, a literary detective (PhD in English literature and folklore), and occa- sional police homicide consultant. Still later (1995) he became the world’s only full-time professional paranormal investigator. He is coauthor of the forensic textbook Crime Science (Nickell and Fischer 1999), and his work has been cited in such texts as Kirk’s Fire Investigation.

Detective: Uncovering the Mysteries of a Word

s a literary detective (my PhD informer (OED 1971, 704, 1478). By dis sertation was Literary Investi- 1605, Shakespeare was using that term Agation [Nickell 1987]), I have to describe one who finds the artfully applied linguistic evidence to famous concealed or the inherently obscure: cases—showing, as spurious, for exam- “O Heavens! That this Treason were ple, the infamous Beale treasure papers not; or not I the detector!” (King Lear (Nickell 1982) and the alleged diary of III. V. 14).1 Indeed, detecter [sic] is the the Ripper (Nickell 1993), among very word given for such a meaning in others. More recently, I have been Dr. Samuel Johnson’s famously “first”2 investigating another questioned text, English dictionary (1755): “DETE´CTER. purportedly penned in the American n.s. A discoverer. Shakespeare.” South in 1846 but describing events of decades earlier. The story involved The First Detective “detectives,” but that word had not yet In time, detection became a new profes- come into existence, a revealing fact sion, although more time would elapse that soon drew me into further studies. before a word evolved to describe one Here is some of what I found. Eugène François Vidocq who practiced it. Such a person was Eugène François Vidocq (1775–1857) over the floor of the temple before it Early Detection who has been called “the first detec- was sealed. The ashes subsequently re- Among the earliest detective stories tive” (Morton 2012). He rose from vealed the unmistakable footprints of in literature is one related in an extra, petty criminal to police informer to men, women, and children who had apocryphal Book of Daniel (given in undercover operative, to the founder of entered through secret doors. Mystery Catholic Bibles as Daniel 14:1–21). It the French Sûreté Nationale in 1811. tells how, during the reign of Cyrus, solved. He is also credited with creating the the Babylonians persuaded the Persian The centuries, however, awaited a first private detective agency. Vidocq King to worship their idol Bel (or term for such a person as Daniel. There published his ghost-written memoirs Baal). Set up in a temple, the effigy was the sixteenth-century word inves- in 1829, popularizing the proverb “set daily consumed twelve bushels of flour, tigator of course (from the Latin), de- a thief to catch a thief ” (Morton 2012). forty sheep, and fifty gallons of wine scribing one who made diligent inquiry Vidocq’s memoirs were among the that the priests placed before it. Or so or examination, but without necessarily most sensational crime-chasing stories it seemed. meaning to skillfully detect—from the of the period, and French writers began A suspicious Daniel, however, in de- Latin detegere, to uncover. Eventually to base characters on him. Honoré de tective fashion, set a trap to reveal pos- there came detector (or detecter), one Balzac’s Le Père Goriot (1834) featured sible trickery. He had ashes scattered who simply revealed, like an accuser or an anti- Vautran who was modeled

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The Pinkertons after Vidocq. Later, Victor Hugo’s Les 18–24, 129, 171–172). Miserables (1862) contained two such The next major developments in detective Possibly as early as 1850, Pinker- characters (convict-hero Jean Valjean matters are credited to Allan Pinkerton ton founded what eventually became and Inspector Javert). (1819–1884) who would firmly secure Pinkerton’s National Detective Agency. detective as a noun, and begin to apply Its letterhead pictured an open eye with Poe and the Detective Story adjectives to it. A Scottish fugitive the slogan, “We Never Sleep”—a trade- (he had been a radical Chartist), he Meanwhile, the great American lit- mark that gave rise to the term private stole away with his bride to America, erary genius Edgar Allan Poe (1809– eye. Pinkertons tended to be called “op- settling in Illinois and plying his trade 1849) created the genre of detective eratives” rather than “detectives.” They fiction with three stories. The first, as a cooper. In 1847, needing wood were instructed in the arts of “shadow- “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” for his barrels and seeking it on a lush ing,” role-playing, and disguise (Horan (1841), relates the horrific murders of island in the Fox River, he soon spied 1967, x, 28–29). a reputed fortuneteller and her daugh- evidence of clandestine activity. He lay Allan Pinkerton led the fight against ter in a locked-room mystery that in wait there one moonlit evening and, bank, express-company, and train rob- baffles the Parisian police. In the tale, after a repeat stakeout accompanied bers. He foiled an assassination plot Poe specifically acknowledges his debt by the sheriff, helped arrest a gang of against president-elect Lincoln, and to Vidocq. This pioneering story was counterfeiters (Horan 1967, 2–16). headed the Intelligence Service during followed by “The Mystery of Marie Rogêt” (1842–1843), based on a real, murdered American girl named Mary Rogers (Nickell 2010). Finally, he pub- Allan Pinkerton led the fight against bank, lished “The Purloined Letter” (1842– express-company, and train robbers. 1843), a tale of hiding in plain sight. Poe’s amateur detective, Monsieur He foiled an assassination plot against C. Auguste Dupin, was the coldly log- president-elect Lincoln, and headed the ical hero of what Poe called his ratioci- Intelligence Service during the Civil War. native tales (Benet’s 1987, 283). He did not call them “detective” stories; neither did he apply the word to Dupin or use it in any of his stories. The word detective first appeared in print as an adjective. The Oxford English Finding he was a born detective, the Civil War. His agents became Dictionary3 (OED 1971, 704) shows Pinkerton became, in turn, deputy sher- spies, posing as confederate soldiers “detective police” in use in London iff of Kane County, then in about 1849 and rebel sympathizers. Subsequently, as early as 1843, but it has since been Chicago’s first detective, during which with sons William and Robert, Allan shown that that term appeared earlier, work he survived an initial attempt on Pinkerton multiplied branch offices to in a letter to The Times (London), May his life. As the Daily Democratic Press create, at its height, the largest private 30, 1840. Some think therefore that reported: the shot was “discharged so detective agency in the world. Oper- detective was available to Poe but that near that Mr. Pinkerton’s coat was put ative Frank Dimaio was the first de- he may have declined to use it (Berch on fire.” Two slugs in his arm were tective to infiltrate the Mafia, among 2010). later “cut out by a surgeon together countless other Pinkerton successes In fact, it is not only unlikely that with pieces of his coat.” After a year, (Horan 1967, 418–452). Poe would have seen an obscure letter Pinkerton resigned because of “politi- Not all Pinkerton activities were to the editor across the Atlantic, but the cal influence,” but he soon had another praiseworthy, however—the most con- adjective form of the word did not give badge. As Special United States Mail trary example being the use of opera- rise to the noun for years to come. (The Agent he went undercover to solve a se- tives and watchmen against the labor suffix –ive is often added to a verb—in ries of mail thefts and robberies. Later, movement. As James Horan states this case detect—to form an adjective in 1853, the Daily Democratic Press re- (1967, 358), “That the Pinkertons meaning “to have the quality of”; sub- ported4: “As a detective, Mr. Pinkerton were acting within the law is incontro- sequently such adjectives may evolve has no superior, and we doubt if he has vertible; that they were acting morally into nouns.) an equal in this country” (Horan 1967, is another question”—a fact they be-

Skeptical Inquirer | November/December 2013 15 latedly recognized. (When I became a adopting a suitable persona, and gained 1967, 46, 81). He would later call her Pinkerton detective in 1973, the agency the confidence of the suspect’s wife. “the greatest female detective who ever had a long-established policy against When the woman asked Warne’s ad- brought a case to a successful conclu- strikebreaking or even reporting on vice about giving the stolen money for sion” (qtd. in Horan 1967, 520). lawful union activities.) safekeeping to a man her husband knew only from jail (another Pinkerton!), First Woman Detective Warne knew just how to advise her. Pinkerton’s first female private detec- The Pinkertons’ deplorable anti-union Warne was also integral to thwarting tives were far ahead of their time. activities were heavily ironic in light the “Baltimore Plot”—a conspiracy to Women did not join police depart- of Allan Pinkerton’s own equalitarian assassinate President-elect Lincoln in ments until 1891 and then were only principles. As a Chartist he had pro- 1861 as he was en route to Washington. matrons, limited to caring for pris- oners. New York City did not begin using women investigators until 1903. However, women writing detective fic- Warne explained in careful detail how she could tion were early pioneers of the genre. “worm out secrets in many places to which it The first detective novel by either was impossible for male detectives to gain access.” sex was by Emile Gaboriau: his L’Af- faire Lerouge (1866) introduced Mon- Pinkerton thought about it overnight and the sieur Lecoq, the next brilliant detec- next day hired the first career woman detective tive after Poe’s Dupin, and with him, another major precursor to Sherlock in America, if not the world. Holmes. Holmes became the world’s first “private consulting detective” in fiction with the publication of A. Conan Doyle’s novel A Study in Scar- let (1887), and he remains the world’s moted universal suffrage, and he was It was her job to book seats in a special most famous fictional detective (Benet’s a fierce abolitionist and Underground train’s sleeper car “for a sick friend and 1987, 457, 557). Railroad activist (Horan 1967, 39–42). party.” After Pinkertons slipped Lin- Meanwhile, in the United States, Much is revealed about Pinkerton’s coln on board, an American Telegraph Anna Katharine Green of Buffalo by the story of a young lady Company wire climber cut all lines out (1846–1935) penned The Leavenworth of about twenty-three who appeared of Harrisburg, so other conspirators Case (1878), making her the first de- at his Chicago office one afternoon in could not be alerted. While additional tective novelist in America and the first 1856. Pinkertons were positioned along the woman to publish a detective novel She introduced herself as Mrs. Kate route to flash secret “clear-ahead” sig- anywhere in the world, in any language. Warne, a widow, and she wished Mr. nals, Kate Warne “carefully drew the Green followed it with many others. Pinkerton to employ her as a detective. curtains and charmed the curious con- She paved the way for numerous other Pinkerton had never known of a female ductor” (Horan 1967, 52–61, 57). female detective-fiction writers, like in that capacity, but he asked how she When Pinkerton—alias “Major E. J. England’s (1890– expected to be of value. Allen”—organized the Union Army’s 1976), who created such idiosyncratic Warne explained in careful detail Secret Service Department (forerunner sleuths as and Miss Jane how she could “worm out secrets in of the later civilian U.S. Secret Service), Marple (Benet’s 1987, 185). many places to which it was impossi- he summoned his best operatives, in- It remained for American writer ble for male detectives to gain access.” cluding Warne. She was soon involved (1894–1961) to Pinkerton thought about it overnight in intelligence operations on behalf of become “the acknowledged founder and the next day hired the first career her country, for example deftly pene- of hard-boiled fiction” (Benet’s 1987, woman detective in America, if not the trating social gatherings in the South. 421). One of the finest examples of the world. (By 1860, Pinkerton’s “Female After the war, sadly, she grew ill, and, genre, introducing his tough-guy pri- Detective Bureau” was headed by Kate following a long struggle, died in her vate eye, , was The Maltese Warne.) As one of a team of operatives sleep in the early morning of January 1, Falcon (1930). That and other Ham- assigned to an Adams Express Com- 1868, at the age of only thirty-five, with mett novels—like The Glass Key (1931) pany robbery, Warne went undercover, Allan Pinkerton at her bedside (Horan and The Thin Man (1932)—became

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popular Hollywood movies. Signifi- crime scene. For example, a perpetrator No doubt the future will be as rich as cantly, Hammett was a former Pinker- may unknowingly leave behind a strand the past. ton operative, a fact that lay just below of hair and a latent fingerprint, while the surface of some stories. inadvertently carrying from the scene Acknowledgments distinctive carpet fibers or other identi- Lisa Nolan, CFI librarian, provided exten- Modern Developments fiable debris (Nickell and Fischer 1999, sive help with online research, and my wife, ■ 9–12). Diana Harris, made helpful suggestions. Between real-life detectives (official In America, a government Bureau and private) and fictional ones, there Notes of Investigation created in 1908 was re- has been a wonderful reciprocity—one organized by J. Edgar Hoover in 1924 1. That term could also later mean a device often influencing the other. Nowhere is that detects, such as a lie detector. when a national fingerprint file was cre- this better illustrated than in the evo- 2. Earlier English dictionaries were compiled, ated. The official United States Crime but Johnson’s was a far greater work (Winchester lution of a type of “scientific detective” Laboratory was established at the bu- 1998, 84–88, 89–99). or criminalist. It has been said that “the reau in 1930, and in 1935 the bureau 3. For the fascinating story of the OED, see Winchester 1998. prototype of today’s criminalist was adopted the name Federal Bureau of fictional,” namely . 4. Issue of September 9, 1853. This is ear- Investigation (FBI). Here, too, we see lier than the OED’s date of 1856 for the noun When he appeared in 1887, scientific developments that have their roots in detective. crime detection was in its infancy, yet earlier bureaus. Horan (1967, 49–50) References Holmes was portrayed—not as a mere observes that Allan Pinkerton had armchair theorist like Poe’s Dupin, but maintained an extensive Rogues’ Gal- Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, third edition. 1987. as one who visited the scene of a crime New York: Harper & Row. lery, “devising the earliest central clear- Berch, Victor A. 2010. A Note on the Word and searched for and examined trace ing headquarters for the distribution ‘Detective.’ Online at http://msyteryfile.com/ evidence. of photographs of criminals, as well as blog/?p=5701; accessed June 24, 2013. As far as is known, the first re- pertinent information about them and Horan, James D. 1967. The Pinkertons: The al-life criminalist, Austrian lawyer Detective Dynasty That Made History. New their modus operandi to state, local, and York: Crown. Hans Gross (1847–1915), never read government enforcement agencies.” In- Johnson, Samuel. 1755. A Dictionary of the the Sherlock Holmes stories. But his deed, “It operated in a manner similar to English Language. . . . Abridged From the Rev. pioneer ing textbook Handbuch fur H. J. Todd’s Corrected and Enlarged Quarto that of today’s Federal Bureau of Crimi- Edition By Alexander Chalmers, F.S.A. [1824]; Un ter suchungsrichter (“manual for ex- nal Identification.” reprinted New York: Barnes & Noble 1994. amining magistrates”) seemed to bring Morton, James. 2012. The First Detective: The the fictional ideas to life. In a typical * * * Life and Revolutionary Times of Vidocq: Crim- sentence that might have come from inal, Spy, and Private Eye. New York: Over- Having tracked detective from its orig- look Press. a Holmes story, Gross wrote, “Dirt inal form as an adjective to the noun Nickell, Joe. 1982. Discovered: The secret of on shoes can often tell us more about it has also become, we have watched Beale’s treasure. Virginia Magazine of History where the wearer of those shoes had it gather adjectives of its own: private, and Biography (July). ———. 1987. Literary Investigation: Texts, last been than toilsome inquiries.” fictional, female, scientific, and so on. I Sources, and “Factual” Substructs of Literature A French disciple of Gross pointed became a paranormal detective in 1969 and Interpretation. Doctoral dissertation, to the interaction between real and and made that a unique career in 1995. University of Kentucky. fictional detectives. Edmond Locard ———. 1993. The alleged diary of “Jack the Detective will doubtless go in new Ripper”: A summary assessment of its prov- (1877–1966)—who created the world’s directions. Before the nineteenth cen- enance, internal evidence, and physical com- first real crime lab in 1920—stated, “I tury had ended (according to the OED position. Prepared for Kenneth W. Rendell, must confess that if in the police lab- 1974, 204), it had already spawned de- August 29. (Revamped as chap. 2 of Nickell 2009, 39–52.) oratory of Lyons we are interested in tectiveship (“the office or function of ———. 2009. Real or Fake: Studies in Authen tica- this problem of dust it is because of a detective”) in 1877, detectivist (“one tion. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky. having absorbed the ideas formed in who professedly treats of detectives”) in ———. 2010. Historical : Spiritualists, Gross and Conan Doyle.” Locard, ed- 1892, and detectivism (“the activities of Poe, and the real Marie Rogêt. SKEPTICAL INQUIRER 34(4) (July/August): 45–49. ucated in both medicine and the law, a detective, detective work”) in 1894. Nickell, Joe, and John F. Fischer. 1999. Crime set forth his famous concept known as The Internet shows rare, scattered uses Science: Methods of Forensic Detection. Lexing- Locard’s Exchange Principle. It states of detectivology (the study of all things ton: University Press of Kentucky. Winchester, Simon. 1998. The Professor and the that a cross-transfer of evidence takes detective) as early as 1943, and, by ex- Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the place whenever a criminal comes in tension, I suggest detectivologist to apply Making of the Oxford English Dictionary. New contact with a victim, an object, or a to one who writes a study such as this. York: HarperCollins.

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