Pinkerton's Great Detective: The Amazing Life and Times of James Mcparland

by Beau Riffenburgh

Created in 1850, Pinkerton's National Detective Agency used operatives renowned for their skills of subterfuge, infiltration and investigation - and none more so than James McParland, who even featured in a Sherlock Holmes story. This detailed but very readable biography from the author of Nimrod charts the famous cases of this real-life super-sleuth, including his infiltration of the Molly Maguires and his hunt for the Wild Bunch, and sheds new light on Pinkerton's cloak-and-dagger methods.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography, True Crime, American History, Crime, Audiobook

400 pages, Hardcover

First published November 14, 2013

About the author

Beau Riffenburgh is an author and historian specializing in polar exploration. Under the pseudonym Simon Beaufort, Beau has also co-authored 10 novels with his wife, medieval mystery writer Susanna Gregory. Eight of these are about the Crusader knight Geoffrey Mappestone, but the most recent is a modern police procedural, The Murder House (2013). All told, he has written, edited, or contributed to more than 60 books.He is also an American Football coach and author of books on football history.

Reviews

[Checkman · Rating 3 out of 5]

On December 30, 1905 the former governor of Idaho , Frank Steunenberg, was killed by a bomb that was wired to the front gate leading to his Caldwell home. Within a very short time suspicion fell on the Western Federation of Miners. During his term as governor of Idaho Stunenberg had dealt with striking miners in northern Idaho by declaring martial law and requesting Federal troops be sent in. He got the troops. The action proved to be successful and broke the strike, which earned Stunenberg the union's undying enmity. It has also been argued that the mass round-ups of the striking miners, while hated, were made worse by the fact that the soldiers ,who enforced the crackdown, were black.

Whatever the exact reason (or reasons) a contract was put out on Stunenberg and in December 1905 it was fulfilled. Suspicion quickly fell on the WFM, but in 1905 Idaho had no state police to conduct an in-depth investigation. My employer, the Caldwell City Police Department, was two years old (founded in 1903) and had two officers (we now have seventy-six officers in 2021). The CPD ,at this time, functioned more as an enforcer of civic ordnances, running off vagrants and arresting drunks (much of which has not changed). The scope of the investigation was simply beyond the scant resources available to the city and the state. Like so many other local and state governments at this time Idaho turned to the Pinkerton Detective Agency to conduct the investigation.

James McParland ,superintendent of the Pinkerton Denver office, took charge of the investigation. In the end the actual assassin ,Albert Edward Horsley, would be arrested and sent to the state prison in Boise for the rest of his life. He would die there in 1954 at the age of eighty-eight. Three of the leaders of the WMF ,George Pettibone, William Haywood and Charles Moyer, were arrested in Colorado and shipped to Idaho under McParland's supervision and charged with murder. There followed a heavily publicized "trial of the century" (ninety years before O.J. Simpson's "trial of the century"). Amazingly all three defendants were found not guilty. A verdict which stunned many people at the time.

I was sworn in as a Caldwell police officer in October 2000. My wife and I did not live there when I was sworn in so we rented the first place we found. It was an apartment exactly one block to the north of Frank Stunenberg's former home and scene of his assassination (which burned to the ground a few years after his death). Not surprisingly I became interested in the case. In December 2005 (as the one-hundredth anniversary of the assassination approached) I dove into Big Trouble: A Murder in a Small Western Town Sets Off a Struggle for the Soul of America by J. Anthony Lukas. Mr. Lukas's last book is a massive tome about Stunenberg's murder. Mr. Lukas covered the criminal investigation, court case, social, economic and political conditions in the United States at the turn of the century and the various personalities that were involved. It's a dense book and it took me several months to get through. Go to my page if you're interested in my full review.

I mention Mr. Lukas's book because James McParland is given a significant amount of pages in it. I was unfamiliar with the Pinkerton until I read Big Trouble and was interested in knowing more about the Irish detective. However in 2006 there still wasn't much information available about The Great Detective. His lifelong ability to cloud the facts about himself was still being felt almost a century after his death (1919). That has since changed.

Beau Riffenburgh's biography is a dense read. Though not as heavily detailed as Lukas's account (400 pages vs. 900 pages) it's still a dense read He especially goes into great detail regarding McParland's undercover investigation of the Molly Maguires in the Pennsylvania coal fields and the Stunenberg Murder. Along the way there are detailed chapters regarding the famous "cowboy detective" Charles Siringo (who also worked on the Stunenberg case) and the running down of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Considering that many of the Pinkerton documents were "edited" before being turned over to the Library of Congress (can anyone say that they are surprised) and that McParland seemed to enjoy muddying the waters about his background (lies, exaggerations, omissions and so on) Mr. Riffenburgh managed to produce a comprehensive biography. In some cases he is forced to theorize based on primary sources of a periphery nature (letters referring to McParland, news articles, court cases), but overall the work is coherent and free of heavy bias. He addresses that McParland seemed to have some questionable ethics, but also acknowledges that we should be wary of judging the man by our present day standards. Today's bastard was yesterday's hero and much that was done was not only acceptable to many, but perfectly legal. The legal issues are particularly focused on when reviewing the investigation and prosecution of the Molly Maguires .

I appreciate that because some historians are all too willing to judge the past by today's standards. Personally I have found such tactics to be too simplistic and even a little cowardly. I applaud Mr. Riffenburgh's willingness to address some of the more recent conclusions with this stance. He isn't an apologist for McParland, but he isn't a blind hater either.

Pinkerton's Great Detective has it's faults. Maps, references, appendices, bibliography and notes are not included with the book. Instead the reader is directed to https://www.susannagregory.com/beauri...
(Susanna Gregory is his wife and also a writer) or the publisher's website (inactive). Now I understand the economic reasoning behind not including dozens of pages of notes. It's the 21st century after all and why kill more trees when it isn't necessary? However could four pages of maps have made that big of a difference? Especially when deep into the Molly Maguires section. Having the map of Pennsylvania within the book (instead of my computer) would have been nice. I recommend taking the extra time to review the notes by the way. They are very informative and add much to the read.

Overall though the book is well written and I found it to be an excellent companion piece to Mr. Lukas's Big Trouble. Some of the mystery surrounding McParland is cleared away and it also provides an interesting addition to the history of the "Old West" which was far more complicated than the movies and Louis L'Amour would have us believe.

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was BORING.

Such a disappointment.

James McParland was such a interesting man. The Pinkerton Detective Agency was so fascinating. I was excited(I'm a nerd) to read about them.

Y'all...this book....this book read like a text book for school. I just kept hoping for it to get exciting but it never did.

Pinkerton's was one of the very first nationalized law enforcement agencies. They acted like we today would expect the FBI to act but they were privately owned. They chased bank robbers and train robbers but mostly they broke up unions..to be precise unions for Irish immigrants. They painted all unions with predominantly Irish members as Molly Maguires. Molly Maguires were a gang made up of mostly newly arrived of first generation Irish people who committed crimes. Molly Maguires were real but anti-immigrant politicians and other power brokers who didn't want to pay Irish immigrants a fair wage started lumping fair pay protestors in with ultra violent "Molly Maguires".

I wanted to hear more about that but the author just regurgitated those old talking points with only an occasional mention that the Pinkerton agents might have "created" evidence or lied under oath.

I had never heard of James McParland before reading this book. But then again I've never read Sherlock Holmes. The character Birdy Edwards in the novel The Valley of Fear is based on James McParland. McParland was the most famous Pinkerton agent in his day. He busted unions, chased Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch. And yet these things are barely talked about. Beau Riffenburgh spends too much time talking about boring shit. I don't care about James McParland's widowed brother in laws fight for his inheritance. That has nothing to do with fighting crime.

I don't recommend this book..Unless you need a sleep aid.

[Trish · Rating 3 out of 5]

For folks who imagine themselves interested in working for the Secret Service, Homeland Security, the FBI, or as a spy, this book can tell you a little about what it was like in the way back in America. You may find you don’t have the constitution for it after all.

This book is subtitled “The Amazing Life and Times of James McParland,” if that really was his name. McParland began his undercover career in the anthracite mines of Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania reporting on the murderous Molly Maguires in 1875. Remarkably, he was so intent upon keeping himself alive amidst the mayhem, he didn’t get to reporting on killings until after the deeds were done. Such was the violence of the crimes that first-hand observer McParland got physically ill…the stress of undercover work gave him severe intestinal problems and his hair fell out in handfuls.

Years of trials and testimony regarding events in Pennsylvania followed and then McParland went West, presumably to get away from those that knew his face. He pursued Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and worked to bring down strikers working with the Western Federation of Miners. Almost from the start, I admit I found myself disliking this “devout Catholic” who came to be “powerful, successful, and respected…Even decades later the hierarchy of the Catholic Church was still honoring him for his work…as well as for his devotion to the [Denver] parish and his many contributions to the building of Denver’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.” My reservations about the man and my conflicted feelings about law enforcement in the early days of the West undoubtedly tell more about me than McParland. Perhaps popular movies about the period influence me still.

This dogged and detailed history is a must read for those interested in the Molly Maguires, or The Wild Bunch, or the beginnings of Pinkerton’s undercover investigations and expansion out West. For those with a more cursory interest, flipping through will yield nuggets that stay with you on your journey to understand our historical underpinnings.

[Caitlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Before we had an FBI, the United States had the Pinkerton's Detective Agency, a private security agency that worked on behalf of members of the government (providing private security for President Abraham Lincoln), of various law enforcement efforts (particularly in hunting outlaws in the Wild West), and as union busters by various industries (particularly mining and railroad concerns. In my head, Pinkerton's detectives are synonymous with defeating outlaws and bashing the heads of workers trying to get better safety regulations and pay from their corporate overlords.

Pinkerton's Great Detective tells the story of James McParland - the agencies most famous operative. This is a man who went undercover to infiltrate the Molly Maguires, met Sherlock Holmes in The Valley of Fear, and foiled an attempt to assassinate Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg. He was a ruthless, tireless, inventive man whose constant presence on behalf of business' attempting to destroy the rights of their workers also makes him very unsympathetic to me, despite my admiration of his sheer courage. He was an interesting man in an interesting time and Mr. Riffenburgh places him firmly within the context of the laws and mores of his time.

This book is very detailed and provides a great deal of information about people and events surrounding McParland, especially important for fleshing out a story where facts are very thin on the ground. The pacing of this book is a bit slow, best devoured in chunks between other lighter reading, but it's an interesting story and, while it doesn't redeem McParland for me it did teach me lots of things about his time that I didn't know.

[Ronnie Cramer · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of those well-researched works that really transports you back to the time and place where it is set.

[Sabrina Flynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five-stars for the level of research that went into this book. If you're looking for an exciting read... this isn't it, but if you're looking for details on the Pinkerton's (report writing, operational details, and trials), then you'll love this. I appreciated that it neither vilified or heroized the Pinkerton's, but painted a fairly neutral picture of the agency and its dealings.

Hardcore Sherlockians will likely find this book interesting. The Valley of Fear was clearly inspired by James McParland and the Molly Maguires.

[Stephen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had high hopes for this book, but it fails in a number of ways, perhaps because the author never seemed sure what he wanted this book to be. The preface presents an incident in the life of James McParland in a spirit of adventure, danger, and derring-do, proving both that McParland lived a life that could produce a page turner, and that Riffenburgh could write such a page turner.

But this book doesn't offer that page turner once we leave the preface's roman numberals behind. Clearly, the origin of this book, as revealed in the introduction, is in just that spirit of adventure; the author first learned about McParland from multiple movies, among other sources. But that is not the sort of life Riffenburgh portrays.

Nor is Riffenburgh particularly able to manage a more academic work, reexamining the character of McParland after the detective's early supporters and later detractors, though this Riffenburgh sets this out as a primary goal. Perhaps his editor restrained him, perhaps he just didn't carry the goal through, but the argument Riffenburgh makes is forgotten for much of the book, lost in a (rather bland) narrative. At times random thoughts are raised which might have contributed to an overall argument, but the author does nothing to connect them together.

It might not have proven to be the popular history this book was marketed as, but at least if Riffenburgh had carried his argument off, it would have been worth something. Instead Pinkerton's Great Detective proves to be neither a satisfying narrative nor an interesting assessment of McParland's life.

Finally, though I do not hold this against Riffenburgh since I don't know how much this was his input as opposed to that of his publisher, but a considerable amount of material that once would have graced the back of the book is instead relegated to a website. While I can understand the impulse to save unnecessary paper--and I can actually appreciate that the website might allow an author to include documents that never would have made it into a book in print--a lot of the material moved to the web really ought to be in the book. First are the four maps which would have helped my appreciation of McParland's movements, how far he had to go to escape the reach of the Molly Maguires, etc. I didn't even realize at first that those existed at all because I had skimmed over the notice about online supplementals (And how much space would four maps take up in a book, seriously?). Then there are the notes. The author includes numbers referencing readers to the notes, but when they flip back, there are no notes. I would have had to stop everything, get to a computer and check what the note said, or else forget which note it was I wanted to look up. Considering that most notes are only going to be a line or two long, I didn't bother going on line to find out what they would say, especially when I wasn't already near a computer when I decided I wanted more material. I could have read this book on a kindle or some other device if I had wanted, but I chose paper and ink, and I did not appreciate being made to miss out on material if I did not want to check--or even if I didn't have access to--the internet. Some of us go outside to read, or do it in any number of places where we can't readily check the internet (planes, anyone?).

[Lynne Perednia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the great parts of the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid come when Paul Newman turns to Robert Redford and asks, "Who are those guys?"

That question eventually led Beau Riffenburgh to this biography of Pinkerton agent James McParland, who tracked the Hole in the Wall Gang and went undercover in tough mining towns across the country. A poor Irish immigrant who raised himself from nothing and lived by his wits for years, McParland drew both praise and scorn during his lifetime as an undercover agent who infiltrated the Molly Maguires in an era of deadly Pennsylvania coal mine violence before heading out west.

Riffenburgh is a conscience researcher and writer who uncovers the records of McParland's actions and writings. This is essential in a biography such as this, as one's view of the subject may well depend on one's political viewpoint. Was McParland a turncoat to his people or someone who served justice?

Well, it depends a great deal on one's point of view. Riffenburgh does a great job of placing McParland within his own times. Those were far different from today's in that criminal cases were brought by those who could afford to prosecute. But there also are parallels to today with company owners who want to pay workers the least amount possible, have them indebted to the company store and still be able to fire them at will.

For McParland to drop into such a situation, and possibly with the ultimate goal of making sure he followed the tenents of his church, Riffenburgh makes it easy to see that his subject's role was not easy. The author also uses the array of historical record available to not sway the reader, but instead to place the reader squarely within the context of what can be shown of those turbulent times.

The author also does a thorough job of describing the times in which McParland operated from more than one viewpoint. Mine owners and workers who were either indebted to the company store or faced being fired did not view the world in the same way, and Riffenburgh does well to describe both viewpoints. The even-handed approach may not change anyone's mind, but it does bring into focus what the stakes were for everyone involved, including McParland.

For anyone who wondered the same thing that Paul Newman did in that classic film, and for those wonder about those times, Pinkerton's Great Detective is an excellent way to find some answers.

[Mandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pinkerton's National Detective Agency must surely be one of the most famous such agencies in the world, and James McParland was one of its most renowned operatives. Beau Riffenburgh has meticulously and exhaustively delved into the recently opened archives to write this very detailed account of McParland's life and career, and the cases he was involved with, from the Molly Maguires to Butch Cassidy.
McParland was a dedicated and loyal operative and faced danger, violence and betrayal throughout his life. It was without doubt an exciting and challenging time, and yet we know very little about the man himself, as he left no diaries, letters or any other personal accounts. We know he married and had children, but we can’t know what he thought, what he felt and what he was like as a husband, father, brother. This means that the book is a very dry account and it’s difficult to engage with any of the characters we meet. This is a fascinating period in American history, but Riffenburgh gets too bogged down in detail about the cases Pinkerton’s took on, which for the general reader just becomes overwhelming. For a serious scholar of the era, so much detail is very useful, but I found myself simply glazing over at times, and tended to skip great chunks. This is a shame, as the book deserves a wide readership and would no doubt have one if the writing style was more accessible.
Nevertheless, this is a valuable and essentially very interesting book, and I learnt a great deal from it.

[Meg - A Bookish Affair · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Pinkerton's Great Detective" is the story of James McParland, a detective who had a storied career in the late 1800s and early 1900s. This book is the non-fiction tale of his life with a heavy focus on some of the big cases he worked on (the Molly Maguires in Pennsylvania, some of the outlaw gangs in the Wild West). I love this time period and it was really interesting to read about some of the things that were going on in McParland's time.

As I said, the book focuses mostly on the cases themselves. It doesn't really focus on a lot of the work that McParland did in order to bring the cases to trial. For cases like the Molly Maguires case, he actually had to work as an undercover operative, which I think would have been really, really interesting considering what was going on as well as just the time period itself. I really wish there had been more detail on that.

The system of law in places like Pennsylvania and Colorado seemed really different than they are now so it was really interesting to read how much things had changed between McParland's time period and present day. I always love when I can learn a little something from a book and in this book, the part where Riffenburgh explained some of the intricacies of the law systems that affected McParland's big cases were really fascinating to me.

The book dragged a little bit at the end with tying everything up but overall, this book covered a really fascinating personality.

[Travis Starnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Riffenburgh is a very detailed writer and has done his homework on McPharland. I will admit that although I was familiar with the Pinkertons and many of the situations described here, until I read this book I was not aware of McPharland. Although I have little to judge it against, Riffenburgh seems to have completely cataloged McPharland’s life and there seems little left out. It is quite amazing how many major events in the late 19th century that the detective was involved in.

The writing is well done and easy to read. Those expecting a true crime novel or form of mystery might find it slow as a biography it reads very well. As with most biographies it starts with his parents and early life and hits all the events and relationships in his life, as well as many of the minor events. The book is more narrative then most biographies I have read, although it is still more a biography then a narrative history. Riffenburgh’s writing helps the book flow very well and I found it to be an enjoyable read.

http://homeofreading.com/pinkertons-great-detective/

[Carolyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Exhaustive research forms the basis for this detailed history of James McParland. As other reviewers have noted, the author should be praised for unearthing a wealth of arcane information and distilling it into a coherent, readable story. Nevertheless, I found myself exhausted in the reading. The style is decidedly academic, so don't expect a thrilling John Grisham pace. I agree with other reviewers that the characters remained uni-dimensional. I did find excerpts from actual trial testimonies entertaining -- reminiscent of Jeff Bridge as Rooster Gogburn in "True Grit". Historically, it was informative to follow the struggles between organized labor and mining operators in (Pennsylvania anthracite mines). Also, "fake news" was a problem in the Wild West even back in the late 1800's.

[Christina Abel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Always a sucker for books about people/places/things that are true, this read was great! I enjoy true crime stories and, while this is more of a biography, it does contain true crime stories. I had been unaware that this Great Detective had worked on the Steunenberg case. As an Idahoan, I take pride in my state, and always enjoy a book that goes into detail when it comes to anything Idaho. I'm very glad that this book is part of my library, and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in true crime, biographies, detectives, and/or history.

[Fil · Rating 2 out of 5]

My biggest issue with this book was that I couldn't get into Riffenburgh's writing style. The book picked up for me while reading about The Wild Bunch but other than that was slow going.

[Rhuff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good overall biography of one of the most controversial "operatives" of 19th-century America. As some reviewers state, there's nothing really new here, but it's assembled into one narrative and gives a portrait not only of a man's checkered career in "law enforcement," but the evolving society of which he was part.

Mc (or Mac) Parland proved himself instrumental in breaking the Molly Maguires of the 1870s Pennsylvania coalfields. Controversy still boils over how violent they actuallly were, or whether - like J. Edgar Hoover's exploitation of later "public menaces" - their nastiness was exaggerated to enhance his reputation. Certain it is that McParland went on to spy upon and cripple other "malefactors" in the labor movement, seeing himself as a social crusader out to uproot any activity disrupting "good order". This, oddly enough, always seemed to coincide with securing the capital assetts of the worst robber barons of the late 1800s.

The narrative also foretells the rise of the FBI and later CIA, at a time when espionage was considered more and more necessary by those who rule. Yet, still hampered by an attitude that frowned on government spying, enterprisig middlemen like Alan Pinkerton and cohorts like James McParland were able to fill the gap. These private policemen notoriously abused their delegated powers, hence the "need" for public agencies to take over in the 20th century. Was this a positive "reform?" Well, you decide as you compare McParland's often rogue actions with his successors.

On a personal note, all my reviews on Amazon have been deleted and my posting prohibited because of "unusual posting behavior." What you would see there is/was no different than what you read here - in fact, they're usually the same reviews. There's no doubt that this is content censorship, not due to any violation of "terms of service." Amazon also runs this site, so let's see if they come for me here. Stay tuned . . .

[Yibbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I owe Sir Arthur Conan Doyle an apology. I rather dismissed the The Valley of Fear’s backstory as another example of his marvelous imagination. Turns out I was woefully historically ignorant. It was novelized history. Well, in part. McParland didn’t flee to England, but he did infiltrate and destroy one of the most violent groups in 1870’s America. From there he went on to lead the western office of the Pinkerton detective agency.
The opening of this book confused me a little. Was the author a fan or detractor of McParland? Did he like McParland but dislike his actions? Did he approve of both? Did he favor the labor unions or the owners? By the end of the book, I could understand his confusion. McParland was complex and mysterious. He had the trust of many people and the hate of many others. He helped catch murderers, stop cons, and destroyed murderous gangs, yet was he honorable even honest? I’m not sure we will ever know the whole truth. But this book does an excellent job of explaining what we do know in its own historical setting.
That would be my only complaint about this book. It spent a lot of time explaining the setting, including the complete life history of several of the crooks he caught. In their own right these side histories are fascinating, but for long stretches McParland is almost completely missing from the story.
I enjoyed it and would recommend it as a fascinating look into law and labor in the early Western USA.
There were a couple curse words. Other mature topics were covered delicately.

[Greg Chandler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Extremely detailed account of the "life and times" of James McParland.
As Pinkerton's top detective, McParland infiltrated the "Molly Maguires" and brought many of them to "justice" on the end of a hangman's rope. Cowboy detectives under McParland's direction as superintendent of Pinkerton's western division chased Butch Cassidy, Sundance Kid and their "Wild Bunch"across the deserts of the "Old West" and drove them off to South America. The agency captured leaders of the WMF, hard men who fought for miner's rights with murder and dynamite. McParland wheedled confessions that should have led to convictions, had he not run up against his nemesis Clarence Darrow in court.

McParland was the best known and most effective detective in the agency that defined "private detective", the Pinkertons. Yet his private life is left unknown and his professional life is distorted by world views. He was the savior that put hard, dangerous men away. He was the enemy and downfall of unions, destroying workers' rights through any means available. He was willing to trick bargain and lie under oath. As Rippenburgh sums up: "the Great Detective, who was, is, and who will forever remain, an enigma."

This book will probably appeal more to readers of history than devotees of mystery novels. This is no page turner. It does strive to present an unbiased view of a controversial man - or more correctly, to acknowledge the controversies while exposing the facts and agendas behind them.

[Sam Rennick · Rating 4 out of 5]

On the back cover of this book appears this succinct summary: "Beau Riffenburgh digs deep into the recently released Pinkerton archives to investigate the 'Great Detective' who took down the Molly Maguires, chased Butch Cassidy and his Wild Bunch, and led the controversial investigation of the Western Federation of Miners for the brutal assassination of the former governor of Idaho." Pretty good, as far as it goes. My knowledge of Pinkerton's, before reading this book, was limited to a vague idea of the organization as a detective agency. Need a sleuth? Call Pinkerton's, right? Well, yes, but Pinkerton's is more than this. What comes across most powerfully for me in this book is the agency's proficiency as a union-buster. The "Great Detective" is James McParland. He busts unions all right, but this doesn't begin to describe him. McParland is not a fellow to trifle with. He fears nothing. Time and again he inserts himself into peril no sensible man would ever consider. And he wins.

[Charlotte · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting read when addressing some of the notable cases, such as the group of ne'er-do-wells on whom Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were based. But the author so clearly adores Detective McParland, he tends to overlook the illegal and/or heavy-handed actions of the detectives. And while I mostly enjoyed the discussions about the resulting trials from some of these investigations, even I found the text dry and at times even boring- and I normally love anything having to do with criminal court.

[Alex Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pinkerton's Great Detective: The Amazing life and Times of James McParland is the story of a real life Sherlock Golmes as he was a extrodinary detective taking down Molly Maguires and the Wild Bunch two very notorious criminals at the time.It took some effort for me to read because it is a biography of the mans entire life so as some points are very interesting and exciting others aren't but I enjoyed the book overall

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most interesting book about the famous detective James McParland. He took on impossible jobs to uncover evil workings at coal mines in several states. While in charge of Pinkertons Western states he also helped track down Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch although the leaders escaped to Argentina where they were mudered by the army there. Unfortunately his detective work in Idaho did not go as planned.

[Melanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned a lot about James McParland, the Pinkerton Detective Agency, and unions a hundred years ago. I found parts of this book very interesting because it covered a time in history I knew nothing about. At times I did find the book boring. I think the book could be cut in half and it would have given the reader a lot of great information about this great American detective.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating biography. Riffenburgh, despite his attempts to be "objective," is clearly in favor of resurrecting McParland's reputation, seriously tarnished as it currently is. That's not the biggest problem, which is the lack of notes and bibliography in the book. Fortunately, Penguin Press still has them on a website.

[KFD · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. It's well written and the author clearly did a great deal of research before writing it. I would have like to have seen the references in the book rather than online; however, I'm assuming that the decision to put the bibliography, notes and references online was made by the publisher rather than the author.

[Katiep · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, but a bit dry.

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a book filled with surprises. And not just the antics of James McParland but a host of historical names everyone will recognize.























































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[stakahashi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amazing true story, but almost too detailed and exhaustive. I wanted the main points and decent detail, but it was like a college class that started getting old.

[Mary Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of information to digest. Learned a lot about the mining world in Pennsylvania in the mid 1800’s. Got a look at Butch Cassidy’s gang. Learned about the Pinkerton agents.

[Taylor Brystol · Rating 2 out of 5]

Way too long to be as dry as it was.

[Slater Henatay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of useful information. Apparent conservative bias nevertheless very informative and at least seems to be the least bombastic interpretation despite internal logic flaws