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Freedom's Detective: The Secret Service, the Ku Klux Klan and the Man Who Masterminded America's First War on Terror
Freedom’s Detective
tells the untold story of the Reconstruction-era United States Secret Service and their battle against the Ku Klux Klan, through the career of its controversial chief, Hiram C. Whitley
In the years following the Civil War, a new battle began. Newly freed African American men had gained their voting rights and would soon have a chance to transform Southern politics. Former Confederates and other white supremacists, realizing the threat to their status, mobilized to stop them. Thus, the KKK was born.
After the first political assassination carried out by the Klan, Washington power brokers looked for help in breaking the growing movement. They found it in Hiram C. Whitley. He became head of the Secret Service, which had previously focused on catching counterfeiters and was at the time the government’s only intelligence organization. Whitley and his agents led the covert war against the nascent KKK and were the first to use undercover work in mass crime—what we now call terrorism—investigations.
Like many spymasters before and since, Whitley also had a dark side. His penchant for skulduggery and dirty tricks ultimately led to his involvement in a conspiracy that would bring an end to his career and transform the Secret Service.
Populated by intriguing historical characters—from President Grant to brave Southerners, both black and white, who stood up to the Klan—and told in a brisk narrative style, Freedom’s Detective reveals the story of this complex hero and his central role in this long-lost chapter of American history.
In the years following the Civil War, a new battle began. Newly freed African American men had gained their voting rights and would soon have a chance to transform Southern politics. Former Confederates and other white supremacists, realizing the threat to their status, mobilized to stop them. Thus, the KKK was born.
After the first political assassination carried out by the Klan, Washington power brokers looked for help in breaking the growing movement. They found it in Hiram C. Whitley. He became head of the Secret Service, which had previously focused on catching counterfeiters and was at the time the government’s only intelligence organization. Whitley and his agents led the covert war against the nascent KKK and were the first to use undercover work in mass crime—what we now call terrorism—investigations.
Like many spymasters before and since, Whitley also had a dark side. His penchant for skulduggery and dirty tricks ultimately led to his involvement in a conspiracy that would bring an end to his career and transform the Secret Service.
Populated by intriguing historical characters—from President Grant to brave Southerners, both black and white, who stood up to the Klan—and told in a brisk narrative style, Freedom’s Detective reveals the story of this complex hero and his central role in this long-lost chapter of American history.
350 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 9, 2019
163 people are currently reading
4008 people want to read
About the author
Charles Lane
2 books21 followersCharles Lane is an editorial writer for The Washington Post. A former editor of the New Republic and foreign correspondent for Newsweek, he has also covered the Supreme Court of the United States. He lives in the Washington, D.C. area."
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March 3, 2019
Freedom's Detective: The Secret Service, the Ku Klux Klan, and the Man Who Masterminded America's First War on Terror
Ramblings:
Freedom’s Detective grants us passage on a sobering journey through American history as we witness the advent of the Ku Klux Klan, George W. Ashburn’s murder, and the daring struggle of a detective willing to uncover and expose those responsible. Lane’s easy narrative places this nonfiction on top of the must-have list for history majors, espionage lovers, and anyone who ponders whether man is truly all good or all bad-all the time.
Reviewer Summary:
As head of the Secret Service under Grant’s administration, Hiram Coombs Whitley suppressed the operations of illegal distillers, exposed KKK klansmen, and reduced counterfeiting-all during a tense political and racial climate.
However, Whitley could flip on a dime. He could ambush an abolitionist with escaped slaves, but later-assemble a case for prosecutors in Ashburn’s death. He blurred the line between right and wrong. Ultimately, a shady mission and bad judgment would abruptly end his federal career.
Additional Info:
This nonfiction contains a biography and notes in the back section of the book. It does not contain footnotes throughout.
Review:
Lane’s newest release titled Freedom’s Detective: The Secret Service, The Ku Klux Klan and The Man Who Masterminded America’s First War on Terror is a well-researched, captivating read of the ins and outs of the Secret Service and the man at its helm during Reconstruction. The author’s narrative writing style made for an easy-to-follow read, and the photos of key characters were a nice touch.
You’ll like this novel if you:
#1 Generally read nonfiction
#2 Enjoy American history (with emphasis on the Reconstruction era)
#3 Are fond of espionage
#4 Like biographies
#5 Wish to learn the origins of the Secret Service and/or the KKK
Disclosure:
I received a complimentary ARC of Freedom’s Detective from Harlequin Books via goodreads. I’m thankful to the publisher, author, and goodreads for the opportunity to review this soon-to-be April release. My review is an honest reflection of my thoughts and ramblings.
April 13, 2019
"Freedom’s Detective: The Secret Service, The Ku Klux Klan and The Man Who Masterminded America’s First War on Terror" takes us on a sobering journey through American history to witness the advent of the world of counterfeiting, the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, George W. Ashburn’s murder [and the politicians that helped both try and cover it up and then bribed and bought off people to help the murderer’s go free], and the daring struggle of a detective [and the forming of the secret service] willing to uncover and expose those responsible, at whatever cost.
This is a well-researched, captivating read of the ins and outs of the Secret Service and of Hiram C. Whitley at its helm during Reconstruction. The author’s writing style made for an easy read, easy to understand and follow and the illustrations and pictures that are included are a nice bonus – I find it easier to “see” the person being talked about when I can see how they actually looked.
Whitley is a cunning man in his own right – ready to fight for the US and against the evils of the Ku Klux Klan, but was also willing to fight against the very thing he was trying to vanquish when it met his own personal needs [before the war, he went and rounded up wayward slaves to return them to their owners]. He never, ever took the blame for anything that happened negatively – either denying it vehemently, or tried to push it off on other people – sometimes both. Sometimes with success, and others, not so much. He was, in my opinion, the perfect man to be a spy and to lead espionage against the evils of the Klan, against counterfeiting and against evil in general. He had a spy’s mind and a willingness to bend the rules to get what needed to be done, done. They say if you want to catch crooks and bad men, you have to be a little bit of a crook [or in this case a spy and con-man] yourself.
Be prepared though – many people I had previously held in high esteem [President Grant for one – his willingness to release and pardon men convicted of murder in hopes the South would be willing to accept Reconstruction more willingly, shows just how weak and ultimately, stupid he was in regards to just how powerful the Klan and white supremacy was], slipped several notches in the reading of this book. I realize that most of Washington is tainted, but there are moments in this book that caused real frustration and potential headbangingagainstwall moments. There were actual moments where I wondered just who really wanted the war to end and who really won when the Civil War did end. And even though blacks were considered free, there were many that still considered them to be “non-human” and many of them were based in Washington and had fought for the North. It was, at times, disconcerting and disheartening to say the least. And the lengths that the politicians, on BOTH sides, were willing to go through to get “what they wanted at any cost” was appalling and frustrating to read.
If you know little about this time period, this book is an excellent introduction to the evils that came out of the ending of the Civil War and the beginning of Reconstruction. It shows how powerful the South still was [though bankrupt and poverty stricken otherwise] and how strong the racial divide was [and still is today] in the Southern states. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in this time period and in spies and espionage and the beginnings of the Secret Service and the fight against the Klan.
Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin/Hanover Square Press for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This is a well-researched, captivating read of the ins and outs of the Secret Service and of Hiram C. Whitley at its helm during Reconstruction. The author’s writing style made for an easy read, easy to understand and follow and the illustrations and pictures that are included are a nice bonus – I find it easier to “see” the person being talked about when I can see how they actually looked.
Whitley is a cunning man in his own right – ready to fight for the US and against the evils of the Ku Klux Klan, but was also willing to fight against the very thing he was trying to vanquish when it met his own personal needs [before the war, he went and rounded up wayward slaves to return them to their owners]. He never, ever took the blame for anything that happened negatively – either denying it vehemently, or tried to push it off on other people – sometimes both. Sometimes with success, and others, not so much. He was, in my opinion, the perfect man to be a spy and to lead espionage against the evils of the Klan, against counterfeiting and against evil in general. He had a spy’s mind and a willingness to bend the rules to get what needed to be done, done. They say if you want to catch crooks and bad men, you have to be a little bit of a crook [or in this case a spy and con-man] yourself.
Be prepared though – many people I had previously held in high esteem [President Grant for one – his willingness to release and pardon men convicted of murder in hopes the South would be willing to accept Reconstruction more willingly, shows just how weak and ultimately, stupid he was in regards to just how powerful the Klan and white supremacy was], slipped several notches in the reading of this book. I realize that most of Washington is tainted, but there are moments in this book that caused real frustration and potential headbangingagainstwall moments. There were actual moments where I wondered just who really wanted the war to end and who really won when the Civil War did end. And even though blacks were considered free, there were many that still considered them to be “non-human” and many of them were based in Washington and had fought for the North. It was, at times, disconcerting and disheartening to say the least. And the lengths that the politicians, on BOTH sides, were willing to go through to get “what they wanted at any cost” was appalling and frustrating to read.
If you know little about this time period, this book is an excellent introduction to the evils that came out of the ending of the Civil War and the beginning of Reconstruction. It shows how powerful the South still was [though bankrupt and poverty stricken otherwise] and how strong the racial divide was [and still is today] in the Southern states. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in this time period and in spies and espionage and the beginnings of the Secret Service and the fight against the Klan.
Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin/Hanover Square Press for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
April 10, 2019
A rather odd book that promises one story, then frequently wanders off with other tangential narratives that are far less interesting, not to mention unsolicited. There are intriguing questions left dismayingly unexplored by this disappointing book: is the rigorous enforcement of civil rights fundamentally at odds with the nation's commitment to civil liberties? Is American law enforcement irreparably damaged by an inability to emulate its European counterparts? These questions are raised, but never fully addressed by a book that ambles off into discursive alleys and anecdotes that frustrate and enervate the reader. Skip it.
January 15, 2019
This is a must read for anyone trying to understand race relations in our nation today. Mr. Lane provides a riveting account of an early law man (ironically, often on the wrong side of the law), who was one of the few who could break the Klan’s code of silence. His and other efforts were not enough to turn the political tide, but this story helped me understand the dynamics of reconstruction in a way I never had before. Brilliant read!
April 3, 2019
This is a history book that is pretending to read like a novel. The subject of the book is Hiram C. Whitley, a man of few morals who takes on the Ku Klux Klan. The elements of general history are interesting but it is hard to get interested in anything related to Whitley. He does not rise to the level of a hero of the Secret Service and the writing is too dry keep the readers attention.
July 26, 2019
The best part of the book involved the U.S. Secret Service fight against the Ku Klux Klan.
June 5, 2019
Today's Ku Klux Klan is not what is used to be. In its first incarnation following the Civil War (1865-1871), the Klan was a terrorist organization of a sort all too familiar to us in the 21st century. The Klan attracted tens of thousands of men, primarily in the Deep South, who lamented the passing of slavery. They were, in effect, the military arm of the Democratic Party, which was then pro-slavery. A great many were former Confederate soldiers.
For a time, the Klan ran rampant, terrorizing, brutally beating, and sometimes lynching Republican officeholders and sympathizers in the South. They also turned violent against newly freed African Americans who dared to vote, but their primary focus was political. They simply rejected Reconstruction and set out to kill everyone in the South who worked to make it a reality.
America's first war on terror?
In Freedom's Detective, journalist Charles Lane describes the Federal government's response to Klan violence once Ulysses S. Grant succeeded Andrew Johnson in the White House. Johnson, a virulently racist Democrat, had frustrated Congressional policies to bolster Reconstruction. But Grant's victory in 1868 brought Radical Republicans into office. And one of them, serving as Grant's Attorney General, hired a detective with a decidedly checkered career as the second director of the Secret Service (later the United States Secret Service). Lane describes how the new director fought the Ku Klux Klan, characterizing his campaign as America's First War on Terror. However, a half-century earlier Thomas Jefferson's war against the Barbary Pirates (1801-1805) could just as easily be described that way. And that's what an earlier book has done.
Today's Klan bears little resemblance to its earlier incarnations
The Ku Klux Klan as Lane describes it bears little resemblance to the massive organization that was inspired by D. W. Griffith's 1915 silent film, The Birth of a Nation. The newly reborn Klan attracted millions of members in such states as Ohio and Indiana as well as the West and the South. Its purpose was to terrorize and often kill African Americans. But that second incarnation of the Klan passed into history by the end of the Second World War. The decentralized and often pathetic version of the organization that cropped up following the war is, fortunately, a pale reflection of its history. And it was one of the splinter groups that constituted the contemporary Klan that Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center crippled with a victory in court.
He fought the Ku Klux Klan — and won.
Freedom's Detective is, in part, a biography of Hiram Coombs Whitley, who ran the Secret Service under President Grant, and a history of the Secret Service itself. Lane describes Whitley as "ethically flexible," but the reality is much darker. Whitley professed to oppose slavery but actively participated in capturing fugitive slaves. His business practices were, at best, questionable. And, later, as Director of the Secret Service, he carried out illegal assignments for his bosses and repeatedly lied in court about his actions. But he was effective. He ran a successful, high-profile campaign arresting moonshiners in Virginia and destroying their stills. Then he succeeded whether others had failed in sending members of the Klan to prison in a spectacular murder case. It was on the basis of those successes that Grant named him Director of the Secret Service.
From combatting counterfeiting to fighting the Klan
The Secret Service was then "a new unit with a new, and, for the federal government, essential mission: the detection and suppression of counterfeiting." Its work involved using undercover agents, and that was highly controversial at the time. But Whitley took to the assignment with great energy and skill. He was not content to do as others had done and arrest small-time peddlers of counterfeit bills and bonds. Whitley went after the biggest counterfeiter of them all: a wealthy New York businessman named Joshua D. Minor. And despite his success in ending Minor's counterfeiting career, Whitley's battle with Minor ultimately proved to be his undoing.
Victory over the Klan
While the Minor case was still dragging on in court in New York, Whitley was assigned to suppress the Klan. Lane recounts how Whitley recruited other detectives in his image—often with criminal backgrounds themselves—and sent them into the South as undercover agents. The work they did was so effective that by 1872 the Klan had ceased to operate openly practically everywhere. Yes, Whitley had fought the Ku Klux Klan — and won. Yet testimony in court in the Minor case, and Whitley's involvement in an ill-advised scheme to eliminate his boss's political nemesis, forced Grant to relieve him as Director of the Secret Service.
Ironically, after a life actively lived on both sides of the law, Whitley quietly retired to Emporia, Kansas. There, he settled down with his wife, adopted two daughters, and grew wealthy as a businessman. He died a respected member of the community in 1919.
About the author
Author Charles Lane is a former foreign correspondent for Newsweek and a former editor of The New Republic. He now writes editorials for the Washington Post and is a frequent guest on Fox News. Freedom's Detective is his second book about Reconstruction under the Grant Administration. The first, exploring an event that took place in 1873, was The Day Freedom Died: The Colfax Massacre, the Supreme Court, and the Betrayal of Reconstruction.
For a time, the Klan ran rampant, terrorizing, brutally beating, and sometimes lynching Republican officeholders and sympathizers in the South. They also turned violent against newly freed African Americans who dared to vote, but their primary focus was political. They simply rejected Reconstruction and set out to kill everyone in the South who worked to make it a reality.
America's first war on terror?
In Freedom's Detective, journalist Charles Lane describes the Federal government's response to Klan violence once Ulysses S. Grant succeeded Andrew Johnson in the White House. Johnson, a virulently racist Democrat, had frustrated Congressional policies to bolster Reconstruction. But Grant's victory in 1868 brought Radical Republicans into office. And one of them, serving as Grant's Attorney General, hired a detective with a decidedly checkered career as the second director of the Secret Service (later the United States Secret Service). Lane describes how the new director fought the Ku Klux Klan, characterizing his campaign as America's First War on Terror. However, a half-century earlier Thomas Jefferson's war against the Barbary Pirates (1801-1805) could just as easily be described that way. And that's what an earlier book has done.
Today's Klan bears little resemblance to its earlier incarnations
The Ku Klux Klan as Lane describes it bears little resemblance to the massive organization that was inspired by D. W. Griffith's 1915 silent film, The Birth of a Nation. The newly reborn Klan attracted millions of members in such states as Ohio and Indiana as well as the West and the South. Its purpose was to terrorize and often kill African Americans. But that second incarnation of the Klan passed into history by the end of the Second World War. The decentralized and often pathetic version of the organization that cropped up following the war is, fortunately, a pale reflection of its history. And it was one of the splinter groups that constituted the contemporary Klan that Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center crippled with a victory in court.
He fought the Ku Klux Klan — and won.
Freedom's Detective is, in part, a biography of Hiram Coombs Whitley, who ran the Secret Service under President Grant, and a history of the Secret Service itself. Lane describes Whitley as "ethically flexible," but the reality is much darker. Whitley professed to oppose slavery but actively participated in capturing fugitive slaves. His business practices were, at best, questionable. And, later, as Director of the Secret Service, he carried out illegal assignments for his bosses and repeatedly lied in court about his actions. But he was effective. He ran a successful, high-profile campaign arresting moonshiners in Virginia and destroying their stills. Then he succeeded whether others had failed in sending members of the Klan to prison in a spectacular murder case. It was on the basis of those successes that Grant named him Director of the Secret Service.
From combatting counterfeiting to fighting the Klan
The Secret Service was then "a new unit with a new, and, for the federal government, essential mission: the detection and suppression of counterfeiting." Its work involved using undercover agents, and that was highly controversial at the time. But Whitley took to the assignment with great energy and skill. He was not content to do as others had done and arrest small-time peddlers of counterfeit bills and bonds. Whitley went after the biggest counterfeiter of them all: a wealthy New York businessman named Joshua D. Minor. And despite his success in ending Minor's counterfeiting career, Whitley's battle with Minor ultimately proved to be his undoing.
Victory over the Klan
While the Minor case was still dragging on in court in New York, Whitley was assigned to suppress the Klan. Lane recounts how Whitley recruited other detectives in his image—often with criminal backgrounds themselves—and sent them into the South as undercover agents. The work they did was so effective that by 1872 the Klan had ceased to operate openly practically everywhere. Yes, Whitley had fought the Ku Klux Klan — and won. Yet testimony in court in the Minor case, and Whitley's involvement in an ill-advised scheme to eliminate his boss's political nemesis, forced Grant to relieve him as Director of the Secret Service.
Ironically, after a life actively lived on both sides of the law, Whitley quietly retired to Emporia, Kansas. There, he settled down with his wife, adopted two daughters, and grew wealthy as a businessman. He died a respected member of the community in 1919.
About the author
Author Charles Lane is a former foreign correspondent for Newsweek and a former editor of The New Republic. He now writes editorials for the Washington Post and is a frequent guest on Fox News. Freedom's Detective is his second book about Reconstruction under the Grant Administration. The first, exploring an event that took place in 1873, was The Day Freedom Died: The Colfax Massacre, the Supreme Court, and the Betrayal of Reconstruction.
May 2, 2019
In
The War Before the War: Fugitive Slaves and the Struggle for America's Soul from the Revolution to the Civil War
by Andrew Delbanco, I posited what that actually purpose of writing a history should be. I believe that great historical works should be a reflection of the times that we live in and basically should be the embodiment of the old adage "those who don't learn from the past are bound to repeat it."
So how does Charles Lane's Freedom's Detective: The Secret Service, the Ku Klux Klan, and the Man Who Masterminded America's First War on Terror work if we accept my conceit of how a history should work? From the title it seems like Lane wants to show us a mirror into our times--invoking the term "War on Terror" creates specific connotations, but whereas the current "War on Terror" invokes a vision of foreign, brown-skinned non-Christian invaders, for good (or mostly) for ill. However, the terror the focus of this book, Hiram C. Whitley, fights is domestic terrorism that we can draw a straight line from the first Grand Wizard of the KKK, Nathan Bedford Forrest, to the Timothy McVeighs and Eric Rudolphs of the United States. Because of this Lane's book is a bit of a misfire--instead of focusing on the legacy of the Klan, he instead focuses on Whitley's complicated and shady past and focuses on the violation of civil liberties that having a "secret service" (read: police) may entail.
Even if Lane didn't feel the need to connect the Klan's actions to someone like McVeigh, he could have also linked Whitley's "innovations" to the modern surveillance state enabled by corresponding technological advances (Whitley was one of the first people to utilize photography in his investigations--everything old is new again) but Lane misses an opportunity here, instead focusing on Whitley's shady past and the equally shady event that resulted in his dismissal. This is mildly interesting, but honestly, I think the prevailing view of America's surveillance institutions and the people that run them is that those people live in morally murky lands to begin with. Identifying Whitley as one of these people really doesn't do anything except prove that these kinds of people existed in the 19th century. This is not a new revelation, as Christopher Marlowe would prove.
If you do not agree with my view of why a history should be written in the first place, you may enjoy this book more than I did. The story is interesting and Whitley is definitely a bundle of walking contradictions. However, I'm pretty sure we all know someone like Whitley, and the fact is that it is the human condition to be great and shitty simultaneously. In that respect, Whitley isn't really different from anyone else who has existed on this planet.
So how does Charles Lane's Freedom's Detective: The Secret Service, the Ku Klux Klan, and the Man Who Masterminded America's First War on Terror work if we accept my conceit of how a history should work? From the title it seems like Lane wants to show us a mirror into our times--invoking the term "War on Terror" creates specific connotations, but whereas the current "War on Terror" invokes a vision of foreign, brown-skinned non-Christian invaders, for good (or mostly) for ill. However, the terror the focus of this book, Hiram C. Whitley, fights is domestic terrorism that we can draw a straight line from the first Grand Wizard of the KKK, Nathan Bedford Forrest, to the Timothy McVeighs and Eric Rudolphs of the United States. Because of this Lane's book is a bit of a misfire--instead of focusing on the legacy of the Klan, he instead focuses on Whitley's complicated and shady past and focuses on the violation of civil liberties that having a "secret service" (read: police) may entail.
Even if Lane didn't feel the need to connect the Klan's actions to someone like McVeigh, he could have also linked Whitley's "innovations" to the modern surveillance state enabled by corresponding technological advances (Whitley was one of the first people to utilize photography in his investigations--everything old is new again) but Lane misses an opportunity here, instead focusing on Whitley's shady past and the equally shady event that resulted in his dismissal. This is mildly interesting, but honestly, I think the prevailing view of America's surveillance institutions and the people that run them is that those people live in morally murky lands to begin with. Identifying Whitley as one of these people really doesn't do anything except prove that these kinds of people existed in the 19th century. This is not a new revelation, as Christopher Marlowe would prove.
If you do not agree with my view of why a history should be written in the first place, you may enjoy this book more than I did. The story is interesting and Whitley is definitely a bundle of walking contradictions. However, I'm pretty sure we all know someone like Whitley, and the fact is that it is the human condition to be great and shitty simultaneously. In that respect, Whitley isn't really different from anyone else who has existed on this planet.
March 29, 2020
An interesting portion of history that I knew little about. Enjoyed the book a lot.
August 19, 2019
The story of Hiram C. Whitley who was called upon to penetrate the Ku Klux Klan and halt counterfeiting. His unconventional methods, running on both sides of the line of legality, were effective, but may have been one of the reasons Grant's time in office was considered to be riddled with corruption. Still, many of Whitley's methods are in use today, interrogations of underlings to flip higher ups, undercover operatives, informants, were started as part of his "succeed by any means necessary" credo. The history is fascinating.
The narration was very uneven. While the narrative was not poorly read, anytime a phrase or word was a quotation, the reader went into this scratchy falsetto that was very distressing. And it was the same for any character. It distracted me certainly.
The narration was very uneven. While the narrative was not poorly read, anytime a phrase or word was a quotation, the reader went into this scratchy falsetto that was very distressing. And it was the same for any character. It distracted me certainly.
April 29, 2019
The rise of counterfeiters and the Ku Klux Klan posed a different kind of challenge than the United States had ever faced. It necessitated the rise of a national police force that would be able to cross state lines and report directly to the National government. Hiram C. Whitley was the first man to run a secret service for the U.S. government. This book covers his experiences as head of the Secret Service during the Reconstruction Era.
It was sad to me to learn that not much has changed over the years. Careers were ultimately ruined by involvement in corrupt government scandals just as they are today.
It was sad to me to learn that not much has changed over the years. Careers were ultimately ruined by involvement in corrupt government scandals just as they are today.
April 9, 2019
Anyone interested in American history, particularly in the mid-nineteenth century and beyond, will find this well-researched and well-written book has much to teach us. Charles Lane tells the story of Hiram Coombs Whitley, the first head of the Secret Service, and a man not afraid to take on the burgeoning Ku Klux Klan. Whitley also went after counterfeiters and illegal distillers.
One of the most interesting aspects of the book is Whitley’s own character; like most of us he was a mixture of good and bad, although due to his position his characteristics were thrown into relief. In the end, his federal career came to a halt due to his own bad judgment.
I really enjoyed this book. I had never thought much about the Secret Service other than that they protect the president and other people, and I was interested to learn so much about what they did during this period just after the Civil War. This thought-provoking book is worth reading, and if you have any interest in the period at all I urge you to pick it up.
One of the most interesting aspects of the book is Whitley’s own character; like most of us he was a mixture of good and bad, although due to his position his characteristics were thrown into relief. In the end, his federal career came to a halt due to his own bad judgment.
I really enjoyed this book. I had never thought much about the Secret Service other than that they protect the president and other people, and I was interested to learn so much about what they did during this period just after the Civil War. This thought-provoking book is worth reading, and if you have any interest in the period at all I urge you to pick it up.
November 4, 2024
I have a fan theory about TV detective Columbo: he’s a sociopath who, in police work, finds a socially acceptable outlet for his mental illness. Think about it: he lies about his personal life to manipulate, he never shows any genuine emotion, and he toys with suspects like a cat with a mouse. See? Sociopath.
I have similar thoughts about the subject of this biography, Hiram C. Whitley, second Chief of the United States Secret Service under President Ulysses S. Grant. Whitley strikes me as indifferent to anything but winning, preferably through infiltration and subterfuge, with morality and ethics mere expendable luxuries — assuming he considered them at all.
Maybe I’m too hard on Whitley. After all, he managed to attract, marry, and keep a deeply religious woman throughout his shady and sometimes violent career. She must have found in him the same deep-down decency that earned him trust and respect from his Federal paymasters as he led the Secret Service into a murky and clandestine war against the Ku Klux Klan.
This is the most intriguing part of his story, though the book’s subtitle is mildly misleading. The fight against white supremacist terrorists is just part of Whitley’s life, so don’t expect it to fill the entire book. You’ll also get a liberal dose of anti-counterfeiting stings and one highly amusing operation to get rid of the Attorney General’s criminal stepson, an operation so reminiscent of a Mission Impossible script that I wouldn’t be surprised to learn rubber masks were involved.
Whitley’s methods seem normal to the modern reader, but were considered dubious at the time: infiltration of terrorist cells by covert agents, misdirection and lying, and deliberate playing on Klan nerves with the possibility that your fellow Klansman could be a Fed. Many thought such tactics discreditable, so much so that testimony from detectives faced unfriendly scrutiny from courts suspicious of men capable of such things. I suppose we’ve come to accept different standards today.
This is a brief, comfortable biography of a man whose "situational honesty" won him few friends except when powerful men needed a dirty job done. Whitley’s disregard for ethical guardrails eventually proved his downfall, and nearly killed the Secret Service itself at the hands of Southern Democrats grateful for an excuse to end Federal interference in the Klan’s paramilitary enforcement of white supremacy.
This, perhaps, is the real lesson of Whitley’s life. Evil men will always be among us, and it will often be necessary to follow them into the sewers to bring them to justice. But as Americans have learned time and again, from Whitley’s professional implosion to Abu Ghraib, you can go so far down into the sewers that you lose first your way, then yourself, and then everything you were fighting for in the first place.
I have similar thoughts about the subject of this biography, Hiram C. Whitley, second Chief of the United States Secret Service under President Ulysses S. Grant. Whitley strikes me as indifferent to anything but winning, preferably through infiltration and subterfuge, with morality and ethics mere expendable luxuries — assuming he considered them at all.
Maybe I’m too hard on Whitley. After all, he managed to attract, marry, and keep a deeply religious woman throughout his shady and sometimes violent career. She must have found in him the same deep-down decency that earned him trust and respect from his Federal paymasters as he led the Secret Service into a murky and clandestine war against the Ku Klux Klan.
This is the most intriguing part of his story, though the book’s subtitle is mildly misleading. The fight against white supremacist terrorists is just part of Whitley’s life, so don’t expect it to fill the entire book. You’ll also get a liberal dose of anti-counterfeiting stings and one highly amusing operation to get rid of the Attorney General’s criminal stepson, an operation so reminiscent of a Mission Impossible script that I wouldn’t be surprised to learn rubber masks were involved.
Whitley’s methods seem normal to the modern reader, but were considered dubious at the time: infiltration of terrorist cells by covert agents, misdirection and lying, and deliberate playing on Klan nerves with the possibility that your fellow Klansman could be a Fed. Many thought such tactics discreditable, so much so that testimony from detectives faced unfriendly scrutiny from courts suspicious of men capable of such things. I suppose we’ve come to accept different standards today.
This is a brief, comfortable biography of a man whose "situational honesty" won him few friends except when powerful men needed a dirty job done. Whitley’s disregard for ethical guardrails eventually proved his downfall, and nearly killed the Secret Service itself at the hands of Southern Democrats grateful for an excuse to end Federal interference in the Klan’s paramilitary enforcement of white supremacy.
This, perhaps, is the real lesson of Whitley’s life. Evil men will always be among us, and it will often be necessary to follow them into the sewers to bring them to justice. But as Americans have learned time and again, from Whitley’s professional implosion to Abu Ghraib, you can go so far down into the sewers that you lose first your way, then yourself, and then everything you were fighting for in the first place.
November 30, 2019
I loved the story of Hiram Whitley. I think Lane did a masterful job of creating an exciting, complex story from mountains of details and research. I also enjoyed his prose style, which was straightforward and no-nonsense, and led me to trust the narrator as a voice of history. Whitley was such a complex character, and perhaps that's what I kept turning in my mind. A 'maxim' I've always believed: to defeat your enemies, you have to (in part) become like them. So in a sense, your enemies determine (in part) your identity, your morality, your actions. The question is always, of course, to what degree do you become like your enemies, that 'in part'. That boundary between good and evil is often not clear, yet it is there (I hope).
June 21, 2019
Clinically slow moving. That's unfortunate, too. This could have been a deeply compelling book, full of mystery, action, and intrigue.
The author provided interesting diversions where some background material was explored in more detail, but not nearly often enough. There is sufficient available material to have made this a much longer and much more complete account.
It was nearly a walk-away book for me, but I hung in there. Certainly, there was a lot I learned. The basic story was interesting. Could have been much more. Shame.
The author provided interesting diversions where some background material was explored in more detail, but not nearly often enough. There is sufficient available material to have made this a much longer and much more complete account.
It was nearly a walk-away book for me, but I hung in there. Certainly, there was a lot I learned. The basic story was interesting. Could have been much more. Shame.
March 9, 2019
I won an ARC through Goodreads giveaways. Let me start by saying that this isn't the genre of books that I typically read, I entered to win a copy thinking that it would be more focused on crime than a historical type of read. That being said, this book was very well written and easily held my interest throughout.
May 29, 2019
The book finished better than it started, but at no point in time was I drawn into the story.
The first half off the book was nothing now than a series of statements. This happened, then this happened, and then this happened.
It is the worst way to write history. The second half improved, but by that point I was just ready to finish the book.
From the very beginning I felt as if I was reading a book that probably has 150 pages of good material. So the author did everything in their power to stretch it to 200. The editor then used large print, spacing, and margins to stretch it to 270 pages.
If this truly were a 270 page book I would not have finished it, but as it was really only 150... I forced myself to read it.
The first half off the book was nothing now than a series of statements. This happened, then this happened, and then this happened.
It is the worst way to write history. The second half improved, but by that point I was just ready to finish the book.
From the very beginning I felt as if I was reading a book that probably has 150 pages of good material. So the author did everything in their power to stretch it to 200. The editor then used large print, spacing, and margins to stretch it to 270 pages.
If this truly were a 270 page book I would not have finished it, but as it was really only 150... I forced myself to read it.
September 19, 2020
DNF this as I did not like how much detail it gave of the detective’s sordid life instead of focusing on how he defeated the KKK.
Rating…3 stars
Warning: violence, language and unsavory life decisions
Rating…3 stars
Warning: violence, language and unsavory life decisions
May 12, 2019
While this title has some interesting facts and stories, it gets completely bogged down by inconsequential events and long winded explanations about the life of the man in charge of the Secret Service. The initial event that sparks this whole process is intriguing, as he is sent to investigate the murder of a white man in Georgia by a group of Klansmen and is introduced to the vast web of racism and dedication of that terror group. It is interesting and frustrating to read about, but then it jumps into the Secret Service and their fight against counterfeiting currency, which is about as dull as the author could make it. By the time they get back around to fighting the Klan, the reader is left wondering just when this will wrap up. Then to finish on a corruption trial is like watching the paint in the courtroom dry. The title just was not as exciting a read as I thought it would be.
October 31, 2020
A very clearly written biography of Hiram Whitely and the Reconstruction time period. I went in knowing very little about him, and was educated and enthralled throughout the entire book.
March 25, 2020
Strange book.
June 18, 2023
This is a difficult book to review. A big part of the problem is Hiram Whitley, a thoroughly detestable man using disreputable tactics (and here I refer to solitary confinement, denial of lawyers, threatening summary execution of witnesses if they didn't cooperate, etc., not just undercover operations) who nonetheless accomplished some important things. You want him to fail, because he's just that detestable, but most of the time rooting for him to fail means rooting for the counterfeiters or, even worse, the Ku Klux Klan, to succeed, so that's not really an option.
Leaving aside the problems with Hiram Whitley, there are some issues with the book as well. It's a bit disjointed at times, jumping from year to year. In some cases it is justified--for example telling the story of the Secret Service actions against counterfeiters and the Ku Klux Klan separately even though there was overlap. In others, however, it just seems sloppy and is confusing.
The biggest problem, however, is a lack of nuance and explanation. Charles Lane repeatedly paints with too broad a brush. Many of the historical results he cites are hard to square with his presentation of events. For example, he claims that white Georgians were white supremacists who hated Republicans, yet when an approximately equal number of whites and blacks voted the outcome was a decisive Republican victory. That was only possible if a significant number of whites voted Republican along with virtually all of the blacks. He emphasizes the need for federal intervention, but in the Carolinas there were some 16,000 members of the Ku Klux Klan arrested and the Secret Service was responsible for 3,000 of them (just going by memory). Who was responsible for the other 13,000, the vast majority of the arrests? To the extent Charles Lane is just writing a biography of Hiram Whitley, this is understandable because it's not directly relevant to his life's story. But Charles Lane goes beyond that, seeking to put to development of the Secret Service in the context of the overall growth of Federal power after the Civil War and admitting the uncomfortable parallels between the tactics condemned in the modern war on terror and those employed by Hiram Whitley against the Klan. This broader discussion needed more detail and discussion than Charles Lane was able to provide.
Leaving aside the problems with Hiram Whitley, there are some issues with the book as well. It's a bit disjointed at times, jumping from year to year. In some cases it is justified--for example telling the story of the Secret Service actions against counterfeiters and the Ku Klux Klan separately even though there was overlap. In others, however, it just seems sloppy and is confusing.
The biggest problem, however, is a lack of nuance and explanation. Charles Lane repeatedly paints with too broad a brush. Many of the historical results he cites are hard to square with his presentation of events. For example, he claims that white Georgians were white supremacists who hated Republicans, yet when an approximately equal number of whites and blacks voted the outcome was a decisive Republican victory. That was only possible if a significant number of whites voted Republican along with virtually all of the blacks. He emphasizes the need for federal intervention, but in the Carolinas there were some 16,000 members of the Ku Klux Klan arrested and the Secret Service was responsible for 3,000 of them (just going by memory). Who was responsible for the other 13,000, the vast majority of the arrests? To the extent Charles Lane is just writing a biography of Hiram Whitley, this is understandable because it's not directly relevant to his life's story. But Charles Lane goes beyond that, seeking to put to development of the Secret Service in the context of the overall growth of Federal power after the Civil War and admitting the uncomfortable parallels between the tactics condemned in the modern war on terror and those employed by Hiram Whitley against the Klan. This broader discussion needed more detail and discussion than Charles Lane was able to provide.
April 26, 2019
Charles Lane's book, Freedom's Detective tells the story of one of the earliest members of the United States Secret Service, Hiram C. Whitley. He also gives the reader a glimpse of life during Reconstruction in the South and the troubles faced by President Grant during these times. What's important about the emphasis on Hiram C. Whitley is what he was able to accomplish enforcing the law during this period after the Civil War. The Southern States were in turmoil, having just been defeated in a long and bitter war, and the way of life in the South being upended by the abolition of slavery. Former slaves were now freed, and acceptance of that upheaval was hardly forthcoming. There was no shortage of animosity in the South directed against Federal troops, abolitionists, and recently freed slaves.
Rebuilding their lives in the former Confederate States was challenging, and the passing of counterfeit bills had become commonplace, in the North as well as the South. Subsequently, in 1865, the Secret Service Division in the Department of the Treasury was formed to fight counterfeiting and illegal distillers, and Whitley and his men were quite effective in making arrests of counterfeiters and bootleggers. When murders of blacks and Republican politicians in the South increased in frequency, and terror by the Ku Klux Klan became widespread, Whitley and his men investigated, infiltrated, and prosecuted those crimes as well.
The entire concept of a Federal police force was new at the time, and Whitley and his men had to create a new way of investigating and prosecuting these crimes. That was probably the most interesting part of the book. Being able to go "underground", infiltrate the secretive KKK, and obtain convictions was obviously difficult, and Whitley was creative and effective in his role.
His methods were somewhat controversial for the time, and the fact that Whitley was able to overcome his somewhat spotty background and be elevated to the Director of the Secret Service was an unexpected accomplishment.
Rebuilding their lives in the former Confederate States was challenging, and the passing of counterfeit bills had become commonplace, in the North as well as the South. Subsequently, in 1865, the Secret Service Division in the Department of the Treasury was formed to fight counterfeiting and illegal distillers, and Whitley and his men were quite effective in making arrests of counterfeiters and bootleggers. When murders of blacks and Republican politicians in the South increased in frequency, and terror by the Ku Klux Klan became widespread, Whitley and his men investigated, infiltrated, and prosecuted those crimes as well.
The entire concept of a Federal police force was new at the time, and Whitley and his men had to create a new way of investigating and prosecuting these crimes. That was probably the most interesting part of the book. Being able to go "underground", infiltrate the secretive KKK, and obtain convictions was obviously difficult, and Whitley was creative and effective in his role.
His methods were somewhat controversial for the time, and the fact that Whitley was able to overcome his somewhat spotty background and be elevated to the Director of the Secret Service was an unexpected accomplishment.
August 7, 2019
This book was great in parts, and hum-ho in others. Good solid read with a lot of stuff you definitely didn't know about the connection between persecuting the clan at behest of the federal government, and the start of the Secret Service and combating counterfitting - because the guy partially behind both wrote a memoir, but this book is compiled of private notes given to the author by a family member.
You will learn about (we know these existed, but not in this detail):
-Just how complete and pervasive the KKKs presence was in the south. Murder cases where you had multiple *direct* witnesses, people who witnessed public killings, witnessess white and black, these murder cases were described as northern interference and suspects were found not guilty.
-The complete and total collusion in even medium and large towns during Reconstruction between judges, law enforcement, business leaders, and *some* local elected officials (it was jarring, in a good way, to hear liberal and sometimes black elected officials - a new thing during Reconstruction - making nearly identical calls for justice that you'd hear a century later in relation to the killing of black men)
-How a small team of law enforcement officers changed how counterfitters were lured and caught
-Just how corrupt that organization itself was, with guys getting off of charges of embezzlement and hoarding confiscated custom goods to be handed out later to powerful people (Cuban cigars, champagne, etc)
The books ending is the ho-hum part. The author had to close it out, but I think could have taken out the entire part about the theater showing the racist play. It did not fit into any larger narrative or explain anything else. Last 15 percent of the book could have been chopped and it wouldn't have lost much.
You will learn about (we know these existed, but not in this detail):
-Just how complete and pervasive the KKKs presence was in the south. Murder cases where you had multiple *direct* witnesses, people who witnessed public killings, witnessess white and black, these murder cases were described as northern interference and suspects were found not guilty.
-The complete and total collusion in even medium and large towns during Reconstruction between judges, law enforcement, business leaders, and *some* local elected officials (it was jarring, in a good way, to hear liberal and sometimes black elected officials - a new thing during Reconstruction - making nearly identical calls for justice that you'd hear a century later in relation to the killing of black men)
-How a small team of law enforcement officers changed how counterfitters were lured and caught
-Just how corrupt that organization itself was, with guys getting off of charges of embezzlement and hoarding confiscated custom goods to be handed out later to powerful people (Cuban cigars, champagne, etc)
The books ending is the ho-hum part. The author had to close it out, but I think could have taken out the entire part about the theater showing the racist play. It did not fit into any larger narrative or explain anything else. Last 15 percent of the book could have been chopped and it wouldn't have lost much.
May 22, 2019
Who was Hiram C. Whitley, second Chief of the United States Secret Service and the man who broke up KKK during the Reconstruction era? In this easy to understand narrative, journalist Charles Lane describes an enigma of a man who didn’t exactly play by the rules. Despite being known as a pivotal figure in the fight against the Klan, Whitley had previously betrayed abolitionists on the Underground Railroad. Did the man have a change of heart regarding slavery and the plight of the freedman, or was he an opportunist?
I knew nothing about Whitley before picking up this book, but I feel I know something now. I can’t say I know a lot, but that’s due to the man’s complexities rather than Lane’s writing. Anyone who shuts down the Klan and stops their heinous activities should, theoretically, be one of the good guys. But Whitley doesn’t often come across as one. In some ways, he was ahead of his time when it came to detective work. But did “Freedom’s Detective” spend too much time curtailing civil liberties? Would his methods, as Lane describes, be able to withstand the court cases that would surely be brought against him today?
Freedom’s Detective is a comprehensive look at just one aspect of the troubled President Grant administration. It comes complete with graphics, notes, and an extensive bibliography. If you thought the Pinkertons were the main detectives during and after the Civil War, or that the Secret Service was mostly about protecting government officials, then this is an entertaining and enlightening work. It’s definitely worth a read.
Disclaimer: I received an electronic copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. I was not required to write a review, and the words above are my own.
I knew nothing about Whitley before picking up this book, but I feel I know something now. I can’t say I know a lot, but that’s due to the man’s complexities rather than Lane’s writing. Anyone who shuts down the Klan and stops their heinous activities should, theoretically, be one of the good guys. But Whitley doesn’t often come across as one. In some ways, he was ahead of his time when it came to detective work. But did “Freedom’s Detective” spend too much time curtailing civil liberties? Would his methods, as Lane describes, be able to withstand the court cases that would surely be brought against him today?
Freedom’s Detective is a comprehensive look at just one aspect of the troubled President Grant administration. It comes complete with graphics, notes, and an extensive bibliography. If you thought the Pinkertons were the main detectives during and after the Civil War, or that the Secret Service was mostly about protecting government officials, then this is an entertaining and enlightening work. It’s definitely worth a read.
Disclaimer: I received an electronic copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. I was not required to write a review, and the words above are my own.
August 18, 2019
This really did read well. At times, it got off into things that I had little background in, but overall the birth of the KKK and the rise of the Secret Service to combat the KKK was done very well.
I was surprised at the duplicity of Hiram Whitley in his regular life before the Secret Service and how that seemed to equip him for the task of heading the Secret Service. In fact, the book stated that at this point in time those who had been in trouble with the law were the very ones that were made police officers and detectives because they knew how a criminal thought.
Whitley problems stemmed from the fact that he got sucked into the political favors game and the belief that he was invincible and it finally did him in.
I wondered after reading The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson how the US was never able to overcome the racism and political clout of the South. This book was the answer to that question. The government did not follow through with the force needed to free the its black citizens from the grasp of the white supremacists, even going as far as giving presidential pardons to convicted murderers. Not a high point in our history and we have paid for it ever since.
The other thing that amazes me is that again and again we find the argument as to where the line should be drawn to balance freedom from surveillance and the need for it in stopping the covert operations of domestic terrorism. I was reminded of the the arguments leading up to the Patriot Ac and was surprised that this argument goes back to President Grant and the birth of the Secret Service. There is always a trade off when freedom gives in to the promise of safety.
I was surprised at the duplicity of Hiram Whitley in his regular life before the Secret Service and how that seemed to equip him for the task of heading the Secret Service. In fact, the book stated that at this point in time those who had been in trouble with the law were the very ones that were made police officers and detectives because they knew how a criminal thought.
Whitley problems stemmed from the fact that he got sucked into the political favors game and the belief that he was invincible and it finally did him in.
I wondered after reading The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson how the US was never able to overcome the racism and political clout of the South. This book was the answer to that question. The government did not follow through with the force needed to free the its black citizens from the grasp of the white supremacists, even going as far as giving presidential pardons to convicted murderers. Not a high point in our history and we have paid for it ever since.
The other thing that amazes me is that again and again we find the argument as to where the line should be drawn to balance freedom from surveillance and the need for it in stopping the covert operations of domestic terrorism. I was reminded of the the arguments leading up to the Patriot Ac and was surprised that this argument goes back to President Grant and the birth of the Secret Service. There is always a trade off when freedom gives in to the promise of safety.
July 23, 2019
Congratulations to author Charles Lane for bringing to us a detailed and in my view compelling rendition of the career of Hiram C. Whitley and his role in what became the US Secret Service. Domestic spying is full of the need to balance and compromise and Whitley's work in this field didn't always get things "right", either from the politics and ethics of today or from the time he was Whitley government. Unlike some other commenters, I enjoyed author Lanes's occasional excursions away from the main story - I found the reading a helpful addition to the recent focus on the history of reconstruction.
I also found Whitley's story a helpful and, again in my view, more-or-less accurate description of how a mid-level executive has to live and work in a complex and multi-objective organization - there are potentially many approaches to get the work done - and all require choices between often-shifting organizational ideals and what often must be done in order to make any progress in attaining the stated (or sometimes implicit) objectives. Clearly Whitley wasn't perfect, but neither were the others around him, and in order to get anything done, he had to make decisions that in hindsight (or even at the time) would have been decisions that an idealist would have preferred him to make.
As to the title, perhaps the publisher has engaged in some hyperbole, but that is not the first nor the last time this has occurred.
I also found Whitley's story a helpful and, again in my view, more-or-less accurate description of how a mid-level executive has to live and work in a complex and multi-objective organization - there are potentially many approaches to get the work done - and all require choices between often-shifting organizational ideals and what often must be done in order to make any progress in attaining the stated (or sometimes implicit) objectives. Clearly Whitley wasn't perfect, but neither were the others around him, and in order to get anything done, he had to make decisions that in hindsight (or even at the time) would have been decisions that an idealist would have preferred him to make.
As to the title, perhaps the publisher has engaged in some hyperbole, but that is not the first nor the last time this has occurred.
April 8, 2024
From the description, I thought the book would focus on the early efforts to take down the Ku Klux Klan during the post-Civil War Reconstruction Era. Indeed, the book does cover this. However, it integrates the attempts with the fight against counterfeiting and the cutthroat politics that dominated that time in American History. Combined, they weave a rich tapestry that elucidates the intertwined events and explains why, after a promising start, the first attempts to destroy the KKK failed.
We live in a time that seems to demand greater perfection in our heroes and villains who have few redeeming features. Hiram C Whitley is a hero, a bully, and a con artist who does not fulfill those expectations. The text portrays him as one with the charm and cunning of a sociopath, flaunting ethics and using those skills to extra confessions. During the war, he harbored sympathies for the Confederacy, and prior to it, he worked undercover among the abolitionists to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act and return runaways to their "owners." Whitley also came to recognize the cruelty of the slave system, one that "could shock even his conscience." He threw himself into the destruction of the new terrorist group, the Ku Klux Klan, and he put many of their more brutal members in prison.
We live in a time that seems to demand greater perfection in our heroes and villains who have few redeeming features. Hiram C Whitley is a hero, a bully, and a con artist who does not fulfill those expectations. The text portrays him as one with the charm and cunning of a sociopath, flaunting ethics and using those skills to extra confessions. During the war, he harbored sympathies for the Confederacy, and prior to it, he worked undercover among the abolitionists to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act and return runaways to their "owners." Whitley also came to recognize the cruelty of the slave system, one that "could shock even his conscience." He threw himself into the destruction of the new terrorist group, the Ku Klux Klan, and he put many of their more brutal members in prison.
May 15, 2019
This was a very interesting book, although I came away from it unsure about the personality and integrity of the main subject. If the author's research is correct, Whitley alternated between being a skilled operative on the side of the angels and a self-promoting jerk who caused a lot of harm. Both are possible in the same person, but this guy's moral mood swings were pretty extreme. Even the case made for the opera house incident late in his life was pretty strange.
Still, it was interesting to see more of the history of the early Secret Service, since the fictional versions of its history during the Grant administration have been turned into so many novels and TV shows [Wild, Wild West and Cowboy G-Men are two that spring to mind of the latter]. This makes clear the very narrow limitations of the organization in its early years, and how a handful of investigators were most of what stood between the U.S. people and rampant counterfeiting of money. Their little "side trips" into things like investigating the early Ku Klux Klan were an important part of the story in this book, but were actually a very small part of what the organization did, or was even set up to do.
Still, it was interesting to see more of the history of the early Secret Service, since the fictional versions of its history during the Grant administration have been turned into so many novels and TV shows [Wild, Wild West and Cowboy G-Men are two that spring to mind of the latter]. This makes clear the very narrow limitations of the organization in its early years, and how a handful of investigators were most of what stood between the U.S. people and rampant counterfeiting of money. Their little "side trips" into things like investigating the early Ku Klux Klan were an important part of the story in this book, but were actually a very small part of what the organization did, or was even set up to do.
April 10, 2020
An interesting account of the first chief of the secret service, and his campaigns against counterfeiting and the Ku Klux Klan that began in the Civil War era. Hiram Whitley used undercover agents to pursue these objectives despite the general feeling that such techniques violated the constitution and that the federal government wasn't empowered to operate clandestine agencies The book explores his background and how it influences his career as a Federal agent. His general approach to law enforcement was to infiltrate criminal organizations and use low-level members to turn on their bosses. Despite his successes at uncovering these groups, he ran afoul of some political enemies, and was forced to resign his post after an unsuccessful sting operation against an administration opponent.
The author takes the reader through some of the more interesting cases that Whitley pursued, especially against the Ku Klux Klan during Reconstruction. One can't help but be reminded of the fact that the KKK , despite the many successful campaigns against it, including Whitley's, was still a factor in American politics some 80 years later
The author takes the reader through some of the more interesting cases that Whitley pursued, especially against the Ku Klux Klan during Reconstruction. One can't help but be reminded of the fact that the KKK , despite the many successful campaigns against it, including Whitley's, was still a factor in American politics some 80 years later
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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