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Butch Cassidy’s mugshot from prison in 1894
in 1908, the Wild West that is known in folklore for the most part ended. The lawlessness that existed after the Civil War had morphed into a tranquil West that lasted until the Great Depression. The Pinkerton Detective Agency also went into protection services when the FBI was established in 1908 as a national force to track down lawbreakers. The FBI learned many lessons from the Pinkertons includ-
Insight
ing compiling an extensive database of wanted suspects that included mug shots, identifying marks, newspaper clippings, prior arrests, known locations and anything else that could help capture a criminal. Pinkerton agents were involved in cracking many cases in the Wild West and brought some law and order in an otherwise lawless time. Other private eye organizations, a term coined
by the Pinkertons, existed in the past century but none were as well-known and effective as the first detective agency in America – the Pinkerton Detective Agency. Avi Heiligman is a weekly contributor to The Jewish Home. He welcomes your comments and suggestions for future columns and can be reached at aviheiligman@ gmail.com.
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was not into killing people, although other members of the gang broke that rule. This gang was active after the Pinkerton Agency was subject to government regulation in 1894 and even though the agency was involved in hunting them down it was local authorities who had the gunfights with the Wild Bunch. With Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid being killed in a shootout
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The Wild Bunch, December 1900. Butch Cassidy is seated on the far right