Honourable Mentions: Hilarious History
Join two brothers for some casual chat as they unearth the untold stories of history’s most obscure figures. It’s the hidden history your teachers forgot to mention, all served up with a healthy side of sibling rivalry and a big dollop of banter and laughs.
Honourable Mentions: Hilarious History
Agent Kate Warne: The Woman Who Saved History
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Discover the story of Kate Warne, the first female detective. Employed by Allan Pinkerton, she went undercover to foil the Baltimore Plot and saved the life of the most revered President in US history - Abraham Lincoln.
A true crime adventure that paved the way for all women in law enforcement.
Email honourablementionspod@gmail.com
Website
honourablementions.buzzsprout.com
Honourable Mentions
honourablementionspod
TikTok
honourable.mentionspod
Honourable mentions. Hello, Neil. How are you today, please?
SPEAKER_03Oh, marvellous, thank you. On tiptop condition.
SPEAKER_01Tip top?
SPEAKER_03Yes.
SPEAKER_01Wasn't that a type of cream that was available?
SPEAKER_03Tickety-boo and pucker.
SPEAKER_01Tickety-boo, I don't think tickety-boo was, wasn't it? Tip top was a type of cream that was available. Is it a pouring cream, I believe?
SPEAKER_03I don't care.
SPEAKER_01Enough enough about dairy products. We're here to uh join our listener, who hopefully is still with us, to talk about another Honourable Mentions.
SPEAKER_03Or a single. Honourable Mention, please.
SPEAKER_01That's it. Thank you very much. We will be going through the life of someone from history. Gives us quite a broad area to explore, who has done something quite extraordinary, but you may not have ever heard of them. So you're big hitters in history, people like Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn and George Washington. Genghis Khan. Genghis Khan, those sort of people we're all very aware of, aren't we?
SPEAKER_04No.
SPEAKER_01But in terms of these other people we're talking about, people are going to say, never heard of them. But you should have done. Feel the shamed listener.
SPEAKER_03Because they deserve an honourable mention.
SPEAKER_01They do deserve an honourable mention. That's what we are here to do, to set the record straight. Think of us as slightly odd historical superheroes, if you like. I think that's where that's that's probably where we are.
SPEAKER_03I think so. I can see myself for doing that. I might get a t-shirt with that on it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, do that.
SPEAKER_03Anyway, let's go.
SPEAKER_01Hello, Neil.
SPEAKER_03Hello, Steve.
SPEAKER_01Thank you for joining me, and thank you for joining us, dear listener, again. Now then, we're going to open today's episode with a bit of a trivia quiz question. So can I ask you a question here? Hot shot, pop quiz. Hotshot. Okay, mate, please. Okay, mate. Okay, okay, my great mate. Can you please name for me by population? I'm not asking geographically, I'm not asking alphabetically, I'm asking by by population, that's the amount of people who live in these cities.
SPEAKER_04Thank you.
SPEAKER_01Can you please tell me the five largest cities in the United States of America, please go?
SPEAKER_03Los Angeles has got to be one.
SPEAKER_01It has, yes.
SPEAKER_03Um I'm gonna say New York. Say it again. New York.
SPEAKER_01New York, New York, so they named it twice. So I got you to do that and see what I did. Ha ha ha!
SPEAKER_03Well done. Well done. Um Dallas. No.
SPEAKER_01Oh but you are right in Texas.
SPEAKER_04Detroit.
SPEAKER_01You are right in Texas, Detroit. Detroit is at the other end of the country.
SPEAKER_03I'm sorry. Let's go with Austin. You can't find a friend. It's in Texas.
SPEAKER_01Oh no, but there is a city in Texas. Let me tell you, Neil, we have a problem.
SPEAKER_03Well, what's the matter?
unknownNo.
SPEAKER_03Technical. Technical issue.
SPEAKER_01No, we don't literally have a problem. It's a clue. It is a clue to the city for which you are searching your brain.
SPEAKER_03Ah, Houston.
SPEAKER_01Houston, we have a problem, yes. So we've got Texas, we've got New York, we've got Houston. Now then, Detroit is in Michigan.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01But up that end of the country.
SPEAKER_03Chicago.
SPEAKER_01Chicago. Chicago. Chicago. Yes. Chicago. And you've got one more to get pleas out of those five.
SPEAKER_03Las Vegas.
SPEAKER_01Incorrect.
SPEAKER_03Mr. Verda. Let's have a go with New Mexico.
SPEAKER_01That's a state.
SPEAKER_03Okay, fair enough. Let's go with Toronto.
SPEAKER_01In Canada.
SPEAKER_03I don't know. I can't remember the cities in America. I'm just trying to think. I'm just trying to rack my brain. I've gone for lost. Miami.
SPEAKER_01Oh. Phoenix, Arizona.
SPEAKER_03Oh. Phoenix, Arizona. You can cut that out. You can cut that out, surely.
SPEAKER_01Edge it that out and make it look like it.
SPEAKER_03That's it.
SPEAKER_01Surprising that one though, isn't it? Phoenix, Arizona.
SPEAKER_03It is very surprising, yes. It's it's put me off my feet.
SPEAKER_01Yes, it's almost like it sort of rose from the flames. See what I did there as well.
SPEAKER_03That's a Harry Potter thing, isn't it? Surely.
SPEAKER_01Prisoner of Abs, whatever it was. Prisoner of I might be thinking of Aberdeen. Now, one of those five cities is going to be the primary location for our tale today. And that one is the first one you think of, if I threw some words out there like pizza, like Al Capone, like the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, like Chicago, like Illinois.
SPEAKER_03It's Chicago.
SPEAKER_01It's in Chicago. Well done, Neil.
SPEAKER_03I've got it on the first clue, really.
SPEAKER_01You picked up on my clues there.
SPEAKER_03Really? I've got no idea. What's pizza got to do with Chicago?
SPEAKER_01Chicago Tan Pizza.
SPEAKER_03Oh, it's a brand, innit? Anyway, crank on a cracker.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I'm just trying to get some freebies.
SPEAKER_03They're delicious and really quite easy to cook.
SPEAKER_01Yes. Especially when they're when you cover them in tip top cream. Anyway, anyway, in contrast to our previous stories, today's story is about a woman, a lady, a female, if you will.
SPEAKER_03Wow. That sounds like you sound like a dad from Friday Night Dinner.
SPEAKER_01She was an amazing young lady, this person.
SPEAKER_04I'm sure she would be.
SPEAKER_01Because it's sent in America, because it's set in Chicago, because it's about a woman, we're gonna start and stop them with a bloke. As you would. And we were else.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_01Where else would you start a stone of such such magnitude? Such import. I don't know what I'm talking about either. If you will.
SPEAKER_03Are you drunk again?
SPEAKER_01Uh what's the time? Yes.
SPEAKER_03No wouldn't.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Let me take you back in time to the year of our Lord, 1842.
SPEAKER_03Wow. 27.
SPEAKER_01Yes, roughly. Nearly quarter.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01We're looking at a tough Scotsman called Alan Pinketon.
SPEAKER_03Doesn't sound tough.
SPEAKER_01With a name like Pinkton.
SPEAKER_03What, but Alan? Doesn't he? Al Capone? Yeah, but it wasn't Alan, was it? Was he not? I don't know, I don't think so. Alan Capone, doesn't it sound right, is it?
SPEAKER_01He was Alphonse, I think, wasn't he?
SPEAKER_03I don't know.
SPEAKER_01But yeah, could have been, though. Could have been mistaken. Anyways, right? Our friend, um Alan Pinkerton, emigrated from Scotland to the United States.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_01Now, he had a trade that he took with him. Um, and his trade was no, not Lego, it's a good guess.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Now then, Neil, we are real-life brothers, are we not?
SPEAKER_03I believe so, yes.
SPEAKER_01The real-life brothers from the same mother and further.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And our mother had a maiden name, which is a name before she got married, a surname. She didn't change your first name, but a surname before she got married. And that surname came from this trade that Alan Pinkerton, what he was that he was doing. You may have thought that our ancestors on my mother's side were making minis or anything like that.
SPEAKER_03But no, that was very jeans for the guy called Lee.
SPEAKER_01Lee Coopers, yes. Yes, that's another fine product that I'm open to being sent. But uh he was in fact making barrels, which is what a Cooper was.
SPEAKER_03So So how come the Coopers don't make jeans then? Because they must have started out making barrels.
SPEAKER_01They did, mate, yeah, but they got beaten to it by the Strausses, didn't they?
SPEAKER_03Oh, okay. Fair enough.
SPEAKER_01Eva did it. Anyway, right, this is what happened. Stop saying anyway, it annoys me. I then left Scotland and went to set up as a Cooper in Illinois in the US of States in a place called Dundee.
SPEAKER_03Really? Do you think he sort of made a mistake? Do you think he sort of said got a taxi or something? Went, um, can I go to Dundee? And then this bloke did a ringer on him and sort of went all the way. Hold on a minute, we're going on the boat here. What's going on here, fella? Your ticket tip thing's racking up a bit. I wasn't expecting to spend about five pounds.
SPEAKER_01I say a taxi driver, don't we don't we normally use a pedo? You seem to be going a very long way.
SPEAKER_03He seems to go a long way. That's that that charge it up. I was expecting to spend a fiver. Who are you doing to me, you thief?
SPEAKER_01So he ends up there in Dundee.
SPEAKER_03Where's the iron brew?
SPEAKER_01Where's the iron brew in the haggis and the nips and tatties? Yeah. What's going on? So we're talking now 1847 to five years. Five years it took him.
SPEAKER_03What do the hell? That taxi driver knew what he was doing, didn't he? Christ.
SPEAKER_01So five years of being there, and he was out in the woods gathering timber for his barrels, which you need to make.
SPEAKER_03For he was a cooper.
SPEAKER_01For he was a cooper, so he was making barrels, it's making them out of timber. You never guess what happened to him while I was out in the middle of the woods. He only stumbled across signs of a counterfeiting operation.
SPEAKER_03Well, what would they put signs up?
SPEAKER_01That's what I thought.
SPEAKER_03That's silly. You wouldn't advertise it, would you?
SPEAKER_01Counterfeit an operation this way.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Please enter the kitchen.
SPEAKER_03Ridiculous thing to do.
SPEAKER_01Anyway, you come across these signs to a counterfeiting operation. And not being one to pretend he hadn't seen what he clearly had seen, because he'd seen it, because they were signs.
SPEAKER_03It's one of those things where you walk past and pretend that you're not looking.
SPEAKER_01Pinkton staked out the gang at gathering some evidence.
SPEAKER_03Ooh, what just like give them some meat?
SPEAKER_01Stakes them out, like having fed them, staked them out like styrofoam cups on the dashboard of his Chevrolet while he wore a leather jacket that creaked on the leather seat behind him.
SPEAKER_03Chewing gum.
SPEAKER_01Chewing gum and his partner came back with some donuts and coffees. Just as he got them in, they started to make their move and they had to screech off a load of paper flying up behind them and threw a throw a pile of empty cardboard boxes. I don't know if they ever know apparently.
SPEAKER_03That's brilliant, because that's what happens in the films.
SPEAKER_01Screeching tires and what sort of stuff. So that's what happened.
SPEAKER_03But well, when they pick a knife off when they pick a knife up off a blanket, but it still goes. What's all that about? Anyway.
SPEAKER_01Not quite what happened because first of all, you went and got the local sheriff. And together they broke the gang and apprehended all involved. So he was in the car while the sheriff went to get the coffee and donuts in the styrofoam cups. That sort of happened. So af after that, our friend Alan Pinkerton became interested in police work and binned off life with the barrels. So forget all, I don't care. I don't care what skills I've got. I've got transferable skills.
SPEAKER_03Nice.
SPEAKER_01He thought to himself.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, he is, didn't he?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, he he can make barrels, he can solve crimes.
SPEAKER_03You'd say he was a proper tradesman because he can turn his hand to anything.
SPEAKER_01I think there's a TV series in that. A Victorian barrel maker that solves crimes in his spare time. Cooper P.I. in his big moustache.
SPEAKER_03Don't think so. I think you're thinking about Taggart.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, Taggart, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Mudder. They do like how people do the tough mudder. Now I think that sounds like a really difficult crime for Taggart to break. Oh no, there's been a tough mudder. From then on, Pinkerton became interested in police work, as we've said, and he served as deputy sheriff in two Chicago area counties.
unknownWow.
SPEAKER_01Obviously didn't even have qualifications in those days.
SPEAKER_03Don't spread himself about, didn't he?
SPEAKER_01What qualifications do you don't make? Well, I made some barrels and I broke a counterfeiting ring. Okay, you're in. So in he came. From then he became a special agent for the US Post Office in the city of Chicago. Chicago. That's it, Chicago. Chicago. In 1850, he then met a fellow upright and awful citizen who was an attorney at law. And his name was Edward Rucker.
SPEAKER_03Who likes to fight then?
SPEAKER_01He liked to fight. Why do you say he liked to fight?
SPEAKER_03It was a fighter. Because he obviously he was a Cooper, and this guy's Rucker, so he obviously likes to fight. It's a bit of a ruck.
SPEAKER_01That's a rugby phrase, isn't it, really?
SPEAKER_03I can't tell you.
SPEAKER_01Oh, is it a secret in Rookie Pink?
SPEAKER_03Well, I can, I just don't want to.
SPEAKER_01Rucker and Pinkton formed the Northwestern Police Agency.
SPEAKER_03Ooh, they could have called it Rookpink.
SPEAKER_01Well, after a year, Pink Pinkton Rucker. Rookpink. They both sound absolutely filthy, though, don't they?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I say ding dong. Fancy coming back to my place for a Pinkerton Rucker. It does sound positively filthy. They only had it for a year, then it was dissolved.
SPEAKER_03Oh, not Anadine.
SPEAKER_01What happened was that Edward was thrown out at the deal, and Alan's brother Robert came on board, and the Pinkerton National Detective Agency was born.
SPEAKER_03Ooh. So it's PNDA. Because they like to abbreviate everything over there, don't they?
SPEAKER_01PNDA, they do, yes.
SPEAKER_03Hmm. Like FBI.
SPEAKER_01They could have called it the the Pinkerton National Investigative Services.
SPEAKER_03Hmm. Why would that spell, Stephen? Okay. Well, it's like Azda, innit? That's that's abbreviated. E in there.
SPEAKER_01I need an E in there somehow.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Pinkerton Extraordinary National Investigative Services.
SPEAKER_03Or exclusive.
SPEAKER_01Exclusive. Yeah. Yeah. What we need is a time machine, no button suggests these things.
SPEAKER_03Yes, and they could say say, Stop, penis.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01Later that year later that year, the brothers opened their headquarters 80 Washington Street in Chicago.
SPEAKER_03I know that's quite a nice place.
SPEAKER_01So that's confusing, isn't it? Washington.
SPEAKER_03I used to know someone who lived at 82.
SPEAKER_01Did you? Who was that, please?
SPEAKER_03A guy called George.
SPEAKER_01George what?
SPEAKER_03George from Washington.
SPEAKER_01George, George from Washington. Good imagination there now.
SPEAKER_03Thank you.
SPEAKER_01In 1855, Allen signed a deal to guard the Illinois State Railroad. And that was the first real that was the first big deal they did. The agency was taking its baby steps. But believe me, thanks. Believe me.
SPEAKER_03Okay, I'll try.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. It hadn't even got started yet.
SPEAKER_03That's intriguing. That's better.
SPEAKER_01That's better, thank you.
SPEAKER_03That's intriguing. That's that better. Sorry. Sorry about that.
SPEAKER_01So stop it. The Pinkerton National Detective Agency only went and grew to become the largest private law enforcement organization anywhere on I I meet you guessed this, actually. Anywhere on which planet?
SPEAKER_03Wow. That's tough. I can't see them needing much on the moon and places like that and Saturn, that because there'd be the moon's nothing and the it's too hot for everything else. So it's got to be Earth, surely.
SPEAKER_01It's got to be Earth and the Moon, isn't the planet? It's a moon. It's a satellite. But um every day's every day's a school, don't you?
SPEAKER_03Eurostat is a satellite.
SPEAKER_01Moon is a satellite, it's not a planet.
SPEAKER_03Well, it doesn't be much TV, does it? Uranus. You are as well.
SPEAKER_01The Pinkertons, the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, the PNDA, were hired to hunt down legendary outlaws like Jesse James.
SPEAKER_03Yes, I like their songs.
SPEAKER_01Like Butch Cassidy Sun and the Sundance Kid.
SPEAKER_04Hmm. Yeah, never heard of them.
SPEAKER_01They're also used with their espionage techniques to infiltrate. Espionage, don't you like that?
SPEAKER_03That's alright. They're spying techniques.
SPEAKER_01They're spying techniques.
SPEAKER_03Uh what does he call it? Espionage and some of the that's the word you needed to form penis.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. That'll just be childish, Neil. I won't spend too much time on that. But they were hired by likes of Andrew Carnegie. Oh.
SPEAKER_03He has a deli.
SPEAKER_01There's the Carnegie Deli, isn't there, near the Carnegie Hall, which we'd be named after him.
SPEAKER_03Was it? Well, was he an actor?
SPEAKER_01No, he was a wealthy businessman, wasn't he? He was a very wealthy man. I think he was probably the wealthiest man in the world at the time. But I don't know. But what they did at the PNDA was they broke the unions for people like him so he could basically crap all over his workforce. So they made him richer, but I suppose they got money out of it as well. And while they were doing all this, they even found time to invent which form of crime fighting technique.
SPEAKER_03Um handcuffs.
SPEAKER_01Well, that's a good guess, but no.
SPEAKER_03Oh. Um disguise. Who? Oh.
SPEAKER_01If you're thinking police officer strippograms, there's a clue.
SPEAKER_03Okay. Truncheons.
SPEAKER_01No, mugshots. Had nothing to do with police officer strippograms. It's just what I was thinking a year ago, and I so no, they invented the criminal mugshot.
SPEAKER_03Well, you can get them now in Tesco's and other supermarkets that are available.
SPEAKER_01And yeah. Yeah, you can. Whatever you're photo taken with a number in front of it.
SPEAKER_03No, there's a little another French word, a sachet, you can get or packet, where you place it into some uh it's like a pasta based thing with with flavourings, and you place it into a mug and you pour hot water on it, and they call it a mugshot. That's a pot noodle. It's not a pot noodle, there's pot noodles in this in the pot.
SPEAKER_01Okay. So I've mentioned Chicago Town pizzas and tip top cream, and you're going with mugshots.
SPEAKER_03Yep.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_03Tomato and herb. Nice.
SPEAKER_01And uh Lee Cooper jeans, which are quality.
SPEAKER_03They are very good quality. They're very well made and lasts for a long, long time. And the fit is pretty much anyway.
SPEAKER_01So there they were, these Pinkerton brothers sat on their high horse in 80 Washington Street. No, none of the invention of the mugshop, none of the capture of them, Jesse Jones, none of that would have been possible if it hadn't been for a lady called Kate Warren.
SPEAKER_03Ooh. She sounds exciting.
SPEAKER_01What's that you say? Please tell me why, Stephen?
SPEAKER_03Please tell me why, Stephen.
SPEAKER_01Okay, well, Kate Warren, Neil, is worth an honourable mention. Thank you very much.
SPEAKER_03You're welcome.
SPEAKER_01She took herself to see Alan Pinkerton in 1856. And introduced and introduced herself to him, probably saying those very words.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_01He told her outright that he had no place for a secretary in his typing pools. But she said she didn't want those sort of jobs. She wanted to be a detective. Detective work was rough, dirty, and dangerous, and certainly no place for a woman. Which is why no woman was doing it.
SPEAKER_03Well, yeah, that is true.
SPEAKER_01But she argued she can see things and hear things that he would otherwise be able to see and hear. Why?
SPEAKER_03She's got superpowers.
SPEAKER_01No, because she would be able to go places where no man would ever dare follow.
SPEAKER_03Like um habadasheries and things like that.
SPEAKER_01Well, like the ball.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, that's another one.
SPEAKER_01Let's face it, even today, women go off in groups. I don't know what they're doing there. I think.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, they get to the toilet in pairs all the time. I don't know what it is. That's quite weird.
SPEAKER_01You know those motorcycle stunt riders you get when they have about twelve of them on one motorbike?
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I think that's how women arrange themselves on a toilet, so none of them have to touch it.
SPEAKER_03I went to the toilet in pairs once and I got thrown out the greengrocers.
SPEAKER_01Yes, where were we? We were going back to she was saying that no one will be able to follow her, no man will be able to follow her to the pillows and candles section of IKEA or the toilets or a habitashera, as you've said.
SPEAKER_04Thank you.
SPEAKER_01That's right.
SPEAKER_04Thank you.
SPEAKER_01I've mentioned IKEA now as well, so if you're listening.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. She said, who was going to suspect a woman of being a spy? She turned it back on him. That's what she did. Because he said, Yes, he said, he has no place for a woman. She said, well, exactly, no one's going to suspect a woman. Because it is no place for a woman. That's right, it is true. So give me a job. He said, I should cocoa. I'm not going to give you a job when women can't picture baseball without looking up their arms made of shoelaces. So I thought I thought was a bit sexist.
SPEAKER_03It was sexist, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01Yes. But then he gave it a thought, and he saw the opportunity, and he said, No, I'm going to give you a try, young lady.
SPEAKER_03Wow. What a nice man.
SPEAKER_01What a nice man. So Kate Warren became a lady detective.
SPEAKER_03Ooh. Shouldn't L Dick.
SPEAKER_01Is that how you're uh is that how you're going to phrase that?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that's what I'm going to do, use it. That's mine, thank you.
SPEAKER_01That's probably why they didn't go with penis as the acronym for their company.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, probably. But L Dick, that sounds something like the Spanish person would say, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01With Brees Wayne and Dick Grayson were living in Spain, that'd be what is none as.
SPEAKER_03Well, is that yeah?
SPEAKER_01So probably get away with it. Kate Warren, do you remember Kate Warren?
SPEAKER_03I've heard of her, yes. You just mentioned her a bit ago. Yes.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, she she was born in 1833 in New York State. Right. And she grew up and she grew up in a large, impoverished family with a father who worked as a church minister.
SPEAKER_03So she had a r she had a a sort of a religious background then?
SPEAKER_01She did have a religious background.
SPEAKER_03Thank you for that.
SPEAKER_01Although she dreamt of becoming an actress, but this was vehemently opposed by her parents.
SPEAKER_03It was what, opposed?
SPEAKER_01Vehemently opposed. They were very strongly against it.
SPEAKER_03They weren't having a lot of name of it. Thank you.
SPEAKER_01They weren't having none of it. So she wanted to be an actress. They weren't going to let her. They were quite strict, etc. No, they said. As a young adult, by the age of 23, she found herself running the household and had been married and widowed. By the age of 23. So I'd imagine her mother must have passed on.
SPEAKER_03Or moved.
SPEAKER_01If they were that religious, she probably passed away rather than divorced or whatever, not a thought. And if she's um been married and widowed, then the old the old man brought not her father, but her husband would also have died. And the clue I'm taking from that sentence is widowed. I'm taking it being windowed.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, no, exactly. Pushed her through a glass pane or something.
SPEAKER_01No, I think she'd been widowed.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01But I don't know what happened to the family because she left them. And she went, she ended up in the uh Pington National Detective Agency persuading a pioneering investigator, ingenious businessman, to make her the first detective on their books.
SPEAKER_03Well done and her actually tell a lie.
SPEAKER_01The first female detective on their books.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_01She wasn't the first detective to even get a grip man. In fact, Neil.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01He listened.
SPEAKER_04Yep.
SPEAKER_01She wasn't just the first female detective on the books of the National Pinkton Detective Agency. She was the first female detective in the whole root and tootin' shooting US of A.
SPEAKER_03Wow. Wow. So there could have been others.
SPEAKER_01In fact, Neil.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01What do you mean? She was the first.
SPEAKER_03No, I mean there could have been others in the other parts of the world.
SPEAKER_01No, because she was the first rootin' tootin' shooting female detective in the whole wide world.
SPEAKER_03Wow. But then again, how do you know? Because she was taken on board to be undercover, if you will. So how do we know that other countries hadn't already done this?
SPEAKER_01How do you know she was taken on board to be undercover?
SPEAKER_03Because um you told me. You said she was an actress and she was there to be a detective, and she can get into places she can get into places where other people couldn't.
SPEAKER_01You're picking up little clues and things that I haven't verified as of yet.
SPEAKER_04Oh.
SPEAKER_01Anyway, you're right. So she began well and she went over doubters, because there's going to be doubters, aren't there?
SPEAKER_03They're going to be the badly, yeah.
SPEAKER_01They're going to be the men, they're going to sit around, put you, put your knickers on, love, get us a cup of tea, that sort of behaviour. That sort of sexist pigs, we call them. Yeah. Those sort of people. So they'd have been there, wouldn't they? But she began to win them over when she busted open an embezzlement case that had gone cold.
SPEAKER_03Wow.
SPEAKER_01So all these men in the winter. No. I mean gone cold by the fact that no one had been able to solve it. So all these men together had drawn a blank, they're not been able to solve this case. It was for$50,000 of your US dollars.
SPEAKER_03Quite a lot of money then.
SPEAKER_01It was just a lot. It was lots of money. So if you took that$50,000 and put it into today's money, how much do you reckon?
SPEAKER_03Oof. Oh, that's got to be at least 30 quid.
SPEAKER_01It is at least 30 quid.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. I would say 25 million dollars.
SPEAKER_01Well you do, oh, you are prone to exaggerate now. I've told you that many times.
SPEAKER_03I do, yes, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um two million US dollars today.
SPEAKER_03Ooh, I was only a digit out.
SPEAKER_01You're only a digit out, but also decimal point. 23 million, depending which way you look at it, I suppose. Yes. So all these male agents have been unable to crack this case, and she cracked it just as you said she would. By going undercover, as you said she would.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And winning the confidence. And winning the confidence of the wife of the chief suspect.
SPEAKER_03Ooh. Nice.
SPEAKER_01So what she did, she went undercover and swapped her New York state accent for a flawless southern bell twang.
SPEAKER_04Wow. Well like bong.
SPEAKER_01No, like y'all and sugar and that sort of stuff.
SPEAKER_04Oh yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01It's you just a cute bar of the sugar. That kind of that kind of thing.
SPEAKER_03Roscoe Pico train.
SPEAKER_01So what she did, she ingratiated herself with the bezler's wife, who was from Alabama. She's down that way. So it's quite handy.
SPEAKER_03Yes, it's quite close for her, isn't it? It's quite handy she did that. It's lucky they did that there, because otherwise she'd have been a right mess, wouldn't it?
SPEAKER_01Yes, otherwise her accent would have been a bit out of place.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01She'd been sent to Paris or Germany or somewhere.
SPEAKER_04Exactly, yeah.
SPEAKER_01But she wasn't. She was in um, she was talking to this lady from Alabama, and she ingratiated herself, sweet home Alabama. Who did that?
SPEAKER_04Oh no.
SPEAKER_01Lynard Skinner. Anyway, the wife felt safe enough to share a little secret that gave the whole game away and told her what her husband had done with the money.
unknownWow.
SPEAKER_01So well done, Henry. So Kate, like a chamon, she was quite calm, you know, like a karma, karma chameleon, you would say. She managed to take this information back to her bosses, having transformed herself into a Southern Bell, now transforming herself back into a Kate Warren everybody knew. And re-relay them this information, which ended in the arrest of this nefarious couple. Wow.
SPEAKER_03That's good. That's good work.
SPEAKER_01So the Pinkerton brothers were impressed. In 1860, Kate was given sole charge of a newly created female detective bureau.
SPEAKER_02Ooh. Is that A FI?
SPEAKER_01No, that begins with an F. That's the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
SPEAKER_03Oh, okay. I often wonder what that stood for. Thank you.
SPEAKER_01Not the Female Detective Bureau, which has the first letter, but not the other two. But otherwise, it's a good good guess. In this female Detective Bureau, she was able to recruit other women and oversee the opening of branches right across the USA. So they had some had some faith in these boys.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, they did, didn't they? Invested a lot of money in her.
SPEAKER_01In fact, Alan Pinkerton said that Kate was a rather commanding person and with an ease of manner that was quite captivating at times. She was calculated to make a favorable impression.
SPEAKER_03He sounds like he's got a bit of a soft spot for her.
SPEAKER_01What he was saying there was Kate was bare bossy fam, but she knew how to flex and he had good vibes, though, you feel me?
SPEAKER_03Oh, right, okay, yeah. Yeah. Glad you're talking my language now, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So that's what he was saying there.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01He would tell anyone who'd listened that Kate Warren had never let him down. Not once. Not once. Never let him down. Even when he sent her across the road to start, but she came out in the right order.
SPEAKER_03That's what that takes from doing, because normally you forget by the time you walk in the door. I do.
SPEAKER_01She she never let him down.
SPEAKER_03Wow.
SPEAKER_01And now we reach the part of the story that really takes a twist.
SPEAKER_03Well, not twists.
SPEAKER_01Are you ready for this?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, go on then.
SPEAKER_01Let's twist again. Let's twist again like we did last summer.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_01In f in February of 1861, a chap called Samuel M. Felton, who was president of the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad, informed the Pinkerton agency of a deadly plot.
SPEAKER_03No, they didn't. How do they know?
SPEAKER_01I think it was like another it started strangling people.
SPEAKER_03Ah, right, yeah. Could have been, yes. That's probably what it meant. Yeah. Oh, yeah, that's good.
SPEAKER_01We're we're both running up the wrong dog leg, or whatever they say here, because our friend Samuel M. Felton had received a tip about, and I quote, a deep-laid conspiracy to capture Washington, destroy all the avenues leading to it from the north, east and west, and thus prevent the inauguration of in the capital of the country. Now the of and the gap there relate to an incoming president who would be err Abraham Lincoln. Correct. Wow. So the the little tip-off he had. How do you know? I think you can go and see it in the Smithsonian Museum.
SPEAKER_03Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01Was about an uh plot to assassinate Abraham Lincoln.
SPEAKER_03So he could get into places that she could have got into. Well, look, you've got the tip-off.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that's a good point. Yeah, perhaps this one was discussed in a mail toilet.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Or in the in the power tool section of a DIY show. Somewhere like that, on the terraces of a football match. Somewhere like that, I should imagine. You wouldn't have heard this in the in the pillow section of IKEA.
SPEAKER_04No.
SPEAKER_01This was top stuff. So Kate said that she suspected that the secessionists, and that's what we're going to call these people, because they wanted to secede from the United States of America.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_01This is this is pre-Civil War.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So she said that she suspected they would strike in Baltimore as it was the only slave-holding city aside from Washington, DC itself, that was on the president-elect's journey.
SPEAKER_03So she worked that one out.
SPEAKER_01So that was her suspicion. She went undercover to unravel the plot. She went all the way to Baltimore, posing as a squirrel. No. To be a clue, she's done it before.
SPEAKER_03Oh, okay. Um an actress. A Southern Bell, if you will.
SPEAKER_01Yes, a Southern Bell, if you will.
SPEAKER_03She's only got one sort of routine and a reparte, really, isn't she?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but when it's that good that even people from that area can't pick out that you're putting it on.
SPEAKER_03Well, true.
SPEAKER_01Do you need to deviate? Do you need to have range? You don't need to have to be. But, you know, it's that good. You've got to be good at it because you can slip, can't you? You can, I don't know, you can bang your toe and go, oh. Do it in your your own accent. And everyone says, What? Oh no, sorry. I meant goodness gracious me, sweetheart. Hop, bang. She used two aliases while she was um uncovering this plot of these secessionists.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_01One was Mrs. Cherry. And one was Mrs. Bowley. Okay. And she attended several parties and spoke loudly in favour of the secessionist states and became friendly with the wives of the men who were intent on killing Abraham Lincoln. That's a bit risky, I think, because she got in deep, then she did get in deep. She was rolling in the deep there. But if you went to several parties, what is the risk? What are the chances that someone at one of these parties can say, Oh, look, there's Mrs. Cherry. And someone else said, What are you on about? That's Mrs. Jarry over there.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. How'd you get around that? Disguised.
SPEAKER_01The mustache or something.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Exactly. That's what I'd have done.
SPEAKER_01It did work. And while she was there, she uncovered a plan that Abraham Lincoln would be attacked on the afternoon of February the 23rd, 1861.
SPEAKER_02Wow.
SPEAKER_01So not only did she unveil a plausible plan, but she had a date and everything.
unknownShe didn't.
SPEAKER_02She did well.
SPEAKER_01The girl did good, didn't she?
SPEAKER_02She did do good.
SPEAKER_01What the plan was was that they were going to pass through the part of Baltimore, the rail station there.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01And then while they were there, a fight would break out, resulting in all the police officers rushing towards this kerfuffle.
SPEAKER_03Yes. Well, you would do as a police officer, wouldn't you? You'd think, well, better sort that out.
SPEAKER_01But Lincoln would be left entirely unprotective at the mercy of the session.
SPEAKER_03If you knew what you're doing, you'd probably think to yourself, Well, we've got someone quite important here. We'd left would leave one person here to look after him, make sure he's alright. I would. But then, you know, I'm I'm cruelly I'm sort of criminally minded like that. I'm brilliant.
SPEAKER_01You're a you're a professional.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I I saw a documentary once about Abraham Lincoln that he was a vampire hunter. So probably he could look after himself. I don't know.
SPEAKER_04Okay.
SPEAKER_01That all these these uh secessionist people had also chartered a small steamship which was sitting in a nearby river, and then they would head to this steamship and flee and travel immediately to the state of Virginia. So they had it all worked out. They had it all worked out.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Didn't they?
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Traction, murder.
SPEAKER_03Driver ready and everything.
SPEAKER_01Exit, yeah. On a steamship, steam paddle ship that would have chugged its way to Virginia quite slowly and leisurely, I'd have thought. But there were the times.
SPEAKER_03Perhaps down the Mississippi, would it be?
SPEAKER_01No.
SPEAKER_03That's perhaps where they started it from, and the big boats with the spinny things at the back.
SPEAKER_01I don't think the Mississippi is in Baltimore, is it?
SPEAKER_03Oh, don't.
SPEAKER_01And if you want to know what went down.
SPEAKER_03Yes, please.
SPEAKER_01Here's what went down. The Pinkton National Detective Agency snupped Lincoln into a Baltimore aboard an overnight train from Philadelphia that arrived at 3.30am. So they were getting ahead of the game there, weren't they?
SPEAKER_03Yes. Yes, the those people weren't even ready for it. They were probably still asleep.
SPEAKER_01The president elect pretended to be the disabled brother of his carer. So he was in disguise.
SPEAKER_03And his carer was uh don't know, perhaps that Kate probably was it? Yes, Kate Warren.
SPEAKER_01Well done. I thought you were going to say Tom Cruise or something, but no, it was it was Kate Warren.
SPEAKER_03No, Tom Cruise wasn't around back then. It'd be more like Tom said.
SPEAKER_01Lincoln wore a loose-fitting overcoat and a felt cap that was pulled down low over his face.
SPEAKER_03Did he have to pull a face and sort of make himself look all crooked?
SPEAKER_01I'd imagine he probably did to carry off the full subterfuge.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, of being disabled. Perhaps he sat on one leg.
SPEAKER_01Well, what happened? Kate had a shawl draped over his shoulders as if to keep him warm. So for her, she was so calm and natural in her role as a humble caregiver and sister, dressed to the part, obviously. But she was his sister, not not his not his proper nurse, but I'd imagine she by this stage she'd probably dropped the seven bell.
SPEAKER_03Seven bell, Mrs. Cherry.
SPEAKER_01She'd probably gone for Mr. T or something at this point.
SPEAKER_03They could have got them involved, really, couldn't they? Because they would have done it all themselves. They would have sorted it out. Because they used to do all that sort of thing, they'd go against vigilantes and stuff. They did. Yeah, I'd have got all of the Pinkertons, I'd have got the A-T, because there's only four of them there as well, weren't there?
SPEAKER_01Well, do you know what? Before boarding the train, Kate had gained the train conductor's sympathy and secured an entire sleeping car for her and her brother, as well as their two companions, who happened to be Alan Pinkerton, and his personal bodyguard, a man by the most fantastic name of Ward Hill Lamon.
SPEAKER_03Nice. That's a Prophet American name.
SPEAKER_01That's a problem.
SPEAKER_03I would imagine he was a Le Mon bit at the end of it.
SPEAKER_01I don't know, that's still quite.
SPEAKER_03It was Lemon, they're just trying to make it sound posh. Like cremon glaze and all that rubbish.
SPEAKER_01He was a big fella, I can imagine him. I can't imagine him being quite small. He was a bodyguard as well.
SPEAKER_03I'm warred. I'm war.
SPEAKER_01Exactly. But these were the early days of train travel. Right. So there was no such thing as reservations. It's basically a pylon. So you bought your ticket to get onto the train.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01But then it was just a free for all just the way you got on, and it was that wear and everything.
SPEAKER_03Like Ryanair.
SPEAKER_01Like Ryanair, precisely. So I'm beginning to think that perhaps you did drop a Southern Bell accent. Dick go for a Mr. T.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04She'd have said, Get up my cabin, fool.
SPEAKER_01I ain't gonna know she had a cabin, sucker.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Yeah, similar to that, yeah.
SPEAKER_01So she managed to secure this, all the odds she managed to secure them this cabin all to themselves by uh chance. Nobody realised that the incoming president of the United States, who was under threat of assassination, was on board the overnight train as it safely chew chew chewed its way all the way into Washington, DC, arriving at 6 a.m.
SPEAKER_03Wow. So he's already in there.
SPEAKER_01So these secessionists were completely formed.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, weren't they? Just they'd been like, oh, darn it.
SPEAKER_01Darn it, he's not even here. We've talked of this distraction. We've got this steam boat. And he's not here, what's going on? That bloke looks a bit like Lincoln. Go beat him up.
SPEAKER_04It'll do.
SPEAKER_01It's said that Kate Warren remained alert and didn't sleep a wink for the entire journey.
SPEAKER_03So like Red Bull or something like that, maybe just to keep her going.
SPEAKER_01Or she painted some eyes on her eyelids. What they used to do in Tom and Jerry. The Pinkerton agency had a very famous slogan, which was a big eye, and underneath it it said, We never sleep. And it is said that Alan Pinkerton got the idea for that slogan from Kate Warren's attitude of that evening.
SPEAKER_03Nice.
SPEAKER_01So she was key to I don't.
SPEAKER_03No, yeah, that's fine. I'm just I mean I'm just intrigued by that. That's very intriguing.
SPEAKER_01Very intriguing. She was key to the foiling of the Baltimore assassination plot.
SPEAKER_03So she basically saved the United States as we know it now.
SPEAKER_01As we know it today. Yes. She well, she basically saved all sorts of things, really, the world as we know it today, because as we know, the Civil War turned into a war of abolition and slavery. We've now had a black president and uh all sorts of things.
SPEAKER_03So she probably saw that and knew all that's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_01She she was integral to all that sort of thing going on. That's some that's some um That's an achievement you put on your CV, in it.
SPEAKER_03That's something you slap on your CV, yeah.
SPEAKER_01So she was key to foil in this plot. Not only did she help uncover its details, but she helped plan and carried out the arrangements to smuggle Lincoln into Washington. She couriered secret information and set up meetings as well as securing the necessary four berths on the train. So without her dedication, skill planning and protection, there was every reason, as you have already alluded to, Neil, my friend, that Abraham Lincoln might not have made it out of Baltimore alive.
SPEAKER_04Wow. Wow, so Lincoln himself a lot, didn't he?
SPEAKER_01Well, he did, and he said, I believe it has not hitherto been one of the prerequisites of the presidency to acquire in full bloom so charming and accomplished a female relation. What? Nah, fam. It ain't been a must for a top dog to roll with such a pain and sordid sister up in the mix, innit?
SPEAKER_03Ah, right, thank you. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01That's what he was saying.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And for her part, Kate said, Mr. Lincoln is very homely and so very tall that he could not lay straight in his berth.
SPEAKER_02They talk funny, didn't they?
SPEAKER_01Mundane Lincoln's bare basic as well, thank you, bro. Like he can't live in lie in his crib or nothing.
SPEAKER_03Ah, that's better. Thank you. You got it? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01So, yeah, that's basically what they were saying of one another. As you know, and you're probably about to tell me, the US Civil War starting in April 1861.
SPEAKER_03That was just on the edge of my lips.
SPEAKER_01Was it? I thought it might have been.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Union Army commander George B. McClellan appointed Alan Pinkerton as his chief of intelligence.
SPEAKER_03Nice.
SPEAKER_01So he got a nice little well done pat on the head. Kate Warren, meanwhile, operated in the Confederate States at a huge risk to her own life again, posing as a Southern Bell. Passing on information back to her boss, Alan Pinkerton.
SPEAKER_03So she kept herself out of the papers as well, then?
SPEAKER_01Well, she was a bit of a celebrity for the stuff she did around Lincoln and that, but she wasn't huge. She, for example, the stories about the Lincoln Rescue, or you want to call it, or smuggling operation, didn't make any mention of her at all. The Pinkerton Agency received much publicity, but those reporters made no mention of her.
SPEAKER_03Is that because she was a female?
SPEAKER_01Who can say? Most probably, yes, I'd imagine.
SPEAKER_03That's wrong, innit?
SPEAKER_01That's wrong, innit? The Pinkton Agency received much publicity. Kate Warren was a pioneer, though, not just for female law enforcement, but for law enforcement and techniques in general. This is this is what her her real power was. She she understood that power didn't rest with making people look at you, but in making sure they don't see you at all.
SPEAKER_03Ooh, so she did have special powers.
SPEAKER_01She knew, as you said at the very beginning, that no one's going to suspect a woman. They might be suspicious of all sorts of things, but they won't be suspicious of me. And she was right.
SPEAKER_02She was right.
SPEAKER_01She was able to do all sorts of espionating.
SPEAKER_02Don't worry about it.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_01So yeah. She lived uh a tragically short life, though. Have you got some tissues there? Sounds like you need them.
SPEAKER_03Well, it's exciting.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01No, this is the tragic bit, Neil. You might get a bit upset. She lived a very short life and died of pneumonia in her mid-30s on January the 28th, 1868.
SPEAKER_03That's unfortunate.
SPEAKER_01It's unfortunate for her, isn't it? But she she was a pioneer. She did open doors for women in law enforcement.
SPEAKER_03So she probably did get a chill from that very first case that had gone cold. She may have done.
SPEAKER_01That's that's that's not any of the research I've found, but that's a very good observation.
SPEAKER_03I know. You're welcome.
SPEAKER_01Pingerton, Alan Pingerton, was at her bedside when she died.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I told you you had to do it for her.
SPEAKER_01And he arranged for Kate to be buried in the Pingerton family plot in Chicago at the Graceland Cemetery. Now that's not the Graceland you're thinking of.
SPEAKER_03I was gonna say, what near Elvis? No, he wasn't around then, though, was he?
SPEAKER_01No, and it was also Tennessee, wasn't it? Yeah, but not in Chicago.
SPEAKER_03Okay. That's perhaps where he got the name from.
SPEAKER_01Chicago, Chicago. Well, who got the name from?
SPEAKER_03Elvis.
SPEAKER_01Well, Gracelands was the name of the mansion, wasn't it? He didn't know that. Yeah, that's right.
SPEAKER_03That's where he got the name from.
SPEAKER_01It was already on that called that when he bought it, I think.
SPEAKER_03Hmm. Well that because of it.
SPEAKER_01This isn't about Elvis, for once.
SPEAKER_03Everything's about Elvis.
SPEAKER_01Keep Elvis out of your mouth. So this is the woman who quietly altered the history of the whole world as we know it, as we've already discussed. What a woman.
SPEAKER_03What a woman. It's amazing. That has uh actually is an astounding story because yeah, that was she's got some guts.
SPEAKER_01She had some balls.
SPEAKER_03Didn't she? Yeah. She wouldn't, she was a woman, but yeah, unless she can pretend that she had some balls.
SPEAKER_01I wasn't being literal, you fool.
SPEAKER_03Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01Anyway, thank you, dear listener, for joining us on this travel back through time to hear about the amazing Kate Warren and indeed the Pinkerton Agency, because we did spend a bit of time in their company, didn't we? Yeah. So if you would be so kind as to leave us some feedback, subscribe. That's very important. What would I say, please, Neil?
SPEAKER_03Listen to the next episode of Honorable Mentions.
SPEAKER_01Thank you, Neil. Thank you, listener. And we will see you again next time.
unknownBye.
SPEAKER_01Bye children. Bye, children. Bye.
SPEAKER_00Howdy Sugar. Thank you kindly for being so sweet and listening to this episode of Honorable Mentions. I do declare y'all have no idea how much your support means to the boys. Now, I want all you sweet peaches to leave a five-star review, subscribe, and pester your folks until they all gone done the same. It makes such a difference. You can follow Honorable Mentions on social media and email the boys at honorable mentionspod at gmail.com. But be careful now because that's all one word. Y'all leave your feedback, and if you'd like a good old mention, well, all you gotta do is ask Honey Pie. Honorable Mentions is researched by Stephen Webb. But these boys ain't got the good sense God gave a rock. And they just say whatever comes out. It is an Uncover Brothers production and show enough that their theme they have was written and performed by Pepe and the Bandits. Y'all give in a listen wherever you stream your music and y'all come back now, you hear?
SPEAKER_02Everything tastes better with Nestle Tiptop, pour over topping with a light, creamy taste.
SPEAKER_00Tip top.