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Kate Warne

kevinburtonsmith

America’s First Female Private Detective is Having a Moment…

Angus Macfadyen as Allan Pinkerton, Martha MacIsaac as Kate Warne and Jacob Blair as Will Pinkerton, in the 2014-15 TV show, The Pinkertons.

“Women have an eye for detail and are excellent observers.”
— Kate Warne

KATE WARNE is having a moment. Or two…

It seems to have started somewhere in the late 2000s, as more and more information about this little-known historical figure trickled out, and her fictionalized adventures have been popping up ever since. Given the multi-media onslaught, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to remember that KATE WARNE (1823-68) was a real person, and not some licensed creature from the Marvel Universe.

But she most definitely was.

Real, I mean.

An operative for the Pinkerton Detective Agency in its early years, hired by Allan J. Pinkerton himself, she’s frequently referred to as “America’s first female detective.”

She was born in 1833 in Erin, New York and, finding herself a widow at twenty-three, applied for a position at the Pinkerton Detective Agency’s offices in Chicago in 1856. Not as a secretary, though, as Pinkerton assumed, but for the position of detective, in response to a newspaper ad.

For men.

Pinkerton was initially reluctant, but Warne, according to the CrimeReads essay, “Pinkerton Spy, Feminist Icon” made a very convincing argument, noting that women could be “most useful in worming out secrets in many places which would be impossible for a male detective” and that as a woman, she could more easily befriend the wives and girlfriends of suspects, gaining their confidence, adding that men often brag around women and that women have a better eye for detail and observation. Pinkerton, who later described her as “a commanding person” whose intellectual and honest features made her seem like a good confidante, hired Warne (then only twenty-three), making her the first female detective in the U.S.

In the “Murderer and the Fortune Teller” (1875), included in one of his numerous “memoirs,” Pinkerton describes his choice to hire Kate Warne:

“Previous to the early part of 1855, I had never regularly employed any female detectives… My first experience with them was due to Mrs. Kate Warne, an intelligent, brilliant, and accomplished lady. She offered her services to me in the early spring of that year, and, in spite of the novelty of her proposition, I determined to give her a trial. She soon showed such tact, readiness of resource, ability to read character, intuitive perception of motives, and rare discretion, that I created a female department in the agency, and made Mrs. Warne the superintendent thereof.”

Within a few years of hiring her, Warne had so impressed Pinkerton that he established a Female Detective Bureau in 1860, with Warne in charge.

She was particularly adept at nailing embezzlers, but the start of the Civil War saw Kate’s duties morphing from detective to spy on behalf of the Union, even as she continued to manage the Female Detective Bureau. Utilizing assorted aliases and identities (a southern belle was a favorite), she successfully gathered intelligence in both the North and South, and was instrumental in uncovering an early assassination plot targeting President Abraham Lincoln.

Warne survived the war and continued to be a valued senior member of Pinkerton’s agency, and her future looked very bright indeed. Until she contracted a lung infection and succumbed in January of 1868. She was only in her thirties.

* * * * *

And from there, Warne seemed to pretty much vanish from the history books, a minor footnote forgotten for 150 years or so. In the new millennium, however, as more and more information about this intriguing historical figure (and early feminist hero) was brought to light, it seemed only natural that someone would eventually use the real life detective as the basis for a novel.

And boy, did they.

Warne first appeared in fiction (not counting Pinkerton’s countless truth-stretching “memoirs”), as far as I can tell, in Pinkerton’s Secret (2008) by Eric Lerner, which imagined a steamy affair between Pinkerton himself and his pretty young operative, as well as a secret alliance with abolitionist John Brown at the outbreak of the Civil War.

But this wouldn’t be the last time Warne was fictionalized. In the next few years, there were a slew of offerings.

In 2017’s  Girl in Disguise, author Greer Macallister presented her version of the determined young widow trying to scrape by on the mean streets of 1850s Chicago, before convincing Pinkerton to hire her. Soon Warne finds herself right in the thick of things, one of the key players in the early days of the agency, with a penchant for undercover work.

The same year saw the launch of two  independently published titles, dubbed “The Civil War Spy Series,” by Peg A. Lamphier. Both The Lincoln Special and The Great Show took considerable liberties with Warne’s history (an elephant adorns one cover), but the author’s enthusiasm can’t be denied. Rebel Belles (2018) and Iron Widow (2019) have followed.

Kate Warne’s Sister is Missing (2022, by J.A. Schneider) has Warne hunting for her beloved sister Saskia in the opium dens and secret tunnels of New York City’s Chinatown.

Meanwhile, Warne being such an obvious early feminist hero meant there would be books aimed at kids (and more specifically, young girls). 2015 saw the release of The Detective’s Assistant by Kate Hannigan, a high-spirited romp aimed at kids aged from eight to twelve, featuring plucky eleven year-old Nell, who’s taken in by her Aunt Kate–and promptly gets drawn into Kate’s cases.

How Kate Warne Saved President Lincoln by Elizabeth Van Steenwyk, a storybook with illustrations by Valentina Belloni followed in 2016. Subtitled “The Story Behind the Nation’s First Woman Detective,” it was aimed at slightly younger readers.

The following year, Kate Warne, Pinkerton Detective (2017) by Marissa Moss and illustrated by April Chu, was published, aimed at more or less the same age group. Another picture book, but both books are actually pretty good.

In fact, all three books are kinda charming, and despite the fact that they’re mostly well-intended fiction, they show flashes of more actual research (and read better) than some of the po-faced, quickie “non-fiction” cut-and-paste indie jobs aimed at adults. Moss’ book even boasts a bibliography–something a few of the non-fiction tomes seem to be curiously lacking.

2021 even saw the publication of a graphic novel, Better Angels,  written by Jeff Jensen, with art by George Schall, that detailed Kate’s part in saving Lincoln from assassination.

There’s no doubt that Warne  has become a hot property in the new millennium. Besides the glut of novels, there were also several non-fiction accounts of her escapades, mostly brief recaps and some of them more than a little dubious, betraying little actual research beyond cutting and pasting (and more than a little fudging).

A syndicated, mild-mannered television show, The Pinkertons, made its debut in 2014, and although it only lasted a season, Warne (played by Martha MacIsaac) was definitely the star, working cases alongside Allan J.  himself, along with his hunky, fast-drawing son, Will. It was more shoot ’em up western than detective show, though, aimed mostly at viewers still ticked off that Gunsmoke went off the air 400 years ago.

And as recently as 2023, there was been talk of an Amazon Prime series starring Emily Blunt as Warne, to be directed by Jaume “Black Adam” Collet-Serra from a script by from script by Melissa Stack. Producers included Blunt and Dwayne Johnson.

In 2024, The Widow Spy by Megan Campisi came out, another novel set during the early days of the Civil War. It has Warne capturing socialite and  Confederate spy, Rose Greenhow, and tries to turn her — the only problem being that it’s not clear who’s zooming who, as the Pinkerton Op has secrets of her own to hide.

And I’m not even going to mention any of the novels featuring female detectives clearly “inspired” by Kate Warne over the last decade or so.

Somebody ought to do a list…

    

NOVELS

CHILDREN’S BOOKS

GRAPHIC NOVELS

  • BETTER ANGELS: A KATE WARNE ADVENTURE (2021) | Buy this book  | Kindle it!
    Written by     Jeff Jensen
    Art by George Schall
    Well-received story of Kate’s part in saving Lincoln from assassination, gathering praise from Jeff Lemire, Alex Segura,  Matt Kindt, and Gillian Flynn.

NON-FICTION

  • Pinkerton’s Belle – Kate Warne, America’s First Female Detective (2013; by Eve Stephenson) | Kindle it!
  • Pinkerton’s First Lady: Kate Warne – United States First Female Detective (2014;  John Derrig) | Buy this book

TELEVISION

    • SEASON ONE
    • Kansas City” (October 4, 2014)
    • Double Shot” (October 11, 2014)
    • The Play’s the Thing” (October 18, 2014)
    • The Fourth Man” (October 25, 2014)
    • The Hero of Liberty Gap” (November 8, 2014)
    • Lines of Betrayal” (November 22, 2014)
    • The Case of the Dead Dog” (January 17, 2015)
    • To the Sunset” (January 24, 2015)
    • In Marm’s Way” (January 31, 2015)
    • The Sweet Science” (February 7, 2015)
    •  The Devil’s Trade” (February 14, 2015)
    • Reunion” (February 21, 2015)
    • Frontier Desperados” (February 28, 2015)
    • Old Pap” (March 7, 2015)
    • On Account of Huckleberries” (March 14, 2015)
    • Mudd and Clay” (April 11, 2015)
    • Forever Free” (April 18, 2015)
    • Think of the Children” (April 25, 2015)
    • Murder on the Western Express” (May 2, 2015)
    • Review” (May 9, 2015)
    •  The Better Angels of Our Nature” (May 16, 2015)
    •  To the Death” (May 23, 2015)

FURTHER INVESTIGATION

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.

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