Charlie Siringo
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Charlie Siringo (February 7th, 1855-October 18th, 1928) was an author, lawman, and famous detective and agent for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency during the late 19th century and early 20th century.
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[edit] Early life
Siringo was born in Matagorda County, Texas to an Irish immigrant mother and an Italian immigrant father. He attended public school until reaching the age of 15, when he started working on local ranches as a cowboy. In March, April and May of 1877, Siringo was in Dodge City, Kansas. It was during this period that he witnessed an incident involving gunman Clay Allison and Wyatt Earp, Earp being the Dodge City Marshal at the time. Earp later claimed, after Allison's death in 1887, that he and Bat Masterson had forced Allison to back down from an impending confrontation. Siringo, however, later gave a written account of that incident which contradicted Earp's claim, stating that Earp never came into contact with Allison, and that two businessmen in Dodge City actually defused the situation.
After taking part in several cattle drives, he left that life to become a businessman, and married in 1884, opening a merchant business in Caldwell, Kansas. He began writing a book, entitled "A Texas Cowboy; Or Fifteen Years on the Hurricane Deck of a Spanish Pony". A year later, it was published, to wide acclaim, and became one of the first true looks into life as a cowboy written by someone who had actually lived that life.
[edit] Detective career
In 1886, bored with the businessman lifestyle, Siringo moved to Chicago and joined the Pinkerton Detective Agency. He used gunman Pat Garrett's name as a reference to get the job, having met Garrett several years before. He was immediately assigned several cases, which took him as far north as Alaska, and as far south as Mexico City. He began operating undercover, a relatively new technique at the time, and infiltrated gangs of robbers and rustlers, making over one hundred arrests. [1]
In the early 1890s he found himself assigned to office work, which he greatly despised, working out of the Denver office. During that time, he worked with noted Pinkerton agent, gunman, and later assassin Tom Horn. He greatly admired Horn's talents and skills in tracking down suspects, but reflected later that Horn had a dark side that could easily be accessed when need be.
In 1892, Siringo was assigned to a case in Idaho, where he worked undercover to get information against corrupt labour union officials. Despite his despising the labour union officials, he stood against a lynch mob to protect attorney Clarence Darrow from being hanged during that assignment.
In the late 1890's, posing as "Charles L. Carter", an alleged gunman on the run from the law for a murder, he infiltrated outlaw Butch Cassidy's Train Robbers Syndicate. For over a year, using information he would gather, he severely hampered the operations of Cassidy's Wild Bunch gang, but without a large number of arrests. After they committed the now famous Wilcox Train Robbery, in which they robbed a Union Pacific train, he again found himself assigned to capture the Wild Bunch. [2] On that case, Siringo often coordinated with Tom Horn, who was by that time working for large cattle companies as a killer for hire, but who also was retained by the Pinkerton Agency on contract to assist in the robbery investigation. Horn was able to obtain vital information from explosives expert Bill Speck that revealed to investigators who the suspects were who had killed Sheriff Josiah Hazen, who had been shot and killed during the pursuit of the robbers. [3]
Several members of the gang were captured as a result of information Siringo gathered, to include the capture of Kid Curry, who escaped but was again cornered and killed during a shootout with law enforcement in Colorado. It was on Siringo's information that he was tracked down both times. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid both fled to Bolivia, feeling their luck was running out in America. They were later allegedly killed in a shootout there during a robbery attempt by Bolivian soldiers. During the work on the Wilcox Train Robbery, he first came into contact with lawman Joe Lefors, who later would arrest Tom Horn for a murder that Horn has since been largely vindicated for. Siringo crossed paths with Lefors several years later while working cases. Siringo found Lefors incompetent, at best, and greatly despised him.
Siringo retired in 1907, and began writing another book, entitled "Pinkerton's Cowboy Detective". The Pinkerton Detective Agency held up publication for two years, feeling it violated their confidentiality agreement signed by Siringo when he was hired, and objecting to the use of their name. Siringo gave in, and deleted their name from the book title, instead writing two separate books, entitled "A Cowboy Detective" and "Further Adventures of a Cowboy Detective". [4]
In 1915, Siringo wrote another book, entitled "Two Evil Isms: Pinkertonism and Anrchism". Again, the Pinkerton Agency blocked publication, and also this time attempted to have Siringo prosecuted for libel, asking that he be extradited from his ranch in Santa Fe, New Mexico to Chicago. However, the New Mexico governor denied the extradition request.
In 1916, Siringo began working as a New Mexico Ranger to assist in the capture of numerous rustlers causing problems in the area, holding that position until 1918. His health had began to fail, and his ranch was failing due to his having been away for some time. he moved to Los Angeles, where he became somewhat of a celebrity due to his well publicised exploits. In 1927 he released another book, "Riata and Spurs", a composite of his first two autobiographies. The Pinkerton Agency again halted publication, resulting in a whittled down and revised copy being released the following year, with many fictional accounts rather than the true accounts that Siringo had envisioned.
[edit] Death
Siringo died in Altadena, California on October 18th, 1928. He remains one of the first examples in the use of undercover work in the capture of fugitives.
[edit] Books by Charles Siringo
- Siringo, Charles A. A Texas Cowboy: or, Fifteen Years on the Hurricane Deck of a Spanish Pony. Ed. by Richard Etulain. New York: Penguin Books, 2000. ISBN 0140437517
- Siringo, Charles A. A Cowboy Detective. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2006. ISBN 0803291892
- Siringo, Charles A. and Gifford Pinchot. Riata And Spurs The Story Of A Lifetime Spent In The Saddle As Cowboy And Ranger. Kessinger Publishing, 2004. ISBN 1417910674
[edit] Further reading
- Peavy, Charels D. Charles A. Siringo: A Texas picaro. Steck-Vaughn Co, 1967.
- Pingenot, Ben E. Siringo: The True Story of Charles A. Siringo, Texas Cowboy, Longhorn Trail Driver, Private Detective, Rancher, New Mexico Ranger and Author. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press, 1989. ISBN 0890963819
