Thiel Detective Service Company

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The Thiel Detective Service Company was a private detective agency formed by George H. Thiel, a former Civil War spy and Pinkerton employee.

The Thiel Detective Service Company headquarters were in St. Louis, Missouri. The company was formed to be a direct competitor to the Pinkerton Detective Agency, but never achieved this status. The William Burns International Detective Agency was Pinkerton's largest competitor.

The agency was involved in infiltrating and breaking a number of labor union strikes in the United States and Canada, much as the Pinkerton agency was. After the Homestead Strike, the Thiel Detective Agency, along with the Illinois Detective Agency, U.S. Detective Agency, and Mooney and Boland's Detective Agency were investigated by both chambeers of the United States Congress.

One of the company's first employees was John F. Farley, a former U.S. Cavalry trooper. In 1885, Farley was appointed manager of Thiel's Denver office. Farley was known as the 'King of the Strikebreakers.' In 1895 Farley gave up any pretense of detective work and specialized in strike services, at one point allegedly earning $1 million from a strike in San Francisco. After a decade of strikebreaking, Farley retired—not having lost a single one of the 35 strike actions to which he had supplied personnel. Farley later became Denver's chief of police.

[edit] References

• Dorich, Thomas J. 'This is a tough place to work: Industrial relations in the Jerome Mines, 1900-1922.' Journal of Arizona History. 38 (Autumn 1997): 233-256.
• Morn, Frank. The Eye That Never Sleeps: A History of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1982. ISBN 0-253-32086-0
• Norwood, Stephen H. Strikebreaking and Intimidation: Mercenaries and Masculinity in Twentieth-Century America. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002. ISBN 0-8078-5373-9
• Weiss, Robert P. 'Private detective agencies and labour discipline in the United States, 1855-1946.' Historical Journal. 29:1 (March 1986), pp. 87-107.