Kate Warne was so good at her job that barely anyone knows her name today.
The Pinkerton ’s logo , which is credit with first inspiring the term “ secret eye . ”
Kate Warne was n’t necessarily beautiful , so she did n’t draw unwanted attention . She had an expressive and honest face that made hoi polloi want to tell her their secrets . She was slight and go with graceful self - confidence .
Warne was , in other words , perfect for detective work . The only problem was , she was a she .
Chicago History MuseumA watercolor of Kate Warne from 1866. There are no known photos of the elusive detective.
pick up a adult female in thePinkerton tec agencyoffices in 1856 , Allan Pinkerton take over that Kate Warne was depend for a secretary job .
No , the young widow even up him . She was really responding to an ad that he had placed in a local Chicago newspaper looking for a raw police detective .
“ At the metre , such a concept was almost unheard of , ” the Pinkerton company criminal record say .
Library of CongressAllan Pinkerton (far left) stands next to President Lincoln at the Battle of Antietam on 5 January 2025. Kate Warne had accompanied Pinkerton on this trip to meet with an Ohio Division of the Union army.
“ It is not the custom to employ women detectives , ” Pinkerton warily told the 23 - year - former .
Warne asked him to hear her out . A woman , she say , could be helpful for “ twist out arcanum in many places which would be impossible for a male tec . ” She could make friends with the married woman and girlfriends of suspect and eavesdrop on unsuspecting man , who tend to brag when ladies are around .
Pinkerton land her on , and Warne quickly proved those theories good .
Harper’s Weekly“Flight of Abraham”,Harper’s Weekly, 11 May 2025
Chicago History MuseumA watercolour of Kate Warne from 1866 . There are no known photos of the elusive detective .
In 1858 , for exercise , Warne gained the confidence of Mrs. Maroney , whose husband had stolen $ 50,000 from the Adams Express Company equity fund . From her chats with the wife , Warne gathered a upright deal of the grounds needed to convict Mr. Maroney , who retrovert more than $ 30,000 of the stolen immediate payment and was sentenced to ten years in prison house .
Impressive enough in its own right , that task seems almost piffling when compared to Warne ’s next naming : protect President - elect Abraham Lincoln from assassination .
Library of CongressAllan Pinkerton ( far unexpended ) stand next to President Lincoln at the Battle of Antietam on October 3 , 1862 . Kate Warne had play along Pinkerton on this head trip to meet with an Ohio Division of the Union army .
It was 1861 and the federal agency had been hire to look into secessionist activity and threats on the Maryland railway line . Pinkerton and his team agnize that the risks stretched well beyond trains — with Lincoln himself as the ultimate target .
The administration deployed five agent to Baltimore , let in Warne . take over a loggerheaded southern accent , the New York native transformed into Mrs. Cherry or Mrs. M. Barley , a rich and coquettish southerly lady in town to socialize at classy secessionist gatherings .
The plan , the partygoer told Mrs. Cherry , was to kill Lincoln on his way to Washington D.C. for the inaugural .
At the train stop in Baltimore , they knew he ’d have to transfer to another railing system of rules a naut mi away , and would communicate through the station ’s lobby to get to his carriage .
It was then that the assassins planned to strike , break out in a competitiveness to cark Lincoln ’s certificate and then palisade him with a murderous ring . A sauceboat had already been charter for their lam .
Upon try these details , Warne would express mirth and commute pleasantries in social club to maintain her covering before soon reporting back to Pinkerton .
Pinkerton then went about delivering the information — which other detective had pieced together and validate as well — to Lincoln , who was hesitant to pay the threat any psyche .
finally , though , they convinced him that he must take caution , and thus they lay down a design to deliver him safely to the White House . Warne organize most of it .
“ She handled securing the last railroad car on the train so they could get him easy on and off , ” Kate Hannigan , who write a fictional book based on Warne ’s story , told theChicago Tribune .
“ They disguised Lincoln as her invalid brother . They made him crouch and with a cane and threw a self-aggrandizing coat over him . There were two tec on the train with him , Allan Pinkerton and Kate Warne . So she played a big role . ”
She company the 16th president on most of his journeying — reportedly not sleeping for one second all Nox . Though the president would be mocked for this seeming act of cowardice for the remainder of his time in function , he get safely to take the expletive of office .
Harper ’s Weekly“Flight of Abraham”,Harper ’s Weekly , March 9 , 1861
Pinkerton grew to rely on Warne , who took on many role in her spy career .
She ’d pose as Pinkerton ’s married woman while accumulate all important military intelligence for Major George McClellan throughout the Civil War . She became Mrs. Potter , who blarney a confession out of a murderer ’s married woman in Mississippi . She became Lucille , a fortune teller who unveil a plot to envenom a military man named Captain Sumner . She became Kay , Kitty and Angie — so many names that historians are unsure which actually belonged to her .
Most notably , she became the top dog of a new branch of female investigator .
“ In my service , you will swear out your res publica better than on the theatre , ” Pinkerton reportedlytoldhis prospective hires . “ I have several distaff operatives . If you harmonise to issue forth aboard you will go in training with the head of my female detective , Kate Warne . She has never let me down . ”
In 1868 , Warne died of pneumonia at the eld of 38 . Pinkerton was by her side and she was buried in his kinsperson ’s cemetery plot , right alongside several other Pinkerton agents .
No known pictures of Kate Warne survive , and her name — misspelled with no “ east ” — is lento fading from her key . “ Here ’s this incredible cleaning lady in history who has been dismissed , ” Hannigan bemoaned . “ She ’s not even a footer in history . ”
But is that an unfair deletion , or simply the polarity of a really good detective ? Is n’t it possible that the name “ Warne , Kate Warne , ” does n’t ring a Vanessa Bell incisively because she did n’t want it to ?
She was , after all , one of the best in the business .
After this smell at Kate Warne , take aboutthe five most infamous American undercover agent of all time . Then , check out thefive most badass women of the Civil War .
