In 1856, a 23-year-old widow walked into the Pinkerton detective agency in Chicago and demanded to go undercover. Allan Pinkerton assumed she wanted a job as a secretary, but she was responding to an advertisement for a new investigator. She argued that a woman could worm out secrets in places impossible for male operatives to infiltrate. Within five years, this unknown woman would successfully recover thousands in stolen cash, establish a covert ring of female spies, and personally smuggle a disguised President-elect Abraham Lincoln through a deadly assassination plot on the eve of the Civil War.
Breaking the Mold in 1856
When Kate Warne answered the newspaper ad, hiring female detectives was completely unheard of. Warne successfully argued her case: she could befriend the wives of criminal suspects and eavesdrop on unsuspecting men who frequently brag in the presence of ladies. Pinkerton hired her. In 1858, she befriended the wife of an Adams Express Company manager who had embezzled $50,000. Through casual chats, Warne gathered the crucial evidence needed to convict the husband, recovering more than $30,000 of the stolen cash and sending the thief to prison for ten years.
Uncovering the Baltimore Plot
Her most significant assignment arrived in 1861. The Pinkerton agency was hired to investigate secessionist threats on the Maryland railroad, soon realizing the ultimate target was President-elect Abraham Lincoln. Deployed to Baltimore, the New York native adopted a thick southern drawl and transformed into a wealthy socialite named Mrs. Cherry. Infiltrating elite secessionist gatherings, she uncovered a detailed plan to assassinate Lincoln. The conspirators intended to strike during a required mile-long carriage transfer at a train station, using a staged brawl to distract Lincoln’s security before an armed mob surrounded him.
Smuggling a President in Disguise
Warne promptly reported these details to Pinkerton, who corroborated the intelligence and warned a hesitant Lincoln. Taking charge of the escape plan, Warne secured the final car on a midnight train to Washington D.C. She orchestrated Lincoln’s disguise, wrapping him in a heavy coat, giving him a cane, and passing him off to conductors as her invalid brother. Accompanied by Pinkerton, Warne stayed awake the entire night guarding the president-elect, successfully delivering him to the capital unharmed.
A Master of Disguise to the End
Throughout the Civil War, Warne took on numerous aliases to gather military intelligence for Major George McClellan. She operated under names like Lucille, Kitty, and Angie, extracting confessions from murder suspects and foiling poison plots. She also became the head of Pinkerton’s newly formed branch of female operatives. Warne died of pneumonia in 1868 at the age of 38. Allan Pinkerton was by her side. She was buried in the Pinkerton family cemetery plot, where her fading headstone, misspelling her name without an “e”, marks the grave of America’s first female detective.