Pinkerton (detective agency) Anti-Pinkerton Act in 1893, federal law has stated that an "individual employed by the Pinkerton Detective Agency, or similar organization, may not be employed by the Government of the United States or the government of the District of Columbia." In the 1870s, Franklin B. Gowen, then president of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, hired the agency to "investigate" the labor unions in the company's mines. A Pinkerton agent, James McParland, using the alias "James McKenna", infiltrated the Molly Maguires, a 19th-century secret society of mainly Irish-American coal miners, leading to the downfall of the labor organization. The incident inspired Arthur
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (novel) forthcoming in the series." This novel was released in 1998 in Scotland. This novel and the next two in the series were released at one time in the US, in 2002. An adaptation for the screen "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" was made in 2007, directed by Anthony Minghella (who also co-wrote the screenplay), and scripted by Richard Curtis. A series of six programs for television was made jointly by the BBC, HBO and some other production companies. The first was broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC1 television on Easter Sunday 23 March 2008. The novel was adapted