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
William J. Burns International Detective Agency William J. Burns International Detective Agency The William J. Burns International Detective Agency was a private detective agency in the United States, which was operated by William J. Burns. It was headquartered in Briarcliff Manor, New York from 1969 to 1983. The Burns Agency was hired to track down Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) organizers in the aftermath of the Wheatland Hop Riot. Burns agents infiltrated the Industrial Workers of the World during an organizing drive in the copper mines of Arizona. Activities included issuing fake IWW membership cards, infiltrating the workforce, spying, and intercepting the mail of organizers.