Creative Tuesdays - Spy

For today's Creative Tuesdays, I briefly illustrate the case of the Pinkertons, one of the most famous private detective/goverment security firms, still active to this day, at one point as a branch of the Swedish company Securitas, and now seems to be Pinkerton again.

Famous for allegedly thwarting an attack on president Lincoln (alas, the one before the theatre), the Pinkertons were also famous for bringing many Wild Wild West outlaws to justice, and reputedly were the ones who came up with the idea of mugshots - collecting a database of images of 'undesirables' of all stripes so as to help law enforcement efforts later on. Their logo was "we never sleep".

Their bread and butter, however, was as hired guns to the Carnegies and other deep-pocket railroad barons and industrialists so as to protect their vast interests against those evil greedy rowdy little factory workers who were producing all the stuff that made them rich. How dare they request a livable wage and non-hazardous working environment? Yes, shocking. In any event, the firm found plenty to do in busting up Unions all over the U.S., when not busy hunting down train robbers and rescuing rich old ladies' fancy necklaces.

I first became interested in the Pinkertons after watching Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid for the first time (not a stellar script, but INCREDIBLE cinematography, as well as amusing to see Redford and Newman strutting about in their prime)

Then, they showed up again after reading The Devil in the White City, which tells the story of the ghoulish H H Holmes - they were the firm that finally brought the fiend to justice.

All in all, a busy lot - 'we never sleep' seems a well-earned name.

When the SPY theme appeared, it seemed as good a time as any to look them up.

Bee stuck in front of the computer for a few days working on some projects and this seemed a good break in any event. Collage above done with multilayers in Photoshop.