5 Sleuths who Paved the Way for True Detective

These five real-life detectives deserve their own TV shows.

Ever since the first airing of “The Long Bright Dark” — the inaugural episode of HBO’s True Detective— viewers have been captivated by chain-smoking, haunted Detective Rust Cohle (brought to life by Matthew Mcconaughey) and Marty Hart, his deeply flawed yet all-American partner in law enforcement (played by Woody Harrelson). Also bewitching is the backdrop of Louisiana scenery; as the detectives roll down deep-south roads, swampy vistas and decaying homes seem to become living characters in their own right.

The second season has fallen short by many measures, failing to deliver the high tension that initially hooked audiences.

Jonesing for another batch of riveting whodunit storylines? We urge you to tear your eyes from the screen and take a look back in time. Below, we explore the legacies of five real-life sleuths who deserve their own television series.

Allan Pinkerton (1819 – 1884)

Before there was a Federal Bureau of Investigation, there was the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. The national network of private eyes was founded and run by America's premier detective, Allan Pinkerton.

After emigrating from Scotland in 1842, Pinkerton became the first detective in Chicago. At the time, Chicago was shaping up to be the nation’s main railroad hub. Pinkerton specialized in solving train robberies and providing security on trains and in rail yards.

When Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860, there was no Secret Service to protect him. Instead, the railroad system was tasked with keeping him safe as he traveled from Illinois to Washington D.C., for his inauguration. Pinkerton's agents caught wind of a potential assassination plot that was planned to take place in Baltimore.

Under the cover of night, the team moved President Lincoln's railroad carriage inconspicuously through the city by horses. Once they were safely through Baltimore, Pinkerton sent a cryptic telegram to the railroad's headquarters: "Plums delivered nuts safely." In return for his wily service, he went on to become the head of the Union Intelligence Service during the Civil War.

After the war, it only made sense that he'd return to the railroads he'd worked to protect. He spent his days pursuing train robbers such as the Reno Gang and the James-Younger Gang, and became obsessed with one criminal in particular — Jesse James, an outlaw known for robbing trains and stagecoaches. The pursuit turned violent when several agents and a deputy sheriff were murdered by the gang. A fiery raid on the James family homestead followed, leaving Jesse James' younger half brother dead and his mother severely wounded. Ironically, James was killed in the end by a member of his own crew.

Pinkerton died in 1884 at the age of 64. The agency he left behind still exists and offers investigation and security services to businesses under the name Pinkerton.

Kate Warne (1833 – 1868)

Kate Warne was young — just 23 — when she answered one of Allan Pinkerton's ads for detectives in Chicago. He initially thought she was applying for a clerical job, but Warne, a somewhat mysterious person who claimed to be widowed, was determined to become a detective. She convinced Pinkerton that, as a woman, she could befriend and gain the trust of criminals' wives and girlfriends, gaining entry to situations male detectives couldn't. Pinkerton was won over and hired her as the first female detective in the United States in 1856.

Warne’s name began mutating with each new assignment. She became known to various parties as Kate Waren, Kitty Warne, Kittie Warren ... and the list goes on. Throughout her career she continuously proved her savvy, helping to worm out secrets and capture spies, embezzlers and murderers.

After the Civil War, Pinkerton made Warne the head of his Female Detective Bureau. Sadly, she contracted pneumonia and died in January 1868 at the age of 38. Pinkerton stayed by her until the end and remarked in his memoirs that she was one of the best detectives he ever worked with.

Co-written by John Maxwell and Halley Burns