CBSRMT Episode Information Next Episode

Title

The Pinkerton Method

Plot

The story of the legendary Pinkerton Detective Agency and how they got started with nabbing train robbers with a pursuit in Missouri involving the death of an innocent railway worker.

Episode

0745

Air Dates

  • First Run - November 23, 1977
  • Repeat - April 26, 1978

Actors

Writer

Listen

Rating

50
45     5


2 Responses to Episode 0745

This is an Ian Martin/Lloyd Battista (good guys) Nat Polin/Earl Hammond (bad guys) collaboration that I heard a rerun of back in my original listening days. It's based on the old Pinkerton security/detective agency (now known as Securitas today..."The Securitas method" might have had a ring to it too, I suppose). This is sort of a precursor to today's TV detective shows in that there are a couple of plots going on in the same episode. This one was handled in a sort of "doughnut" fashion...The story starts with Martin and Battista investigating the (apparently true, as E.G. said this was based on Pinkerton case files) Rock Island train robbery near Morris, IL. where a railway employee was killed. They then leave the investigation there temporarily to deal with another robbery in Tennessee. Afterward, they return back to the Morris investigation. Worth a listen...I like all the actors involved (Martin and Battista were fun to listen to together as the Pinkertons) and James Agate, Jr. did a good job of adapting the case files.

Steve Shavers

You never let facts get in the way of a good story, but "The Pinkerton Method" is based on the robbery of a Rock Island express car on March 12, 1886. The brakeman was Harry Schwartz and his accomplice was Newton Watt, an expressman. Kellogg Nichols was the employee of the US Express Company killed in the robbery. The story is fairly true to the facts of the case recorded in the Pinkerton Agency's files.

Brian Hoffman


Leave a comment