America's Sherlock Holmes

Download or read book America's Sherlock Holmes written by William R. Hunt and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2019-04-01 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: William Burns is best known as ‘America’s Sherlock Holmes’ and became director at the Bureau of Investigation, to be immediately followed by J. Edgar Hoover. But before he became director, Burns had a long, highly publicized career as a government detective for the Secret Service, then as the head of the famed Burns International Detective Agency, which he founded after leaving government service. These successes encouraged Burns to start his own agency and he successfully competed with his hated rival, the Pinkerton Detective Agency. He was a public hero for many years (except among labor union men who remembered his questionable tactics in the notorious McNamara case involving the bombing of the Los Angeles Times). But to the general populace, he was a white knight protecting the public interest until he disgraced his government office.