Allan pinkerton

Allan Pinkerton (1819-1884) ─ Chicago detective and founder of a famous American private detective agency. Pinkerton was the son of a police sergeant. After completing apprenticeship to a cooper, he emigrated to the United States in 1842 and settled in Chicago. Moving the next year to the nearby town of Dundee in Kane County, he set up a cooper's shop there. While cutting wood on a desert island one day, he discovered and later captured a gang of counterfeiters.

Following this and other similar achievements, he was appointed deputy sheriff of Cook County in 1846, with headquarters in Chicago. In 1850 Pinkerton resigned from Pinkerton's police in order to organize a private detective agency that specialized in railway theft cases. The Pinkerton National Detective Agency became one of the most famous organizations of its kind. Its successes included capture of the principals in a $ 700,000 Adams Express Company theft in 1866 and the thwarting of an assassination plot against President-elect Lincoln in February in Baltimore.

In 1861, during the Civil War, Pinkerton, under the name E.J Allen, headed an organization whose purpose was to obtain military information in the Southern states. After the Civil War Pinkerton resumed the management of his agency. During the strikes in 1877 the Pinkerton Agency's harsh policy toward labour unions caused it to be severely criticized in labour circles, although Pinkerton asserted he was helping workingmen by opposing labour unions. Pinkerton published his memoirs Thirty Years a Detective in 1884.

Task 1. Answer the following questions:

1. Who was Allan Pinkerton?

2. When did he immigrate to the United States?

3. What achievements caused him to be appointed deputy sheriff of Cook County?

4. Why did Allan Pinkerton resign from police?

5. What cases did Pinkerton’s detective agency specialize in?

6. Was Pinkerton National Detective Agency successful?

7. What were his activities like during the Civil War?

8. Why was Pinkerton Agency severely criticized in 1877?

Task 2. Agree or disagree with the following statements.

1. Pinkerton founded a private detective agency.

2. Pinkerton completed his apprenticeship to a cooper in 1842.

3. Pinkerton set up a cooper's shop in Chicago.

4. Pinkerton found a group of counterfeiters that was hidden on a desert island.

5. Pinkerton was chosen a deputy sheriff.

6. Pinkerton defeated a secret plan to assassin the President.

7. After the Civil War Pinkerton ceased the management of his detective agency.

8. During the strikes of 1877 the Pinkerton Agency's friendly policy toward labor unions was highly appreciated by labor circles.

MAFIA

Mafia is a large organized group of criminals who control many illegal activities especially in Italy and the USA. In the USA the organization had adopted the name Cosa Nostra (Our Affair).

The Mafia arose in Sicily during the Middle Ages, where it possibly began as a secret organization dedicated to overthrowing the rule of the various foreign conquerors of the island. The Mafia owed its origins and drew its members from the many small private armies, or mafie, that were hired by absentee landlords to protect their landed estates from bandits. During the 18th and 19th centuries, the energetic ruffians in these private armies organized themselves and grew so powerful that they turned against the landowners and became the sole law on many of the estates, extorting money from the landowners in return for protecting the latter's crops.

The Mafia's moral code was based on omerta ─ i.e., the obligation never, under any circumstances, to apply for justice to the legal authorities and never to assist in any way in the detection of crimes committed against others. The right to avenge wrongs was reserved for the victims and their families, and to break the code of silence was to incur reprisals from the Mafia.

By about 1900 the various Mafia families controlled most of the economic activities in their respective localities. In the early 1920s Benito Mussolini came close to eliminating the Mafia by arresting and trying thousands of suspected mafiosi and sentencing them to long jail terms. Following World War II, the American occupation authorities released many of the mafiosi from prison, and these men proceeded to revive the organization. The Mafia's activities were directed more to industry, business and construction, as well as the traditional extortion and smuggling. During the late 1970s the Mafia in Palermo became deeply involved in the refining and transportation of heroin for the USA. The enormous profits sparkled fierce competition between various clans within the mafia, and the resulting spate of murders led to a lot of trials in 1987.

Task 1. Answer the following questions:

1. What is origin of the mafia?

2. What was the Mafia's moral code based on? What does the word “omerta” mean?

3. Did Mussolini succeed in eliminating the mafia?

4. When did the American occupation authorities release many of the mafiosi from prison?

5. What are the Mafia's activities directed to?

6. What sparked fierce competition between various Mafia’s clans?

Task 2. Agree or disagree with the following statements.

1. The Mafia governs many legal activities.

2. The Mafia came into existence in Sicily.

3. The Mafia was employed by absentee landlords to protect their landed estates from flying insects.

4. The Mafia usually applied for justice to the legal authorities.

5. The Mafia's members usually broke the code of silence.

6. Mussolini acquitted thousands of suspected Mafiosi sentenced to long jail terms.

7. The Mafia's activities were not directed to business.

8. The Mafia's practice was not addressed to extortion and smuggling.