03180cam a22003733u 4500 77835 UtSlPG 20260610134814.0 m cr n 260607r20261912utu|||||o|||||||||||||| d 13001057 UtSlPG en iso639-1 F590.3 Siringo, Charles A., 1855-1928 A cowboy detective Salt Lake City, UT : Project Gutenberg, 2026 1 online resource : multiple file formats text txt rdacontent computer c rdamedia online resource cr rdacarrier Release date is 2026-02-02 deaurider and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) "A cowboy detective" by Charles A. Siringo is a memoir written in the early 20th century. It traces a cowboy-turned-operative through decades of undercover work with a prominent detective agency across the American West and beyond, recounting labor strife, mine wars, train robberies, and outlaw hunting in a blunt, plainspoken style. The opening of the memoir sets a factual, unvarnished tone: a preface explains delays due to former employers’ objections and the use of some fictitious names, stressing that these are true adventures, not fiction. Siringo sketches his Texas cowboy youth, his proximity to the Chicago Haymarket riot, a fortuitous push toward detective work (via a blind phrenologist and a bank introduction), a brief jailing after a circus fracas, and his first cases—including the anarchist trials, Irish National League surveillance, and city “shadowing”—before moving to Denver. He then recounts infiltrating an armed uprising in Colorado’s Archuleta County (narrowly escaping a lynching and defusing a planned massacre), pursuing a Wells Fargo thief through Mexico (with vivid asides on earthquakes, bullfights, and a relic grabbed from Santa Anna’s grave), and seizing the Bassick mine against a threatened mob. Further early episodes include probing a Ute “war” he deems a murder spree, riding incognito as “Dull Knife” in a Denver cowboy tournament, and penetrating a Wyoming outlaw camp by faking a crippling injury to learn the fate of a condemned killer; grand-jury indictments follow, later undercut by local politics. The excerpt closes as he embeds himself—shackled as a “prisoner”—among Denver & Rio Grande holdup suspects in a Gunnison jail, using close confinement to pry loose confessions amid grim reminders of past inmates. (This is an automatically generated summary.) Originally published: Chicago: W. B. Conkey Company, 1912 Frontier and pioneer life -- West (U.S.) Crime -- West (U.S.) Siringo, Charles A., 1855-1928 Pinkerton's National Detective Agency Private investigators -- United States -- Biography https://archive.org/details/cowboydetectivet00siririch https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77835 118555 118555