How the First Female Detective Helped Stop a Plot to Assassinate President-Elect Abraham Lincoln
By Meredith Francis
Women and the Law,
August 2026
In 1856, a young widow walked into the Chicago offices of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency looking for work. The job she wanted didn’t yet exist—that is, not for women. But Kate Warne would change that when she became the nation’s first female detective, later playing a key role in foiling an apparent assassination plot against president-elect Abraham Lincoln.
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