Pinkertons, Prostitutes and Spies

Hattie Lawton was a young Pinkerton detective who with her partner, Timothy Webster, spied for the U.S. Secret Service during the Civil War. Working in Richmond, the two posed as husband and wife. A dazzling blonde from New York and a handsome Englishman, both with checkered pasts, they were matched in charm, cunning, duplicity and boldness. Betrayed by their own spymaster, Allan Pinkerton, they fell into the hands of the dictator of Richmond, the notorious General John H. “Hog” Winder. This lively history, scrupulously researched from all available sources, corrects the record on many points and definitively answers the long-standing question of Hattie Lawton’s true identity.

The late John Stewart was the author of nonfiction books on a variety of topics including African states and rulers, Antarctica, the British Empire, Moons of the solar system, Italian movies, Broadway musicals, the British circus, Lord Byron, and the flight of the Confederate government from Richmond. Winner of numerous reference book awards, he lived in West Jefferson, North Carolina.

John Stewart

Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 241
Bibliographic Info: 16 photos, appendices, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2019
pISBN: 978-1-4766-7907-5
eISBN: 978-1-4766-3751-8
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments vi
Prologue: The Trip of a Lifetime 1
Introduction: The Trapping of Hattie Lawton 5
1. One of Mother Fisher’s Children 13
2. The Taking On of Kate Warn 16
3. The Brothers Warn 22
4. My Name Is Timothy Webster 24
5. Bridge Master with a Secret 26
6. The Baltimore Plot 32
7. The End of Mary Ellen Bailey 39
8. Hattie and Tim Join the Secret Service 45
9. The ­India-Rubber Doll 46
10. The First Trip 48
11. The Miller’s Hotel Caper 49
12. The Second Trip 51
13. The Third Trip 54
14. The Fourth Trip 58
15. Lewis and Scully 61
16. The Pryce Lewis “Memoirs” 67
17. The Two Most Inept Spies in the World 70
18. Things Go Horribly Wrong 72
19. That Letter Has Sealed My Fate 76
20. Alone but for Specters 77
21. Mrs. Taylor 79
22. Scully’s Trial 80
23. Pryce Lewis’s Trial 81
24. The Priest, the Consul and a Deal 83
25. The Day They Came for Tim and Hattie 86
26. The Gag Order 90
27. The Trial of Tim 97
28. Post Trial 102
29. The Fatal Day Draws Nigh 104
30. The Morning of the Big Day 107
31. Tim Swings 110
32. Post Gibbet 113
33. The Languishing of Mrs. Timothy Webster 115
34. Hattie Gets Out 124
35. Notre Dame 129
36. Little Johnny and the Lost Cabin Mine 131
37. Post Pike’s Peak Syndrome 133
38. The Death of Kate Warn 135
39. Kate Warn’s Successor 137
40. The Portrait of Kate Warne 138
41. Carrie Lawton 140
42. Gambling Man 151
43. Warn Castle 155
44. The James Gang 156
45. Death by Poppy 156
46. Out on the Old Bozeman Trail 160
47. Three Girls Bonded for Eternity 162
Appendix A: The Warn Family 169
Appendix B: George Warn at Notre Dame 171
Appendix C: H.H.L. 173
Appendix D: Online 176
Chapter Notes 181
Bibliography 220
Index 227