Post Civil War- "Continued Espionage" 1865-1867
After successfully delivering the president elect to the White House, Kate worked on various high profile cases. One of these involved the murder of a bank-teller, George Gordon, in Atkinson, Mississippi. The murderer got away with $130,000. Pinkerton determined that George Gordon was fetching money for a friend or someone who frequented the bank when he was struck on the head behind the ear with a hammer with intent to murder any witnesses of the robbery. Through his investigation, Pinkerton felt certain that his prime suspect, Alexander P. Drysdale had in fact killed Gordon. However, at this point he did not have enough hard evidence to convict Drysdale; too much was still based on speculation. Therefore, he set a trap for Drysdale so that he would reveal a confession. Kate Warne was sent under cover as a Mrs. Potter and became close friends with Mr. Drysdale's wife. Through this plot, they were able to uncover where Drysdale had hidden the stolen money.
Another case for which Kate went undercover was that brought about by a Captain Sumner, who was convinced that both his sister, Mrs. Annie Thayer and a Mr. Pattmore were attempting to poision Mrs. Pattmore and himself. Warne took the name Lucille and took on the role of a pseudo-fortune teller to lure information out of the suspected murderer's confidants. In the meantime, she also continually coordinated Pinkerton's other female detectives in the agency. Pinkerton rented a space for Warne to work as part of her guise.
Allan Pinkerton named Kate Warne one of the five best detectives that he had. Her convincing Pinkerton to employ her was a significant moment in woman's history. Women were not allowed to be a part of the police force until 1891 and could not be detectives until 1903.
Allan Pinkerton specifically thanks two people in his memoirs; Kate Warne and Timothy Webster, a detective who was executed during the Civil War for espionage. Both Warne and Webster were key operatives during the Baltimore Plot investigations. Kate Warne reported back to Pinkerton about all her work when he was away from the office and they worked together on numerous cases during their tenure. Pinkerton constantly showed a deep trust in the work that Warne performed and acknowledges so in his memoirs. She was in charge of the Female Detective Bureau, established by Allan Pinkerton. Her title was Supervisor of Women Agents. Allan Pinkerton said to his female prospective agents:
“In my service you will serve your country better than on the field. I have several female operatives. If you agree to come aboard you will go in training with the head of my female detectives, Kate Warne. She has never let me down (Rinaldi 133).”
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