COOL DUDES I ADMIRE: WILLIAM JOHN BURNS

william john burns, known as “america’s sherlock holmes” was a private investigator and law enforcement officer who became famous for his investigative work on various notable incidents. his first big case came from the city of los angeles— they hired him to catch those responsible for the bombing of the los angeles times building on october 1, 1910 which resulted in the deaths of 20 people.

after a lengthy investigation, burn’s son raymond along with police from detroit and chicago arrested jim mcnamara and ortie mcmanigal on april 14, 1911. one month later, john mcnamara (jim’s brother) was arrested in indiana.

Extradited to Los Angeles, the brothers pleaded guilty to murder in the bombing.

the mcnamara’s were high ranking members of the ironworkers union and burns’ INVESTIGATION implicated other members of said union, all the way up to president frank ryan. the union knew of, and approved over 100 bombings between 1905 and 1910.

burns was confirmed as the director of the bureau of INVESTIGATION in 1921. under burns, the bureau shrank in size from 1100 employee to 600. he was responsible for hiring the first female special agents— alaska davidson in 1922, and jessie duckstein in 1923.

After his retirement from the Burns Detective Agency, he moved to Florida where spent the rest of his days publishing detective and mystery stories based off his own personal EXPERIENCES.