Podcast
American History Tellers
It features the detective, The Continental Op, working for a supervisor who was inspired by James McParland, who was known as "Pontius Pilate" by fellow Pinkerton agents for assigning suicide missions.
In his first novel, Red Harvest, The Continental Op worked for a supervisor referred to as just the old man, someone who had no more warmth in him than a hangman's rope. It was James McParland, who di...
— Episode: The Pinkerton Detective Agency | The Pub...
Episode: The Pinkerton Detective Agency | The Public Eye |...
It features the detective, The Continental Op, working for a supervisor who was inspired by James McParland, who was known as "Pontius Pilate" by fellow Pinkerton agents for assigning suicide missions.
In his first novel, Red Harvest, The Continental Op worked for a supervisor referred to as just the old man, someone who had no more warmth in him than a hangman's rope. It was James McParland, who died in 1919, that was the inspiration for the old man.
In Hammett's words, the fictional McParlant could spit icicles in July and was known among agents as Pontius Pilate for sending his men out to be crucified on suicide missions.