[Gutenberg 58576] • Fifty Years a Detective: 35 Real Detective Stories

Thomas Furlong (1844-1918) was a Civil War Union veteran, detective, chief of police, and founder of the Furlong Secret Service Company. Mr. Furlong was well known as Chief of the Secret Service of the Missouri Pacific Railway, and his book contains thirty-five detective stories, stories of real detective work done by the author in the long period during which he did excellent work. The author is a famous railroad detective who stopped chasing thieves long enough to recount some of his greatest cases.

Furlong writes: "I am today, I believe, the oldest detective, in point of continuous service, in this or any other country. During my long career I have handled many important cases, of which the reading public knows nothing about---for the reason that the men, or corporations, by whom I was employed, did not hire me for the purpose of furnishing newspapers with the material with which to amuse or entertain their readers. Within these pages I tell how the work was done, and how the clues were found and put together. On the other hand, many cases referred to in this book have received much newspaper publicity, but in these articles the writers were not permitted to tell all the inside facts— how the work was really accomplished. These facts are made public for the first time."