10 Weirdest Deaths In History

Yes, THAT Pinkerton. "Agents Andrew Milton and Edgar Ross" Pinkerton. "We worked with Micah Bell to destabilize the Van der Linde Gang" Pinkerton. "Booker DeWitt from Bioshock Infinite" Pinkerton.

Initially, Scottish immigrant Allan Pinkerton worked with abolitionist leaders in Chicago, and his cabin became a stop on the Underground Railroad. He founded what would become the Pinkerton National Detective Agency in 1850. He was an associate of notable abolitionists like John Brown, Frederick Douglass, and Henry O. Wagoner. During the Civil War, he served as the head of the Union Intelligence Service, and he went on several undercover missions, posing as a Confederate soldier.

Unfortunately, his agency would go on to garner a reputation for strikebreaking and militaristic anti-union violence.

The man led a colorful, storied life. One would probably assume that he died in the Civil War, or in a shootout with some train robbers, but no. While there are conflicting accounts of his death (some historians say he died of a stroke or that he had malaria), this is the most widely-accepted story:

At the age of 64, Allan Pinkerton slipped on the pavement, fell, and bit his tongue. The bite got infected, and that infection became gangrenous. He eventually succumbed to his gangrene, dying on July 1, 1884.