The Big Hill Trading Company was run by Scott Mathis, who
was a guardian of Anna and Lizzie. Credit 18Unlike Sherlock Holmes, though, Burns had rigged juries, and
allegedly kidnapped a suspect, and he routinely used the sordid
techniques of imperial spies. After being caught breaking in to a
New York law office in an attempt to steal evidence, he said that
such methods were sometimes needed to prove a conspiracy and
that such lines had been crossed “a thousand times” by private
investigators. Burns perfectly embodied the new profession.
The private detective William J. Burns Credit 19That summer, the team of operatives hired by Mathis began to
infiltrate Osage County. Each agent identified himself, in his daily