


Derst was a lifelong Savannahian, born July 5, 1922, to David Boston Morgan III and Ella Theo Courtenay. Only bold action by a new generation of Pinkerton operatives has any chance of rectifying the past, if they are brave enough to try.Elizabeth (Bettye) Courtenay Morgan Derst, 97, passed away Thursday, Apat home with her beloved family by her side.

But their defiance of Pinkerton’s orders, in a dangerous gambit to save Amanda, only serves to facilitate the Webster’s private war a war sparked long ago by their involvement with a seditious, secret society known as the Knights of the Golden Circle.Īs fate draws Hannah and Jonathan into a final confrontation over divided loyalties and broken allegiances, the deceptions they began in Baltimore more than two decades ago threatens to destroy much more than the lives of two embittered lovers. Intending to blackmail Allan Pinkerton into a prisoner exchange, Jonathan’s abduction scheme prompts Amanda’s fellow agents to take matters into their own hands. But when her estranged husband’s plot for vengeance derails her journey to the States for trial, she faces a far more sinister fate than the hangman’s rope.ĭetermined to make Hannah pay for betraying him, Jonathan Webster kidnaps one of his wife’s guards, operative Amanda Brown. Webster’s recent arrest in Mexico by her former colleagues left her with little hope. Once the protégé and successor of the renowned Pinkerton agent Kate Warne, Hannah Webster was coming home to America in disgrace. That single oversight sowed bitter seeds of destruction and revenge, which would come to fruition twenty years later with the arrest of Hannah Webster. Though he succeeded in preventing a plot to murder the future president, the celebrated spy failed to identify the traitor among his own ranks involved in facilitating the conspiracy.

Hired to safeguard Lincoln and the PW&B Railroad, famed detective Allan Pinkerton launched an undercover operation in and around Baltimore during the weeks prior to Lincoln’s arrival. In 1861, rumors of a conspiracy to assassinate Abraham Lincoln shrouded his inaugural journey to the Capitol in fear and suspicion. ONE BETRAYAL THAT FOREVER CHANGED HISTORY…
