The Reno Gang: The Most Daring Band of Train Robbers

[Music] so [Music] there are a number of famous outlaws of the american wild west some whose names have become famous because of portrayals in popular media but some of the most famous the james younger gang billy the kid sam bass were said to be inspired by a brazen gang of indiana brothers whose names are not nearly as well known and whose extraordinary criminal careers were punctuated by a daring act of larceny 155 years ago today on october 6 1866 the first peacetime train robbery in united states history the rise and rather precipitous fall of the reno gang deserves to be remembered james reno moved his family to indiana from kentucky in 1813 bringing with him his son jay wilkerson reno while we may not today think of indiana as the wild west tiny rockford in rural jackson county was as much a frontier town in its time as dodge city or tombstone still rockford was the terminus of the jefferson madison and indianapolis railroad and featured a gristmill a post office a masonic lodge and a newspaper wilkerson married in 1835 and between 1837 and 1851 he and his wife had five sons franklin john simeon william and clinton and a daughter laura the children were raised in a strict religious methodist family where they read the bible every day and yet seem to have by and large rebelled against that upbringing in his autobiography john noted the jealousy of the children of the religious family had for other children most of the other boys in the neighborhood although kept close at work during the week had sunday for their holiday and we were pinned up and compelled to read the sunday school papers we could see them going by our house on the way to the river and we ate to be with them the gospel lesson was sure to fall on barren soil john described the children as avoiding their parents restrictions saying we did not hesitate to deceive them whenever we were out of their sight even in the rare moments that their parents did allow them free time they still broke the rules john wrote that when the boys were old enough to work on the farm their father allowed them saturday afternoon in which they were at liberty to go fishing hunting or to amuse ourselves in any way not forbidden by the law or the ten commandments and those we forgot whenever we were out of our parents site still junk intended they were not unkind to us in other ways but it seemed they did not understand our natures their violations of the commandments took many forms frank and john reportedly would build travelers with qriket card games more substantially at the age of just 11 john stole a horse that belonged to frank and ran away he was gone for more than a year traveling along the mississippi to louisiana before returning to indiana a year later even more dangerous the brothers were suspected in a number of fires in the town of rockford between 1851 and 1858 purportedly to be able to acquire the land cheaply much of the land did end up in the hands of the reno family they were never charged but the situation became uncomfortable enough that wilkinson and the four oldest boys relocated to saint louis for two years before returning to indiana in 1860 although john describes the move to discontent between his parents during the war frank and john and possibly sam as well engaged in a sword of fraud called bounty jumping a man who was drafted was allowed to pay legally up to three hundred dollars although some purportedly paid more for another man to take his place bounty jumpers would enlist to get the bounty either to replace another man or because a local government was offering a bounty to enlist in order to meet a quota only to desert many would then go to another locality and repeat the process while there were others who were far more abusive the 1888 publication professional criminals of america tells the story of a john larney who in addition to being a pickpocket con artist and eventually bank robber claimed to have enlisted in 93 regiments while bounty jumping during the war frank and john both enlisted and deserted at least once and john admitted to attempting to act as a broker for other bounty jumpers it was during this time that the brothers apparently made a number of unsavory acquaintances fellow bounty jumpers drifters and petty criminals and decided even before the end of the war to form a criminal enterprise with frank and john at its head and eventually joined by their brothers salmon possibly will it isn't clear exactly all the crimes for which the gang was responsible an 1894 article in mcclure's magazine about famous detective cases described the game as an association of desperate outlaws who in the years immediately following the war committed crimes without number in missouri and indiana beginning their operations in a small way with house breaking and store robberies they soon proved themselves to be so reckless in their daring so fertile in their expedience so successful in their coups that they quickly extended their field setting all forms of law at defiance the gang according to story reportedly from the archives of the pinkerton detective agency included several of the most skillful and notorious safe crackers and counterfeiters in the country the robbers proved to be also successful at avoiding justice for their crimes hiding out in rockford where their family had political pole when frank was arrested for rubbing a post office in 1864 one of his compatriots decided to turn state's evidence against him the man was murdered before he could testify and frank was acquitted the mcclure story explains the reno influence meant itself felt even in local politics corrupt officials being elected at the instigation of the outlaws so that their conviction became practically impossible in this they had support from something that you might have thought was a more recent phenomena a mob attorney jason brevout brown whom true west magazine described as an opportunist a lawyer and politician defended the gang members in trial usually successfully brown would later be appointed secretary of the territory of wyoming and served three terms in congress it was in october 1866 that the gang already suspected for multiple robberies and even murder committed the crime that put them into the history books the library of congress website describes the robbery in a blog post today in history on october 6 1866 thieves boarded an eastbound ohio and mississippi railroad passenger train near seymour indiana and entered an adams express company car pointing guns at adams express employee alan miller the mass bandits demanded keys to the safes miller had keys for the local safe only so the robbers emptied that safe and tossed the other off the train intending to open it later signaling the engineer to stop the train the robbers later identified as the infamous reno brothers made an easy getaway the hall was reportedly 13 000 a tidy sum the daring daylight robbery is often described as the first train robbery in the united states although money had been taken from trains previous to that those had all been burglaries where money was taken from unoccupied cars the website of the history channel explains the reno brothers contribution to criminal history was to stop a moving train in a sparsely populated region where they could carry out their crime without risking interference from the law or curious bystanders the act inspired others the library of congress blog continues a wave of train robberies followed the seymour incident and the history channel website notes many bandits who might otherwise have been robbing banks or stage coaches discovered that the newly constructed transcontinental and regional railroads in the west made attractive targets the robbery might have been a first but it was far from their last mcclairs writes the reno's towards the end of 1866 began a series of train robberies which were carried out with such perfection and organization such amazing coolness and such uniform success as to attract national attention the robberies and the lack of arrests became so common that mcclure's notes that locals quite as a matter of course would say the reno brothers got away with another train yesterday in an odd example of the gang's organization when a couple of outlaws considered to be hangers on rather than core members of the gang committed a train robbery sloppily in 1867 members of the reno gang true west magazine rights weren't about to put up with a couple of upstarts who failed to get clearance to pull off such a job or at least to share some of the ill-gotten gains from the heist and because the local law enforcement agencies were incompetent the gang members decided to take the matter into their own hands the reno gang tracked the two men down beat them took the money that they had stolen from the train and then turned them over to the law where they used their political poll to ensure that the two were convicted and sent to prison but the gang made a mistake extending their crime spree to missouri when the county treasurer's safe was robbed in gallatin officials hired the pinkerton detective agency john reno was suspected of the detectives tracing back to indiana knowing the chances of a conviction there were slight the agency drew him to the train station with a ruse grabbed him and transported him to missouri where he confessed to the crime for fear that he would otherwise be lynched he was sentenced to 25 years in prison but with john in prison frank became even more brazen mcclairs writes three brothers remained replaced the one who was gone and so far from learning caution the band launched fourth with into still more daring and frequent offenses trains were held up right and left robberies were committed and early in 1868 the gang made a famous raid across the country through indiana and illinois robbing safes and county treasurer's offices in a number of places again the gang proved difficult to prosecute while some were arrested mcclear's notes they always managed to have the prosecution quashed or in some way escaped conviction the gang's luck seemed to run out in april 1868 when four members including frank reno were tracked down again by pinkerton detectives and jailed but that was apparently not quite the end of their luck on april 1st the sheriff of mills county iowa entered the jail only to find a large hole had been cut in the wall and the men had escaped on the wall they had written april fools but another robbery in may would eventually be their undoing on may 22nd a gang of masked men entered the express car of a train of the ohio and mississippi railroad in marshfield indiana when the train stopped to take on water and wood they robbed the train of the incredible sum of 96 thousand dollars even worse when a railroad messenger in the express car tried to stop them he was beaten and thrown off the train down an embankment he later died that robbery appeared to be the last straw for the people of seymour and a vigilance committee was formed the reno's that got into hiding frank with some associates fled to windsor canada across from detroit while sim and will went to indianapolis but the gang kept operating without them and in july six members of the gang robbed a train in brownstown indiana but their plan had been betrayed and pinkerton's ambushed them while five of them in escape they were quickly captured pinkertons were taking the first three captured by train to seymour when the train was stopped by a man waving a red lantern the train was quickly surrounded by well-armed men wearing scarlet masks who removed the three robbers took them to a farm and according to the mcclure story strung them up to a beech tree while an old german who owned the farm looked on approvingly the other three robbers were caught the very next day the pinkertons purportedly to avoid the vigilance committee decided to take them to town by wagon rather than by train but that wagon was also stopped by men wearing scarlet masks and those three face the same fate as their compatriots hanged from the very same tree the spot is now called hangman's crossing will and sim reno were arrested july 27th their sister laura reno was so concerned about the vigilance committee that she made an appeal to indiana governor conrad baker who called out the militia to protect them they were placed in a jail in the town of new albany a newer jail thought to be strong enough to withstand attack pinkerton then tracked down frank and his associate in ontario the case to extradite them took months and became an international drama that went all the way to the canadian supreme court the legal proceedings were funded by the western express company and pinkerton called in the assistance of u.s secretary of state william seward who he knew from civil war days the two were extradited only on the promise from president andrew johnson that they would be protected from the lynch mob and they too were transported to new albany but the three reno brothers and fellow gang member charlie anderson would not make it to trial on november 12 1868 a group of men accounts differ but numbering from 50 to 100 stormed the new albany jail and overpowered the guards wounding the sheriff frank sam and will reno and charlie anderson were hanged inside the jail building frank put up a struggle and was hit with a wooden club he was hanged according to the chicago evening post with his head being badly bruised and blood running down his face will just 20 may actually not have participated in any of the crimes charlie anderson had to be hanged twice as the first rope broke the night became known as the night of blood the post story concluded the victims presented the most ghastly and horrible spectacle the bodies were taken back to seymour and they were handed over to frank and charlie's wives and laura reno laura purportedly threatened retaliation against the men who had hanged her brothers but posters appeared around town threatening reno associates if any property was damaged or if anyone was assaulted though clearly shocked by the violence of the lynchings the chicago evening post noted that though deprecating mob law the people generally considered it to be an act of summary justice no one was ever tried for the hanging of ten men without trial there have been persistent rumors that the pinkertons were if not actively involved at least complacent in the mob justice while mcclure's described her as as quick with a gun as any man laura reno was not known to have ever participated in her brother's gang's crimes she died in 1919. the final brother clinton reno also did not participate apparently in his brother's crimes and so became known as honest clint although he wasn't that honest because he was arrested for running an illegal gambling and liquor establishment he died in 1921. the vast majority of the money that was stolen by the reno gang was never recovered including the 97 000 that was stolen in may of 1868. an elvis presley movie 1956's love me tender was rather loosely based on the reno brothers john reno's confinement in the missouri state penitentiary apparently saved him from the hangman's news he served 10 years in one day in 1879 he wrote his memoir he was tried for other crimes of the reno gang but never convicted and married his brother frank's widow he spent time in jail later for counterfeiting and died in 1895 at the age of 56. john concluded his autobiography by lamenting his many friends and family who had met violent ends quoting a warning that had been posted on the wall of the missouri state penitentiary in jefferson city the way of the transgressor is hard i hope you enjoyed this episode of the history guide short snippets of forgotten history and if you did enjoy feed the algorithm by making a comment or clicking that like button if you have suggestions for future episodes please send those to our suggestions email box 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Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 136,328

Keywords: history, history guy, the history guy, Indiana, Wild West, Outlaws, train robbery, reno brothers

Id: KSU1-5_6byI

Length: 15min 41sec (941 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 06 2021