Image: The Reno Gang 1860s. (Public Domain)
On this day in history, October 6, 1866, brothers John and Simeon Reno and Frank Sparkes hold the first train robbery in United States history, stealing $16,000 from an Ohio and Mississippi railroad train in Jackson County, Indiana.
The Reno brothers’ influence on criminal history was to halt a moving train in a thinly populated area where they could carry out their criminality without worrying about intervention by the law or well-meaning spectators. Though created in Indiana, the Reno brother’s new way of robbing trains rapidly became common in the West.
The Reno’s plotted to steal from their first train near Seymour, Indiana, an important railroad center during that period. On the evening of October 6, 1866, the Reno Gang entered an Ohio and Mississippi Railway train as it began to depart the Seymour terminus. They entered the express car, confined the lone sentry, and opened a safe containing $16,000. From the moving train, the three men shoved a sizable safe out of the door, where the remainder of the gang was waiting. Incapable of opening the additional safe, the crew escaped as a large posse drew near.
Afterward, passenger George Kinney came forward and identified two of the thieves. The three men were detained but freed on bail. After Kinney was murdered, the other passengers declined to speak up, and all charges had to be dropped. Yet, the theft would, in the end, lead to the gang’s collapse. The Adams Express Company underwrote the safe’s contents, which employed the Pinkerton Detective Agency to chase down and apprehend the gang.
On November 17, 1867, the Davies Courthouse in Gallatin, Missouri, was robbed. John Reno was recognized, taken into custody by Pinkerton detectives, and sentenced to 25 years in the Missouri State Penitentiary in 1868. Nevertheless, this did not discourage the gang. Three robberies in Iowa rapidly followed in early 1868. Frank Reno, Albert Perkins, and Miles Ogle were captured by Pinkertons led by Allan Pinkerton’s son William but escaped custody on April 1. A second train heist occurred in December 1867 when two gang members held up another train near Seymour. The robbers made off with $8,000, which was given to the Reno brothers. A third train, owned by the Ohio and Mississippi, was robbed by six gang members on July 10. Waiting to trap them, however, were ten Pinkerton agents and a gunfight followed, and numerous gang members were wounded while several fled.
In March 1868, the people of Seymour created a vigilante group intending to execute the Reno Gang. In reaction, the crew escaped west to Iowa, where they raided the Harrison County treasury of $14,000. The next day, they fleeced the Mills County treasury of $12,000. The Pinkerton detectives quickly located the gang and detained them at Council Bluffs, Iowa. On April 1, the gang bolted from their Iowa confinement and returned to Indiana.
The Reno Gang then held up its fourth train on May 22. Twelve men entered a Jeffersonville, Madison, and Indianapolis Railroad train as it paused at the train depot in Marshfield, Indiana. As the train chugged away, the gang overcame the engineer and uncoupled the passenger cars, permitting the engine to race away. After getting into the express car and tossing express messenger Thomas Harkins from the train (causing deadly injuries), the gang pried open the safe, gaining $96,000. This robbery made national headlines in many major newspapers. The Pinkertons chased, but the crew disappeared throughout the midwestern United States.
The Reno’s endeavored to steal from another train on July 9. Pinkerton detectives had discovered the plan, and ten agents remained aboard the train. When the gang crashed in, the agents started firing, wounding two gang members. Everyone escaped except Volney Elliot, who identified the outlaws in exchange for lenience. With this intelligence, the Pinkertons captured two more gang members the next day in Rockport.
All three outlaws were taken to prison by train. Yet, on July 10, 1868, just outside Seymour, Indiana, the prisoners were removed from the train and hanged from a tree by a band of masked men calling themselves the Jackson County Vigilance Committee. Gang members John Moore, Henry Jerrell, and Frank Sparks were caught a short time later in Illinois and returned to Seymour. In a shocking reprise, the vigilantes also captured the three and swung them from the same tree as the others. The area became known as Hangman Crossing, Indiana.
On July 27, 1868, the Pinkertons caught William and Simeon Reno in Indianapolis. The men were incarcerated at the Scott County Jail in Lexington. They were tried and condemned for stealing from the Marshfield train, but because of the vigilantes, they were taken to the more protected Floyd County Jail. The day after being taken from Lexington, the vigilantes broke into the evacuated jail, expecting to capture and lynch the men.
Frank Reno, the head of the gang, and Charlie Anderson were traced to the Canadian city of Windsor, Ontario. With the help of the American government, the men were deported in October under the terms of the 1842 Webster-Ashburton Treaty. Both men were delivered to New Albany, Indiana, to join the other prisoners.
On December 11, 65 hooded men journeyed by train to New Albany. The men marched to the Floyd County Jail, forcing their way into the jail and the sheriff’s home. After they accosted the sheriff and shot him in the arm for refusing to give them the keys, his wife gave them to the intruders. Frank Reno was the first to be brought from his cell to be lynched. He was followed by his brothers William and Simeon. Gang member Charlie Anderson was the final man lynched at around 4:30 a.m. on December 12. It was thought the vigilantes were part of the group known as the Jackson County Vigilance Committee. No one was indicted, identified, or formally investigated in any lynchings. Local papers like the New Albany Weekly Ledger said that “Judge Lynch” had spoken. Reno Avenue in New Albany is likely labeled for the gang.
Frank Reno and Charlie Anderson were officially in federal custody when lynched. This is the only time in American history that a mob lynched a federal prisoner before a court case.
The three Reno brothers were buried in the Seymour City cemetery. Treasure hunters have long searched for any trace of their rumored buried loot, but nothing has ever been found.
Subscribe to “History Daily with Francis Chappell Black” to receive regular updates regarding new content:
Help us with our endeavors to keep History alive. With our daily Blog posts and our publishing program we hope to inform people in a comfortable and easy-going manner. This is my full-time job so any support you can give would be greatly appreciated.
History Daily: 365 Fascinating Happenings Volume 1 and Volume 2 are on sale now for 25 % off the print copies from my publisher’s site:
The sale ends on October 10, 2023.
History Daily With Francis Chappell Black 
Leave a comment