OUTLAWS Ep. 4 | “The Reno Gang”

Summary

Legends of the Old West (Black Barrel Media)

Episode: OUTLAWS Ep. 4 | “The Reno Gang” (May 13, 2026)

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Overview

This episode centers on the Reno Gang, notorious for pioneering several outlaw “firsts” in the post-Civil War American frontier. Host Chris Wimmer recounts how the Reno brothers’ criminal legacy shaped the violence, vigilante justice, and cat-and-mouse games with lawmen that came to define the tumultuous years of the Old West. The episode explores their rise from juvenile troublemakers to infamous train robbers, their clash with the Pinkerton Detective Agency, and their bloody downfall at the hands of vigilantes.

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Main Discussion Points

1. Origins of the Reno Gang

• Strict Upbringing & Early Rebellion

  • Frank and John Reno’s early years in Jackson County, Indiana, were defined by a strict Methodist household and resulting childhood resentment ([03:14]).
  • Early signs of delinquency: between 1851–1858, Rockford experienced a string of suspicious fires; townsfolk suspected the Reno boys, but lacked evidence.

• Escalating Crime

  • “A similar pattern developed with horses and robberies. Horses started to vanish... Money and goods started to vanish from local stores in the middle of the night. Like the fires, suspicion fell on the Reno brothers, but... they were never caught in the act.” ([03:23] - Chris Wimmer)

2. Civil War Era Schemes

• Bounty Jumping:

  • During the war, Frank and John “offered themselves as replacements” for drafted soldiers, took payment, then deserted to repeat the scam under new names—“the swindle became widespread and it was known as bounty jumping.” ([05:43])

• Building a Criminal Network:

  • Met likeminded outlaws—deserters, contraband traders, counterfeiters—fertile ground for the formation of the Reno Gang.

3. Formation of The Reno Gang and Escalation of Crimes

• Headquarters & Early Jobs:

  • The gang headquartered at the Raider House in Seymour, Indiana, running gambling operations and robbing travelers’ hotel rooms ([06:47]).
  • A spree of increasingly bold robberies, culminating in violent confrontations and murder of potential witnesses (notably, the shooting of Grant Wilson after he agreed to testify: [07:43]–[08:10]).

• Growing Notoriety & Public Outrage:

  • The viciousness escalates with the robbery and brutal torture of a Union soldier’s wife for $2, stoking anger and calls for vigilante action ([08:52]).

4. The Dawn of Train Robbery: Innovations and Infamy

• The North Bend Robbery (May 1865):

  • “10 to 20 masked men pried loose a rail... the next train... derailed... The robbers hurried onto the passenger cars and robbed the travelers. Then they turned their attention to the three safes.” ([10:43], [11:19])
  • Failed to open the safes by axe, but succeeded with gunpowder: “They blew the doors off the safes and stole U.S. treasury bonds, money and other valuables. They disappeared... their identities were never discovered.” ([11:36], [11:51])

• The Reno Gang’s Famous Heist (October 1866):

  • The gang adopted the train robbery tactic: “The three men and their friends knew the amount of time it would take for the train to reach a lonely stretch... Shortly after the train rolled out of Seymour station, John Reno, Simeon Reno and Frank Sparks rose... covered their faces... took the keys from the express messenger... grabbed three canvas sacks... $10,000 in gold coins...” ([17:27]–[18:07])
  • Attempted escape with a larger safe but failed to open it and abandoned it ([18:16]–[18:40]).
  • Significance: “The Reno gang were the first outlaws to stage a train robbery from the inside.” ([18:55])

5. Pursuit, Pinkertons, and Frontier Justice

• Law and Order Breakdown:

  • Arrested due to eyewitness George Kinney, but released on bail—Kinney subsequently murdered, likely by Reno associates ([19:52]–[20:17]).
  • Host observes: “In that era, the law and justice were increasingly viewed as two different things. Lynch law, otherwise known as frontier justice or vigilante justice, came to Jackson County...” ([20:17])

• Rise of Vigilantism:

  • After a horrific murder and rape by unaffiliated (or fringe) outlaws, 250–300 locals lynched the accused, setting the vigilante tone ([22:02]).
  • “With the rise of the Jackson county vigilance committee, members of the Reno gang decided they should commit their next crime outside of Jackson County.” ([22:20])

• Downward Spiral and Demise of the Renos:

  • Continued robberies, including a $23,000 courthouse heist in Gallatin, Missouri ([22:34]).
  • John Reno, the “brains of the gang,” is arrested by a group of Pinkerton agents; sentenced to 25 years hard labor—“In an ironic twist, John Reno... turned out to be the lucky one.” ([23:06], [23:52])

• Cat-and-Mouse with Pinkertons & Final Showdowns:

  • Remaining gang members’ crime spree, including a $96,000 train heist ($3 million+ today), is met with escalated Pinkerton pursuit and community outrage ([25:47]–[26:08]).
  • Pinkertons foil the gang’s final local train robbery thanks to a double-crossing engineer ([27:00]), leading to a bloody standoff and lynchings:
    • “A mob of Jackson county vigilantes stopped the train, took the bandits and hanged them from a nearby tree... That spot became known as Hangman's Crossing, and it still is.” ([28:12]–[28:56])

6. The End: Vigilante Justice Unchecked

• Final Reckoning:

  • Surviving Reno members, arrested after extradition from Canada, are held in New Albany ([29:14]).
  • On December 12, 1868, about 100 vigilantes break into the jail, overwhelm officials and lynch Frank, William, and Simeon Reno, plus Charlie Anderson ([31:01]–[31:36]).
  • “The vigilantes were never identified, and that was the last major action of the Jackson County Vigilance Committee. In total, the Jackson county vigilantes lynched 12 men... one of the most notorious and prolific in American history.” ([31:36]–[32:12])

• Aftermath and Legacy:

  • John Reno, released from prison in 1878, survives as his brothers fade into legend and the Old West era’s violence escalates ([33:09]).
  • “By the time John Reno walked out of prison... train robbery was common all over the West. It was still headline news, but it wasn't a novelty like it was in 1866 when the Reno gang robbed its first train...” ([33:19])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the futility of legal justice in Jackson County:

  “Nothing but lynch law will save the reputation of this place and its citizens.”
  —Seymour Times editorial, quoted by Chris Wimmer ([15:47])

• On changes in justice:

  “In that era, the law and justice were increasingly viewed as two different things. Lynch law, otherwise known as frontier justice or vigilante justice, came to Jackson County, Indiana...”
  —Chris Wimmer ([20:17])

• On the Reno brothers’ fate:

  “In an ironic twist, John Reno, in prison in Missouri, turned out to be the lucky one.”
  —Chris Wimmer ([23:52])

• On Hangman’s Crossing:

  “That spot became known as Hangman's Crossing, and it still is. For those who don't live in the area, go to a website like Google Maps and search for Hangman's Crossing, Indiana...”
  —Chris Wimmer ([28:53])

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Key Timelines & Timestamps

• Early Years and Arsons: [01:36]–[03:14]
• Civil War Crimes / Bounty Jumping: [04:13]–[05:43]
• Gang Organized at The Raider House: [06:47]
• Post Office Robbery / Murder of Grant Wilson: [07:43]–[08:10]
• Torture and Robbery of Soldier’s Wife: [08:52]
• North Bend Train Robbery (first explosive heist): [10:43]–[11:51]
• Reno Gang’s Own Train Heist: [17:02]–[18:40]
• Rise of Jackson County Vigilantes: [22:02], [27:07]
• Capture and $96,000 Train Robbery: [25:47]
• Hangman’s Crossing Lynchings: [28:12]–[28:56]
• Final Jail Break / Vigilante Raid: [30:56]–[32:12]
• John Reno’s Release / Era’s Closing Context: [33:09]–[33:25]

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Conclusion

Chris Wimmer’s narration vividly renders the Reno Gang’s descent—from mischief to major crime, through innovation in train robbery to their infamous destruction by vigilantes. The episode not only tells a gripping tale but also highlights the roots of organized outlawry and frontier justice that defined the era. The Renos—largely forgotten in the shadow of later outlaws—were trailblazers in infamy and a turning point for American law enforcement and vigilante response.

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[Next Episode Teaser:]
The series will continue next week with the story of Burt Alvord and one of the last train robberies of the Old West era. ([34:05])

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Transcript

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By the early 1850s, two of the Reno brothers were notorious troublemakers in Jackson County, Indiana. There were five brothers and a sister in the family. The two oldest were Frank and John, and they were only in their early teenage years in the early 1850s, but they had a rebellious streak a mile wide. They were still living on the family farm near Rockford, Indiana, though that wouldn't last much longer. They worked the farm, attended school when possible, and especially in the minds of the older boys, suffered through Sundays. Wilkinson and Julia Ann Reno were hard working parents, very strict and deeply religious. They were Methodists who dedicated Sunday to worship. Their sons said later that the kids were required to stay inside all day and study Bible verses. For energetic kids who were used to being outside, Sundays were a misery of prayers and admonitions about sin. As the kids grew up, the two oldest boys, Frank and John, started to rebel. In 1851, when Frank was 14 and John was 13, a suspicious pattern of fires began in the town of Rockford. For the next seven years, homes and businesses burned to the ground with some regularity. The fires did serious damage to Rockford and most fingers pointed at the local troublemakers, Frank and John Reno. Some fires were thought to be attacks on enemies, while others were thought to be part of a larger plan to buy the land after the buildings burned and the owners moved away.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

Whatever the reason and whoever the culprit, folks in Rockford couldn't bring a court case against the Reno boys and the fires went unsolved.

[Chris Wimmer]

Then a similar pattern developed with horses and robberies. Horses started to vanish from their stables. Some turned up miles away, others were never seen again. Money and goods started to vanish from local stores in the middle of the night. Like the fires, suspicion fell on the Reno brothers. But like the fires, the brothers were never caught in the act. Then, in 1858, three years before the nation fractured, the Reno family fractured. Wilkinson and Julia Ann separated. Wilkinson moved to the nearby town of Seymour and Julia Ann stayed on the farm with the younger children. Frank was 21 by that time and John was 20. But their younger siblings, Simeon, Clinton, William and Laura, were between 15 and 7 years old. The split certainly would not have improved a tenuous situation with all of the criminal suspicion that swirled around the older boys. Three years later, the Civil War started. Frank Reno and his friend Frank Sparks signed on with the Jackson County Volunteers who were part of the Union army troops from Indiana. John Reno briefly enlisted, but he deserted in short order. Frank Reno apparently mustered out In August of 1861, when the war was in its back building phase after its first major battle called Bull Run in the north and Manassas in the south. After the two ill prepared and inexperienced armies mauled each other, the battle proved to both sides that the war would be longer and bloodier than they initially envisioned. They retreated to their corners like boxers after the first round and spent months recruiting, training and equipping their armies. And the recruiting effort led Frank and John Reno to their next scheme. When the Union instituted a draft for soldiers, it added an out clause. A wealthy man could hire someone to fight in his place. Frank and John offered themselves as replacements. They accepted payment, enlisted in the army and then deserted as soon as possible.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

Then they repeated the process using different names. The swindle became widespread and it was

[Chris Wimmer]

known as bounty jumping. During the second half of the war, Frank and John became proficient bounty jumpers and they met other young men who were doing the same thing. They became friends with deserters, contraband traders, counterfeiters and disaffected Soldiers. In those circles, they found associates who shared their disregard for the law and their willingness to use violence. By the second half of 1864, Simeon and William Reno had joined their older brothers in the beginnings of what would soon become the Reno Gang. The gang set up headquarters in Jackson county, at first in burned out or abandoned buildings near Rockford, and then at a hotel in Seymour called the Raider House. From there they launched a three year campaign of robbery and violence which led them to become some of the earliest

[Narrator/Storyteller]

targets of the Pinkerton Detective Agency.

[Chris Wimmer]

From Black Barrel Media, this is Legends of the Old West. I'm your host Chris Wimmer. And this season we're telling the stories of six outlaws. Their horse thieves, bank robbers, train robbers and gunfighters. This is episode four. The Reno Gang Frontier justice. The Raider House in Seymour had a saloon on the main level and hotel rooms up above. The Reno gang ran most of its operation from a table in the corner of the saloon. With the civil War still raging, the gang set to thieving. They ran gambling operations, stole money and belongings from the hotel rooms of unlucky travelers, and robbed local businesses.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

Toward the end of 1864, the real escalation started.

[Chris Wimmer]

They broke into safes in county treasury offices and then they expanded to post offices and general stores. The first widely noted post office and store Robbery happened in December 1864 in Jonesville, Indiana. Frank Reno, along with Grant Wilson and Sam Dixon, robbed the post office and Gilbert's store. The robbery was successful, but the getaway was not. They were arrested soon after the heist and they posted bond and were released until their trial a couple months later. In early 1865, as the trial date neared, Grant Wilson agreed to testify against Frank Reno in exchange for leniency. But then Wilson was shot four times outside his house by unknown parties. His 17 year old son found his body the next morning. Without Wilson's testimony, Frank Reno went free and the gang continued its spree. Gang members robbed post offices in Dudleytown and Seymour. And then came the crime that sparked serious outrage and set the gang on its course toward a vigilante finale. In February of 1865, three members of the Reno gang broke into the isolated farmhouse of a Union soldier with the apparent intent to steal money. The Reno brothers weren't noted as being part of the trio, so the crime was likely committed by other members of the gang. But the three men barged into the house and found the soldier's wife. Her children were upstairs sleeping and the men demanded money. The terrified woman handed them $2 and said it was all she had. The robbers didn't believe her. They tied a rope around her neck, Dragged her to a tree in the front lawn and threatened to kill her. They tightened the rope multiple times and demanded more money each time they loosened it. The woman gasped for air and continued to say she only had $2. Eventually, they left her slumped next to the tree and rode away with her $2. When the story made it to the Jackson county newspapers, people were outraged. The first discussions of vigilante justice circulated through the county, Though the citizens didn't act on them yet. Two months later, four years of life changing and world changing warfare started to end. On April 9, 1865, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered the army of northern Virginia to union general Ulysses S. Grant. That was the ceremonial end of the American civil war. But it took time for the news of Lee's surrender to travel way out west. In the deepest corner of south Texas, a small confederate army under the command of John S. Ford, better known as Rip Ford Ford won the final battle of the civil war at a cactus

[Narrator/Storyteller]

strewn field called Palmito Ranch on May 13. As of May 13, 1865, the Civil

[Chris Wimmer]

War was officially over. Eight days earlier, another historic, though slightly less prominent event happened. It was one that almost certainly inspired the reno gang. On May 5, 1865, 10 to 20 masked men pried loose a rail from the tracks of the Ohio and Mississippi railroad Outside of north bend, ohio. When the next train rolled down the tracks, it hit the broken section and derailed the engine. The Adams express car and the baggage car crashed onto their sides, but the

[Narrator/Storyteller]

four passenger cars remained standing.

[Chris Wimmer]

The robbers hurried onto the passenger cars and robbed the travelers.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

Then they turned their attention to the three safes in the Adams express car.

[Chris Wimmer]

They initially used an ax to try to break open the doors of the safes, but that failed.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

When they turned to gunpowder to do

[Chris Wimmer]

the job, they succeeded. They blew the doors off the safes and stole U.S. treasury bonds, money and other valuables. They disappeared from the crash site and

[Narrator/Storyteller]

into the pages of history books. Their identities were never discovered.

[Chris Wimmer]

But a year and a half later and 70 miles to the west, the Reno gang took the train robbery idea to the next level. Technically, it's spring, and I say technically because for some of us, winter seems set on delivering a couple more hits on its way out. But on the glorious days, it's time to break out the t shirts.

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[Chris Wimmer]

The North Bend Train Robbery started the series of outlaw firsts of the Old west era.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

The Old west era is generally regarded as the years between the end of

[Chris Wimmer]

the Civil War and the turn of the century. So 1865 to to 1900, though it sometimes stretched to 1910. The North Bend Train Robbery was for

[Narrator/Storyteller]

all intents and purposes the first train

[Chris Wimmer]

robbery of the Old west era.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

Simultaneously, it was the first train robbery

[Chris Wimmer]

in which the robbers used explosives to blow open a safe. The following year, 1866, there would be two more outlaw firsts. One by the most famous outlaw gang of the era and the other by an outlaw gang which would be all but forgotten. By 1866, some people in Jackson county

[Narrator/Storyteller]

were almost begging for an immediate and extreme solution to the problem of the Reno gang.

[Chris Wimmer]

Robberies and general lawlessness in Jackson county

[Narrator/Storyteller]

had grown so bad that the editor of the Seymour Times newspaper stated the solution plainly.

[Chris Wimmer]

Nothing but lynch law will save the

[Narrator/Storyteller]

reputation of this place and its citizens. In January 1866, someone murdered a guest at the Raider House in Seymour, the

[Chris Wimmer]

headquarters of the gang.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

The guest's headless body was found floating

[Chris Wimmer]

in the nearby river. The post office in the small town of Cortland was robbed that month, and

[Narrator/Storyteller]

there was another murder in February. All three crimes were assumed to be

[Chris Wimmer]

the work of the gang, even if

[Narrator/Storyteller]

there was no conclusive proof. In mid February, there was the most famous outlaw first of the Old West.

[Chris Wimmer]

On February 13, a group of men

[Narrator/Storyteller]

robbed the Clay County Savings association in Liberty, Missouri. As they rode away from the bank with approximately $60,000 in cash and bonds,

[Chris Wimmer]

one of them shot a young man who shouted the alarm to the town. The first daylight bank robbery of the Old west has always been credited to the James Younger gang. The murder has always been credited to Jesse James. Eight months later and 500 miles to the east, three men boarded the Ohio and Mississippi train at the station in Seymour, Indiana. They looked like all the other passengers as the train left the station at

[Narrator/Storyteller]

about 6:30pm on October 6. The three men and their associates, who waited a few miles down the line,

[Chris Wimmer]

had done their research.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

They had heard railroad men gossip in saloons about large shipments of money going east. They knew the eastbound evening train from Seymour would have an express car. Inside would be one express messenger, a guard and probably two safes.

[Chris Wimmer]

The messenger would have the key to the smaller of the two safes, but he would not have the key to the larger of the two. Most importantly, the three men and their friends knew the amount of time it would take for the train to reach a lonely stretch of countryside outside of town. Shortly after the train rolled out of Seymour station, John Reno, Simeon Reno and

[Narrator/Storyteller]

Frank Sparks rose from their seats and walked to the express car.

[Chris Wimmer]

They covered their faces with masks, drew their pistols and barged into the car. They took the keys from the express messenger, Elam Miller, at gunpoint and opened the smaller of the two safes. They grabbed three canvas sacks which held

[Narrator/Storyteller]

a total of $10,000 in gold coins. They rolled the larger safe, which was on wheels, to the door of the express car.

[Chris Wimmer]

One of the robbers pulled the bell

[Narrator/Storyteller]

rope to signal to the engineer that

[Chris Wimmer]

the train needed to stop. The brakes squealed and the train started to slow down. When it had decreased to a manageable

[Narrator/Storyteller]

speed, the robbers shoved the safe out

[Chris Wimmer]

of the door and then jumped out themselves. Frank Reno, William Reno, and some of the other gang members were waiting with the horses, and they converged on the train robbers and the safe.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

The gang attacked the locked safe with tools, but they couldn't open it. They were forced to abandon it so they could escape. The crew who robbed the North Bend,

[Chris Wimmer]

Ohio, train were the first outlaws of

[Narrator/Storyteller]

the old west era to derail a train in order to rob it.

[Chris Wimmer]

That tactic would be used many times over. The Reno gang were the first outlaws to stage a train robbery from the inside. By 1866, the Adams Express Messenger Company, which was responsible for shipping and protecting money and other valuables, had a solid

[Narrator/Storyteller]

relationship with the Pinkerton Detective Agency. Alan Pinkerton founded the agency in Chicago in 1850.

[Chris Wimmer]

And once or maybe twice before the civil War, the Adams company hired the Pinkerton agency to investigate robberies. But now, In May of 1865 and October of 1866, separate gangs had robbed the Adams Express car on the Ohio and Mississippi railroad. Immediately after the robbery, on the night

[Narrator/Storyteller]

of October 6, the Pinkerton agency was on the case. Allen Pinkerton sent two detectives to the town of Seymour.

[Chris Wimmer]

A passenger on the train named George Kinney had come forward and said he could identify two of the three robbers

[Narrator/Storyteller]

who had posed as normal travelers.

[Chris Wimmer]

With his information and the support of the Pinkertons, local officers arrested all three. John Reno, Simeon Reno, and Frank Sparks. Within a couple days of the robbery.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

The bandits posted bail on October 11th and were released from jail.

[Chris Wimmer]

Shortly thereafter, George Kinney was shot and killed. The killer or killers were never identified, but it didn't take much imagination to guess who was probably involved. Once again, members of the Reno gang evaded the law. But in that era, the law and justice were increasingly viewed as two different things. Lynch law, otherwise known as frontier justice or vigilante justice, came to Jackson County, Indiana, in March of 1867. The terrible crime which pushed the people of Jackson county over the edge happened in December 1866, two months after the big train robbery.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

Three men were initially accused. Though it seemed to be the work of just two, it doesn't seem like

[Chris Wimmer]

they were part of the Reno gang.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

And if they were, they would have

[Chris Wimmer]

been on the fringe. Either way, the crime and then the response from Jackson county foreshadowed the fate of the Reno gang when its time came. On December 29, assailants broke into the home of Marion Cutler, a woman who lived alone outside of a village in the western part of Jackson County. The assailants robbed, raped, and murdered her. Three men were originally indicted for the crime, but one of the three confessed and said he only had one accomplice, not two.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

The two men, John Brooks and John

[Chris Wimmer]

Talley, were thrown in jail in Brownstown.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

The brutal crime, plus the continued lawlessness

[Chris Wimmer]

of the Reno gang, pushed the citizens of Jackson county to take matters into their own hands. On the night of March 30, 1867, 250 to 300 men rode into Brownstown

[Narrator/Storyteller]

in two long columns as if they were a military unit. They stopped in front of the jail, smashed the door with sledgehammers, and dragged

[Chris Wimmer]

Brooks and Talley outside. The vigilantes hanged the criminals from a tree on the courthouse lawn. With the rise of the Jackson county

[Narrator/Storyteller]

vigilance committee, members of the Reno gang decided they should commit their next crime

[Chris Wimmer]

outside of Jackson County.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

On November 17, 1867, John Reno and

[Chris Wimmer]

Thomas Elliot traveled 500 miles west and

[Narrator/Storyteller]

robbed the Davies county courthouse in Gallatin, Missouri. They broke into the building at night,

[Chris Wimmer]

cracked the safe, and stole more than $23,000 in cash and bonds. Despite the overnight job and the distance from home, John Reno was reportedly recognized as one of the robbers.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

Law enforcement stepped up its pursuit in early December.

[Chris Wimmer]

About three weeks after the robbery, John Reno was arrested. There are conflicting reports, but the most likely is probably the version which says

[Narrator/Storyteller]

he was surrounded at the Seymour, Indiana, train station by six Pinkerton agents and the sheriff of Davies County, Missouri. Six weeks later, on January 18, 1868, in the town of Gallatin in Davies County, John Reno pleaded guilty to the robbery. He was sentenced to 25 years of hard labor at the Missouri State penitentiary in Jefferson City. John Reno was considered the brains of the Reno gang, and he was the first to fall. His older brother Frank, and his younger brothers Simeon and William continued with the rest of the gang members. But their days were numbered. In an ironic twist, John Reno, in prison in Missouri, turned out to be the lucky one.

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[Narrator/Storyteller]

Frank Reno may have sensed that his

[Chris Wimmer]

time was running out because he went on a tear after John was arrested. Throughout February. In March of 1868, Frank and various gang members robbed four county treasury offices

[Narrator/Storyteller]

and four homes in Iowa.

[Chris Wimmer]

The estimated total of stolen money was $50,000.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

Pinkerton detectives traced some of the money

[Chris Wimmer]

to Council Bluffs, Iowa, on the western side of the state. They soon focused their search on an outlaw named Michael Rogers. At the end of March, the Pinkertons raided Rogers house and found Frank Reno and two associates inside, plus $14,000 in stolen cash.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

The agents arrested all four men and

[Chris Wimmer]

threw them in jail. A short time later, maybe as little as one night, Frank and the others somehow knocked a hole in the wall of their cell and escaped. That was the night of April 1, 1868, and they reportedly wrote a taunting note in chalk on the cell wall

[Narrator/Storyteller]

above the hole they had created.

[Chris Wimmer]

The note read, april fool. The gang members had good reason to feel like they were riding high, especially after their next train robbery proved to be their most successful. On May 22, 1868, about 17 miles south of their home base of Seymour, Indiana, 12 men looted the Adams express car.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

When the train had stopped at a refueling station. They badly beat the express messenger who

[Chris Wimmer]

tried to protect the valuables on board,

[Narrator/Storyteller]

and the man was lucky to survive. The gang made off with $96,000 in cash and government bonds, which would be

[Chris Wimmer]

worth more than $3 million today.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

With that score, half the gang decided

[Chris Wimmer]

it was time to lay low. The half who didn't paid the price. Frank Reno and four gang members traveled

[Narrator/Storyteller]

north to hide in Windsor, Canada, directly

[Chris Wimmer]

across the Detroit River. From Detroit, Michigan, Simeon Reno and William Reno headed north as well, but only

[Narrator/Storyteller]

as far as Indianapolis, where they like to gamble. The six gang members who stayed in southern Indiana tried to commit their final train robbery.

[Chris Wimmer]

On July 10, 1868, less than two

[Narrator/Storyteller]

months after the big score, they stayed

[Chris Wimmer]

on familiar ground, Jackson county, and planned

[Narrator/Storyteller]

to hit a familiar target, the Ohio and Mississippi railroad.

[Chris Wimmer]

This time, one of the gang members recruited the train's engineer to be part of the heist.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

As instructed, the engineer made an unscheduled

[Chris Wimmer]

stop in Brownstown, the place where the Jackson county vigilance committee had lynched two murderers a year earlier.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

The engineer hopped off the train, and

[Chris Wimmer]

a gang member took his place.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

The gang member drove the train out

[Chris Wimmer]

of town to the robbery spot. And then it all went wrong.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

Five gang members stormed the express car, but they were surprised by a group of Pinkerton agents. The engineer whom the gang had recruited as its inside man told railroad officials

[Chris Wimmer]

about the heist, and the Pinkertons laid a trap. Now a close quarters gun battle erupted on the train. All five gang members were wounded, but they managed to jump off the train and rendezvous with the sixth man who was holding the horses. Five of the six escaped, but one man was too badly wounded and he was captured. The next day, two of the five remaining bandits were captured. That made three of the six robbers under arrest. And the three robbers were placed on a train to Brownstown to go to jail. But a mob of Jackson county vigilantes stopped the train, took the bandits and hanged them from a nearby tree. Three of the six robbers were dead,

[Narrator/Storyteller]

and the day after they were killed,

[Chris Wimmer]

Lawman found the other three.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

The Pinkertons were necessarily worried about losing

[Chris Wimmer]

the second group of three to the lynch mob.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

Vigilantes were clearly watching the trains. So the Pinkertons put the recently captured

[Chris Wimmer]

men in a wagon in the town

[Narrator/Storyteller]

of Seymour and intended to drive them

[Chris Wimmer]

10 miles down the road to Brownstown.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

The attempt at secrecy didn't work. A vigilante mob stopped the wagon at a crossroads two miles outside of Seymour. It was the same spot where the first three bandits had been hanged two weeks earlier.

[Chris Wimmer]

The mob took the last three bandits

[Narrator/Storyteller]

and hanged them from the same tree for good reason.

[Chris Wimmer]

That spot became known as Hangman's Crossing,

[Narrator/Storyteller]

and it still is. For those who don't live in the area, go to a website like Google Maps and search for Hangman's Crossing, Indiana. It's right there, about two miles outside of the town of Seymour.

[Chris Wimmer]

On July 27, 1868, two days after the second group of bandits died at Hangman's Crossing, Pinkertons arrested William and Simeon Reno in an Indianapolis hideout. Authorities were obviously worried about vigilante action, so they sent the outlaws to jail in New Albany, Indiana, 55 miles south of Jackson county on the Ohio river, directly across from Louisville, Kentucky. There, the brothers would await trial, which prosecutors thought would happen fairly quickly after recent developments. The Pinkertons located three of the five remaining members of the Reno gang who had participated in the big train robbery back in May. Frank Reno, Charlie Anderson, and Albert Perkins

[Narrator/Storyteller]

were still hiding in Windsor, Canada. But then it took two months of negotiation for Canadian officials to agree to

[Chris Wimmer]

allow the arrest and extradition of the outlaws to the US In October, Allen Pinkerton himself traveled to Windsor to make the arrests. By that time, Albert Perkins had skipped town. Alan Pinkerton took Frank Reno and Charlie Anderson down to New Albany to stand trial. The outlaws were installed in separate cells of the same cell block as William Reno and Simeon Reno. With the four bandits now in jail, the legal process could move forward. They waited six weeks for trial until a trial no longer became necessary. About 100 Jackson County Vigilantes stepped off the train in New Albany at 3 o' clock in the morning on December 12, 1868. They marched to the jail, overpowered the

[Narrator/Storyteller]

man at the door and rushed into the facility. The mob quickly captured the sheriff, the

[Chris Wimmer]

sheriff's wife and two county commissioners who were in the building.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

The sheriff believed the vigilantes would not travel to the larger community of New Albany with its sturdy new jail.

[Chris Wimmer]

But he was wrong. The vigilantes found the keys to the cells. One by one, they dragged each outlaw out of his cell. The vigilantes hanged Frank Reno, 31 years old, and William Reno, 20 years old, from an iron bar in the stairwell that led up to the second floor of the jail. When the mob went for Simeon Reno, 26 years old, he fought with a fury until the mob overwhelmed him. Charlie Anderson was the last. And by daybreak, all four outlaws swung from ropes in the New Albany jail and the vigilantes were on a train back to Jackson County. The vigilantes were never identified, and that was the last major action of the Jackson County Vigilance Committee. In total, the Jackson county vigilantes lynched 12 men, the two men who murdered Marion Cutler and 10 members of the Reno gang. By the nature of the action, it's hard to find accurate numbers, but 12 killings by one vigilante group would make that group one of the most notorious and prolific in American history. The bodies of Frank, Simeon and William were turned over to Laura Reno, the youngest of the Reno children, and Frank's wife, Sarah. The three brothers were buried in the cemetery in Seymour, Indiana. Ten years later, in February 1878, John Reno was released from prison, which made him the last surviving outlaw brother of the four by virtue of the fact that he was the first caught and went to prison before the Jackson County Vigilance Committee got started. By that time, the actions of he and his brothers had mostly faded from memory. By the time John Reno walked out of prison in 1878, Frank and Jesse James were in hiding after the disastrous Northfield raid. The Lincoln County War was starting in New Mexico territory and Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson were well known lawmen in

[Narrator/Storyteller]

Dodge City who would meet Clay Allison

[Chris Wimmer]

later in the year. Train robbery was common all over the West. It was still headline news, but it wasn't a novelty like it was in

[Narrator/Storyteller]

1866 when the Reno gang robbed its first train and in 1865 when the

[Chris Wimmer]

first train was robbed in the Old west era. Next time on Legends of the Old West. From one of the first train robberies of the Old west to one of the last. In February of 1900, one year before Butch and Sundance robbed their final train, lawman turned outlaw Burt Alvord led a raid on a train in Fairbank, Arizona. Neither Burt nor his gang would ever be as famous as Butch and Sundance or the Wild Bunch, but they would

[Narrator/Storyteller]

follow some of the same paths.

[Chris Wimmer]

That story is next week on Legends of the Old West.

[Narrator/Storyteller]

To binge all the episodes of a new season and to listen to every episode of the podcast with no commercials. Subscribe in Apple Podcasts or sign up through the link in the Show Notes or On our website blackbarrowmedia.com this series was researched by Mandy Wimmer and written by me, Chris Wimmer. Original music by Rob Valiere.

[Chris Wimmer]

Thanks for listening.

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