The Reno Brothers played a very significant role in our history but I don’t think there are many out there that are aware of them.
The Reno Brothers Gang were a group of criminals that operated in the Midwestern United States during and just after the American Civil War. Though short-lived, they carried out the first three peacetime train robberies in U.S. history.
The gang was broken with the lynchings of ten of its members by vigilante mobs in 1868. The murders created an international diplomatic incident with Canada and Great Britain, a general public uproar, and international newspaper coverage. No one was ever identified or prosecuted for the lynchings.
J. Wilkison (also known as Wilkinson or Wilkerson) Reno moved to Indiana in 1813 from the Salt River region of Kentucky, one of the Civil War Border States. He married Julia Ann Freyhafer in 1835. Future gang members Franklin (Frank), John, Simeon (Sim), and William (Bill) Reno were born to the couple in Rockford, Jackson County, Indiana. There was also another son, Clinton ("Honest" Clint), and a daughter, Laura. In their early years, the siblings were raised in a strict, religious (Methodist) farming household and were required to read the Bible all day on Sunday, according to John Reno's 1879 autobiography. Neither Clint nor Laura was involved in the gang's crime spree. It was after the hanging that Clint started getting into trouble and Laura turned respectable.
The brothers got into trouble early. John claimed that he and Frank bilked travelers in crooked card games. Also, the Renos were suspected when a series of mysterious fires broke out around Rockford over a period of seven years beginning in 1851. The community also suspected the brothers in the theft of a horse. The crimes caused considerable tension in the town and Wilkison and four of his sons fled, living near St. Louis, Missouri for some time, before returning to their farm in 1860. The war broke shortly after and the brothers enlisted in hopes of escaping the angry citizens of the town. Thanks Wikipedia!
To cut to the chase the brothers were a whole lot of trouble.
After burning the town of Rockford and folks started moving out, the Renos bought the property dirt cheap. They had quite a racket going on that involved burglary, robbery, extortion, bribery, arson, gambling…..
In October 1866, the gang made national news when it robbed an Adams Express money shipment on the Ohio and Mississippi train just east of Seymour. They came away with about $10,000 in one of the first train robberies in the U.S. History.
May 22nd 1868 was the beginning of the end for the Reno Brothers Gang. On that date the gang robbed another train in Marshfield Indiana. May 23 edition of the New Albany Ledger reported: ‘The last train of the night on the Jefferson, Madison & Indianapolis Railroad left Jeffersonville, Indiana at 9:30 p.m. and preceded north. The train stopped at a refueling station in Marshfield at about 11:00 p.m. to take on water and wood. As the engineer and fireman were seeing about the locomotive, they were waylaid by a gang of twelve men who moved out of the darkness of the densely wooded, swampy area. The railroad men were quickly overpowered and the engine and Adams Express car uncoupled from the rest of the train and taken at full steam toward Seymour. Four of the robbers broke into the express car and were fired upon by the messenger. His shots were ineffective and he was badly beaten with pistols and crowbars, and then thrown from the door of the car. He was found the next morning on the rail embankment barely alive." The outlaws got away with an estimated $96,000 in government bonds, cash and currency notes.
Frank Reno and gang members, Charlie Anderson, Albert Perkins, Michael Rogers and Miles Ogle headed for Windsor Canada. Sim Reno and William Reno went to Indianapolis Indiana. Of course Sim and William were arrested first on July 27 1868. The brothers were transferred to New Albany, Indiana jail to await their trail. In August the rest of the gang was located by the Pinkerton Detective Agency. When an extradition order could not be obtained, the men were released. So Allan Pinkerton tried again and an international drama ensued. Pinkerton sent a formal letter, arrest warrants and descriptions of the gang’s crimes to U.S. Secretary of State William Seward, whom Pinkerton knew from his Civil War days. Letters passed from the United States to Canada and Great Britain and back. When it seemed that Canadian Governor-General Viscount Monck was ready to give in and deliver the two outlaws, the Queen’s Council demanded a letter of assurance from U.S. President Andrew Johnson that the gang members would receive protection from Indiana vigilance committees. In October 1868, Frank Reno and Charlie Anderson were released to the custody of Allan Pinkerton.
On October 29 1868 they were jailed in New Albany with the rest of the gang members. Each of them occupied an individual cell in the big stone jail, considered the strongest in southern Indiana.
On the night of December 11, 1868, a train left the Seymour, Indiana depot. The train carried a large group of vigilantes to Jeffersonville, Indiana. The vigilantes then travelled by another train to New Albany, Indiana. The group arrived in New Albany around 3 a.m. on December 12, 1868.
There the vigilantes overpowered the jailer and I believe 4 more including the sheriff’s wife. The Reno Gang was hung.
The brothers are buried in the City Cemetery in Seymour Indiana. It is a sad little cemetery with many graves unmarked, broken, vandalized…. with the exception of the Reno Brother’s graves. A stone path leads to the fenced area where they are buried with military markers and flags. A marker at the beginning of the path tells their story. Interesting.
Thanks to Outlaw History for the rest of the story.
Click here for pictures of the City Cemetery in Seymour Indiana.
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