Victim of Reno Bros. Gang succumbs to injuries - 1868

Dec 6, 2012 - 0 Comments

Reno Brothers

Reno Bros. Gang

by Michael Thomas Barry

On December 6, 1868, a guard, who had been shot by brothers Frank, William, and Simeon Reno during a train robbery in May, dies of his wounds. His death so infuriated the public that a group of vigilantes yanked the three brothers from their Indiana jail cell five days later and hanged them. Although the Reno gang had a short reign of criminal terror, they are credited with pulling off the first train robbery in American history and are believed to be the inspiration for criminal copycats like Jesse James and others.

On October 6, 1866, the Reno brothers committed their first heist. After stopping a train outside of Seymour, Indiana, they stole $10,000 in cash and gold. Though fast on their feet, the Reno brothers didn't have much luck evading law enforcement, probably because they committed almost all of their crimes in the Seymour, Indiana, area. After the 1866 heist, railroad companies hired Pinkerton detectives to find the perpetrators, and at the end of 1867, John Reno was captured. In January 1868, he pled guilty to robbing a county treasury in Missouri and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. In his absence, the other Reno brothers continued to rob banks and trains in the area. On May 22, 1868, they stopped a train near Marshfield and beat a guard with pistols and crowbars. In an attempt to lure the predictable criminals in, Pinkerton detectives had floated the rumor about a big gold shipment and then nabbed the Reno’s when they stopped the train. Although Frank and William went rather quietly when the vigilantes hanged them on December 11th, their brother Simon put up a bitter fight. He even managed to survive the hanging itself for more than 30 minutes before finally succumbing to the rope. 

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