Frank Reno
The Reno Brothers Gang,
also known as the Reno Gang and The Jackson Thieves, 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. Most of the stolen money was
never recovered.
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.
The gang
attempted to rob a train on July 9, 1868. Pinkerton detectives had learned of
the plan and ten agents were waiting aboard the train. When the gang broke in,
the agents opened fire, wounding two of the gang. Everyone was able to escape
except Volney Elliot, who identified the other members of the gang in exchange
for leniency. Using the information, the detectives arrested two more members
of the gang the next day in Rockport.
All three men
were taken by train to jail. However, on July 10, 1868, three miles outside Seymour,
Indiana, the prisoners were taken off the train, and hanged by the neck from a
nearby tree, by a group of masked men calling itself the Jackson County
Vigilance Committee. Three other gang members, Henry Jerrell, Frank Sparks, and
John Moore, were captured shortly after in Illinois and returned to Seymour. In
a grisly repeat, they too fell into the hands of vigilantes and were hanged
from the same tree. The site became known as Hangman Crossing, Indiana.
On July 27,
1868, the Pinkertons captured William and Simeon Reno in Indianapolis. The men
were jailed at the Scott County Jail in Lexington. They were tried and
convicted of robbing the Marshfield train, but because of the threat of
vigilantes, they were moved to the more secure Floyd County Jail. The day after
their removal from Lexington, the vigilantes broke into the vacated jail,
hoping to catch and lynch the men.
Frank Reno, the
gang's leader, and Charlie Anderson were tracked down to the Canadian border
town of Windsor, Ontario. With the help of United States Secretary of State William
H. Seward, the men were extradited in October under the provisions of the 1842 Webster-Ashburton
Treaty. Both men were sent to New Albany to join the other prisoners.
On the night of
December 11, about 65 hooded men traveled by train to New Albany. The men
marched four abreast from the station to the Floyd County Jail where, just
after midnight, the men forced their way into the jail and the sheriff's home.
After they beat the sheriff and shot him in the arm for refusing to turn over
the keys, his wife surrendered them to the mob. Frank Reno was the first to be
dragged from his cell to be lynched. He was followed by brothers William and
Simeon. Another gang member, Charlie Anderson, was the fourth and last to be
murdered, at around 4:30 a.m on December 12. It was rumored that the vigilantes
were part of the group known as the Scarlet Mask Society or Jackson County
Vigilance Committee. No one was ever charged, named or officially investigated
in any of the lynchings. Many local newspapers, such as the New Albany
Weekly Ledger, stated that "Judge Lynch" had spoken.
Frank Reno and
Charlie Anderson were technically in federal custody when they were lynched.
This is believed to be the only time in U.S. history that a federal prisoner
had ever been lynched by a mob before a trial. Secretary of State Seward wrote
a formal letter of apology as a result. A new bill was later introduced into
the U.S. Congress that clarified the responsibility for the safety of
extradited prisoners.
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