Reno Gang’s ‘Great Train Robbery’ was the beginning of the end for the outlaws

WHEN a train was robbed 150 years ago today by the notorious Reno Gang it hastened the end of the gang

A still from the 1955 film, Rage At Dawn, starring Randolph Scott, Forrest Tucker and J. Carrol Naish, was based on the Reno brothers’ gang’s exploits. RKO Pictures

THE Adams Express Company train had pulled into the small town of Marshfield, Indiana, to take on wood and water. It should have been an uneventful stop, but on that day, 150 years ago today, the train’s crew hadn’t noticed a gang of robbers hiding nearby.

It wasn’t just any gang of thieves; these were the notorious Reno Gang, led by Frank Reno, who had terrorised Indiana for years. The gang boarded the train, breaking into the express car, grabbing the messenger, bashing him savagely and throwing him off the train. He later died from his injuries.

The thieves broke into all the safes on board, emptying them of gold, cash and bonds. In all they got away with more than $90, 000, the biggest train robbery at the time. It became known as the Great Train Robbery, a century before the Ronnie Biggs caper earned that name.

But it would prove to be a last hurrah for the Reno Gang. A robbery attempt a few months later ended badly and the Pinkerton Detective Agency, hired to hunt down the gang, began to close in. Before the year was out their train robbing days were over as most of the gang swung from a rope.

An illustration of outlaw Frank Reno head of the Reno Gang, who was lynched by vigilantes in 1868.

An illustration of an Adams Express Co train, similar to the one robbed by the Reno Gang in 1868 during the Great Train Robbery.

The gang was formed by four brothers of the Reno family, the sons of James Wilkinson “Wilkes” Reno, a farmer working a 486-ha property north of Seymour in Indiana. His son Frank was born in 1837, John in 1838, Simeon “Sim” in 1843 and William “Bill” in 1848. Another son Clinton “Clint” Reno, born in 1847, never joined the gang and was often called “Honest Clint” despite being hauled into court for assault and running a gambling den. Wilkes’s daughter Laura was also crime free, but spoke up for her brothers when they were captured.

The Reno brothers gained a reputation for nefarious activities around Seymour and Rockford in the 1850s — conning travellers out of money, stealing horses and arson.

When the US Civil War broke out in 1861 they made money from the conflict as “bounty jumpers”. When men were called up for service in the Union Army many often paid to have someone take their place, so the Reno boys would front up for service in the name of that person, but then either not show up for service or join up under the false name. Bill joined up under his own name and was honourably discharged at the end of the war.

The brothers also gathered other members for their gang from outside the family, including Frank Sparks, John Moore, Theodore Clifton, Val Elliott Charles Roseberry, Henry Jerrell and Charlie Anderson. After the war they continued their criminal careers robbing post offices, banks and stores. They were gaining a reputation as thieves, bribing lawmen and judges to avoid serving time but also fronting up with the cash to post bail and then jumping bail.

An artist's impression of the 1868 Great Train Robbery by the Reno Gang in Indiana.

In 1866 they tried something new — holding up the Ohio & Mississippi train as it rolled out of the Seymour Depot. Breaking into the express car they opened a safe, stealing between $10, 000 and $16, 000 in gold coins and cash. They were pursued but split up and evaded capture. It was the first peacetime train robbery, and would inspire other outlaws to rob trains across the US.

In September 1867 the Renos robbed another gang who had just robbed the Ohio & Mississippi, leaving them to take the rap for the crime while the Renos stole away with the booty. John Reno and Frank Sparks split off from the gang to rob a courthouse in Missouri but they were caught on their way back to Indiana and John was sent to prison for 25 years. Sparks was released and rejoined the gang.

On May 22, 1868, the gang pulled off their greatest heist, robbing the Adams Express Company train, getting away with about $96, 000. Pinkerton detectives doggedly pursued the gang, but again they split up and got away.

On July 10, several members of the gang — Moore, Jerrell, Sparks, Elliott, Roseberry and Clifton — tried to hold up the Ohio & Mississippi train again, but the Pinkertons were waiting for them. Elliott was captured and turned informant. Clifton and Roseberry were rounded up and put on a train with Elliott headed for Seymour, but on July 20 a group of masked men calling themselves the Jackson County Vigilance Committee stopped the train, took the bandits off and hanged them.

Jerrell, Moore and Sparks were caught on July 21, and were taken by wagon toward Seymour. But the wagon was ambushed and the three men were also lynched.

On July 27 Bill and Sim Reno were captured by the Pinkertons and put into a heavily guarded prison about 80km south of Seymour in New Albany.

Frank Reno and Anderson were arrested in Canada and brought back to New Albany by Alan Pinkerton to be interned with the surviving gang members. On December 11, 1868 a mob of 100 vigilantes stormed the prison and lynched the rest.