Adams Funds

3.

Public Service Corporations, American Telegraph and Telephone Company, Adams Express Company.

4.

Industrial Corporations, United States Steel Corporation, Pullman Company.

End of The Rock Island Express CHAPTER V.

TRUE DETECTIVE STORIES FROM THE ARCHIVES OF THE PINKERTONS the first and probably the most daring band of train robbers that ever operated in the united states was the notorious reno gang an association of desperate outlaws who in the years immediately following the war committed crimes without number in missouri and indiana and for some time terrorized several counties in the region about seymour in the last-named state the leaders of this band were four brothers john reno frank reno sim reno and william reno who rivalled one another in a spirit of lawlessness that must have been born in their blood through the union of a hardy swiss emigrant with a woman sprung from the pennsylvania dutch of the six children from this marriage only one escaped the restless law-despising taint that made the others desperate characters the single white sheep being clint reno familiarly known as honest reno and much despised by the rest of the family for his peaceful ways even laura reno the one daughter famed throughout the west for her beauty loved danger and adventure was an expert horsewoman an unerring shot and as quick with her gun as any man laura fairly worshipped her desperado brothers whom she aided in more than one of their criminal undertakings shielding them from justice when hard pressed and swearing to avenge them when retribution overtook them after their days of triumph during the war the renos had become notorious as bounty jumpers and at its close with a fine scorn for the ways of commonplace industry these fierce-hearted dashing young fellows all well-built handsome boys cast about for further means of excitement and opportunities to make an easy living beginning their operations in a small way with housebreaking and store robberies they soon proved themselves so reckless in their daring so fertile in expedients so successful in their coups that they quickly extended their field until in the early part of eighteen sixty six they had placed a wide region under contribution setting all forms of law at defiance john reno and frank reno the elder brothers were at this time the dominating spirits of the band and they soon associated with them several of the most skilful and notorious counterfeiters and safe burglars in the country among these being peter mccartney james and robert rittenhouse george mackay john dean alias california nels and william hopkins the band soon came to be named with the greatest dread and awe good citizens fearing to speak a word of censure lest swift punishment be visited upon them the reno influence made itself felt even in local politics corrupt officials being elected at the instigation of the outlaws so that their conviction became practically impossible the renos toward the end of eighteen sixty six began a series of train robberies which were carried out with such perfection of organization such amazing coolness and such uniform success as to attract national attention the first of these robberies took place on the ohio and mississippi railroad being accomplished by only four men frank and john reno assisted by william sparks and charles geroll other train robberies followed in quick succession the same methods being used in each with the same immunity from capture so that people in this region would say to one another quite as a matter of course the reno boys got away with another train yesterday but while indulging in its own acts of outlawry the reno band strenuously objected to any rivalry or competition on the part of other highwaymen a train robbery was perpetrated on the jefferson railroad early in eighteen sixty seven the renos had no connection with this robbery it was accomplished by two young men named michael collins and walker hammond the two men escaping with six thousand dollars taken from a messenger of the adams express company but their horses had carried them only a short distance from the looted train when they found themselves surrounded by the formidable renos who had quietly watched the robbery from a place of concealment and now unceremoniously relieved the robbers of their plunder not content with this and as if to intimidate others from like trespasses on their preserves the renos used their influence to have their rivals arrested for the crime by which they had profited so little and both were subsequently tried convicted and sentenced to long terms in the indiana penitentiary the renos meantime although they were known to have secured and kept the six thousand dollars were allowed to go unmolested and continued their depredations up to this time the reno gang had confined their operations for the most part to indiana but now they began to make themselves felt in missouri where a number of daring crimes were committed notably the robbing of the country treasurer's safe at gallatin in davis county in this last act john reno was known to have been personally concerned the case was placed in the hands of allan pinkerton taking up the investigation with his accustomed energy mr pinkerton traced john reno back to seymour indiana where the gang was so strongly entrenched in the midst of corrupt officials and an intimidated populace that any plan of open arrest was out of the question recognising this allan pinkerton had records to the cunning of his craft he began by stationing in seymour a trustworthy assistant who was instructed on a given day and at a given hour to decoy john reno to the railroad station on any pretence that might suggest itself then he arranged to have half a dozen missourians the biggest and most powerful fellows he could find led by the sheriff of davis county board an express train on the ohio and mississippi railroad at cincinnati and ride through to seymour arriving there at the time agreed upon with his assistant along with them was to be a constable bearing all the papers necessary to execute a requisition when the train reached seymour there was the usual crowd lounging about the station and in it were john reno and mr pinkerton's lieutenant who had entirely succeeded in his task while reno was staring at the passengers as they left the train he was suddenly surrounded and seized by a dozen strong arms and before his friends could rally to his aid or realise what was happening he was clapped in irons carried aboard the train and soon was rolling away to missouri under arrest reno's friends stoutly contested the case in the missouri courts arguing that the prisoner had been kidnapped and that the law had therefore been violated by his captors The courts decided against them on this point, however, and John Reno, with several less important members of the gang, was tried and convicted.

He was sentenced to twenty-five years of hard labour in the Missouri Penitentiary.

This was the first break in the ranks of the band, the first instance in which they had suffered for their crimes.

The three brothers, Frank, William, and Sim, though still at large, were not left long to enjoy their liberty.

A large price was placed on their heads, and betrayal came quickly.

william and sim were arrested soon after in indianapolis and turned over to the local authorities who in order to avoid the vigilance committee took the prisoners to new albany in an adjoining county where they were placed in jail the vigilance committee growing stronger and more determined every day now scoured the whole country for other members of the gang or for persons believed to be in sympathy with it they literally went on the war-path through this whole region of indiana and it went ill with any poor wretch who incurred their suspicion like the whitecaps of a later day they sent warnings to all who came on their black list and administered by night and sometimes by day such promiscuous floggings and other forms of punishment that the tough and criminal element of the region was entirely cowed and feared to raise a hand in defence of the renos as it had previously done up to the time the vigilance committee was formed not a member of the reno gang had been convicted in that locality largely because the people were afraid to testify against them they knew that if they should testify their stock would be killed their barns burned and they themselves waylaid and beaten this was the reason offered for the formation of the vigilance committee of southern indiana whether a justification or not the committee must certainly be credited with having rid the state of a monstrous evil in the excitement of other events the pinkertons had not forgotten the man who had escaped from the glenwood jail they finally traced miles ogle and albert perkins to indianapolis and there ogle was captured but perkins escaped frank reno was discovered a little later at windsor canada where he was living with charles anderson a professional burglar safe-blower and short-card gambler who had fled to canada to escape prosecution reno operating with anderson made a practice of registering as frank going if the enterprise in which he was engaged was prospering and as frank coming if it was not prospering he and anderson were now arrested on a charge of robbery and of assault with intent to kill in the case of the express messenger hurled from his car at marshfield indiana under this form their offence became extraditable and after a long trial before the stipendiary of government magistrate gilbert mcmichen at windsor the men were ordered for extradition aided by the ablest lawyers they carried their case however to the highest court in canada but the decision of the lower court was affirmed and in october eighteen sixty nine the men were surrendered into the hands of allan pinkerton who was delegated by the united states government to receive them it was due to the patience and persistence of mr alfred geither the western manager of the adams express company and his then assistant mr l c weir now president of the company and to the general policy of the company to permit no compromise with thieves that regardless of cost and time the prosecution was continued until it issued thus successfully.

michael rogers was also discovered to be in windsor at this time and he was known to have had a hand in the marshfield robbery but he escaped arrest and remained securely in windsor for a year or two later though he reached the penitentiary being brought to grief by a burglary done at tolono ill on coming out he joined the notorious mccartney gang of counterfeiters and had many narrow escapes last known of him grown an old man he was living quietly on a farm in texas made at last secure of reno and anderson allan pinkerton chartered a tug to carry them to cleveland and thus avoid the friends who as he had reason to know were waiting across the river in detroit to effect a rescue when the tug had gone about twenty miles it was run down by a large steamer and sunk the passengers including the prisoners being saved from drowning with the greatest difficulty the prisoners were carried on to cleveland by another boat and from there were carried on by rail to new albany where they were placed in jail along with sim and william the final passage in the history of the reno gang occurred about a month later in the latter part of november eighteen sixty eight when one day a passenger car was dropped off at seymour indiana some distance from the station there was nothing remarkable in this nor did the car attract any attention that night a train passing through seymour took up the car and threw it away a few people about the station when the car was taken up remembered afterward that this car was filled with strange-looking men who wore scotch caps and black cloth masks and seemed to be under the command of a tall dark-haired man addressed by every one as number one although there were at least fifty of these men it is a remarkable fact developed in a subsequent investigation that the conductor of the train could remember nothing about the incident declaring that he did not enter the car and knew nothing of its being attached to his train it is certain the company of masked men did everything in their power to avoid attention scarcely speaking to one another during the ride and making all their movements as noiseless as possible the train reached new albany at two o'clock in the morning the car was detached and was presently emptied of its fifty men as silently and mysteriously as it had been filled a few hurried commands were given by number one and then the company marched in quiet order to the jail arrived there they summoned the jailer to open the doors but were met with a firm refusal and the shining barrel of a revolver there followed an exchange of shots in which the sheriff received a ball in the arm and two local police officers were captured without loss of time the gaol doors were battered down the company entered and taking the three reno brothers and their friend charles anderson from their cells placed nooses that they had ready round the men's necks and hung them to the rafters in the corridors of the gaol then having locked the doors of the jail leaving the prisoners secure they made their way silently back to the new albany station reaching there in time to catch the train that drew out at three thirty a m the same special car in which they had come was coupled to this train and dropped off at the switch when seymour was reached this was just before daybreak on a dreary november morning who these fifty men were was never discovered although because of the fact that reno and anderson had been extradited from great britain the general government made an investigation it was rumoured however and generally understood that the company included some of the most prominent people in seymour among others a number of railroad and express employees it was found that at the time of the lynching all the telegraph wires leading from new albany had been cut so that it was noon of the following day before the country learned of it the newspapers described the leader of the party as a man of unusual stature who wore a handsome diamond ring on the little finger of his right hand later some significance was attached to the fact that a well-known railroad official who answered this description as to the stature and who had always worn a handsome diamond ring previous to the lynching ceased to wear his ring for several years afterward after the execution of her brothers it was rumoured that laura reno had taken an oath to devote the rest of her life to avenging them and for a moment there were threats and mutterings of reprisals from allies or surviving members of the gang but these latter were not heard again after a certain morning the third day after the execution when the people of seymour on leaving their homes were startled to see on the walls and in other public places large posters proclaiming that if any property was injured or destroyed or any persons molested or assaulted or if there was any further talk in regard to recent happenings some twenty-five persons therein frankly named who were known to be sympathisers with the renos or to be more or less intimately connected with them had better beware and as for the sister's deadly oath she did no act in proof of the violent intentions imputed to her but instead subsequently became the wife of a respectable man and settled down to a useful life though a much more commonplace one than she had previously known john reno after serving fifteen years in the missouri penitentiary was released and is said to be at present living on the old farm clint reno or honest reno always stayed at the old homestead and has never been willing to speak of his brothers or of what happened to them seymour purged of the evil influences that corrupted it has grown into a thriving and beautiful little city and is today one of the model towns of Indiana.