The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1893-10-28
MILLIONS IN PLUMBER
TAKEN BY ROBBERS ON THE RAIL
Since the Days of the Reno Gang in In
diana Express Companies Have
Lost So, 100000.

committed in Indiana since the days OF
the Reno gang, whose first exploit, &C
cording to the Washington Post, marks
the rise of that now 1ourishing criminal
industry in the United States. One
night in September, 1866, as an express
train on the Ohio and Mississippi
slowed up at Brownstown, Ind, two
masked men covered the engineer and
fireman with revolvers, the passenger
coaches by others of the gang, and
the engineer was compelled to run
ahead some distance from the town,
where the Adams express messenger
was held up and robbed of $4,000. The
Renos were suspected but no evidence
of their guilt was forthcoming. A few
months later an east bound train was
robbed at the same point by two boys,
who were found out by their parents
and surrendered to the authorities
together with the SO 900 they had taken
from the express car.
Nearly year later the Renos-Frank,
Jesse and Sim, and relation named
Acknowledgment train on the In
dianapolis, Madison and Jacksonville
road at Seymour, their home, threw the
express messenger out of the car and
secured S145. 600 from the safe, with
which they fed to Canada, where
they were finally overtaken and ar
rested. Pending extradition proceed
ings for the surrender of the Renos,
half dozen young fellows living in
Seymour organized for the purpose of
robbing trains and planned an attack.
One of their number betrayed them,
however, and when the train was
stopped the gang found themselves
face to face with a resolute force of
armed deputies. All six of the robbers
were captured, and at daybreak were
taken out by a mob and hanged to
tree about mile from Seymour,
FOUR MORE OF THE GANG LYNoHED.
Shortly after this occurrence the
Renos were brought back from Canada
aud lodged in Jail at New Albany, Ind,
for safe keeping. A lynching party
had been formed at Seymour and, de-
termined not to be cheated of their
prey, went down to New Albany
thousand strong, battered down the
doors of the Jail, and after a bloody
struggle in the cells with the four out
laws, took them out and hanged them
to telegraph pole.
dramatic scene occurred one day in
the Adams Express Companys office,
when a man walked in, announced that
he was Jack Reno, the sole survivor of
the Reno gang, and that he had just
been pardoned from the penitentiary.
He laid a marble bible on the superin.
tendant's desk, said he knew the com
pany had the power to hang him, but
he had brought the book as evidence OF
his good intentions, and wanted to
know what the company was going to
do about it. He was told to go back
home, and since has been quietly liv
idg at Seymour, Indiana.
1t is worthy to record that while
scores of train robberies have occurred
since the lynching of those ten men al
Seymour and New Albany, and that il
many instances trainmen, express mes
sengers and passengers have beer
wantonly killed, in no case have the
perpetrators who have been appre
hended suffered the extreme penalty
either at the hands of Judge Lynch O
the legalized hangman.
Two years elapsed before anybod,
sought TO initiate the exploits of TIL
southern Indiana outlaws. 1t was Oh
July 81, 1870, that the train wreckini
and train robbing outrage near Council
Bluffs, Iowa, took place. Eight mel
tore up the track of the Chicago, Roc
Island and Pacific railroad, and whel
the train was derailed, killing the en-
gineer and injuring more than a dozei
passengers, the wreckers rushed on
from their hiding places, robbed thei
wounded and terrified victims, too
$4,000 from the express car. Althoug
reward of $780, 900 was offered for tn
robbers the guilty parties escaped wit
their booty.
The Council Bluffs horror was TO
lowed by an interval of stagnation Il
the business, and it was not until 1877
that the country was startled by an at
temnt To rnh 4 Nandalla exnress car a