The Wild West of America

Here is some history from my Reno side of the family.... Nothing glamourous about it but very interesting to me. No I did not write this.. I copied and pasted from the internet. hee hee I am so glad that robbing is not a make up in our genes. hee hee They also had a sister named Laura. I think her full name was Laura Lee Reno. I say I think because I do know there was a Laura Lee Reno in my ancestory but not for sure if it was her. I only know that they had a sister name Laura Reno. I also know that they came from a very strick religious up bringing. Well I hope you enjoy reading a little of the wild west history or America.
Frank Reno was born in Jackson County in about 1840. During the American Civil War federal recruiting officers paid a cash bounty to each man who signed up for military service. So the Reno brothers (Frank, John, Simeon, Clinton and William) became bounty jumpers. They joined up, took the money and then deserted from the Union Army. They then moved to another part of the state and repeated the process.
On 6th October, 1866, the Reno brothers committed the first train robbery in American history at Seymour, Indiana. It was a great success and the gang galloped away with $10,000. This was followed by a bank raid in Missouri. Soon afterwards Allan Pinkerton and six of his agents arrested John Reno. He was convicted and sentenced to forty years hard labour.
Frank Reno led a raid on the Harrison County Bank in Magnolia, Iowa. This was followed by an attack on the Jefferson, Missouri and Indianapolis Railroad train on 22nd May, 1866. This time they got away with $96,000 in gold and government bonds. These activities continued and in 1868 the Southern Indiana Vigilance Committee published a leaflet warning that they would take revenge if the Reno brothers continued to break the law.
Pinkerton discovered the Reno gang planned to rob another train near Seymour. When the train was stopped, instead of gold, it contained Pinkerton and his men. After a gunfight the Reno brothers tried to escape from the scene of the crime. Three members of the gang were captured and lynched by a local vigilante group. Frank, William and Simeon Reno, as well as Michael Rogers, Miles Ogle, Charlie Anderson, Albert Parsons and Charles Spencer were also captured.
On 12th December, 1868, 56 hooded men entered New Albany jail. Frank Reno was the first to be dragged from his cell to be lynched. He was followed by his two brothers, William and Simeon. Another gang member, Charlie Anderson, was also lynched.
Lynchings
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 by a group of masked men calling itself the Jackson County Vigilance Committee and hung by the neck from a nearby tree. Three other three 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 hung from the same tree. The site became known as Hangman Crossing, Indiana.[5]
On July 27, 1868, the Pinkertons captured William and Simeon Reno in Indianapolis. The men were jailed in Lexington, Indiana. They were tried and convicted of robbing the Marshfield train, but because of the threat of vigilantes, they were moved to the more secure New Albany jail. The day after their removal from Lexington, the vigilantes broke into the jail, hoping to catch and lynch the men.[5] Frank Reno, the gang's leader, and Charlie Anderson were tracked down to a Canadian border town of Windsor, Ontario. With the help of United States Secretary of State William H. Seward, then men were extradited in October, under the provisions of the 1842 Webster-Ashburton Treaty. Both men were sent to New Albany where they joined the other prisoners.[6]
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 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 executed, 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.[6]
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 William Henry Seward, Sr 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 extradicted prisoners.[6]

Movies about the Gang
Rage at Dawn is a 1955 Hollywood film based on the Reno brothers. Forrest Tucker, born in Plainfield, Indiana, played Frank Reno.
Love Me Tender starred Elvis Presley in his film debut as "Honest" Clint Reno. (The real Clint, while not a member of the gang, also had several run-ins with the law.) The plot was loosely based on the Reno brothers (the original movie title) and included a brother going off to fight in the Civil War and later taking part in a train robbery.