The Reno gang in Indiana carried out the first U.S. train robbery, making off with more than $10,000 from an Ohio & Mississippi train in Jackson County.
The new method of sticking up moving trains became popular in the American West, where the recently constructed transcontinental and regional railroads made attractive targets. With the western economy booming, trains carried large stashes of cash and precious minerals. The isolated landscape was perfect for stopping trains and hiding from the law. Some gangs, like Butch Cassidy’s Wild Bunch, found robbing trains so easy and lucrative that, for a time, they made it their criminal specialty. Railroad owners eventually got wise and fought back, protecting their trains’ with large safes, armed guards and fortified boxcars.
The Reno gang came to an end in 1868 when they were captured and a mob stormed their Indiana jail, hanging brothers Frank, Simeon and William Reno and fellow gang member Charlie Anderson.
