In 1866, after the end of the Civil War, some Americans were unhappy with their economic prospects. Among them were the Reno brothers — Frank, William, Simeon, and John — who lived in Indiana. They decided to improve their financial situation by robbing trains.
Perhaps they were inspired by attacks on trains by both sides during the war, intended to disrupt supply operations. In any case, the Reno brothers were the first civilians to go into the business. They assembled a gang and headed for Seymour, Indiana. At 6:30 p.m. on October 6, 1866, they committed the first train robbery in U.S. history, escaping with over $10,000, a substantial sum in those days.
Two members of the gang were arrested, but they were released after the only person willing to testify against them was shot and killed, and the Reno brothers carried on. During the next two years they robbed three more trains. One robbery, in Marshfield, Indiana, netted them $96,000.
Distressed by the condition of law enforcement in their state, the citizens of Indiana formed not just one, but two vigilante groups: the Jackson County Vigilance Committee, and the Scarlet Mask Society. As a result, vigilantes were readily available when three captured members of the Reno gang were being carried across the state by train.
The vigilantes yanked the gang members off the train and hung them from a nearby tree. A few days later, the vigilantes hauled three more captured gang members off a wagon. They hung them, too, from the very same tree. The tree was near Seymour, at the spot shown in the photo above. (The cross street is Route 50.) It has been known ever since as Hangman Crossing.
The Reno brothers themselves escaped being hung at Hangman Crossing because they were in jail. One, John, was being held in Missouri, but Frank, William, and Simeon were imprisoned in New Albany, Indiana. On December 12, 1868, one hundred vigilantes descended on the New Albany jail, overpowered the prison guards, led the three brothers outside, and hung them on the spot.
You can visit the graves of the Reno brothers. They are in Seymour’s city cemetery, fenced off and clearly marked. Except for John’s, that is. By virtue of being imprisoned in Missouri, he escaped lynching and died peacefully in 1895.
Hangman Crossing is now an unincorporated community. If you wish to live there, you might buy a house in a near-by development. It is known simply as “The Crossing.”
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Photo by the author.