True Detective Stories from the Archives of the PinkertonsMoffett, Cleveland
History
True Detective Stories from the Archives of the Pinkertons
Moffett, Cleveland
Crime -- United States; Criminals -- United States; Detective and mystery stories, American
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
Jeffersonville Railroad early in 1867. 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 county treasurer's safe at Gallatin, in Daviess 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 intrenched in the midst of corrupt officials and an
intimidated populace that any plan of open arrest was out of the
question. Recognizing this, Allan Pinkerton had recourse 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 pretense 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
Daviess 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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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