The Reno brothers, John and Simeon, staged the first train robbery in
American history, making off with $13,000 from an Ohio and Mississippi
railroad train in Jackson County, Indiana.

Of course, trains had been robbed before the Reno brothers’ holdup. But
these previous crimes had all been burglaries of stationary trains sitting
in depots or freight yards. The Reno brothers’ contribution to criminal
history was to stop a moving train in a sparsely populated region where
they could carry out their crime without risking interference from the law
or curious bystanders.

 
       Frank Reno (1837 – 1868)       John Reno (1839 – 1895)        

The Reno Gang