Reno Gang’s Reign Of Terror

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Meanwhile, Frank Reno, Charlie Anderson and Albert Perkins were located by the Pinkertons in Windsor, a rough-and-tumble Canadian border town. Pinkerton operatives identified a saloon that was used as a gang hangout and eventually prevailed upon the Windsor police to arrest the three fugitives in early August 1868. When the extradition papers failed to appear, the men were released, but Reno and Anderson were again arrested in Canada on August 8. Allan Pinkerton and the Indiana authorities attempted to gain the extradition of the fugitive pair, and an international drama ensued. Pinkerton sent a formal letter, arrest warrants and descriptions of the gang’s crimes to U.S. Secretary of State William Seward, whom Pinkerton knew from his Civil War days. Letters passed from the United States to Canada and Great Britain and back. When it seemed that Canadian Governor-General Viscount Monck was ready to give in and deliver the two outlaws, the Queen’s Council demanded a letter of assurance from U.S. President Andrew Johnson that the gang members would receive protection from Indiana lynching parties. Finally, in October 1868, Frank Reno and Charlie Anderson were released to the custody of Allan Pinkerton.

Pinkerton brought his prisoners by steamer to Cleveland. From there, they took a train to Cincinnati and a steamer to Louisville, Ky. Next, Reno and Anderson were ferried across the Ohio River to New Albany on October 29. Floyd County Sheriff Thomas J. Fullenlove took custody of the pair and put them in jail with the other gang members. Each of them occupied an individual cell in the big stone jail, considered the strongest in southern Indiana. Now it remained to be seen whether the Reno Gang would face a lynch mob. ‘We do not believe that there is any danger of the Jackson County Vigilance Committee extending their visit to New Albany,’ said Sheriff Fullenlove. ‘They will be sure to meet a hot reception….These men were sent here for safekeeping and they will be safely kept if it is in the power of the authorities to do so.’

On the night of December 11, 1868, however, the vigilantes in their scarlet masks went into action. A Jefferson, Madison & Indianapolis train chugged out of the Seymour depot without lights shining or its bell and whistle sounding. The train carried a large group of vigilantes to Jeffersonville, arriving there after midnight. The vigilantes then commandeered another small train, which brought them to the Pearl Street Station in New Albany at about 3 a.m. on December 12.

The masked men, about 100 of them, formed into columns, led by squad leaders with coats turned inside out and numbers chalked on their backs. A man referred to as Number One started the march to the jail with the words ‘Salus Populi Suprema Lex‘ (’The Wish of the People is the Supreme Law’). When the vigilantes, armed with revolvers and clubs, arrived at the jail, the leader pounded on the door. Jailer Luther Whitten opened the door, and he was quickly overpowered by the mob. Whitten managed to sound the alarm, waking Sheriff Fullenlove in the next room. Fullenlove tried to go for help but was shot in the arm by one of the mob. Two Floyd County commissioners, who were also spending the night in the jailhouse, were taken into custody along with the sheriff and his wife. Fullenlove refused to hand over the keys to the cells, but, after a detailed search, a member of the mob found the keys in the drawer of a washstand.

The vigilantes hurried to the iron door that led to the cellblock and there encountered another jailer, Thomas Matthews. After these men on a mission threatened to hang him with the prisoners, Matthews opened the door. One by one, the doors to the individual cells were opened and the terrified prisoners extracted. Frank Reno was first on the death list. A preknotted noose or halter was placed over his head, then secured to an iron pillar near the stairwell leading to the second-floor cells. The oldest Reno brother was then pushed from the landing. William, the youngest of the brothers, was next, and he was hanged beside Frank. When the vigilantes entered the cell of Sim Reno, he fought madly, but they overpowered him and strung him up in the southwest corner of the jail, his feet barely grazing the ground. It took him almost half an hour to strangle to death. Last was Charlie Anderson, who had to be hanged twice, as the first rope broke. The grisly action unfolded quickly, and the vigilantes left the jail by 5 a.m., taking one of the commissioners as a hostage. They reboarded the train at the foot of State Street and returned to Jeffersonville, then back to Seymour. The bodies of the three Reno brothers were turned over to their sister, Laura, and Frank Reno’s widow, Sarah, and they were buried in Seymour.

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