Seymour, Indiana - Reno Brothers, Train Robbers: Hanging Spot, Graves

The first planned train robbery in the US happened in Seymour by the Reno Gang. Three Reno brothers were caught and hanged in a tree. That area is still known as Hangman's Crossing.

The gravestones for three of the Reno brothers are in the old city cemetery in Seymour. One of the stones was stolen several years ago and recently found and returned. [leb, 08/17/2009]

[RA: The line between that train robbery, the hanging, and the graves is not so simple. Hangman's Crossing, an unincorporated town, is a couple miles west of Seymour. A group of vigilantes stopped a train carrying three Reno brothers' henchmen already in captivity, and hanged them at this spot. A few days later they stopped a wagon with three more captured Reno gang members and hanged them from the same tree. The Reno brothers did not meet their end at Hangman's Crossing -- they were in jail in New Albany on Dec. 11, 1868, so the vigilantes had to commute a fair distance to break in and hang the brothers there. Seymour's other claim to fame is that it's the hometown of John Cougar Mellencamp.]