Seymour, Indiana: Graves of America's First Train Robbers
The Reno Brothers pulled off America's first planned train robbery, but they were caught, hanged by vigilantes, and buried in the town cemetery.
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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.
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Graves of America's First Train Robbers
St. Ambrose Cemetery
- Address:
- E. 9th St., Seymour, IN
- Directions:
- The St. Ambrose Cemetery grave is just north 9th St., closest to Shields Ave., with a small fence around the tombstones. Hangman Crossing is about 2.5 miles west of town on US Hwy 50, at a railroad crossing.
- Admission:
- Free.
Nearby Offbeat Places
John Mellencamp Mural, Seymour, IN - < 1 mi.
Freeman Army Airfield Museum, Seymour, IN - 3 mi.
Limestone Pillars - Veterans Memorial, Columbus, IN - 16 mi.Latest Tips Across Roadside America
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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.