19. You Did Not Want to Check Into Frank Reno’s Hotel
After Frank Reno was acquitted, he and his gang grew more violent. They effectively took over the small town of Rockford Indiana, whose Rader House hotel became their headquarters. It also became a ghoulish nineteenth-century version of The Hotel California, where you can check out anytime you want, but you can never leave: the Reno gang robbed and murdered unwary travelers who checked in.
Frank Reno soon expanded his reach and ambition and began robbing trains and banks and raiding communities throughout the Midwest. After his first train robbery in 1866 – history’s first peacetime train robbery – a passenger identified Frank’s brother, John, and two other gang members, who were arrested. The witness was shot dead soon thereafter, at which point the other passengers refused to testify and the charges were dropped.
