29. Robbing a Court
Frank Reno and his gang demonstrated their utter contempt for the law in 1867, when they attacked and robbed a county courthouse in Missouri. This time, the gang did not get away Scot free: Frank’s brother John was eventually tried and convicted for that crime and received a 25-year sentence behind bars. A vigilante group was formed to hunt down Frank and the rest of the gang, so in early 1868, they fled to Iowa.
There, they put their mark on their new stomping grounds by attacking and robbing two-county treasuries on successive days. The gang was eventually arrested, but they managed to break out of jail, and escape to Indiana, where they resumed robbing trains. One such robbery netted them $96,000, a significant chunk of money in those days, and made the Reno Gang famous in the US and around the world.