Where Did the Loot Go?

Whatever happened to the $97,000 from the Reno Gang's last heist?

- MARK BOARDMAN

This is one of those "find the money" stories. And it's one that has attracted treasure hunters for more than 150 years.

It goes back to May 22, 1868. Up to a dozen members of the Reno Gang stopped a Jeffersonville, Madison and Indianapolis train at a watering station in southern Indiana. The outlaws had prior intelligence about its main load: express car safes held about $97,000 in government bonds and notes. In the process of the job, one of the crew was killed and two others hurt. The gang made a clean getaway with the loot.

For the moment.

Vigilantes lynched 11 of the outlaws in three separate incidents over the next six-and-a-half months. But ongoing searches―some official, some by treasure hunters-never turned up the stolen money. Where is it?

I've been studying the Renos for some 30 years, and I've got some theories.