With this silent, invisible killer stalking our small planet, one’s coping skills may become aberrant. With the self-imposed isolation and loneliness, I have occasionally begun to leave the television on for most of the day. Not because I sit in front of it and watch it, but to see some semblance of human activity other than my own. Since my TV reception is from an antennae, there are limited stations from which to choose. My number one choice is the western movie station. Why? Because by muting the sound I am sometimes rewarded with the most magnificent western panoramas of arroyos, buttes, canyons, cliffs, mesas, huge boulders and mountains with no shoot-them-up gun battles reverberating throughout the house. Thank goodness for mute buttons! Another reason is because of the horses. Have you ever noticed the gleaming coats and high spirited energy of the horses? Randolph Scott rides a sleek chestnut that has a white mane and tail. Another horse, a dapple grey, I have seen often. As an aside, I noticed a black and white movie with John Wayne, Randolph Scott and (I think) Marlene Dietrich starring. They could have passed for youngsters! And Randolph Scott was the bad guy! One day as I passed by the TV, script appeared across the lower screen: Southern Indiana, 1865. My curiosity was aroused, since I reside in Southern Indiana. The easy chair beckoned. It was a movie loosely based on fact. I can say that because after the movie was over, I researched the information. The movie, Rage At Dawn, was about the infamous Reno brothers who became outlaws. There were five brothers and a sister raised by a domineering farmer father who forced them to read the Bible every Sunday. The other six days the boys performed long hours of manual labor on the 1,200 acre Rockford, Indiana* farm. Four of the brothers, Frank, John, Simeon and William left the farm early and began a life of crime. Frank (left) John (right) Images via Wikepedia The fourth brother, Clinton, became a farmer and stayed away from his brothers but also got into trouble with the law later in life. (Legends of America, Internet) Laura, who was said to be as wild as her brothers in their youth, always supported them, but eventually married and became a model citizen. Although the movie doesn’t touch on how the gang grew in size, it became known as the first US of A “Brotherhood of Outlaws.” Their notoriety became well known since they were the first gang to ever rob a train. The robbery occurred in Seymour, Indiana on Oct.6, 1866. They continued their lives of crime, robbing post offices, stores, trains and murdering those who would betray them. They even controlled the citizens of Rockford with threats and bribes. Image via Legends of America Eventually, the Reno brothers and gang members were captured by Pinkerton detectives. As I recall, in the movie all the brothers were lynched. However, in real life, all but John were hung by vigilantes. But the Reno brothers had left in their wake other criminally-minded individuals emboldened by the train robbery successes of Indiana’s “Brotherhood of Outlaws”. These included the James Gang who robbed trains in the Wild West, the Burrow Gang who robbed trains in the South, Butch Cassidy’s gang and the Daltons. This is not a complete list but it does illuminate that dubious claim to fame for southern Indiana. By golly, we were the first to have train robbers! Here’s some Ward Foley wisdom, sounds “cowboy” to me: "We are not given a good life or a bad life. We are given LIFE And it’s up to us to make it Good or Bad.” [email protected] ©Ann Rains February, 2021
*Rockford, Indiana is no longer in existence. It was two miles south of Seymour, Indiana.
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