Johnson, Andrew (1808-1875) 17th President of the United States (1865-1869). Partly-printed document signed as President, one page, 8 1/8 x 10¾ in., Washington, Sept. 16, 1868. Authorizing and directing the Secretary of State to affix the seal to "a Warrant authorizing Lee C. Weir and Emanuel Stocket or either of them, to receive into custody Frank Reno, Charles Anderson, Albert Perkins and Charles Spencer…." Some edge chips and ink spatters at left edge, else fine.
The four men named in the document were members of the infamous Reno Gang, which committed the first peacetime robbery of a train in the United States. On October 6, 1866, the Ohio & Mississippi train was robbed shortly after it left Seymour, Indiana, and the Pinkerton National Detective Agency traced the crime to the Reno Gang. Not long thereafter, the James and Younger brothers, the Daltons, the Cooks, the Burrows, the Wild Bunch, and others would follow the example of the Reno Gang and terrorize the Midwest.
Composed entirely of Hoosiers and led by the Reno brothers, John and then Frank, the gang led safe-cracking raids, organized the country's first band of counterfeiters, and committed murder and mayhem, all with impunity, until a group of citizens in Jackson County, Indiana, took matters into their own hands. With the backing of the railroads and the Pinkerton Detective Agency, who had been retained by the Adams Express Company, a Vigilance Committee was formed and within five days in July 1868, they hanged six members of the gang to the same tree.
Some of the gang had fled to Canada and Allan Pinkerton received a telegram that Frank Reno and Charles Anderson had been arrested in Windsor, Canada. After involved extradition negotiations, and only after the U.S. Government promised that the men would be given a fair trial, the men were returned to the United States. Pinkerton delivered them to the jail in New Albany, where two other Reno brothers were locked up.
Early in the morning of Dec. 12, 1868, some 60 members of the Vigilance Committee, wearing red flannel masks, forced their way into the jail and lynched Frank Reno and Charles Anderson, as well as William and Simeon Reno. Because Frank Reno and Charlie Anderson were technically in federal custody when they were lynched, this is thought to be the only time in U.S. history that a federal prisoner was lynched by a mob before a trial. The lynchings created an international incident with Canada and Britain and Secretary of State Seward was forced to write a formal letter of apology. A bill was later introduced into the U.S. Congress that clarified responsibility for the safety of extradited prisoners.
None of the vigilantes was ever identified. Estimated Value $2,000 - 3,000
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