On 6 October 1866, brothers John and Simeon Reno staged what is generally believed to be the first train robbery in American history. Their take was $13,000 from an Ohio and Mississippi railroad train in Jackson County, Indiana.
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Piers Paul Read concluded they were all pretty ghastly. But he also alluded to three robbers who have never been apprehended; whom he and Bruce Reynolds called Bill Jennings, Frank Monroe and Alf Thomas. These were, as Read and Reynolds knew, pseudonyms. Alf Thomas's real name was Daniel Pembroke.
Usually, they boarded the train along with other passengers and waited for a good time to initiate the heist, or they would stop or derail the train and begin the holdup. Trains carrying payroll shipments were a significant target, even though an expressman guarded these shipments.
The robbers escaped with an estimated £2.6 million, which would have been worth about £46 million today, which they split amongst themselves. Most of the cash has never been recovered.