What happens when a criminal empire is born in your own backyard? In our premier episode, host Erica is joined by her best friend and fellow Jackson County local, Heather, to track the blood-soaked history of America's very first moving train robbers: The Reno Brothers Gang.

With both hosts bringing a professional background in probation, corrections, and social work, they look past the standard textbook history to dissect a chilling cycle of criminal escalation, systemic corruption, and local terror. From their early days as Civil War bounty jumpers to the massive heist at the Seymour depot, the Renos ruled the region—until the community reached its breaking point. We walk you through the dark history of the Scarlet Mask Society, the brutal lynchings at Hangman’s Crossing, and the final, shocking act of vigilante justice inside the Floyd County Jail.

📍 Locations Visited & Discussed in this Episode

• The Rockford Homestead / Lydia Grove: The original Reno family farming ground where a strict upbringing gave way to arson and horse thievery.

• The Seymour Depot: Site of the historic October 6, 1866, train robbery where the gang made off with over $16,000 in cash.

• Hangman’s Crossing: The isolated rail switch west of Seymour where a mob of 200 regulators wearing scarlet masks took the law into their own hands.

• The Reno Gravesites: The iron-gated plot where Frank, Simeon, and William Reno rest today.

⏱️ Timeline & Episode Highlights

– Intro: Erica and Heather introduce their local roots and share their personal journey exploring these dark historic sites.

– The Rockford Roots: A look at the Reno family background and how petty crimes quickly escalated into an organized syndicate.

– The Heist & The Pinkertons: Breaking down the historic 1866 train robbery, the modern-day value of the stolen safe, and the arrival of undercover detective Dick Winscott.

– The Scarlet Mask Society: The rise of Jackson County's vigilante committee and the brutal reality of what took place at Hangman’s Crossing.

– Midnight Train to New Albany & Outro: The final lynching of the Reno brothers and a closing discussion on due process versus vigilante justice.

Professional Insights from Erica & Heather

• Criminal Escalation: How the Renos' transition from serial arson and fraud to organized train heists mimics modern patterns of criminal escalation—and why early intervention systems are vital.

• Systemic Collapse: A look at how easily witness intimidation, public corruption, and a lack of cross-county communication allowed a 19th-century gang to bypass the local judicial structure entirely.

• The Trauma of Vigilante Justice: Why street justice never truly heals a community, but instead leaves multi-generational scars of fear and trauma.

🔗 Connect with Indiana True Crime

• Host: Erica

• Special Guest: Heather

• Follow on TikTok: [@IndianaTrueCrime] for exclusive B-roll footage, behind-the-scenes exploration, and video deep-dives from the field.

If you listen to a lot of true crime, you already know there is an invisible script most stories follow. We are used to hearing about the "perfect" victim—stories that comfortably fit into a neat, marketable headline. But the reality of who vanishes or gets hurt in this country is a lot messier, and a lot darker, than what fills our national feeds.

In criminology, the term "Less Dead" describes a class of victims who are essentially marginalized twice: first by their attacker, and second by a system and a society that looks at their lifestyle, their race, their income, or their struggles, and decides their absence isn't worth a headline.

In this episode, host Erica crumples up that template and throws it in the trash. We travel across the entire state of Indiana—from the far northern borders down through Indianapolis and into our southern river communities—to look past the official silence, past the frozen case files, and shine an unyielding spotlight on six names that never got the urgency or headlines they deserved. Because a human life isn't valued by a flawless background. We all carry the exact same weight.

• – Intro: Demolishing the "perfect victim" narrative and defining the systemic apathy behind the criminology term, the "Less Dead."
• – Case 1: Alexandra "Alex" Anaya (Hammond, IN): A 13-year-old child abducted from her home in 2005, whose horrific, premeditated case became caught in a devastating administrative limbo across state lines.
• – Case 2: Crystal Grubb (Bloomington, IN): A mother of two whose 2010 disappearance and murder were heavily overshadowed by socioeconomic divides, illustrating a staggering disparity in community and media response.
• – Case 3: Angie Barlow (Indianapolis, IN): A fierce, intelligent 23-year-old woman who built her own digital safety net before a private party gig in 2016, only to have her right to safety erased by public judgment of her profession.
• – Case 4: Diamond Bynum & King Walker (Gary, IN): A highly vulnerable 21-year-old woman living with a rare genetic disorder and her 2-year-old nephew who vanished into thin air in 2015, facing rigid bureaucratic hurdles that delayed the initial response.
• – Case 5: Larissa Sam (Indianapolis, IN): A young mother, talented musician, and dancer who disappeared after her shift in 2015, whose case reveals the cold, calculated digital footprints left behind by predators exploiting systemic blind spots.
• – Case 6: Andi Wagner (Evansville, IN): A beloved daughter and mother whose exhausting struggle with housing instability and substance use disorder was used as an active eraser by public bulletins, despite major federal and state forensic interventions in 2024.
• – Conclusion: A call to action for the true crime community to look past the labels, street names, and lifestyles, and remember that the right to justice is absolute.

Thanks for listening and until next week, keep digging, stay safe, and remember what's lurking just beneath the Indiana surface.

Explore how ambitions for wealth and power drove a small-town kid to mastermind Indiana's largest financial fraud, leaving hundreds devastated. Discover the journey from humble beginnings to a lavish lifestyle and the reckoning that followed.

In this episode:

• The early life of Tim Durham in Seymour, Indiana, and his childhood aspirations
• How Durham became a successful lawyer and venture capitalist in Indianapolis
• The rise of his luxurious lifestyle: a mansion, exotic cars, and high-profile parties
• The details of the $200 million Ponzi scheme and its victims
• Durham’s arrest, trial, and 50-year federal prison sentence
• Parallels with local cases of greed and lack of conscience
• Reflection on the impact of social media in exposing wealth disparities

Resources & Links:

• Tim Durham and Fair Finance Case Details on Wikipedia
• Durham's exploits are featured in the 2015 episode "Playboy of Indiana", of the television series American Greed.

Our guest Nolan Brewer:

Nolan has worked at the library for 20 years and has his BA in Philosophy from ISU and MLIS from IUPUI. He stated that he is really into TV/Film and reading and he has a beloved cat named Alley.

Notable Quotes:

• "He traded it all for a cell in a federal pen."
• “Greed has no conscience, especially when it leaves a trail of shattered lives.”

Stay curious, dig deeper, and remember: not all that glitters is gold.