Hoosier outlaws pull a fast one on their jailers.

On this date in 1868, those words are written above a hole in the wall of the Council Bluffs, Iowa jail. Outlaw leader Frank Reno and two of his cohorts have escaped. They were arrested a few days before by detective William Pinkerton after robbing three county treasuries (netting nearly $50,000). But the jail isn’t strong enough to hold them. They make their way back to the home base of Indiana.

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