The First Train Robbery

I was born in '43

Down in Jackson County

Daddy was a farmer

We were tired of being poor

My brothers taught me how to steal

And live by jumpin' bounty

But I learned how to kill

In Lincoln's dirty war

When the fight was over

I returned to mother

I promised her I'd go to work and be an honest son

But in Seymour, Indiana, I met up with my brothers

They said, "Here comes the O and M" and handed me a gun

Goodbye brothers and all the Reno gang

Me and Frank and William, together we will hang

And goodbye sister, Laura, true and lovely

Tell everyone that we swung for the first train robbery

We boarded at the station and steamed through the holler

The engineer, out of fear, stopped that rolling train

We broke into the mail car and found those silver dollars

But I saw a neighbor's face as we made away

I said, "Boy, there was a witness, so before we split a penny

We need to find him and be sure he'll never testify"

So we stole into Seymour and shot poor Mr. Kinney

Though he fell to his knees and pleaded for his life

Goodbye brothers and all the Reno gang

Me and Frank and William, together we will hang

And goodbye sister, Laura, true and lovely

Tell everyone that we swung for the first train robbery

For three years longer, we lived on steak and brandy

'Til the Pinkerton agents threw us in this jail

Now I hear the voices of the vigilantes

Say, let's put the Reno boy on the train to hell

Goodbye brothers and all the Reno gang

Me and Frank and William, together we will hang

And goodbye sister, Laura, true and lovely

Tell everyone that we swung for the first train robbery