Lawrence Reno is a detective, like his grandfather before him. Beginning in the late 1800s, William H. Reno worked as a law enforcement officer and special agent for 40-plus years. He carved out his own niche in U.S. Western history, first as a detective with the Denver police force, then in the employ of railroads and other utilities. He tracked down a number of criminals, often train robbers, including three-fifths of the Fort Worth Five, a band of outlaws whose other two members were Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

William’s grandson knew none of this.

That innocent ignorance came to an end about a decade ago, however, after Lawrence’s father had passed away. Reno came across his grandfather’s briefcase, and inside he found a collection of newspaper clippings detailing his grandfather’s cases. A Denver attorney by day and admitted history enthusiast, Reno set about tracking down the clues of his grandfather’s colorful past. He is committed also to telling the tale for others to enjoy.

“I’m about halfway through writing his biography,” says Reno, whose love of history took hold when a student at Andover. “It’s interesting how I keep running into new information all of the time.”

For example, William Reno came out of retirement to serve as a special consultant for the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company. He operated as a spymaster of sorts, overseeing three operatives who managed to infiltrate the workers’ union during a labor strike. Information collected was forwarded to officials of the company, which, at the time, was owned by the Rockefeller family.

“In my grandfather’s last address book, I found the name of John D. Rockefeller Jr.,” says Reno. “He got to know a lot of the really important people of the time.”

Reno has a number of “important people” in his own bloodline. Perched in his family tree are the likes of Major General Jesse Lee Reno, for whom cities and counties in the West are named; Major Marcus A. Reno, second in command under Custer at Little Bighorn; and Charles Floyd and Nathaniel Pryor, a pair of sergeants who accompanied Lewis and Clark on their famous mission of exploration. Reno has authored a book on Pryor (The Life and Times of Nathaniel Hale Pryor, Turkey Creek Publishing, 2006), but it was interest in his own grandfather that ignited his passion for the Old West.

Today, Reno sits on the board of the Western Outlaw Lawman History Association (WOLA), an organization boasting approximately 500 members worldwide, each with a specialty regarding the Old West. Reno joined primarily to learn fellow members’ methods of research. But soon he, too, began to field requests from curious information-seekers who submitted questions via the WOLA Web site.

“We pretty well know who is interested in what,” explains Reno. “If it’s a ‘Doc’ Holliday question, probably three or four people might take that on. One of our board members is actually related
to ‘Doc’ Holliday. We have that quite a bit, where some of the members are related to some of the more famous outlaws or lawmen.”

Other times, connections between researcher and subject are discovered along the way. Case in point: In 2001, an Ohio man contacted WOLA regarding an old Colt pistol he had purchased at auction; the weapon was engraved with the following: Edward Keith Detective Agency, Denver, Colorado. So, much like his grandfather once chased down outlaws, Reno set upon the paper trail of Edward Keith—and was stunned where it led him. A trial report in an 1896 Denver newspaper recounts Keith’s courtroom reference
to his school days…at Andover.

Keith also worked a couple of cases with Reno’s grandfather. Reno garnered this information from a series of scrapbooks assembled by Sam Howe, a colleague and friend of Reno’s grandfather who achieved the rank of chief of detectives with the Denver police force. The scrapbooks, now preserved in the archives of the Denver Historical Society, offer a detailed account of criminal activity in the Denver area, indexed for what surely was intended to be easy use. Reno, however, claims to be one of only two men to have deciphered Howe’s indexing system and therefore one of only a few outsiders allowed access to this wealth of information.

The Howe scrapbooks have proven to be a great resource as Reno researches his grandfather. Given William Reno’s storied past, though, it is surprising that Reno’s father told his son little of his grandfather’s work. Reno suspects his father also was unaware of the onetime detective’s exploits.

“It was a strange relationship at the time,” says Reno. “After my grandfather left the railroad and went with Colorado Fuel and Iron, he actually moved out to Trinidad, Colo., which is down in the southern part of the state. My father corresponded a lot with his father, but I don’t think he knew very much about what he did.”

Fortunately for lovers of the Old West, Lawrence Reno is now on the case.