Books: They Seldom Slept

THE PINKERTON STORY (366 pp.)—James D. Horan & Howard Swiggett—Putnam ($4.50).

In the late 1860s, just about the time Jesse James was blossoming in the Midwest, the four Reno boys were shooting up the area with a vigor that set a pattern for all outlaw brotherhoods to come. Though sadly neglected by folklore and Hollywood, the Reno boys were more original than the James or Younger brothers; they were the first to stage a train robbery in the U.S. (near Seymour, Ind. on the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad), and once they burned an entire...