John and Jim Reynolds were two members of the Reynolds Gang, a group of Confederate soldiers assigned to disrupt Union supply lines in Colorado. The practice at the time was to only steal the goods being transported and to leave the passengers and drivers alone. During a robbery in July 1864, the battalion breached a code of "outlaw" etiquette when they took 16 cents and a pocket watch from Abner (or Absalom) Williamson, the stagecoach driver. Rather than being simply the stagecoach driver, Williamson was a member of the Colorado State Militia under the command of Colonel John Chivington (1821-1894). On 31 Jul 1864, a posse stumbled upon the gang's campsite and captured five members; the rest escaped. The men were found guilty of robbery (there was never any evidence of murder) and were being held for sentencing, which would be prison time. Chivington was dissatisfied with this, so he ordered his men to shoot the prisoners while they were "trying to escape." The prisoners were shackled together around the trunk of a large tree, and most of Chivington's men refused; Williamson killed four of the five himself.
On his deathbed in 1871, John Reynolds confessed about the buried treasure in the hills west of Denver and drew a crude map of the approximate location of the plunder; the treasure was never found.
