Al Jennings

Alphonso J. "Al" Jennings (November 25, 1863 – December 26, 1961) was an attorney in Oklahoma Territory who at one time robbed trains. He later became a silent film star and made many appearances in films as an actor and technical adviser.

Jennings settled in El Reno, Oklahoma Territory and served as Canadian County, Oklahoma prosecuting attorney from 1892 until 1894. In 1895 he joined his brothers, Ed and John, in a law practice at Woodward. In October of that year Ed Jennings was killed, and John Jennings wounded, in a shootout with rival attorney Temple Lea Houston.

Jennings left Woodward following Houston's acquittal in 1896 and wandered before gaining employment as a ranch hand in the Creek Nation. While working near present Bixby in Creek County, Jennings joined an outlaw band. The justice system's failures enraged him and encouraged him to resist it. During the summer and fall of 1897 the desperados, often referred to as the "Jennings Gang," composed of Frank and Al Jennings, Little Dick West, and Morris and Pat O'Malley, robbed trains, general stores and a post office, with little monetary success. Two of his most publicized robberies were the August 16, 1897 robbery of a Santa Fe passenger train located three miles south of Edmond, Oklahoma and the October 1897 robbery of a passenger train near Chickasha, Oklahoma. When attempting the Edmond robbery, the gang unsuccessfully attempted to break into a Wells-Fargo safe. After the dynamite failed to blow up the safe, the gang made their getaway. No one was killed during this robbery, but Jim Wright, a passenger who refused to surrender his valuables, had part of his ear shot off. The Chickasha robbery was not significantly more successful. Although the gang was unable to break the safe, they were able to obtain some goods from the passengers, including a bottle of whiskey and a bunch of bananas. The gang's most successful robbery was the Berwyn train robbery, which occurred a few miles north of the Texas border. This robbery allowed the gang to obtain thirty thousand dollars worth of loot. These robberies are the only crimes that historians agree the gang committed. In his semi-autobiographical novel Jennings himself remembered that the law often accused him of various crime that he did not commit. One of these dubious allegations was that he murdered two men in Dennison, Texas. When committing robberies, Jennings followed his personal code of honor. He refused to rob from women or preachers. When he was not robbing, he spent much of his time hiding from the law in Snake Creek in the Creek Nation. Eventually, he became unable to retain his outlaw lifestyle. Jennings was wounded by law officers on November 30, 1897, and captured one week later on Carr Creek near Onapa in McIntosh County, Oklahoma. In 1899 Jennings was sentenced to life in prison, but, due to the legal efforts of his brother John, his sentence was reduced to five years. He was freed on technicalities in 1902 and received a presidential pardon in 1904 by President Theodore Roosevelt. Then in 1906, he married Maude Jennings.

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