What can you tell me about Oklahoma outlaw Al Jennings?
By: Marshall Trimble 03/01/2008
Q
What can you tell me about Oklahoma outlaw Al Jennings?
Ross Taylor
Nashville, Tennessee
A
Al Jennings wore a lot of hats over his 98 years—lawyer, cowboy, gunslinger, train robber, jailbird, evangelist, politician, author and movie star. He wasn’t successful in any of those roles.
Al’s outlaw career lasted 109 days in 1895, during which he and his gang attempted three holdups. They abandoned two of them; the third netted $27. Marshal Bud Ledbetter singlehandedly captured four of the Jennings crew, including Al. The would-be badman, sentenced to life in prison, managed to get a pardon from President Teddy Roosevelt in 1904.
Ten years later, Jennings ran for governor of Oklahoma but failed to get the votes. He became a traveling preacher and wrote a semi-fictional autobiography. By the late teens, Jennings appeared in and consulted on Westerns. He eventually worked on more than 100 films. He died in Los Angeles in 1961.
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