Al J. Jennings

Always best at promoting himself and spinning wild tales of his exploits as a Wild West outlaw (even writing two books about his fictitious history), Al supported the claim of another fraud, J. Frank Dalton (1947-1951), who claimed from 1935 to be the real Jesse James. Dalton's claim proved to be fraudulent (among many discrepancies, Jesse had lost his left middle finger while riding with Quantrell, Dalton still had his). Moreover, Al had never met the real Jesse James who died in 1882, long before Al embarked on his criminal career.

President/General Manager of Al Jennings Production Co., New York City/Los Angeles, CA, a film production company formed in 1918.

He was an actor and writer, known for Beating Back (1914), The Lady of the Dugout (1918) and When Outlaws Meet (1920).

Shortly after finishing his prison sentence, Al saw the landmark western movie The Great Train Robbery (1904), filmed 'on location' in New Jersey and New York's Central Park. This gave him the idea to get into the movie business and tell those guys what the Wild West was 'really like', as told by the man who bested Jesse James in a gunfight, robbed more trains than anyone and killed more men than Billy the Kid.

Al's exploits as a would-be outlaw read like chapters from 'The Gang that Couldn't Shoot Straight'. His entire career lasted a mere 108 days, ending in his meek surrender. He saw one gunfight in which nobody died. The most comical event took place on October 1 1897: Al, Frank, Little Dick West and the O'Malley Brothers stopped a southbound train eight miles from Minco, Oklahoma. Al tied several sticks of dynamite together and placed them alongside the safe in the baggage car. In a scene reminiscent of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) (famous line: "Used enough dynamite there, boy?") Al explained to Frank that one needed lots of dynamite to "dent a big safe like that". Alas, the baggage car exploded in a hail of splinters and nothing remained of the safe, let alone any cash. The robbers had to content themselves with fleecing the passengers of assorted jewellery, even taking a pair of boots off a travelling salesman. In the end, Al's biggest haul from train robberies amounted to no more than $27 and a jug of whiskey!.

In addition to robbing trains, the colourful Jennings also sidelined as an evangelist and, having studied law and being admitted to the bar, in 1892 served as district attorney in El Reno, Oklahoma.

Al and his brothers started in the banditry business in the mid-1890's (while working as cowboys), having met outlaws who were later members of the Bill Doolin gang. They were strictly small timers at first, using fake marshal badges to extort toll money from cattle herders in the Oklahoma Territory.

Al J. Jennings was born on November 25, 1863 in Virginia, USA as Alphonso J. Jennings.