The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1912-10-03
OUTLAW A CANDIDATE.
Member of Dalton Gang Now Pop.
ular Candidate.

Not many robbers running for Of
flee in New York make campaign
capital of their "reminiscences of time
when they stole from the public. A
western candidate these days is not
only recalling in his stump speeches
! his experience as a train robber, but
he is being we'll received by his audi
ences.
A. L. Jennings, formerly a men,
Der of the Dalton gang, now nominal.
ed for the Office of county attorney,
has for his campaign slogan train
robber is better than a public yegg.'
The public there seem to believe
that he ought to know. He won
out over six men who ran for the
office in the primaries.
Jennings's speeches declared that
the crimes of the Dalton gang were
tame affairs compared to the work Of
the present court house gang in that
district, who, he vowed, were embez-
zlers to the amount of $4,000.
'sI have stolen more than that
amount from trains in this territory, .
he declares, land I have ridden away
with it tied behind my saddle in
seamless sack, but l was caught at
last, and now my greatest desire is
to prove that I can be an honest Of
ficer."
Jennings was serving ten-year
sentence in the penitentiary for rob-
bing the mails when he was pardoned
in 1907 by President Roosevelt. Jen-
nings's old Dalton gang was started
in 1890 by four nephews Of Cole
Younger, the notorious holdup man
who was a member Of the Jesse
James gang. They we're reckless fel-
lows and up till the time Of their first
depredations held positions as United
States deputy marshals. In 1890
they ran off a bunch of cattle and
horses from the Usage Indian reser-
vation and when the country got too
hot for them transferred their activ-
ity to California.
Their first attempt at train rob-
bing was made at Atila, CAL, in 1891,
and nearly proved their undoing.
Grant Dalton was arrested, charged
with completely in the affair, and the
other members of the gang were
forced to fly from California. They
returned to Indian Territory and in
May of the same year held up San
ia Fe train and broke into the Wells
Fargo Express car. This hold-up was
successfully done by the gang, whose
number had been increased, and they
made clean escape.
A year later, July IA, 1892, Mis-
souri,, Kansas & Texas limited ex-
pecting an attack, whistled in answer
to stop signal at Adair, Indian Terri
tory, and came to stop at the unim-
portant landmark to find itself being
robbed. The train carried eight men
who were supposed to be an effective
train robber antidote, but Jennings
and company Notwithstanding, shot
up the express car, rifed the safe,
robbed the station cash drawer, shot
two men, and rode off into the night
without a scratch. One of the wound
ed men died the next day. The hold
up antidote dropped off the opposite
side of the train and failed to connect
with the robbers.
Emboldened by their success in
this venture the Dalton gang went on
and met their Waterloo at Cofey-
Vile, Kan, Oct. 6, 1892, when an
attempt was made to rob the town
bank in broad daylight. Quick ac-
ton on the part of the townspeople
preve nted this and when the rem
nants of the gang fought their way
out of Coffeyville they were minus
leaders. Four of the robbers were
killed in a running fight and the last
of the Dalton boys was captured.
Jennings, the recently nominated
county attorney, has drawn crowds
wherever he spoke by relating some
of his experiences. He does not try
to hide the fact that he is an ex-con-
vict, and apparently the Oklahoma
voters consider him reformed suftl-
GENTLY to hold Office.
In 1908 Jennings, with United
States Marshal Jack Alternately, Wis
tied President Roosevelt and gave a
cinematograph lecture in the White
House. Western pictures were thrown
on the screen and press accounts of
that entertainment said that in reel
showing a train holdup Jennings
himself acted quite naturally.
How Jennings got his start as an
outlaw is an interesting tale.