The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1922-11-23
A Timely Editorial
Reforming a Train Robber
.om the New York Herald.


From the New York Herald.
When a southern Missouri sheriff
a few days ago killed Jack Kennedy
in the act of robbing a mail train
he brought to an end the long career
of one of the most notorious Of
western bandits and broke link IN
rain robbery between the present
and the days of the Jameses, the
Fords and Quantrill. Kennedy was
a product of the Cracker Neck dis
trict in which the Jameses and their
gang often operated and where they
usually found a safe hiding place.
The Jameses were Kennedy's heroes,
but he excelled them in the number
of daring robberies, and he died,
as most of them did not, with his
boots on and a gun in each hand.
Kennedy did not have the peculiar
reason for his outlawry which his
heroes had as members of Guam
trills band. He was too young to
participate in the robbery and burn
ing of Kansas towns under the guise
of border warfare. He had their
faculty, however, for escaping con-
viction. He never failed of an alibi.
He was not man to hide his light
under a bushel. The robberies of
which he was cleared he frequently
afterward boasted of committing.
He liked to tell of others for which
he was not arrested, emphasizing his
own cleverness in contests of wits
with county officials and railroad
detectives. Early in 1898, when
there had not been train holdup in
the Blue Cut for months, he gave
warning that something big was GO
ing to take place. A few mornings
afterward Kennedy vas found I'M
conscious on the street, having been
thrown from his horse. A red flag,
false whiskers, a dark lantern,
rifle, two revolvers and supply of
ammunition were taken from him by
a policeman, who asked what they
meant. "Just going out for quail
hunt" Kennedy replied. He got off.
His outfit is still preserved in the
Kansas City police museum.
Of the 10 train robberies for
which he was tried he was convicted
of only one. He would have the
whole underworld Of Jackson and
Clay counties to prove an alibi for
him. "This poor, innocent boy of
Cracker Neck" pleaded the lawyer
for his defense, "a victim of heart
less corporations, child oppressed
by the power and wealth of the
mighty" Eloquence and alibi failed
with hard-headed jury of a county
where Kennedy was unknown and
he served IL years in prison. \
Like most western train robbers
Kennedy went through period of
professed reformation. The men,
bers Of the James, Ford and other
gangs all reformed when they were
too old for the game. Harry Starr
was considered crime proof until he
was killed in raid on an Arkansas
bank. Kennedy lectured on crime
with himself as terrible example,
took to the stage and played in mo-
ton pictures. He is reformed and
harmless, said the Kansas City police
on the last visit he made to that city.
A month afterward he was killed
while engaged in the biggest attempt
at train robbery of the last five
wears Kennedy, like Starr was too
young to reform. A
When Pat Garrett shot the noto-
rious Arizona desperate, Billy the
Kid, IL years ago he said: There
will never be another. The lines
run out" When deputies found
Rilly's notorious successor, Red
Whisker Burnett, dead they re-
marked: "He's the last" Oklahoma
said the line was broken when Harry
Starr was killed. The west will say
with the passing of Kennedy: He is
really the last" But is he?