Beating Back (1914) (e-book) (used book) | Al Jennings | bookbook.eu

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"One of the most famous train robbers in America." -American Stationer, 1914
"The frank, unexaggerated personal narrative of a highwayman and train-robber who 'beat his way back' to respected citizenship and success in law and politics." -Standard Catalog, 1919
"Decidedly interesting, will afford much material for the historian of frontier conditions." Mississippi Valley Historical Review, 1915
"Dramatic, sincere, without apologies and without sentimentality." - A.L.A. Booklist, 1915

In 1914, one of the most daring bandits and train robbers that ever infested the Southwest, Al Jennings, published his startling autobiography. He writes a frank, straightforward account of his life as a train robber, his imprisonment and pardon, and his final determination to “come back.” His success is strongly evidenced in the fact that he became a Democratic candidate for Governor of Oklahoma.

After practicing law in Kansas, 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. Houston was charged with murder but was acquitted.

In describing the event that caused his life to spiral out of control, Jennings writes:
"Jack Love, for some reason or other, was a spectator at this trial. Houston, by sneers and indirect references, showed that he was still bitter. His attitude got on my nerves. My temper suddenly flamed up, and I called him a liar. He replied by calling me another liar, with additions; then he jumped toward me…."

Jennings joined an outlaw band. 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.

This volume is unconsciously a study of the consequences of uncontrolled temper. The author, of Southern birth, ran away from home in consequence of some childish taunt from other boys, and spent a considerable portion of his youth as an outlaw in the Southwest. His brothers were dragged into the career of dishonor and his whole family naturally suffered by the conduct of the son.

Jennings was captured in 1897, and 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.

Jennings moved to Oklahoma City in 1911 and became active in politics. In 1912 he won the Democratic nomination for Oklahoma County attorney, but he lost the general election. Based on the popularity of his starring role in the 1914 film adaptation of his biography, Beating Back, he made an unsuccessful run for the office of governor of Oklahoma. In returning a gun to its manufacture, Jennings included a note, which later was repeated in an advertisement, that read: "I am candidate for Governor of Oklahoma and no longer an outlaw I am therefore returning your Savage Automatic Pistol as I shall never need such instruments any more. I could not resist the temptation of trying the vicious little thing and Jiminy it's the hottest fastest gun I ever saw."

Jennings also wrote: Through the Shadows With O. Henry (1921)

Jennings' life story is also covered in the following modern works:

• Scales, James R.