Excerpts from The Chillicothe Constitution, 29 December 1921, p. 2 (reprinted from the St. Louis Star):

Sitting at a breakfast of hot cakes and coffee today, Al Jennings, who back in the nineties was the terror of Oklahoma, discussed present day crime and criminals with a reporter for the Star. Jenning, who "beat back" from a career of crime many years ago and became an evangelist of note, is appearing at the Empress Theatre this week.

Jennings is firm in the belief that the present war is responsible for the wave of crime that has swept the country. And he is convinced that the modern bandit is more heartless than the "road agent" of his day and, aided by automobiles, airplanes, high explosives and the "science of war," is a greatly improved bandit.

"Banditry, like everything else, has changed," Jennings said. "Today the modern bandit resides in a hotel or an apartment and to all appearances, lives the life of a respectable, law-abiding citizen . . . . Now in my days bandits did not dress like dudes. A bandit was a bandit and his face and deeds were known everywhere. There was a price on his head and because of this he lived apart from honest people, slipping into the cities only to spend his money. . . ."

"I often say to be a successful bandit one must have an education. You know, I was a lawyer before I became a train robber--and maybe that fact in itself accounts for it. But, speaking seriously, I was forced into crime. My brother was murdered and I vowed vengeance. I was determined to kill his slayer and started out to do so. Before I could accomplish it, I was accused of a crime I did not commit. I killed a couple of men and got away. My career of crime started right then. . . .

There is no reward, no sense of satisfaction, in stealing. The only good we got out of it in the old days was to stop at some poor person's shanty, leave a double sawbuck (20) and see the smile come over the face of some poor woman. And that isn't being done nowadays. . . .

"Everywhere young men said 'if nations can rob and kill why can't I?' And the feeling was accentuated by the thought that they had been done a great wrong, that men and governments had broken faith and failure to keep their promises and that good people had forgotten them. And that made the bandits. Again, hundreds of gunmen went along with the other fellow, came back and took up their occupation with a greater degree of justification. . . .

I don't know that anything Al would say is worth much more than just entertainment, what I would like to see is something on Frank or John. I think the old Judge would have been too smart to mouth off to the press but the boys could have set things straight. Whatever happened to the others after they went to Tecumseh?