Baca County History

by the Plainsman Herald

An Al Jennings 1908 Silent Western, “The Bank Robbery”


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I have mentioned several times the influence Old Boston, Colorado likely had on the early development of the western movie genre because of the time Al Jennings and the Jennings clan spent there. He doesn’t mention Boston much after their time there, but like everyone else who past through the town, the Jennings left there penniless. The Jennings time in Southeast Colorado is outlined in my book “Old Boston: As Wild As They Come”

Here is a sample of Jennings in a 1908 work which included several notable personalities.

“This is one of the few instances where actors playing the lawmen and the robbers actually were the lawmen and the robbers: William Tilghman was a famous and respected U.S. marshal on the Oklahoma frontier; Al J. Jennings was a convicted train robber who took up acting after having been released from prison; Frank Canton was a widely feared gunfighter; Heck Thomas was a legendary sheriff; Quanah Parker was the son of an Indian father and a white mother who led several Indian revolts.”

-Klaus Kreimeier


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