by Allan Levine
Two unlikely arrivals in Honduras
more than a century ago were William
Sidney Porter (1862-1910),
better known as O. Henry, perhaps the
greatest American 20th century shortstory
writer, and Alphonso (Al) Jennings
(1863-1961), attorney, train robber
and Oklahoma gubernatorial candidate
who ultimately ended up in Hollywood,
California, working in the motion picture
industry making Westerns. However, these
two pals came to a near fatal adventure on
the north coast of Honduras and wound
up serving time for other escapades in the
same U.S. prison.
O. Henry
Porter, born in Greensboro, North Carolina,
was the son of a prominent local
physician. His only formal education was
received at the school of his aunt Lina
where he developed a life-long love of
books. Working in his uncle’s pharmacy,
Porter became a licensed pharmacist and
was also known for his sketches and cartoons
of the townspeople of Greensboro.
At age 20, Porter moved to Texas and
found work at a ranch owned by family
friends. In 1887, Porter married Athol
Estes and began working as a draftsman in
the General Land Office in Austin. Three
years later he went to work as a teller with
the First National Bank. In 1894, he left
the bank and founded what ultimately
turned out to be an unsuccessful humorous
magazine, the Rolling Stone. Meanwhile,
Porter was accused of embezzling funds
dating back to his employment at the First National Bank. Fearing the verdict
would
certainly land him in jail because he would
not testify in his own defense, he saw flight
as his only option. Leaving his wife and
young daughter in Austin, Porter fled to
New Orleans, then to Honduras, where he
met Al Jennings.
Jennings was born in a Virginia tobacco field in 1863 while
his mother was fleeing the advance of the Union Army. When Jennings was 10 years
old, his father shot his pet squirrel and Jennings ran away forever. “I
could always kill a man without batting an eye, but I couldn’t stand to
see any animal harmed,” he recalled much later. He stood only 5-foot-4
in his boots but was a skilled gunfighter, having challenged and out-shot the
notorious James brothers, Frank and Jesse, in a friendly bout of target-practice
when he was only 14. An attorney at 21, Jennings became an outlaw when a court
acquitted two men accused of killing his brother. He pursued and shot the men,
then organized his own gang to rob trains and rustle cattle. In the late 1890s,
with money in his pocket, he escaped to Honduras and met Porter. According to
Jennings’ book “Through the Shadows with O. Henry,” he and
Porter were celebrating the Fourth of July on the north coast town of Trujillo
when, just before noon, the pair decided to shoot up the town in typical Wild
West fashion. Next came a group of red-coated, halfnaked, barefoot revoltosos,
(revolutionaries) armed with muzzle-loaders, swooping down the street
on horseback. Porter dragged the commandante
off his horse, and Jennings sprang
into the saddle.
Al Jennings
What happened afterward was anyone’s
guess, because everybody involved was
deliriously drunk. The following day the
governor of the department called the
American consulate in Tegucigalpa to
thank the American patriots for “… quelling
the revolution. What incredible hombres,
these Americanos.”
By day’s end, the government and the
rebels had kissed and made-up. The
rebel leader demanded American blood
— that of Jennings and Porter — and the
American consul advised their immediate
departure.
Porter finally returned to the U.S. when
he learned that his wife was dying. After
her death in 1897, he was found guilty of
embezzlement and sentenced to five years
in the Federal Penitentiary at Columbus,
Ohio. Coincidently his pal Jennings was
serving time in the same penitentiary.
From this low point in Porter’s life, he
began a remarkable comeback. Three
years and about a dozen short stories later,
he emerged from prison as O. Henry, to
shield his real identity. He moved to New
York City, and during the next 10 years
he published over 300 stories and gained
worldwide acclaim as America’s favorite
short-story writer. Porter died on June 5,
1910 in New York City at the age of 47. An
alcoholic, he died virtually penniless.
As for Jennings, he had been sentenced to
life in prison for shooting a U.S. marshal
but was freed on technicalities in 1902. In
1907, he received a pardon from President Teddy Roosevelt. In 1914, Jennings
lost
his bid as governor of Oklahoma (“If
elected I promise to be honest for a year
— if I can hold out that long”). Among
his other occupations, Jennings worked as
a consultant in Hollywood, California, and
lamented the loss of the Old West. He once
asked, “Who ever heard of a real cowboy
running around with a silk tablecloth
around his neck?” When his wife of 58
years, Maude, died in 1961, it was not long
afterward that he followed her to the grave
at the age of 98. •
