Edna Murray

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Edna "Rabbits" Murray was a Depression-era outlaw and partner of Volney Davis during the early 1930s. Although popularly known to the press as the "Kissing Bandit" for her habit of kissing male robbery victims, she was known in the underworld as "Rabbits" for her skill as an escape artist.

Her sister Doris O'Connor (or Vinta Stanley) lived with outlaw Jess Doyle, a member of the Barker Gang.

As a partner with her lover Volney Davis, she and Davis robbed a series of banks before her arrest and eventual conviction for highway robbery. Sentenced to 25 years imprisonment, she escaped from the women's state prison at Jefferson City, Missouri on December 13, 1932. Rejoining Davis, the two continued their crime spree and later settled down in Aurora, Illinois.

On April 23, 1934, outlaws John Dillinger, Homer Van Meter and John "Red" Hamilton arrived seeking refuge after being ambushed by federal agents and police at their hideout near Rhinelander, Wisconsin. Hamilton, having been badly wounded during the shootout, had been denied treatment by Chicago mob doctor Joseph Moran and died of his injuries several days after arriving their Aurora home. She and Davis were later present during his secret funeral in which he was buried in an unmarked grave.

On January 22, 1935, Edna was indicted along with several membrs of the Barker gang for conspiracy to kidnap wealthy Minnesota banker Edward Bremer and ransom him for $200,000 in January 1934. Fleeing the state, she was apprehended in Wichita, Kansas while travelling with Jess Doyle on February 7 (coincidentally the same day Davis escaped from prison).

Her brother, Harry C. Stanley, was subsequently arrested for aiding and abbeting Murray in early-1935 was fined $1,000 and sentenced to six months imprisonment at the Sedgewick County Jail on March 12, 1935.

Murray was convicted with several others in the kidnaping conspiracy and sentenced to federal prison on May 6, eventually leading FBI agents to Hamilton's grave outside Aurora, Illinois three months later.

[edit] References

  • Newton, Michael. Encyclopedia of Robbers, Heists, and Capers. New York: Facts On File Inc., 2002. ISBN 0-8160-4488-0