Eleanor Jarman

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Eleanor Jarman (born 1904) was an American runaway, fugitive from justice, and robber who was jailed, escaped from jail in 1940, was placed on the FBI ten most wanted fugitives list, and remains missing.

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[edit] Early life and crime career

Eleanor Jarman was born to Julius and Amelia Berendt, the youngest of eight children, in Sioux City, Iowa. She married and had two children with a man called Leroy Jarman. When Jarman left the family, she moved to Chicago, Illinois and worked in odd jobs until she met George Dale. Dale supported her, although Jarman later claimed that she did not know Dale did it by robbery.

On August 4, 1933, Dale, Jarman and Leo Minneci tried to rob a clothing store in Chicago's far West Side. In a struggle with the shop-owner, Gustav Hoeh, Jarman clawed at him, but then Dale shot him.

When the robbers drove away, several witnesses noted the license plate. That led police to Minneci, who blamed the other two who were soon arrested. Dale blamed Minneci for the robbery. Jarman said that she did not know which one did it. She claimed she was in the back room looking for clothes.

However, witnesses described how Jarman and Dale had entered the store and claimed she had threatened the clerk. Press made her a major player in all of Dale's crimes, dubbed her “the Blond Tigress” and compared her to Bonnie Parker (of Bonnie and Clyde).

Jarman was not tried for robberies but for complicity in Hoeh's murder. Her defense attorney was A. Jefferson Schultze. The prosecuting attorney, Wilbur Crowley, called for the death penalty.

George Dale was sentenced to die in the electric chair. As his last wish, he wrote a love letter to Jarman. Minneci and Jarman were sentenced to jail, Jarman for 199 years, one of the longest criminal sentences ever imposed at the time. Her children were sent to live with her older sister and her husband, Hattie and Joe Stocker, in Sioux City, Iowa.

[edit] After imprisonment

[edit] A model prisoner

For the next seven years, Jarman was a model prisoner. In 1940 she heard that her son was about to run away, and concerned about her children, escaped the prison on August 8, 1940. She apparently went to Sioux City, Iowa, confirmed that her children were all right and then went underground. She was put into the FBI's Most Wanted list, but was never found.

[edit] The 1975 meeting

In 1975 Jarman resurfaced to meet with her brother and sister-in-law, Otto and Dorothy Berendt, and her son, Leroy, who was in his fifties at the time. Leroy tried to convince her to give herself up, but she refused, believing the FBI would never forget, and then disappeared again. Attempts to have her officially pardoned failed. Although she remains missing, it is likely that she is dead. As of 2008, if she were still alive, she would be 104 years old.

[edit] See also

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