Eleanor Jarman
Eleanor Jarman | |
---|---|
Born | Ella Berendt April 22, 1901 |
Disappeared | August 8, 1940 (aged 39) |
Status | Missing for 84 years and 11 days; presumed dead in absentia[a] |
Nationality | American |
Known for | Escaping from prison; never apprehended |
Spouse | Michael Roy Jarman |
Children | 2 |
Mother | Amelia Berendt |
Eleanor Jarman (born Ella Berendt, April 22, 1901 – date of death unknown) was an American fugitive who was imprisoned and escaped from custody in 1940. Jarman was never apprehended, and her ultimate whereabouts remain unknown.
Early life and crime career
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/90/Eleanor_Jarman%2C_George_Dale%2C_Leo_Minneci.jpg/220px-Eleanor_Jarman%2C_George_Dale%2C_Leo_Minneci.jpg)
Jarman was one of 12 children (3 died young) born to Julius and Amelia Berendt, in 1901, in Sioux City, Iowa. She married Michael Roy Jarman, and they had two children, LeRoy and LaVerne. The family moved to Chicago, Illinois, where Michael Roy abandoned the family and Eleanor worked primarily as a waitress until she met George Dale. Dale supported her and the children by robbing small shops in Chicago's West Side. In the spring and summer of 1933, Eleanor became an accomplice.
On August 4, 1933, Dale, Jarman, and the get-away-car driver Leo Minneci tried to rob a clothing store. But, in a struggle, Dale shot and killed the shop owner, Gustav Hoeh.[citation needed]
When the robbers drove away, several witnesses noted the license plate. That led police to Minneci, who was the first to be arrested. He blamed Dale and Jarman for the robbery. Jarman claimed she was in the back room looking at clothes.
Witnesses gave contradictory statements as to how many shots were fired and what role Jarman had played in the crime. The press (primarily to sell newspapers) exaggerated Jarman's involvement and dubbed her "the Blonde Tigress." She was compared to her contemporary Bonnie Parker (of Bonnie and Clyde).
In a trial that lasted less than a week, Jarman was convicted as an accomplice in the murder, even though it had become clear that Dale had pulled the trigger. The prosecuting attorney, Wilbur Crowley, called for the death penalty for all three –– Dale, Jarman, and Minneci.
George Dale, however, was the only one sentenced to the electric chair. As his last wish, he wrote a love letter to Jarman. Jarman and Minneci each were sentenced to prison for 199 years,[1][2] one of the longest criminal sentences ever imposed at the time. Jarman's children were sent to live with her older sister and her husband, Hattie and Joe Stocker, in Sioux City, Iowa. [3]
After imprisonment
[edit]A model prisoner
[edit]For the next seven years, Jarman was a model prisoner at the Dwight Correctional Center (Illinois). In 1940, according to her family, she heard that her son was about to run away from home and, concerned about her children, escaped the prison on August 8, 1940,[4] with another inmate, Mary Foster.[5] She apparently went to Sioux City, Iowa, confirmed that her children were all right and then went underground.
The 1975 meeting
[edit]Over the next 35 years, Jarman maintained surreptitious contact with her family through classified ads.[4] In 1975, she arranged a secret meeting with her brother Otto Berendt, his wife Dorothy, and Jarman's son Leroy, by then in middle-age. During this meeting, which the family disclosed decades later, Leroy tried to persuade his mother to give herself up. She refused and said that she was not worried about capture, believing the authorities had long since stopped looking for her. Her family claimed that their communication tapered off in the mid-1990s.[4] A 1993 petition to grant Jarman a pardon failed.[6]
Although Jarman officially remained a fugitive, she was born in 1901essentially certain that she is dead, and that her death and burial was recorded under an alias.
, so it isEleanor's likely burial under an alias is discussed in Silvia Pettem's book, In Search of the Blonde Tigress: The Untold Story of Eleanor Jarman.[7] [1]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ ""Tiger Woman" Is Given Term". Hope, Arkansas: Hope Star. 1 September 1933. p. 1. Retrieved 15 July 2017 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ "Gets 199-Year Term". Jefferson City, Missouri: The Sunday News and Tribune. 3 September 1933. p. 11. Retrieved 15 July 2017 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ Pettem, Silvia. In Search of the Blonde Tigress: The Untold Story of Eleanor Jarman
- ^ a b c Gribben, Mark (2006-07-28). "Eleanor Jarman Please Phone Home". The Malefactor's Register. Retrieved 2018-11-20.
- ^ "Flees Reformatory". Neosho, Missouri: The Neosho Daily News. 23 August 1940. p. 2. Retrieved 15 July 2017 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ Writer, John O'Brien, Tribune Staff. "CLEMENCY BOARD DENIES HEARING FOR FUGITIVE WHO ESCAPED IN '40". chicagotribune.com. Retrieved 2018-10-11.
{{cite news}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Pettem, Silvia, In Search of the Blonde Tigress: The Untold Story of Eleanor Jarman (Lyons Press, 2023)
Notes
[edit]- ^ Jarman was never found after her escape, but today she would be at an age where it is almost guaranteed she would be dead.
Further reading
[edit]- "Iowa, County Births, 1880-1935". FamilySearch.org. FamilySearch. Ella Berendt, 22 Apr 1901; citing Sioux City, Woodbury, Iowa, United States; county district courts, Iowa; FHL microfilm 1,451,573.
- "Blond Tigress Identified by Many Victims". Belvidere Daily Republican. 11 August 1933. p. 1. Retrieved 15 July 2017 – via newspapers.com.
- Carl L. Turner (16 September 1933). ""Tigress" Acts Like Kitten In Jail Cell". Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania: The Evening News. p. 4. Retrieved 15 July 2017 – via newspapers.com.
- "Chicago "Tiger Woman" In Jail". Monongahela, Pennsylvania: The Daily Republican. 12 August 1933. p. 6. Retrieved 15 July 2017 – via newspapers.com.
- "Hunt For Escaped Women Convicts Shifts To Joliet". The Oshkosh Northwestern. 9 August 1940. p. 2. Retrieved 15 July 2017 – via newspapers.com.
- The Malefactor's Register Article on Eleanor Jarman
- "Tiger Woman Guilty, Gets 199 Years; Two Pals Sentenced". Lincoln, Nebraska: The Lincoln Star. 3 September 1933. p. 9. Retrieved 15 July 2017 – via newspapers.com.
- 1901 births
- American escapees
- American female gangsters
- American gangsters
- American female murderers
- American people convicted of murder
- Depression-era gangsters
- Prohibition-era gangsters
- Escapees from Illinois detention
- Fugitives wanted by the United States
- Fugitives wanted on murder charges
- Fugitives wanted on robbery charges
- People convicted of murder by Illinois
- Criminals from Chicago
- People from Sioux City, Iowa