Eleanor Jarman
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Eleanor Jarman (1904- ?) was a runaway US robber who was jailed and later vanished.
Eleanor Jarman was an orphan who had 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 witnessed 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 the Dale's crimes, dubbed her "The Blonde Tigress" and compared her to Bonnie Parker of Bonnie and Clyde.
Jarman was not tied for robberies but for complicity for Hoeh's murder. 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. Her children were given for foster care.
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 she escaped the prison 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 FBI's Most Wanted list but was never found.
In 1975 Jarman resurfaced to meet with her brother and her son Leroy, who was in his 50's at the time. Leroy tried to convince her to give herself up, but she refused, believing that FBI would never forget and disappeared again. Attempts to have her officially pardoned failed.