Eleanor Jarman

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
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.

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, 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.

A model prisoner
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, with another inmate, Mary Foster. She apparently went to Sioux City, Iowa, confirmed that her children were all right and then went underground.

The 1975 meeting
Over the next 35 years, Jarman maintained surreptitious contact with her family through classified ads. 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. A 1993 petition to grant Jarman a pardon failed.

Although Jarman officially remained a fugitive, she was born in 1901, so it is essentially certain that she is dead, and that her death and burial was recorded under an alias.

Eleanor'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.