Eleanor Jarman (born Ella Marie Berendt; April 22, 1901 – disappeared August 8, 1940) was an American fugitive who was imprisoned and escaped from custody in 1940. Jarman was never apprehended, and (without an exhumation) her ultimate whereabouts remain unknown.
Early life and crime career
left|thumb|(From left to right) Eleanor Jarman, George Dale, and Leo Minneci hearing their sentences for the murder of Gustav Hoeh, 1933
Jarman was one of 12 children (3 died young) born to German immigrants Julius and Amelia Berendt, in 1901, in Sioux City, Iowa. She worked as a waitress since age twelve and dropped out of school due to her family's poverty.
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." 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.
After imprisonment
A model prisoner and escape
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. At the time of the escape, Jarman was 39 years old. 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 by publishing coded messages in classified newspaper ads.
Although Jarman officially remained a fugitive, she was born in , so it is essentially certain that she is dead, and that her death and burial was recorded under an alias.
Jarman's grandson, Doug Jarman, requested clemency for his grandmother in 1994, saying he believed Eleanor to still be alive since she had promised her children to inform them of her death through third-parties. He subsequently told the Chicago Tribune that he received a letter from someone claiming to be his grandmother, asking for money to pay for medical treatment, which he believed to be authentic as it was sent to an address of his that was not publicly available.
Jarman's life is the subject of Silvia Pettem's book, In Search of the Blonde Tigress: The Untold Story of Eleanor Jarman. The book concludes, based on historical records that Jarman was the same person as Marie Millman, who worked as a waitress in Denver between 1951 and the 1970s before dying in 1980. Jarman's grandson had previously told reporters during the clemency petition that his grandmother used the alias "Marie Mellman or Millman".