quirky

Every outlaw has their little quirks. It’s almost like they like to leave a calling card…even if it might get them caught. Some people think they do it because they want to get caught. I suppose the reasons for those little “calling cards” were as varied as the people using them. During the depression-era, there was an outlaw named Edna “Rabbits” Murray. She and her partner, Volney Davis were robbers, which wasn’t so strange for that or any other era, but Murray was…quirky!! She was actually known to the press as the “Kissing Bandit” due to her habit of kissing male robbery victims. While odd, I guess it’s better than shooting them.

The media saw one thing, but the underworld saw something else. Murray was known as “Rabbits” for her skill as an escape artist. Murray and her boyfriend, Davis, chose banks as their target of choice, robbing a series of banks before she was finally arrested. Murray managed to escape in early May 1927, after which she and her boyfriend got right back into business. She was then arrested in a Chicago, Illinois raid. For this crime, she received a 25-year prison sentence at Jefferson City, Missouri. Once again, Murray managed to escape in November 1931, when she and a couple of other inmates climbed over a fence. Their short-lived freedom ended when they were quickly apprehended and returned to prison. The botched escape didn’t deter Murray, who was very determined, and she escaped again on December 13, 1932. Murray rejoined her boyfriend, and they continued their crime spree before finally settling in Aurora, Illinois.

Settling down in Aurora did not mean the end of her crimes or her troubles. On April 23, 1934, outlaws John Dillinger, Homer Van Meter, and John “Red” Hamilton, all friends or cohorts of the couple, arrived at their home seeking a place to hide out after being nearly captured by the FBI near Rhinelander, Wisconsin. While at their home, John Hamilton, who had been badly wounded during the shootout with the FBI, died of his injuries. For Murray, trouble just didn’t seem to end, and with the FBI hot on her tail, she was off and running again. She was recaptured on January 22, 1935. This time, she was indicted along with several members of the Barker-Karpis Gang for a conspiracy to kidnap wealthy Minnesota banker Edward Bremer in January 1934. Once again, Murray ran. She went to Wichita, Kansas with Jess Doyle, a member of the Barker-Karpis Gang and her sister’s boyfriend. She still couldn’t hide. She was arrested on February 7, 1935. Following that arrest, she was convicted, along with several others, in the kidnapping conspiracy and sentenced to federal prison on May 6, 1935. While in prison, she marketed her persona as a “gangster’s moll” in a number of newspapers and journals, writing articles with titles such as “I Was a Karpis-Barker Gang Moll”. She finally stayed put, and she was paroled from the Women’s Prison at Jefferson City, Missouri, on December 20, 1940. From there Murray moved to California and apparently went straight (or at least retired from her life of crime) or never got caught again, anyway. She died in San Francisco in 1966. Cause of death isn’t known, or not publicized, but she is buried in San Francisco.

As my grand-niece Audrianna “Anna” Masterson’s birthday approached, I talked to her sister, Raelynn, who tells me that Anna is “quirky.” That is a fact that anyone who knows Anna knows quite well. Anna has a very unique personality and Raelynn loves to see how she reacts to certain things. Anna is very strong willed and stubborn, and as kids will, they disagree about some of the strangest things. Nevertheless, sometimes they get into “joking” screaming matches about book or movie characters we may see differently. They live to banter back and forth, and it usually ends up in a giggling match.

As she has grown, Anna has changed a lot, and these days, style matters…but it has to be her own style. So, Anna has been experimenting with different styles. Recently, she wanted a “Wilbur Soot” style outfit. For those, like me, who don’t know who “Wilbur Soot” is, he is a YouTuber they both watch, so when she asked Raelynn at the events center yesterday, if she had achieved the look and Raelynn said, “yes,” Anna was ecstatic.

Anna often asks Raelynn, and her brother, Matt about what would look good with what and what kinda clothes to wear to what events. Raelynn often lends her clothes so she can achieve just the right look. Matt will always be brutally honest, which some may think is a bad thing, but you never want to go out looking bad, simply because your siblings didn’t want to hurt your feelings about how you really look. People have to be able to trust their siblings about these things.

It is so hard to believe that fashion matters to Anna, because it wasn’t that long ago that Anna didn’t care about things like that. She used to put on sweat pants and a t-shirt, and she was good to go. It didn’t matter if she was going to school or somewhere else, she was comfortable in sweats and a t-shirt, and that was it. She rarely even combed her hair in those days. Not so now. Now the whole look matters. Anna is growing up. Today is Anna’s 14th birthday. Happy birthday Anna!! Have a great day!! We love you!!

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