In 1951, the Chicago Tribune named Eleanor Jarman as the most dangerous woman alive. Eleven years before, she had escaped from a prison in Illinois where she had been serving a sentence of 199 years as an accomplice to murder.
Eleanor Jarman was also known as “the Blonde Tigress.” She was a 32-year-old mother of two and was struggling to make ends meet during the Great Depression. She was also separated from her alcoholic husband. Then, she met George Dale, and he helped support her and her sons.
During the summer of 1933, she was allegedly involved in 37 robberies that were committed in Chicago. She worked with her boyfriend, George Dale, and another person. She acted as the lookout during their robberies. After George shot a 71-year-old storekeeper, they were arrested.
In 1934, George was executed by electric chair. Eleanor and another accomplice were sentenced to 199 years in prison. She was placed in a women’s prison about 100 miles southwest of Chicago and was a model prisoner.
However, she only served seven years of her 199-year sentence before she scaled a prison fence while wearing a polka dot dress and fled to freedom. Eleanor hatched the escape plan with a fellow prisoner, Mary Foster, who had escaped from two other prisons before.
On August 8, 1940, they stole clothes from staff members—a polka dot dress and a blue suit. Then, they climbed a 12-foot fence and hitchhiked toward Chicago.
The people who picked them up had no idea they were escaped prisoners until they saw a picture of the polka dot dress in the newspaper the next day.
Mary Foster was caught two months later, but Eleanor had seemingly disappeared without a trace. The police searched for Eleanor for over a decade, but were never able to find her.
Over the years, Eleanor’s two sons had tried to locate her through newspaper ads. She reportedly would respond in coded messages. Her grandson continued the search until he passed away.
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Silvia Pettem, a Colorado historian, thinks she has finally found Eleanor Jarman in Denver. According to Eleanor’s grandson, she went by an alias of Marie Millman, so that’s where Silvia started.
She ended up finding a Marie Millman in Denver with no birth record or recorded family members. There was no record of Marie Millman at all until 1951, when she suddenly showed up in Denver and began working as a waitress.
She bounced around different restaurants along East Colfax Avenue from 1951 until the mid-1970s. The only one of those restaurants still standing is Pete’s Kitchen.
Marie Millman died in 1980 and is buried in a grave right in the middle of Fairmount Cemetery. Silvia is sure that Marie Millman was really Eleanor Jarman, but there is no way to prove her theory unless Marie’s body is somehow exhumed or someone from that era comes forward to say they remember her as their waitress.
By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
