Edna "Rabbit" Murray (1898–1966) was a criminal associated with several high-profile gangs in the Depression-era of the early 1930s. Although popularly known to the press as the "Kissing Bandit" for kissing a male robbery victim, she was known in the underworld as "Rabbit" for her skills in breaking out of the penitentiary.
She was married to two criminals in the 1920s, but is best known as the lover and crime partner of
Volney Davis.
Life
Born Martha Edna Stanley, she was the daughter of Nicholas and Luella Stanley in Marion, Kansas.
[Hoover, J. Edgar, "The Kidnapping of Edward Bremer", November 19, 1936](_blank)
/ref> She moved with her father to Oklahoma at an early age. As a teenager, she married a man named Paden with whom, in 1915, she had a son, Preston.[Barker-Karpis gang, Memorandum, July 12, 1937](_blank)
/ref> She and Paden soon separated. She married again to Walter Price, but that marriage also failed.
Crime career
Murray was working as a waitress when she met robber Volney Davis, who became her lover. He was imprisoned for life in 1918. She moved to Kansas City, Missouri where she joined her younger sister Doris, who was living with criminal Emory Connell. Murray met and married Connell's partner, jewel thief "Diamond Joe" Sullivan. Sullivan was convicted of a 1923 murder of a policeman in 1924 and was executed.
After Sullivan's death, she met and married another criminal, Jack Murray. On October 1, 1925 Edna and Murray were sentenced to 25 years for a Kansas City, Missouri holdup. It was this crime that earned Edna the nickname "the Kissing Bandit", after she supposedly kissed victim H. H. Southward. On May 2, 1927, Edna escaped from Missouri State Penitentiary and remained free until arrested in Chicago on September 10, 1931. She made a one-day escape from prison on November 4, 1931, and then a third escape on December 13, 1932, having sawn through the bars of her cell, assisted by another prisoner, Irene McCann, who escaped with her.
Edna joined up with Volney Davis again, who had also absconded from prison in 1932. The two continued their crime spree and later settled down in Aurora, Illinois
Aurora is a city in the Chicago metropolitan area located partially in DuPage County, Illinois, DuPage, Kane County, Illinois, Kane, Kendall County, Illinois, Kendall, and Will County, Illinois, Will counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. Locat ...
. Her son Preston joined them, and participated in their crimes. The couple soon joined up with the Barker-Karpis gang. Edna's sister Doris was now living with outlaw Jess Doyle, also a member of the Barker-Karpis gang.
On April 23, 1934, outlaws John Dillinger
John Herbert Dillinger (June 22, 1903 – July 22, 1934) was an American gangster during the Great Depression. He led the Dillinger Gang, which was accused of robbing 24 banks and four police stations. Dillinger was imprisoned several times and ...
, Homer Van Meter
Homer Virgil Van Meter (December 3, 1905 – August 23, 1934) was an American criminal and bank robber active in the early 20th century, most notably as a criminal associate of John Dillinger and Baby Face Nelson.
Biography
Early life
Van ...
and John "Red" Hamilton arrived at Murray's home seeking refuge after being ambushed by federal agents and police at their hideout near Rhinelander, Wisconsin
Rhinelander is a city in and the county seat of Oneida County, Wisconsin, Oneida County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 8,285 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census.
History
The area that eventually became the city of Rhine ...
. Hamilton, having been badly wounded during the shootout, had been denied treatment by Chicago mob doctor Joseph Moran and died of his injuries several days after arriving at their Aurora home. Murray and Davis were later present during his secret funeral, in which he was buried in an unmarked grave.
On January 22, 1935, Murray was indicted along with several members of the Barker gang for a conspiracy to kidnap wealthy Minnesota banker Edward Bremer
The kidnapping of Edward Bremer was the last major criminal enterprise of the Barker-Karpis gang. Though successful in netting the gang a large ransom, it brought down the full force of the FBI on the gang, resulting in the death or capture of it ...
and ransom him for $200,000 in January 1934. Fleeing the state, she was apprehended in Pittsburg, Kansas
Pittsburg is a city in Crawford County, Kansas, United States, located in southeast Kansas near the Missouri state border. It is the most populous city in Crawford County and southeast Kansas. As of the 2020 census, the population of the ci ...
while traveling with Jess Doyle on February 7, 1935.
Murray's brother, Harry C. Stanley, was subsequently arrested for aiding and abetting Murray in early 1935, was fined $1,000 and sentenced to six months imprisonment at the Sedgewick County Jail on March 12, 1935. The following year, her son Preston Leroy Paden was convicted of murder for killing a night watchman in Kansas. He was given a life sentence and died in 1957
Murray was not found guilty in the kidnapping conspiracy but was returned to the Women's prison in Jefferson City, Mo to finish serving her term for highway robbery. Volney Davis led FBI agents to Hamilton's grave outside Aurora, Illinois three months later. Edna eventually backed his story up.
Later life
Murray was very cooperative with the authorities after her capture and gave evidence against a number of the Barker-Karpis gang's associates, along with corrupt police officers and lawyers. 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 was paroled from the Women's Prison at Jefferson City, Missouri on December 20, 1940.
Murray died in San Francisco in 1966 and is buried there.
Depiction
Actress Ina Marie Smith portrayed Murray in the first Dollar Baby
The Dollar Baby (or Dollar Deal) is an arrangement by which American author Stephen King grants permission to students and aspiring filmmakers or theatre producers to adapt one of his short stories for $1. (He retains rights to his work. As he beg ...
screen adaptation of Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...
's short story "The Death of Jack Hamilton
"The Death of Jack Hamilton" is a short story by American writer Stephen King. It was originally published in the December 24/31, 2001 issue of ''The New Yorker'' magazine. In 2002, it was published in King's collection ''Everything's Eventual''. T ...
". This is the first major depiction of her in any film or television adaptation.
Books
*Newton, Michael. ''Encyclopedia of Robbers, Heists, and Capers''. New York: Facts On File Inc., 2002. .
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Murray, Edna
1898 births
1966 deaths
American bank robbers
American female organized crime figures
Fugitives
People from Aurora, Illinois