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| Pearl Elliott, images.google.com |
You see, Pearl became a Madam (do you really use a capital M when spelling that word?). I suppose it was to "make ends meet".....well, I guess I should not use THAT phrase..... let's just say she needed to earn a living. It was the Depression Era. She also rented rooms to a few of her friends that needed places to stay, before and after they robbed banks and carried on in other activities considered illegal. She started harboring fugitives in 1925 when Pierpont completed a bank heist and needed a place to lay low.
Kokomo was her hometown when she tried her skills at this business. Her home was raided in 1929, but the judge dismissed the case in the city court. There were other raids and arrests from 1930 to 1932. Sometimes she pleaded "guilty" to charges of brothel management, if it appeared that she had no other choice. But then, some of those in the ranks of the police and fire departments were frequent visitors to her establishment, so she got some friendly help in dismissing some charges along the way. They provided protection for her and her girls when some paying visitors were disorderly and caused trouble. How nice to have armed men outside the house when she needed them.
Pearl's husband, "Dewey" Elliott, was on friendly terms with Pierpont and Dillinger. He suggested that Pearl become the treasurer for the Dillinger group of thugs. Evidently, she did a good job. Pierpont aided Dillinger in his escape from jail. Pearl was not seen in the Kokomo area after the jail break. Seems unusual, so she must have had a hand in it. She found herself on the Chicago Police Department's Most Wanted List, with an order of "shoot to kill" since she was considered a dangerous partner of John Dillinger and Harry Pierpont, and she was known to harbor them and their gang members in her "Rooms For Rent" establishments.
When Dillinger escaped from the Crown Point, Indiana jail, he found refuge in an apartment in Chicago, where the rent had been paid two weeks in advance....by Pearl Elliott. She hid out there with Dillinger and Joe Burns, a member of the gang.
Dillinger met his end in front of the Chicago Biograph Theatre, gunned down in a hail of bullets in July of 1934, orchestrated by Melvis Purvis, FBI. Harry Pierpont was sent to the electric chair while at the Ohio Penitentiary the same year in October.
Pearl Elliott, among other women noted for their participation in the career of John Dillinger, was seen at his funeral in Mooresville, Indiana. She paid her respect for her friend, noting that he never let her down, and she had to be there to see him once more.
On August 10, 1935, Pearl McDonald Elliott was pronounced deceased after her battle with a carcinoma at the age of 47. She was laid to rest with the McDonald family in Greenlawn Cemetery in Clinton County, Indiana. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=elliott&GSiman=1&GScid=226628&GRid=28777548&
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