Name Mary Kinder | ||
 | ||
Died May 21, 1981, Plainfield, Indiana, United States | ||
Mary Northern Kinder (August 29, 1909 – May 21, 1981) was a Prohibition era gun moll, most noted for being the girlfriend of Harry Pierpont and associate of John Dillinger. Along with Pearl Elliott, she was one of two women listed by the Chicago Police Department's Public Enemies list in 1933.
Contents
- Early life
- Earl Northern Trial Howard County Indiana Circuit court 1925
- Suicide of Father 1925
- Michigan City Prison Break 1933
- Named to Public Enemies List 1933
- Death
- References
At one time, her brother, Earl, husband Dale Kinder, and sweetheart Harry Pierpont were all inmates at the Indiana State Prison at Michigan City, Indiana. Her other brother, Charles, as well as her brother-in-law, William Behrens, were also convicted bank robbers.
Early life
She was born August 29, 1909 in Indiana, the daughter of Lewis W. and Viola J. (Tansey) Northern.
By the 1910 census, the family was residing in Washington Township, Morgan County, Indiana, where Mary's father's occupation was not listed.
By the 1920 census, the family was living at 1060 West McCarty Street in Indianapolis, Indiana, where Mary's father's occupation was listed as an engineer at a factory.
Earl Northern Trial, Howard County, Indiana Circuit court, 1925
Mary testified as a defense witness at her brother, Earl Northern's trial that Northern was in attendance at a dinner party held by her aunt on March 27, 1925, giving the names of those in attendance.
Suicide of Father, 1925
Mary, along with her mother, discovered her father's body at their Indianapolis home after hearing a report from a shotgun blast in the early morning of November 12, 1925.
Michigan City Prison Break, 1933
On September 26, 1933, Harry Pierpont, Charles Makley, John "Red" Hamilton, Russell Clark, Walter Dietrich, James "Oklahoma Jack" Clark, Edward Shouse, Joseph Fox, Joe Burns, and Jim Jenkins escaped from Michigan City, using pistols that Dillinger had smuggled into the prison. The escape had been carefully planned before Dillinger's parole by Pierpont, Hamilton and Dillinger.
After the prison break, Kinder was sought by police for her connection with the escapees. Authorities believed that she drove the automobile who brought the convicts to the home of Ralph Saffell, where they received food, clothing and shelter Mary's sister, Mrs. Margaret Behrens, wife of William Behrens, had been held as an accomplice for three days.
Named to Public Enemies List, 1933
Mary was one of two women, known to be associated with the John Dillinger gang, named to the Chicago Police Department's Public Enemies List.
Death
Mary died May 21, 1981 in Plainfield, Hendricks County, Indiana.