27 Facts About Murray Humphreys

Murray Humphreys was known to place far greater trust in the bribability of lawmen, seemingly respectable businessmen, labor union leaders, and public officials.

Whereas some senior wiseguys, such as Sam Giancana and Filippo Sacco, welcomed the limelight, others took their cue from Murray Humphreys and conducted themselves behind the scenes and out of public view.

Murray Humphreys owned a nondescript bungalow in South Shore, Chicago but frequently lived in various high rise towers on the downtown lake front in Chicago, like the apartment he had on the 51st floor of Marina City's east tower.

Llewellyn Morris Murray Humphreys was born in the United States, the third of five children.

Murray Humphreys had to drop out of elementary school, aged seven, to get a job selling newspapers because of their impoverished condition.

However, young "Curly" Murray Humphreys soon tried his hand at petty theft and became involved with the world of Chicago street gangs.

The original charge had been one of felony burglary but Murray Humphreys had convinced the prosecutor to change the charge.

Murray Humphreys then continued his life of crime, primarily one of jewel heists and burglaries.

Murray Humphreys left Chicago for his brother's home in Little Axe, near Pink, Oklahoma in 1921 after some difficulties.

Marriage followed a brief courtship, and after a suitable time had elapsed, Murray Humphreys took his young bride back with him to Chicago.

Briefly going legitimate, Humphreys got a job as a short-order cook at a restaurant on Halsted Street, though Murray's "legitimacy" would be short-lived after he met customer Fred Evans.

All went smoothly for several years until Murray Humphreys hijacked some bootleg belonging to the Capone mob.

When Murray Humphreys was identified by the truck's driver as the hijacker who had stuck a gun in his face, some Capone men picked Murray Humphreys up and brought him before Capone.

Murray Humphreys was skinny and dapper and handsome in a sinister sort of way, a representative of the new breed of racketeer, part thug and part businessman.

The 27-year-old Murray Humphreys was put into the racketeering side of the business but carried out some killings for the mob around this time.

Six months after Touhy's death, Murray Humphreys supposedly bought several shares of an insurance company and eight months later redeemed the shares for $42,000.

When Jake "Greasy Thumb" Guzik died in 1956, Murray Humphreys became the Outfit's chief political fixer and financial manager or, in the words of one Mafia historian, their "strategist, councilor, and master schemer".

Murray Humphreys was about as cold-blooded as a guy could get, which was a real interesting combination for a guy in his position.

Sam Giancana and Murray Humphreys both topped the FBI's Top Hoodlum list, "Top Hoodlum" being a program put into operation in 1957 for the purpose of combating organized crime and the Mafia in particular.

Murray Humphreys' first wife Mary Clementine Brendle, known affectionately as "Clemi", was an Oklahoman with part Cherokee ancestry.

Clemi's many relatives lived nearby and Murray Humphreys soon endeared himself to his acquired nephews and nieces: "I was a small child, and he was always super nice to me," recalled Ray Brendle nearly 60 years later.

In 1957, after a separation of three years from her husband, Mary Brendle Murray Humphreys filed for divorce.

In 1964, Murray Humphreys took his ex-wife and their daughter on a two-month tour of Europe.

Murray Humphreys was met by federal agents in Norman, who escorted him back to Chicago.

Also, a porter recalled how, while on the train, Murray Humphreys was reading a newspaper, which he eventually threw aside.

Murray Humphreys had apparently been vacuuming the room at the time of his death.

Murray Humphreys had committed my cardinal sin, corruption, many times over.