A house with a history

Brendle descendant recalls family's colorful past

By Tom Blakey

Transcript Staff Writer

Ray Brendle said he was frightened by the headline of an April 11 Transcript article, "Fire Destroys Brendle House" -- until he saw the photo and realized his family's homestead was safe, sound and unmarred by fire.

Brendle, 66, lives in Houston, and read the story on The Transcript's Web site.

Although the house destroyed by fire once was owned by Murray Humphreys, a Chicago gangster who was married to an aunt, Mary Clementine Brendle -- "none of that property was ever owned by my grandmother, and it was never a Brendle House."

Mary Clementine Brendle was the first child of his grandmother, Martha Brendle, he said.

Martha Brendle was a postmistress in Oklahoma Territory -- the first woman to hold the position.

"She raised 10 kids. After the 10th child was born, grandpa died, so she had to raise the children by herself. My dad was the second oldest," he said.

Ray's father, Bill Brendle, built the Brendle House in the early 1920s.

"Being the oldest male, my dad had to pick up the loose ends (after his father's death)," he said.

A church near Little Axe was being torn down and the lumber was to be given to Martha Brendle as a gift, he said.

Bill Brendle took the covered wagon, went and tore down the church and carried the lumber back to the home site, where he built the original Brendle house, a large, white, two-story, all-frame house.

"My grandmother originally had 1,000 acres. She sold it down to 80 acres," he said.

After Martha Brendle's death in 1965, the house went through several heirs, and Ray Brendle said he bought the house in 1980.

"I put a ton of money into it, getting it all redone," he said.

Brendle said he "parted with the place in 1985."

"My wife said it wasn't close enough to Wal-Mart for her," he said.

Brendle was a pilot for Continental Airlines, and the couple moved to Houston to be closer to his job, which required him to fly out of Guam.

"By moving to Houston, I could be at the hub and commute to Guam," he said. "If I were still in Oklahoma, I would've had to commute from Oklahoma City to Houston and then to Guam."

Guam was another "eight hours (flying time) past Hawaii," he said.

Brendle spent four years commuting to Guam, before acquiring enough seniority to begin flying out of Houston. He retired six years ago, at age 60.

The house that was destroyed by fire is one of two on the southwest corner of Brendle Corner (Highway 9 and 192nd Street), Brendle said.

It was one of two houses owned by Murray Humphreys, also known as Lou Humphreys, "Lou the Camel," "Murray the Hump" or the "Prince of Crime."

Humphreys, prior to his death in 1965, was a Chicago mobster and longtime leader of the Chicago underworld.

During the '30s, Humphreys was second in command to Al Capone. However, he was clever enough to outlast all of his peers and retained his influence in organized crime to the end of his life, according to modern historians.

"Lou was a right-hand man to Al Capone," Brendle said. "Humphreys was supposedly the key planner of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.

"How Lou and Mary found one another, he came through the country selling old Victoria recorders (phonographs made by The Victor Talking Machine Company from 1901 through 1929). He was at grandmother's house, where he met Mary," Brendle said.

Brendle said he was a child when Humphreys traveled between Chicago and Norman and the Humphreys House at Brendle Corner. Humphreys often would arrive at the old Santa Fe Depot in Norman after traveling from Chicago by train, he said.

"I was a small child, and he was always super nice to me. He made our Christmases. He would play Santa Claus and come down from the second floor dressed as Santa and carrying presents for all us kids. We were all dirt poor, and he was the only one who had money," always carrying a large roll of bills.

"To us 5- and 6-year-old kids, he provided quite a wow factor," Brendle said.

Brendle said he had "several visits from the FBI" throughout his lifetime.

"They were always trying to dig something up on him. I think they finally got him for income tax evasion. He put up bail and went to his apartment in Chicago, where he died from natural causes," Brendle said.

Mary and Lou Humphreys adopted a daughter, Louella, and Louella had a son, George Brady.

Louella, who lived in the Humphreys house -- a two-story house made of stone -- had a house built for George on the same property, only 100 yards or so away from the Humphreys house.

"It had foundation problems from day one. I don't know if George ever lived there," he said.

It was that house, still uninhabited, that burned down last week.

(A fascinating account of the perils of Louella Brady, including prison time served in Oregon and the family fortune invested and lost in a Stroud Race Track venture, can be found at: http://wyom.state.wy.us/applications/oscn/DeliverDocument.asp?CiteID=10653)

Louella, with the help of author John Morgan, wrote a book about Humphreys, titled "The Prince of Crime," Brendle said.

A review of the book said Humphreys, "one of the more appealing gangsters to come out of the Capone era," was the first gangster to "take the fifth" and had a wooden plaque with the Fifth Amendment on his wall, together with one that read "Love thy crooked neighbour as you love thy crooked self."

Readers may recall his advice to Chicago voters "to vote early and vote often."

Tom Blakey 366-3540 tblakey@normantranscript.com