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November 8, 2009

SLIDESHOW: Couple's new home came with quite the history lesson

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Jay and Shandi Williams purchased an abandoned home and 12 acres at State Highway 9 and 192nd Avenue SE this past summer. The home came complete with a large swimming pool, old bath house and a nearby crypt containing the grave of one of Chicago's most famous underworld figures.

The Williamses may be learning more about their new home than they want to know. The house was built by Llewelyn Morris "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 at age 66, was a Chicago mobster and longtime leader of the Chicago underworld. During the '30s, Humphreys was believed to be second in command to Al Capone and became "public enemy No. 1" when Capone was imprisoned in 1931.

The two-story, native stone home on the county's eastern boundary had been abandoned for several years and was overgrown with bushes when the Williamses took possession this summer. It is hidden from the highway, nestled in a grove of blackjack and post oak trees.

"It's hard to believe but we've already done a ton of work here," said Jay Williams, a retired Norman fire captain.

"We thought we were going to have to tear it down. The windows were all out and there were bird nests in here. It was all grown over," he said on a tour last week.

Another home on the property, built by Murray and Mary Humphreys' daughter, Mary Luella Brady for her son George Brady burned in 2008. That home had a tall lookout where guards could spot anyone coming up the road which is outside Norman's city limits.

As a boy, Humphreys quit school and sold newspapers in Chicago. He did some time in the Illinois juvenile jail, then joined Capone's organization. He needed some cover for a few years so he came to Oklahoma where his brother, Henry, lived and sold Victrola phonograph to farmers and ranchers in Cleveland and Pottawatomie counties. At one house call, Humphreys met Mary Brendle. He made up an excuse to come back and won her over.

The Williamses are eager to learn more about their new property and welcome stories about the famous former owners. A neighbor, Mel Shoemaker, 83, has been learning about the property since he moved there from Shawnee in 1994. In June, he called a meeting to learn more the area and its famous neighbors.

"Mary apparently didn't like Chicago and so he (Humphreys) came back and forth on the train a lot," Shoemaker said.

Humphreys was arrested in 1965 at the Norman train station. He was taken back to Chicago and arraigned.

"Before he was supposed to testify he died of a heart attack. It was unnatural because that's not how gangsters are supposed to die," Shoemaker joked.

He recalls the house that burned had a lookout post. "You could see out over the trees. Of course, they had guards at all the gates," he said.

"Everybody out here says there are tunnels everywhere but we haven't found any tunnels. The only thing that I found on the property that was related to gangsters was a gun clip."

The Humphreyses were divorced in 1957 but remained friends. Murray quickly remarried but divorced again in 1963. Mary died in Norman in 1980 and their daughter, Luella, died in 1992 in Shawnee. All three are buried in a nearby crypt on land formerly in Mary's family. Luella's son reportedly lives in Oregon.

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