147. Vintage case: The Blonde Rattlesnake

In 1933, Los Angeles had its own Bonnie & Clyde: a young, dynamic and attractive couple leaving a trail of terror through a crime spree that left victims traumatized and mutilated. Burmah White, "The Blonde Rattlesnake" was a luminous platinum blonde with hypnotic blue eyes... but was she actually the cackling psychopath that the media made her out to be? In this episode we cover her crime spree as a get away driver, the subsequent trial, as well as explore the underlying psychological and neurological factors that likely played a part.

Resources

• “Burmah White’s Fate Now in Hands of Jury.” Los Angeles Evening Post-Record, 2 Nov. 1933, p. 3, www.newspapers.com/image/678403552/?terms=burmah%20white&match=1. Accessed 3 July 2023.

• “Burmah White, Hardened Girl Bandit Turned to Poetry in Prison Cell.” Newspapers.com, 9 July 1935, www.newspapers.com/image/678509928/?terms=burmah%20white&match=1. Accessed 3 July 2023

• .L.A. Meekly. The L.A. Meekly Junk Drawer: Part II (Random Topics). L.A. Meekly, 1 Apr. 2023, www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhdItH23Awg. Accessed 4 July 2023. Podcast.

• Los Angeles Evening Post-Record. “Attorney M’Kay Denies Girl Is Bandit Queen.” Los Angeles Evening Post-Record, 9 Sept. 1933, p. 2, www.newspapers.com/image/678369065/?terms=burmah%20white&match=1. Accessed 3 July 2023.

• Renner, Joan. “L.A.'S Bonnie & Clyde - Burmah & Thomas White.” Deranged LA Crimes ®, 1 Feb. 2013, derangedlacrimes.com/?p=1008. Accessed 3 July 2023.