Candy Barr

In late October of that year, in yet another notorious case, Dallas police raided her apartment and found four-fifths of an ounce of marijuana, which was said to be hidden in her bra. She was arrested for drug possession, subsequently convicted, and received a 15-year prison sentence, though, according to her, she was set up and was only holding the marijuana for a friend.

While the marijuana case devolved into a lengthy series of appeals, her fame spread nationwide and the curvaceous, green-eyed blonde became the toast of the strip club runways, reportedly earning $2000 a week in Las Vegas and Los Angeles, as well as at the Sho-Bar Club on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans.

While stripping at Chuck Landis' Largo Club on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, she met gangster Mickey Cohen and became his girl. According to Cohen, in his autobiography, In My Own Words, he helped her make bail after Gary Crosby told him, "One thing about that broad, she can make ya feel like a real man." Read Less

She left the prison without any fanfare or publicity, having requested that no pictures be taken and no interviews arranged. Barr had intended to return to Dallas, but her parole stipulations were so strict that it was not permitted. Instead, she returned to her hometown of Edna, where her father and stepmother still lived.

At this time, she became closer to Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby in telephone conversations. As she was having health problems when she was released from prison, she decided the best way to earn a living was by raising animals for profit. Ruby went down to Edna and gave her a pair of dachshund breeding dogs from his prized litter to get her started.

Twelve hours after Lee Harvey Oswald was murdered by Ruby, the FBI arrived in Edna to interview Barr. She made a statement, as Juanita Dale Phillips, regarding her knowledge of Ruby prior to Oswald's assassination of President John F. Kennedy and Ruby's subsequent murder of Oswald. It was rumored that she knew more than she disclosed, but she later said, "They thought Ruby had told me names and places and people, which he didn't." Read Less

She also returned to the Colony Club in Dallas. Read Less

Confused. At the beginning of the book, she wrote:

"Loneliness is like an early frost. Let us be among the seedlings that survive..."

The title poem further set the tone:

The 41-year-old grandmother was featured in a 1976 issue of Oui magazine. She also gave an interview in Playboy soon afterward. Read Less

Living in quiet retirement, with her animals at her rural home, she was content not to exploit or relive her legendary past. She said she was never interested in arousing men, she just wanted to dance. As Garbo had, Barr said she just wanted to be left alone.

She died at age 70 from complications of pneumonia at a hospital in Victoria, Texas. Her Dallas Morning News obituary said no funeral was planned. Her Los Angeles Times obituary contained a reference to her 1972 book of poetry and the title poem, A Gentle Mind... Confused.

Candy Barr is among the inductees in the Hall of Fame of Exotic World Burlesque Museum, Helendale, California, halfway between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Her lip prints are part of the museum's display.

In 1970, she had legally changed her name to Barr, and the names of her children. Her grandson, Ryan Barr, named his first daughter Candy Barr after her. He also has another daughter, Snickers. Read Less