Under An Outlaw Moon by Dietrich Kalteis

 

They meet in Kansas.  Bennie is in his early twenties, Stella only fifteen.  She can't resist the cute guy flirting with her and agrees to go out on a date.  Little did her parents know, she would be married to Bennie before her sixteenth birthday and far from Kansas and her home.

Bennie had been released from prison after a failed bank robbery.  He's sure he can get it right this time and teaches Stella how to shoot and off the two of them go.  Bennie never hurts anyone in the banks and doesn't rob those who are caught there during the robbery.  He buries their loot and looks for the next job and how to please Stella.  Stella only wants a house and kids but that isn't likely when J. Edgar Hoover puts them on the Most Wanted list.

This book is a fictionalized account of the true story of Bennie and Stella Mae Dickson.  The author's retelling of their story is slanted towards the story of their love and their relative nonviolence rather than seeing them as criminals who needed to be hunted down.  I listened to this novel and the narrator was perfect for this kind of story, capturing Bennie's eagerness to do anything to make Stella Mae happy.  This book is recommended for readers of true crime and literary fiction.