"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.