With a made-for-Hollywood name like Peggy Sue Thomas, you can probably do anything: Organize a sock hop on the fly, meet hot guys during your shift waiting tables at the malt shop, or even convince a judge that you have to take a two-week road trip across five states while waiting for your murder trial to begin.

The real-life Peggy Sue Thomas pertinent to our little post here is not a waitress from the 1950s, but a former Ms. Washington and ex-hairdresser with a houseboat and a first-degree murder charge to beat. Prosecutors believe that in 2003, Thomas "lured" a man named Russel Douglas onto her houseboat while it was parked on Whidbey Island, near Seattle, and killed him. But she probably didn't do it, so she was able to convince a judge to let her drive around the country for a while so she could do some things. First she's got to stop by Idaho for the funeral of her half-sister, then she's got to go to New Mexico, Utah, and Nevada to sell her one house, fix up her other house, visit her dentist, get some winter clothes, and—perhaps most importantly—weatherize her houseboat. The houseboat has a name! It's "Off the Hook." That's prescient.

Greg Banks, the prosecutor in the case, seems perplexed by all the freedoms being given to one Ms. Peggy Sue Thomas:

"That's the first time I've ever seen anything like that," Banks said Thursday. "We're sure hoping she comes back."

She'll be hooked up to a GPS system, but Banks says she might travel out of range and could even flee the country. Yeah, maybe. But probably not.

Oh Peggy Sue, with your love so rare and true, how Banks' heart will yearn for you, if you don't return. [ABC News, KOB. Image via KIRO]