Bonnie and Clyde

Bonnie and Clyde
For other uses, see Bonnie and Clyde (disambiguation).
Bonnie and Clyde

Bonnie and Clyde in March 1933, in a photo found by police at the Joplin, Missouri hideout.
Clyde Barrow
Born Clyde Chestnut Barrow
March 24, 1909(1909-03-24)
Ellis County, Texas
Died May 23, 1934(1934-05-23) (aged 25)
Bienville Parish, Louisiana
Cause of death Gunshot
Nationality American
Bonnie Parker
Born Bonnie Elizabeth Parker
October 1, 1910(1910-10-01)
Rowena, Texas
Died May 23, 1934(1934-05-23) (aged 23)
Bienville Parish, Louisiana
Cause of death Gunshot
Nationality American

Bonnie Elizabeth Parker (October 1, 1910 – May 23, 1934) and Clyde Chestnut Barrow (March 24, 1909 – May 23, 1934) were well-known outlaws, robbers, and criminals who traveled the Central United States with their gang during the Great Depression. Their exploits captured the attention of the American public during the "public enemy era" between 1931 and 1934. Though known today for his dozen-or-so bank robberies, Barrow in fact preferred to rob small stores or rural gas stations. The gang is believed to have killed at least nine police officers and committed several civilian murders. The couple themselves were eventually ambushed and killed in Louisiana by law officers. Their reputation was cemented in American pop folklore by Arthur Penn's 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde.[1]

Even during their lifetimes, the couple's depiction in the press was at considerable odds with the hardscrabble reality of their life on the road—particularly in the case of Parker. Though she was present at a hundred or more felonies during her two years as Barrow's companion,[2] she was not the machine gun-wielding cartoon killer portrayed in the newspapers, newsreels, and pulp detective magazines of the day. Gang member W. D. Jones was unsure whether he had ever seen her fire at officers.[3][4] Parker's reputation as a cigar-smoking gun moll grew out of a playful snapshot found by police at an abandoned hideout, released to the press, and published nationwide; while she did chain-smoke Camel cigarettes, she was not a cigar smoker.[5]

Author-historian Jeff Guinn explains that it was the release of these very photos that put the outlaws on the media map and launched their legend: "John Dillinger had matinee-idol good looks and Pretty Boy Floyd had the best possible nickname, but the Joplin photos introduced new criminal superstars with the most titillating trademark of all—illicit sex. Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker were young and unmarried. They undoubtedly slept together—after all, the girl smoked cigars... Without Bonnie, the media outside Texas might have dismissed Clyde as a gun-toting punk, if it ever considered him at all. With her sassy photographs, Bonnie supplied the sex-appeal, the oomph, that allowed the two of them to transcend the small-scale thefts and needless killings that actually comprised their criminal careers."[6]

Contents

Beginnings

Bonnie Parker

Bonnie Parker with 1932 Ford V-8 B-400 convertible sedan. Captured Joplin film.

Bonnie Elizabeth Parker was born in Rowena, Texas, the second of three children. Her father, Charles Parker, a bricklayer, died when Bonnie was four.[7] Her mother, Emma Krause, moved with the children to her parents' home in Cement City, an industrial suburb of Dallas, where she found work as a garment sewer.[8] Parker was one of the best students in her high school, winning top prizes in spelling, writing and public speaking.[9] As an adult, her fondness for writing found expression in poems such as "The Story of Suicide Sal"[10] and "The Trail's End" (known since as "The Story of Bonnie and Clyde"[11]).

Parker did not date until she was in her second year of high school,[12] but in that year she fell in love with a classmate, Roy Thornton, whose good looks and smart clothes caught her schoolgirl's eye.[13] The two quit school and were married on September 25, 1926, six days before Parker's sixteenth birthday.[14] Their marriage, marked by his frequent absences and brushes with the law, was short-lived, and after January 1929 their paths never crossed again. But they were never divorced, and Parker was wearing Thornton's wedding ring when she died.[15] Thornton was in prison in 1934 when he learned of his wife's ambush; his reaction was, "I'm glad they went out like they did. It's much better than being caught."[13]

In 1929, between the breakdown of her marriage and her first meeting with Clyde Barrow in January 1930, Parker lived with her mother and worked as a waitress in Dallas; one of her regular customers in the café was postal worker Ted Hinton, who would join the Dallas Sheriff's Department in 1932 and, as a posse member, would participate in her ambush in 1934.[16] In the diary she kept briefly early in 1929, she wrote of her desperate loneliness, her impatience with life in provincial Dallas, and her love of a newfangled technology — talking pictures.[17]

Clyde Barrow

Clyde Barrow in 1926, aged 16

Clyde Chestnut Barrow[18] was born in Ellis County, Texas, near Telico, a town just south of Dallas.[19] He was the fifth of seven children of Henry Basil Barrow (1874-1957) and Cumie T. Walker (1874-1943), a desperately poor farming family that emigrated, piecemeal, to Dallas in the early 1920s as part of a wave of resettlement from the impoverished nearby farms to the impoverished urban slum known as West Dallas. It was a place of flimsy shanties and tent cities, piles of garbage and teeming open sewers, swarming insects and rampaging epidemics. The Barrows had neither shanty nor tent: they spent their first months living under their wagon. When father Henry had earned enough money to buy a tent, it was a major step up for the family.[20]

Clyde was first arrested in late 1926, after running when police confronted him over a rental car he had failed to return on time. His second arrest, with brother Marvin "Buck" Barrow, came soon after, this time for possession of stolen goods (turkeys). Despite having legitimate jobs during the period 1927 through 1929, he also cracked safes, robbed stores, and stole cars. After sequential arrests in 1928 and 1929, his luck ran out and he was sent to Eastham Prison Farm in April 1930. While in prison, he was sexually assaulted repeatedly for over a year by a dominant inmate, whose skull he eventually fractured with a length of pipe.[21] It was Clyde Barrow's first killing.

Paroled in February 1932, Barrow emerged from Eastham a hardened and bitter criminal. His sister Nell remembered a conversation with sister Marie about the new parolee: "There's a new air about him—a funny sort of something I can't put my finger on.... I'm afraid he's not going to go straight."[22] Marie was blunter: "Something awful sure must have happened to him in prison, because he wasn't the same person when he got out."[23] Associate Ralph Fults was there, inside "The Walls" with Barrow, and said he watched him "change from a schoolboy to a rattlesnake."[24]

In his post-Eastham career, he focused on smaller jobs, robbing grocery stores and gas stations, at a rate far outpacing the mere ten to fifteen bank robberies attributed to him and the Barrow Gang. Barrow's favored weapon was the M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle (called a BAR). According to John Neal Phillips, Barrow's goal in life was not to gain fame or fortune from robbing banks, but to seek revenge against the Texas prison system for the abuses he suffered while serving time.[25]

First meeting

There are several versions of the story describing Bonnie's and Clyde's first meeting, but the most credible version indicates that Bonnie Parker met Clyde Barrow in January 1930 at a friend's house. Parker was out of work and was staying in West Dallas to assist a girl friend with a broken arm. Barrow dropped by the girl's house while Parker was supposedly in the kitchen making hot chocolate.[26]

When they met, both were smitten immediately; most historians believe Parker joined Barrow because she was in love. She remained a loyal companion to him as they carried out their crime spree and awaited the violent deaths they viewed as inevitable.[27]

The spree

1932: Early jobs, early murders

Instant Legend: Bonnie clowns with cigar and is branded forever as "cigar smoking gun moll" after cops find Joplin film

After Barrow was released from prison in February 1932, he and Ralph Fults assembled a rotating core group of associates and began a series of small robberies, primarily of stores and gas stations; their goal was to collect enough money and firepower to launch a raid of liberation against Eastham prison.[25] On April 19, Bonnie Parker and Fults were captured in a failed hardware store burglary in Kaufman, Texas, and subsequently jailed.[28] On April 30, Barrow was the wheelman in a robbery in Hillsboro, Texas, during which the store's owner, J.N. Bucher, was shot and killed.[29] When shown mugshots, the victim's wife identified Barrow as one of the shooters, even though he had stayed outside in the car;[30] it was his first murder accusation. Meanwhile, Parker remained in jail until June 17, writing poetry to while away the time.[31] When the Kaufman County grand jury convened, it declined to indict her, and she was released.[32] Within a few weeks, she reunited with Barrow.

On August 5, while Parker was visiting her mother in Dallas, Barrow, Raymond Hamilton and Ross Dyer[33] were drinking alcohol at a country dance in Stringtown, Oklahoma, when Sheriff C.G. Maxwell and his deputy, Eugene C. Moore, approached them in the parking lot. Barrow and Hamilton opened fire, killing the deputy and gravely wounding the sheriff;[34][35] it was the first killing of a lawman by Barrow and his gang, a total eventually amounting to nine officers killed. Another civilian was added to the list on October 11, when storekeeper Howard Hall was killed during a robbery of his store in Sherman, Texas. The take: twenty-eight dollars and some groceries.[36]

W. D. Jones had been a friend of the Barrow family since childhood, and though he was only 16 years old on Christmas Eve 1932, he persuaded Barrow to let him join up with the pair and ride out of Dallas with them that night.[37] The very next day, Jones was initiated into homicide when he and Barrow killed Doyle Johnson, a young family man, in the process of stealing his car in Temple, Texas.[38] Less than two weeks later, on January 6, 1933, Barrow killed Tarrant County Deputy Sheriff Malcolm Davis when he, Parker and Jones wandered into a police trap set for another criminal.[39] The total murdered by the gang since April was now five.

1933: Buck joins the gang

Life changed for the gang after they shot their way out of Joplin hideout; photos and Bonnie's poem hit papers nationwide.
37°03′06″N 94°31′00″W / 37.051671°N 94.516693°W / 37.051671; -94.516693 (Site of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow Garage Apartment)

On March 22, 1933, Buck Barrow was granted a full pardon and released from prison. Within days, he and his wife, Blanche, had set up housekeeping with Clyde Barrow, Parker and Jones in a temporary hideout at 3347 1/2 Oakridge Drive in Joplin, Missouri. According to family sources,[40] Buck and Blanche were there merely to visit, in an attempt to persuade Clyde to surrender to law enforcement. As was common with Bonnie and Clyde, their next brush with the law arose from their generally suspicious—and conspicuous—behavior, not because their identities had been discovered. Beer had just been legalized after Prohibition, and the group ran loud, alcohol-fueled card games late into the night in the quiet neighborhood. "We bought a case of beer a day," Blanche would later recall.[41] The menfolk came and went noisily at all hours, and once, a BAR (Browning Automatic Rifle) discharged in the apartment while Clyde was cleaning it;[42] the short burst did not bring any neighbors directly to the house, but at least one registered suspicions with the Joplin Police Department.

Unaware of what awaited them, the lawmen assembled only a two-car, five-man force on April 13 to confront the suspected bootleggers living in the rented apartment over a garage. Though taken by surprise, Clyde, noted for remaining cool under fire, was gaining far more experience in gun battles than most lawmen. He, Jones and Buck quickly killed Detective McGinnis and fatally wounded Constable Harryman.[43][44] During the escape from the apartment, Parker laid down covering fire with her own BAR, forcing Highway Patrol sergeant G. B. Kahler to duck behind a large oak tree while .30-06 slugs slammed into the other side, forcing wood splinters into the sergeant's face.[45] Parker then got into the car with the others. The car slowed long enough to pull in Blanche Barrow from the street, where she was pursuing her fleeing dog, Snow Ball.[46] The surviving officers later testified that their side had fired only fourteen rounds in the conflict,[47] although one of these hit Jones in the side, one struck Clyde and was deflected by his suitcoat button, and one grazed Buck after ricocheting off a wall.

Always proud of their arsenal, the gang "shot" it for a posterity they could not have imagined. The gangster is W. D. Jones.

The group escaped the police at Joplin, but left most of their possessions at the rented apartment: Buck and Blanche's marriage license, Buck's parole papers (only three weeks old), a large arsenal—and a handwritten poem and camera with several rolls of exposed film.[48] The film was developed at The Joplin Globe and yielded many now-famous photos of Barrow, Parker and Jones clowning and pointing ordnance at one another.[49] When the poem and the photos, including one featuring the poetess clenching a cigar in her teeth and a pistol in her fist, went out on the newly installed newswire, the obscure fivesome from Dallas became front page news across America as The Barrow Gang, fully illustrated and with the rhyming-couplet "Story of 'Suicide Sal'" as a seeming instant backstory.

For the next three months, they ranged from Texas as far north as Minnesota. In May, they attempted to rob the bank in Lucerne, Indiana[50] and robbed the bank in Okabena, Minnesota.[51] Previously they had kidnapped Dillard Darby and Sophia Stone at Ruston, Louisiana, in the course of stealing Darby's car; this was one of several incidents between 1932 and 1934 in which they kidnapped lawmen or robbery victims,[52] usually releasing them far from home, sometimes with money to help them return.[4][53] Stories of these encounters made headlines, but so too did the darker encounters. The Barrow Gang would not hesitate to shoot anyone, lawman or civilian, who got in their way. Other members of the Barrow Gang known or thought to have committed murders included Raymond Hamilton, W.D. Jones, Buck Barrow and Henry Methvin. Eventually, the cold-bloodedness of the killings would not only sour the public perception of the outlaws, but lead directly to their undoing.[54]

While the photos in the papers might have suggested a glamorous lifestyle for the Barrow Gang, in reality they were desperate and discontented, as noted in the account of their life written by Blanche Barrow while she was in jail through the latter 1930s.[55] With their new fame—some would say notoriety—came difficulty in the smallest tasks of everyday living. Restaurants and tourist courts became less and less of an option; cooking and bathing became campfire and cold-stream propositions.[56] The unrelieved, round-the-clock proximity of life among two couples, plus a fifth-wheel, in one car gave rise to vicious bickering.[57][58] So unpleasant did it become that W.D. Jones, who was the actual wheelman in the theft of Dillard Darby's car in late April, used that car to get himself separated from the others—and managed to stay separated throughout May and up until June 8.[59]

On June 10, while driving with Jones and Parker near Wellington, Texas, Barrow missed warning signs at a bridge under construction and flipped their car into a ravine.[4] Sources disagree on whether there was an actual gasoline fire[60] or that Parker was doused with acid from the car's battery under the floorboards.[61] What is certain is that she sustained horrific third degree burns to her right leg. The burn was so severe, the muscles contracted and caused the leg to "draw up";[62] near the end of her life, Parker could hardly walk and would either hop on her good leg or be carried by Clyde. After getting help from a nearby farm family and kidnapping two local lawmen,[63] the three outlaws rendezvoused with Blanche and Buck Barrow again and they hid out in a tourist court near Ft. Smith, Arkansas, nursing Parker's grievous burns. Then Buck and Jones bungled a local robbery and killed Town Marshal Henry D. Humphrey in Alma, Arkansas.[64] With the renewed pursuit from the law, they had to flee again, despite the grave condition of Bonnie Parker.[65]

1933: Platte City and Dexfield Park

Two-unit Red Crown Tourist Court, where outlaws' conspicuous behavior drew the police, a gunfight, and a mortal head wound for Buck Barrow.
39°18′43″N 94°41′11″W / 39.31194°N 94.68639°W / 39.31194; -94.68639 (1933 Site of Red Crown Tourist Court Platte City, Missouri)

On July 18, 1933, the gang checked into the Red Crown Tourist Court[66] south of Platte City, Missouri (now within the city limits of Kansas City, Missouri across I-29 from Kansas City International Airport). The Red Crown Court was just two brick cabins joined by garages and the gang rented both.[66] To the south stood the Red Crown Tavern, a popular restaurant and a favorite watering hole for Missouri Highway Patrolmen. Once again, the gang seemed to go out of their way to draw attention to themselves:[67] owner Neal Houser became interested in the group immediately when Blanche Barrow registered the party as three guests, and Houser, out his rear window, could see five people exiting their car—which the driver backed into the garage, "gangster style," for a quick getaway.[68] Blanche paid the lodging tab with coins rather than paper money, and did the same thing again later when she purchased five dinners and five beers for, presumably, three guests.[69] The next day, Houser noticed that his guests had taped newspapers over the windows of their cabin, and Blanche once again paid in silver for five meals. Even Blanche's outfit—saucy, tight jodhpurs riding breeches[70]—attracted undue attention: they were just not the kind of thing the staid women of Platte City would ever wear, and were the first thing mentioned by eyewitnesses reminiscing even forty years later.[68] It was all too much for Houser, who brought the conspicuous group to the attention of his restaurant patron, Captain William Baxter of the Highway Patrol.[66]

When Clyde and Jones went into town[71] to purchase bandages, crackers, cheese, and atropine sulfate to treat Bonnie's leg,[72] the druggist contacted Sheriff Holt Coffey, who put the cabins under watch. Coffey had been alerted by Oklahoma, Texas, and Arkansas to be on the lookout for strangers seeking such supplies. The sheriff contacted Captain Baxter, who called for reinforcements from Kansas City including an armored car.[66] At 11 p.m. that night, Sheriff Coffey led a group of officers armed with Thompson submachine guns toward the cabins.[73] But in a pitched gunfight at considerable distances, the submachine guns proved no match for Clyde Barrow's preferred Browning Automatic Rifles, stolen July 7 from the National Guard armory at Enid, Oklahoma.[74] The Barrows laid down withering fire and made their escape when a bullet short-circuited the horn on the armored car[75] and the lawmen mistook it for a cease-fire signal. They did not pursue the retreating Barrow automobile.[66]

With Buck mortally wounded nearby, Blanche is captured by posse at Dexfield Park, IA
41°33′52″N 94°13′44″W / 41.564388°N 94.228942°W / 41.564388; -94.228942 (Site of Barrow Gang shootout at Dexfield Park, IA)
Jones upon capture: his "confession" set legal balls rolling against former mentors

Although the gang evaded law enforcement once again, Buck Barrow had sustained a horrific wound in the side of the head and Blanche Barrow was nearly blinded from glass fragments in both her eyes.[66][76] Their prospects for holding out against the ensuing manhunt dwindled.

Five days later, on July 24, the Barrow Gang was camped at Dexfield Park, an abandoned amusement park near Dexter, Iowa.[4][77] So plainly mortal was Buck's head wound that Clyde and Jones dug a grave for him.[78] After their bloody bandages were noticed by local citizens, it was determined that the campers were the Barrow gang. Surrounded by local lawmen and approximately one hundred spectators, the Barrows once again found themselves under fire.[77] Clyde Barrow, Parker, and W.D. Jones escaped on foot.[4][77] Buck was shot again, in the back, and he and his wife were captured by the officers. Buck died five days later, at Kings Daughters Hospital in Perry, Iowa, of pneumonia after surgery.[77]

For the next six weeks, the remaining trio ranged far afield of their usual area of operations—west to Colorado, north to Minnesota, southeast to Mississippi—keeping a low profile and pulling only small robberies for daily-bread money.[79] They restocked their arsenal when Barrow and Jones burglarized an armory at Plattville, Illinois on August 20 and scored three BARs, handguns and lots of ammunition.[80]

By early September, they risked a run back in to Dallas to see their families for the first time in four months, and Jones parted company with them, continuing on to Houston, where his mother had moved.[4][77][81] He was arrested there without incident on November 16 and returned to Dallas. Through the autumn, Barrow executed a series of small-time robberies with a series of small-time local accomplices while his family, and Parker's, attended to her considerable medical needs.

On November 22, 1933, they again narrowly evaded arrest—but not bullets—while attempting to hook up with family members near Sowers, Texas. This time, it was their hometown Sheriff, Dallas's Smoot Schmid and his squad, lying in wait nearby. As Barrow drove up, he sensed a trap and drove right past his family's car, at which point Schmid and his deputies stood up and opened fire with machine guns and a BAR. The family members in the crossfire were not hit, but not so the outlaws: a single BAR slug penetrated the car—and the legs of both Parker and Barrow.[82] The couple made their getaway that night, but the attempted ambush would prove to be a dry run for deputies Ted Hinton and Bob Alcorn, who would get another shot at the pair six months hence in Louisiana.

Bonnie Parker crossed an ominous personal threshold the following week when on November 28, a Dallas grand jury delivered a murder indictment on her and Barrow for the January 1933 killing of Tarrant County Deputy Malcolm Davis;[83] it was the first murder warrant issued for Parker.

1934: Final run

On January 16, 1934, Barrow finally made his long-contemplated move against the Texas Department of Corrections as he orchestrated the escape of Raymond Hamilton, Henry Methvin and several others in the infamous "Eastham Breakout" of 1934.[25] The Texas prison system received national negative publicity from the brazen raid, and Barrow appeared to have achieved what Phillips describes as the burning passion in his life: exacting revenge on the Texas Department of Corrections.[84]

During the jailbreak, escapee Joe Palmer shot prison officer Major Joe Crowson[85] and this act would eventually bring the full power of the Texas and federal governments to bear on the manhunt for Barrow and Parker. As Crowson struggled for life, prison chief Lee Simmons reportedly promised him that all persons involved in the breakout would be hunted down and killed,[25] and all were, except for Henry Methvin, whose life would eventually be exchanged for turning Barrow and Parker over to authorities.[25] The Texas Department of Corrections then contacted former Texas Ranger Captain Frank A. Hamer, and persuaded him to accept an assignment to hunt down the Barrow Gang. Though retired, Hamer had retained his commission, which had not yet expired.[86] He accepted the assignment as a Texas Highway Patrol officer, secondarily assigned to the prison system as a special investigator, and given the specific task of hunting down Bonnie, Clyde and the Barrow Gang.

Former Texas Ranger Frank Hamer, the Barrow Gang's relentless shadow after the embarrassing Eastham prison breakout.

Frank Hamer was that rara avis, a true legend in his own time.[87] Tall, burly, cryptic and taciturn, unimpressed by authority, driven by an "inflexible adherence to right, or what he thinks is right,"[88] for twenty years Hamer had been feared and admired throughout the Lone Star State as "the walking embodiment of the 'One Riot, One Ranger' ethos."[89] In accomplishing the aims of Texas law enforcement he "had acquired a formidable reputation as a result of several spectacular captures and the shooting of a number of Texas criminals."[90] He was officially credited with fifty-three kills (and seventeen wounds to himself).[91] Although prison boss Simmons always said publicly that Hamer had been his first choice for the Barrow hunt, there's evidence he approached two other Rangers first, both of whom had been queasy about shooting a woman and declined;[92] Hamer apparently had no such qualms. Starting February 10, he became the constant shadow of Barrow and Parker, living out of his car, just a town or two behind the bandits. Three of Hamer's brothers were also Texas Rangers, and while brother Harrison was the best shot of the four, Frank was considered the most tenacious.[93]

On April 1, 1934, Easter Sunday, Barrow and Henry Methvin killed two young highway patrolmen, H. D. Murphy and Edward Bryant Wheeler, at the intersection of Route 114 and Dove Road near Grapevine, Texas (now the neighboring city of Southlake).[94][95] A contemporary eyewitness account stated that Barrow and Parker fired the fatal shots and this story got widespread coverage in the press[96] before it was discredited. Henry Methvin later admitted he fired the first shot, after assuming Barrow wanted the officers killed; he also admitted that Parker approached the dying officers intending to help them, not to administer the cold-blooded point-blank coup de grâce the discredited eyewitness had described. Barrow then joined in, firing at Patrolman Murphy. Most likely, Parker was asleep in the back seat when Methvin started shooting and took no part in the assault.[53]

Public tide turned against the outlaws after the Grapevine murders and resultant publicity

But in the spring of 1934, the reality of the Grapevine killings had far less impact on events than did the public's perception of them: All four Dallas daily papers seized on the story told by the eyewitness, a farmer, who claimed to have seen Parker throw her head back and laugh at the way Patrolman Murphy's head "bounced like a rubber ball" on the ground as she pumped bullets into his prone body.[97] The stories even claimed that police found a cigar butt "with tiny teeth marks" that could only be attributed to the diminutive Parker.[98] Things got worse several days later when Murphy's intended bride walked into his funeral wearing her wedding gown[99] and sparked another round of photo-supported coverage in the papers. The eyewitness's ever-changing story was soon discredited, but not in time for Barrow and Parker: the massive negative publicity, against Parker in particular, accelerated the public clamor for the extermination of the remaining elements of the Barrow Gang.

It was more than just bad press, though—the outcry galvanized the authorities into taking more concrete legal actions. Highway Patrol boss L.G. Phares immediately offered a $1,000 reward for "the dead bodies of the Grapevine slayers"—not their capture, just the bodies.[100] Texas governor Ma Ferguson was as outraged as the voting public, and she added another $500 reward for each of the two alleged killers, which "meant for the first time there was a specific price on Bonnie's head, since she was so widely believed to have shot H.D. Murphy."[101]

Public hostility only increased when, just five days later, Barrow and Methvin killed 60 year-old Constable William "Cal" Campbell, a widower single father, near Commerce, Oklahoma.[102] They kidnapped Commerce police chief Percy Boyd, drove around with him, crossing the state line into Kansas, and then let him out with a clean shirt, a few dollars and a request from Parker to tell the world she didn't smoke cigars. The outlaws didn't realize at their upbeat parting that Boyd would identify both Barrow and Parker to authorities—he never learned the name of the sullen youth who was with them—and when the resultant arrest warrant was issued for the Campbell murder, it specified "Clyde Barrow, Bonnie Parker and John Doe."[103] Historian Knight writes: "For the first time, Bonnie was seen as a killer, actually pulling the trigger—just like Clyde. Whatever chance she had for clemency had just been reduced."[100]

The Dallas Journal ran a cartoon on its editorial page showing the Texas electric chair, empty, but with a sign on it saying "Reserved"—for Clyde and Bonnie.[104]

Death

Gibsland posse. Top: Hinton, Oakley, Gault; seated: Alcorn, Jordan and Hamer.

Barrow and Parker were ambushed and killed on May 23, 1934 on a rural road in Bienville Parish, Louisiana.[77][105] The couple appeared in daylight in an automobile and were shot by a posse of four Texas officers (Frank Hamer, B.M. "Manny" Gault, Bob Alcorn and Ted Hinton) and two Louisiana officers (Henderson Jordan and Prentiss Morel Oakley).[106]

The posse was led by Hamer, who had begun tracking the pair on February 10, 1934. He studied the gang's movements and found they swung in a circle skirting the edges of five midwest states, exploiting the "state line" rule that prevented officers from one jurisdiction from pursuing a fugitive into another. Barrow was a master of that pre-FBI rule, but he was consistent in his movements, so an experienced manhunter like Hamer could chart his path and predict where he would go. The gang's itinerary centered on family visits, and they were due to see Henry Methvin's family in Louisiana, which explained Hamer's meeting with them over the course of the hunt. Hamer obtained a quantity of civilian Browning Automatic Rifles (manufactured by Colt as the "Monitor") and 20 round magazines with armor piercing rounds.[107]

The trail ended here on a desolate road, deep in the piney Louisiana woods.
32°26′29″N 93°05′33″W / 32.441298°N 93.092493°W / 32.441298; -93.092493 (Site of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow Ambush)

On May 21, 1934, the four posse members from Texas were in Shreveport, Louisiana, when they learned that Barrow and Parker were to go to Bienville Parish that evening with Methvin. Barrow had designated the residence of Methvin's parents as a rendezvous in case they were later separated and indeed Methvin did get separated from the pair in Shreveport. The full posse, consisting of Captain Hamer, Dallas County Sheriff's Deputies Bob Alcorn and Ted Hinton (both of whom knew Barrow and Parker by sight), former Texas Ranger B.M. "Manny" Gault, Bienville Parish Sheriff Henderson Jordan, and his deputy Prentiss Oakley, set up an ambush at the rendezvous point along Louisiana State Highway 154 south of Gibsland toward Sailes. Hinton's account has the group in place by 9:00 pm on the 21st and waiting through the whole next day (May 22) with no sign of the outlaw couple,[108] but other accounts have them setting up on the evening of the 22nd.[109]

At approximately 9:15 am on May 23, the posse, concealed in the bushes and almost ready to concede defeat, heard Barrow's stolen Ford V8 approaching at a high speed. The posse's official report had Barrow stopping to speak with Henry Methvin's father, planted there with his truck that morning to distract him and force him into the lane closer to the posse. The lawmen then opened fire, killing Barrow and Parker while shooting a combined total of approximately 130 rounds. All accounts of the ambush, including his own, agree that Oakley fired first, and probably before any order was given to do so.[108][110][111] Barrow was killed instantly by Oakley's initial head shot, but Parker had a moment to reflect; Hinton reported hearing her scream as she realized Barrow was dead before the shooting at her began in earnest.[108] The officers emptied the specially ordered automatic rifles, as well as other rifles, shotguns, and pistols at the car,[107] and any one of many wounds would have been fatal to either of the fugitives.[112] According to statements made by Ted Hinton and Bob Alcorn:

"Each of us six officers had a shotgun and an automatic rifle and pistols. We opened fire with the automatic rifles. They were emptied before the car got even with us. Then we used shotguns... There was smoke coming from the car, and it looked like it was on fire. After shooting the shotguns, we emptied the pistols at the car, which had passed us and ran into a ditch about 50 yards on down the road. It almost turned over. We kept shooting at the car even after it stopped. We weren't taking any chances."[105]
Souvenir hunters have ravaged several memorial stones at the rural ambush site.
32°26′32″N 93°05′27″W / 32.442086°N 93.090964°W / 32.442086; -93.090964 (Site of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow Ambush Monuments)

Some today say Bonnie and Clyde were shot more than 50 times,[25] others claim closer to 25 wounds per corpse, or 50 total.[113] Officially, the tally in Parish coroner Dr. J. L. Wade's 1934 report listed seventeen separate entrance wounds on Barrow's body and twenty-six on Parker's,[114] including several headshots on each, and one that had snapped Barrow's spinal column. So numerous were the bullet holes that undertaker C. F. "Boots" Bailey would have difficulty embalming the bodies because they wouldn't contain the embalming fluid.[115]

Amidst the lingering gunsmoke at the ambush site, the temporarily deafened officers inspected the vehicle and discovered an arsenal of weapons including stolen automatic rifles, sawed-off semi-automatic shotguns, assorted handguns, and several thousand rounds of ammunition, along with fifteen sets of license plates from various states.[107]

Word of the ambush quickly got around when Hamer, Jordan, Oakley, and Hinton drove into town to telephone their respective bosses. A crowd soon gathered at the spot, and Gault and Alcorn, who had been left to guard the bodies, lost control of the jostling curious; one woman cut off bloody locks of Parker's hair and pieces from her dress, which were subsequently sold as souvenirs. Hinton returned to find a man trying to cut off Barrow's trigger finger, and was sickened by what was occurring.[108] The coroner, arriving on the scene, saw the following: "...nearly everyone had begun collecting souvenirs such as shell casings, slivers of glass from the shattered car windows, and bloody pieces of clothing from the garments of Bonnie and Clyde. One eager man had opened his pocket knife, and was reaching into the car to cut off Clyde's left ear."[116] The coroner enlisted Hamer for help in controlling the "circus-like atmosphere", and only then did people move away from the car.[116]

Posse suffered deafness for hours after unleashing the thunderous fusillade

The bullet-riddled Ford containing the two bodies was towed to the Conger Furniture Store & Funeral Parlor on Railroad Avenue in downtown Arcadia, Louisiana across from the Illinois Central train station (which is now a historical museum containing Bonnie and Clyde artifacts[citation needed]). Preliminary embalming was done by Bailey in the small preparation room in back of the furniture store.[117] It was estimated that the northwest Louisiana town swelled in population from 2,000 to 12,000 within hours, the curious throngs arriving by train, horseback, buggy, and plane. Beer which normally sold for 15 cents a bottle jumped to 25 cents; ham sandwiches quickly sold out.[118] After identifying his son's body, an emotional Henry Barrow sat in a rocking chair in the furniture part of the Conger establishment and wept.[117]

H.D. Darby, a young undertaker who worked for the McClure Funeral Parlor in nearby Ruston, Louisiana, and Sophia Stone, a home demonstration agent also from Ruston, came to Arcadia to identify the bodies.[117] They had been kidnapped by the Barrow gang the previous year[119] in Ruston, on April 27, 1933, and released near Waldo, Arkansas. Parker reportedly had laughed when she asked Darby his profession and discovered he was an undertaker. She remarked that maybe someday he would be working on her.[117] As it turned out, she could be no closer to the truth: Darby assisted Bailey in embalming the outlaws.[117]

Funeral and burial

Bonnie Parker's grave, inscribed with: As the flowers are all made sweeter by the sunshine and the dew, so this old world is made brighter by the lives of folks like you 32°52′03″N 96°51′50″W / 32.8674164°N 96.8639145°W / 32.8674164; -96.8639145 (Burial site of Bonnie Elizabeth Parker)

Bonnie and Clyde wished to be buried side by side, but the Parker family would not allow it. Mrs. Parker had wanted to grant her daughter's final wish, which was to be brought home, but the mobs surrounding the Parker house made that impossible.[120] Over 20,000 people turned out for Bonnie Parker's funeral, making it difficult for her family to reach the grave site.[120]

Parker's family used the now defunct McKamy-Campbell Funeral Home,[121] then located on Forest Avenue (now Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard) in Dallas, to conduct her funeral. Hubert "Buster" Parker accompanied his sister’s body back to Dallas in the McKamy-Campbell ambulance. Her services were held on Saturday, May 26, 1934, at 2 pm, in the funeral home, directed by Allen D. Campbell.[117] His son, Dr. Allen Campbell, later remembered that flowers came from everywhere, including some with cards allegedly from Pretty Boy Floyd and John Dillinger.[117] The largest floral tribute was sent by a group of Dallas city newsboys; the sudden end of Bonnie and Clyde sold 500,000 newspapers in Dallas alone.[122] Soloists at the funeral included Dudley M Hughes Sr., who later was to become the prominent operator of four large Dallas funeral homes. Although initially buried in the Fishtrap Cemetery, Parker was moved, in 1945, to the new Crown Hill Cemetery in Dallas. The next year, services for Raymond Hamilton, a member of the Barrow Gang who was executed on May 10, 1935 by the State of Texas, were also held at the McKamy-Campbell Funeral Home.[117]

Barrow's family used the Sparkman-Holtz-Brand Morticians,[121] located in the A.H. Belo mansion in downtown Dallas. Thousands of people gathered outside both Dallas funeral homes hoping for a chance to view the bodies. Barrow’s private funeral was held at sunset on Friday, May 25, in the funeral home chapel.[117] He was buried in Western Heights Cemetery in Dallas, next to his brother, Marvin. They share a single granite marker with their names on it and a four-word epitaph previously selected by Clyde: “Gone but not forgotten.”

The life insurance policies for both Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were paid in full by American National of Galveston. Since then, the policy of pay-outs has changed to exclude pay-outs in cases of deaths caused by any criminal act by the insured.[123]

In addition to the memorabilia collected by the posse, the six men were each to receive a one-sixth share of the reward money. Dallas Sheriff Schmid had promised Ted Hinton this would total some $26,000,[124] but most of the state, county, and other organizations that had pledged reward funds reneged on their pledges; by the time the six checks were issued to the possemen, each had earned just $200.23 for his efforts.[125]

Clyde and Buck Barrow's grave, inscribed with: Gone but not forgotten 32°45′56″N 96°50′45″W / 32.7655373°N 96.8458633°W / 32.7655373; -96.8458633 (Burial site of Clyde Chestnut Barrow)

The ambush of Barrow and Parker proved to be the beginning of the end of the "public enemy era" of the 1930s. New federal statutes that made bank robbery and kidnapping federal offenses, the growing coordination of local jurisdictions by the FBI, and the installation of two-way radios in police cars combined to make the free-ranging outlaw bandit lifestyle much more difficult in the summer of 1934 than it had been just a few months before. Two months after Gibsland, John Dillinger was ambushed and killed on the street in Chicago; three months after that, Charles Arthur "Pretty Boy" Floyd took 14 FBI bullets in the back in Ohio; and one month after that, Lester "Baby Face Nelson" Gillis shot it out, and lost, in Illinois.[126] Thereafter, the Public Enemies would no longer operate on thin ribbons of gray macadam across America, but only on silver screens throughout the world.

Controversies

Questions following the ambush were helped along by the tripartite composition of the posse itself: Hamer and Gault were both former Texas Rangers now working for the Texas Department of Corrections, Hinton and Alcorn were employees of the Dallas Sheriff's office, and Jordan and Oakley were Sheriff and Deputy of Bienville Parish. The three duos distrusted each other, kept to themselves, and indeed did not even much like each other.[127] They each carried differing agendas into the operation and brought differing narratives out of it. Historian Guinn puts it this way: Hamer's, Simmons's, Jordan's and Hinton's "various testimonies

combine into one of the most dazzling displays of deliberate obfuscation in modern history. Such widely varied accounts can't be dismissed as different people honestly recalling the same events different ways. Motive becomes an issue, and they all had reason to lie. Hamer was fanatical about protecting sources. Simmons was interested in resurrecting his own public image.... Jordan wanted to present himself as the critical dealmaker. Nobody can account for Ted Hinton's improbable reminiscences...."[128]

Because their self-serving accounts vary so widely, and because all six men are long deceased, the exact details of the ambush are unknown and unknowable.[129]

As a result, the questions have lingered, including whether fair warning was given the fugitives before the firing commenced, the status of Parker as a shoot-on-sight candidate, and the 1970s-era accusations of Deputy Hinton.

Over a dozen guns and several thousand rounds of ammo (including 100 20-round BAR magazines) were found in the perforated Ford.

Calling a "Halt!"

The efficacy of calling out a warning to Clyde Barrow before an ambush was demonstrated by Dallas Sheriff Schmid at Sowers, Texas in November 1933. At his call of "Halt!" there was a smattering of gunfire from the outlaw car, a sweeping U-turn, and then rapidly vanishing taillights: Ambush over.[130] Hinton later called it "the most futile gesture of the week."[131] So when the two Louisiana officers on the posse assumed that calling "Halt!" would be the prelude to the bullets, the four Texans "vetoed the idea,"[132] hurrying to inform them[110] that Clyde's history had always been to shoot his way out of seemingly hopeless entrapments, like Platte City, Dexfield Park, and Sowers.[133] It is unlikely that Hamer planned to give any warning, but the matter became moot when Deputy Oakley simply stood up and opened fire; after a beat, the startled possemen joined him in the fusillade.[110] In their descriptions of the event, Jordan said he called out to Barrow,[134] Alcorn said Hamer called out,[135] and Hinton claimed Alcorn did,[108] while in another paper that same day, they each said they both did.[136] These conflicting claims most likely were collegial attempts to divert the focus from their gun-jumping associate Oakley, who admitted in subsequent years that he fired prematurely.[137]

Warrants on Parker

Different and disparate sources have cited five occasions when Bonnie Parker may or may not have fired shots during crises faced by the gang.[138] The number of shots is unimportant as she never hit anyone, let alone directly murdered. She was, however, an accomplice to a hundred or more felony criminal actions during her two-year career in crime including eight murders,[139] seven kidnappings,[140] half-a-dozen bank robberies,[141] scores of felony armed robberies, countless automobile thefts, one major jailbreak[142] and an episode of assault and battery[143] at a time when being a "habitual criminal" was a capital offense in Texas.[144] Because of their far-flung, rural base of operations and will o' the wisp modus operandi, Parker was able to stay a step ahead of the tide of legal paperwork that inevitably follows a crime spree the scope of hers and Barrow's.

This began to change for Parker after Joplin: the Joplin P.D. issued a Wanted for Murder poster in April 1933 that featured her name and photo first, before Barrow's, though the text concentrated on him.[145] In June, another Wanted for Murder poster emerged, this one out of Crawford County, Arkansas, again with Parker's name and photo getting first billing. There was now a $250 cash bounty attached for either of the "Barrow Brothers" (Clyde and "Melvin")—and the admonition to "inquire of your doctors if they have been called to treat a woman that has been burned in a car wreck."[146]

By November 1933, W.D. Jones was in custody and supplying details of the gang's 1933 activities—details which led to the empanelment of a grand jury in Dallas. On November 28, the grand jury indicted Parker, Barrow, and Jones for the murder of Deputy Malcolm Davis in January; Judge Nolan G. Williams of Criminal District Court No. 2 issued arrest warrants for Parker and Barrow for murder.[83] Parker's assistance in the raid on Eastham prison in January 1934 earned her the enmity of an even wider group of influential Texans, so when an eyewitness, later completely discredited, linked her to the heinous Grapevine murders, the head of the Highway Patrol, and the Governor herself, placed bounties on Parker's head.[147] Just five days later, Barrow and Henry Methvin killed Constable Campbell in Commerce, Oklahoma, and the murder warrant issued there named "Clyde Barrow, Bonnie Parker and John Doe" as his killers.[148]

Expensive pickup: Henry Methvin joins the gang after the Eastham breakout; he and his father, Ivy, ultimately prove its undoing.

Hinton's accusations

In 1979, Ted Hinton's as-told-to account of the ambush was published posthumously as Ambush, and it attempted to change the complexion of the Methvin family's involvement in the planning and execution of the ambush. According to Hinton, the posse had tied Henry Methvin's father, Ivy, to a tree the previous night, to keep him from possibly warning the outlaws off.[108] Hamer, Hinton claimed, made Ivy Methvin a deal: keep quiet about being tied up, and his son would be pardoned for the murder of the two young highway patrolmen at Grapevine, a pardon which Henry Methvin did eventually receive.[108] Hinton alleged that Hamer made every member of the posse swear they would never divulge this secret. Other accounts, however, place Methvin Senior at the very center of the action that morning, not tied up but right down on the road, waving for Clyde Barrow to stop—having cut Henry's pardon deal several weeks before.[100] John Treherne posits a less sinister explanation: Hamer, he says, may well have floated the tied-to-a-tree scenario to give Ivy Methvin an "alibi" in the event that Barrow escaped the ambush or the family later wanted revenge against a betrayer.[149] Hinton's odd memoir also propounds the tale that the offending stogie in the famous "cigar photo" of Bonnie had in fact been a rose in her mouth that was retouched into a cigar by darkroom personnel at the Joplin Globe[150] while they were preparing the photo for publication.[151] Guinn says that "some people who knew [Hinton] suspect he became delusional late in life."[152]

Aftermath

The smoke from the fusillade had not even cleared before the posse began sifting through the items in the Barrow death car. Hamer appropriated the "considerable" arsenal[153] of stolen guns and ammunition, plus a box of fishing tackle, under the terms of his compensation package with the Texas DOC.[154] In July, Clyde's mother Cumie wrote to Hamer asking for the guns' return: "You don't never want to forget my boy was never tried in no court for murder and no one is guilty until proven guilty by some court so I hope you will answer this letter and also return the guns I am asking for."[155] No record exists of any response.[155]

Alcorn claimed Barrow's saxophone from the car, but feeling guilty, later returned it to the Barrow family.[156] Other personal items such as Parker's clothing were also taken, and when the Parker family asked for them back, they were refused.[107][157] These items were later sold as souvenirs.[158] A rumored suitcase full of cash was said by the Barrow family to have been kept by Sheriff Jordan, "who soon after the ambush purchased an auction barn and land in Arcadia."[156] Jordan also attempted to keep the death car for his own but found himself the target of a lawsuit by Ruth Warren of Topeka, the car's owner from whom Barrow had stolen it on April 29;[159] after considerable legal sparring and a court order, Jordan relented and Mrs. Warren got her car back in August 1934, still covered with blood and tissue, and with an $85 towing and storage bill.[160]

Blanche spent the rest of the 1930s in prison for her four month run with the gang; she weighed just 81 pounds when captured

In February 1935, Dallas and federal authorities conducted a "harboring trial" in which twenty family members and friends of the outlaw couple were arrested and jailed for the aid and abetment of Barrow and Parker. All twenty either pleaded or were found guilty. The two mothers were jailed for 30 days; other sentences ranged from two years' imprisonment for Raymond Hamilton's brother Floyd to one hour in custody for teenager Marie Barrow, Clyde's sister.[161] Other defendants included Blanche Barrow, W. D. Jones, Henry Methvin and Bonnie's sister Billie.

Blanche Barrow's injuries left her permanently blinded in her left eye. After the 1933 shootout at Dexfield Park, she was taken into custody on the charge of "Assault With Intent to Kill." She was sentenced to ten years in prison but was paroled in 1939 for good behavior. She returned to Dallas, leaving her life of crime in the past, and lived with her invalid father as his caregiver. She married Eddie Frasure in 1940, worked as a taxi cab dispatcher and a beautician, and completed the terms of her parole one year later. She lived in peace with her husband until he died of cancer in 1969. Warren Beatty approached her to purchase the rights to her name for use in the 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde. While she agreed to the original script, she objected to her characterization in the final film, describing Estelle Parsons's Academy Award-winning portrayal of her as "a screaming horse's ass." Despite this, she maintained a firm friendship with Beatty. She died from cancer at the age of 77 on December 24, 1988, and was buried in Dallas's Grove Hill Memorial Park under the name "Blanche B. Frasure".[162]

Trouble and substance problems dogged W.D. Jones until his own murder in 1974

Barrow colleagues Raymond Hamilton and Joe Palmer, both Eastham escapees in January 1934, both recaptured, and both subsequently convicted of murder, shared one more thing in common: they were both executed in the electric chair, "Old Sparky", at Huntsville, Texas, and both on the same day: May 10, 1935.[163] Barrow protégé W. D. Jones had split from his mentors six weeks after the three slipped the noose at Dexfield Park in July 1933.[164] He found his way to Houston and got a job picking cotton. He was discovered and captured in short order though, and was returned to Dallas, where he dictated a "confession" in which he claimed to have been kept a prisoner by Barrow and Parker. Some of the more lurid embellishments he made concerned the gang's sex lives, and it was this testimony that gave rise to many of the stories about Barrow's ambiguous sexuality.[165] Jones was convicted of the murder of Doyle Johnson and served a lenient sentence of fifteen years. He struggled for years with substance abuse problems, gave an interview to Playboy during the heyday of excitement surrounding the 1967 movie,[166] and was killed on August 4, 1974 in a misunderstanding by the jealous boyfriend of a woman he was trying to help out.[167]

Substitute protégé Henry Methvin's ambush-earned Texas pardon didn't help him in Oklahoma, where he was convicted of the 1934 murder of Constable Campbell at Commerce. He was paroled in 1942 and killed by a train in 1948; it was said he fell asleep, drunk, on the tracks, but there were rumors he had been pushed by parties seeking revenge for his betrayal of Clyde Barrow.[168] His father Ivy had been killed in 1946 by a hit-and-run driver,[169] and here too there was talk of foul play. Bonnie Parker's husband Roy Thornton was sentenced to five years in prison for burglary in March 1933. He was killed by guards on October 3, 1937, during an escape attempt from Eastham Farm prison.[13]

In the years after the ambush, Prentiss Oakley, who all six possemen agree fired the first shots,[108][170] was reported to have been troubled by his actions. He often admitted to his friends that he had fired prematurely[137] and he was the only posse member to express regret publicly. He would go on to succeed Henderson Jordan as Bienville Parish sheriff in 1940.[137]

16mm film shot by posse member Ted Hinton just minutes after Bonnie and Clyde were fatally ambushed by officers near Gibsland, Louisiana on May 23, 1934
1958: Bonnie had become a dominant tough girl who "ran" the gang of several subservient men, none of whom was named Clyde
By 1967's Summer of Love, Penn's film gave the outlaws a new image for a new generation who had no personal recollection of the historical couple's bloody exploits some 33 years earlier

Frank Hamer returned to a quieter life as a freelance security consultant—a strikebreaker—to oil companies, although, according to Guinn, "his reputation suffered somewhat after Gibsland"[171] because many people felt he had not given Barrow and Parker a fair chance to surrender. He made headlines again in 1948 when he and Governor Coke Stevenson unsuccessfully challenged Lyndon Johnson's vote totals during the election for the U.S. Senate. He died in 1955 at age 71 after several years of poor health.[172] His possemate Bob Alcorn died on May 23, 1964—exactly thirty years to the day after the Gibsland ambush.[173]

On April 1, 2011, the 77th anniversary of the Grapevine murders, Texas Rangers, troopers and DPS staff presented the Yellow Rose of Texas commendation to Ella Wheeler-McLeod, 95, the last surviving sibling of highway patrolman Edward Bryan Wheeler, killed that Easter Sunday by the Barrow Gang. They presented McLeod, of San Antonio, with a plaque and framed portrait of her brother.[174]

In the contemporary media

Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were among the first celebrity criminals of the modern era. They had little choice in the matter: after they fled the Joplin hideout in April 1933 with nothing but the clothes they were wearing, the police discovered several rolls of undeveloped film and some scrawled doggerel poetry left behind.[175] It was instant legend: the photos showed the couple and W. D. Jones in playful, snapshot-type poses, except they were wielding pistols, rifles and BARs. In one gag shot, Parker had plucked a cigar from Barrow and popped it in her mouth, branding her as "Clyde's cigar-smoking moll." The poem "Suicide Sal," peppered with quotation marks and colorful underworld vernacular, mirrored the tone of the popular detective magazines of the time. Two days after the raid, the photos and poem went out on the wire and were running in newspapers all over the country.[176] Before Joplin, the Barrows' notoriety had been confined strictly to the Dallas area; afterwards, they became notorious across America.

The high public profile was a mixed blessing. It certainly made life on the run more dangerous and therefore more difficult. There were more nights sleeping in the car and fewer sleeping in motor courts;[177] picking up laundry at cleaning stores was particularly harrowing.[178] As the noose tightened, Parker composed the fatalistic poem she titled "The Trail's End," known since as "The Story of Bonnie and Clyde." She gave the handwritten ode to her mother upon their final meeting two weeks before her death and Emma Parker gave it to the press thereafter.[179]

Six weeks before the couple was ambushed, a letter purportedly written by Barrow arrived at the office of Henry Ford praising his "dandy car." Although the handwriting does not match known samples of Clyde's penmanship, and despite the fact the letter was signed by "Clyde Champion Barrow" while Barrow's middle name was Chestnut, the unauthenticated letter is on display in the Ford Museum.[180] It was never used in any form in Ford advertising, nor was a similar letter Ford received around the same time from someone claiming to be John Dillinger,[181] himself ambushed just two months after Barrow.

In modern popular culture

Film

Hollywood has treated the pair's story several times, most notably:

Music

  • In 1955, Hermes Nye recorded the a musical rendition of Bonnie Parker's poem "The Trail's End" which he called "Bonnie and Clyde" on his Texas Folk Songs LP.[184]
  • In December 1967, Serge Gainsbourg with Brigitte Bardot recorded the song "Bonnie and Clyde" which conveys a highly romanticized account of the pair. The song, one of Gainsbourg's most famous and popular ones, was released in January 1968 on the LP Brigitte Bardot et Serge Gainsbourg, Bonnie and Clyde (Fontana 885529). The recording, with its hypnotic, repetitive string motif and eerie vocals and sound effects, has been sampled widely.
  • In 1967, Georgie Fame released a single called "The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde" (UK #1), whose lyrics tell of Bonnie's and Clyde's exploits.[185]This song was inspired by the movie about them.
  • In 1968, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs released their album, The Story of Bonnie and Clyde. The album is Columbia Records catalog number CS-9649.
  • In 1968, Mel Torme wrote and performed the song A Day in the Life of Bonnie and Clyde, featured on his album of the same name.
  • In 1968, Merle Haggard recorded The Legend of Bonnie and Clyde.

Musical Theatre

  • On November 20, 2009, La Jolla Playhouse presented the world premiere of the musical Bonnie & Clyde. The production was adapted from the book by Ivan Menchell with music written by Frank Wildhorn and lyrics by Don Black. The cast was led by Laura Osnes as Bonnie and Stark Sands as Clyde.[186] The musical won the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle’s Award for Outstanding New Musical and director Jeff Calhoun was honored for Best Direction of a Musical. The next production ran at the Asolo Repertory Theatre in Sarasota, Florida from November 12, 2010 through December 19, 2010, directed again by Jeff Calhoun. In this production Laura Osnes starred once more as Bonnie and Jeremy Jordan starred in the role of Clyde, Melissa van der Schyff as Blanche Barrow, and Claybourne Elder as Buck Barrow.[187] Bonnie & Clyde began previews on Broadway on November 4, 2011, with an official opening on December 1, 2011. [188]

The Bonnie and Clyde Festival

Every year near the anniversary of the ambush, a "Bonnie and Clyde Festival" is hosted in the town of Gibsland, off Interstate 20 in Bienville Parish.[189] The ambush location, still comparatively isolated on Louisiana Highway 154, south of Gibsland, is commemorated by a stone marker that has been defaced to near illegibility by souvenir hunters and gunshot.[190] A small metal version was added to accompany the stone monument. It was stolen, as was its replacement.

Historical perspective

Through the decades, many cultural historians have analyzed Bonnie's and Clyde's enduring appeal to the public imagination. E.R. Milner, an historian, writer, and expert on Bonnie and Clyde and their era, put the duo's enduring appeal to the public, both during the Depression and continuing on through the decades, into historical and cultural perspective. To those people who, as Milner says, "consider themselves outsiders, or oppose the existing system," Bonnie and Clyde represent the ultimate outsiders, revolting against an uncaring system. "The country’s money simply declined by 38 percent", explains Milner, author of The Lives and Times of Bonnie and Clyde. "Gaunt, dazed men roamed the city streets seeking jobs... Breadlines and soup kitchens became jammed. (In rural areas) foreclosures forced more than 38 percent of farmers from their lands (while simultaneously) a catastrophic drought struck the Great Plains... By the time Bonnie and Clyde became well known, many had felt the capitalistic system had been abused by big business and government officials... Now here were Bonnie and Clyde striking back."[116]

See also

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References

Notes
  1. ^ Toplin, Robert B. History by Hollywood: The Use and Abuse of the American Past (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois, 1996.) ISBN 0-252-06536-0.
  2. ^ Phillips, John Neal (2002). Running with Bonnie & Clyde: The Ten Fast Years of Ralph Fults. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-3429-1.
  3. ^ Jones deposition, November 18, 1933. FBI file 26-4114, Section Sub A, pp. 59–62. FBI Records and Information.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Jones, W.D. "Riding with Bonnie and Clyde." Playboy. November 1968. Reprinted at Cinetropic.com.
  5. ^ Parker, Emma Krause, Nell Barrow Cowan and Jan I. Fortune (1968). The True Story of Bonnie and Clyde. New York: New American Library. ISBN 0-8488-2154-8. Originally published in September, 1934 as Fugitives. Parker was Bonnie's mother, Cowan was Clyde's sister and Fortune was a Dallas writer and reporter whose work this book really is. Parker and Cowan repudiated the book immediately upon its publication, but more for personal/family agenda reasons than for factual inaccuracies; also, Blanche Barrow still faced possible legal action stemming from the Joplin incident, so her ditzy, non-moll non-participation there was emphasized. Page numbers in footnotes refer to the 1968 paperback edition.
  6. ^ Guinn, Jeff (2009). Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 1-4165-5706-7. pp 174-176
  7. ^ Phillips, p xxxv; Guinn, p 45
  8. ^ Guinn, p 46
  9. ^ Parker, Cowan and Fortune, pp 33, 47; Guinn, p 48
  10. ^ The Story of Suicide Sal. Cinetropic
  11. ^ The Story of Bonnie and Clyde. Cinetropic
  12. ^ Parker, Cowan and Fortune, p 49
  13. ^ a b c "Bonnie & Roy." Bonnie and Clyde's Texas Hideout. Accessed 24 May 2008.
  14. ^ Phillips, p xxxvi; Guinn, p 76
  15. ^ A few months after their breakup Roy went to prison for robbery, and Bonnie told her mother, "Well, I didn't get [a divorce] before Roy was sent up, and it looks sort of dirty to file for one now." Parker, Cowan and Fortune, p. 56
  16. ^ Guinn, p 79
  17. ^ Parker, Cowan and Fortune, pp 55-57
  18. ^ "Clyde Barrow Death Certificate". http://texashideout.tripod.com/coroner.html.  "Bonnie and Clyde's Texas Hideout". http://texashideout.tripod.com/bc.htm. Retrieved 21 July 2008. 
  19. ^ Barrow and Phillips, p. xxxv.
  20. ^ Guinn provides a comprehensive description of West Dallas, pp. 20.
  21. ^ Guinn, p. 76.
  22. ^ Parker, Cowan and Fortune, p. 78.
  23. ^ Phillips, Running, p 324n9
  24. ^ Phillips, Running, p. 53.
  25. ^ a b c d e f Phillips, John Neal. "Bonnie & Clyde's Revenge on Eastham." Historynet Originally published in American History, October 2000.
  26. ^ Parker, Cowan and Fortune, p 80
  27. ^ Guinn, p. 81
  28. ^ The items to be burgled were guns, not hardware. Guinn, pp 103–4
  29. ^ Ramsey, Winston G., ed. (2003). On The Trail of Bonnie and Clyde: Then and Now. London: After The Battle Books. ISBN 1-870067-51-7, p 53. This book includes a most comprehensive time line, and tells about half of its narrative through contemporary newspaper stories.
  30. ^ Even though it was Barrow and Raymond Hamilton whose photos Mrs. Bucher picked out, it was in fact two gang colleagues, Ted Rogers and Johnny Russell, who entered the store that night; Barrow was outside at the wheel of the car, and Hamilton was not even in Texas at the time — he was in Michigan (Guinn, p. 146). It was Rogers who killed Bucher. Mrs. Bucher had seen Barrow with the pair that afternoon when they had been in the store, and mistook Rogers for Hamilton because of a strong physical resemblance between the two. So although Barrow was involved in his first murder accusation, he was not the actual triggerman. Hamilton was later tried, convicted and received 99 years on his growing sentence, which would top out at 266 years. Rogers said he would come forward and confess if Hamilton got a death sentence, but didn't have to when Hamilton got just time. Hamilton's eventual execution in 1935 was not for murder, but rather for being a "habitual criminal," which was a capital offense in Texas at the time. Barrow and Phillips, pp. 208–9.
  31. ^ Guinn, p. 109. She composed these poems in an old bankbook the jailer's wife had given her to use as paper. Some were her own work, some songs and poems she copied down from memory, Parker titled the lot "Poetry From Life's Other Side," and when she was released either left it behind or gave it to the jailer. In 2007 the bankbook sold for $36,000. Item 5337 Bonhams 1793: Fine Art Auctioneers & Valuers One of the poems was "The Story of Suicide Sal," a neatly penned, 105-line prisoner's lament told "in the jargon of gangdom." Parker, Cowan and Fortune, pp. 82–5; Guinn, p. 109. A year later, in an apartment the gang had rented in Joplin, Missouri, Parker was tinkering with "Sal" when a shootout began downstairs. This abruptly abandoned draft became the best known of Bonnie Parker's poems, after "The Story of Bonnie and Clyde." Guinn, pp. 168, 172.
  32. ^ Guinn, p. 115.
  33. ^ Later that night, Dyer used his frequent alias of Everett Milligan with officers and even today some authors mistakenly write that there were four men present that night. There weren't: Dyer and Milligan are the same individual. Knight and Davis, p 54
  34. ^ Guinn, p 120
  35. ^ "Deputy Sheriff Eugene C. Moore". The Officer Down Memorial Page. http://www.odmp.org/officer/9549-deputy-sheriff-eugene-c.-moore. Retrieved 2009-11-05. 
  36. ^ Treherne, John (1984). The Strange History of Bonnie and Clyde. New York: Stein and Day. ISBN 0-8154-1106-5. p 99
  37. ^ Guinn, p 147
  38. ^ Ramsey, pp 80-85
  39. ^ "Deputy Malcolm Davis". The Officer Down Memorial Page. http://www.odmp.org/officer/3880-deputy-malcolm-davis. Retrieved 2009-11-05. 
  40. ^ Barrow and Phillips, pp 31-33. Blanche's book gives the most complete account of the gang's two-week "vacation" in Joplin.
  41. ^ Barrow and Phillips, p 45
  42. ^ Barrow and Phillips, p.243n30. Clyde also had difficulty out in the country with a modified BAR that began firing and wouldn't stop; he ultimately had to throw it into a stream to get the weapon to cease firing. The three men told this story to the women with much laughter. p 48
  43. ^ "Detective Harry L. McGinnis". The Officer Down Memorial Page. http://www.odmp.org/officer/8972-detective-harry-l.-mcginnis. Retrieved 2009-11-05. 
  44. ^ "Constable J.W. Harryman". The Officer Down Memorial Page. http://www.odmp.org/officer/6155-constable-j.-w.-Dallasharryman. Retrieved 2009-11-05. 
  45. ^ Ballou, James L., Rock in a Hard Place: The Browning Automatic Rifle, Collector Grade Publications (2000), p. 78
  46. ^ Parker, Cowan and Fortune, p 114
  47. ^ Ramsey, pp 102. The contemporary photos and drawings of the hideout here are particularly valuable
  48. ^ Parker, Cowan and Fortune, p 115
  49. ^ Ramsey p 108-113 boasts of publishing all the frames from the Joplin rolls in proper sequence, but in fact missed at least ten: one is a shot of W.D. Jones sitting at the wheel of the Rosborough car with "Bonnie's" infamous cigar clenched jauntily in his teeth like FDR (Barrow and Phillips, p 60); another has Jones lounging atop the familiar weedy clay bank behind the car in the most famous of the set-ups (Barrow and Phillips, p 107); yet another is a second shot of Clyde alone up on the rocks, but here with his hat off (Knight and Davis, p 72). There are three frames apparently unpublished in books but available to view at the Bonnie and Clyde-oriented website Boodles Board [1]: in two, W.D. is perched high on the rocks, and in a third, Clyde and W.D. play movie outlaws behind some large boulders, pointing their pistols; the quality of this shot is poor because Bonnie jarred the camera while she was pushing the shutter button. At the same website is a facsimile of a 1935 Startling Detective Adventures magazine with a rare shot of Clyde squatting in front of the car by the weedy clay bank. The final three of the missed ten are right within the Ramsey book, but not included in the Joplin gallery: one is a simple "profile" of the Rosborough car all by itself, with no people (Ramsey, p 98); a second is Clyde standing by himself on the ground near the rocks with his hat in his hand (Ramsey, p 41) in the same spot where he also posed with Bonnie, and with W.D.; and finally a shot of Jones, again with the weedy clay bank as background (Ramsey, p 80)—the tight crop on Jones makes it hard to tell if there had been someone else in the picture at some point. The film was the then-popular size 116, finally discontinued in 1984; the Kodak No. 2A Folding Autographic Brownie camera, on loan from Blanche (Barrow and Phillips, p 227n10) produced eight shots per roll. Ramsey's gallery of 29 frames, plus the ten "extra" frames, yield a total of 39 frames, a shot shy of five complete rolls. Perhaps the police found four exposed rolls plus a fifth roll still in the camera with a shot to go, or perhaps the outlaws did expose all forty frames and there is one more Joplin photo waiting to be discovered and reunited with its familiar brethren. Timing: if Blanche had lent them "the kodak" on their well-documented late night visit to her mother's place in Wilmer, Texas on March 25, then the Joplin photos would have been snapped between Monday, March 27 and Wednesday the 29th. The five met up on Thursday the 30th at Checotah, OK, and proceeded on to Joplin from there, (Barrow and Phillips, p 38). Since there are no photos of Buck or Blanche on the Joplin rolls (the Ramsey book mistakes 1931 honeymoon photos for 1933 Joplin shots), the photography likely had concluded by the 29th. A different version by Jones in his 1933 debriefing places some of the photography in North Carolina, in a timeframe contradicted by the theft timing of the Rosborough car. Ramsey says the fate of the original negatives has been a mystery since 1933 when the Missouri Highway Patrol took possession of them; the negatives known today are copy negs made in 1963. (Ramsey, p 107)
  50. ^ http://casscountyin.tripod.com/bankheist.htm
  51. ^ Ramsey, p 118 and p 122
  52. ^ Clyde and Bonnie executed seven kidnappings over the course of their career: Deputy Joe Johns on August 14, 1932; Officer Thomas Persell on January 26, 1933; civilians Dillard Darby and Sophia Stone on April 27, 1933; Sheriff George Corry and Chief Paul Hardy on June 10, 1933; and Chief Percy Boyd on April 6, 1934. All except Persell involved crossing state lines, so six of them would have been federal—and capital—offenses had they been committed after summer 1934, when Congress upgraded the crime in the wake of the Lindbergh kidnapping. It remained a capital crime until the death penalty reforms of the 1970s. In addition, they also executed two "mini-kidnappings": On July 18, 1933, they kidnapped filling station attendants Harold Anderson and Harry Stark of Fort Dodge, Iowa during the course of two sequential service station stick-ups several blocks apart. Upon stopping at a third station and robbing it, the gang realized they had no further room in the car for hostages, so they released Anderson and Stark; (Knight and Davis, p 100)
  53. ^ a b Anderson, Brian. "Reality less romantic than outlaw legend." Dallas News. 18 April 2003.
  54. ^ Guinn, pp 286-288
  55. ^ Barrow and Phillips, pp 56. Blanche writes that she realized, driving away from Joplin, that "all my hopes and dreams [were] tumbling down around me."
  56. ^ Parker, Cowan and Fortune, pp 116-117
  57. ^ Jones's Playboy interview, Barrow and Phillips, pp 65
  58. ^ Phillips quotes Barrow sister Marie as saying her brother Buck was "the meanest, most hot-tempered" of all her siblings. Phillips, p 343n20
  59. ^ Treherne, p 123; Blanche describes the cramped conditions in her book, pp 70-71
  60. ^ James R. Knight, "Incident at Alma: The Barrow Gang in Northwest Arkansas" The Arkansas Historical Quarterly, Vol. 56, No. 4 (Arkansas Historical Association Winter, 1997) 401 <http://0-www.jstor.org.mercury.concordia.ca/stable/40027888>
  61. ^ Guinn, pp 191-194. The six witnesses at the farmhouse described battery acid as the culprit; the open-fire story started with the Parker-Cowan-Fortune book and was reinforced in Jones's Playboy interview.
  62. ^ Parker, Cowan and Fortune, p 132
  63. ^ Clyde made a serious tactical error when he asked hostages Corry and Hardy if they had ever heard of the Barrow brothers, thus not only giving away their identity, but the fact that Parker was so seriously wounded. Upon the release of the officers, the whole law enforcement world would learn they should be on the lookout for people buying burn medication and supplies. Guinn, p 194
  64. ^ "Town Marshal Henry D. Humphrey". The Officer Down Memorial Page. http://www.odmp.org/officer/6841-town-marshal-henry-d.-humphrey. Retrieved 2009-11-05. 
  65. ^ Ramsey, p 150
  66. ^ a b c d e f Vasto, Mark. "Local lawmen shoot it out with notorious bandits." Platte County Landmark. Accessed 25 May 2008.
  67. ^ Knight, James R. and Jonathan Davis (2003). Bonnie and Clyde: A Twenty-First-Century Update. Waco, Texas: Eakin Press. ISBN 1-57168-794-7. p 100
  68. ^ a b Guinn, p 211
  69. ^ Knight and Davis, p 112. They had a lot of their assets in silver because they broke into the gumball machines at the three service stations they robbed in Fort Dodge, Iowa earlier that day. Guinn, pp 210-211
  70. ^ Parker, Cowan and Fortune, p 117
  71. ^ Sources are split on this: most say it was Blanche who went to town, but in her book she says it was Clyde and Jones, p 112
  72. ^ Barrow and Phillips, p 112
  73. ^ Red Crown Incident. TexasHideout. Accessed 25 May 2008.
  74. ^ Ramsey, p 153
  75. ^ The armored car was not a military or Brink's-truck-style vehicle; it was an ordinary-looking automobile that had been fortified with panels of extra boilerplate. Another round struck one of its headlights, wrenching it 90° so it shone straight up; this hit caused its driver to back it away from the action.
  76. ^ Barrow and Phillips, pp 119-121
  77. ^ a b c d e f Vasto, Mark. "Further on up the road." Platte County Landmark. Accessed 25 May 2008.
  78. ^ Guinn, p 220
  79. ^ Guinn, pp 234-235. Guinn writes that their clothes were so bloody after Dexfield that Barrow, Parker and Jones had to wear sheets with slits cut for their heads, "like children out for Hallowe'en"; the sheets had been in a Ford V-8 they'd stolen in Polk City, Iowa. But neither Guinn nor any other source has information on just how they made the transition from sheets to clothes—an important accessory for even the most basic robbery
  80. ^ Ramsey, p 186
  81. ^ Another version has Jones splitting with the couple in late August in Mississippi, when Barrow gave him two dollars and sent him off to fill the car with gas; Jones left the car and hitched—"hoboed"—his way to Houston. In either version, once the three took leave of each other, Jones never saw Barrow and Parker again. Knight and Davis, pp 114-115
  82. ^ Knight and Davis, p 118
  83. ^ a b "Clyde and Bonnie Names Reported in Slaying Bill," The Dallas Morning News, November 29, 1933, section II, p 1
  84. ^ In fact, Phillips says that Barrow had been so focused on it for so long, that after the Eastham raid, "life for Clyde Barrow became anticlimactic.... Only death remained, and he knew it." Phillips, Running, p 217
  85. ^ "Major Joe Crowson". The Officer Down Memorial Page. http://www.odmp.org/officer/3663-major-joe-crowson. Retrieved 2009-11-05. . Major was Crowson's first name, not a military or TDOC rank.
  86. ^ Frank Hamer and Bonnie & Clyde. Texas State Library and Archives Commission.
  87. ^ Phillips, Running, p 200
  88. ^ Webb, p 531.
  89. ^ Burrough, p 228.
  90. ^ Treherne, p 172
  91. ^ Guinn, p 252
  92. ^ Phillips, Running, p 354n3
  93. ^ Knight and Davis, p 140
  94. ^ "Patrolman H. D. Murphy". The Officer Down Memorial Page. http://www.odmp.org/officer/9770-patrolman-h.-d.-murphy. Retrieved 2009-11-05. 
  95. ^ "Patrolman Edward Bryan Wheeler". The Officer Down Memorial Page. http://www.odmp.org/officer/14044-patrolman-edward-bryan-wheeler. Retrieved 2009-11-05. 
  96. ^ Guinn, pp 284-286
  97. ^ Guinn, p 284
  98. ^ Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, April 2, 1934
  99. ^ Guinn, p 285
  100. ^ a b c Knight and Davis, p 147
  101. ^ Guinn, p 287
  102. ^ "Constable William Calvin Campbell". The Officer Down Memorial Page. http://www.odmp.org/officer/2735-constable-william-calvin-campbell. Retrieved 2009-11-05. 
  103. ^ Knight and Davis, p 217n12. Methvin's name would be added to the warrant later in the summer, and he would eventually be convicted and serve his time for the Campbell murder
  104. ^ "Cartoon online". The Dallas Journal. May 16, 1934. http://texashideout.tripod.com/Reserved.html. 
  105. ^ a b "Took No Chances, Hinton and Alcorn Tell Newspapermen." Dallas Dispatch. 24 May 1934. Reprinted at Census Diggins. Accessed on 26 May 2008.
  106. ^ FBI Famous Cases: Bonnie and Clyde
  107. ^ a b c d The Posse. Texas Hideout. Accessed 25 May 2008.
  108. ^ a b c d e f g h Hinton, Ted and Larry Grove (1979). Ambush: The Real Story of Bonnie and Clyde. Austin, TX: Shoal Creek Publishers. ISBN 0-88319-041-9.
  109. ^ Guinn, pp. 334.
  110. ^ a b c Knight and Davis, p. 166.
  111. ^ Guinn, pp. 339–40.
  112. ^ Knight and Davis, p. 167.
  113. ^ Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow Artifacts. jeffreysward.com.
  114. ^ Knight and Davis, p219n13
  115. ^ Knight and Davis, p 171
  116. ^ a b c Milner, E.R. The Lives and Times of Bonnie and Clyde. Southern Illinois University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-8093-2552-7. Published 1996.
  117. ^ a b c d e f g h i Moshinskie, Dr. James F. "Funerals of the Famous: Bonnie & Clyde." The American Funeral Director, Vol. 130 (No. 10), October 2007, pp. 74–90.
  118. ^ "Bonnie & Clyde's Demise." Dallas Journal at TexasHideout.
  119. ^ Ramsey, p 112
  120. ^ a b Parker, Cowan and Fortune, p. 175.
  121. ^ a b "Skilled Embalmers." Dallas Journal at Texas Hideout.
  122. ^ Phillips, Running, p. 219.
  123. ^ Parker, Cowan and Fortune, p 174
  124. ^ Hinton, p 192
  125. ^ Guinn, p 352
  126. ^ Ramsey, pp 276–79
  127. ^ Guinn, pp 335-336
  128. ^ Guinn, pp 412-413n
  129. ^ Guinn, p 425
  130. ^ Insult was added to injury for Schmid when his Thompson submachine gun jammed on the very first round and he was unable to get a single shot off. Pursuit of the Barrow machine was impossible because the posse had parked their own cars far away so they wouldn't be seen. Knight and Davis, p 118
  131. ^ Guinn, p 240
  132. ^ Phillips, Running, p 205
  133. ^ Guinn, p 269
  134. ^ By-lined Associated Press story by Jordan, New York Times and Dallas Morning News, May 24, 1934
  135. ^ Dallas Morning News, May 24, 1934
  136. ^ Dallas Dispatch, May 24, 1934.
  137. ^ a b c Guinn, p. 357.
  138. ^ The five episodes and their sources are: the Malcolm Davis murder, (W.D. Jones's 1933 deposition, p 1); the Joplin gunbattle, where Parker herself told her family she fired shots, (Parker, Cowan and Fortune, p 113); the Lucerne, Indiana bank robbery, (Barrow and Phillips, p 66); the Dexfield Park firefight, (Treherne, p 156); and the Sowers ambush, (Knight and Davis, p 118)
  139. ^ Page numbers are from Ramsey: Doyle Johnson, pp 80; Malcolm Davis, pp 89; Harry McGinnis and Wes Harryman, pp 100; Major Crowson, pp 202; Edward B. Wheeler and H.D. Murphy, pp 218; Cal Campbell, pp 224
  140. ^ Ramsey page numbers: Joe Johns, pp 66; Tom Persell, pp 92; Darby and Stone, pp 115; Corry and Hardy, pp 130; and Percy Boyd, pp 224
  141. ^ Ramsey pages: Oronogo, Missouri, pp 78; Lucerne, Indiana, pp 118; Okabena, Minnesota, pp 122; Knierim, Iowa, pp 210; Stuart, Iowa, pp 232; Everly, Iowa, pp 236
  142. ^ Ramsey, pp 202
  143. ^ Bonnie punched kidnap hostage Sophia Stone on April 27, 1933: Barrow and Phillips, pp 247-248n8
  144. ^ It was under this statute—not murder—that Raymond Hamilton was executed in 1935. Barrow and Phillips, p 209
  145. ^ Knight and Davis, p 82. A subsequent poster from Joplin P.D. dropped Parker in favor of Buck, and offered cash bounties for each brother.
  146. ^ Knight and Davis, p 98. The poster pictured and named Parker, Clyde, Buck and Blanche, plus unidentified suspect Jones, photo and description only. It was in response to the June 23 murder of Marshall Humphrey near Alma, a crime committed by Buck and Jones while Bonnie lay near comatose in Ft. Smith with Clyde and Blanche tending her.
  147. ^ Knight and Davis, p 147, and Guinn, p 287
  148. ^ Knight and Davis, p 217n12. Methvin's name would be added to the warrant later in the summer when his identity was confirmed
  149. ^ Treherne, p 220
  150. ^ Hinton, pp 39, 47
  151. ^ The same cigar makes appearances in other photos from the Joplin rolls shot at the same spot. It is clamped in Jones's mouth in the shot where he is looking out the driver's side window of the car, Barrow and Phillips, p 60; it's plainly in Clyde's left hand when he's sitting in that same spot, Ramsey, p 109; and Clyde has it in his left hand in the photo where Parker is holding a shotgun on him, Ramsey, p 108
  152. ^ Guinn, p 413n
  153. ^ Phillips, Running, p 207
  154. ^ Hamer was interested in the Barrow hunt assignment, but the pay was only a third of what he made working for oil companies. To sweeten the deal, TDOC boss Lee Simmons granted Hamer title to all the stolen guns the posse would recover from the slain outlaws. Almost all the guns were the former property of the National Guard, pilfered from their armories during overnight burglaries. There was a thriving market for "celebrity" guns, even in 1934. Guinn, p 343
  155. ^ a b Treherne, p 224
  156. ^ a b Guinn, p 343
  157. ^ Emma Parker letter. TexasHideout. Accessed 26 May 2008.
  158. ^ Steele, p ; Phillips, pp 209-11.
  159. ^ Ramsey, p 234
  160. ^ Knight and Davis, p 197. Amazingly, the car's engine still ran despite the battering the machine took in the ambush. After Jordan conceded ownership of the vehicle, Mrs. Warren arrived in Arcadia to claim it and then drove it, still in its gruesome state, to Shreveport, from which point she had it trucked back to Topeka. The legal bills in her tussle with Sheriff Jordan exceeded $3,000, a lot of money in 1934. Ramsey, p 272. In the 1970s, the car sold at auction for twice the price of Adolf Hitler's massive Mercedes open touring car, and after being displayed in various locations, is now on display in Terrible's Gold Ranch Casino in Verdi, Nevada. [2]
  161. ^ Guinn, pp 354-355
  162. ^ Barrow and Phillips, p.249n
  163. ^ Knight and Davis, p 188
  164. ^ Ramsey, p 196
  165. ^ Toland, John (1963). The Dillinger Days. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-306-80626-1, p 83
  166. ^ http://www.cinetropic.com/janeloisemorris/commentary/bonn&clyde/wdjones.html
  167. ^ Knight and Davis, p 189. The man who killed W.D., George Arthur Jones (no relation), would ultimately commit suicide with the same shotgun
  168. ^ Knight and Davis, p 190
  169. ^ Guinn, p 358
  170. ^ Phillips, Running, p 206
  171. ^ Guinn, p 356
  172. ^ Knight and Davis, p 191
  173. ^ Guinn, p 358
  174. ^ Davis, Vincent T. "Texas honors officer killed by Bonnie and Clyde, sister given commendation 77 years later", Houston Chronicle, April 2, 2011
  175. ^ Guinn, p 172
  176. ^ Guinn, p 175
  177. ^ Guinn, p 176
  178. ^ It wasn't dropping the laundry off that was the hard part, writes Nell Barrow Cowan; it was coming back the next week to pick it up—never knowing if they had been recognized the first time around and a trap laid. Parker, Cowan and Fortune, p 116
  179. ^ Guinn, p 313
  180. ^ Clyde Barrow's letter to Ford. TexasHideout. Accessed 26 May 2008.
  181. ^ Handwriting comparison. TexasHideout. Accessed 26 May 2008.
  182. ^ a b Walker, John, ed. (1994). Halliwell's Film Guide. New York: Harper Perennial. ISBN 0-06-273241-2. p. 150
  183. ^ "Bonnie and Clyde: The True Story1992". reelzchannel.com. http://www.reelzchannel.com/movie/195410/bonnie-and-clyde-the-true-story. Retrieved 18 November 2010. 
  184. ^ Texas Folk Songs
  185. ^ Bonnie & Clyde film also 1967
  186. ^ McNulty, Charles (2009-11-23). "Theater review: 'Bonnie & Clyde' at La Jolla Playhouse". Los Angeles Times. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2009/11/theater-review-bonnie-clyde-at-la-jolla-playhouse-.html. Retrieved 2010-02-28. 
  187. ^ "Broadway's Best Show - Bonnie & Clyde at Asolo Repertory". Broadway's Best Shows, Inc.. http://www.broadwaysbestshows.com/news/723. Retrieved 29 April 2011. 
  188. ^ "Broadway's Best Show - Bonnie & Clyde Coming to Broadway Fall 2011. Previews Begin November 4, 2011". Broadway's Best Shows, Inc.. http://broadwaysbestshows.com/news/1492. Retrieved 7 September 2011. 
  189. ^ Washington Times, The (2004). Bonnie and Clyde live on. Accessed June 17, 2005.
  190. ^ Butler, Steven (2003). "In Search of Bonnie and Clyde in Louisiana." Accessed June 17, 2005.
Bibliography
  • Barrow, Blanche Caldwell and John Neal Phillips. My Life with Bonnie and Clyde. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2004.) ISBN 978-0-8061-3715-5.
  • Burrough, Bryan. Public Enemies. (New York: The Penguin Press, 2004.) ISBN 1-59420-021-1.
  • Guinn, Jeff. Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2009.) ISBN 1-4165-5706-7.
  • Knight, James R. and Jonathan Davis. Bonnie and Clyde: A Twenty-First-Century Update. (Austin, TX: Eakin Press, 2003.) ISBN 1-57168-794-7.
  • Milner, E.R. The Lives and Times of Bonnie and Clyde (Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1996.) ISBN 0-8093-2552-7.
  • Parker, Emma Krause, Nell Barrow Cowan and Jan I. Fortune. The True Story of Bonnie and Clyde. (New York: New American Library, 1968.) ISBN 0-8488-2154-8. Originally published in 1934 as Fugitives.
  • Phillips, John Neal. Running with Bonnie and Clyde, the Ten Fast Years of Ralph Fults. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996, 2002) ISBN 0-8061-3429-1.
  • Ramsey, Winston G., ed. On The Trail of Bonnie and Clyde. (London: After The Battle Books, 2003). ISBN 1-870067-51-7.
  • Steele, Phillip, and Marie Barrow Scoma. The Family Story of Bonnie and Clyde. (Gretna, LA: Pelican Publishing Company, 2000.) ISBN 1-56554-756-X.
  • Treherne, John. The Strange History of Bonnie and Clyde. (New York: Stein and Day, 1984.) ISBN 0-8154-1106-5.
  • Webb, Walter Prescott. The Texas Rangers: A Century of Frontier Defense. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1935.) ISBN 0-292-78110-5.

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