Bonnie and Clyde
Bonnie and Clyde | |
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Bonnie and Clyde in March 1933, in a photo found by police at the Joplin, Missouri hideout. |
Clyde Barrow | |
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Born | Clyde Chestnut Barrow March 24, 1909 |
Died | May 23, 1934 | (aged 25)
Bonnie Parker | |
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Born | Bonnie Elizabeth Parker October 1, 1910 |
Died | May 23, 1934 | (aged 23)
Bonnie Parker (October 1, 1910 – May 23, 1934) and Clyde Barrow (March 24, 1909 – May 23, 1934) were well known outlaws, robbers, and criminals who, with their gang, travelled the Central United States during the Great Depression. Their exploits were known nationwide. They captured the attention of the American press and its readership during what is sometimes referred to as 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. They were eventually ambushed and killed in Louisiana by law officers.
Believed at the time to be a full participant in the gang's crimes, Parker's role has since been a source of controversy. While gang members W. D. Jones and Ralph Fults said they never saw her fire a gun and described her role as logistical,[1]Jones also told investigators that she had fired a pistol at officers "two or three times" when he was deposed under arrest in 1933.[2] By 1968, his recollection was that "during the five big gun battles I was with them, she never fired a gun. But I'll say she was a hell of a loader."[3] Youngest Barrow sister Marie made the same claim: "Bonnie never fired a shot. She just followed my brother no matter where he went."[4] Parker's reputation as a cigar-smoking gun moll grew out of a gag snapshot found by police and released to the press; while she did chain-smoke Camel cigarettes, she was not a cigar smoker.[5]
Author Jeff Guinn, in his 2009 book Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde, explains their appeal: "Although Clyde and Bonnie were never criminal masterminds or even particularly competent crooks — their two year crime spree was as much a reign of error as terror — the media made them seem like they were, and that was enough to turn them into icons.... Barrow Gang fans liked the idea of colorful young rebels sticking it to bankers and cops. Clyde and Bonnie were even better than actors like Jimmy Cagney who committed crimes onscreen, because they were doing it for real."[6]
Beginnings
Bonnie Parker
Bonnie Elizabeth Parker was born in Rowena, Texas, the second of three children. Her father, Charles Parker (? – December 31, 1914),[7] a bricklayer, died when Bonnie was four, prompting her mother, Emma Krause Parker (c.1886 – 1946),[8] to move with the children to West Dallas, where they lived in poverty. An honor roll student in high school where she excelled in creative writing, she won a County League contest in literary arts, for Cement City School,[9] and even gave introductory speeches for local politicians.
On September 25, 1926, less than a week before her sixteenth birthday, Parker married Roy Thornton. The marriage was short-lived, and in January 1929 they separated but never divorced; Parker was wearing Thornton's wedding ring when she died.[10] His reaction to his wife's death was, "I'm glad they went out like they did. It's much better than being caught."[10] On March 5, 1933, Thornton was sentenced to five years in prison for burglary. He was killed by guards on October 3, 1937, during an escape attempt from Eastham Farm prison.[10]
Jimmy Fowler, writing about Parker in 1999 for the Dallas Observer, noted that "although the authorities who gunned down the 23-year-old in 1934 conceded that she was no bloodthirsty killer and that when taken into custody she tended to inspire the paternal aspects of the police who held her ... there was a mystifying devolution from the high school poet, speech class star, and mini-celebrity who performed Shirley Temple-like as a warm up act at the stump speeches of local politicians to the accomplice of rage-filled Clyde Barrow."[11]
Clyde Barrow
Clyde Chestnut Barrow[12] was born in Ellis County, Texas, near Telico, a town just south of Dallas.[4] He was the fifth of seven children, from a poor farming family. 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;[13] it was Clyde Barrow's first killing. Paroled in February 1932, Barrow emerged from Eastham a hardened and bitter criminal. 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, Clyde's goal in life was not to gain fame and fortune from robbing banks, but to seek revenge against the Texas prison system for the abuses he suffered while serving time.[14]
First meeting
There are a number of 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 girlfriend with a broken arm. Barrow dropped by the girl's house while Parker was supposedly in the kitchen making hot chocolate. They did not meet, as legend has it, while she was a waitress.
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. Her fondness for creative writing found expression in poems such as "The Story of Suicide Sal" and "The Trail's End" (aka "The Story of Bonnie and Clyde").[8]
The spree
Early jobs, early murders
During Buck Barrow's time in jail in 1932, Clyde Barrow, Raymond Hamilton and a rotating core group of associates participated in small robberies, primarily of stores and gas stations. In April 1932, Bonnie Parker was captured in a failed robbery attempt in Kaufman, Texas, and subsequently jailed.[6] On April 30, 1932, Barrow was involved in a robbery in Hillsboro, Texas, during which shopkeeper J. N. Bucher was shot and killed.[15] When shown photos, the wife of the murder victim identified Barrow as one of the shooters. It was his first involvement in a murder accusation. Meanwhile, Parker remained in jail until June 17, 1932, when the Kaufman County grand jury convened, declined to indict her, and she was released.[6] Within a few weeks, she reunited with Barrow. They were again on the run together.
On August 5, 1932, while Parker was visiting her mother, Barrow, Hamilton and Everett Milligan were drinking alcohol at a country dance in Stringtown, Oklahoma, an act then illegal under Prohibition. When Sheriff C.G. Maxwell and his deputy, Eugene C. Moore, approached them in the parking lot, Barrow opened fire, killing the deputy;[6][16] 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, 1932, when storekeeper Howard Hall was killed during a robbery of his store in Sherman, Texas. There was sixty dollars in his till.[15]
W. D. Jones had been a friend of the Barrow family since childhood, and though he was only 16 years old on Christmas Eve of 1932, he persuaded Barrow to let him join up with the pair and ride out of Dallas with them that night.[6] 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. Less than two weeks later, Barrow killed Tarrant County Deputy Sheriff Malcolm Davis on January 6, 1933,[17] bringing the total murdered by the gang since April to five.
Buck joins the gang
On March 22, 1933, Buck Barrow was granted a full pardon and released from prison. Within days, he and his wife, Blanche, were living with W.D. Jones, Clyde Barrow and Parker in a temporary hideout in Joplin, Missouri. According to some accounts, Buck and Blanche were there merely to visit, in an attempt to persuade Clyde into surrendering to law enforcement. As was common with Bonnie and Clyde, their next brush with the law arose from their generally suspicious behavior, not because their identities had been discovered.
Unaware of what awaited them, local 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 one lawman and fatally wounded another[18][19] before bundling Parker into the car and escaping. They pulled Blanche in off the street, where she was pursuing her fleeing dog, Snow Ball.[5] The surviving officers later testified that their side had fired only fourteen rounds in the conflict,[15] 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.
The group escaped the police at Joplin, but left most of their possessions at the rented apartment: Buck's 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.[5] 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. 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 quintet 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 robbed banks in Lucerne, Indiana and Okabena, Minnesota.[15] Previously they had kidnapped Dillard Darby and Sophie 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, usually releasing them far from home, sometimes with money to help them return.[20][3] 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 not only soured the public perception of the outlaws, but led directly to their undoing.
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.[7] 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.[5]
In June 1933, while driving with W.D. Jones and Parker near Wellington, Texas, Clyde Barrow missed some construction signs and flipped their car into a ravine.[3] Parker was doused with battery acid, causing third degree burns to her right leg.[6] The burn was so severe, the muscles contracted and caused the leg to "draw up;"[5] 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, the three rendezvoused with Blanche and Buck Barrow again and they hid out in a tourist court near Ft. Smith, Arkansas, nursing Parker's grievous burns until Buck and Jones bungled a local robbery, then killed Town Marshal Henry D. Humphrey in Alma, Arkansas.[21] With the renewed pursuit from the law, they had to flee again, despite the grave condition of Bonnie Parker.[15]
Platte City and Dexfield Park
On July 18, 1933, the gang checked into the Red Crown Tourist Court[22] 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.[22] To the south stood the Red Crown Tavern, a popular restaurant and a frequent meeting place for Missouri Highway Patrolmen. Once again, the gang seemed to go out of their way to draw attention to themselves:[23] 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.[23] 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.[7] 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[5] — attracted undue attention: they were just not the kind of thing the upright women of Platte City would ever wear, and were the first thing mentioned by eyewitnesses reminiscing even forty years later.[6] 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.[22]
When Blanche Barrow went into town to purchase bandages, crackers, cheese, and atropine sulfate to treat Bonnie's leg,[7] 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.[22] At 11 p.m. that night, Sheriff Coffey led a group of officers armed with Thompson submachine guns toward the cabins.[24] 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, 1933 from the National Guard armory at Enid, Oklahoma.[1][15] The Barrows laid down withering fire and made their escape when a bullet short-circuited the horn on the armored car and the lawmen mistook it for a cease-fire signal. They did not pursue the retreating Barrow automobile.[22]
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.[7][22] 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.[25][3] 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.[25] Clyde Barrow, Parker, and W.D. Jones escaped on foot.[25][3] 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.[7][25] Although Jones parted ways with the pair the next month,[3][25] Barrow and Parker regrouped, kept a low profile, and pulled only small robberies for daily-bread money. On November 22, 1933, they again narrowly evaded arrest — but not bullets, each catching one in the leg — while attempting to rendezvous with family members near Sowers, Texas. This time, it was their hometown Sheriff, Dallas's Smoot Schmid and his squad, lying in wait. It was the only time the outlaws ever attempted family meetings at the same place on consecutive nights.[6]
Final run
On January 16, 1934, Barrow finally made his long-awaited move against the Texas Department of Corrections as he masterminded the escape of Henry Methvin, Raymond Hamilton and several others in the infamous "Eastham Breakout" of 1934.[14] 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: extracting revenge on the Texas Department of Corrections.[1]
It was an expensive revenge, though, for all concerned. During the jailbreak, escapee Joe Palmer targeted prison officer Major Joe Crowson[26] and his killing 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.[14] Simmons kept his word, except in the case of Henry Methvin, whose life was exchanged in return for turning Barrow and Parker over to authorities.[14] 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.[27] 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.
On April 1, 1934, Easter Sunday, Barrow and Henry Methvin killed two young highway patrolmen, H. D. Murphy and Edward Bryant Wheeler, at Grapevine, Texas (now called Southlake).[28][29] A contemporary eyewitness account stated that Barrow and Parker fired the fatal shots, but John Treherne exhaustively investigated this shooting and concludes that Methvin fired the first shot, after assuming Barrow wanted the officers killed. Methvin later admitted that Barrow did not intend to kill them, but had been preparing to capture them and take them on one of his famous rides; he also admitted that Parker had approached the dying officers to try to help them, not to administer a cold-blooded point-blank coup de grace, as the discredited eyewitness had claimed.[30] Having little choice once Methvin had commenced a gun battle with law officers, Barrow then joined in, firing at the second officer. Ted Hinton's son Boots, himself a Bonnie and Clyde historian, states that Parker was actually asleep in the back seat when Methvin started shooting and took no part in it.[20] It has also been argued that in accepting a pardon for these killings, Methvin admitted to both; he confessed in open court to being the sole killer in both killings.[30] But in April 1934, the Grapevine killings, and the massive negative publicity they generated against Parker in particular, accelerated the public clamor for the extermination of the remaining elements of the Barrow Gang. Public hostility only increased when, just five days later, Barrow and Methvin killed Constable William "Cal" Campbell near Commerce, Oklahoma.[31]
Death
Bonnie and Clyde were killed on May 23, 1934, on a desolate road near their Bienville Parish, Louisiana hideout.[25][32] The couple appeared in daylight in an automobile and were shot by a posse of four Texas officers and two Louisiana officers when they attempted to drive away.[33] Questions about the way the ambush was conducted, and the failure to warn the duo of impending death, have been raised about the incident.
Texas officers
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Louisiana officers
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The posse was led by Hamer, who had begun tracking the pair on February 10, 1934. Having never before seen Parker or Barrow, he arranged a meeting with a representative of Methvin's parents in the hope of gaining a lead. Hamer obtained a quantity of civilian Browning Automatic Rifles (manufactured by Colt as the "Monitor") and 20 round magazines with armor piercing rounds.[30][34]
Hamer 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 next to see Henry Methvin's family, which explained Hamer's meeting with them within a month of beginning the hunt.
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 (who had met Clyde in the past), 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 p.m. on the 21st and waiting through the whole next day (May 22) with no sign of the outlaw couple;[35] all other accounts have them setting up on the evening of the 22nd.[6]
At approximately 9:15 a.m. 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 rate of 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; some imply that he fired before any order was given to do so.[6][35] Barrow was killed instantly by Oakley's initial head shot, but Parker did not die as easily. The posse reported hearing her long horrified scream as the bullets tore into the car.[35] The officers emptied the specially-ordered automatic rifle, as well as rifles, shotguns and pistols at the car.[34] 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."[32]
Some sources say Bonnie and Clyde were shot more than 50 times,[14] while other sources claim a total closer to 25 bullet wounds per corpse, or 50 total.[36]
Following the ambush, 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.[34]
When later asked why he killed a woman who was not wanted for any capital offense, Hamer stated "I hate to bust the cap on a woman, especially when she was sitting down, however if it wouldn't have been her [sic], it would have been us."[37]
The bullet-riddled Ford containing the two bodies was towed to the Conger Furniture Store & Funeral Parlor. The firm was located on Railroad Avenue in downtown Arcadia across from the Illinois Central train station (which is now a historical museum containing Bonnie and Clyde artifacts.) Preliminary embalming was done by C.F. "Boots" Bailey in the small preparation room in back of the furniture store.[38] 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.[38] 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.[39]
H.D. Darby, a young undertaker who worked for the McClure Funeral Parlor in nearby Ruston, Louisiana, and Sophie Stone, a home demonstration agent also from Ruston, came to Arcadia to identify the bodies.[38] Darby and Stone had been kidnapped by the Barrow gang on April 27, 1933[40] in Ruston 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.[38] As it turned out, she could be no closer to the truth: Darby assisted Bailey in embalming the outlaws.[38]
Funeral and burial
Bonnie and Clyde wished to be buried side by side, but the Parker family would not allow it. Parker's mother 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.[5] Over 20,000 people turned out for Bonnie Parker's funeral, making it difficult for her family to reach the grave site.[5] Clyde Barrow is buried in the Western Heights Cemetery, and Bonnie Parker in the Crown Hill Memorial Park, both in Dallas, Texas. The following words are inscribed on her stone:
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.[41]
Parker's family used the now defunct McKamy-Campbell Funeral Home,[42] then located on Forest Avenue 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 Saturday, May 26, at 2 p.m. in the funeral home, directed by Allen D. Campbell.[38] His son, Dr. Allen Campbell, later remembered that flowers came from everywhere, including some with cards allegedly from Pretty Boy Floyd and John Dillinger.[38] Soloists at the funeral included Dudley M. Hughes Sr., who later became the prominent operator of four large Dallas funeral homes. Initially, Parker was buried in the Fishtrap Cemetery, but in 1945 was moved to the new Crown Hill Cemetery in Dallas.[41] The next year services for Raymond Hamilton, a member of the Barrow Gang who was executed May 10, 1935 by the State of Texas, were also held at the McKamy-Campbell Funeral Home.[38]
Barrow's family used the Sparkman-Holtz-Brand Morticians,[42] located in the A.H. Belo mansion in downtown Dallas. Thousands of people gathered outside both Dallas funerals 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.[38] 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.”[43]
The bullet-riddled Ford in which the pair was killed and the shirt Barrow wore the last day of his life, were, as of June 2009, on display at the Primm Valley Resort and Casino in Primm, Nevada.[44]
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.[5]
Controversy and aftermath
Controversy lingers over certain aspects of the ambush and the way Hamer conducted it. The tripartite composition of the posse made controversy almost inevitable, starting before a single shot was fired and continuing on today. Hamer and Gault were both former Texas Rangers on the payroll of the Texas Department of Corrections, Hinton and Alcorn were employees of the Dallas Sheriff's office, and Jordan and Oakley were, respectively, Sheriff and Deputy of Bienville Parish. The three duos distrusted each other, and indeed did not even much like each other.[6] They each carried differing agendas into the operation and brought differing narratives out of it. 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.[6] The points at issue include the warning, if any, given the fugitives before the firing commenced, the status of Parker as a shoot-on-sight candidate and the role of the Methvin family in planning and executing the ambuscade.
Historians such as Phillips, Treherne and E.R. Milner have been unable to turn up any warrants against Bonnie Parker for any violent crimes.[30] FBI files contain only a single warrant against her, for aiding Barrow in the interstate transportation of a stolen vehicle.[45] Posse member Bob Alcorn identified Barrow on the road and cleared the way for the others to fire. In his deposition to Dr. Wade, chair of the Coroner's Jury in Arcadia, he was quoted as claiming that Parker had been indicted for murder. In addition to officially identifying the bodies of both Barrow and Parker and stating that he knew them personally, the deposition claims that "he know[s] of his own knowledge that both were 2 [times] indicted on charge of murder Case #5046&7 Criminal District Court Dallas Tex. November-28-1933."[23] While this appears to be offered as proof that Parker had been indicted for murder, she had not yet been so charged.
In the years after, Prentiss Oakley, who all six possemen agree fired the first shots,[46][1] was reported to have been troubled by his actions.[30] He was the only posse member to express regret publicly. Hamer appropriated the stolen guns found in the death car, as had been authorized by his boss Lee Simmons of the Texas prison system as part of Hamer's compensation package.[23] Alcorn claimed Barrow's saxophone from the car, but feeling guilty, later returned it to the Barrow family.[6] Other personal items such as Parker's clothing were also taken, and when the Parker family asked for them back, they were refused.[47][34] These items were later sold as souvenirs.[4] A rumored suitcase full of cash was said by the Barrow family[6] to have been kept by Sheriff Jordan, "who soon after the ambush purchased an auction barn and land in Arcadia."[6]
Word of the ambush quickly got around when Hamer, Jordan and Hinton drove to town to telephone their respective bosses. A crowd quickly gathered at the spot, and Gault, Oakley and Alcorn, who were left to guard the bodies, soon lost control; people cut off bloody locks of Parker's hair and tore pieces from her dress, which were sold as souvenirs. Hinton returned to find a man trying to cut off Barrow's finger, and was sickened by what was occurring.[30][46] 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."[48] The coroner enlisted Hamer for help in controlling the "circus-like atmosphere," and only then did people move away from the car.[48]
In 1979, Ted Hinton's account of the ambush was published. According to Hinton, the posse had tied Henry Methvin's father, Ivy, to a tree the night before the ambush, to keep him from possibly warning the duo off.[46] 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.[46] Hamer allegedly made every member of the posse swear they would never divulge this secret. Hinton said:
"Ivy Methvin was traveling on that road in his old farm truck, when he was stopped by the lawmen, standing in the middle of the road. They took him into the woods and handcuffed him to a tree. They removed one of the old truck's wheels, so that it would appear to have broken down at that spot."[46]
Other accounts, however, place Methvin Senior in the center of the action, down on the road, waving Barrow to stop, having cut Henry's pardon deal several days before.[6]
Aftermath
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,[49] 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 in the hands of the possemen, each had earned the princely sum of $200.23[6] for his efforts.
In February 1935, Dallas 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.[6] 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 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 film Bonnie and Clyde. While she agreed to the original script, she objected to her characterization in the final film, describing Estelle Parsons' 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".[50]
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.[23] Barrow protégé W. D. Jones had split from his mentors a month after the three slipped the noose at Dexfield Park in July 1933.[15] 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.[51] 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, and was killed on August 4, 1974 in a misunderstanding by the jealous boyfriend of a woman he was trying to help out.[23] 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.[6] His father Ivy had been killed in 1946 by a hit-and-run driver.[23]
Frank Hamer returned to a quieter life as a freelance security consultant to oil companies, although, according to Guinn, "his reputation suffered somewhat after Gibsland"[6] 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 challenged Lyndon Johnson's vote totals during the election for the U.S. Senate. He died in 1955 at age 71.[23] His possemate Bob Alcorn died on May 23, 1964 — exactly thirty years to the day after the Gibsland ambush.
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.[52] 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.[53] A small metal version was added to accompany the stone monument. It was stolen, as was its replacement.
Bonnie and Clyde in 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 on their backs, the police discovered several rolls of undeveloped film and some scrawled doggerel poetry left behind.[54] 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 forever as "Clyde's cigar-smoking moll". The poem "Suicide Sal", peppered with quotation marks and 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.[55] Before Joplin, the Barrows' notoriety had been confined to the Dallas area; afterwards, they were famous — and to many, infamous — far and wide.
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;[56] picking up laundry at cleaning stores was particularly harrowing.[5] As the noose tightened, Parker composed the fatalistic poem she titled "The End of the Line", 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.[57]
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. [58] 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[59], who himself was slain just two months after Barrow.
Film
Hollywood has treated the pair's story several times, most notably:
- Fritz Lang's 1937 film noir You Only Live Once was loosely based on the couple, and was the first film made about them (being made only three years after their death).
- Dorothy Provine starred in the 1958 movie The Bonnie Parker Story, directed by William Witney.
- In 1967, Arthur Penn directed a film version of the tale. Bonnie and Clyde, which starred Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway.
- In the 1992 TV film, Bonnie & Clyde: The True Story, Tracey Needham played Bonnie while Clyde was portrayed by Dana Ashbrook.
Music
- In 1967 Serge Gainsbourg recorded his song "Bonnie and Clyde" as a duet with Brigitte Bardot. The French lyrics are based on Bonnie Parker's poem "The Trail's End". This song would be covered in the 1990s by the bands Stereolab, Luna and MC Solaar, as well as by the musician Mick Harvey. In 2006, pop singer Belinda Carlisle recorded a cover with Fiachna O'Braonain on her 2007 Voila CD.
- 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.
- 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, Merle Haggard had a hit single with his song "Legend of Bonnie and Clyde".
- In 1997 the Russian rock band Splean (Сплин) included a song "Bonnie and Clyde" ("Бонни и Клайд") on their album "Black eye" ("Фонарь под глазом").
- The German punk band Die Toten Hosen have a song entitled "Bonnie und Clyde" that details their exploits.
Musical theater
In 1999, Japan's Takarazuka Revue, building on the international popularity of the Bonnie and Clyde legend in print, broadcast, recording and film, became among the first to adapt the tale as a major musical. The first production was staged by the company's Snow Troupe, starring Tatsuki Kōju and Hitomi Tsukikage. The show was scheduled to be produced again in 2008 for the 30th anniversary celebration of Takarazuka Bow Hall. Once more the Snow Troupe will mount the production, this time with dual casts, one of which is to star Kaname Ouki as Clyde Barrow.
Historical perspective
Through the decades, many cultural historians have analyzed Bonnie's and Clyde's enduring appeal to the public imagination. E.R. Milner, a 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."[48]
See also
References
- ^ a b c d Phillips, John Neal. Running with Bonnie & Clyde: The Ten Fast Years of Ralph Fults. University of Oklahoma Press, 2002. ISBN 0806134291.
- ^ Jones deposed November 18, 1933, "FOIA FBI Files - Bonnie and Clyde." FBI.gov. p. 59.
- ^ a b c d e f Jones, W.D. "Riding with Bonnie and Clyde." Playboy. November 1968. Reprinted at Cinetropic.com.
- ^ a b c Steele, Phillip, and Marie Barrow Scoma. The Family Story of Bonnie and Clyde. Pelican Publishing Company, 2000. ISBN 156554756X. Cite error: The named reference "Barrow" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Parker, Emma Krause, Nell (Barrow) Cowan, and Jan Fortune. The True Story of Bonnie and Clyde. New American Library, 1968. ISBN 0848821548. Originally pub in 1934 as Fugitives.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Guinn, Jeff. Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde. Simon & Schuster, 2009. ISBN 1-4165-5706-7.
- ^ a b c d e f Barrow, Blanche Caldwell, Esther L. Weiser, and John Neal Phillips (ed.) My Life with Bonnie and Clyde. University of Oklahoma Press, 2005. ISBN 0806137150.
- ^ a b Bonnie Parker. Internet Accuracy Project.
- ^ Youngblood, Dorothy. "Bonnie Parker's Classmate: Records of the County Literary Contest." TexasHideout. Accessed May 2 2006.
- ^ a b c "Bonnie & Roy." TexasHideout. Accessed 24 May 2008.
- ^ Fowler, Jimmy. "Inside Bonnie Parker." Dallas Observer. 9 September 1999.
- ^ "Clyde Barrow Death Certificate." Texas Hideout. Accessed 21 July 2008.
- ^ Guinn, Jeff (2009). Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 1-4165-5706-1, p. 76
- ^ a b c d e Phillips, John Neal. "Bonnie & Clyde's Revenge on Eastham." American History on HistoryNet.com. 12 June 2006.
- ^ a b c d e f g Ramsey, Winston G., ed. (2003). On The Trail of Bonnie and Clyde. London: After The Battle Books. ISBN 1870067517.
- ^ "Deputy Sheriff Eugene C. Moore". The Officer Down Memorial Page. Retrieved 2009-11-05.
- ^ "Deputy Malcolm Davis". The Officer Down Memorial Page. Retrieved 2009-11-05.
- ^ "Detective Harry L. McGinnis". The Officer Down Memorial Page. Retrieved 2009-11-05.
- ^ "Constable J.W. Harryman". The Officer Down Memorial Page. Retrieved 2009-11-05.
- ^ a b Anderson, Brian. "Reality less romantic than outlaw legend." Dallas News. 18 April 2003.
- ^ "Town Marshal Henry D. Humphrey". The Officer Down Memorial Page. Retrieved 2009-11-05.
- ^ a b c d e f Vasto, Mark. "Local lawmen shoot it out with notorious bandits." Platte County Landmark. Accessed 25 May 2008.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Knight, James R. and Jonathan Davis. Bonnie and Clyde: A Twenty-First-Century Update. Waco, Texas: Eakin Press, 2003. ISBN 1-57168-794-7. p. 172
- ^ Red Crown Incident. TexasHideout. Accessed 25 May 2008.
- ^ a b c d e f Vasto, Mark. "Further on up the road." Platte County Landmark. Accessed 25 May 2008.
- ^ "Major Joe Crowson". The Officer Down Memorial Page. Retrieved 2009-11-05.
- ^ Frank Hamer and Bonnie & Clyde. Texas State Library and Archives Commission.
- ^ "Patrolman H. D. Murphy". The Officer Down Memorial Page. Retrieved 2009-11-05.
- ^ "Patrolman Edward Bryan Wheeler". The Officer Down Memorial Page. Retrieved 2009-11-05.
- ^ a b c d e f Treherne, John. The Strange History of Bonnie and Clyde. Stein and Day, 1985. ISBN 081283030X. Cite error: The named reference "Treherne-strange" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ "Constable William Calvin Campbell". The Officer Down Memorial Page. Retrieved 2009-11-05.
- ^ a b "Took No Chances, Hinton and Alcorn Tell Newspapermen." Dallas Dispatch. 24 May 1934. Reprinted at Censusdiggins.com. Accessed on 26 May 2008.
- ^ FBI Famous Cases: Bonnie and Clyde
- ^ a b c d The Posse. TexasHideout. Accessed 25 May 2008.
- ^ a b c Hinton, Ted and Larry Grove. Ambush: The Real Story of Bonnie and Clyde. Shoal Creek Publishers, 1979. ISBN 0-88319-041-9.
- ^ Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow Artifacts. jeffreysward.com.
- ^ Quotes. Texashideout. Accessed 26 May 2008.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "Bonnie & Clyde's Demise." Dallas Journal at TexasHideout.
- ^ Ramsey, Winston G., ed. (2003). On The Trail of Bonnie and Clyde, Then And Now. London: After The Battle Books. ISBN 1870067517, p. 112
- ^ a b Bonnie Parker at Find a Grave
- ^ a b "Skilled Embalmers." Dallas Journal. at TexasHideout.
- ^ Clyde Barker at Find a Grave
- ^ "Bonnie and Clyde's Death Car." Roadside America.com. Accessed June 10, 2009.
- ^ Bonnie and Clyde. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Accessed May 26, 2008.
- ^ a b c d e Hinton, Ted and Larry Grove. Ambush: The Real Story of Bonnie and Clyde. Shoal Creek Publishers, 1979. ISBN 0883190419.
- ^ Emma Parker letter. TexasHideout. Accessed 26 May 2008.
- ^ a b c Milner, E.R. The Lives and Times of Bonnie and Clyde. Southern Illinois University Press, 2003. ISBN 0809325527.
- ^ Hinton, p. 192
- ^ Blanche Caldwell Barrow at Find a Grave
- ^ Toland, John (1963). The Dillinger Days. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-306-80626-1, p. 83.
- ^ Washington Times, The (2004). Bonnie and Clyde live on. Accessed June 17, 2005.
- ^ Butler, Steven (2003). "In Search of Bonnie and Clyde in Louisiana." Accessed June 17, 2005.
- ^ Guinn, p 172.
- ^ Guinn, p 175.
- ^ Guinn, p 176.
- ^ Guinn, p 313.
- ^ Clyde Barrow's letter to Ford. TexasHideout. Accessed 26 May 2008.
- ^ Handwriting comparison. TexasHideout. Accessed 26 May 2008.
Bibliography
- Barrow, Blanche Caldwell and John Neal Phillips. My Life with Bonnie and Clyde. (University of Oklohoma Press, 2004)
- Cartledge, Rick. The Guns of Frank Hamer.
- DeFord, Miriam Allen. The Real Bonnie and Clyde. Sphere Books, 1968.
- Guinn, Jeff. Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde. Simon & Schuster, 2009. ISBN 1-4165-5706-7.
- King, Betty Nygaard. Hell Hath No Fury: Famous Women in Crime (Borealis Press, 2001)
- Knight, James R. and Jonathan Davis. Bonnie and Clyde: A Twenty-First-Century Update. Eakin Press,2003. ISBN 1-57168-794-7.
- Matteson, Jason. Texas Bandits: A Study of the 1948 Democratic Primary.
- Milner, E.R. The Lives and Times of Bonnie and Clyde (Carbondale and Edwardsville, Southern Illinois University Press, 1996)
- Phillips, John Neal. Running with Bonnie and Clyde, the Ten Fast Years of Ralph Fults. (University of Oklahoma Press, 1996, 2002)
- Ramsey, Winston G., ed. On The Trail of Bonnie and Clyde. (London: After The Battle Books, 2003). ISBN 1870067517
External links
- Headline, NY Times, May 24, 1934, Barrow and Woman Are Slain by Police in Louisiana Trap
- Bonnie and Clyde at Find a Grave
- Bonnie and Clyde
- "Alva Trummel Kidnapped by Bandits." 'The Western Star', September 8, 1933.
- "Bill Brock relates Story of Highway Robbery at Meade Park" 'The Fowler News', September 7, 1933.
- "Bonnie Parker Worked in Dodge, Barrow in Hugoton" 'The Dodge City Globe', September 19, 1934.
- Two Crooks for the Road, 'The Wall St. Journal', March 10, 2009
- The Poems of Bonnie Parker