Thursday, December 19, 2019

The Life & Crimes of Bonnie & Clyde (Part I)



Bonnie Elizabeth Parker (October 1, 1910 – May 23, 1934) and Clyde Chestnut Barrow (March 24, 1909 – May 23, 1934) was an American criminal couple who traveled the Central United States with their gang during the Great Depression, known for their bank robberies although they preferred to rob small stores or rural gas stations. Their exploits captured the attention of the American press and its readership during what is occasionally referred to as the "public enemy era" between 1931 and 1934. They are believed to have murdered at least nine police officers and four civilians. They were killed in May 1934 during an ambush by police near Gibsland, Louisiana.
The press' portrayal of Bonnie and Clyde was sometimes at odds with the reality of their life on the road, especially for Parker. She was present at 100 or more felonies during the two years that she was Barrow's companion, although she was not the cigar-smoking, machine gun-wielding killer depicted in newspapers, newsreels, and pulp detective magazines of the day. Nonetheless, numerous police accounts detail her attempts to murder police officers (although gang member W.D. Jones contradicted them at trial). The picture of Parker smoking a cigar came from an undeveloped roll of negatives that police found at an abandoned hideout, and the snapshot was published nationwide. Parker did chain smoke Camel cigarettes, although she never smoked cigars.  According to historian Jeff Guinn, the photos found at the hideout resulted in Parker's glamorization and the creation of myths about the gang.
The 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde, directed by Arthur Penn and starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway in the title roles, revived interest in the criminals and glamorized them with a romantic aura.

Bonnie Parker
Bonnie Elizabeth Parker was born in 1910 in Rowena, Texas, the second of three children. Her father Charles Robert Parker (1884–1914) was a bricklayer who died when Bonnie was four years old.  Her widowed mother Emma (Krause) Parker (1885–1944) moved her family back to her parents' home in Cement City, an industrial suburb in West Dallas where she worked as a seamstress.   As an adult, Bonnie wrote poems such as "The Story of Suicide Sal"  and "The Trail's End", the latter more commonly known as "The Story of Bonnie and Clyde".
In her second year in high school, Parker met Roy Thornton. The couple dropped out of school and was married on September 25, 1926, six days before her 16th birthday.  Their marriage was marred by his frequent absences and brushes with the law, and it proved to be short-lived. They never divorced, but their paths never crossed again after January 1929. She was still wearing his wedding ring when she died.  Thornton was in prison when he heard of her death. He commented, "I'm glad they went out like they did. It's much better than being caught."
After the end of her marriage, Parker moved back in with her mother and worked as a waitress in Dallas. One of her regular customers was postal worker Ted Hinton. In 1932, he joined the Dallas Sheriff's Department and eventually served as a member of the posse that killed Bonnie and Clyde.  Parker briefly kept a diary early in 1929 when she was 18, in which she wrote of her loneliness, her impatience with life in Dallas, and her love of talking pictures.

Clyde Barrow
Clyde Chestnut Barrow was born in 1909 into a poor farming family in Ellis County, Texas, southeast of Dallas.  He was the fifth of seven children of Henry Basil Barrow (1874–1957) and Cumie Talitha Walker (1874–1942). The family moved to Dallas in the early 1920s, part of a migration pattern from rural areas to the city where many settled in the urban slum of West Dallas. The Barrows spent their first months in West Dallas living under their wagon until they got enough money to buy a tent.
Barrow was first arrested in late 1926, at age 17, after running when police confronted him over a rental car that he had failed to return on time. His second arrest was with brother Buck soon after for possession of stolen turkeys. Barrow had some legitimate jobs during 1927 through 1929, but he also cracked safes, robbed stores, and stole cars. He met 19 year-old Parker through a mutual friend in January 1930, and they spent much time together during the following weeks. Their romance was interrupted when Barrow was arrested and convicted of auto theft.
Clyde was sent to Eastham Prison Farm in April 1930 at the age of 21. He escaped the prison farm shortly after his incarceration using a weapon Parker smuggled to him. He was recaptured shortly after and sent back to prison.  Barrow was repeatedly sexually assaulted while in prison, and he retaliated by attacking and killing his tormentor with a lead pipe, crushing his skull.  This was his first killing. Another inmate, who was already serving a life sentence, claimed responsibility.
In order to avoid hard labor in the fields, Barrow had another inmate chop off two of his toes with an axe in late January 1932. Because of this, he walked with a limp for the rest of his life. However, Barrow was set free six days after his intentional injury. Without his knowledge, Barrow's mother had successfully petitioned for his release.  He was paroled on February 2, 1932 from Eastham as a hardened and bitter criminal. His sister Marie said, "Something awful sure must have happened to him in prison because he wasn't the same person when he got out."  Fellow inmate Ralph Fults said that he watched Clyde "change from a schoolboy to a rattlesnake".
In his post-Eastham career, Barrow robbed grocery stores and gas stations at a rate far outpacing the ten or so bank robberies attributed to him and the Barrow Gang. His favorite weapon was the M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle (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 that he suffered while serving time.

First meeting
Several accounts describe Parker and Barrow's first meeting. The most credible states that they met on January 5, 1930 at the home of Barrow's friend Clarence Clay at 105 Herbert Street in the neighborhood of West Dallas.  Barrow was 20 years old, and Parker was 19. Parker was out of work and staying with a female friend to assist her during her recovery from a broken arm. Barrow dropped by the girl's house while Parker was in the kitchen making hot chocolate.  Both were smitten immediately; most historians believe that Parker joined Barrow because she had fallen in love with him. She remained his loyal companion as they carried out their many crimes and awaited the violent death which they viewed as inevitable.

Armed robbery and murder
1932: Early robberies and murders
Parker's pose with a cigar and gun gained her an image in the press as a "cigar-smoking gun moll" after police found the undeveloped film in the Joplin house
After Barrow's release from prison in February 1932, he and Fults began a series of robberies, primarily of stores and gas stations; their goal was to collect enough money and firepower to launch a raid against Eastham prison.  On April 19, Parker and Fults were captured in a failed hardware store burglary in Kaufman in which they had intended to steal firearms.  Parker was released from jail in a few months, after the grand jury failed to indict her; Fults was tried, convicted, and served time. He never rejoined the gang.
On April 30, Barrow was the getaway driver in a robbery in Hillsboro during which store owner J.N. Bucher was shot and killed.  Bucher's wife identified Barrow from police photographs as one of the shooters, although he had stayed outside in the car.
Parker wrote poetry to pass the time in jail.  She reunited with Barrow within a few weeks of her release from the Kaufman County jail.
On August 5, Barrow, Raymond Hamilton, and Ross Dyer were drinking alcohol at a country dance in Stringtown, Oklahoma when Sheriff C.G. Maxwell and Deputy Eugene C. Moore approached them in the parking lot. Barrow and Hamilton opened fire, killing Moore and gravely wounding Maxwell. Moore was the first law officer that Barrow and his gang had killed; they eventually murdered nine. On October 11, they allegedly killed Howard Hall at his store during a robbery in Sherman, Texas, though some historians consider this unlikely.
W. D. Jones had been a friend of Barrow's family since childhood. He joined Parker and Barrow on Christmas Eve 1932 at the age of 16, and the three left Dallas that night.  The next day, Jones and Barrow murdered Doyle Johnson, a young family man, while stealing his car in Temple.  Barrow killed Tarrant County Deputy Malcolm Davis on January 6, 1933 when he, Parker, and Jones wandered into a police trap set for another criminal. The gang had murdered five people since April.
1933: Buck Barrow joins the gang
The gang's Joplin hideout; photos and Bonnie's "Suicide Sal" poem were published in newspapers nationwide
On March 22, 1933, Clyde's brother Buck was granted a full pardon and released from prison, and he and his wife Blanche set up housekeeping with Bonnie, Clyde and Jones in a temporary hideout at 3347 1/2 Oakridge Drive in Joplin, Missouri. According to family sources, Buck and Blanche were there to visit;
they attempted to persuade Clyde to surrender to law enforcement. The group ran loud, alcohol-fueled card games late into the night in the quiet neighborhood; Blanche recalled that they "bought a case of beer a day". The men came and went noisily at all hours, and Clyde accidentally fired a BAR in the apartment while cleaning it.  No neighbors went to the house, but one reported suspicions to the Joplin Police Department.
The police assembled a five-man force in two cars on April 13 to confront what they suspected were bootleggers living in the garage apartment. The Barrow brothers and Jones opened fire, killing Detective Harry L. McGinnis outright and fatally wounding Constable J. W. Harryman.  Parker opened fire with a BAR as the others fled, forcing Highway Patrol Sergeant G.B. Kahler to duck behind a large oak tree. The .30 caliber bullets from the BAR struck the tree and forced wood splinters into the sergeant's face.  Parker got into the car with the others, and they pulled in Blanche from the street where she was pursuing her dog Snow Ball.  The surviving officers later testified that they had fired only fourteen rounds in the conflict; one hit Jones on the side, one struck Clyde but was deflected by his suitcoat button, and one grazed Buck after ricocheting off a wall.
W.D. Jones committed two murders in his first two weeks with Barrow at age 16. The cut-down shotgun is one of his "whippit" guns. The pistol on the hood is Officer Persell's.
Bonnie with a shotgun reaches for officer Persell's pistol in Clyde's waistband.
The group escaped the police at Joplin, but left behind most of their possessions at the apartment, including Buck's parole papers (three weeks old), a large arsenal of weapons, a handwritten poem by Bonnie, and a camera with several rolls of undeveloped film. Police developed the film at The Joplin Globe and found many photos of Barrow, Parker, and Jones posing and pointing weapons at one another.  The Globe sent the poem and the photos over the newswire, including a photo of Parker clenching a cigar in her teeth and a pistol in her hand, and the gang of criminals became front-page news throughout America as the Barrow Gang.
The photo of Parker posing with a cigar and a gun became popular:
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 wild and young, and undoubtedly slept together.
The group ranged from Texas as far north as Minnesota for the next three months. In May, they tried to rob the bank in Lucerne, Indiana, and robbed the bank in Okabena, Minnesota.  They kidnapped Dillard Darby and Sophia Stone at Ruston, Louisiana in the course of stealing Darby's car; this was one of several events between 1932 and 1934 in which they kidnapped police officers or robbery victims.  They usually released their hostages far from home, sometimes with money to help them return home.
Stories of such encounters made headlines, as did the more violent episodes. The Barrow Gang did not hesitate to shoot anyone who got in their way, whether it was a police officer or an innocent civilian. Other members of the Barrow Gang who committed murder included Hamilton, Jones, Buck, and Henry Methvin. Eventually, the cold-bloodedness of their murders opened the public's eyes to the reality of their crimes and led to their ends.
The photos entertained the public for a time, but the gang was desperate and discontented, as described by Blanche in her account written while imprisoned in the late 1930s.  With their new notoriety, their daily lives became more difficult, as they tried to evade discovery. Restaurants and motels became less secure; they resorted to campfire cooking and bathing in cold streams.  The unrelieved, round-the-clock proximity of five people in one car gave rise to vicious bickering.  Jones was the driver when he and Barrow stole a car belonging to Darby in late April, and he used that car to leave the others. He stayed away until June 8.
Barrow did not see warning signs at a bridge under construction on June 10, while driving with Jones and Parker near Wellington, Texas and the car flipped into a ravine.  Sources disagree on whether there was a gasoline fire or if Parker was doused with acid from the car's battery under the floorboards, but she sustained third-degree burns to her right leg, so severe that the muscles contracted and caused the leg to "draw up".  Jones observed: "She'd been burned so bad none of us thought she was gonna live. The hide on her right leg was gone, from her hip down to her ankle. I could see the bone at places."
Parker could hardly walk; she either hopped on her good leg or was carried by Barrow. They got help from a nearby farm family, and then kidnapped two local police officers. The three rendezvoused with Buck and Blanche, and hid in a tourist court near Fort Smith, Arkansas, nursing Parker's burns. Buck and Jones bungled a robbery and murdered Town Marshal Henry D. Humphrey in Alma, Arkansas.  The criminals had to flee, despite Parker's grave condition.

Platte City and Dexfield Park
Two-unit Red Crown Tourist Court, where the gang's conspicuous behavior drew police; Buck was killed in the ensuing gunfight.
In July 1933, the gang checked in to the Red Crown Tourist Court south of Platte City, Missouri. It consisted of two brick cabins joined by garages, and the gang rented both. To the south stood the Red Crown Tavern, a popular restaurant among Missouri Highway Patrolmen, and the gang seemed to go out of their way to draw attention.  Blanche registered the party as three guests, but owner Neal Houser could see five people getting out of the car. He noted that the driver backed into the garage "gangster style" for a quick getaway.  Blanche paid for their cabins with coins rather than bills, and did the same later when buying five dinners and five beers.  The next day, Houser noticed that his guests had taped newspapers over the windows of their cabin; Blanche again paid for five meals with coins. Her outfit of jodhpur riding breeches also attracted attention; they were not typical attire for women in the area, and eyewitnesses still remembered them forty years later.  Houser told Captain William Baxter of the Highway Patrol, a patron of his restaurant, about the group.
Barrow and Jones went into town to purchase bandages, crackers, cheese, and atropine sulfate to treat Parker's leg. The druggist contacted Sheriff Holt Coffey, who put the cabins under surveillance. Coffey had been alerted by Oklahoma, Texas, and Arkansas law enforcement to watch for strangers seeking such supplies. The sheriff contacted Captain Baxter, who called for reinforcements from Kansas City, including an armored car.  Sheriff Coffey led a group of officers toward the cabins at 11pm, armed with Thompson submachine guns.
In the gunfight which ensued, the .45 caliber Thompsons proved no match for Barrow's .30 caliber BAR, stolen on July 7 from the National Guard armory at Enid, Oklahoma.  The gang escaped when a bullet short-circuited the horn on the armored car and the police officers mistook it for a cease-fire signal. They did not pursue the retreating Barrow vehicle.
Blanche is captured at Dexfield Park, Iowa, still in her jodhpurs with husband Buck lying mortally wounded nearby
Jones' confession triggered murder warrants against the gang
The gang had evaded the law once again, but Buck had sustained a bullet wound that blasted a large hole in his forehead skull bone and exposed his injured brain, and Blanche was nearly blinded by glass fragments in both her eyes.
The Barrow Gang camped at Dexfield Park, an abandoned amusement park near Dexter, Iowa, on July 24.[5][74] Buck was sometimes semiconscious, and he even talked and ate, but his massive head wound and loss of blood were so severe that Barrow and Jones dug a grave for him.  Local residents noticed their bloody bandages, and officers determined that the campers were the Barrow Gang. Local police officers and approximately 100 spectators surrounded the group, and the Barrows soon came under fire.  Barrow, Parker, and Jones escaped on foot.  Buck was shot in the back, and he and his wife were captured by the officers. Buck died of his head wound and pneumonia after surgery five days later at Kings Daughters Hospital in Perry, Iowa.
For the next six weeks, the remaining perpetrators ranged far afield from their usual area of operations, west to Colorado, north to Minnesota, and southeast to Mississippi; yet they continued to commit armed robberies.  They restocked their arsenal when Barrow and Jones robbed an armory at Plattville, Illinois on August 20, acquiring three BARs, handguns, and a large quantity of ammunition.
By early September, the gang risked a run to Dallas to see their families for the first time in four months. Jones parted company with them, continuing to Houston where his mother had moved. He was arrested there without incident on November 16, and returned to Dallas. Through the autumn, Barrow committed several robberies with small-time local accomplices, while his family and Parker's attended to her considerable medical needs. On November 22, they narrowly evaded arrest while trying to meet with family members near Sowers, Texas. Dallas Sheriff Smoot Schmid, Deputy Bob Alcorn, and Deputy Ted Hinton lay in wait nearby. As Barrow drove up, he sensed a trap and drove 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 a BAR bullet passed through the car, striking the legs of both Barrow and Parker.  They escaped later that night.
On November 28, a Dallas grand jury delivered a murder indictment against Parker and Barrow for the killing – in January of that year, nearly ten months earlier – of Tarrant County Deputy Malcolm Davis; it was Parker's first warrant for murder.

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