1934: Final run
On January 16, 1934, Barrow orchestrated the escape of
Hamilton, Methvin, and several others in the "Eastham Breakout". The brazen raid generated negative publicity
for Texas, and Barrow seemed to have achieved what historian Phillips suggests
was his overriding goal: revenge on the Texas Department of Corrections.
Barrow Gang member Joe Palmer shot Major Joe Crowson during
his escape, and Crowson died a few days later in the hospital. This attack attracted the full power of the
Texas and federal government to 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. All of them eventually were, except for
Methvin, who preserved his life by setting up the ambush of Barrow and Parker.
The Texas Department of Corrections contacted former Texas
Ranger Captain Frank Hamer and persuaded him to hunt down the Barrow Gang. He
was retired, but his commission had not expired. 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 taking down the Barrow Gang.
Former Texas Ranger
Frank Hamer, the Barrow Gang's relentless shadow after the notorious Eastham
prison breakout
Hamer was tall, burly, and taciturn, unimpressed by
authority and driven by an "inflexible adherence to right, or what he
thinks is right." For 20 years, he
had been feared and admired throughout Texas as "the walking embodiment of
the 'One Riot, One Ranger' ethos". He "had acquired a formidable reputation
as a result of several spectacular captures and the shooting of a number of
Texas criminals". He was officially credited with 53 kills, and
suffered seventeen wounds. Prison boss
Simmons always said publicly that Hamer had been his first choice, although
there is evidence that he first approached two other Rangers, both of whom
declined because they were reluctant to shoot a woman. Starting on February 10, Hamer became the
constant shadow of Barrow and Parker, living out of his car, just a town or two
behind them. Three of Hamer's four brothers were also Texas Rangers; Brother
Harrison was the best shot of the four, but Frank was considered the most
tenacious.
Barrow and Methvin killed highway patrolmen H.D. Murphy and
Edward Bryant Wheeler on Easter Sunday, April 1, 1934 at the intersection of
Route 114 and Dove Road, near Grapevine, Texas (now Southlake). An eyewitness account said that Barrow and
Parker fired the fatal shots, and this story got widespread coverage before it
was discredited. Methvin later admitted that he fired the first shot, after
assuming that Barrow wanted the officers killed; he also said that Parker
approached the dying officers intending to help them, not to administer the
coup de grace as described by the discredited eyewitness. Barrow joined in,
firing at Patrolman Murphy. It has long been assumed that Parker was asleep in
the back seat when Methvin started shooting, and took no part in the assault.
Public opinion turned
against the couple after the Grapevine murders and resultant negative publicity
During the spring season, the Grapevine killings were
recounted in exaggerated detail, affecting public perception; all four Dallas
daily papers seized on the story told by the eyewitness, a farmer who claimed
to have seen Parker laugh at the way that Murphy's head "bounced like a
rubber ball" on the ground as she shot him. The stories claimed that police found a cigar
butt "with tiny teeth marks", supposedly those of Parker. Several days later, Murphy's fiancée wore her
intended wedding dress to his funeral, attracting photos and newspaper
coverage. The eyewitness's ever-changing
story was soon discredited, but the massive negative publicity increased the
public clamor for the extermination of the Barrow Gang. The outcry galvanized
the authorities into action, and Highway Patrol boss L.G. Phares offered a
reward of $1,000 for "the dead bodies of the Grapevine slayers" — not
their capture, just the bodies. Texas
Governor Ma Ferguson added another reward of $500 for each of the two killers,
which meant that, 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".
Public hostility increased five days later, when Barrow and
Methvin murdered 60 year-old Constable William "Cal" Campbell, a
widower and father, near Commerce, Oklahoma. They kidnapped Commerce police chief Percy
Boyd, crossed the state line into Kansas, and let him go, giving him a clean
shirt, a few dollars, and a request from Parker to tell the world that she did
not smoke cigars. Boyd identified both Barrow and Parker to authorities, but he
never learned Methvin's name. The resultant arrest warrant for the Campbell
murder specified "Clyde Barrow, Bonnie Parker and John Doe". 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." The Dallas Journal ran a cartoon on its
editorial page, showing an empty electric chair with a sign on it saying
"Reserved", adding the words "Clyde and Bonnie".
Deaths
Barrow and Parker were killed on May 23, 1934, on a rural
road in Bienville Parish, Louisiana. Texas officers Hamer, Hinton, Alcorn, and B.M.
"Maney" Gault, and Louisiana officers Henderson Jordan and Prentiss
Morel Oakley formed the posse. Hamer led
the posse, and he had begun tracking the gang on February 12. He studied their
movements and found that they swung in a circle skirting the edges of five Midwestern
states, exploiting the "state line" rule which prevented officers
from pursuing a fugitive into another jurisdiction. Barrow was consistent in
his movements, so Hamer charted his path and predicted where he would go. The
gang's itinerary centered on family visits, and they were due to see Methvin's
family in Louisiana.
On May 21, the four posse members from Texas were in
Shreveport 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 separated, and Methvin did
get separated from them in Shreveport. The full posse set up an ambush at the
rendezvous point along Louisiana State Highway 154 south of Gibsland toward
Sailes. Hinton recounted that their group was in place by 9pm, and waited
through the whole of the next day (May 22) with no sign of the perpetrators. Other accounts said that the officers set up on
the evening of the 22nd.
The gunfire was so
loud that the posse suffered temporary deafness all afternoon
At approximately 9:15 am on May 23, the posse were still
concealed in the bushes and almost ready to concede defeat, when they heard
Barrow's stolen Ford V8 approaching at a high speed. Their official report had
Barrow stopping to speak with Methvin's father, who had been planted there with
his truck that morning, to distract Barrow and force him into the lane closer
to the posse. The lawmen opened fire, killing Barrow and Parker while shooting
about 130 rounds. Oakley fired first, probably before any order to do so. Barrow was killed instantly by Oakley's head
shot, but Hinton reported hearing Parker scream as she realized that Barrow was
dead, before the shooting began in her direction. The officers emptied all their weapons at the
car. Nearly all of their wounds would
have been fatal, yet the two had survived many bullet wounds over the years in
their confrontations with the law.
According to statements made by Hinton and 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.
Researchers have said that Barrow and Parker were shot more
than 50 times each; others claim closer to 25 each, or 50 in total. Officially, the 1934 report by parish coroner
Dr. J. L. Wade, listed seventeen separate entrance wounds on Barrow's body and
twenty-six on that of Parker, including several headshots on each, and one that
had snapped Barrow's spinal column. Undertaker C.F. "Boots" Bailey
had difficulty embalming the bodies because of all the bullet holes.
The perpetrators had
more than a dozen guns and several thousand rounds of ammunition in the Ford,
including 100 20-rounds BAR magazines
The 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. 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, it would have been us." Word
of the deaths quickly got around when Hamer, Jordan, Oakley, and Hinton drove
into town to telephone their respective bosses. A crowd soon gathered at the
spot. Gault and Alcorn were left to guard the bodies, but they lost control of
the jostling, curious throng; 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. Arriving at the
scene, the coroner said that he 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.
The coroner enlisted Hamer for help in controlling the
"circus-like atmosphere", and got people away from the car.
The posse towed the Ford, with the dead bodies still inside,
to the Conger Furniture Store & Funeral Parlor in downtown Arcadia,
Louisiana. Barrow had been shot in the head by a .35 Remington Model 8.
Preliminary embalming was done by Bailey in a small preparation room in the
back of the furniture store, as it was common for furniture stores and
undertakers to share the same space. The
population of the northwest Louisiana town reportedly swelled from 2,000 to
12,000 within hours. Curious throngs arrived by train, horseback, buggy, and
plane. Beer normally sold for 15 cents a bottle but it jumped to 25 cents, and
sandwiches quickly sold out. Henry
Barrow identified his son's body, then sat weeping in a rocking chair in the
furniture section.
H.D. Darby was an undertaker at the McClure Funeral Parlor
and Sophia Stone was a home demonstration agent, both from nearby Ruston. Both
of them came to Arcadia to identify the bodies because the Barrow gang had
kidnapped them in 1933. Parker reportedly had laughed when she discovered that
Darby was an undertaker. She remarked that maybe someday he would be working on
her; Darby did assist Bailey in the embalming.
Funeral and burial
Bonnie Parker's grave,
inscribed: "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."
Bonnie and Clyde wished to be buried side by side, but the
Parker family would not allow it. Her mother wanted to grant her final wish to
be brought home, but the mobs surrounding the Parker house made that
impossible. More than 20,000 attended
Parker's funeral, and her family had difficulty reaching her gravesite. Parker's services were held on May 26. Dr. Allen Campbell recalled that flowers came
from everywhere, including some with cards allegedly from Pretty Boy Floyd and
John Dillinger. 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. Parker was buried in the Fishtrap Cemetery,
although she was moved in 1945 to the new Crown Hill Cemetery in 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 May 25. He was buried
in Western Heights Cemetery in Dallas, next to his brother Marvin. The Barrow
brothers share a single granite marker with their names on it and an epitaph
selected by Clyde: "Gone but not forgotten."
The bullet-riddled Ford and the shirt that Barrow was
wearing have been in the casino of Whiskey Pete's in Primm, Nevada since 2011;
previously, they were on display before that at the Primm Valley Resort and Casino.
The American National Insurance Company
of Galveston, Texas paid the insurance policies in full on Barrow and Parker.
Since then, the policy of payouts has changed to exclude payouts in cases of
deaths caused by any criminal act by the insured.
The six men of the posse were each to receive a one-sixth
share of the reward money, and Dallas Sheriff Schmid had promised Hinton that
this would total some $26,000, but most of the organizations that had pledged
reward funds suddenly reneged on their pledges. In the end, each lawman earned
$200.23 for his efforts and collected memorabilia.
Clyde and Buck
Barrow's grave, inscribed: "Gone but not forgotten"
By the summer of 1934, new federal statutes made bank robbery
and kidnapping federal offenses. The growing coordination of local authorities
by the FBI, plus two-way radios in police cars, combined to make it more
difficult to carry out series of robberies and murders than it had been just
months before. Two months after Gibsland, Dillinger was killed on the street in
Chicago; three months after that, Floyd was killed in Ohio; and one month after
that, Baby Face Nelson was killed in Illinois.
Differing accounts
The members of the posse came from three organizations:
Hamer and Gault were both former Texas Rangers then working for the Texas
Department of Corrections (DOC), Hinton and Alcorn were employees of the Dallas
Sheriff's office, and Jordan and Oakley were Sheriff and Deputy of Bienville
Parish, Louisiana. The three duos distrusted one another and kept to themselves,
and each had its own agenda in the
operation and offered differing narratives of it. Simmons, the head of the
Texas DOC, brought another perspective, having effectively commissioned the
posse.
Schmid had tried to arrest Barrow in Sowers, Texas in
November 1933. Schmid called "Halt!" and gunfire erupted from the
outlaw car, which made a quick U-turn and sped away. Schmid's Thompson
submachine gun jammed on the first round, and he could not get off one shot.
Pursuit of Barrow was impossible because the posse had parked their own cars at
a distance to prevent their being seen.
Hamer's posse discussed calling "halt" but the
four Texans "vetoed the idea", telling them that the killers' history
had always been to shoot their way out, as had occurred in Platte City,
Dexfield Park, and Sowers. When the
ambush occurred, Oakley stood up and opened fire, and the other officers opened
fire immediately after. Jordan was
reported to have called out to Barrow; Alcorn said that Hamer called out; and
Hinton claimed that Alcorn did. In
another report, each said that they both did. These conflicting claims might have been
collegial attempts to divert the focus from Oakley, who later admitted firing
too early, but that is merely speculation.
Henry Methvin escaped prosecution for the two Grapevine,
Texas murders because of his father's cooperation with the posse. But he was
prosecuted for other crimes in Oklahoma, where he was convicted and served
eight years.
In 1979, Hinton's account of the saga was published
posthumously as Ambush: The Real Story of Bonnie and Clyde. His version of the
Methvin family's involvement in the planning and execution of the ambush was
that the posse had tied Methvin's father Ivy to a tree the previous night to
keep him from warning off the couple. Hinton claimed that Hamer made a deal with
Ivy: if he kept quiet about being tied up, his son would escape prosecution for
the two Grapevine murders. Hinton
alleged that Hamer made every member of the posse swear that they would never
divulge this secret.
Other accounts, however, place Ivy at the center of the
action, not tied up but on the road, waving for Barrow to stop. Hinton's memoir suggests that Parker's cigar
in the famous "cigar photo" had been a rose, and that it was
retouched as a cigar by darkroom staff at the Joplin Globe while they prepared
the photo for publication. Guinn says
that some people who knew Hinton suspect that "he became delusional late
in life".
Aftermath
The posse never received the promised bounty on the
perpetrators, so they were told to take whatever they wanted from the confiscated
items in their car. Hamer appropriated the arsenal of stolen guns and
ammunition, plus a box of fishing tackle, under the terms of his compensation
package with the Texas DOC. In July,
Clyde's mother Cumie wrote to Hamer asking for the return of the guns:
"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." There is no record of any response.
Alcorn claimed Barrow's saxophone from the car, but he later
donated it to the Barrow family. Posse
members also took other personal items, such as Parker's clothing. The Parker family
asked for them back but was refused, and the items were later sold as
souvenirs. The Barrow family claimed
that Sheriff Jordan kept an alleged suitcase of cash, and writer Jeff Guinn
claims that Jordan bought "barn and land in Arcadia" soon after the
event, thereby hinting that the accusation had merit — despite the complete
absence of any evidence to the existence of such a suitcase. Jordan did attempt to keep the death car for
his own, but Ruth Warren of Topeka, Kansas sued him because she was the owner
of the car when Barrow stole it on April 29; Jordan returned it to her in
August 1934, still covered with blood and human tissue.
Blanche never carried
a gun; she was convicted of attempted murder and served six years.
In February 1935, Dallas and federal authorities arrested
and tried twenty family members and friends for aiding and abetting Barrow and
Parker. This became known as the "harboring trial" and all twenty
either pleaded guilty or were found guilty. The two mothers were jailed for thirty
days; other sentences ranged from two years' imprisonment (for Floyd Hamilton,
brother of Raymond) to one hour in custody (for Barrow's teenage sister Marie).
Other defendants included Blanche,
Jones, Methvin, and Parker's sister Billie.
Blanche was permanently blinded in her left eye during the
1933 shootout at Dexfield Park. She was taken into custody on the charge of
"assault with intent to kill". She was convicted and 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. In 1940, she married Eddie Frasure, 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, and she agreed to the original script. However, she
objected to her characterization by Estelle Parsons in the final film,
describing the actress'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 age 77 on December 24, 1988, and was
buried in Dallas's Grove Hill Memorial Park under the name "Blanche B.
Frasure".
Jones served six years in prison, convicted of one murder,
indicted for another, and suspected of an additional two committed as a
juvenile.
Barrow cohorts Hamilton and Palmer, who escaped Eastham in
January 1934, were recaptured. Both were convicted of murder and executed in
the electric chair at Huntsville, Texas on May 10, 1935. Jones had left Barrow and Parker, six weeks
after the three of them evaded officers at Dexfield Park in July 1933. He reached Houston and got a job picking
cotton, where he was soon discovered and captured. He 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 lies that he told
concerned the gang's sex lives, and this testimony gave rise to many stories
about Barrow's ambiguous sexuality. Jones was convicted of the murder of Doyle
Johnson and served a lenient sentence of fifteen years. He gave an interview to
Playboy magazine during the excitement surrounding the 1967 movie, saying that
in reality it had not been glamorous. He
was killed on August 4, 1974 in a misunderstanding by the jealous boyfriend of
a woman whom he was trying to help.
Methvin was convicted in Oklahoma of the 1934 murder of
Constable Campbell at Commerce. He was paroled in 1942 and killed by a train in
1948. He fell asleep drunk on the train tracks, although some have speculated
that he was pushed by someone seeking revenge. His father Ivy was killed in 1946 by a
hit-and-run driver. 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
prison.
Prentiss Oakley admitted to friends that he had fired
prematurely. He succeeded Henderson
Jordan as sheriff of Bienville Parish in 1940.
1958: Parker was
portrayed in the media as a dominant tough girl who ran a gang of several
subservient men, such as in The Bonnie Parker Story
Hamer returned to a quiet life as a freelance security
consultant for oil companies. According to Guinn, "his reputation suffered
somewhat after Gibsland" because many people felt that 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 the vote total
achieved by Lyndon Johnson during the election for the U.S. Senate. He died in
1955 at the age of 71, after several years of poor health. Bob
Alcorn died on May 23, 1964, 30 years to the day after the Gibsland ambush.
The bullet-riddled Ford became a popular traveling
attraction. It was displayed at fairs, amusement parks, and flea markets for
three decades, and became a fixture at a Nevada race track. There was a charge
of one dollar to sit in it. It was sold between casinos after being displayed
in a Las Vegas car museum in the 1980s; it was shown in Iowa, Missouri, and
Nevada.
Texas Rangers, troopers, and DPS staff honored patrolman
Edward Bryan Wheeler on April 1, 2011, the 77th anniversary of the Grapevine
murders, when the Barrow gang murdered Wheeler on Easter Sunday. They presented
the Yellow Rose of Texas commendation to his last surviving sibling, 95-year
old Ella Wheeler-McLeod of San Antonio, giving her a plaque and framed portrait
of her brother.
In popular culture
Films
Hollywood has treated the story of Bonnie and Clyde several
times, most notably:
·
William Witney directed the film The Bonnie
Parker Story (1958) starring Dorothy Provine.
·
Arthur Penn directed Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
which starred Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway. This movie has the pair outsmarting the police
and followed a romanticized story of the criminals.
·
John Lee
Hancock directed the Netflix film The Highwaymen (2019), showing the Texas
Rangers on a successful hunt for the pair. The film starred Kevin Costner as
Frank Hamer and Woody Harrelson as Maney Gault.
Music
·
Many pop songs have been produced about Bonnie
and Clyde, including Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot's 1967 "Bonnie
and Clyde", which conveys a highly romanticized account of the pair,
Georgie Fame's 1967 single "The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde", Mel
Torme's 1968 song "A Day in the Life of Bonnie and Clyde", Merle
Haggard's 1968 "The Legend of Bonnie and Clyde", and Die Toten
Hosen's "Bonnie & Clyde". The bluegrass duo Flatt & Scruggs
released an entire album in 1968 about the duo and their crime spree, The Story
of Bonnie & Clyde.
·
In
November 2009, the musical Bonnie & Clyde premiered at the La Jolla
Playhouse in San Diego. It ran for five weeks at the Asolo Repertory Theatre in
Sarasota, Florida in 2010. In the autumn of 2011, it opened on Broadway and ran
for 69 performances.
·
Souvenir hunters have ravaged several memorial
stones at the rural ambush site.
·
A Russian song about Bonnie & Clyde story
was released in 2015 by Vika Dove and Gogol (8DN).
·
A Korean
adaptation of the Bonnie & Clyde musical ran at Chungmu Arts Hall in Seoul
from September to October 2013.
Television
·
In the television film Bonnie & Clyde: The
True Story (1992), Tracey Needham played Bonnie and Dana Ashbrook played Clyde.
·
Bruce Beresford directed the television
miniseries Bonnie & Clyde, which aired on Lifetime, History Channel, and
A&E on December 8 and 9, 2013. Emile Hirsch played Clyde and Holliday
Grainger played Bonnie.
·
In March 2009, Bonnie and Clyde was the subject
of a program in the BBC series Timewatch, based in part on gang members'
private papers and previously unavailable police documents.
·
In the
December 5, 2016 episode of Timeless (Season 1, Episode 9 Last Ride of Bonnie
& Clyde), Sam Strike portrays Clyde Barrow and Jacqueline Byers portrays
Bonnie Parker.
Books
·
Books that are regarded as non-fictional are
listed in the bibliography section.
·
Side By
Side: A Novel of Bonnie and Clyde by Jenni L. Walsh is the fictionalized
account of Bonnie and Clyde's crime spree, told through the perspective of
Bonnie Parker. Published in 2018 by Forge Books (Macmillan Publishers).
Podcasts
·
Bonnie and Clyde's life and crimes were covered
in a three-part series on the popular true crime podcast, The Last Podcast on
the Left. (Episode 369 "Part 1 – Once you go short", Episode 370
"Part 2 – Give me the Money Now", Episode 371 "Filthy, Smelly,
and Surly".) The podcast was hosted by Marcus Parks, Ben Kissel, and Henry
Zebrowski.
Slang
·
The idiomatic phrase "modern-day Bonnie and
Clyde" generally refers to a man and a woman who operate together as
present-day criminals.
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