Bonnie and Clyde- A Twenty-First-Century Update

by James R Knight

  Several things finally led to the outlaws’ discovery. The people in the neighborhood became suspicious of the out-of-state cars seen at the apartment and notified Sergeant G. B. Kahler of the Missouri State Highway Patrol.23 Clyde also accidently fired a BAR in the garage, which must have startled the neighborhood.24 Before Sergeant Kahler could follow up on the car report, he received a call from a man who was concerned about the people living in the Thirty-fourth Street apartment. Somewhat melodramatically, he said they seemed like “frightened animals.”25 More importantly, one of the cars there matched the description of the car seen at the Neosho Milling Company robbery.26 Sergeant Kahler contacted the Joplin City Police, but they had heard nothing about it.

  Kahler made some inquires of his own, and a picture came together of people with something to hide.27 His best guess was a bootlegging operation. He told Joplin City Chief of Detectives Ed Portley that he wanted to raid the place, and Portley agreed to assign two of his men, Tom DeGraff and Harry McGinnis, to assist. Kahler brought W. E. Grammar, one of his state patrolmen, along. There just remained one detail—a jurisdictional problem. The city of Joplin had grown to the extent that some of the south suburbs were over the county line. The Freeman Grove subdivision was one of these. Thirty-second Street formed the southern limit of Jasper County, which contained Joplin proper. The house on Thirty-fourth Street was two blocks south of the line, so the search warrant would have to be issued in Newton County. Because of this, they had to enlist a Newton County official, Wes Harryman, constable of Shoal Creek Township, to serve the warrant. By the time they were ready, it was almost 4:00 P.M. on Thursday, April 13.

  The family reported that it was on that same morning that Buck finally gave up on trying to talk Clyde into surrendering and agreed to go back to Texas, but he said he wanted another day in which to pack and to get their car ready for the return trip. Clyde, meanwhile, had already begun to make his own plans to leave Joplin. Among other things, he told W. D. Jones to take their Ford coupe (the one used in the Neosho robbery) and replace it. On April 12, Earl Stanton of Miami, Oklahoma, lost a perfectly good Ford roadster, and now it sat in the Joplin apartment garage.28

  Just before 4:00 P.M., Clyde decided he would take W. D. Jones out “scouting” in their new roadster. Maybe he thought they would stay a few days longer, or maybe they needed some money for the trip. The family’s story, from 1934 on, was that shortly after Clyde and W. D left the apartment, Clyde had a premonition that something was going to happen and went back.29 Maybe so, but the more likely explanation is that they had a low tire and the car was handling badly.30 Whatever the reason, Clyde and W. D. pulled back into the garage just as Sergeant Kahler’s two-car liquor raid turned west off Main Street onto Thirty-fourth— two blocks away. What happened next happened quickly. Both sides were caught by surprise.

  Kahler and Grammar were leading in a state police car. They pulled up to the curb facing west, just past the double driveway, and saw a man trying to pull one of the garage doors closed.31 At this moment, the second car, driven by Tom DeGraff, came up, saw the same thing, and turned into the drive and up to the door. DeGraff later testified that he told Harryman, who was seated next to him in the front seat, “Get in there as quickly as you can, before they close that door.”32

  Clyde and W. D. had just gotten out and discovered the low tire and were closing the door when the police car pulled up and blocked the driveway. When an officer jumped out of the car with his gun drawn, their response was automatic. One of them blasted him with a shotgun. Harryman got off one shot in return and fell in the garage door. He was hit with ten buckshot in the right shoulder and neck, cutting two arteries, and bled to death almost immediately. Just as Harryman went down, Harry McGinnis jumped out of the left rear door and ran to the garage door. He fired three times through a pane of glass before the sawed-off shotgun got him too. He was hit in the left side and the face, and his right arm was almost severed at the elbow.33 All this happened in the time it took Tom DeGraff to stop the car, set the brake, and slide out the left-hand door. He fired two shots and ran to the other side of the police car in time for McGinnis to fall in front of him. He fired two more shots, picked up McGinnis’ pistol, and ran down the east side to the rear of the building.34

  As soon as Officer DeGraff disappeared down the side of the building, Clyde turned his attention to the other two officers. Grammar, in the passenger’s seat of the state police car, had jumped out as the shooting started and run down the west side of the building, where he met DeGraff in the back alley. W. D. Jones had been hit in the stomach (probably from one of McGinnis’ bullets) and was on the way upstairs, so, for the moment, it was just Clyde and Officer Kahler trading shots.

  Upstairs, Buck was taking a nap, Blanche was playing solitaire, and Bonnie was cooking red beans and cornbread. When the shooting started, there was a frozen moment when they wondered if Clyde had fired another shot by accident, and then they knew. What followed was a mad scramble. Buck, after telling the women to run for the car, headed down to the garage, passing Jones on the stairs.35 He picked up a shotgun and joined Clyde at the garage door.

  Kahler had kept Clyde occupied with pistol fire from behind the state police car, but just as Buck arrived, the officer fired his fifth round and ran west toward the main house to reload. Clyde stepped out of the garage and fired a load of buckshot at him. Kahler, ducking to avoid the shot, tripped and fell as the buckshot hit the corner of the house. Clyde thought he had knocked the sergeant down and immediately began looking for the other two officers. Buck came out of the garage at this point, and Kahler heard Clyde ask him, “Where’d that other fellow go?” With Clyde’s attention diverted, Kahler took aim and fired his last round, which forced Clyde and Buck back in the garage. Kahler testified that he thought he hit one of the men.36

  Sergeant Kahler had just fired the last shot from the police in the fight, but he didn’t know it at the time. He began to reload and prepare for the next round. Meanwhile, there was a tense moment behind the apartment as DeGraff ran toward Officer Grammar in the alley. Hearing someone behind him, Grammar turned and almost shot the Joplin policeman.37 DeGraff then said, “For God’s sake, call the station.” Grammar went to the main house and called for help, and DeGraff began reloading.38

  A few moments after Kahler’s last shot, the women went down to the garage, followed by Jones, who was bleeding on the floor.39 Clyde and Jones pulled back the other garage door, where a Ford B-400 V-8 sedan was parked, and told the women to pile inside. Buck stood with a shotgun and watched for the policemen to come back.40 Jones, with Clyde and even Blanche helping, tried to push the police car blocking the driveway, but they couldn’t release the parking brake. They all went back inside the garage, and it was then that Blanche realized Snowball’s training hadn’t worked. Instead of running to the car, the little dog ran outside and down the street. To the astonishment of everybody on both sides, Blanche calmly walked out of the garage and into the street, calling for her dog.41

  Clyde decided they would have to push the police car with the Ford. Just then, Buck saw officer McGinnis lying on the driveway. Before getting in the car, Buck moved the wounded man so he wouldn’t get run over as they drove away.42 It was a fine gesture, but the officer would die of his wounds anyway later that evening. With the way clear, Clyde rammed the police car, which rolled across the street and into a tree. They picked up Blanche—Snowball was long gone—and headed east to Main Street and then southwest toward Oklahoma. They were last seen when they took a curve too fast and almost went into a creek at a place called Reding’s Mill bridge.43

  Contrary to the scene painted by most authors of this incident, the “Barrow gang,” as they called them, didn’t make their getaway in a hail of gunfire. The later testimony of all the officers present reveals that the policemen fired exactly fourteen shots in the gun battle (Harryman one, McGinnis three, DeGraff four, Kahler six, Grammar none), with Kahler firing the final shot before the getaway car was
even out of the garage.44 This is why Blanche could stroll down the street looking for her dog and Buck could move the wounded officer out of the way without being shot. The gunfight was already over, although it had certainly been deadly enough while it lasted. The Barrows probably fired at least as many rounds as the police, making thirty-plus shots fired in all. Minutes after the Barrows escaped, other police and medical units arrived. Harryman was dead at the scene. McGinnis was taken to Saint John’s Hospital, where he died later that night.45

  When the Barrows fled, they left almost everything they had. As the police searched the area, they found all sorts of things. They found seven weapons, including a BAR, a guitar, a money bag from a Springfield bank, five diamonds stolen from the Neosho Milling Company, and some of Bonnie’s poetry— the latest version of “Suicide Sal.” The jackpot was in Blanche’s purse and her camera.46

  Bonnie and Clyde—late March 1933. Picture from film recovered at Joplin. Bonnie mimics stickup with one of Clyde’s whippit guns. Note stump of cigar in Clyde’s left hand. Minutes later, as a joke, Bonnie will borrow the stogie and pose for the famous photo that marked her as a cigar-smoking “gun moll.”

  —Courtesy the Bob Fischer/Renay Stanard collection

  Blanche loved to take pictures and almost always had a camera with her. In the apartment was one of her cameras that Bonnie and Clyde had borrowed while Buck was still in prison. Just before they came to Joplin, Clyde, Bonnie, and W. D. Jones took turns photographing themselves posed with their weapons beside the 1932 Ford V-8 B-400 two-door sedan they had just stolen. The film was still in the camera. Police rushed the film to the photo department of the Joplin Globe, which developed the soon-to-be famous set of images. They were even able to trace the car due to the license plate (1933 Texas 587-956), which could be read in several shots. It belonged to a Marshall, Texas,insurance salesmannamed Bob Roseborough. Clyde had stolen the car from Roseborough’s front yard just before Buck was released from prison. It was found several weeks later near Vinita, Oklahoma.47

  Bonnie, the hard-smoking, hard-shooting gun moll. Of all her pictures, this one, taken as a joke, did more to create her image in the mind of the public and the law than any other. What bothered Bonnie most was not that she was shown holding a gun but that people actually believed she smoked cigars, which she felt would have been vulgar and unladylike. She smoked cigarettes.

  —Courtesy the Bob Fischer/Renay Stanard collection

  Even worse for Buck Barrow were the contents of Blanche’s purse, which included their marriage license, Buck’s pardon from prison, and the papers to the Marmon. As soon as these were found, Buck became the focus of the investigation. In the newspaper coverage, Buck was made out to be the leader of the “gang,” with Clyde only mentioned in passing. For several days, they weren’t even sure there had been a third man. From that moment on, Buck’s life as a free man was over.

  According to the Barrow family, Clyde drove from Joplin to Amarillo, Texas, before stopping for medicine to treat Jones’ wound. To the rest of the world, they had simply disappeared. They would not be sighted again for two weeks.

  1. William Daniel Jones. This picture was taken in late March 1933. The car is a 1932 Ford B-400 Clyde had just stolen in Marshall, Texas. The pistol hanging upside down from the hood ornament was taken from motorcycle patrolman Tom Persell in Springfield, Missouri, two months earlier. This picture was one of a group found by police at Joplin, Missouri, April 13, 1933.

  —Courtesy Marie Barrow Scoma and author Phillip W. Steele

  2. Buck and Blanche in happier times.

  —Courtesy Marie Barrow Scoma and author Phillip W. Steele

  Wanted poster issued by the Joplin, Missouri, Police Department after the April 13, 1933, shootout that killed two police officers.

  —Courtesy the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum, Waco, Texas

  Dewayne L. Tuttle, current owner of the property at 3347 Oak Ridge Drive. Mr. Tuttle is standing in about the spot where Officer Wes Harriman fell.

  Garage apartment at 3347 Oak Ridge Drive, Joplin, Missouri, as it looks today. This was the scene of the shootout that left two police officers dead on April 13, 1933. Bonnie and Clyde, Buck and Blanche, and W. D. Jones were living upstairs when they were surprised by police investigating what they thought was a bootleg whiskey operation.

  —From the author’s collection

  Two weeks after the shootout in Joplin, the Barrows surfaced. The nice new Ford B-400 they drove away from Joplin was long gone, and the beat-up Ford sedan they now had was on its last legs. That’s why they were cruising the streets of Ruston, a quiet university town in northwest Louisiana. It was 1:20 P.M. on Thursday, April 27, 1933, when they spotted a Chevrolet parked in front of a boardinghouse on North Trenton Street. The fact that Clyde would consider stealing something other than his standard Ford V-8 shows how desperate their car situation was.1 W. D. Jones was sent out to steal the Chevy, found the keys in the ignition, and started to drive off. Unfortunately, the owner, H. D. Darby, saw the whole thing, ran out of the boardinghouse, and chased Jones to the corner. Sophia Stone saw the whole thing too and offered Darby the use of her car. He jumped in, and the two of them started after the thief. Had they known that the young man they were chasing was probably armed, was the veteran of two full-fledged gunfights with police, and had participated in four murders in the past five months, they might have had second thoughts.

  A few miles north of Ruston, Darby spotted his car as it entered the town of Dubach and turned west toward Homer. They followed through the even smaller town of Hico and then decided to give up the chase. For the two of them, however, the fun was just beginning. As they turned around and started back, they were flagged down, near Foster’s Store in Hico, by a car with four people in it. The driver asked Darby if he had seen a black Chevy go by. Darby replied that he had, then got out and walked over to the other car. The man asked him, “Why are you following that car?” to which Darby replied “Because it’s my car!” At that point, things got a little ugly.

  The stolen Chevrolet had been part of Clyde’s plan to rob a bank in Ruston that day. Now, because of this fellow, everything was fouled up. W. D. had outrun Darby and Miss Stone, all right, but he had outrun Clyde too. Now Clyde had lost both Jones and the new car on the back roads of rural Louisiana. No car, no W. D., no bank robbery. For one of the very few times in dealing with unarmed civilians, Clyde lost his temper. He jumped out of the car and knocked Darby down with a gun butt. Seeing how things were going, Bonnie ran to the car and dragged Miss Stone out, tapping her lightly on the head with a pistol also. With Buck and Blanche, there were now six of them, squeezed into the rickety Ford, when they drove off toward Bernice, Louisiana.

  Clyde was steamed. He kept yelling that he was going to kill them—and Buck would taunt him, “What are you waiting for?” Lucky for Darby and Stone, the moment passed and cooler heads prevailed, but the victims’ fear of death was only slightly reduced. If Clyde didn’t shoot them, the ruined suspension of the Ford, the country roads, and Clyde’s almost suicidal driving convinced them they would probably die in a car wreck. Things were constantly flying around the inside of the car as it plowed through the potholes and ruts. Miss Stone, in the front seat, wound up holding several loaded BAR clips in her lap. They kept falling out of the glove compartment.2

  Bonnie liked to talk to the people they occasionally took for rides, and now she wanted to find out all about their guests. Before long, she was chatting with the two prisoners like old friends. In the course of the conversation, she asked them what they did for a living. Miss Stone was a home demonstration agent, but Darby had a more serious trade that, for some bizarre reason, struck Bonnie funny. He was a mortician. Bonnie laughed and said, “I know we’ll get it sooner or later, and you’d probably enjoy embalming us. Promise you will.”3 On that happy note, they drove across the state line into southern Arkansas.

  Later, on a country road outside of Waldo, Arkansas, Clyde stopped the
car and told them to get out. At first the Ford drove away, but then it stopped and backed up. Too scared to run, Darby and Stone just stood there. “You’re probably farther from home than you planned on going. Call the sheriff. He’ll give you a ride home,” Clyde said. Out the window sailed a $5 bill, and the Ford drove away. The two got a ride into Waldo and then on to Magnolia, where they finally contacted the sheriff. Darby’s brother-in-law came and drove them back to Ruston.

  At this point, what the law and the newspapers knew as “the Barrow gang” split up. In Waldo, Buck and Blanche stole themselves a car and took off for Oklahoma to see some of Blanche’s relatives. Bonnie and Clyde spent another day trying to find W. D. Jones—without success—and then headed back to Texas. Jones was nowhere near Magnolia, anyway. Darby’s car was found the next day near McGee, Arkansas, over 100 miles to the east.4

  The whereabouts of the gang members for the next month and a half is open to question, but there are enough clues available to give us a good idea. The Barrow family says that Jones went back to Dallas to try and hook up with Bonnie and Clyde again. They claim that everybody tried to persuade him to go home and stay away from them.5 He kept trying anyway and finally got back with Bonnie and Clyde in early June. By early May, Bonnie and Clyde had rejoined Buck and Blanche, and it seems that they decided to leave Texas and Oklahoma for a while, roaming farther northeast. Although the evidence is largely circumstantial, the two brothers probably tried their first bank robbery together, not in Texas, but in a small town in northern Indiana.