Bonnie and Clyde- A Twenty-First-Century Update

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Bonnie and Clyde- A Twenty-First-Century Update Page 30

by James R Knight


  C. G. Maxwell

  Against considerable odds, Sheriff C. G. “Charley” Maxwell recovered from the multiple gunshot wounds he received in the gunfight with Clyde Barrow and Raymond Hamilton at Stringtown, Oklahoma, on August 5, 1932, in which his friend and deputy Gene Moore was killed. Sheriff Maxwell was one of the witnesses at the execution of Raymond Hamilton in 1935.

  James Eric “Bill” Decker

  During the hunt for Bonnie and Clyde, Bill Decker was chief deputy and was essentially the intelligence officer for Sheriff R.A. “Smoot” Schmid, coordinating and evaluating the information as it came in.32 In 1935 Decker captured Raymond Hamilton on a railroad track in Fort Worth, which led to Hamilton’s date with the electric chair. Decker remained chief deputy until Sheriff Schmid was defeated in 1946. Two years later, Decker was elected Dallas County sheriff himself, retaining the post until his death. Decker gained nationwide publicity in 1963 with his office’s handling of President Kennedy’s assassination. After fifty-one years as a lawman, Bill Decker died on August 29, 1970.33

  Tom Persell

  After his “midnight ride” with Bonnie and Clyde, Tom Persell continued to live in Springfield, Missouri, with his family. After he left the police force, he became a postal worker. He gave a few interviews over the years but didn’t talk much about the experience. In one of his few public appearances on the subject of Bonnie and Clyde, he allowed his granddaughter to take him to school with her—for show and tell.

  Percy Boyd

  After his encounter with Bonnie and Clyde, Boyd went back to work as the chief of police of Commerce, Oklahoma. After he retired, on May 3, 1937, Boyd went to work for the Tri-State District Mining Company and also served on the Commerce Board of Education. On August 15, 1940, Percy Boyd died of a heart attack at his home.34

  Of all the people they kidnapped, Bonnie and Clyde liked Boyd the best. While not admirers of policemen in general, they thought that Boyd was a truly brave man. He earned Bonnie Parker’s lasting respect and gratitude when, just as he had promised her, he returned home and told the waiting reporters that the famous female outlaw absolutely did not smoke cigars.

  OTHERS

  Ivy T. Methvin

  After the ambush of Bonnie and Clyde, Ivy T. Methvin continued to live in Bienville Parish. In time, he and his wife, Avie, divorced and Ivy remarried. In 1946 he rode a bus to Shreveport to visit his son Henry, who was in the hospital. On the way back home, for some reason Ivy got off the bus at one of the earlier stops. He was later found by the side of the road, seriously injured. He was taken to a hospital but soon died. It was assumed that he had been hit by a car, but his family believed he had been beaten to death because of his involvement with Bonnie and Clyde’s death. Ivy never regained consciousness, so the cause of his death remains a mystery.35

  Avie Stephens Methvin

  Avie Methvin was considered, by some who knew her, to be the real ringleader in the plot to deliver Bonnie and Clyde in return for a pardon for her son. When Henry was arrested by Oklahoma— in spite of his Texas pardon—she made plans to free him. According to her daughter-in-law, Avie planned a bank robbery to raise some money and get Henry out of jail. Naturally, the daughter-inlaw thought this was a harebrained idea. She couldn’t imagine that Avie could get more than a couple of hundred dollars from those little country banks and had no idea how she planned to go about getting Henry out of jail in any case. Unfortunately, her husband, Cecil Methvin, Avie’s youngest son, was enlisted in the scheme. His job was to steal a car for them to use in the holdup.

  Cecil found a new car that belonged to a schoolteacher and started back to meet his mother, but he lost control of the vehicle, ran through a barbed wire fence, and hit a tree. Sheriff Jordan, who had been tipped off and was watching the whole time, arrested Cecil but was sorry he had wrecked the car, since he had wanted to catch Avie as well. The bank robbery never came off. Henry stayed in prison, and Avie was not arrested, but Cecil was sent to prison for stealing the car.36

  John Joyner

  John Joyner was a friend of Ivy and Avie Methvin and represented them at the meeting in March 1934 that set in motion the plan for the ambush of Bonnie and Clyde. He further served as a go-between several times before the actual shooting. Some witnesses say that Joyner was paid $1,000 for his part in setting up the ambush.37 After Bonnie and Clyde were killed, Joyner continued to live in the area. When Cecil Methvin got out of prison after his mother’s bank robbery scheme, John Joyner gave him and his family a place to stay and helped him find a job. Even so, Cecil’s wife later remembered Joyner as being “mean.”38

  On September 24, 1942, John Joyner came home to find his wife packing a suitcase. She told him that she was leaving him for another man. In the argument that followed, a pistol was produced, and Mrs. Joyner was shot dead. When two local officers arrived, Joyner held them at gunpoint. He said the killing had been an accident but knew nobody would believe him. One officer went for the sheriff, and the other stayed at the scene. Joyner then made a phone call, went back into the bedroom, and killed himself. John Joyner was forty-three years old. In a final ironic twist, the “other man” in this fatal triangle was said to have been Henry Methvin, only recently released from prison in Oklahoma.39

  Roy Glenn Thornton

  Bonnie Parker’s estranged husband was in prison at Huntsville when his wife and her lover were killed. Thornton seemed very interested in Bonnie and Clyde’s relationship and asked Ralph Fults about it many times. Roy was involved in several unsuccessful escape attempts, the last one being on October 4, 1937. This time, Roy Thornton and twenty-six other inmates tried to escape from Eastham Farm. Thornton and one other prisoner were killed.40

  Mug shot of Roy Glenn Thornton, Bonnie Parker’s estranged husband. July 23, 1931.

  —From the collections of the Texas/Dallas History and Archives Division, Dallas Public Library

  Even after throwing him out of her life before she ever met Clyde Barrow, Bonnie never divorced Roy Thornton. She died with his wedding ring on her finger.

  The Ballad of Donnabell Lee

  The following two pages show six verses of a poem typed by Bonnie Parker. According to her sister, Bonnie found the poem, liked it, and typed this copy. It is reproduced here, for the first time, with the permission of the owner, a private collector who purchased the original directly from the Parker family. The second page is the reverse of the typewritten page with an additional verse in Bonnie’s own handwriting. Whether this verse was the start of Bonnie’s effort to finish the poem or was intended as part of some other work is unknown.

  Donnabell Lee—front.

  —Courtesy Sandy Jones–The John Dillinger Society

  Donnabell Lee—reverse, showing a verse in Bonnie Parker’s handwriting.

  —Courtesy Sandy Jones–The John Dillinger Society

  Bonnie and Clyde Death Car History Contributed by Sandy Jones

  On a Sunday afternoon, April 29, 1934, at 2107 Gable Street, Topeka, Kansas, Ruth Warren looked out her kitchen window and noticed her new 1934 Ford Deluxe Fordor sedan was missing from the driveway. Thinking that Jess, her husband, had driven it to visit his parents, who lived just down the street, she phoned her father-in-law to inquire about the car. That was when she realized that the car had been stolen. What the Warrens didn’t know until later was that they had provided the final Ford V-8 for Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker. Twenty-five days later, on the morning of May 24, 1934, Mrs. Warren got a call from the Associated Press in Dallas, Texas, asking for verification of the engine number, VIN 649198. Bonnie and Clyde had been ambushed and killed in it the day before, just outside Gibsland, Louisiana.

  After being notified of the whereabouts of their Ford, the Warrens sent a representative to Arcadia, Louisiana, to pick up the car. When Bienville Parish Sheriff Henderson Jordan refused to release the car, another person was sent down to Arcadia but fared no better. Finally, Mrs. Warren and a friend decided to drive to Arcadia and pick the car up themselves. U
pon their arrival, Mrs. Warren was interviewed by Sheriff Jordan, who gave a little speech about how six men risked their lives trying to capture Bonnie and Clyde and added that he wasn’t about to turn over the car. Mrs. Warren asked to see the car but was refused and told to contact Sheriff Jordan’s attorney.

  In view of the situation, Mrs. Warren hired a local Arcadia attorney, W. D. Goff, to represent her. Mr. Goff immediately filed a writ of sequestration in the federal court, but Sheriff Jordan still refused to turn over the car. The sheriff was cited and, with the help of the chief of police from Shreveport, Louisiana, the car was turned over to a U.S. marshal, who had it safely stored. Mrs. Warren was allowed to view the car, and she then returned to Topeka.

  Seventy days later Mr. Goff finally called and said an agreement had been reached. They could come pick their car up at the Ford Motor Garage in Arcadia, Louisiana. The Warrens got their Ford back, on August 2, 1934, with an attached bill of $70 plus $15 for towing. Mrs. Warren actually drove the gruesome car from Arcadia to Shreveport and said the motor ran perfectly. The car still had the original keys and key ring with the suitcase key to the Potter trunk. Bonnie and Clyde had kept the car for less than a month. When Mrs. Warren parked the car on April 29, the odometer read 1,243 miles. When she picked it up in Arcadia, it read 8,855 miles. Bonnie and Clyde had driven it 7,612 miles in twenty-five days, averaging 300 miles a day on 1934 roads.

  Charles Stanley, “the Crime Doctor,” standing beside the death car.

  —Courtesy Sandy Jones–The John Dillinger Historical Society

  After the Warrens got the car back, they began to make arrangements to exhibit it. In September 1934, more litigation followed because another person had duplicated the car and was trying to pass it off as “the Bandit Car.” The Warrens ended up filing a patent on the death car. A contract to exhibit the death car finally went to Charles Stanley of Abilene, Kansas, a showman know as “the Crime Doctor.” The Crime Doctor toured the car in a show called Crime Does Not Pay, in cooperation with the National Anti-Crime Association, until 1952. The car was then sold to Ted Toddy and his Killers All crime show.

  In 1973 the car was sold to casino owner Pete A. Simon for $175,000. In 1979 it was transferred to Jim Brucken, owner of Movie World Cars of the Stars in Buena Park, California, and later sold to Clyde Wade of the Harrah’s collection. In 1988, after some modification, the car ran in the Great American Race. Finally, it was sold to Whiskey Pete’s Casino in Primm, Nevada, outside Las Vegas, where it is now on display. It’s been rumored that the casino has refused offers of $1,000,000 for the famous car.

  Specifications:

  1934 Ford Deluxe Fordor Sedan

  Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) 649198

  Model 40, Body style 730

  Color: Cordoba gray, Tacoma cream pinstripe

  Interior: mohair—olive/tan

  Engine: Ford V-8, 85 HP, 221 cubic inch

  Transmission: three-speed manual

  Tires: Firestone 525/550X17

  License plate when stolen: Kansas 3-17832

  License plate when recovered: Arkansas 15-368

  Weight: 2675 lbs.

  Length: 175.9 in.

  Sandy Jones with his modern restoration of the death car.

  —Courtesy Sandy Jones–The John Dillinger Historical Society

  Purchase price: $835 as equipped1

  Options: Potter trunk, 1933 Arvin Hot Water Heater model 80B, front and rear bumper guards, Greyhound radiator cap, spare wheel lock, and oil bath air cleaner.

  Other details: The rear spare tire was a Goodrich 525/550X17 that Clyde had changed somewhere. Early-production 1934 Ford interior door handles were forward with pull strap; standard fuel gauge—not dual gauge. The Potter trunk brackets/skirt were all body color. The dash and garnish molding were mahogany woodgrain. The car had safety glass, and Clyde had changed the gearshift knob to a flat one for easy shifting.

  Author’s note: Sandy Jones is a longtime friend of the late Marie Barrow Scoma and other members of the Barrow and Parker families. He is head of the John Dillinger Historical Society, a collector of depression-era outlaw memorabilia, a founding member of an Internet discussion and research group called “Partners in Crime,” and an expert on automobiles of the period—especially 1930s Ford V-8s. He currently owns a 1933 Pontiac, a 1933 Essex Terraplane 8 once owned by John Dillinger, and a 1934 Ford V-8 restored as an exact duplicate of the Bonnie and Clyde death car. In order to make his Ford as close as possible to the original, Mr. Jones needed access to the death car itself. At his request, in January 1998, Whiskey Pete’s Casino allowed Mr. Jones and a friend, Bob Fischer, to completely inspect, photograph, and catalog the original car at Primm, Nevada. Mr. Jones, with his restoration, is pictured above.

  Killings done by (or charged to) Clyde Barrow or other members of the Barrow gang

  Ed “Big Ed” Crowder—prison farm trusty or “building tender.” Killed by Clyde Barrow and Aubrey Skelley at Eastham Prison Farm Camp One sometime in 1931.

  John N. Bucher—storekeeper, Hillsboro, Texas. Killed by Ted Rogers, a member of Clyde Barrow’s “Lake Dallas gang,” during the robbery of Bucher’s store on the evening of April 30, 1932. Clyde Barrow was driving the getaway car.

  Eugene C. “Gene” Moore—undersheriff, Atoka County, Oklahoma. Killed by Clyde Barrow or Raymond Hamilton at an outdoor dance pavilion near Stringtown, Oklahoma, on Friday evening, August 5, 1932. Sheriff C. G. Maxwell was seriously wounded at the same time.

  Howard Hall—storekeeper, Sherman, Texas. Killed October 11, 1932, during the robbery of Little’s Market, on the corner of Wells and Vaden streets. The fifty-seven-year-old unarmed meat market clerk was shot three times (once while on the ground) by a twenty to twenty-five-year-old assailant who escaped. The next day, Clyde Barrow was identified by the other clerk as Hall’s killer, from a mug shot sent up from Dallas.

  Doyle Johnson—employee of Strasburger’s Market, Temple, Texas. Killed on the street in front of his house at 606 South Thirteenth Street on Christmas Day, 1932, by W. D. Jones and Clyde Barrow. Johnson was attempting to stop Barrow and Jones from stealing his car when both men fired at him. Jones’ shot appears to have killed him.

  Malcolm Davis—deputy sheriff, Tarrant County, Texas. Killed on the front porch of Lilly McBride’s house at 507 County Avenue in west Dallas by Clyde Barrow. Davis and four other officers were waiting at the house for Odell Chambless, who was wanted for the robbery of the bank at Grapevine, Texas. Due to unrelated circumstances, Clyde Barrow showed up during the stakeout, and a gunfight erupted.

  J. W. “Wes” Harryman—constable, Newton County, Missouri. Killed at Joplin, Missouri, on Thursday, April 13, 1933, by either Clyde Barrow or W. D. Jones as he and four other officers attempted to raid the garage apartment at Thirty-fourth Street and Oak Ridge Drive where the Barrows were staying.

  Harry McGinnis—motor car detective, Joplin, Missouri. Mortally wounded a few seconds after Officer Harryman, in the same action at the apartment on the south edge of Joplin described above. While Officer Harryman was pronounced dead at the scene, McGinnis died at St. John’s Hospital later that evening.

  Henry D. Humphrey—town marshal, Alma, Arkansas. Mortally wounded on June 23, 1933, on U.S. 71, just north of Alma, by Buck Barrow and W. D. Jones. Barrow and Jones were involved in a car wreck while fleeing the scene of a grocery store robbery in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Humphrey and A. M “Red” Salyers arrived to investigate, and a gunfight erupted. Humphrey died two and a half days later at St. John’s Hospital in Fort Smith, Arkansas.

  Major Joseph Crowson (“Major” was his given name, not a rank)—prison guard and high rider, Eastham Prison Farm Camp One. Mortally wounded, January 16, 1934, by Joe Palmer during an escape from the prison farm, engineered by Clyde Barrow and Floyd Hamilton. Clyde was present, fired some shots over the guard’s heads, and provided the getaway car. Crowson died eleven days later at Memorial Hospital, Huntsville, Texas.

  Wade Hampton McNabb
—trusty or “building tender,” Eastham Prison Farm. Kidnapped at Gladewater, Texas, on March 29, 1934, by Clyde Barrow, Henry Methvin, and Joe Palmer, and killed soon after by Joe Palmer. McNabb was an inmate at Eastham Farm until he was granted a sixty-day furlough on February 24, 1934, said to have been arranged by a lawyer paid by Joe Palmer. While free on leave, McNabb was abducted at Gladewater and taken to some woods north of Waskom, Texas, where Joe Palmer killed him as revenge for beatings he had suffered from McNabb in prison.

  E. B. Wheeler—Texas State Highway patrolman (motorcycle). Killed on Easter Sunday, April 1, 1934, by Henry Methvin on a dirt road just off Highway 114, five and a half miles northwest of Grapevine, Texas. Wheeler, along with Officer H. D. Murphy, turned off Highway 114 to investigate a car parked on the dirt road. As he got off his motorcycle, he was shot by Henry Methvin and died at the scene.

  H. D. Murphy—Texas State Highway patrolman (motorcycle). Mortally wounded a few seconds after Officer Wheeler, by Clyde Barrow or Henry Methvin, in the same action described above. After Murphy fell, one of the killers, described by a witness as “the taller of the two men,” indicating Methvin, who was almost six feet tall, rolled him over and shot him several more times. Murphy died on the way to the hospital. It was his first day on motorcycle duty.

  Cal Campbell—constable, Commerce, Oklahoma. Killed April 6, 1934, outside Commerce, Oklahoma, by Clyde Barrow or Henry Methvin. Campbell and Commerce Police Chief Percy Boyd were fired upon as they approached a car parked on a muddy road outside of town. Campbell fired three shots before he was killed. Boyd was wounded and then forced to go with Bonnie Parker, Clyde Barrow, and Henry Methvin as they fled the scene. He was released later that evening near Fort Scott, Kansas, after promising to tell the press that Bonnie didn’t smoke cigars.

 

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