31. Fort Smith (AR) Southwest American, June 24, 1933. Author interview with William S. Farris, late 1995, early 1996.
32. He found one of Clyde’s “whippit guns,” a sawed-off Remington Model 11 .12-gauge shotgun, a .45 automatic with U.S. government markings, two coats, one pair of dark glasses, six license plates, a large siren, and 800 rounds of ammunition. Fort Smith (AR) Times Record, June 24, 1933.
33. The Loftons’ story appears several times in both Fort Smith papers beginning June 24, 1933. In Fort Smith Times Record, July 31, 1933, Mark Lofton identified Buck as the one who “did the talking” when their car was taken. Mrs. Brewer’s identification as a witness is in Southwest American, June 26, 1933.
34. Salyers’ phone call had alerted the sheriff’s department. Velma Humphrey, the marshal’s daughter, on her way home from her job in Fort Smith, crossed the bridge into Van Buren just before 7:00 P.M. and saw her uncle, Dave Biggerstaff, standing at the foot of the bridge with a shotgun. She was still talking to him when the ambulance containing her father went past. Velma Humphrey interview.
35. Fort Smith (AR) Southwest American, June 24, 1933.
36. Jones, Voluntary Statement B-71; Marvin Barrow statement to Sheriff Albert Maxey, Southwest American, July 30, 1933.
37. Fort Smith (AR) Southwest American, June 26, 1933. Fort Smith (AR) Times Record, June 26, 1933.
38. Fortune, Fugitives, p. 180. In this passage, Fortune has Billie Mace, Bonnie’s sister, telling in some detail about the move to the woods. Unfortunately, she also insists that Clyde wouldn’t move Bonnie on Friday night but waited until Saturday evening the 24th. This is contradicted by both Fort Smith newspapers cited above and by the fact that, by Saturday evening—when Billie said they left—Sebastian County Sheriff John Williams had already discovered they had stayed at the motel, contacted the sheriff in Wellington, Texas, and suspected that the Barrows were involved. Fort Smith (AR) Times Record, June 26, 1933, Letter from Ed Portley, chief of detectives, Joplin, Missouri, to John B. Williams, sheriff, Sebastian County, Arkansas, June 26, 1933. In Buck Barrow’s statement to Sheriff Maxey cited in note 36 above, he confirms the move to eastern Oklahoma before the attack on Mrs. Rogers.
39. Fort Smith (AR) Southwest American, June 26, 1933, Crawford County wanted poster issued by Sheriff Albert Maxey. Letter from Georgia Cagle to Art Weinreich. Mrs. Cagle, as a young girl, knew Clara Rogers and described how her injuries affected her for years afterwards. Copy of letter provided by Art Weinreich.
40. Fort Smith (AR) Times Record, June 26, 1933.
41. Clyde’s mother states that the selection of Dr. Field’s car was no accident. Clyde targeted the doctor’s car in hopes he could get the medical bag as well. With Bonnie’s condition still serious, they put it to good use. Cumie T. Barrow, unfinished manuscript.
42. Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, p. 139.
43. The story of Dr. Fields’ car and medical bag is found in Enid (OK) Morning News, July 27, 1933. Until the bag was recovered at the site of the Platte City gunfight, the authorities thought drug addicts had stolen the car for the medical bag.
44. The story of the overalls chase is in the Fort Smith (AR) Southwest American, June 28, 1933. Even though, in retrospect, this seems like a comic episode, it was deadly serious. Since the use of the machine gun in the Alma fight, Crawford, Sebastian, and Washington county officials had all rushed to provide automatic weapons for their officers. This may have been the first time the officers had them available, and had the shopkeeper or his friend made one wrong move, they could have been just as dead as Marshal Humphrey. The Keystone Cops characterization was first used by John Treherne in The Strange History of Bonnie and Clyde. He is the only other author who mentions the story, but he places it in his account as if it happened before Buck and W. D. got back to the motel, not four days later.
45. Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, p. 139.
CHAPTER 25
1. Enid (OK) Morning News, July 9, 1933.
2. Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, p. 139. Phillips’ information here is from W. D. Jones’ statement to the Dallas Sheriff Department. Jones says they got forty-six pistols and only mentions “several rifles” and several cases of ammunition. Whatever the actual number, it was a huge haul.
3. The way the Browning automatic rifle is built, Clyde could cut the barrel back as far as the gas tube that runs beneath the barrel and not affect the functioning of the weapon. The stock, however, has a metal recoil tube inside it, so only an inch or two could be cut off there—unlike the shotguns Clyde cut down. The result was certainly a more compact weapon, but one still too large to be used with ease inside a car. This was demonstrated to the author by Sandy Jones, a collector who owns exact replicas of both a “scattergun” and a 1934 Ford.
4. Jones, “Riding with Bonnie and Clyde,” Playboy, November 1968, p. 162.
5. Fortune, Fugitives, p. 183.
6. The account of the Fort Dodge gas station robberies is from the Fort Dodge (IA) Messenger, July 18, 1933. Buck Barrow was identified a week later by Anderson and Chevalier when they viewed him in the Perry, Iowa, hospital after the Dexter fight. Fort Dodge (IA) Messenger, July 25, 1933.
7. Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, p. 140.
8. Delbert Crabtree, as quoted in Kansas City (MO) Star, September 17, 1978.
9. Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, p. 140–141.
10. Ibid., p. 141.
11. Ibid., pp. 141–142.
12. Ibid., pp. 142–143.
13. Kermit Crawford interview by John Neal Phillips, April 19, 1983.
14. Ibid.
15. Cumie T. Barrow, unfinished manuscript.
16. Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, p. 143.
17. Ibid., pp. 143–145. Crawford interview.
18. Ibid., p. 145. Enid (OK) Morning News, July 27, 1933.
19. Fortune, Fugitives, p. 189.
CHAPTER 26
1. Buck Barrow’s statement to his brother Clyde, as recalled by Blanche Barrow in 1984 interview.
2. Crawford interview. Fortune, Fugitives, pp. 188–189.
3. Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, p. 145.
4. Ibid., pp. 146–147.
5. Perry (IA) Daily Chief, July 24, 1933.
6. Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, pp. 148–149.
7. Ibid., p. 149.
8. Ibid., pp. 149–150.
9. Fortune, Fugitives, pp. 190–191.
10. Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, p. 150.
11. In spite of his reputation as a cold-blooded killer, there is a good chance that this first volley of automatic weapons fired by Clyde was intended to go right where it did—over the lawmen’s head. Several times, before and after Dexter, Clyde fired just to scare or intimidate when he could have easily killed instead. Several people later commented that if the Barrow’s aim had been better, they could have “mowed down the whole line.” Dallas Center (IA) Times, August 3, 1933. Of course, there is also the possibility that Clyde was trying his best from the start and fired high in the heat of the moment.
12. Dr. Keller was near Riley when he was hit, and several bullets cut the brush around him. Dr. Keller later said, “Three or four bullets hit this little sapling by me. The trees weren’t big enough to hide behind—never are when you’re being shot at.” Des Moines (IA) Sunday Register, March 17, 1968.
13. Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, pp. 150–151. Jones, Voluntary Statement B-71.
14. Ibid., pp. 151–152. Fortune, Fugitives, pp. 192–193.
15. Ibid., p. 152.
16. Ibid., pp. 152–153. Fortune, Fugitives, p. 197.
17. Ibid., pp. 154–155.
18. Later, the lawmen found that Buck’s pistol, a .45 automatic, had ammunition in the magazine but Buck had been unable to chamber a round, so the pistol wouldn’t have fired. Des Moines (IA) Sunday Register, March 17, 1968.
19. Ibid., p. 155.
20. The st
ory of Buck and Blanche’s trip to Dexter and the examination by the doctors is from a letter written by Dr. Keith Chapler forty-one years later to Alanna Nash, a writer in Louisville, KY. Chapler letter courtesy of Sandy Jones.
21. Chapler letter. Medical bulletin issued by Drs. Chapler and Osborn as given in the Perry (IA) Daily Chief, July 25, 1933.
22. Jones, Voluntary Statement B-71.
23. Ibid., Perry (IA) Daily Chief, July 24, 1933. Valley Fellers got his Plymouth back but had to pay a $15 towing charge.
CHAPTER 27
1. Perry (IA) Daily Chief, July 26, 1933.
2. Ibid., July 25, 1933.
3. Ibid.
4. For the statement in Fortune claiming that Buck was there, see Fortune, Fugitives, p. 179. For Buck’s denial to Sheriff Maxey, see Ft. Smith (AR) Southwest American, July 30, 1933.
5. In Hinton, Ambush, p. 39, Ted Hinton states that he and Bob Alcorn went to Joplin the day after the shooting in April when two officers were killed. There, he says, they viewed the pictures left behind by the gang and positively identified W. D. Jones (April 14, 1933). In spite of this statement, there is no evidence that W. D. Jones’ identity was known to any law enforcement agency involved in any of the incidents during the rest of that summer, that is, the Ruston, Louisiana, kidnapping, the Wellington, Texas, wreck, or the Alma, Platte City, or Dexter gunfights. The third man is always listed as “unidentified” and great effort was put forth to find his real name. Either Hinton is mistaken or the Dallas authorities kept the information to themselves until mid-November, when Jones was captured in Houston.
6. Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, pp. 305–306.
7. Fort Smith (AR) Southwest American, July 29, 1933.
8. These were the same two witnesses who, one month earlier, had “positively” identified Clyde as the machine gunner.
9. Ibid., July 30, 1933.
10. Knight, Incident at Alma, p. 424.
11. Ibid.
12. Bud Russell, “The Clyde Barrow–Bonnie Parker Harboring Case,” unpublished manuscript provided by Robert Russell. In this manuscript, Russell says that the armory robbery was on August 20, 1933, at Plattsville, Illinois, and that they got three BARs and several .45 automatics. While robbery of an armory would be the natural thing for Barrow to do, no evidence has been found for this particular incident.
13. Jones, Voluntary Statement B-71. Jones, Playboy, “Riding with Bonnie and Clyde,” November 1968.
14. Marie Barrow, statement to Jonathan Davis.
15. Bud Russell, “The Clyde Barrow–Bonnie Parker Harboring Case,” unpublished manuscript.
16. Jones, Playboy, “Riding with Bonnie and Clyde,” November 1968.
CHAPTER 28
1. Fortune, Fugitives, p. 205.
2. Marie Barrow, conversations with Jonathan Davis.
3. Fortune, Fugitives, p. 207.
4. Ibid., p. 209.
5. Marie Barrow, conversations with Jonathan Davis.
6. Fortune, Fugitives, pp. 210–211.
7. Marie Barrow, conversation with Jonathan Davis.
8. Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, pp. 162–163.
9. Cumie T. Barrow, unfinished manuscript.
10. Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, p. 163. Fortune, Fugitives, p. 212.
11. Hamilton, Floyd, Public Enemy Number One (Acclaimed Books, Dallas, TX, 1978), p. 25. Floyd Hamilton said that what Clyde saw was a tin can nailed to a fence post by an informant as a reference point for the lawmen.
12. Hinton, Ambush, p. 105.
13. Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, p. 167.
14. Cumie T. Barrow, unfinished manuscript.
15. Fortune, Fugitives, p. 213.
16. Depending on whom you believe, the car was a 1931 or 1932 four-cylinder coupe—Hinton, Ambush, p. 107. Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, pp. 164.
17. Fortune, Fugitives, pp. 214–215. Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, pp. 166–167.
18. Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, p. 165.
19. Jones says that he was working for a vegetable peddler in Houston and a boy who knew him turned him in to police. Jones, Playboy, “Riding with Bonnie and Clyde,” November 1968, p. 165.
20. Dallas (TX) Morning News, November 24, 1933.
21. Ibid.
22. Ibid., November 23, 1933.
23. Hinton, Ambush, pp. 103–104.
24. Author’s conversation with John Neal Phillips, March 2001.
CHAPTER 29
1. This quote is from Bonnie Parker’s poem originally titled “The End of the Line” but better known as “The Story of Bonnie and Clyde.”
2. This information is found in several sources and was confirmed to the author by Barrow family members. For Ted Hinton’s version of the threats, and his reaction to them, see Hinton, Ambush, pp. 113–114. See also Fortune, Fugitives, pp. 215–217. Marie Barrow believed that Clyde also had a strong opinion about the identity of the informer, but she doubted that he was angry enough to take revenge. Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, p. 167.
3. Fortune, Fugitives, pp. 140–141.
4. If, in fact, Clyde actually considered murdering the sheriff and the deputies, which Marie Barrow doubted, he was talked out of it by either his sister Nell (Fortune, Fugitives, pp. 216–217), or Floyd Hamilton (Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, p. 167).
5. Underwood, Depression Desperado, p. 32.
6. Ray received 263 years for various crimes, and a threeyear suspended sentence was reinstated, making a total of 266 years. Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, pp. 160, 347n3.
7. Underwood, Depression Desperado, p. 41.
8. Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, p. 168.
9. Mullins later said that the trusty’s name was Fred Yost. Lee Simmons, Assignment Huntsville (University of Texas Press, Austin, TX, 1957), p. 125. Floyd Hamilton and Ralph Fults both said that the trusty was Aubrey Skelly, the same building tender who helped Clyde kill “Big Ed” several years before. Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, p. 168, and Ralph Fults, conversations with John Phillips.
10. Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, p. 167. Ralph Fults, conversations with John Phillips. Jack Hammett, interview by John Phillips, February 20, 1982.
11. Ibid., pp. 159–160.
12. Ibid.
13. Ralph Fults, conversations with John Phillips.
14. Patrick M. McConal, Over the Wall (Eakin Press, Austin, TX, 2000), p. 92.
15. Floyd Hamilton much later claimed that Clyde was “too yellow” to plant the guns himself. Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, p. 168, 349n42. In fact, Clyde was afraid that Mullins might have sold him out to the authorities and set up an ambush. He had just been set up six weeks before and so was understandably suspicious. Simmons, Assignment Huntsville, p. 167.
16. McConal, Over the Wall, pp. 92–93.
17. Ibid., pp. 84–86.
18. State of Texas vs. Henry Methvin, no. 831, Fall term, 1930.
19. Jack Hammett, interviewed by John Neal Phillips February 20, 1982. Hammett, a friend and sometime partner of Clyde Barrow and Ralph Fults, knew Methvin at Eastham.
20. McConal, Over the Wall, pp. 64–68.
21. Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, p. 172.
22. Simmons, Assignment Huntsville, p. 121.
23. Underwood, Depression Desperado, p. 43. An alternative version says that the guns were hidden in a woodpile and not brought into the prison at all. Hugh Kennedy, who saw the whole thing, takes the middle ground. He says that Hamilton pulled his gun from a woodpile, but that Palmer had his gun on his person. I tend to believe that both guns were together, and, if one was brought in, both were. JRK
24. McConal, Over the Wall, p. 94.
25. Ibid. “Major” was his given name, not a rank. He was just a guard assigned a special duty.
26. Simmons, Assignment Huntsville, p. 115.
27. Crowson later said that he heard Palmer also say, �
�Don’t you boys try to do anything,” before he fired (McConal, Over the Wall, p. 99). Many believe that Palmer shot Crowson as payback for beatings he had received from the guard. Whatever his motivation, there is no doubt that Palmer shot Crowson, and he never denied the shooting.
28. McConal, Over the Wall, pp. 94–97. An alternative version of the shooting of Crowson and Bozeman says that Palmer did it all. Floyd Hamilton, Ray’s older brother, claimed that the magazine fell out of Ray’s pistol before he could shoot. (Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, p. 170). Hugh Kennedy, who saw it happen, and Ray Hamilton’s biographer both say that Ray shot Bozeman (Underwood, Depression Desperado, p. 43).
29. Simmons, Assignment Huntsville, p. 166.
30. McConal, Over the Wall, p. 97.
31. Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, p. 171.
32. Marie Barrow believed that only Raymond Hamilton was part of the original plan and that Methvin and Bybee were just last-minute additions who happened to be around at the time. The statements of both Ralph Fults and Jack Hammett to John Neal Phillips and the statement of Joe Palmer to Lee Simmons shortly before Palmer’s execution all indicate that Henry Methvin and Hilton Bybee were part of the plan from the start. Whether this was known by Mullins—or even Clyde—is a valid question. If Clyde knew he was going to have to transport four men in addition to himself, Bonnie, and Mullins, why didn’t he bring two cars? The extra men did seem to be a genuine surprise that caused an argument.
33. McConal, Over the Wall, p. 98.
34. Ibid.
35. Ibid., p. 100.
36. Ibid., p. 98.
37. Ibid., pp. 103–104.
38. Bud Russell, “The Clyde Barrow–Bonnie Parker Harboring Case,” unpublished manuscript.
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