Jeff Guinn
Page 44
Dallas County deputy Ted Alcorn was clearly infatuated with Bonnie. An early chapter of Ambush describes the friendship they struck up when he patronized a café where Bonnie worked as a waitress. Like Fugitives, much of Ambush seems factually skewed, but Alcorn’s near-worshipful account of how he and Bonnie met and became friends offers a helpful glimpse into how she went about charming men.
Cissy Stewart Lale, Archie McDonald, and Pat Ziegler have valuable insights into the harsh, hopeless lives of poor young women from the Dallas slums during the Depression. Census rolls from that period as well as the 1910s and 1930s helped flesh out where Emma Parker lived and worked and who lived in the Parker household at different times.
Bonnie’s diary excerpts have been reprinted in several articles and books with no variation. Quotes here are taken from the diary material in Fugitives, but were verified through checking the same material in other places.
The worse her circumstances were in life: Jonathan Davis interview.
It began in the little West Texas town of Rowena: Francis Edward Abernathy, ed., Legendary Ladies of Texas (Texas Folklore Society, 1994), p. 166; Phillips,
Running with Bonnie and Clyde, p. 81; Jonathan Davis interview.
As far as her mother, Emma, was concerned: Buddy Barrow Williams and Jonathan Davis interviews.
Emma approvingly described Buster as “sober”: Fortune, ed., Fugitives, p. 43.
Rowena’s community life: Ibid.
One of Charles Parker’s brothers came to Rowena: Ibid., p. 44.
Charles Parker died: 1900 McLennan County census; 1910 Runnels County census; Fortune, ed., Fugitives, p. 44. Rumors persist that Charles actually deserted his family, and Emma just claimed he’d died. Given her obsession with appearances, this is possible.
So Emma looked for work: 1930 Dallas County census; Hill, Dallas, p. 130.
Like West Dallas: Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, pp. 81–82.
Every Sunday morning: The Truth About Bonnie and Clyde as Told by Billie Jean Parker, Bonnie’s Sister, RCA LPM-3967.
While Emma was at work: Fortune, ed., Fugitives, pp. 44–48.
One of the most memorable moments: Abernathy, ed., Legendary Ladies of Texas, p. 166; Fortune, ed., Fugitives, p. 45; Jonathan Davis interview.
Bonnie had a hot temper: Jonathan Davis interview; Fortune, ed., Fugitives, pp. 44–45.
She expected special consideration from her family, too: The Truth About Bonnie and Clyde as Told by Billie Jean Parker.
Puberty brought with it an obsession: Pat Ziegler, Archie McDonald, and John Neal Phillips interviews.
There wasn’t even a realistic chance: Archie McDonald, Cissy Stewart Lale, Bill Sloan, and Pat Ziegler interviews.
But there was another kind of option: The Truth About Bonnie and Clyde as Told by Billie Jean Parker; Cissy Stewart Lale, Sandy Jones, and Archie McDonald interviews.
Bonnie met Roy Thornton in high school: Fortune, ed., Fugitives, pp. 49–51; Steele with Marie Barrow Scoma, The Family Story of Bonnie and Clyde, pp. 37–38.
Bonnie loved children and wanted a baby: Jonathan Davis, Buddy Barrow Williams, Sandy Jones, and Charles Heard interviews.
In August 1927, Roy disappeared: Knight with Davis, Bonnie and Clyde, p. 25; Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, p. 82; Jonathan Davis interview.
In her first entry: All diary excerpts are found in Fortune, ed., Fugitives, pp. 51–54.
she found a job waitressing at Hargrave’s Café: Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, p. 83; Jonathan Davis and John Neal Phillips interviews. There is some disagreement about which cafés Bonnie worked at, and when. In Fugitives, Emma Parker states Bonnie worked at Marco’s first. Ted Hinton in Ambush says the café by the courthouse was called the American Café. The consensus seems to be Hargrave’s, then Marco’s.
Most of those tips were meager: Archie McDonald and Cissy Stewart Lale interviews.
She became special friends: Jonathan Davis, John Neal Phillips, and Ken Holmes interviews.
Her wardrobe might have reflected income: Cissy Stewart Lale and Jonathan Davis interviews.
Roy finally came back: Steele with Marie Barrow Scoma, The Family Story of
Bonnie and Clyde, p. 38; Fortune, ed., Fugitives, pp. 55–56.
She told Hinton she wanted to be “a singer”: Hinton, Ambush, pp. 7–10; Abernathy, ed., Legendary Ladies of Texas, p. 163.
Emma, ever alert for evidence: Fortune, ed., Fugitives, pp. 50–51.
convents throughout the state: Cissy Stewart Lale interview.
The Depression was taken as just one more sign: Archie McDonald interview.
Bonnie’s brother, Buster, married Clarence Clay’s sister: Jonathan Davis and Buddy Barrow Williams interviews. There are conflicting opinions of why Bonnie was at the party, or even if there was a party at all. Some accounts have her hiring out there as a temporary housekeeper because Clay’s sister had broken her arm. The important thing is, in early January, she and Clyde met at that house and fell instantly in love.
just like Ronald Colman: Bonnie mentioned in her diary that she had seen and loved these two films.
Being with him promised some fun: Cissy Stewart Lale interview.
a short man so sensitive about his height: John Neal Phillips interview.
Clyde didn’t take Bonnie over to the campground right away: Marie Barrow Scoma with Davis unpublished manuscript, p. 36.
Emma’s first impression: Fortune, ed., Fugitives, p. 58.
Emma finally suggested he just go ahead and spend the night: Ibid., p 59.
Clyde had to sleep on the living room couch: Steele with Marie Barrow Scoma, The Family Story of Bonnie and Clyde, p. 38.
Chapter 5: Dumbbells
“The Waco Jailbreak of Bonnie and Clyde,” a lengthy article by Richard J. Veit in the December 1990 issue of Waco Heritage and History, provides many details of Clyde Barrow’s conviction in a McLennan County court, his spectacularly incompetent escape attempt, and his subsequent harsh sentencing by an outraged Judge Richard Munroe. The article was provided to me by the Baylor University library in Waco.
The unpublished manuscripts of Cumie and Marie Barrow offered illuminating counterpoint to the descriptions by Emma Parker in Fugitives of how Bonnie reacted after Clyde’s initial arrest, and her early relationship with the Barrow family.
For the first time, there are newspaper articles about Clyde’s criminal activities. The Waco Times-Herald covered the adventures of the “baby dumbbells” at great length, if in subjective, uncomplimentary fashion.
Winston Ramsey’s exhaustive On the Trail of Bonnie and Clyde Then and Now has excellent descriptions of Middletown and the geographic aspects of the escapee’s bungled robberies and subsequent recapture by Ohio police. Archives at the Texas Prison Museum and the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame yielded court records and graphic, horrifying information about the Texas prison system circa 1930 and infamous Eastham Prison Farm.
The descriptions of Buck Barrow’s prison break come directly from the unpublished memoirs of Cumie and Marie Barrow.
In this chapter and the next, much of the material regarding Eastham Prison Farm and the history of the Texas prison system comes from interviews with James Willett. He is the former Huntsville warden and currently serves as director of the Texas Prison Museum.
Letters from Bonnie to Clyde in prison, and Clyde’s letters to her in West Dallas, are reproduced in several books. Here, they are all cited by the pages upon which they appear in Fugitives.
Clyde went quietly: Fortune, ed., Fugitives, pp. 58–59.
There was nothing calm about Bonnie’s reaction: Ibid.
When she wasn’t visiting Clyde: Steele with Marie Barrow Scoma, The Family
Story of Bonnie and Clyde, pp. 38–39; Fortune, ed., Fugitives, p. 59; Claire Bond Potter, War on Crime: Bandits, G-Men, and the Politics of Mass Culture (Rutgers University Press, 1998), p. 82.
Cumie took in Bonnie’s heavily mascaraed eyes: Cumie Barrow
unpublished manuscript.
Eleven-year-old Marie, grown enough to be tantalized: Bryan Woolley, Mythic
Texas: Essays on the State and Its People (Republic of Texas Press, 2000), p. 141; Marie Barrow Scoma with Davis unpublished manuscript, pp. 37–38.
Ever the opportunist: Fortune, ed., Fugitives, pp. 59–60.
“I was so blue and mad and discouraged”: Ibid., pp. 61–62. In War on Crime, author Claire Bond Potter claims this occurred in Waco rather than Dallas, but Bonnie was not taken by surprise when Clyde was transferred from Denton to the McLennan County jail.
“They only think you are mean”: Fortune, ed., Fugitives, p. 63.
Unlike Denton, the Waco jurists: Richard J. Veit, “The Waco Jailbreak of Bonnie and Clyde,” Waco Heritage and History, December 1990.
On the same day Clyde was indicted: Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, pp. 47–48.
Perhaps encouraged by a note from Bonnie: Veit, “The Waco Jailbreak of Bonnie and Clyde.”
Clyde joined Turner before Judge Richard Munroe: Ibid.
Cumie returned to West Dallas: Cumie Barrow unpublished manuscript; Marie Barrow Scoma with Davis unpublished manuscript, pp. 38–39.
In the main prison at Huntsville: James Willett interview.
he whispered details of a getaway plan: Cumie Barrow unpublished manuscript; Fortune, ed., Fugitives, pp. 68–69; Marie Barrow Scoma with Davis unpublished manuscript, p. 40; Jonathan Davis interview.
Clyde passed her a note: Cumie Barrow unpublished manuscript.
She finally buckled an extra belt: Fortune, ed., Fugitives, p. 69; Marie Barrow
Scoma with Davis unpublished manuscript, p. 41.
When she returned to the jail that evening: Veit, “The Waco Jailbreak of Bonnie and Clyde.”
About 7:30 in the evening: Ibid.; Winston G. Ramsey, On the Trail of Bonnie and
Clyde Then and Now (After the Battle Press, 2003) pp. 28–30.
Clyde’s auto-stealing skills worked to their advantage: Veit, “The Waco Jailbreak of Bonnie and Clyde”; Ramsey, On the Trail of Bonnie and Clyde Then and Now, pp. 28–30.
She fretted at her cousin’s house: Fortune, ed., Fugitives, pp. 68–69.
The newspaper made it clear: “Trio Leaves Trail of Stolen Cars,” Waco Times-Herald, March 13, 1930.
Bonnie may have been offended: Veit, “The Waco Jailbreak of Bonnie and Clyde.”
two strange men came up the sidewalk: Fortune, ed., Fugitives, p. 70. There are several versions of this event. Some sources claim Bonnie was approached by the two men after she returned to Dallas. Others state that Clyde himself returned to West Dallas to find her. But Clyde was preoccupied with escape, and the trail of stolen cars indicates that he, Turner, and Abernathy were nowhere near West Dallas in the days immediately after the Waco jailbreak. Clyde would not have known Bonnie had decided to go home. Evidence overwhelmingly indicates that the mysterious duo were Waco friends of Clyde who’d been asked by him to tell Bonnie he was fine and would send for her soon.
Bonnie hitchhiked back home: Ibid.
When she got there: Ibid.
On the afternoon of March 17: Ramsey, On the Trail of Bonnie and Clyde Then and Now pp. 31–37; Veit, “The Waco Jailbreak of Bonnie and Clyde”; Marie Barrow Scoma with Davis unpublished manuscript, p. 41.
Clyde told the Middletown police his name was Robert Thomas: Some sources indicate he gave the alias “Robert Thorn.” Either is certainly possible.
McLennan County sheriff Leslie Stegall arrived in Middletown: Veit, “The Waco Jailbreak of Bonnie and Clyde.”
The Waco Times-Herald was jubilant: “Baby Thugs Captured,” Waco Times-Herald, March 18, 1930.
A Waco reporter even made the trip: Marie Barrow Scoma with Davis unpublished manuscript, p. 41.
When Clyde, Turner, and Abernathy arrived back in Waco: Veit, “The Waco Jailbreak of Bonnie and Clyde.”
Criticism in the local paper: Ibid.; Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, p. 48; Marie Barrow Scoma with Davis unpublished manuscript, p. 41–42.
Clyde stayed in the county jail: Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, pp. 48–49, Veit, “The Waco Jailbreak of Bonnie and Clyde.”
They apparently argued during the visit: Fortune, ed., Fugitives, pp. 72–73.
During the rest of the spring and all of the summer of 1930: Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, pp. 48–49, Veit, “The Waco Jailbreak of Bonnie and Clyde”; Knight with Davis, Bonnie and Clyde, p. 34.
Youthful, first-time offenders were often kept inside the Walls: James Willett interview.
Here, on 13,000 acres: Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, p. 23.
It was almost certainly a capricious decision: James Willett interview.
Chapter 6: The Bloody ’Ham
James Willett, former Huntsville warden and current director of the Texas Prison Museum in Huntsville, was both generous and amazingly objective in his descriptions of the Texas prison system and Eastham Prison Farm during the time of Clyde Barrow’s incarceration. Besides his own testimony, he urged me to read Texas Gulag, a history of Texas laws and prisons written by former prison counselor Gary Brown. Brown’s book focuses on “the Chain Gang Years” of 1875–1925, but most of the appalling conditions and rules he describes were still in place from 1930 to 1932 when Clyde was an Eastham inmate.
Beyond my own observations, most physical descriptions of the main Huntsville prison facility and Eastham Prison Farm come from interviews with historian John Neal Phillips. Phillips’s Running with Bonnie and Clyde, written with the help of Ralph Fults, is the basis for sections detailing Clyde’s earliest experiences on Eastham farm. Though they were separated by prison administrators, Clyde told Fults in detail about what happened to him later in Camp 1, including his rape by and subsequent murder of building tender Ed Crowder.
As always, unpublished manuscripts by Cumie Barrow and Marie Barrow Scoma proved invaluable.
On the night of September 17, 1930: Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, pp. 6–8.
In Russell’s thirty years of service: Gary Brown, Texas Gulag: The Chain Gang Years (Republic of Texas Press, 2002), pp. 90–91.
The One Way Wagon was as intimidating: Phillips Running with Bonnie and Clyde, pp. 21–22; John Neal Phillips and James Willett interviews.
The philosophy of the Texas prison system in 1930: James Willett interview; Brown, Texas Gulag, pp. vii–viii.
Just nine months before: “New Questions Come to Fore on Prison Tour,” Dallas Morning News, January 27, 1930.
His concept of reform: Paul M. Lucko, “Counteracting Reform: Lee Simmons and the Texas Prison System, 1930–1935,” East Texas Historical Journal 30, no. 2 (1992), pp. 19–27.
He especially endorsed frequent use of “the bat”: Ibid.; Brown, Texas Gulag, pp. 34–38.
they were ordered to lick it: Brown, Texas Gulag, p. 37.
Simmons welcomed Fults back: Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, p. 37.
Together, the two camps usually had: James Willett interview; Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, pp. 37–40.
there had been 302 escape attempts: Texas Department of Criminal Justice records.
The farm’s manager, B. B. Monzingo: Lucko, “Counteracting Reform,” p. 23.
Clyde learned this as soon as he arrived: Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, pp. 38–41.
Field work at Eastham was exhausting: James Willett interview; Brown, Texas Gulag, pp. 187–89.
they talked as they chopped: Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, p. 39.
Food on the prison farms: Brown, Texas Gulag, p. 137.
At night they were marched: John Neal Phillips and James Willett interviews.
Building tenders received: Brown, Texas Gulag, pp. 186–87; John Neal Phillips and James Willett interviews.
On Clyde’s first night: Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, pp. 39–41.
Clyde did the opposite: John Neal Phillips interview.
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p; And, years later, Fults admitted that they had: Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, p. 52.
A new enemy was waiting for him there: Marie Barrow Scoma claimed Ed Crowder bought her brother for three packs of cigarettes as soon as Clyde arrived in Huntsville. That would mean Clyde was abused by Crowder for almost two years instead of one. But that simply isn’t possible. Crowder lived in the dormitory of Camp 1, and Clyde was initially placed in Camp 2. Prisoners from both camps sometimes worked alongside each other, but there wouldn’t have been an opportunity for Crowder to attack Clyde until the younger man moved into the Camp 1 dormitory.
Ed Crowder was a monster: Jonathan Davis, James Willett, and John Neal Phillips interviews; “Convict Flees Solitary Cell,” Dallas Morning News, May 7, 1929; “Ed Crowder Is Taken,” Dallas Morning News, June 25, 1927; Texas state prison records.
When Ed Crowder got his huge hands on Clyde Barrow: John Neal Phillips, Jonathan Davis, Sandy Jones, and James Willett interviews; Marie Barrow Scoma with Davis unpublished manuscript, p. 42; Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, pp. 53–54.
Scalley encouraged Clyde: John Neal Phillips and Jonathan Davis interviews; Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, pp. 53–54; Texas Department of Criminal Justice records; “Convict Killed in Knife Battle on State Farm,” Dallas Morning News, October 31, 1931; “Scalley Is No-Billed,” Dallas Morning News, November 21, 1931.
During the last few months of 1930: Steele with Marie Barrow Scoma, The Family Story of Bonnie and Clyde, p. 46; Fortune, ed., Fugitives, pp. 74–76.
In 1931, Jack, Artie, and Nell Barrow helped their father: Buddy Barrow Williams interview; Marie Barrow Scoma with Davis unpublished manuscript, p. 15; Steele with Marie Barrow Scoma, The Family Story of Bonnie and Clyde, pp. 33–34.
Bootleg hooch was another product for sale: Marie Barrow Scoma always denied this, but Buddy Barrow Williams heard the story directly from his stepfather, L.C. Barrow, and from “Poppa Henry” Barrow himself. It’s certainly odd that Marie thought bootlegging was too awful to admit to.