Jeff Guinn
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Clyde thought he might persuade his father: Jonathan Davis interview; Cumie Barrow unpublished manuscript.
Blanche had divorced her first husband: Blanche Caldwell Barrow, edited by John Neal Phillips, My Life with Bonnie and Clyde (University of Oklahoma Press, 2004), pp. 5–9; Cumie Barrow unpublished manuscript; Steele with Marie Barrow Scoma, The Family Story of Bonnie and Clyde, pp. 46–47.
Eastham Prison Farm was nicknamed: James Willett and John Neal Phillips interviews; “Prisoners Maim Selves to Get Away from Farm,” Dallas Morning News, December 17, 1933.
cutting off his entire left big toe and part of a second toe: W. D. Jones, “Riding with Bonnie and Clyde,” Playboy, November 1968. There is considerable debate over which toes on which foot were chopped off. I base my own belief on testimony from Barrow Gang member W. D. Jones, who saw Clyde’s bare feet often enough to know.
On February 2, he was still learning to walk: Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, p. 58; Cumie Barrow unpublished manuscript. A few books claim Clyde was pardoned on February 8, but Cumie had been working for two years to arrange her son’s release. She would have known the correct date of his pardon.
The twenty-one-year-old told his family: Cumie Barrow unpublished manuscript.
Chapter 7: Decision
The Worst Hard Time, Timothy Egan’s superb book about the Dust Bowl, was seminal to this chapter, as were Cissy Stewart Lale’s personal reflections on living during that awful, traumatic time. The unpublished manuscripts of Cumie Barrow and Marie Barrow Scoma offered firsthand accounts of Clyde’s unhappy return to West Dallas from Eastham Prison Farm. Ralph Fults shared his memories of reuniting with Clyde with John Neal Phillips in Running with Bonnie and Clyde. The best perspective of Emma Parker’s deviousness regarding Bonnie’s ongoing romance with Clyde comes from Billie Jean Parker’s interview on the RCA record issued in 1968.
So when Clyde limped up to her front door: Fortune, ed., Fugitives, pp. 79–80.
Clyde and Bonnie fell into a passionate embrace: Ibid.
Emma tried to talk her daughter out of rekindling the romance: The Truth About Bonnie and Clyde as Told by Billie Jean Parker.
Bonnie began staying every possible minute with Clyde: Cumie Barrow unpublished manuscript; Marie Barrow Scoma with Davis unpublished manuscript, p. 48.
he insisted that all his new shirts be made of silk: Hinton, Ambush, p. 13; Fortune, ed., Fugitives, p. 78.
he wanted to open an automotive parts and repair shop: Cumie Barrow unpublished manuscript; Jonathan Davis and Buddy Barrow Williams interviews.
Cotton prices dropped to four cents a pound: White, Kingfish, pp. 127–28.
An average of twenty thousand farms across America failed: Caro, The Path to Power, p. 241.
All “negro unemployed” in Dallas were strongly advised: “Back-to-Farm Move Advised for Negroes,” Dallas Morning News, February 16, 1932.
For more than a year: Timothy Egan, The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of
Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl (Houghton Mifflin, 2006), pp. 88, 101.
The first resulting massive dust storm: Ibid., p. 88.
In West Dallas, the effects of the dust storms: Cissy Stewart Lale interview.
During the last few weeks of February 1932: Cumie Barrow unpublished manuscript; Fortune, ed., Fugitives, p. 80.
In late February, Nell Barrow had a suggestion: Jonathan Davis interview; Fortune, ed., Fugitives, p. 80; Cumie Barrow unpublished manuscript.
Right after he arrived in Massachusetts: Cumie Barrow unpublished manuscript; Hinton, Ambush, p. 14; Sandy Jones and Buddy Barrow Williams interviews.
As soon as Clyde found work: The Truth About Bonnie and Clyde as Told by Billie Jean Parker; Cumie Barrow unpublished manuscript.
Fults had been released from the prison farm: Marie Barrow Scoma with Davis unpublished manuscript, pp. 48–49; Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, pp. 60–64.
But it was enough for Fults to smuggle in some hacksaw blades: In Running with Bonnie and Clyde, Fults is adamant that he smuggled in the blades so Raymond Hamilton could break out of the McKinney jail. In Depression Desperado, Sid Underwood’s biography of Raymond Hamilton, Underwood writes that Hamilton bribed a jail trusty to get him the blades. But there is no record of Fults and Hamilton meeting under any other circumstances, and Hamilton was later willing to join the gang that Clyde Barrow and Fults had formed. It seems logical that Fults had made a good first impression by helping Hamilton cut his way out of the McKinney jail cell.
One of his first acts, Fults expected: John Neal Phillips interview. Jonathan Davis feels Fults always exaggerated Clyde’s determination to raid Eastham Prison Farm in retaliation for his mistreatment there. But Clyde’s initial crimes after turning to full-time lawbreaking were intended to raise the money necessary to fund an Eastham prison break attempt.
A few days later, Bonnie told her mother, Emma: Steele with Marie Barrow Scoma, The Family Story of Bonnie and Clyde, p. 50. There is some uncertainty about the exact date when Bonnie left home to travel with Clyde. In Fugitives on page 80, Emma specifies it was March 20, 1932, but that may be incorrect by several days. She may have kept living at least part-time with her mother until her April 1932 misadventures in Kaufman.
The world, in his opinion: John Neal Phillips and Buddy Barrow Williams interviews.
Bonnie wanted adventures in her life: Jonathan Davis and Cissy Stewart Lale interviews.
They had no long-term plan: Buddy Barrow Williams and John Neal Phillips interviews.
They realized there would be inevitable consequences: Buddy Barrow Williams and Jonathan Davis interviews.
Chapter 8: A Stumbling Start
Much of the material in this chapter is based on Running with Bonnie and Clyde, the memoir written by Ralph Fults with the help of John Neal Phillips. Along with the memoir by Blanche Barrow, this is the only extended reminiscence about crimes committed by Bonnie and Clyde from someone who was right there with them. Phillips painstakingly fact-checked everything Fults told him, and with one notable exception (which will be discussed later in this chapter’s notes) found that everything could be corroborated.
Also seminal to this chapter are Bonnie and Clyde: A Twenty-first Century Update by James R. Knight with Jonathan Davis and On the Trail of Bonnie and Clyde Then and Now by Winston G. Ramsey. Interviews with John Neal Phillips, Jonathan Davis, Rick Mattix, Buddy Barrow Williams, Sandy Jones, Cissy Stewart Lale, Archie McDonald, James Willett, Ken Holmes, and, especially, Bill Palmer were also helpful.
After dark on March 25, 1932: Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, pp. 59–60; Knight with Davis, Bonnie and Clyde, p. 43; Ken Holmes interview.
Raymond Hamilton let him know it: Sid Underwood, Depression Desperado: The Chronicle of Raymond Hamilton (Eakin, 1995), p. 5; Jonathan Davis interview.
Fults and Clyde had a different plan: John Neal Phillips interview.
In the 1930s, almost every Texas family had a gun or two: Archie McDonald and Cissy Stewart Lale interviews.
Even Thompson submachine guns: Rick Mattix interview.
Fults preferred banks to small businesses: John Neal Phillips interview.
In 1924, Rand McNally published: Potter, War on Crime, p. 84.
Clyde loved the newfangled maps: Jonathan Davis interview.
Clyde, Fults, and Hamilton drove through Oklahoma, Kansas, and Iowa: Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, pp. 67–70; John Neal Phillips interview. There is absolutely no existing record of the First National Bank in Lawrence being robbed of $33,000 by Clyde Barrow, Ralph Fults, and Raymond Hamilton in late March or early April of 1932. That doesn’t mean it didn’t happen as Fults described it; many public records have been lost or misplaced over the years. The amount claimed by Fults strikes several Bonnie and Clyde scholars, especially Rick Mattix, as ludicrous. But John Neal Phillips, who is meticulous in all his research, says he chose to believe and publish Fults’s claim because everything e
lse Fults told him checked out. The most important, and inarguable, fact is this—the gang pulled a robbery somewhere during that time that netted them enough money to buy an arsenal of high-caliber weapons soon afterward, which meant the Eastham raid could be attempted.
Raymond Hamilton wanted nothing further to do with them: Ibid., p. 70.
Clyde and Fults drove back to Texas: Ibid., p. 71.
Her mother was less friendly: Ibid., p. 72.
they met with four local crooks: Ibid., pp. 73–75; John Neal Phillips interview.
nobody had ever attempted to orchestrate a break from the outside: James Willett interview.
But Clyde was especially concerned: Jonathan Davis interview.
In preparation for the raid: Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, pp. 74–75.
They were joined by another recruit: Ibid.
the gang members planned a simultaneous April 11 stickup: Ibid., p. 73
Clyde and Fults knew two brothers in Amarillo: Knight with Davis, Bonnie and Clyde, p. 44.
their car broke down: Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, pp. 76–78; Jonathan Davis interview.
But whatever mayhem Clyde and Fults were hoping to commit: Buddy Barrow Williams interview.
car gas gauges in the early 1930s: Sandy Jones interview.
Rural mail carrier Bill Owens: Bill Palmer interview.
Jack Hammett offered to hit a hardware store: Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, pp. 78–79.
On April 17, Clyde and Fults drove Bonnie: Knight with Davis, Bonnie and Clyde, p. 45. It’s suggested in several books and articles that Bonnie also met with and forewarned Joe Palmer and Henry Methvin, who were both also on Eastham farm at the time, and who broke out when Clyde and Bonnie were involved the raid of January 16, 1934. Palmer and Methvin were prisoners on the farm when Clyde Barrow was incarcerated there. He certainly might have been friends with them. But it is only certain that Bonnie talked to Aubrey Scalley on this occasion, and it’s never going to be certain whether Clyde met Palmer and Methvin for the first time during the January 1934 raid.
As a building tender, Scalley was able: James Willett interview.
Fults didn’t mind her tagging along: Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, p. 80.
Before leaving for Tyler: Fortune, ed., Fugitives, p. 80. Emma says in Fugitives that Bonnie took part in the Tyler car theft trip “a few days” after Clyde returned from Massachusetts. This is one of the first major errors and/or omissions in the book. Many more follow.
Still, Fults asked to stop on the way: Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, p. 86.
Things went as planned in Tyler: Knight with Davis, Bonnie and Clyde, p. 45.
Unfortunately for the would-be gun thieves: Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, pp. 87–92; John Neal Phillips interview. In On the Trail of Bonnie and Clyde Then and Now, Winston Ramsey claims the aborted Clyde-Fults raid happened in Mabank rather than Kaufman.
In spring 1932, almost all the back farm roads: Archie McDonald, Cissy Stewart Lale, and Jim Wright interviews.
When they came upon a farmhouse: Knight with Davis, Bonnie and Clyde, p. 46; John Neal Phillips interview.
Now they were really in trouble: Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, pp. 90–92.
Clyde made a quick decision: Knight with Davis, Bonnie and Clyde, pp. 46–47.
Back on the banks of Cedar Creek: Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, pp. 95–97; John Neal Phillips interview.
Chapter 9: Bonnie in Jail
The unpublished manuscripts of Cumie Barrow and Marie Barrow Scoma are specific about Bonnie’s positive attitude while incarcerated in Kaufman. Emma Parker in Fugitives is just as definite that Bonnie was distraught and completely antagonistic toward Clyde. Probably the best proof that Bonnie couldn’t decide how she really felt comes from Poetry from the Other Side, the collection of ten poems she wrote while in the Kaufman jail. One of these, “Suicide Sal,” has long provided fodder for historians and armchair psychologists, but most of them have made an inadvertent error.
“Suicide Sal” became public in April 1933, when police in Joplin found a copy of it among the possessions Bonnie left behind when she fled during a shootout. That version has been quoted and analyzed ever since—but it isn’t the original that Bonnie wrote in Kaufman. In the ten months after her release from jail, she had continued to tweak the poem, making constant changes in the ongoing editing process. The original version, along with the nine additional Other Side poems, was given by Bonnie as a keepsake to Mrs. Adams, the wife of the Kaufman jailor. These handwritten manuscripts were eventually auctioned off to David Gainsborough Roberts of England, a private collector of various crime-and entertainment-related memorabilia. Through the good offices of Jonathan Davis, Mr. Roberts made Bonnie’s original work available for this book.
Clyde meant what he had promised Bonnie: Marie Barrow Scoma with Davis unpublished manuscript, p. 52; Jonathan Davis and Buddy Barrow Williams interviews.
Clyde learned Hammett hadn’t followed through: Knight with Davis, Bonnie and Clyde, pp. 46–47; John Neal Phillips interview.
The next afternoon, Clyde, Russell, and Rogers: Knight with Davis, Bonnie and Clyde, p. 47; Jonathan Davis interview.
immediate communication was always a problem: Mitchel Roth interview.
The crimes in Electra, Kaufman, and Celina were now linked: Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, p. 97.
He soon learned that Fults had been moved: Ibid., p. 98.
Bonnie was in less danger: Cumie Barrow unpublished manuscript; John Neal Phillips interview.
Texas juries were notorious for leniency toward women: Archie McDonald and Cissy Stewart Lale interviews.
So Clyde decided that acquiring a new bankroll: Jonathan Davis interview.
Marie, Clyde’s little sister, recalled: Marie Barrow Scoma with Davis unpublished manuscript, p. 51.
Bonnie swore she was through with Clyde forever: Fortune, ed., Fugitives, p. 89.
Emma considered bailing her out: Ibid., pp. 81–82.
Bonnie whiled away the hours writing poetry: Jonathan Davis interview.
All ten poems reflect: The original Poems from the Other Side manuscript, made available from the collection of David Gainsborough Roberts. All excerpts cited in this chapter are directly quoted from this source.
Emma Parker read the poem: Fortune, ed., Fugitives, pp. 82–83.
Emma could be forgiven for near-hysteria: Knight with Davis, Bonnie and Clyde, p. 187.
it would have been worse had Emma seen: Jonathan Davis interview. There is no evidence Bonnie let her mother read all the poetry she had written in jail.
Emma Parker believed her sweet daughter was corrupted by Clyde: Jonathan Davis and Ken Holmes interviews.
He thought of a likely target: Marie Barrow Scoma with Davis unpublished manuscript, p. 52. Marie Barrow believed it was possible that J. N. Bucher’s son was in on the robbery with Clyde, setting up the robbery of his parents’ store in return for a cut of the proceeds. There is no way to be certain.
Clyde noticed Bucher’s wife, Madora, staring at him: Marie Barrow Scoma with Davis unpublished manuscript, p. 52; John Neal Phillips interview.
Rogers and Russell wouldn’t pass up: Jonathan Davis interview.
Proprietors of small-town Texas general stores: Cissy Stewart Lale interview.
Clyde “felt the job was jinxed”: Marie Barrow Scoma with Davis unpublished manuscript, p. 52.
Russell and Rogers banged on the door: The description of this crime is mostly taken from Knight with Davis, Bonnie and Clyde, pp. 50–51, and the unpublished memoirs of Cumie Barrow and Marie Barrow Scoma (pp. 52–54), since both relied on Clyde’s description of the events. Alternate theories on how J. N. Bucher died include Mrs. Bucher diving for the gun in the safe, with her husband dying in the resulting shootout, and the fatal bullet accidentally ricocheting into Bucher’s body when Ted Rogers tried to shoot open the store safe. As with why Buch
er’s store was chosen for the holdup in the first place, there’s no way to really know.
under Texas law: Cissy Stewart Lale interviews.
she immediately picked him out: Knight with Davis, Bonnie and Clyde, p. 52.
Because of their frequent arrests together: Jonathan Davis interview.
Texas governor Ross Sterling…authorized a $250 reward: Marie Barrow Scoma with Davis unpublished manuscript, p. 57.
astronomical at the time: Mitchel Roth interview.
Chapter 10: Murder in Stringtown
The killing of Atoka County undersheriff Eugene Moore may be the best documented of any incident in the short, violent criminal career of Clyde Barrow. It occurred in front of dozens of eyewitnesses who told their stories to police and newspaper reporters. Clyde Barrow talked about the shootout at length with his family, though he tried to put most of the blame on Raymond Hamilton. Marie Barrow Scoma and Cumie Barrow wrote extensively about Stringtown, and what Clyde said happened there, in their respective unpublished memoirs.
But the best, most detailed account comes directly from someone who was there. In June 2000 I met in Stringtown with Duke Ellis, who as a teenager was playing guitar at the dance when all the shooting started. He still had vivid memories of Sheriff Charley Maxwell telling him during a band break that he was about to arrest three well-dressed strangers for drinking before “the boys” punched them out for flirting with local girls. Duke very objectively described everything that subsequently happened, including his part in carrying the gravely wounded sheriff to a nearby house and watching while the local bootlegger poured raw whiskey down his throat in a successful effort to keep him alive.
Almost every book about Bonnie and Clyde has a slightly different version of how, when, and why Sheriff Maxwell approached Clyde and Raymond Hamilton. Several accounts have Maxwell as well as Eugene Moore dying in the battle. In fact, Maxwell survived and was an honored guest at Raymond Hamilton’s execution on May 10, 1935. Time can affect any memory, and since Duke Ellis died in 2004 I wasn’t able to conduct a follow-up interview with him just to see if he’d tell the same story twice. But he was there, so I have given credence to his version of events.