Jeff Guinn
Page 50
Many of the people in Bienville Parish, Louisiana: All the details in this chapter about Ivy and Ava Methvin’s background and personalities, and the family’s version of Henry’s arrest and imprisonment, are taken from Terry Whitehead’s video interviews with Clemmie, Percy, and Willie Methvin.
In 1934, TB was considered a mysterious, monstrous affliction: Archie McDonald, Wayne Carter, and Boots Hinton interviews.
Clyde’s reservation about the Cole place: Jonathan Davis and Sandy Jones interviews. In her unpublished memoir, Marie Barrow Scoma writes that Clyde and Bonnie didn’t begin using the Cole house as a daytime resting place until May. But Bienville County sheriff Henderson Jordan told an interviewer that he hoped to trap Clyde and Bonnie there as early as March.
The parish itself was in the heart: Boots Hinton, Virginia Becker, and Olen Walter Jackson interviews.
John Joyner requested a top-secret meeting: Henderson Jordan interview with Dr. Glenn Jordan, October 12, 1958; Ava Methvin, Methvin v. Oklahoma A-9060.
the Barrow Gang had twice come to Bienville Parish for visits: Ava Methvin, Methvin v. Oklahoma A-9060.
Jordan, a country cop who had no background in the law: Henderson Jordan interview with Dr. Glenn Jordan, October 12, 1958.
Hamer said later that Jordan “agreed”: Jenkins and Frost, “I’m Frank Hamer,” p. 222.
On March 24, Kindell met with Jordan again: Marie Barrow Scoma with Davis unpublished manuscript, pp. 182–83.
Chapter 28: Bloody Easter
Dallas journalist Bill Sloan generously shared details from his interview with now deceased Dallas County deputy Bob Alcorn about the Grapevine murder site. Marie Barrow Scoma’s unpublished memoir provided Clyde’s perspective of what happened on April 1, 1934.
There is some disagreement whether Joe Palmer came to Dallas that day with Clyde, Bonnie, and Henry Methvin. In her memoir, Marie Barrow Scoma insists Palmer wasn’t with her brother at all that day, but in Fugitives Bonnie’s mother, Emma, is equally adamant that it was Joe Palmer who hitchhiked into Dallas to tell the Barrows and Parkers that Clyde and Bonnie were waiting for them in Grapevine. Somebody’s lying, and in this case I believe it is Marie. Because the premeditated murder of Wade McNabb undoubtedly didn’t jibe with Marie’s constant portrayal of her brother as someone who killed only when he felt he was cornered, I think she simply tried to mention Joe Palmer in her memoir as seldom as possible, and, when she did, to declare that Clyde really had very little to do with him.
Henry yanked wire from a fence: Fortune, ed., Fugitives, p. 159.
This time, it was Clyde who made the suggestion: Knight with Davis, Bonnie and Clyde, p. 142.
Local authorities decided it was a Barrow Gang job: Marie Barrow Scoma with Davis unpublished manuscript, p. 172.
Clyde, Bonnie, and Henry met with the Barrows and Parkers: Cumie Barrow unpublished manuscript.
Since leaving the Barrow Gang on March 6: Underwood, Depression Desperado, pp. 50–55.
Joe Palmer hitchhiked back into West Dallas: Knight with Davis, Bonnie and Clyde, p. 145; Fortune, ed., Fugitives, p. 159.
Bonnie got out of the car to play for a while: Fortune, ed., Fugitives, pp. 160–61.
Bonnie chewed on bits of lemon peel: Bill Sloan interview.
Clyde swore to his family later: Marie Barrow Scoma with Davis unpublished manuscript, pp. 176–80.
when Dallas County deputy Bob Alcorn arrived on the scene: Bill Sloan interview.
That news alarmed Floyd Hamilton: Underwood, Depression Desperado, p. 55.
Clyde drove away from the murder site: Marie Barrow Scoma with Davis unpublished manuscript, p. 177.
These stories devastated Clyde’s mother, Cumie: Jonathan Davis interview.
Chapter 29: Hamer Forms a Posse
Two long interviews with Oklahoma historian Terry Whitehead at his home in Blackwell helped me capture the Barrow Gang–induced nervousness of residents all around the state on April 5 and 6, 1934. Terry, whose taped interviews with surviving members of Henry Methvin’s families have already contributed to previous chapters, also gave me access to his lengthy video session with Lee Phelps of Commerce, Oklahoma. Phelps’s reminiscences are the basis for my description of the terrible weather there on the night of April 5 and the mud that subsequently clogged roadsides.
Jonathan Davis lent me his copy of the April 1934 Texas Bankers Record.
But the outcry against Clyde and Bonnie after Grapevine: Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, pp. 183–84; Knight with Davis, Bonnie and Clyde, p. 147.
Then Hamer approached Smoot Schmid: Like many historians, I’m ambivalent about the veracity of Ambush, the memoir of Dallas County deputy Ted Hinton. The book contains many descriptions that seem either impossible or else wildly exaggerated. According to Hinton, Lee Simmons approached Smoot Schmid and begged him to let Frank Hamer join Hinton and Deputy Bob Alcorn in their pursuit of Clyde and Bonnie. Hinton then writes that he and Alcorn had to bring Hamer up to date after the Dallas County sheriff reluctantly agreed. Yet we know from other documentation that Schmid had been cooperating with Hamer all along, and even sent Alcorn—not Hinton—to Louisiana prior to April 1934 to meet with John Joyner and Henderson Jordan to discuss a possible pardon for Henry Methvin. So I’m discounting Hinton’s version of how he and Alcorn joined Hamer’s posse. But I’m accepting his account of how the four posse members used two cars and tracked the Barrow Gang into Oklahoma. It’s well documented that the posse went there in pursuit of Clyde and Bonnie right after the shootings in Grapevine on April 1. Hinton didn’t always stretch the truth or completely alter the facts.
But there is also a discrepancy about when and where the four-man posse formed in “I’m Frank Hamer.” Authors John H. Jenkins and H. Gordon Frost based their descriptions of Hamer’s pursuit of Clyde and Bonnie on interviews granted by Hamer to journalists and historians after the ambush in Gibsland. Hamer deliberately misled them about dates and locations to conceal the role played by the Methvin family. Jenkins and Frost quoted Hamer as stating he “traveled alone” hunting the Barrow Gang until April 10, when he met with L. G. Phares and agreed to let Manny Gault join him. Shortly after that, Hamer added, he met for the first time with Henderson Jordan in Bienville Parish, Louisiana. But Jordan and several members of the extended Methvin family agreed that Hamer made his deal with the Methvins in Louisiana in March, and on April 8, the Daily News Record in Miami, Oklahoma, reported that Hamer and his posse were in the state pursuing the Barrow Gang.
Almost immediately, the Texans discovered: Hinton, Ambush, pp. 138–39. The entire scene in Durant is taken from this source.
On Thursday afternoon, April 5, rumors spread: Ibid., pp. 139–40.
Some kept their children home from school: Terry Whitehead interview.
It wasn’t easy traveling by car anywhere in Oklahoma on April 5: Terry Whitehead interview of Lee Phelps.
Chapter 30: Another Murder
Terry Whitehead’s video interview with Lee Phelps provides an exceptional eyewitness account of the shooting of Commerce town constable Cal Campbell on April 6, 1934. Following his release after being held about fifteen hours as a hostage by the Barrow Gang, Commerce chief of police Percy Boyd twice described the not altogether unpleasant ordeal—first to reporters immediately afterward, and later in testimony at the spring 1935 harboring trial in Dallas of many members of the extended Barrow and Parker families. This is one of the best-documented events in the twenty-six-month history of the Barrow Gang. Marie Barrow Scoma, writing many years later and always ready to blame everything on the man she called “Henry the Rat,” claimed in her unpublished memoir that Boyd and Campbell drove to State Road after hearing someone in a parked car—Henry Methvin—was threatening passersby with a rifle. But Boyd’s testimony was clear—he and Campbell were responding to a report of possible drunks parked along the road.
Just after 9 A.M. on Friday, April 6: Terry Whitehead interview; Knight with Davis, Bonnie and Clyde, pp
. 148–49.
Boyd said later that Cal Campbell apparently thought he saw a gun: Knight with Davis, Bonnie and Clyde, p. 148.
Sixteen-year-old Lee Phelps, working in the tower: Terry Whitehead interview of Lee Phelps.
After Grapevine, Clyde was taking no chances with Henry: Marie Barrow Scoma with Davis unpublished manuscript, p. 185.
Clyde noticed several onlookers: Terry Whitehead interview of Lee Phelps; Knight with Davis, Bonnie and Clyde, p. 149.
He had a length of chain: Percy Boyd said a chain was used to haul Clyde’s Ford out of the ditch. Lee Phelps thought it might have been a rope.
It had been almost forty minutes: Terry Whitehead interview.
Clyde exaggerated slightly as he screamed: Knight with Davis, Bonnie and Clyde, p. 149.
Percy Boyd expected to die: Ramsey, On the Trail of Bonnie and Clyde Then and Now, pp. 224–26; Terry Whitehead interview; Terry Whitehead interview of Lee Phelps.
So Clyde could break into a gum machine: Terry Whitehead interview.
Clyde and Bonnie were concerned that Boyd’s shirt was stained with blood: Ramsey, On the Trail of Bonnie and Clyde Then and Now, p. 226.
Bonnie had even asked Boyd for a favor: Knight with Davis, Bonnie and Clyde, p. 150.
It was a tremendous opportunity: Terry Whitehead interview; Knight with Davis, Bonnie and Clyde, p. 150.
Chapter 31: The Letters of April
In print and in conversation, Marie Barrow Scoma vehemently denied the letters to Amon Carter and Henry Ford were written by her brother. While it’s fun to think they were, Marie was almost undoubtedly right. Clyde wouldn’t have signed a bogus middle name to the Ford letter, and the Carter letter was mailed from the small North Texas hamlet of Decatur on a date when the Barrow Gang had fled the state for Oklahoma following the Grapevine murders. Still, many historians have accepted them as Clyde’s handiwork. No one will ever know for certain.
Much of the information about Raymond Hamilton’s activities and arrest in April 1934 comes from Public Enemy Number One, the memoir of his brother Floyd. Floyd Hamilton’s book exaggerates his relationship with Clyde Barrow, but the Hamilton brothers were close and it seems logical that Floyd would have known how Raymond felt after being wrongly associated with the Grapevine killings.
he wasn’t going to let the same thing happen again: Hamilton, Public Enemy Number One, pp. 37–38.
Even Percy Boyd had assumed: Ramsey, On the Trail of Bonnie and Clyde Then and Now, p. 226.
they holed up in a small house: Marie Barrow Scoma with Davis unpublished manuscript, pp. 185–86.
Clyde’s family swore it wasn’t authentic: Jonathan Davis interview.
Henry Methvin was sent ahead by train: Fortune, ed., Fugitives, p. 163.
As soon as the fugitives reunited: Ibid., pp. 164–65.
he and Bonnie were finally aware: Marie Barrow Scoma with Davis unpublished manuscript, pp. 191–92; Jonathan Davis interview.
Lee Simmons told reporters later: Jenkins and Frost, “I’m Frank Hamer,” p. 245.
the couple didn’t still sleep in the Cole house: Wayne Carter, Sandy Jones, and Robert Brunson interviews.
Raymond was broke again: Underwood, Depression Desperado, pp. 73–74.
Bonnie bought Palmer a new suit: Knight with Davis, Bonnie and Clyde, p. 156.
The Ford was Cordoba gray: Sandy Jones interview.
Chapter 32: The Noose Tightens
In August 1934 American Detective magazine published a lengthy interview with Lee Simmons in which the Texas prison general manager discussed in detail Frank Hamer’s pursuit of Bonnie and Clyde. Simmons wasn’t completely open—he refused to be specific about how the Methvin family was involved.
On October 12, 1958, Henderson Jordan granted a rare interview to Dr. Glenn Jordan. In it, he was candid about Ivy Methvin’s reluctant cooperation after Hamer decided to ambush Clyde and Bonnie in Bienville Parish.
Copies of the log kept during the April 18–30 tap of the Barrow family phone are available through both the Dallas public library system and the city of Dallas archives. They are fascinating. Clyde’s nephew Buddy Barrow Williams explained the family code words and names to me.
Schmid stepped up harassment of the Barrows: Hinton, Ambush, pp. 146–47; Fortune, ed., Fugitives, p. 165.
the Barrows and Parkers had long assumed: Buddy Barrow Williams interview.
Ted Hinton wrote later: Hinton, Ambush, p. 145.
Jordan invited Kindell instead of Hamer to come to Arcadia: Marie Barrow Scoma with Davis unpublished manuscript, p. 189.
Dowis didn’t make it easy for the lawmen: Steele with Marie Barrow Scoma, The Family Story of Bonnie and Clyde, p. 117.
Dowis reluctantly issued a pair of BARs: In Ambush, Ted Hinton wrote that Dowis handed over a single BAR. But in an interview with me in July 2000, Dowis insisted he lent two BARs to the posse, and that he was subsequently informed both were used in the May 23 ambush outside Gibsland.
Chapter 33: Final Meetings
The description of Clyde’s May 7 meeting with his father, Henry, comes from two sources: the unpublished manuscripts of Cumie Barrow and Marie Barrow Scoma. The accounts in each are practically identical.
Joe Palmer didn’t go with them: Knight with Davis, Bonnie and Clyde, p. 158.
They offered local kids rides: Orville Hancock interview.
Bonnie was in a contemplative mood: Fortune, ed., Fugitives, pp. 165–69.
Bonnie was probably referring to the National Recovery Administration: It is also possible she meant the National Rifle Association, which was in existence in 1934. But the line “We’re not working nights” makes it far more likely that the reference was to the government office established by Franklin Roosevelt to create better working conditions and job compensation for working-class Americans.
On Monday night, May 7: Cumie Barrow unpublished manuscript; Marie Barrow Scoma with Davis unpublished manuscript, pp. 203–5. Some books about Bonnie and Clyde state the meeting between Clyde and Henry occurred on May 9, but Cumie and Marie agree in their memoirs that it was May 7.
Chapter 34: A New Line of Work
On Friday, May 25, 1934, two days after Clyde and Bonnie died in the Gibsland ambush, the front page of the Dallas Dispatch included a story with the headline “Barrow Planned Jail Break: U.S. Marshal Reveals Plot for Delivery of Stevens Gang.” According to the article, Marshal J. R. (Red) Wright had learned O. D. Stevens agreed to pay Clyde Barrow $18,000 for breaking himself and partners W. D. May and M. T. Howard out of the Tarrant County jail. Wright told the Dispatch reporter (no specific byline appeared on the story) that “Barrow was to appear at night under guise of an officer seeking lodging for a prisoner…Once inside the jail, they were to take charge of [the] guards and free the prisoners.” The fact that Marshal Wright publicly acknowledged the Clyde-Stevens deal is significant. No lawman in the Dallas–Fort Worth area during that era was more esteemed by his peers. In Ambush, Dallas County deputy Ted Hinton described Wright as “one of the giants of Southwest law enforcement,” and in his memoir Hinton was not given to praising too many others besides himself.
The article was only two columns long, and it was dwarfed by the main headline and story of the day: Emma Parker had sat up all Thursday night by the coffin of her daughter Bonnie, who was to be buried on Friday morning. The purported Stevens-Barrow deal was immediately forgotten. There were no follow-up stories in the Dallas Dispatch, the Morning News, or any other area newspapers. It appears that once Clyde and Bonnie were dead, the fact that Clyde had cut a deal to free a Fort Worth criminal kingpin was considered of no further interest.
On May 7, 1934, Henry Barrow saw that his son Clyde had a suitcase full of money, too much to be the $700 stolen by the Barrow Gang in Everly, Iowa, on May 3. Between the Everly robbery and the May 23 ambush outside Gibsland, Louisiana, where Clyde and Bonnie died, there is no record of the gang committing any other holdups. I believe it’s because they had the money from S
tevens, and Clyde spent the interim planning the Tarrant County jail breakout attempt.
We know that in mid-April, Clyde told a gathering of Barrows and Parkers outside West Dallas that he and Bonnie wanted to buy land in Louisiana that they could use for family visits. Bonnie’s mother, Emma, ridiculed the idea in Fugitives, saying everyone knew the couple would never have that kind of money, but let them talk about it because it was good to see them so excited about something. On May 7 in West Dallas, Henry Barrow, who was illiterate, got the impression that the two papers Clyde wanted to sign had something to do with property or money. Since Clyde couldn’t be involved in any public land transaction, my best guess is that he wanted to sign and give to his parents a last will and testament leaving them all his possessions, including the money from Stevens. The $18,000 could not have been traced back to any robbery committed by Clyde.
The remote, well-guarded farm property: James Willett interview.
a month later when someone organized: Jonathan Davis interview.
Everybody in the Dallas–Fort Worth criminal underground: Buddy Barrow Williams and Jonathan Davis interviews.
There’s evidence Clyde tried to hire: Division of Investigation/U.S. Department of Justice Document No. 62-619, memorandum dated July 23, 1934, regarding possible April 1934 meeting of Arthur “Pretty Boy” Floyd and the Barrow Gang.
On May 9, Hamer and his posse: Marie Barrow Scoma with Davis unpublished manuscript, p. 207.
Chapter 35: Haven
Video interviews by Oklahoma historian Terry Whitehead with Percy, Willie, and Clemmie Methvin are integral to this chapter. All three provided colorful descriptions of Methvin family interactions with Clyde and Bonnie during May 1934. Clemmie and Willie are now deceased and at nearly one hundred years of age Percy Methvin no longer receives visitors, so the Whitehead videos are the best possible record available. I also relied on testimony from Ava and Henry Methvin during Henry’s September 1934 murder trial in Oklahoma.