Jeff Guinn
Page 51
Robert Brunson took me to the campsite outside Mangham where, as a fifteen-year-old, he encountered Clyde and Bonnie.
During the first three weeks in May 1934: Terry Whitehead interviews with Clemmie and Willie Methvin.
Clyde’s sister Marie and other Barrow family members said later: Jonathan Davis and Buddy Barrow Williams interviews.
The only member of the extended Methvin clan: Terry Whitehead interview with Clemmie Methvin.
Hamer and his posse could still have jumped the couple: Ivy Methvin and Henry Methvin, Methvin v. Oklahoma A-9060.
Ralph Fults received an unsigned postcard: Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, p. 5.
Around mid-May, he did set up: Robert Brunson interview.
Now Floyd was informed he was also being detained: Hamilton, Public Enemy Number One, p. 48.
On Saturday, May 19, she was arrested there and extradited: The Truth About Bonnie and Clyde as Told by Billie Jean Parker.
Marie was an impulsive girl: Jonathan Davis interview.
on this same fateful weekend: Hinton, Ambush, p. 157; Jonathan Davis and Boots Hinton interviews.
Chapter 36: The Beginning of the End
Beginning with the last weekend of their lives, there are several convoluted, conflicting versions of what Clyde, Bonnie, the Hamer posse, the Methvin family, and Bienville Parish sheriff Henderson Jordan did, and when. With the exception of Percy Methvin, none of the participants is still living. It’s necessary to read through their memoirs and interviews and try to piece together the most logical sequence of events. Each had strong motivation to represent the final days of the Barrow Gang in a misleading way.
Frank Hamer routinely lied about details of cases to protect his sources. In this case, he did not want to reveal his agreement with Ivy Methvin, so he concocted a simple story about setting an ambush for Clyde and Bonnie in the woods outside Gibsland where they maintained a “mail drop” or spot where friends could leave them messages. According to Hamer, he and his posse drove into Louisiana on May 22, set up across the road from where Clyde and Bonnie were bound to come to check for messages, and shot them when they did on the morning of May 23.
In Ambush, Ted Hinton claimed the Hamer posse arrived in Shreveport on Saturday, May 19, discovered on Monday that over the weekend Henry Methvin had split off from Clyde and Bonnie at the Majestic Café, drove into Arcadia where they met Henderson Jordan for the first time, set up the ambush on Sailes–Jamestown road on Monday night, and waited there until Wednesday morning, when Clyde and Bonnie finally drove by. Hinton also wrote that Ivy Methvin never cooperated with the posse in advance. Instead, when he drove along the road on the morning of May 23, the posse captured him and handcuffed him to a tree to prevent him from warning Clyde and Bonnie. After the ambush, Methvin threatened to sue the officers unless they granted his son a pardon from the Texas state government. Possibly Hinton was trying to protect Ivy Methvin, too. His scenario is demonstrably wrong—testimony in Henry Methvin’s subsequent trial for murder in Oklahoma clearly established how Frank Hamer made his deal with the Methvin family, and that the posse was only in place beside the Sailes–Jamestown road for a single night.
When Henderson Jordan broke his silence on the subject of the ambush in a single interview in October 1958, his version was even stranger than Hinton’s. According to Jordan, the Texas posse had moved its operations to Shreveport and was waiting there when he contacted them on Tuesday, May 22, to say it was time to spring the trap on Clyde and Bonnie. They met that night and Jordan led the Texans to the spot on the Sailes–Jamestown road that he had chosen for the ambush. Jordan clearly did not want to admit Hamer came to him in Gibsland on Monday and demanded that the plan move forward. And, by claiming he only learned from Ivy Methvin on Tuesday that an ambush was possible, Jordan didn’t have to explain why he dithered all day on Monday, trying to delay until he could contact Division of Investigation Special Agent L. A. Kindell in New Orleans.
We’re now privy to enough information to piece together some of Clyde and Bonnie’s movements on Monday and Tuesday independent from what Hamer, Hinton, and Jordan said and wrote. In their interviews with Terry Whitehead, Percy and Willie Methvin confirmed that Clyde and Bonnie met Henry Methvin at Black Lake on the night of either Monday, May 21, or Tuesday, May 22. FBI file I.C. #26-31672, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, also notes that “it was learned Bonnie and Clyde, with some of the Methvins, had staged a party at Black Lake, Louisiana on the night of May 21, 1934.” Ava and Henry Methvin’s testimony in Henry’s Oklahoma murder trial reveals that on the afternoon of May 22, Clyde and Bonnie arrived at the Methvin home looking for Henry. They were told by Ivy Methvin that they should come back around nine the next morning, and Henry would be there. This accounts for the original plan—Bonnie and Clyde would be ambushed on their way to the Methvins’ on Tuesday afternoon—and the final scenario—they were ambushed going back to the Methvins’ on Wednesday morning.
This is independently corroborated by Robert Brunson. On the morning of May 22, he met Clyde and Bonnie in the palmetto outside Mangham, Louisiana. They told him they were leaving in the afternoon to go “up around Arcadia.” Clearly, they left Black Lake on the night of the 21st, camped out near Mangham, and planned to return to Bienville Parish the next day to meet Henry at his parents’ home. When they arrived, Henry wasn’t there. As requested by Henderson Jordan, Ivy Methvin told them to come back for Henry in the morning around 9 A.M. That allowed Jordan and the Texas lawmen to set up their ambush on the Sailes–Jamestown road, the only route south from Gibsland and Highway 80 that Clyde and Bonnie could take to get there. They knew when the couple would be coming—around 9 A.M.—and the road they would be taking.
In a few instances, details from Ambush and Henderson Jordan’s 1958 interview still ring true, and I have incorporated them where indicated. Mostly, I rely on Terry Whitehead’s interviews with Percy, Willie, and Clemmie Methvin, the testimony by Ava and Henry Methvin about their deal with Frank Hamer, and the fresh, fascinating reminiscences of Robert Brunson, which provide the basis for much of the next chapter.
On Sunday night, May 20: Henry Methvin testified in Oklahoma that he alerted Ava and Ivy to his pending escape from Clyde and Bonnie on the night before they went to Shreveport. Neither Ava nor Henry were certain of the exact date. Methvin v. Oklahoma A-9060.
They had laundry to drop off: Willie and Percy Methvin both thought Henry might have eluded Clyde and Bonnie at a dry cleaner’s instead of the Majestic Café. Terry Whitehead interviews with Willie and Percy Methvin.
On Monday Hamer telephoned: In Ambush, p. 158, Ted Hinton writes that Hamer called Shreveport chief of police Bryant, with no first name given. On May 21, 1934, the Shreveport chief of police was named Dennis Bazer.
the man in the photo had the same eyes and pimply face: Hinton, Ambush, p. 159.
When the Texas lawmen were gone: Jonathan Davis interview; Marie Barrow Scoma with Davis unpublished manuscript, pp. 208–10.
he and some of his relations met Clyde and Bonnie out at Black Lake: Terry Whitehead interview with Percy Methvin; FBI document I.C. #26-31672.
They drove to their camp in Mangham instead: Robert Brunson interview.
Chapter 37: “Do You Know Any Bank Robbers?”
When I interviewed him in his home in Mangham on July 28, 2007, eighty-nine-year-old Robert Brunson wasn’t completely certain whether he met Clyde and Bonnie on Monday, May 21, or Tuesday, May 22, though he thought it was probably Tuesday. Based on what can be ascertained about their movements, it was on Tuesday. That means Brunson was one of the last people to have a long conversation with them before they died.
All the details of this morning meeting out in the palmetto come directly from my interview with Brunson. He didn’t just tell me what happened—he and his daughter put me in their truck and drove me out to the spot. Seventy-four years later, Brunson led me through the brush and showed me where his dog Black Boy “bayed” C
lyde and Bonnie. The narrow dirt wagon track remains intact.
Harrison Hamer, the great-nephew of Frank Hamer, granted me a lengthy interview and discussed what “Captain Frank” told family members afterward about the Gibsland ambush. Jonathan Davis elaborated on the Barrow family’s opinions of what happened, and Henderson Jordan’s 1958 interview provided a few details. Key information was gleaned from the Oklahoma murder trial testimony of Ava and Henry Methvin. Ava told the jury how she and Ivy “set up” Bonnie and Clyde for an ambush on Wednesday morning, May 23.
In Ambush, Ted Hinton insisted that the Sailes–Jamestown road ambush stakeout lasted two nights instead of one, beginning on Monday instead of Tuesday. Beyond Hinton’s own word, there is absolutely no other evidence of this. Hinton’s two-day description is particularly contradicted by Frank Hamer’s phone call to his family on Tuesday night, made just before the posse left for the ambush site. According to Hinton, they were already crouched in the backcountry brush at that time, and there weren’t any telephones out on the berm. Ted Hinton would later prove himself to be a good man and loyal friend to the surviving Barrows—why he would invent a story about being at the ambush site two nights instead of one is a question I’m not able to answer.
On the morning of Tuesday, May 22: Robert Brunson interview.
After Clyde took a picture of the boy with Bonnie: Brunson told me that “thirty years later or more I got a letter…and the negatives of those two pictures were in the letter. I did away with them and the letter. I didn’t want to be involved with the Barrow Gang no way. I figure after the ambush, [Bonnie’s] family was given all her personal things and they was stuck in a box in an attic or something for years. Then somebody looked in the box, saw the camera had film in it, and got that film developed. They saw my address and sent the negatives. I guess I should have kept them.”
whether Clyde and Bonnie would drive to Ivy and Ava Methvin’s place: Ava Methvin, Methvin v. Oklahoma A-9060.
This unpaved backcountry byway was what locals termed “a three-rut”: Boots Hinton interview.
He was staying with his cousin Willie: Terry Whitehead interview with Willie Methvin.
Ivy Methvin came outside: Ava Methvin trial testimony, Methvin v. Oklahoma A-9060.
Sheriff Jordan finally gave up trying to contact L. A. Kindell: Marie Barrow Scoma with Davis unpublished manuscript, pp. 208–10.
Jordan called Frank Hamer at the Inn Hotel: Henderson Jordan interview with Dr. Glenn Jordan, October 12, 1958; Hinton, Ambush, p. 157.
Hamer didn’t believe Clyde would ever give up: Harrison Hamer interview.
Jordan insisted that the elder Methvin be there: Henderson Jordan interview with Dr. Glenn Jordan, October 12, 1958.
on Tuesday night he called his family back in Texas: Harrison Hamer interview.
Chapter 38: The Setup
Frank Hamer, Ted Hinton, and Henderson Jordan all gave wildly varying accounts of the ambush. The six-man posse was essentially split into three camps—Hamer and former Ranger Manny Gault, Dallas County deputies Hinton and Bob Alcorn, and Bienville Parrish lawmen Jordan and Prentiss Oakley. They did not like or trust each other. In describing the hours before the bullets started flying, I’ve picked through all three conflicting versions, but have also relied heavily on the research of Sandy Jones of Fort Collins, Colorado. Several years ago, Jones received permission to conduct a hands-on study of the so-called Death Car, the 1934 Ford V-8 in which Clyde and Bonnie died on the morning of May 23, 1934. Jones then commissioned an exact replica of the car, took it to the ambush site outside Gibsland, and conducted exhaustive tests to estimate as exactly as possible what happened there. He established, to his satisfaction and mine, who stood where on the hill that morning, what shots were fired from which angles, and how long the ambush lasted from the first shot to the last.
Hinton claimed only one Browning Automatic Rifle was used that morning—by him—but my interview with Colonel Henry Dowis established that the posse had two BARs, and Jones now believes there probably was a second BAR in use.
Jones also provided information about the other guns used in the ambush, including Prentiss Oakley’s choice of weapon.
The six-man posse reached the hilltop: Henderson Jordan interview with Dr. Glenn Jordan, October 12, 1958.
The two BARs from the Dallas state guard armory: Sandy Jones interview.
there were physical discomforts on the hilltop, too: Hinton, Ambush, pp. 163–64.
The six men squatted about ten feet apart: The order in which the members of the posse sat and waited on the hilltop is based on Sandy Jones’s research at the ambush site. According to Ted Hinton in Ambush, the order was Hinton, Alcorn, Oakley, Jordan, Gault, and Hamer. Everyone agreed later that Hamer anchored the line.
They each hefted weapons selected especially for the ambush: Sandy Jones and Bob Fischer, “It’s Death to Bonnie and Clyde,” OklahombreS, Winter 1999. Jones originally believed the posse used only one BAR during the ambush. After reviewing the testimony of Colonel Weldon Dowis, he now believes there may have been two.
it’s likely that Jordan temporarily deputized: Ted Hinton wrote in Ambush that Jordan failed to do this, rendering illegal the actions of the Texas lawmen that morning. It seems extremely unlikely that a man as meticulous as Frank Hamer would have ignored something so obvious.
Hamer liked and trusted him more than he did Hinton: Harrison Hamer interview. Hamer’s disdain for Hinton is clear from the stories about the ambush that he told his family. It seems clear from Boots Hinton’s version of events that day that the feeling was mutual.
According to subsequent Oklahoma court testimony by his wife, Ava: Methvin v. Oklahoma, A-9060.
the posse helped Ivy position his truck: Jones and Fischer, “It’s Death to Bonnie and Clyde.”
Finally Jordan snarled: Henderson Jordan interview with Dr. Glenn Jordan, October 12, 1958.
Each time, Methvin had to stumble down the hill: Ibid.
Hamer had no doubt he was coming: In Ambush, Hinton wrote that the posse was ready to give up when Clyde hadn’t arrived by 9 A.M., and decided to wait no longer than thirty more minutes. To put it mildly, this seems unlikely.
“This is him,” Hinton whispered to Alcorn: Hinton, Ambush, p. 168.
Ivy Methvin hustled down the hill: Where Ivy Methvin spent the ambush is a source of ongoing contention. Hinton insists in Ambush that Ivy spent the entire time handcuffed to a tree on the hilltop. Buddy Barrow Williams is certain Ivy never was near Clyde and Bonnie during all the shooting. But Willie and Percy Methvin both told Terry Whitehead years later that it was miraculous their uncle didn’t suffer a single scratch from the posse’s barrage while he was down on the road near Clyde and Bonnie in their car.
Chapter 39: The Ambush
Because Frank Hamer, Henderson Jordan, and Ted Hinton gave such varying descriptions of the ambush, I rely here for the most part on the investigation conducted in 1998 by Sandy Jones, who examined the Death Car and subsequently staged his own ambush reenactment using a car identical to the Ford V-8 sedan driven by Clyde on May 23, 1934. Almost all the specific details come from Jones—which ambush participant stood where on the hill, why Clyde must have come to a complete stop beside Ivy Methvin’s truck, how Hamer leaned over the Ford and fired several final shots into Bonnie’s body. Jones reenacted the ambush six different times, and on each occasion sixteen seconds elapsed between the first and final shots.
Other details come from interviews with Jonathan Davis, Buddy Barrow Williams, and Walter Olen Jackson, Ted Johnson, Robert Pitts Thomas, and Janice Thomas. Jackson, Johnson, and the Thomases all lived in and around Gibsland in May 1934. Their collective comments are the basis for my statement that “propinquity never entirely erased trepidation.”
The locals eating breakfast at Ma Canfield’s: Ted Johnson, Robert Pitts Thomas, and Janice Thomas interviews.
Afterward, the people in the café would disagree: Jonathan Davis interview.
I
vy Methvin, who got an uncomfortably close look: Terry Whitehead interview with Willie Methvin.
Bonnie was wearing a red dress: Sandy Jones believes the dress might have been blue, since Bonnie’s tam was that color. Jones believes Bonnie’s massive blood loss fooled witnesses into thinking her dress was red. That might be a stretch.
the young deputy couldn’t control himself: Though everything else about their versions of what happened during the ambush might differ, all the posse members recalled that Prentiss Oakley fired the first shots. Henderson Jordan said later that he was just calling out to Clyde and Bonnie to surrender when Oakley stood and fired. Bob Alcorn said that Oakley killed Clyde just as Frank Hamer shouted for Clyde and Bonnie to give themselves up. Probably, no such offer was made. The lawmen didn’t want it to seem that they began shooting without giving the couple the opportunity to surrender.
In those few seconds, Bonnie screamed: This was something else all six lawmen agreed about afterward.
A mile away in the pine forest: Olen Walter Jackson interview.
Ted Hinton told people that: Buddy Barrow Williams interview.
Chapter 40: “Well, We Got Them”
Though Running with Bonnie and Clyde is based on the recollections and career of Ralph Fults, author John Neal Phillips also wrote at length and impressively about events in Arcadia following the ambush of Clyde and Bonnie. Much of the material gathered by Phillips is included here. Interviews with Virginia Becker, Jonathan Davis, Bill Palmer, and Boots Hinton were also helpful. Despite the many questionable passages in their books, Jan Fortune’s Fugitives and Ted Hinton’s Ambush do contain small, telling details about the afternoon of May 23 and the confusion surrounding Clyde’s and Bonnie’s funerals. Material from Marie Barrow Scoma’s unpublished memoir is also critical to this chapter.