My Life with Bonnie and Clyde

by Barrow, Blanche Caldwell

  33. W. D. Jones said Barrow always dominated the decision-making process. Jones, interview by Biffle, June 1969. Although Clyde Barrow definitely wanted to raid Eastham, whether Hamilton was there or not, it is apparently equally true that he wanted to free Raymond Hamilton, wherever he was. It is therefore possible that Blanche is mixing the memories of two different plans. There is evidence that Barrow was involved in smuggling hacksaw blades to Hamilton in the Hill County jail in January 1933. Dallas Daily Times-Herald, January 8, 1933. It is also known that Barrow was being kept apprized of Hamilton’s whereabouts. Floyd Hamilton interview July 18, 1981; Mildred Hamilton interview, July 18, 1981; Hamilton, Public Enemy No. 1, 27. Clyde Barrow later grew to hate Hamilton, even to the point of plotting to kill him. This rancorous feeling was shared by others in the Barrow circle. “I hope they catch Raymond,” said a Barrow friend in 1934, when Hamilton was a fugitive on the run, “and string him up in front of old lady Hamilton!” When Hamilton was recaptured on April 25, 1934, Cumie Barrow and Emma Parker expressed different feelings, however. “I hate that they caught him [Raymond Hamilton],” said Parker to Barrow. Dallas Police Department telephone wiretap transcript, April 21, 1934, 19; April 27, 1934, 49.

  34. By March 1933, Bonnie had been involved in a wild chase and gun battle in the company of Ralph Fults and Clyde Barrow, had been in and out of jail in Kaufman County, Texas, and was an accessory in a number of other crimes, including the murder of Deputy Sheriff Malcolm Davis on January 6, 1933. By then, Barrow was wanted for five murders—those of John N. Bucher in Hillsboro, Texas, on April 30, 1932; Undersheriff Eugene Moore in Atoka County, Oklahoma, on August 5, 1932; Howard Hall in Sherman, Texas, on October 11, 1932; Doyle Johnson in Temple, Texas, on December 25, 1932; and Deputy Sheriff Malcolm Davis in Dallas County on January 6, 1933. See Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, for the full story.

  35. At that time Matt Caldwell was staying with relatives in Oklahoma.

  36. This is borne out by the fact that Barrow worked in the Camp 1 kitchen at Eastham in his final month there. He started out working the fields with everyone else but was later moved into the kitchen. This same source also stated that Barrow deliberately had himself removed to the fields in January 1931 so he could sustain an injury serious enough to get him sent to the prison hospital in Huntsville. The reason, according to this and other sources, was to see his brother Buck. Henson letter to Kent Biffle, September 2, 1980.

  37. Actually, despite his earlier vow to one day raid Eastham, Clyde Barrow tried to go straight when he was paroled. He first helped his father make preparations to put an addition onto the service station, then traveled to Framingham, Massachusetts, to take a job and get away from his past in Texas. However, he quickly grew homesick and returned to Dallas to work for United Glass and Mirror, one of his former employers. It was then that local authorities began picking Barrow up almost daily, often taking him away from his job. There was a standing policy at the time to basically harass ex-cons. Barrow was never charged with anything, but he soon lost his job. He told his mother, in the presence of Blanche Barrow and Ralph Fults, “Mama, I’m never gonna work again. And I’ll never stand arrest, either. I’m not ever going back to that Eastham hell hole. I’ll die first! I swear it, they’re going to have to kill me.” Fults interview, November 12, 1980; Blanche Barrow interview, November 18, 1984. Barrow’s mother also mentions police harassment in her unpublished manuscript. Mrs. J. W. Hays, wife of former Dallas County Sheriff’s Deputy John W. “Preacher” Hays, said, “if the Dallas police had left that boy [Clyde Barrow] alone, we wouldn’t be talking about him today.” Mrs. J. W. Hays interview, April 20, 1980.

  W. D. Jones later said that he could think of no reason why Buck would have talked with Blanche of a plan to persuade Clyde to reform, “except to satisfy her.” Jones added, “Ain’t no way he could have talked him [Clyde] into it [surrendering]. And I think Buck was old enough to know that.” Jones, interview by Biffle, June 1969.

  38. Clyde had, by this time, been involved in the deaths of six men: Ed Crowder, John Bucher, Undersheriff Eugene Moore, Howard Hall, Doyle Johnson, and Deputy Sheriff Malcolm Davis. He was directly involved in the murders of Crowder, Moore, Johnson, and Davis. Ted Rogers killed Bucher, but Barrow was there. Blanche Barrow interview, November 18, 1984; Fults interviews, November 12, 1980, and February 13, 1982; Jack Hammett interview, February 20, 1982. Barrow maintained he was not involved in the Hall killing. Cumie Barrow, unpublished manuscript.

  39. Ralph Smith Fults, born 1911 in north Texas, was nineteen when he first met Clyde Barrow, chained at the neck in the rear of a transport truck bound for the Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville. Both were then assigned to Eastham where the brutal conditions, substantiated by a 1935 state investigation, brought Fults and Barrow to the point of forming a pact to one day raid the prison farm. In Barrow’s own words to Fults, “I’d like to shoot all these damned guards and turn everybody loose.” Fults, initially unimpressed by the diminutive Barrow, later noted the change he witnessed. “I seen him change from a schoolboy to a rattlesnake. He got real bitter.” Fults interviews, March 8, 1981, and June 12, 1984. This is echoed by members of the Barrow family who noted a distinct difference in Barrow’s personality after his 1932 parole. According to his sister Marie, “Something awful sure must have happened to him in prison, because he sure wasn’t the same person when he got out.” Marie Barrow interview, September 25, 1993. See also, Fortune, Fugitives, 90.

  On April 19, 1932, Ralph Fults and Bonnie Parker were captured near Kemp, Texas, after a brief gun battle that included Clyde Barrow. Barrow escaped. Some sources have asserted that Raymond Hamilton was with Barrow in Kaufman County, but the record is clear that is was Fults. McKinney (Tex.) Daily Courier Gazette, April 21, 1932; Denton Record-Chronicle, April 21, 1932. Eyewitnesses confirm this as well. Legg, letter to Phillips, September 1, 1982. In her unpublished memoir, Clyde’s mother incorrectly lists another outlaw, Ralph Alsup, as the man captured in Kaufman County along with Bonnie Parker. Alsup indeed ran with Clyde Barrow and Ralph Fults. He was part of the Lake Dallas Gang of 1932, but he wasn’t in Kaufman County on April 19, 1932. To distinguish him from Ralph Fults, Blanche Barrow referred to Alsup as the “other Ralph.” Blanche Barrow interview, November 3, 1984. In prison and in the underworld Alsup was known by the nickname “Fuzz,” because of his short haircut. Fults interview, February 1, 1981.

  Later statements by Blanche and others contradict her assertion here that Clyde abandoned Fults in Kaufman County. At the time, Barrow and Fults had a gang with four other members at a hideout on Lake Dallas (Lake Lewisville today). When Fults was shot, Barrow made a break for it with the idea of returning with the others and staging a jailbreak. In 1980, while reading an account of the shoot-out that stated Clyde had abandoned Bonnie and that she was angry about it, Ralph Fults said, “Oh bull! We knew Clyde would go get them other guys and come back for us.” Fults interview, November 5, 1980. This is born out by eyewitness Walter M. Legg, Jr., who was part of the posse that captured Parker and Fults and who stated, “they [Parker and Fults] were real cool and not at all upset.” Legg, letter to Phillips, September 1, 1982. Barrow made at least two trips to the Kaufman County jail, one with Blanche, to reassure Parker and Fults. Blanche Barrow interview, September 24, 1984; Fults interview, February 1, 1981. Fults remembered LC Barrow visiting once as well. See Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, 87–95, for the full story.

  40. Jones later said, “He [Clyde] didn’t mean to do Buck no harm. He just couldn’t see that far ahead.” Of Blanche, he said, “She was a good little girl—good-hearted. She begged Buck not to go. She slipped into a trap. Blanche was just an innocent little girl who got mixed up in something—a love affair. I never knew that love could be so strong.” Jones, interview by Biffle, June 1969.

  41. Some have suggested that Buck Barrow “was virtually an alcoholic.” Milner, Lives and Times of Bonnie and Clyde, 10.

  42. Prohibition was
still in effect in many states, including Texas, although the new Roosevelt administration had already brought about the legalization of 3.2 percent beer and was moving to repeal prohibition altogether. Gordon and Gordon, American Chronicle, 315. Blanche Barrow’s mother, Lillian, and her husband, Reg Horton, were evidently heavy drinkers. In at least one letter to her mother, Blanche makes reference to such: “You may not have taken one drink this year, but I bet you have drunk a half-gallon a day. Ha.” Blanche Barrow, letter to her mother, January 29, 1936. And to Horton she writes, “Mr. Horton, I bet you stayed safe this Xmas, and I know you have stayed drinking.” Blanche Barrow, letter to her mother, January 14, 1933.

  Chapter 4. Joplin

  1. Dallas Daily Times-Herald, 1, 4, 5, 26, and 30, 1933.

  2. Ibid., April 10, 13, and 20, 1933; Tobin, Great Projects, 138–51.

  3. Andrist, American Heritage History, 212.

  4. Dallas Daily Times-Herald, April 3, 1933.

  5. Fairbury (Neb.) News, April 4, 1933; Sunday World-Herald Magazine, March 30, 1969; Dallas Daily Times-Herald, April 14, 1933.

  6. The title to the Marmon was one of the many items recovered after the Joplin shoot-out. The fact that Beaty’s name was associated with the car created some tense moments for the Dallas mechanic. However, when Jopin authorities contacted the Dallas police department, Will Fritz, at the time a detective lieutenant, confirmed that ownership of the car had indeed been legally transferred to Buck Barrow on March 29, 1933. Beaty was in the clear. Joplin (Mo.) Globe, April 16, 1933.

  7. Elvin “Jack” Barrow, the first of the Barrows to move to Dallas, worked at a shop located at 3214 Forest Avenue (today, Martin Luther King Boulevard). Worley’s City Directory, 1931, 1933–34.

  8. According to W. D. Jones, Clyde was also very fond of hot chocolate and marshmallows. “And that’s a pretty good deal right there!” Jones added. Jones, interview by Biffle, June 1969. See also Fortune, Fugitives, 156.

  9. Despite their many robberies, Jones said they were often so broke that they frequently had to “postpone” meals. “Sometimes we didn’t even have enough to get a cup of coffee or a doughnut,” he said. Jones, interview by Biffle, June 1969.

  10. The statement, “I hoped that Buck and I would never be like that again,” is revealing. It implies, as Blanche later confirmed, that there was much more to the story of her relationship with Buck prior to his return to prison than had been previously stated. While Clyde was at Eastham, Blanche accompanied Buck on a series of robberies before she and Cumie Barrow were finally able to convince him to surrender and finish serving the rest of his prison term. Blanche Barrow interviews, September 24 and November 18, 1984. During that period Blanche and Buck hid at a number of locations, including the farm of Barrow’s uncle Jim Muckleroy in Martinsville, Texas. U.S. Department of Justice, memo to Doug Walsh, Dallas police department, May 4, 1933.

  11. Blanche always used the abbreviation “Sol” when referring to the game of solitaire. It is not clear if this term was actually meant as an abbreviation, or whether it was a nickname for the game, perhaps popularly used in the day or merely personal to her. Nevertheless, for clarity it was changed to the complete spelling here and in nearly every other instance by the editor.

  12. The address of the apartment was 3347½ Oak Ridge Drive. The apartment’s owner, Paul Freeman, stated that two women and a man rented the house, adding that one of the women said her husband was J. W. Callahan, a civil engineer from Minnesota, and that the other woman was her sister. Joplin (Mo.) Globe, April 14, 1933.

  Clyde Barrow did not choose Joplin at random. It was known then as “a wide-open town,” used by members of the underworld like Pretty Boy Floyd, the Barker brothers, and Alvin Karpis as a safe haven. Hounschell, Lawmen and, 45–48; Joplin (Mo.) Globe, October 1, 1967; Penland, “Bonnie and Clyde,” Joplin (Mo.) Metropolitan, March 1985. However, Joplin was not controlled by the underworld. Law enforcement appears to have been very capable and incorrupt there. It seems that Joplin was a popular outlaw haven because of location. It was a fair-sized town that happened to be minutes from the Oklahoma and Kansas state lines. Hounschell, e-mail to Phillips, February 4, 2002.

  13. Much has been made about a supposed physical relationship between Clyde Barrow and W. D. Jones, largely because of the sleeping arrangements. But no one who knew them ever thought such a relationship existed. “If Clyde didn’t like girls,” said his sister Marie, “what the hell was he doing with Bonnie all that time?” Marie Barrow interview, September 25, 1993. The case of Jones sharing a room with Parker and Barrow was one of many ploys Barrow used to deceive potential eyewitnesses as to the exact number of people traveling with him. Other examples include Bonnie switching cars before entering a town, something Blanche has already mentioned, and instances where one or more of them would hide beneath blankets on the floorboard, or on the backseat of the car. Blanche describes the latter more than once later in the text.

  14. Jigsaw puzzles became very popular depression-era diversions because they were so inexpensive. Jigsaw-puzzle parties with people chatting and fitting pieces together were extremely common well into the 1940s. Andrist, American Heritage History, 212.

  15. S. H. Kress & Co. 1896–1980, a chain of Main Street five-and-dime stores.

  16. It was reported that five diamonds, taken from Harry Bacon by two men during the robbery of the Neosho Milling Company, were found hidden in several places in the apartment following the shoot-out of April 13, 1933. Joplin (Mo.) Globe, April 14, 1933; Dallas Dispatch, April 21, 1933. A money bag from McDaniel National Bank in Springfield, Missouri, was also found. According to Shauna Smith, curator of the History Museum for Springfield-Greene County, there was no robbery of that bank reported in that era. However, McDaniel National Bank had recently been purchased by the Union National Bank of Springfield (December 8, 1931) and no doubt transferred funds in its own bags to the parent institution as well as to other banks in the area, such as the Bank of Ash Grove, Missouri, twenty-two miles northwest of Springfield. The latter bank was robbed on January 12, 1933, by three unmasked men driving a Ford V-8. The take was reportedly $3,600.58. Initially Pretty Boy Floyd was blamed for the robbery, but that notion was soon dropped. Hulston, 100 Years, 44–45; Ash Grove (Mo.) Commonwealth, January 19, 1933. However, it is equally possible that Clyde Barrow, W. D. Jones, and some other man (or perhaps Bonnie, incorrectly identified as a man, or maybe Frank Hardy or Hollis Hale who had helped Barrow rob a bank in Oronogo, Missouri, three months earlier) robbed the Bank of Ash Grove. Indeed, there is evidence to support this. Just a few days later, on January, 26, 1933, a Springfield, Missouri, motorcycle officer named Thomas Persell was abducted by Barrow, Parker, and Jones and taken for a ride to Joplin. During the journey Persell noted that he was sitting on sacks of money in the backseat of his abductors’ Ford V-8 and that all three fugitives spoke of “several recent bank robberies familiarly.” Persell specifically mentioned the bank at Ash Grove. The McDaniel National bank bag found in the Joplin garage apartment may have come from the Ash Grove Bank. Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader, April 14, 1933; Dallas Morning News, January 28, 1933.

  17. Among the movies in release that month were She Done Him Wrong, starring Mae West; Tonight Is Ours, with Frederick March and Claudette Colbert; and Edward G. Robinson in Tiger Shark. Dallas Morning News, April 1–30, 1933.

  18. The small town was Girard, Kansas, at the intersection of Highways 7 and 57, approximately thirty-five miles northwest of Joplin. No doubt the only reason for actually paying for a new set of plates was the fact that Buck’s car was legitimately owned and because it would be visible so much of the time. Clyde Barrow always stole his license plates. He was known to keep a dozen or more sets of plates from different states in his car. That way wherever he went he could become a local citizen by changing his plates. Very soon Buck would be doing the same.

  19. The owner of Snodgrass Grocery at 2226 Main Street, Clyde Snodgrass, Sr., remembered them as “nice customers who carried on
like ordinary folks.” Joplin (Mo.) Globe, April 13, 1975.

  20. Despite her earlier dislike for beer and whiskey, many years later Blanche became known for her love of a few beers, especially while fishing. Marie Barrow interview, August 24, 1984; Linder interview, October 5, 2002; Weiser, October 5, 2002.

  21. Herman H. Biggs, the delivery boy, remembered not being allowed to carry the groceries into the apartment. He also maintained that it was Bonnie who telephoned and then met him on the stairs. Joplin (Mo.) Globe, April 13, 1975.

  22. The watchman was a man by the name of Mack Parker. Joplin (Mo.) Globe, April 14, 1933.

  23. From other sources, it is known that a Harold Hill owned “the large home on the corner,” and Sam Lanford owned the house next door at 3339 Oak Ridge: Joplin (Mo.) Globe, April 14, 1933; Hounschell, Lawmen and Outlaws, 45.

  24. According to Frank Hamer, former Texas Ranger, the group “drank heavily and were quite noisy. Several complaints were filed against them.” Quoted in Frost and Jenkins, I’m Frank Hamer, 191.

  25. This was probably one of Clyde Barrow’s favorite weapons, the Browning automatic rifle, or BAR. It was capable of firing a twenty-shot magazine of 30.06 ammunition in under three seconds. Harding, Weapons, 76.

  26. This was apparently the first attempt by Barrow to make what he later called his “scattergun,” a sawed-off Browning automatic rifle with three clips welded together, enabling it to fire fifty-six times without reloading, according to one source. Jones, “Riding with Bonnie and Clyde,” 162. A sawed-off Browning automatic rifle was recovered in Dexfield Park near Dexter, Iowa, after the shoot-out on July 24, 1933.