6. Springfield (Mo.) Daily News, June 30, 1933; Pleasanton (Kans.) Observer Enterprise, July 6, 1933; Dallas Daily Times-Herald, June 8 and 30, 1933; The Mexico (Mo.) Intelligencer, June 15, 1933. Initially it was thought the two crimes were related, but eventually authorities came to suspect they were not linked at all. Also, Pretty Boy Floyd was at first thought to have been one of two men involved in the murders. While the bank robbers appear to have escaped without a trace, two men were convicted of the killings. See History of Audrain County, Missouri, 222.
7. The name of the agency was later changed to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
8. For the very best account of this incident and its aftermath, see Unger, Union Station Massacre. See also Kansas City Star, June 17, 1933.
9. In the extreme southeastern part of the state, near both the Texas and Arkansas lines.
10. The nephew referred to here is probably Jay Caldwell. By December 1933, Matt Caldwell was no longer living with his brother. Blanche Barrow letter to her mother, December 12, 1933, quoted in Baker, Blanche Barrow, 35.
11. Between Idabel and Durant.
12. Jones later commented that people frequently helped them, “Not because it was Bonnie and Clyde. People in them days just helped—no questions asked.” Jones, interview by Biffle, June 1969.
Chapter 10. Wellington
1. W. D. Jones said that by the time he and Bonnie and Clyde arrived at the meeting place, early on the morning of June 11, Buck and Blanche “had lots of money,” adding that they had robbed a bank while Bonnie and Clyde were picking him up in Dallas. (Jones had met Bonnie and Clyde at the Five Star Dance Hall near Bachman Dam, Dallas. Dallas County Sheriff’s Department, Jones, Voluntary Statement B-71, 12.) Blanche, however, said she and Buck had been visiting relatives in Oklahoma. Blanche Barrow interview, November 18, 1984. On June 6, 1933, the day Blanche writes that she and Buck Barrow were driving “through Texas to Oklahoma” in a stolen “gray Ford V-8 sedan,” the First State Bank of Bokchito, Oklahoma, was robbed of $1,407 at 1:15 p.m. by two bandits who escaped in a Ford V-8. Dallas Daily Times-Herald, June 8, 1933; Allen, “The First State Bank—Bokchito, Oklahoma.” Bokchito is about eighty miles west of Goodwater, where Matt Caldwell, Blanche’s father, was living at the time.
2. Earlier in the evening of June 10, 1933, Clyde Barrow had been traveling at a high rate of speed seven miles north of Wellington, in the Texas Panhandle southeast of Amarillo. He apparently did not see a sign warning that the bridge across the Salt Fork River had been moved, and he careened into the nearly dry riverbed, reportedly saying, “Hold on to your hats! This is it!” Moon and Huddleston, “Bonnie, Clyde, and Me,” unpublished manuscript, 12. Barrow and Jones were able to climb out of the wreck, but Parker was pinned inside. Within a few moments the car caught fire and before she could be pulled free, Parker was severely burned. A local farmer, Sam Pritchard, helped Barrow and Jones carry Parker to his farmhouse nearby. However, Pritchard became suspicious of the trio. Another man at the Pritchard house slipped away to notify the local authorities. When they arrived, in the person of Collingsworth County Sheriff George Corry and Wellington City Marshal Paul Hardy, Barrow and Jones abducted them both and escaped with Parker in Corry’s car. Barrow was driving Corry’s car when he arrived at the meeting place near Sayre, Oklahoma. For the full account, see Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde, 135–37. See also Jones, “Riding with Bonnie and Clyde,” 165; Fortune, Fugitives, 172; Dallas Morning News, June 12, 1933; Amarillo (Tex.) Sunday News-Globe, June 12, 1933.
Gladys Cartwright, the farmer’s daughter, gave her own side of the story in a later interview. According to Cartwright on June 10, 1933, Sam Pritchard, his wife, daughter and son-in-law Gladys and Alonzo Cartwright, and son and daughter-in-law Jack and Irene Pritchard were all sitting on the east porch of their farmhouse in the Texas Panhandle, seven miles north of Wellington. They heard a car approaching at a high rate of speed on the road in front of the house. They heard it long before they saw it. Several moments later a Ford V-8 topped the hill and roared past them. One of the witnesses commented that it seemed the driver was going so fast he would probably miss the detour sign mounted prominently on the road. The sign rerouted motorists onto a new stretch of road leading to the new bridge across the Salt Fork of the Red River. The old road only functioned as a spur and ended at the riverbank. The bridge there had been removed. Just as suspected, the driver missed the sign and proceeded onto the old spur at top speed. Seconds later there was a grinding crash as the car plunged over the embankment and smashed into the dry riverbed. Sam Pritchard and Alonzo Cartwright ran to the wreck, about two hundred yards from the house, just as the car was igniting. They helped two men, Barrow and Jones, free a badly burned woman, Parker, from the car. Sam and Alonzo insisted on taking all three to their house for treatment. Alonzo also suggested driving to Wellington for a doctor. “No,” one of the men said. “We’re hot.” At some point the farm family were made aware of Clyde Barrow, although none of them had ever heard of the Barrow brothers before. “All I knew was they were hurt and needed help,” said Sam Pritchard. Later they all assumed Jones was Buck. Alonzo Cartwright managed to slip away and alert Collingsworth County Sheriff George Corry. When Corry and Wellington City Marshal Paul Hardy arrived at the Pritchard house they found Bonnie Parker in bed, badly burned. The officers walked through the house and stepped outside where Barrow and Jones were waiting with weapons drawn. They disarmed the officers. Suddenly Parker leaped out of bed and ran outside. Jones, identified as Buck, thought there were other lawmen in the house or that Cladys Cartright was reaching for a gun and opened fire, striking Gladys in the hand. Barrow then shot holes in all the tires of Alonzo Cart-wright’s car, cuffed the officers, and took off in the sheriff’s car along with Parker and Jones. Gladys Pritchard Cartwright, interview by Evelyn Ball King, quoted in King, Collingsworth County, 387.
3. This statement by Clyde Barrow appears to indicate he had no intention of killing Corry and Hardy. Otherwise he would not have been worried about what they might see. This also tends to contradict Blanche’s later assertion that Clyde Barrow was in some sort of a quandary over whether the officers should live or die.
4. This was confirmed by Jones, who said Parker was “burned so bad none of us thought she was going to live.” Jones also stated that her right leg was burned from the hip to the ankle and that bone was visible in some places. Jones, “Riding with Bonnie and Clyde,” 165. Cumie Barrow described a burn deep in the knee and said that Parker’s leg was “drawn up some,” indicating damage to ligaments. Cumie Barrow, unpublished manuscript.
5. This more than implies that Clyde was debating whether or not to kill the officers, which may not have been the case. Every other source close to the fugitives indicated that it was Buck, not Clyde who wanted to kill Corry and Hardy. W. D. Jones said later, “Buck was all for killing the two lawmen; but Clyde, thinking how gentle they had been with Bonnie, said no.” Jones, “Riding with Bonnie and Clyde,” 165. Cumie Barrow quoted Buck asking, “[Are we going to] bump them off?” Cumie Barrow, unpublished manuscript. So did Fortune in Fugitives, 172. The abducted officers also named Buck as the one who asked, “Are we going to kill these men?” And they reported Clyde’s answer as, “No, I’ve been with them so long I’m beginning to like them.” Dallas Morning News, June 12, 1933. Almost two years later, Corry would testify in federal court during the Barrow-Parker harboring case that as he and Hardy were being tied up, Buck said, “Guess you were looking for the Barrow boys.” “Not especially,” Corry replied. “Well you got ‘m anyway,” Buck said. Dallas Dispatch, February 24, 1935.
6. When Buck returned from tying up the officers, he mentioned that he had used barbed wire. Clyde became angry. “You didn’t have to do that!” he said. Jones, “Riding with Bonnie and Clyde,” 165. Apparently, however, Buck’s claim that he did not tie the officers very securely was true. They freed themselves in under thirty minutes and made their way to a nearby farmhouse. Dallas
Morning News, June 12, 1933.
7. In the original text, Blanche first wrote “Pampa, Texas,” here, then crossed it out and replaced it with “Canadian,” a town located in the upper northeastern part of the Texas Panhandle.
8. In the original text, the author wrote “Pampa” here. However, because she had, only a few sentences above crossed “Pampa” out and replaced it with “Canadian,” the editor has followed suit—replacing Pampa with Canadian. Although Pampa is not far away from Canadian, the scene as described by Blanche, including the crossing of the Canadian River, points toward the actual location being the town of Canadian. It appears Blanche accidentally left Pampa in the text here. However, an Oklahoma posse reported last seeing the fugitives turning onto the main road to Pampa. Dallas Morning News, June 12, 1933.
9. If Buck and Blanche “had lots of money,” as Jones stated (see Note 1 of this chapter), there would have been no reason to stage any robberies. It is possible that Jones’s later statement to the Dallas County sheriff’s department about Buck and Blanche having robbed a bank was merely a ploy by Jones to keep him from being implicated in any later robberies.
10. There were no reported robberies or burglaries in or around the Pratt, Kansas, area between June 11 and 17, 1933, the time the Barrow gang was hiding there. They were no doubt venturing beyond the area for cash. Pratt (Kans.) Union, June 11–17, 1933; Pratt (Kans.) Daily Tribune, June 11–17, 1933. On June 14, 1933, the Farmers and Merchants Bank of Mexico, Missouri, was robbed of $1,750 by three (some say four) men who escaped in a light-blue Buick with a bullet hole in the windshield. At 3:15 P.M., an hour after the robbery, two men shot and killed Boone County Sheriff Roger Wilson and patrolman Ben Boothe of the Missouri Highway Patrol after a scuffle at the intersection of Highways 40 and 63 north of Columbia, Missouri. Mexico (Mo.) Intelligencer, June 15, 1933; Mexico (Mo.) Weekly Ledger, June 15, 1933. The scene of the shooting is approximately four hundred miles from Pratt, Kansas. The bank robbery was a few miles further to the east. Initially it was thought that the robbery and the shooting were related, but as evidence was collected it appeared to authorities the two were unrelated. Mexico (Mo.) Intelligencer, July 13, 1933. It did not take long, however, before the name of Charles Arthur “Pretty Boy” Floyd was being linked to both crimes. Then, just three days later, he would be connected to Kansas City’s Union Station Massacre as well, the headlines reading, “Floyd Named Columbia Killer and Gunman in KC Massacre.” Mexico (Mo.) Weekly Ledger, June 22, 1933. Floyd probably did not rob the bank in Mexico, Missouri, and it is doubtful he had anything to do with either shooting. See Unger, Union Station Massacre, for a detailed accounting of why Floyd was not involved. As the days and weeks rolled on, other names floated in and out of suspicion in the Columbia, Missouri, killings. A man named Ira Seybold was considered for a while when it was thought he had been too eager to plead guilty to a bank robbery in Indiana and thus avoid being sent to Missouri to face charges there. Mexico (Mo.) Intelligencer, June 29, 1933. In 1936 a man named George McKeever was hanged for the murders of Sheriff Wilson and Patrolman Boothe. By then he was not considered involved in the Mexico robbery, nor was Floyd. History of Audrain County, Missouri, 222. For a time, however, the Barrow brothers were considered suspects in both the Mexico robbery and the Columbia murders. Landmark, July 21, 1933.
11. A car was stolen on June 14, 1933, in Hutchinson, Kansas, north of Pratt. Fort Smith Southwest American, June 26, 1933.
Chapter 11. Fort Smith
1. On June 15, 1933, Barrow and his group checked into the Twin Cities Tourist Camp on North Eleventh Street in Fort Smith. They rented two cabins at one dollar a day. Fort Smith Southwest American, June 26, 1933.
2. According to Blanche there was another reason for Clyde’s journey to Dallas: He wanted another family member there because Bonnie and Blanche were not speaking and the latter refused to help the injured fugitive. Blanche Barrow, quoted in Weiser interview, October 5, 2002.
3. Barrow left Fort Smith on June 18 and returned with Billie Jean the following day. Moon and Huddleston, “Bonnie, Clyde, and Me”; Dallas Dispatch, February 24, 1935. Many have noted that Barrow risked his life whenever he drove to the Dallas area, but on this occasion the risk was greater. When word of Bonnie’s injuries reached Dallas, some suggested that Barrow would abandon Parker. Still others correctly surmised that Barrow would try to make contact with the Parkers, and probably his own family as well. Consequently, Dallas police and the Dallas County sheriff’s department were trying to remain vigilant. Hinton, Ambush, 54–55. A “Barrow sighting” by a local dairy farmer on June 16, 1933, prompted several Dallas County deputies and at least two Texas Rangers to converge on Mountain Creek Valley near Cedar Hill, Texas, just south of Dallas. Dallas Daily Times-Herald, June 16, 1933. The fact that Barrow eluded detection speaks not so much to his stealth, which was considerable, but largely to the tremendous lack of personnel and resources at the disposal of law enforcement at the time, something Barrow counted on and exploited to the fullest wherever he went.
Billie Jean Parker was one of four children born to Emma Krause and Charles Parker. Hubert “Buster,” born on December 20, 1908, was the oldest living child but he was not the first-born. The oldest would have been Coley Parker, who died of crib death as an infant. Moon, unpublished handwritten history. Billie Jean, the youngest, was once married to Fred Mace, a West Dallas man with a criminal record. Mace, along with his brother Bud and Roy Thornton, Bonnie Parker’s husband, were involved in a north Texas burglary ring that included the son of a former Dallas County sheriff. During one of their crimes, Fred Mace was shot and captured, along with his three accomplices. Fred, Bud, and Roy were convicted and imprisoned. However, the son of the former sheriff was quickly released, some suggesting that his powerful father had literally “bought” his son’s freedom. Fults interview, February 13, 1982.
During their marriage, Billie Jean bore two children to Fred Mace. Both died in the fall of 1933, just days apart, of some unspecified stomach disorder. Fortune, Fugitives, 211. Billie Jean divorced Mace after he went to prison. His subsequent fate and that of his brother Bud are unknown. Roy Thornton was killed in 1937 during an attempted escape from the Eastham prison farm. Houston Press, October 4, 1937.
4. The presence of two doctors was confirmed by Sheriff John B. Williams. Fort Smith Southwest American, June 25, 1933. The owners of the tourist camp had a twenty-four-year-old daughter, Hazel Dennis, who was in the medical profession. She helped nurse Bonnie and also contacted at least one of the doctors who attended Bonnie. Later, during the 1935 Barrow-Parker federal harboring case, Hazel Dennis refused to identify Billie Jean Parker as being one of those involved in Fort Smith. Moon and Huddleston, “Bonnie, Clyde, and Me,” unpublished manuscript.
5. Van Buren is just across the Arkansas River from Fort Smith, hence the reference to “twin cities” in the name of the tourist camp. The visits to the grocery store in Van Buren are reported in the local newspaper. Fort Smith Southwest American, June 26, 1933. The trade name, Amytal is used by Blanche here. The generic name is amobarbital, or amobarbital sodium. It is a barbiturate, administered as a sedative.
6. Tom Persell, the Springfield, Missouri, motorcycle patrolman abducted by Bonnie, Clyde, and W. D. Jones on January 26, 1933, said, “They all were profane, hardly saying anything without cussing.” Edwards, “A Tale Tom Persell Lived to Tell.” Evidently such is relative, however. W. D. Jones said he rarely heard Clyde swear, certainly nothing like “kids today.” Jones, “Riding with Bonnie and Clyde,” 164.
7. Although there was probably more to Bonnie’s outburst, one of the known side effects of barbiturate withdrawal is irritability. Another indicator of barbiturate withdrawal is the psychological and physical craving for more of the drug, which Blanche described. Depending on the person, these and other symptoms may develop within eight to twelve hours after the last dose. If Barrow was in Dallas overnight picking up Billie Jean, it is possible that Bonnie was not taking the dru
g and beginning to exhibit symptoms of withdrawal, including irritability. Of course, Bonnie may have been genuinely sick of Buck and Blanche as well. Blanche admitted that there was friction between Bonnie and her, characterizing it as “having two women in the same kitchen—there can only be one queen bee!” Blanche Barrow, quoted by Kent Biffle during an interview with W. D. Jones, June 1969. Also, Buck’s temper would have most certainly contributed to any such incident. Fortune briefly mentions Bonnie’s demeanor during her convalescence, describing her as “crosser and more exacting.” Fortune, Fugitives, 181.
8. Jones said later that to the best of his knowledge he never witnessed any sort of argument between Bonnie and Blanche. But he qualified his remark by adding, “You know, that’s possible. I can’t remember that far back.” Jones, interview by Biffle, June 1969.
9. Billie has stated that when she arrived in Fort Smith on June 19 her sister was in a coma and did not know she was there. When at last she regained consciousness, her focus seemed to be on getting Billie away from there before she too became trapped in a life on the run. She pestered Clyde to take Billie back to Dallas. Moon and Huddleston, “Bonnie, Clyde, and Me,” 13–14.
10. Two sources close to Clyde Barrow mention his disdain for drugs. W. D. Jones said, “He (Clyde) never used dope. He didn’t even smoke cigarettes. And he didn’t drink too often either.” Jones, interview by Biffle, June 1969. And, according to Ralph Fults, “Clyde hated dope! He didn’t drink and didn’t smoke either, at least not while I was with him. He didn’t even like to drink coffee!” Fults interview, December 10, 1980.
My Life with Bonnie and Clyde Page 32