People in Clarksville had a saying: Interview with Mary Hansler, a retired Red River County clerk who grew up in Sherry. Hansler is also the source of the view that working in a carnival was not proper and was unwomanly.
that she herself was a gypsy: Interview with her son Charlie Bogle.
Elvie and Louis began drinking heavily: Interview with Linda Bogle.
In private, her aunt began to call Elvie “trash”: Interview with Betty Morris Dodd.
“surely one of the greatest incentives”: Campbell, Gone to Texas, p. 366.
Elvie used her driving skills: Interview with Charlie Bogle.
Louis was less fortunate: For the arrest, trial and conviction of Louis for selling moonshine, see the Lamar County District Court clerk’s minute book 5, for 1925.
“There seems to be an unmistakable drift”: The Deport Times, May 18, 1923, Deport being a small town near Paris.
On July 20, 1925, Louis was arrested: Lamar County District Court clerk’s minute book 6 and 7 for 1925.
committed to the new Texas state mental hospital: Interview with Charlie Bogle. Also, the Texas Department of State Health Services death certificate for Florence.
Dr. Liza Gold: Interview with Dr. Liza Gold.
Louis’s mother, Mattie: Interviews with Charlie and Linda Bogle.
2 Charlie and Dude: Growing Up Criminal
Elvie gave birth: John Bogle’s date of birth is from the Texas Birth Index for the years 1903–1997. The description of the houses the growing Bogle family lived in at the time is from interviews with Dude and Charlie Bogle.
Other children soon followed: Dude’s date of birth is from the Texas Birth Index for the years 1903–1997. That is also the source for Charlie Bogle’s date of birth.
Elvie cooked the same food: Information about the meals Elvie Bogle cooked is from interviews with Dude and Charlie Bogle. Dude recounted his love of fishing in an interview. And both Dude and Charlie talked about their father’s racial views in interviews. The lack of money in the family for Christmas presents is from an interview with Charlie. Also, the photos of the boys without shoes were provided by Charlie.
Not long after Charlie was born: The Bogle family’s lack of knowledge about the Depression is from interviews with Dude and Charlie Bogle.
In 1914, the Texas legislature: The passage of a Texas state compulsory school attendance law is from Walter L. Buenger, The Path to a Modern South: Northeast Texas Between Reconstruction and the Great Depression (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2001), p. 111. The fact that Louis and Elvie registered their children for school, as required by the law, but then did not send them to school because of the parents’ work in the carnival is from interviews with Dude and Charlie Bogle. The Paris school records also showed that the children were officially registered, and listed a different address for the family in Paris each year from 1931 to 1941.
Louis said he was a veteran: On Louis’s claim to be a veteran of World War I, see the listing for Louis Bogle in the 1930 census for Lamar County. On the fact that Louis never actually served in the war, see his draft certificate from Tennessee.
Despite their lack of education: That Louis and Elvie continued working in carnivals into the mid-1930s is from interviews with Dude and Charlie Bogle, who also provided details about their mother’s prowess in riding her motorcycle in the motordrome.
Elvie and Louis continued to augment their tiny pay: Information about Louis continuing to brew moonshine and Elvie selling it is from interviews with Dude and Charlie Bogle.
“It was the Depression”: Interview with Charlie Bogle.
As William Humphrey wrote: William Humphrey, Farther Off from Heaven (New York: Dell Publishing Co., 1976), p. 176.
Elvie and Louis particularly admired: Interviews with Dude and Charlie Bogle. Dude and Charlie also remembered Pretty Boy Floyd stopping at their house in Paris. In addition, Charlie proudly recalled Floyd giving his mother money to buy shoes for the boys.
The caption under the picture: The old black-and-white photo Charlie kept on the wall of his trailer home in Salem that he thought was of his uncle, the nineteenth-century gunman John Wesley Hardin, was still there at Charlie’s death in 2016. And Charlie delighted in telling the story of how his supposed uncle had shot a man dead because he was snoring in a hotel room next to him in Abilene during a cattle drive. For more on the real John Wesley Hardin, see Randolph B. Campbell, Gone to Texas: A History of the Lone Star State (New York: Oxford University Press), p. 305.
Charlie loved to hear: That Charlie and Dude began to identify with legendary Texas outlaws from the stories their parents told is from interviews with Charlie and Dude.
In fact, imitation forms the basis: For the origin of social learning theory and its role in criminology, see Freda Adler, Criminology (Boston: McGraw-Hill, 1991), p. 61.
The discipline “criminology”: For the origin of the field of criminology and the role of Raffaele Garofalo, see Adler, Criminology, p. 6.
the “father of modern criminology”: Ibid., p. 50.
“In East Texas in those days”: Interview with Charlie Bogle.
Dude went fishing: Interview with Dude Bogle. On Dude being sentenced to ten days in the Lamar County jail, see the Lamar County Criminal Minutes Index for April 15, 1939.
Charlie had begun stealing money: Interview with Charlie Bogle. On Charlie’s arrest for stealing the milkman’s money, also see the Lamar County Criminal Minutes Index for February 3, 1941, and April 9, 1942. On the farmer’s wife getting into bed with Charlie, that is also from an interview with Charlie.
“To me, they were heathen”: Interview with Mae Smotherman, whose mother, Lula, was Louis Bogle’s sister. Also from an interview with Cassandra Czarnezki, a granddaughter of Lula’s, who has done research to compile a history of her extended family.
charged with stealing a truck: Interviews with Dude and Charlie Bogle, and the Lamar County Criminal Minutes Index for November 10, 1938.
Gatesville State School for Boys: There is a powerful, haunting account of what life was like for boys sentenced to Gatesville in Robert Perkinson, Texas Tough: The Rise of America’s Prison Empire (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2010), pp. 34–35, 253–56, 362. Also see John Neal Phillips, Running with Bonnie and Clyde: The Ten Fast Years of Ralph Fults (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996), pp. 13–20.
twenty-five lashes with the heavy strap: Interviews with John’s brothers Dude and Charlie Bogle.
He would carry his shoeshine box: Interview with Charlie Bogle.
“I was taking after my daddy and mommy”: Ibid.
“I knew about gals”: Ibid.
About this time, in 1942: Ibid.
His brother and closest friend: Interview with Dude Bogle.
“I loved to fight”: Ibid. The photos of Dude in Burma during World War II were in his trailer home in Helena, Montana.
After Charlie and Dude were gone: Interview with Charlie Bogle.
The family may have been poor: Interviews with Charlie and Linda Bogle.
He was arrested in Topeka: Interview with Dude Bogle, and Dude’s arrest record from the years 1946–1949, which is contained in his Oregon State Police file.
Charlie had picked up his own: Charlie’s arrest record in the late 1940s is from an interview with him and also from his Washington State prison records.
“I was the only one that went in”: From Charlie’s confession, which is included in his Washington State prison file.
He was taken to the state prison at Monroe: Charlie’s conviction and prison sentence are from an interview with him and his Washington State prison file.
“I had to take the rap”: Interview with Charlie Bogle.
“The Bogles live in a very small shack-type house”: Mabel Ray’s report on the Bogles’ livin
g conditions in Amarillo is contained in Charlie’s Washington State prison file and is dated September 16, 1948.
Elvie also advised Ray: From Ray’s report on Charlie contained in his Washington State prison file.
Dude found one consolation: Interview with Dude Bogle.
“They didn’t show me anything”: Interview with Charlie Bogle.
3 A Burglary by the Whole Family
“There is nothing between us”: Quoted by E. N. Smith, a longtime detective in Amarillo who rose to be the city’s police chief.
“without a bad bone in his body”: Interview with Margaritte Garcia.
“She never worked a day”: Ibid.
One day Mrs. Garcia saw: Ibid.
“This is the first actual house”: Ibid.
“the pick of the litter”: Ibid.
Officially, Rooster was born without a name: From Rooster’s Texas birth certificate, courtesy of Linda Bogle. On Rooster’s growing suspicions about the reason he was born without an official name, interviews with Rooster’s two wives, Kathy and Linda Bogle. On Elvie going back and getting Rooster an official name, the Texas Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, certificate of birth, dated November 22, 1956, courtesy of Linda Bogle.
he was always called Rooster: Interview with Kathy Bogle, Rooster’s first wife.
“They call me Rooster”: Interview with Jimmy Wilson, a classmate and rival of Rooster’s.
his second-grade report card: Courtesy of Linda Bogle.
“He wanted to be a Bogle”: Interview with Charlie Bogle.
Mrs. Garcia’s two boys: Interview with Margaritte Garcia.
Phillip Garcia: Interview with Phillip Garcia.
Dennis Lindvay: Interview with Dennis Lindvay.
When it came time to elect: Ibid.
Rooster had been getting into trouble: Interviews with Rooster’s two wives, Kathy and Linda Bogle, and an interview with his classmate Jimmy Wilson.
Rooster had become well known to the police: Interview with E. N. Smith.
a teenager kicked him in the head: Interview with Kathy Bogle, who was Rooster’s girlfriend at the time.
“Rooster was always in trouble”: Interview with Margaritte Garcia.
“only pretended to discipline Rooster”: Interview with Linda Bogle.
To compound the problem: Interview with Margaritte Garcia. On Elvie Bogle being furious when Louis whipped Rooster, interview with Linda Bogle.
“the largest predictor of delinquency”: John L. Laub and Robert J. Sampson, Crime in the Making: Pathways and Turning Points Through Life (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993), p. 95.
“our research suggests”: Ibid., p. 97.
They were attracted by: Interview with Kathy Bogle, who lived near Rooster at the time.
He often practiced his kicking: Ibid.
One night Rooster snuck her out: Ibid.
At the time, Rooster had another girlfriend: Interviews with Jimmy Wilson and Kathy Bogle.
“He slammed her up against the wall”: Interview with Jimmy Wilson.
Wilson challenged Rooster: This account of the fight is from interviews with Jimmy Wilson and Pat Dunavin.
He remained unconscious: Information about Rooster’s severe injuries, his hospitalization and the surgery he underwent are from news stories about the fight in the Amarillo News and the Amarillo Globe from September 6, 1957, to October 7, 1957.
He suffered from epilepsy: Rooster’s physical and mental condition after he was released from the hospital are from his Texas Department of Corrections file dated April 24, 1961.
His personality changed too: Interview with Kathy Bogle.
One group of people who have suffered: For findings about the connection between brain damage and changes in behavior, see Drew Barzman and John Kennedy, “Does Traumatic Brain Injury Cause Violence?,” Current Psychiatry 1, no. 4 (April 2002): 49–55. Also see Alan Schwarz, “Research Traces Link Between Combat Blasts and PTSD,” The New York Times, January 9, 2016.
Dude wanted to try out: The planning of the burglary is from interviews with Dude and Charlie Bogle.
Tom Scivally was happy: Interview with Tom Scivally.
Dude invited Charlie: Interview with Charlie Bogle.
Dude instead enlisted two other men: The account of the burglary is from interviews with Dude and Charlie Bogle; an interview with E. N. Smith, the lead Amarillo police detective on the case; an interview with the store’s owner, Tom Scivally; and news stories in the Amarillo Globe Times and the Amarillo Daily News from December 8, 1958, to April 3, 1959.
“I’m coming with you”: Interview with Charlie Bogle.
The five men then drove back: Ibid.
“The boys weren’t smart enough”: Interview with Russell Towery, the son of A. B. Towery.
The cash portion: Interview with E. N. Smith.
“She was hard as nails”: Ibid.
“Ma Barker”: Interview with Russell Towery.
They shipped him back to Amarillo: On Rooster being arrested in New Orleans and then sentenced to five years in prison in Texas, from Rooster’s Texas Department of Corrections file. Also, interviews with Charlie and Linda Bogle.
A report by a psychologist: The report by the psychologist and the separate report by a psychiatrist are both contained in Rooster’s Texas Department of Corrections file.
Dr. M. D. Hanson: Dr. Hanson’s findings about Rooster and his letter to Elvie Bogle are contained in Rooster’s Texas Department of Corrections file.
Charlie was not so fortunate: Charlie’s bad experience at Eastham is from interviews with him.
Clyde Barrow, the outlaw: For a good account of Eastham when Clyde Barrow was sent there, see Jeff Guinn, Go Down Together: The True Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2009), pp. 67–88.
“I changed”: Interview with Charlie Bogle.
4 Rooster and His Boys: On to Oregon
“If there was any kind of break-in”: Interview with Charlie Bogle.
“But I can’t even drive”: Ibid.
“The word came expressly”: William G. Robbins, Oregon: This Storied Land (Portland: Oregon Historical Society Press, 2005), p. 41.
It might make a good new home: Interview with Charlie Bogle.
An early emigrant: Harold Peters, ed., Seven Months to Oregon: Diaries, Letters and Reminiscent Accounts (Tooele, Utah: The Patricia Press, 2008).
“his mother seems to be over protective”: Roy Crumley’s progress report on Rooster, June 26, 1966, in Rooster’s Texas Department of Corrections parole file.
Kathy’s family was even poorer: On Kathy’s marriage to Rooster, interview with Kathy Bogle.
“Doubtful that subject will ever hold”: Report on Rooster is by his parole officer, Roy Crumley, in Rooster’s Texas Department of Corrections parole file.
“They looked like a bunch of hillbillies”: Interview with Margaritte Garcia.
“at which point he slipped”: Report by Rooster’s Oregon parole officer, Leonard McHargue, contained in Rooster’s Texas Department of Corrections parole file, January 8, 1962. That Rooster got an insurance settlement of $928 for his supposed accident, also from McHargue parole report, on September 7, 1962.
“Lie down and say you’re pregnant”: Interview with Kathy Bogle. The “accident” was also reported by McHargue in his September 7, 1962, parole report.
“subject states that most of his free time”: McHargue parole report, dated October 2, 1962, in Rooster’s Texas Department of Corrections parole file.
“Subject has no prospects for employment”: Ibid.
“Too lazy to work for welfare”: McHargue parole report dated April 3, 1963.
he was arrested for having s
ex: On Rooster’s arrest for having sex with a fourteen-year-old girl, see the sentencing document in the case, “The state of Oregon vs Dale Vincent Bogle,” with a sentencing date of January 13, 1965, found in the Marion County Circuit Court. On the nature of the crime, interview with Linda Bogle, who learned about it from Rooster.
It was around Christmas: Rooster’s meeting with Linda White and their growing relationship are from a series of interviews with Linda.
“It was just a big con job”: Interview with Linda Bogle.
“It was horrible”: Ibid.
Yet she kept seeing Rooster: Ibid.
“When he was drinking”: Ibid.
“How does that feel”: Ibid.
Tim recalled that there were days: Interview with Tim Bogle.
“Are you ever going to smoke again?”: Interviews with Tim, Tracey and Bobby Bogle.
Rooster had each of his boys learn to box: Ibid.
“Rooster thought presents and toys”: Interview with Tracey Bogle.
He made himself sound like: Interviews with Tim, Tracey and Bobby Bogle.
“Those talks really impressed me”: Interview with Tony Bogle.
As the children got older: Interviews with Tim, Tracey, Bobby and Tony Bogle.
Rooster needed the cash: Interview with Linda Bogle.
Eventually, Rooster learned enough: Interviews with Linda and Tim Bogle.
Rooster took a special: Interviews with Linda, Tony, Bobby and Glen Bogle.
Bobby had drilled a small hole: Interview with Bobby Bogle.
“We really didn’t have a childhood”: Interview with Tracey Bogle.
The boys did not have toys: Interviews with Tony, Bobby, Michael, Glen, Tracey and Tim Bogle.
Perhaps because Tony was the eldest: Interviews with Tony, Bobby, Tracey and Tim Bogle.
he ordered Tony to stand sideways: Interview with Tony Bogle.
Kathy was lax: Interviews with Tony, Bobby, Tracey, Tim and Linda Bogle.
“My mother wasn’t very responsible”: Interview with Tracey Bogle.
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