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85 Years Ago Today; A notorious crime spree comes to a deadly end
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonnie_and_Clyde
Bonnie and Clyde in March 1933 in a photo found by police at an abandoned hideout
Bonnie Elizabeth Parker (October 1, 1910 – May 23, 1934) and Clyde Chestnut Barrow (March 24, 1909 - May 23, 1934) were American criminals who traveled the Central United States with their gang during the Great Depression, known for their bank robberies—although they preferred to rob small stores or rural gas stations. Their exploits captured the attention of the American public during the "Public Enemy Era" between 1931 and 1934, and they are believed to have killed at least nine police officers and several civilians. They were killed in May 1934 during an ambush by law officers near Gibsland, Bienville Parish, Louisiana.
The portrayal in the press of Bonnie and Clyde was sometimes at odds with the reality of their life on the road, especially for Bonnie Parker. She was present at 100 or more felonies during the two years that she was Barrow's companion, although she was not the cigar-smoking, machine gun-wielding killer depicted in the newspapers, newsreels, and pulp detective magazines of the day. Nonetheless, numerous police accounts detail her attempts to murder police officers (although gang member W. D. Jones contradicted them at trial). The picture of Parker smoking a cigar came from an undeveloped roll of negatives that police found at an abandoned hideout, and the snapshot was published nationwide. Parker did chain smoke Camel cigarettes, although she never smoked cigars. According to historian Jeff Guinn, the photos found at the hideout resulted in Parker's glamorization and the creation of myths about the gang.
<snip>
Deaths
Gibsland posse; front: Alcorn, Jordan, and Hamer; back: Hinton, Oakley, Gault
Barrow and Parker were killed on Wednesday, May 23, 1934 on a rural road in Bienville Parish, Louisiana. Texas officers Frank Hamer, B.M. "Maney" Gault, Bob Alcorn, and Ted Hinton, and Louisiana officers Henderson Jordan and Prentiss Morel Oakley formed the posse. Hamer led the posse, and he had begun tracking them on February 12, 1934. He studied the gang's movements and found that they swung in a circle skirting the edges of five midwestern states, exploiting the "state line" rule which prevented officers from pursuing a fugitive into another jurisdiction. Barrow was consistent in his movements, so Hamer charted his path and predicted where he would go. The gang's itinerary centered on family visits, and they were due to see Methvin's family in Louisiana.
The road in the Louisiana woods where Barrow and Parker died ( 32°26?28.21?N 93°5?33.23?W )
On May 21, 1934, the four posse members from Texas were in Shreveport, Louisiana when they learned that Barrow and Parker were to go to Bienville Parish that evening with Methvin. Barrow had designated the residence of Methvin's parents as a rendezvous in case they were separated, and Methvin did get separated from them in Shreveport. The full posse set up an ambush at the rendezvous point along Louisiana State Highway 154 south of Gibsland toward Sailes. Hinton recounted that their group was in place by 9 p.m. and waited through the whole next day (May 22) with no sign of the murderers. Other accounts said that the officers set up on the evening of the 22nd.
The gunfire was so loud that the posse suffered temporary deafness all afternoon
At approximately 9:15 a.m. on May 23, the posse were still concealed in the bushes and almost ready to concede defeat when they heard Barrow's stolen Ford V8 approaching at a high speed. Their official report had Barrow stopping to speak with Methvin's father, who had been planted there with his truck that morning to distract Barrow and force him into the lane closer to the posse. The lawmen opened fire, killing Barrow and Parker while shooting about 130 rounds. Oakley fired first, probably before any order to do so. Barrow was killed instantly by Oakley's head shot, but Hinton reported hearing Parker scream as she realized that Barrow was dead before the shooting began in her direction. The officers emptied all their weapons at the car. Nearly any of their wounds would have been fatal, yet the two had survived many bullets over the years in their confrontations with the law.
According to statements made by Ted Hinton and Bob Alcorn:
Researchers have said that Barrow and Parker were shot more than 50 times each; others claim closer to 25 each, or 50 total. Officially, parish coroner Dr. J. L. Wade's 1934 report listed 17 separate entrance wounds on Barrow's body and 26 on Parker's, including several headshots on each, and one that had snapped Barrow's spinal column. Undertaker C. F. "Boots" Bailey had difficulty embalming the bodies because of all the bullet holes.
The murderers had more than a dozen guns and several thousand rounds of ammunition in the Ford, including 100 20-round BAR magazines
The deafened officers inspected the vehicle and discovered an arsenal of weapons, including stolen automatic rifles, sawed-off semi-automatic shotguns, assorted handguns, and several thousand rounds of ammunition, along with 15 sets of license plates from various states. Hamer stated: "I hate to bust the cap on a woman, especially when she was sitting down, however if it wouldn't have been her, it would have been us." Word of the deaths quickly got around when Hamer, Jordan, Oakley, and Hinton drove into town to telephone their respective bosses. A crowd soon gathered at the spot. Gault and Alcorn were left to guard the bodies, but they lost control of the jostling, curious throng; one woman cut off bloody locks of Parker's hair and pieces from her dress, which were subsequently sold as souvenirs. Hinton returned to find a man trying to cut off Barrow's trigger finger, and was sickened by what was occurring.[101] Arriving at the scene, the coroner said that he saw the following:
Nearly everyone had begun collecting souvenirs such as shell casings, slivers of glass from the shattered car windows, and bloody pieces of clothing from the garments of Bonnie and Clyde. One eager man had opened his pocket knife, and was reaching into the car to cut off Clyde's left ear.
The coroner enlisted Hamer for help in controlling the "circus-like atmosphere" and got people away from the car.
They towed the Ford with the dead bodies still inside to the Conger Furniture Store & funeral parlor in downtown Arcadia, Louisiana. Clyde had been shot in the head by a .35 Remington Model 8. Preliminary embalming was done by Bailey in a small preparation room in the back of the furniture store, as it was common for furniture stores and undertakers to share the same space. The population of the northwest Louisiana town reportedly swelled from 2,000 to 12,000 within hours. Curious throngs arrived by train, horseback, buggy, and plane. Beer normally sold for 15 cents a bottle but it jumped to 25 cents, and sandwiches quickly sold out. Henry Barrow identified his son's body, then sat weeping in a rocking chair in the furniture section.
H.D. Darby was an undertaker at the McClure Funeral Parlor in nearby Ruston, and Sophia Stone was a home demonstration agent from Ruston. Both of them came to Arcadia to identify the bodies because the Barrow gang had kidnapped them in Ruston in 1933. Parker reportedly had laughed when she discovered that Darby was an undertaker. She remarked that maybe someday he would be working on her; Darby did assist Bailey in embalming them.
Funeral and burial
Bonnie and Clyde wished to be buried side by side, but the Parker family would not allow it. Her mother wanted to grant her final wish to be brought home, but the mobs surrounding the Parker house made that impossible. More than 20,000 attended Parker's funeral, and her family had difficulty reaching her gravesite. Her services were held on Saturday, May 26, 1934. Dr. Allen Campbell recalled that flowers came from everywhere, including some with cards allegedly from Pretty Boy Floyd and John Dillinger. The largest floral tribute was sent by a group of Dallas city newsboys; the sudden end of Bonnie and Clyde sold 500,000 newspapers in Dallas alone. She was buried in the Fishtrap Cemetery, although she was moved in 1945 to the new Crown Hill Cemetery in Dallas.
Thousands of people gathered outside both Dallas funeral homes hoping for a chance to view the bodies. Barrow's private funeral was held at sunset on Friday, May 25. He was buried in Western Heights Cemetery in Dallas, next to his brother Marvin. The Barrow brothers share a single granite marker with their names on it and an epitaph selected by Clyde: "Gone but not forgotten".
The bullet-riddled Ford and the shirt that Barrow was wearing have been in the casino of Whiskey Pete's in Primm, Nevada since 2011, and were on display before that at the Primm Valley Resort and Casino. The American National Insurance Company of Galveston paid the insurance policies in full on Barrow and Parker. Since then, the policy of payouts has changed to exclude payouts in cases of deaths caused by any criminal act by the insured.
The six men of the posse were each to receive a one-sixth share of the reward money, and Dallas Sheriff Schmid had promised Ted Hinton that this would total some $26,000, but most of the organizations that had pledged reward funds reneged on their pledges. In the end, each lawman earned $200.23 for his efforts. They collected memorabilia.
By the summer of 1934, new federal statutes made bank robbery and kidnapping federal offenses. The growing coordination of local authorities by the FBI, plus two-way radios in police cars, combined to make it more difficult to carry out a series of robberies and murders than it had been just months before. Two months after Gibsland, Dillinger was killed on the street in Chicago; three months after that, Pretty Boy Floyd was killed in Ohio; and one month after that, Baby Face Nelson was killed in Illinois.
</snip>
Bonnie and Clyde in March 1933 in a photo found by police at an abandoned hideout
Bonnie Elizabeth Parker (October 1, 1910 – May 23, 1934) and Clyde Chestnut Barrow (March 24, 1909 - May 23, 1934) were American criminals who traveled the Central United States with their gang during the Great Depression, known for their bank robberies—although they preferred to rob small stores or rural gas stations. Their exploits captured the attention of the American public during the "Public Enemy Era" between 1931 and 1934, and they are believed to have killed at least nine police officers and several civilians. They were killed in May 1934 during an ambush by law officers near Gibsland, Bienville Parish, Louisiana.
The portrayal in the press of Bonnie and Clyde was sometimes at odds with the reality of their life on the road, especially for Bonnie Parker. She was present at 100 or more felonies during the two years that she was Barrow's companion, although she was not the cigar-smoking, machine gun-wielding killer depicted in the newspapers, newsreels, and pulp detective magazines of the day. Nonetheless, numerous police accounts detail her attempts to murder police officers (although gang member W. D. Jones contradicted them at trial). The picture of Parker smoking a cigar came from an undeveloped roll of negatives that police found at an abandoned hideout, and the snapshot was published nationwide. Parker did chain smoke Camel cigarettes, although she never smoked cigars. According to historian Jeff Guinn, the photos found at the hideout resulted in Parker's glamorization and the creation of myths about the gang.
<snip>
Deaths
Gibsland posse; front: Alcorn, Jordan, and Hamer; back: Hinton, Oakley, Gault
Barrow and Parker were killed on Wednesday, May 23, 1934 on a rural road in Bienville Parish, Louisiana. Texas officers Frank Hamer, B.M. "Maney" Gault, Bob Alcorn, and Ted Hinton, and Louisiana officers Henderson Jordan and Prentiss Morel Oakley formed the posse. Hamer led the posse, and he had begun tracking them on February 12, 1934. He studied the gang's movements and found that they swung in a circle skirting the edges of five midwestern states, exploiting the "state line" rule which prevented officers from pursuing a fugitive into another jurisdiction. Barrow was consistent in his movements, so Hamer charted his path and predicted where he would go. The gang's itinerary centered on family visits, and they were due to see Methvin's family in Louisiana.
The road in the Louisiana woods where Barrow and Parker died ( 32°26?28.21?N 93°5?33.23?W )
On May 21, 1934, the four posse members from Texas were in Shreveport, Louisiana when they learned that Barrow and Parker were to go to Bienville Parish that evening with Methvin. Barrow had designated the residence of Methvin's parents as a rendezvous in case they were separated, and Methvin did get separated from them in Shreveport. The full posse set up an ambush at the rendezvous point along Louisiana State Highway 154 south of Gibsland toward Sailes. Hinton recounted that their group was in place by 9 p.m. and waited through the whole next day (May 22) with no sign of the murderers. Other accounts said that the officers set up on the evening of the 22nd.
The gunfire was so loud that the posse suffered temporary deafness all afternoon
At approximately 9:15 a.m. on May 23, the posse were still concealed in the bushes and almost ready to concede defeat when they heard Barrow's stolen Ford V8 approaching at a high speed. Their official report had Barrow stopping to speak with Methvin's father, who had been planted there with his truck that morning to distract Barrow and force him into the lane closer to the posse. The lawmen opened fire, killing Barrow and Parker while shooting about 130 rounds. Oakley fired first, probably before any order to do so. Barrow was killed instantly by Oakley's head shot, but Hinton reported hearing Parker scream as she realized that Barrow was dead before the shooting began in her direction. The officers emptied all their weapons at the car. Nearly any of their wounds would have been fatal, yet the two had survived many bullets over the years in their confrontations with the law.
According to statements made by Ted Hinton and Bob Alcorn:
Each of us six officers had a shotgun and an automatic rifle and pistols. We opened fire with the automatic rifles. They were emptied before the car got even with us. Then we used shotguns…. There was smoke coming from the car, and it looked like it was on fire. After shooting the shotguns, we emptied the pistols at the car, which had passed us and ran into a ditch about 50 yards on down the road. It almost turned over. We kept shooting at the car even after it stopped. We weren't taking any chances.
Researchers have said that Barrow and Parker were shot more than 50 times each; others claim closer to 25 each, or 50 total. Officially, parish coroner Dr. J. L. Wade's 1934 report listed 17 separate entrance wounds on Barrow's body and 26 on Parker's, including several headshots on each, and one that had snapped Barrow's spinal column. Undertaker C. F. "Boots" Bailey had difficulty embalming the bodies because of all the bullet holes.
The murderers had more than a dozen guns and several thousand rounds of ammunition in the Ford, including 100 20-round BAR magazines
The deafened officers inspected the vehicle and discovered an arsenal of weapons, including stolen automatic rifles, sawed-off semi-automatic shotguns, assorted handguns, and several thousand rounds of ammunition, along with 15 sets of license plates from various states. Hamer stated: "I hate to bust the cap on a woman, especially when she was sitting down, however if it wouldn't have been her, it would have been us." Word of the deaths quickly got around when Hamer, Jordan, Oakley, and Hinton drove into town to telephone their respective bosses. A crowd soon gathered at the spot. Gault and Alcorn were left to guard the bodies, but they lost control of the jostling, curious throng; one woman cut off bloody locks of Parker's hair and pieces from her dress, which were subsequently sold as souvenirs. Hinton returned to find a man trying to cut off Barrow's trigger finger, and was sickened by what was occurring.[101] Arriving at the scene, the coroner said that he saw the following:
Nearly everyone had begun collecting souvenirs such as shell casings, slivers of glass from the shattered car windows, and bloody pieces of clothing from the garments of Bonnie and Clyde. One eager man had opened his pocket knife, and was reaching into the car to cut off Clyde's left ear.
The coroner enlisted Hamer for help in controlling the "circus-like atmosphere" and got people away from the car.
They towed the Ford with the dead bodies still inside to the Conger Furniture Store & funeral parlor in downtown Arcadia, Louisiana. Clyde had been shot in the head by a .35 Remington Model 8. Preliminary embalming was done by Bailey in a small preparation room in the back of the furniture store, as it was common for furniture stores and undertakers to share the same space. The population of the northwest Louisiana town reportedly swelled from 2,000 to 12,000 within hours. Curious throngs arrived by train, horseback, buggy, and plane. Beer normally sold for 15 cents a bottle but it jumped to 25 cents, and sandwiches quickly sold out. Henry Barrow identified his son's body, then sat weeping in a rocking chair in the furniture section.
H.D. Darby was an undertaker at the McClure Funeral Parlor in nearby Ruston, and Sophia Stone was a home demonstration agent from Ruston. Both of them came to Arcadia to identify the bodies because the Barrow gang had kidnapped them in Ruston in 1933. Parker reportedly had laughed when she discovered that Darby was an undertaker. She remarked that maybe someday he would be working on her; Darby did assist Bailey in embalming them.
Funeral and burial
Bonnie and Clyde wished to be buried side by side, but the Parker family would not allow it. Her mother wanted to grant her final wish to be brought home, but the mobs surrounding the Parker house made that impossible. More than 20,000 attended Parker's funeral, and her family had difficulty reaching her gravesite. Her services were held on Saturday, May 26, 1934. Dr. Allen Campbell recalled that flowers came from everywhere, including some with cards allegedly from Pretty Boy Floyd and John Dillinger. The largest floral tribute was sent by a group of Dallas city newsboys; the sudden end of Bonnie and Clyde sold 500,000 newspapers in Dallas alone. She was buried in the Fishtrap Cemetery, although she was moved in 1945 to the new Crown Hill Cemetery in Dallas.
Thousands of people gathered outside both Dallas funeral homes hoping for a chance to view the bodies. Barrow's private funeral was held at sunset on Friday, May 25. He was buried in Western Heights Cemetery in Dallas, next to his brother Marvin. The Barrow brothers share a single granite marker with their names on it and an epitaph selected by Clyde: "Gone but not forgotten".
The bullet-riddled Ford and the shirt that Barrow was wearing have been in the casino of Whiskey Pete's in Primm, Nevada since 2011, and were on display before that at the Primm Valley Resort and Casino. The American National Insurance Company of Galveston paid the insurance policies in full on Barrow and Parker. Since then, the policy of payouts has changed to exclude payouts in cases of deaths caused by any criminal act by the insured.
The six men of the posse were each to receive a one-sixth share of the reward money, and Dallas Sheriff Schmid had promised Ted Hinton that this would total some $26,000, but most of the organizations that had pledged reward funds reneged on their pledges. In the end, each lawman earned $200.23 for his efforts. They collected memorabilia.
By the summer of 1934, new federal statutes made bank robbery and kidnapping federal offenses. The growing coordination of local authorities by the FBI, plus two-way radios in police cars, combined to make it more difficult to carry out a series of robberies and murders than it had been just months before. Two months after Gibsland, Dillinger was killed on the street in Chicago; three months after that, Pretty Boy Floyd was killed in Ohio; and one month after that, Baby Face Nelson was killed in Illinois.
</snip>
It's easy to romanticize the story of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow; however, at the root of it, they were cold-hearted killers.
24 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
(although that paper looks to be more a scrapbook than a single print).
