 |
TRAGEDYMARKED PAIR PLAYED AS KIDS TOGETHER
Bonnie and Clyde Grew Up in West Dallas,
Along With Ray Hamilton.
PRISONED FOR AUTO THEFT
After Escape and Recapture, Won Parole From
Gov. Sterling in 1932.
From a
sneak thief who stole automobiles to the most notorious killer
in the history of southwest outlaws was the road traveled by
Clyde Barrow before he met death ignominiously today in
Louisiana.
Barrow,
as a boy, was never the sort of boy who was content to play
baseball on the corner lot, fly kites with the other kids.
Long before he had reached his 20's he was already sneaking from
the beat cop, looking for something he could pick up and
sell. He grew up in West Dallas. One of his
neighbors was a kid know as Bonnie Parker, who later grew up to
join Clyde in a campaign of murder and robbery such as Texas had
never before witnessed.
Their
story proper began in 1929 when Barrow met Bonnie, then a
waitress in a cafe. Altho they had grown up as neighbors
in West Callas, they had not been closely connected.
Barrow and his pal, Ray Hamilton, at that time had already been
engaged in a good deal of petty theft.
In the
spring of 1930, Clyde was arrested in Waco for automobile
theft. He was sentenced to prison, escaped jail and was
captured four days later in Middletown, Ohio.
He was promptly
returned to the state penitentiary at Huntsville to serve his
term.
At that
time Clyde's brother, Buck, later shot and killed, had a
criminal record longer than Clyde's. So while Clyde was
locked up in prison, Buck Barrow and his wife, Blanche, teamed
up with Bonnie Parker and Ray Hamilton, continued their career
of crime.
It was
while this quartet was roaming the highways that Clyde's
gray-haired mother, Mrs. Cumie F. Barrow, appealed to Gov.
Sterling for clemency. Clyde's record at the time was not
so bad. On Feb. 2, 1932, Gov. Sterling gave Clyde a
parole.
Trouble
started almost immediately. Clyde joined Bonnie and
Hamilton and on April 30 they robbed J. N. Bucher's store in
Hillsboro. Bucher was shot to death.
In quick
succession there followed the robbery of a Dallas store and the
robbery of a packing house here. In mid-summer, having
completely evaded officers, the trio turned up at a dance in
Atoka, Okla. They wanted to do a little dancing.
Deputy Sheriff E. C. Moore tried to question them. He was
shot to death. Sheriff C. G. Maxwell was badly
wounded. The triumvirate got away.
From that
point on the record reads like a bad dream. The trio
kidnaped a deputy in Carlsbad, N. M., released him in San
Antonio. A few days later they had gun battles with
deputies in Wharton and Victoria, Texas, wounding a
deputy. They murdered Howard Hall, 67, a butcher, in a
holdup. Clyde is said to have fired three additional
bullets into the body of the dead man.
Then,
temporarily, they parted. Clyde and Ray had a row over
Bonnie's affections. Hamilton, sore, went off with another
thug named Gene O'Dare. It was this friend's wife who
Hamilton later traveled with.
Bonnie with her famous
cigar, seemed to like having her photo taken with her guns.
(Corbis)
|
Meanwhile
Clyde and Bonnie continued on their lawless way. They
killed Doyle Johnson while stealing an auto. Surrounded by
Dallas deputies in a house near Dallas, they shot their way out,
killing Deputy Sheriff Malcolm Davis and making their escape.
Then Buck
Barrow, who had got into prison again, drew a pardon from Gov.
Miriam Ferguson. Buck and his wife, Blanche, joined Clyde
and Bonnie. The four were trapped in a house at Joplin,
Mo., shot their way out after apparently being hopelessly
surrounded. In the gun battle they killed Constable J. W.
Harryman and Detective Harry McGinnis. In the house
afterward detectives found a poem Bonnie had written about
herself. She called it "Suicide Sal." They
found photos and cigars Bonnie had been smoking. From then
on she was known as "Suicide Sal."
On Jan. 16,
1934, Clyde and Bonnie effected the rescue of their friend, Raymond
Hamilton. Guards a the Huntsville prison farm took a group of
prisoners out to cut wood. Clyde and Bonnie, armed with
machine guns lay in ambush. Maj. Crawson, one of the guards, dropped
to the ground, dead. Hamilton jumped into the Barrow car, sped
away with his two confederates.
A few days
later they shot their way out of a trap at Reed Springs, Mo.
They were soon after blamed for six bank robberies in Texas, Kansas
and Iowa. A total of $94,000 was taken in these
robberies. They took to separating occasionally, Bonnie always
going with Clyde and Hamilton being the lone wolf. In the end,
however, they always joined forces.
The four continued roving. There
was a bank robbery and kidnaping, another kidnaping and a bank
robbery, then an encounter with officers at Alma, Ark.
Marshall Elmer D. Humphrey was shot and killed. The two
brothers beat and criminally assaulted Mrs. Harry F. Rogers, a
farmer's wife, near Winslow, Ark., shot their way out of a trap at
Platt City, Mo., got trapped again in the woods near Dexter, Iowa.
Here a battle
resulted. Clyde and Bonnie escaped but Buck and Blanche were
captured. Buck died an hour later from gunshot wounds.
Blanche was sentenced to prison for 10 years.
Following the
killing of two state highway officers near Grapevine on Easter
Sunday, the entire police and sheriff's forces of the state started
an intensive hunt for the trio. Rewards for their capture,
dead or alive, mounting rapidly.
"Kill Another."
On April 6, a car got stuck in the mud
near Commerce, Okla. Police Chief Percy Boyd and Constable Cal
Campbell went to the scene. Campbell was killed. Boyd
was wounded and kidnaped, released near Fort Scott, Kas.
The trail was lost again.
Then followed
the capture of Hamilton near Lewisville about three weeks ago.
Bonnie and Clyde wrote a letter to the district attorney's office
here, absolving themselves of the Grapevine murders.
For two
months Sheriff Smoot Schmid had two deputies, Ted Hinton and Bob
Alcorn, on the trail of Bonnie and Clyde. Early Wednesday the
desperadoes went down in death, perforated with bullets......the
same death they had ruthlessly dealt out to 12 victims.
Bonnie & Clyde
(Corbis)
|
