Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow
Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow
CHAPTER II
THINGS GET SERIOUSClyde and Hamilton awoke the grocer and his wife from bed, demanding that they open the storeroom safe. As Bucher opened the safe, Hamilton's revolver was against his cheek, Clyde stood back with Mrs. Bucher in tow. As Bucher swung the safe door open it hit Hamilton's outstretched pistol hand. The gun went off and the grocer grabbed his chest and fell to the floor. His wife screamed. Clyde and Hamilton grabbed a handful of money and fled. Both men graduated from thievery to murder, and became wanted fugitives.
Mrs. Bucher identified Clyde's and Hamilton's photos from a file of mug shots shown her by the local authorities. State and city police badgered the Barrows for information on their son's whereabouts; their vehicles circled their property night and day. They didn't realize that Clyde had come and gone, having reached Dallas the night of the murder and having fled shortly thereafter. Clyde told his sister Nell what happened and siad, "I'm just going on 'til they get me. Then I'm out like Lottie's eye." Bonnie quickly wrote her mother a message and, packing a few minor articles and cast her lot with Clyde.
Near the town of Springtown, in Oklahoma, they spotted an open-air community dance in session. The fiddles had Bonnie's toes tapping. Clyde was aware of Hamilton's restlessness and decided it might do them all a little good to stop for a half hour or so. Besides, it was just a hick town that looked peaceful enough and there didn't seem to be any officers in sight.
There were two patrolmen however mixed in wit a group of townsfolk. Prohibition was still the law and anyone drinking alcohol was a criminal by virtue of the "Dry Law." Maxwell and Moore the two officers had watched these latest visitors who were suspiciously dressed in city clothes and had seen Hamilton) take a swig of something as he got out the car. He seemed to be staggering slightly as if intoxicated. The cops called,
"Hey, you!" policeman Moore put up a warning palm. "We want to talk to you!"
Both Clyde and Hamilton were now desperate men wanted for murder. They drew their guns and opened fire at point-blank range. Moore died with a bullet in his throat and Maxwell had a large wound in his stomach.
Everett Milligan the other member of the gang ran in the wrong direction and was caught by a dozen angry men who held him until the police arrived. Any chance of not being identified disapeared when, Milligan blurted out the names of his accomplices. An all-points bulletin was issued for the "The Barrow Gang." Moore survived emergency surgery, but Maxwell had died on the spot. Clyde decided to head west.
After the Springtown incident, Bonnie, remembered that her aunt, Nettie Stamps, had a farm near Carlsbad, New Mexico where she lived alone. Bonnie remembered from a past visit that her aunt's farm was way out in the sticks and they could rest without danger. They didn't figure on Clyde's habit of driving at high speed and their speeding car was observed by officer Joe Johns outside of Carlsbad. Seeing the out of state license plate, Johns decided to trace the license number through the Division of Highways rather then chase it. He found that the car had been reported stolen days earlier.
Johns spent the afternoon driving around and at last, he spotted the vehicle outside Nettie's home. He knew the lady that lived there had always seemed above suspision. Johns knocked on the door to investagate and when the door opened he was looking at Clyde Barrow's .38. Nettie saw Clyde pull the revolver before he opened the door and realized what was going on. She watched Bonnie and Clyde force the officer into their auto and she called the police.
The police were worried when Johns hadn't been heard from after a few days and decided they must have killed the officer. Then Johns called his police department from San Antonio, Texas. He said he had been released unharmed by Ray Hamilton and Bonnie and Clyde Barrow.
When Clyde and Bonnie robbed the Little Food Store in Sherman, Texas the proprietor, Howard Hill, sarcastically smart-mouthed him. Clyde was in a foul mood and shot Mr. Hill. Witnesses as well as a counter clerk identified Clyde as the gunman.
Bonnie and Clyde were now in newspapers all over the country, but they didn't stop long enough to read papers. Now they were in a never-ending auto challenge with all police officers. Clyde was smart enough now to commit his crimes in border towns so he could pull across the state line and avoid pursuit by local constables from the state where the robbery occurred. Their first bank job at the Oswego Bank was a failure when an alert guard saw Clyde's gun and started shooting at him, but missed. Clyde grabbed $80 lying out in the teller's cage and ran. The next job was almost as bad when Clyde rushed in with his gun drawn and hollering. It was a closed bank in a deserted building with everything covered in dust.
While Clyde and Bonnie were back in Texas to spend Christmas with their families, Clyde decided to add another member to his gang. The loss of Ray Hamilton had slowed down their operation which he felt needed 3 people. Although W. D. Jones was only 16 years old he could handle a car and, was tall and very strong for his age, Clyde thought he might come in handy when strength was needed.
On Christmas day, 1932, Clyde pulled up beside a new Ford Coupe V-8 in Temple, Texas. He instructed W. D. to jump out and steal the car. He had trouble starting it and the owner, John Doyle came running outside. Clyde had got in the car by then and was trying himself to start the auto. The engine flooded, but finally started, but by then, Doyle jumped on the running board. He grabbed Clyde by his tie and tried to reach the key with his other hand. Clyde couldn't get loose and swung his gun to knock Doyle loose. Then Doyle grabbed the revolver and hit the sensitive trigger sending a bullet through his chest.
Since the killing of the policeman in Springtown, law enforcement in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Missouri had increased their patrols. The three outlaws were almost trapped in Dallas, but were able to shoot their way out, mortally wounded policeman. Soon after, they broke into a government armory, and stole a supply of revolvers, sub-machine guns, gas bombs, and some Browning Automatic Rifles.
Clyde was driving 70 mph through Springfield , Missouri, when a motorcycle officer decided to pull them aside. Clyde aimed a BAR point-blank at the officer when he pulled along side. The surprised policeman gave up at once and they forced him into the back seat beside W. D who held a shotgun on him. He rode with them until their battery died. The three men went to a local store where Clyde not only made the officer steal a battery, but carry it back and install it. Tthe Barrows thanked him for his help and drove away.
In March of 1933 Clyde's brother Buck was paroled from the Huntsville prison. Buck with his bride, Blanche quickly joined up with Clyde in Joplin, Missouri. Clyde and Bonnie decided to take a desperately needed vacation after their reunion with Buck and Blanche. They had plenty of money and believed Joplin would be safe for them so they rented a well-furnished apartment over a double-garage in the quiet Freeman Park area. Here they hoped to relax for a couple of months before moving on.
Neighbors watched them move in, were alarmed when they spotted a couple of the young men carry in all the guns. Rumors flew and the police were called after their activities drew attention. The police kept watch and noted that one of two cars, a green 1932 Ford Sedan left the premises on the night a local bank robbery committed by two men (fitting the Barrows' description) "and a woman." They discovered that the car had been stolen near Topeka, Kansas, several weeks back.
On April 13, Joplin officers parked in front of the garage doors to block the two cars inside. Bonnie was cooking lunch and Clyde was reading the newspaper when he thought he heard something below the window and he got up and peeked out the window. He warned the others that the cops were there and they started shooting. County policeman Wesley Harriman and detective Harry McGinnis fell, in direct line of fire. The other officers begin firing at the upper windows. Buck grabbed his shotgun and Bonnie grabbed a revolver and they also started firing. Blanche panicked and ran screaming from room to room.
. The gang slipped downstairs through an interior staircase, while the officers continued to shoot up the upstairs. Blanche panicked and ran out the back door to the lawn. Clyde grabbed Buck and pushed him into the back seat of the Ford. Clyde climbed into the drivers seat while the rest piled into the car. When the shots outside slowed down he started the car and floor boarded it. The Ford burst through the doors, the government's car and the policemen gathered around it. He stopped down the street just long enough to pick up Blanche who was still running and screaming.
Inside the apartment, police found photographs of the couple taken with a new box Kodak cameras. The mystery of the identity of the new members of the gang was revealed when they found Bucks' parole papers in Blanche's purse.
The gang holed up in a country motel near Amarillo. Joplin had been too close of a call and they realized that while they learned from their mistakes, so did the police. Clyde had had some trouble clearing Joplin, having taken a few dead ends. From now on he would contrive an escape route ahead of time. And although they changed cars and license plates quite frequently, he resolved to do it even more frequently. He accounted that the stolen car he had driven in Joplin might have led the police to them.
In Ruston, Texas, in early May, they stole a Chevrolet from in front of boarding house. As in Temple, the owner, H. Darby Dillard saw them. He convinced another boarder, Sophie Stone, to loan him her auto to pursue the thieves. She agreed and got in the car with him. Dillard spied his car a few blocks away at a stoplight. W. D. was driving the stolen car and Dillard didn't realize the rest of gang was in the car behind him. At a pre-arranged location, W. D. stopped the car and got out. Dillard was ready to when he noticed Clyde's car and guns pull in behind him. Clyde forced the couple into the back of Dillard's own car, between Buck and W. D.
. They drove all night, stopping only to buy some hamburgers, which they shared with Dillard and Sophie. They dropped them off miles from his home the next morning, but they slipped them some money to get home on.
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