Volume 18 , Issue 1

Walking With Sweet Silly Sadie Dawg

Bonnie & Clyde were before this "Sweet Sadie's" time, but we found this 1934 mention of them in the Miami Daily News-Record, Miami, Oklahoma, dated 2 April 1934, Monday, page 1: "Two Texas Officers Slain; Barrow Hunted." And ... "Moll Aids In Double Killing On Rural Road."

Found on Newspapers.com

It seems the highway patrolmen were shot as they start to quiz couple in parked car. It was a sequel to bank raid. Outlaw and Woman believed to have been awaiting in Hamilton.

Elusive Clyde Barrow and Raymoind Hamilton, robbers and killers, apparently dashed back and forth across Texas at will on this day, while officers of the state and federal government sought clues to two slayings, a bank robbery and a kidnapping for which the desperadoes were blamed.

Spurred on by rewards of $1,500, local police, state rangers and highway patrolmen and agents of the Department of Justice frantically tried to catch up with Barrow, whom they directly accused of direction a burst of gunfire which killed E. D. Wheeler, 26, and H. D. Murphy, state highway patrolmen, near Grapevine the day before. They learned that Barrow's fingerprints were on a whisky bottle near the scene.

Other tips said Barrow might be found in southeastern Denton county and that two persons in a speeding automobile had passed through Alford and were headed for Sunset and Wichita Falls.

L. G. Phares, chief of the highway patrol at Austin, guaranteed $1,000 of the reward for "the apprehension and conviction, or the dead bodies," of the Grapevine slayers. Gov. Miriam A. Ferguson posted a $500 reward for each desperado, "dead or alive."

Fort Worth, TX, April 2 (19134) -- Murderous gunfire which, without warning, blasted shelves of two Texas Highway patrolmen, was credited that day to Clyde Barrow, notorious Dallas desperado, and Bonnie Parker, the cigar-smoking "gun cool" who had been by his side in many another clash with officers.

Patrolmen E. B. Wheeler, 26, and H. D. Murph, 23, were shot to death before they had a chance to bring their own weapons into play, on a side road near Grapevine, a farming town 18 miles northeast of Fort Worth, late the day before. The officers just had dismounted from their motorcycles with the intention of investigating a man and woman in a parked automobile.

Officer who investigated the cold-blooded killing said there was no doubt but what Barrow was the gunman and that the Parker woman was his companion. It was believed that Barrow and Bonnie Parker had been waiting for Raymond Hamilton, escaped convict who had been identified as the robber who Saturday looted the State National bank at West, Texas, of $1,865 and kidnaped mrs. Cam Gunter near Mexia. Hamilton had been closely associated with Barrow ever since his escape from a Texas prison farm, where he was under sentences aggregating 268 years.

In getting away with the bank loot the day before, Hamilton wrecked his car near Mexia, commandeering that of Mrs. Gunter to continue his flight. Mrs. Gunter was released at 9:30 a.m. yesterday in Houston and given back her car. Hamilton and the red-haired woman accompanying him drove off in another stolen car.

The time element led officers to believe Hamilton could not have been the man who shot down the highway patrolmen near Grapevine at 3:30p.m. the day before. William Schiefer, who witnessed the shooting, told officers the car had been parked on the side road since 10:30a.m. Houston and Grapevine were several hundred miles apart.

Scheffer, whose farm bordered the side road, said he was about 100 yards away when he saw the two patrolmen ride up tot he car. When they were about 25 feet away, both alighted from their motorcycles. Just then, the man and the woman in the car jumped out and opened fire with shotguns. The officers fell without having drawn their pistols.

The man and woman climbed back into their car, drove to the main paved highway a short distance away and tore off toward Grapevine.

Detective A. C. Howerton of the Fort Worth police department was one of the investigating officers who was convinced the killing was done by Barrow and Bonnie Parker. He said a cigar stub was found near where the car had been parked, bearing the imprint of small teeth on the butt. Bonnie Parker's liking for cigars was well known to officers.

In widely separated parts of Texas, posses of officers hunted all night for Hamilton, Barrow and the woman. The search for Barrow and Bonnie aParker centered in North Texas, where they were supposed to have hideouts. Officers found place in Denton county that led them to believe the outlaws had stayed there at times in the past. Residents of the vicinity said a woman fitting Bonnie Parker's description had been seen there on several occasions. Officers did not disclose the exact location.

Last January 16, 1934, Hamilton was delivered from the Eastham state prison farm near Huntsville in a machine gun raid at dawn. Prison officials believe Barrow engineered the break, laying down a barrage of machine gun fire which drove guards to cover while Hamilton made his escape. Several other convicts took advantage of the opportunity to flee.

Brownwood, TX, April 2 (19134) -- Two persons, one of whom said he was Clyde Barrow, held up Howard Strickland, night watchman at Blanket, 10 miles west of Brownwood, early that day, stole about 10 gallons of gasoline and headed east. Strickland fired at the couple four times, but said he believed none of the shots took effect. The couple was traveling in a Ford V-8 black sedan with yellow wheels. Strickland said the couple obtained the gasoline from a filling station while holding pistols on him. He said he could not tell whether both persons were men. One wore ac ap and the other was bareheaded.

The watchman said the couple apparently turned off the main road, Highway 10.

Austin, Texas, April 2 (134) -- Gov. Miriam A. Ferguson offered a reward of $500 each for Clyde Barrow and Raymond Hamilton, desperadoes, dead or alive. The reward also would be paid for the person who killed two motorcycle officers near Grapevine, provided the murderer was not Barrow or Hamilton.

Woof! Woof! Good Night & Good Luck!
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