Volume 18 , Issue 1

1934 - Texas Outlaw, Gun Girl Die In Police Trap

You all remember the escapades of Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, don't you?

We found this news articles in the Altoona Tribune, Altoona, Pennsylvania, dated 24 May 1934, Thursday, page 1: "Texas Outlaw, Gun Girl Die In Police Trap." This date, 23 May 1934, was the date that Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker drove into an ambush at 85 miles an hour.

Found on Newspapers.com

Arcadia, Louisiana, May 23 (1934 -- Clyde Barrow, notorious Texas outlaw, and his cigar-smoking gun woman, Bonnie Parker, were ambushed and shot to death near here today in a sensational encounter with a posse led by an old-time Texas ranger.

The low-mocking desperado, whizzing along the Jamestown Sailes road, a little used highway, at 85 miles an hour, ran right into a trap set for him, after having been lured into the state by the relative of an ex-convict who promised protection.

Riddled With Bullets

Before he or Bonnie Parker could get their guns into action, the officers riddled them with bullets. Barrow's car, running wild, careened from the road and smashed into an embankment. As the wheels spun, the posse continued to fire until the ar was almost hot to pieces. [Would this have been considered "excessive force" if it happened today?]

The body of the gunman, who four years before was minor hoodlum scarcely known outside of Dallas, was found slumped behind the steering wheel, a revolver in one hand.

Bonnie Parker died with her had between her knees. She still was clutching the machine gun.

"We killed Clyde and Bonnie at 9:15 this morning," reported Ted Hinton, on of the Texas officers, to the sheriff's office in Dallas. "They were at Black Lake, a hideout we had been watching for weeks."

Fred Hamer, former captain of the Texas Rangers, who had been waiting in the brush for days for Barrow to come by on his regular run, added:

"Clyde and Bonnie did not get to fire a shot. Their car was full of guns and ammunition, but they did not get a chance to use them."

Barrow and been lured into northwest Louisiana, through arrangement with officers, for what he thought was a rendezvous with an underworld friend near Ringgold. A relative of an escaped convict and former member of Barrow's southwest gang, working with the authorities, and promised him protection at his home.

As the overs fired, Barrow opened a door of his small gray sedan and attempted to raise his gun. So did Bonnie Parker, but both were shot before they could pull the trigger.

While the law was scoring this victory in Louisiana, Evelyn Flechette, friend of the fugitive John Dillinger, and Dr. Clayton May, convicted of harboring the Indiana criminal, were sentenced in St. Paul, Minn., to two years in prison and were fined $1,000.

Sheriff Jordan of Bienville parish said he had received a tip that the First National bank of Arcadia was to be robbed on Wednesday or Thursday and immediately had notified Texas officers.

Barrow came from Enton, Louisiana, the afternoon before and passed through Gibsland, Louisiana, about 4 O'clock and again that morning, Jordan said. Jordan and his deputy, Paul M. Oakley, were waiting at the top of the hill with the Texans.

In Dallas, Mrs. Henry Barrow, mother of Barrow cried in anguish.

"And I prayed only last night," she sobbed, "that I might see him alive again, just once more."

Barrow's father, working at his filling station, west of Dallas, made only one remark. He said he guessed his wife would be going to Louisiana.

Bonnie Parker's mother, Mrs. Emma Parker, also a resident of Dallas, fainted when informed by telephone of her daughter's death.

A Coroner's jury last that same day heard the officers' account of the killing and returned a verdict holding that Barrow and the Parker woman were killed by officers "in the line of duty."

This was the second time strap had been laid for Barrow in this region.

Officers surrounded a house some weeks ago when it was believed barrow and the woman were inside. When the posse closed in the pari and disappeared.

Both eh outlaw and Bonnie Parker had sworn they never would be taken alive.

Dallas. TX, May 23 (1934) -- Clyde barrow, quick shooting "cop hater," and his gunwoman companion, bonnie Parker, and blazed their way out of several police traps before they ran into their last ambush that morning in Louisiana.

Barrow's police record began in 1926, when he was arrested in Dallas for automobile theft. In 1930, he was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment for automobile theft at Waco, Texas, but was paroled in February, 1932, by Governor Ross S. Sterling.

Then started his bloody trail across the southwest, marked by slayings and bank robberies. Slowing bitter hatred for the law and it's enforcers, Barrow blamed his depredations on mistreatment by officers during his first prison terms.

The first murder charge was lodged against him for the slaying of J. N> Bucher, a filling station operator, in a petty holdup at Hillsboro, Texas, April 30, 1932. A series of slayings, for which he was indicted, or sought, followed. On the list were:

• August 5, 1932 - Murder of Deputy Sheriff E. C. Moore at Atoka, Oklahoma.
• October 11, 1932 - Killing of Howard Hall grocery clerk at Sherman, Texas.
• December 24, 1932 - Killing of Doyle Johnson at Temple, Texas.
• January 7, 1933 - Killing of Deputy Sheriff Malcolm Davis in Dallas.
• April 13, 1933 - Slaying of Constable J. W. Hartman and Detective Harry McGinnis at Joplin, MO.
• June 23, 1933 - Killing of Marshal Henry Humphrey at Van Buren, Arkansas.
• January 16, 1934 - Killing of Major Crowson, guard at the state prison farm near Hunstville, Texas when Barrow allegedly staged the raid in which Hamilton and four other convicts were liberated.
• April 1, 1934 - Killing of E. B. Wheeler and H. D. Murphy, Texas highway patrolmen, near Grapevine, Texas.
• April 6, 1934 - Killing of Constable Cal Campbell at Miami, Oklahoma.

Barrow and Bonnie also were indicted for the slaying of two Texas highway patrolmen Easter Sunday. The patrolmen dismounting from their motorcycles to investigate an automobile parked by the roadside, were shot down at close range before they could draw their guns. A few days before this news article, Bonnie Parker's sister, Mrs. Billie Mace, and Raymond Hamilton's brother, Floyd, also were charged with the slaying.
  |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

---