My Life with Bonnie and Clyde (17 page)

Elvin “Jack” Barrow. “I walked to Elvin’s house and woke him up.” (Courtesy of Buddy Williams Barrow)

The bus wasn’t very crowded. I got in the back so I could lay down and have a good sleep. The night was cool. While I was asleep someone covered me with a coat. Everyone was being very kind and thoughtful to me, trying to take care of me as though I were a child. I wasn’t much larger than a child. I only weighed about eighty-five pounds then, down from one hundred and eighteen just since the first of April (before we got into trouble).
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I made the best of that trip by sleeping as much as I could.

The bus pulled into Dallas about 5:30 Monday morning. I called a taxi and had the driver drop me about three blocks from Elvin Barrow’s home.
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Then I walked to Elvin’s house and woke him up. He and his family were so surprised to see me. They thought all the rest had been killed or captured, but I told them they were all right when I left them. Then I explained why I had come. They were afraid for me to stay there, but I couldn’t go any place else. I called Mrs. Barrow and told her to come to Elvin’s at once. She said she would as soon as she could.

We ate breakfast. I was still sleepy. I had not realized how tired I was before I got on the bus. So, I lay down on the bed to wait for Mrs. Barrow. I was asleep when she arrived, but I soon woke up. I told her to get in touch
with Mrs. Parker, Bonnie’s mother, and tell her to get ready to go with us to meet Clyde and Bonnie.
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I told her everything that had happened to us since we last saw her and how we happened to get into trouble.

Dallas, Texas, 1933; scale: 1 in = 5 mi. Based on a contemporary map in the editor’s possession.

I told her Buck and I were both innocent of any murders. But I admitted that Buck had helped Clyde rob several places since we left Joplin. She cried so much and said she could hardly believe life could be so unkind as to throw two innocent people into the shadow of death. I tried to get her to go to Joplin and get our car and all the clothes we left there, but she was afraid it would make it harder for us. I told her we couldn’t be hurt more, except to be shot and killed.

I asked her about W. D. She said she had seen him, but she did not know if he wanted to go with Clyde or not. I told her to find him if she could and have him meet me if he wanted to go back with Clyde. But I didn’t blame him if he wanted to pull out of it while he still could. I just wished Buck and I could get out of it, but they knew we were with Bonnie and Clyde and would keep looking for us. We had to keep going until we were shot down.

Mrs. Barrow left to contact Mrs. Parker and see if she could find W. D. I asked Elvin if he would take us to meet Clyde and Buck in his car. Buck told me he thought he would, but Elvin said he couldn’t afford to do that. He said he would love to see his brothers but he could not take the chance. He had his family to think of. Also, all the officers knew his car and may follow him, so that was out. We would have to look elsewhere for a car.

I called Nell Cowan,
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Buck’s younger sister. She came to see me and brought Buck’s older sister [Artie] with her. Nell had a car. I asked her if she would drive us out to meet her brothers but she said no, she was too busy. She had to work. She wouldn’t even loan her car.

I asked Nell to go to town and buy me some boots. I had a riding suit, but no boots. I couldn’t find any that I liked in any of the small towns we passed through. But she wouldn’t even do that! So, I got someone else to get them. I don’t care to mention this person’s name.

Mrs. Barrow returned with LC Barrow, Buck’s youngest brother. She got hold of Mrs. Parker and she agreed to meet us.
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But they couldn’t find W. D.

I still had no car, though. It looked as if I would have to rent one but I wasn’t sure how successful I would be. But I would try anyway. Then Elvin told me he knew where I could buy one for seventy-five or a hundred dollars. It wouldn’t be much of a car, but we could make the trip in it. It turned out to be a Model A Ford roadster. LC said he needed a car and begged
me to buy it. He said he would drive us out to meet Clyde and Buck. He wanted to see them so badly. That seemed the only way out, so I bought the car.

Nell Cowan, Clyde Barrow, and Artie Winkler in Denison, Texas, 1933. “Nell Cowan, Buck’s younger sister, ... came to see me and brought Buck’s older sister [Artie] with her.” (Courtesy of Buddy Williams Barrow)

I wanted to get started or else we were going to be late. LC, Mrs. Barrow, and I left Elvin’s home, met Mrs. Parker on some street corner (I don’t remember where), and the four of us left Dallas. Nell wouldn’t go at all.
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We weren’t able to make it to the meeting place by two o’clock. When we finally arrived, Bonnie, Clyde, and Buck weren’t there. We were afraid we’d missed them. I told LC to drive on to Cooper. Just before we got to town, though, I saw a car speeding toward us. It looked like Clyde’s car. I suddenly realized they didn’t know what kind of car we would have. So we stopped and I stepped out so they would see who it was. They stopped. Buck opened the door on his side of the car. He and Clyde and Bonnie were all smiles. I was never so glad to see anyone. That one day and night away from Buck seemed like months.

They told us to follow them. Clyde drove off on a country road.
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It was muddy. When they came to a bridge across a small creek, they stopped. Everyone got out. It was like a family reunion. We were so happy to see each other. I was certainly happy to be with Buck again.

I looked them over. They didn’t look like they had slept at all. Buck and Clyde still needed a shave and they had mud on their clothes. I asked Buck if he had a good night’s sleep. He said no, he hadn’t slept any. All three of them were drinking and they looked as though they had been on a drunk the night before.

I asked Buck what had happened. He told me they bought some whiskey before leaving Muskogee. Then Clyde decided to get in touch with Pretty Boy Floyd again.
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He thought he might find him by visiting Pretty Boy’s mother. So, they drove to Sallisaw, Oklahoma. By the time they got there, Clyde and Bonnie were crazy drunk. They stopped at a filling station to inquire how to get to the Floyd place. At first, the man at the station wouldn’t tell him. Then Clyde took his hat off and asked the man if he recognized him.

The man took a good look at Clyde and said, “You aren’t ...”

“Yes,” Clyde said. “I am Clyde Barrow and I want to find Pretty Boy Floyd. I promised to meet him at his mother’s.”

About that time, a car drove by slowly. Clyde thought it looked like a copper of some kind and asked the man at the filling station if he knew who was in the car. The man said it was the sheriff. Clyde went back to his car. They decided to come back later. Buck drove because Clyde was starting to feel sick. They didn’t even get out of sight of the station before Clyde was so sick he had to get out of the car. Bonnie was nearly out cold. But Buck was sober. Bonnie and Clyde told me Buck would only take a couple of drinks because he had promised me he wouldn’t get drunk. I guess it was a good thing he stayed sober, because when Clyde got out of the car and
walked around to the back, he just passed out and fell into a ditch half-filled with mud-red water.

A 1934 family reunion, including five of those present for the May 15, 1933, post–Mother’s Day visit. Standing, left to right: Billie Parker Mace, Clyde Barrow, Cumie Barrow, LC Barrow. Crouching, left to right: Marie Barrow, Emma Parker, and Bonnie Parker. “[Clyde] and Buck had a nice visit with their mother ... Bonnie also had a good visit with her mother.” (Courtesy of Buddy Williams Barrow)

Buck had just fished Clyde out of the water and put him on the ground beside the car, when the sheriff drove by slowly. Buck said all he could do was just stand beside the car with his rifle in his hands, ready to shoot it out with him if he stopped and got tough. He would have hated to kill the sheriff because so far he had not had to kill anyone. He hoped the sheriff wouldn’t stop. He didn’t.

By then, Bonnie had gotten out of the car too. She and Clyde were both helpless. Buck finally got both of them in the car and drove them around
until they felt better. Clyde and Bonnie thought the whiskey had been poisoned. They found a place to clean up a little bit, but Buck and Clyde missed the mud on their trousers. When Buck told Clyde what a close call they had, Clyde cursed himself for being such a fool. By then, it was early morning. And that’s what happened to the good night’s sleep they were going to get while I was on my way to Dallas.
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Clyde was very disappointed because W. D. did not come with us. But he and Buck had a nice visit with their mother anyway. Bonnie also had a good visit with her mother.
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They talked about everything that had happened since they had last seen each other. But it was hard to keep the mothers from crying.

I got dressed in my riding habit and new boots. All I needed was a horse. I liked to wear them because dresses were harder to keep fit than boots and trousers.
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When I put the boots on, I had trouble walking. It had been a so long since I’d worn any. They felt heavy. Clyde and Buck told me it would be hard to outrun any bullets with them on. And running was about the only thing I could do well. At least it was the one thing I would not refuse to do. They often laughed about me trying to outrun bullets. I told them I didn’t think running from bullets was half as funny as being afraid of storms.

We laughed about a lot of things that we should have taken more seriously. But no matter how serious or dangerous the situation was, we always found something to laugh about later on. It always seemed better to laugh than to cry. We had to laugh to keep from crying.

The evening seemed to fly. LC and I had a footrace to see if I really could run with boots on. When we finished everyone laughed because I was almost out of breath.

I wished I could have visited my mother but I did not want to risk the chance of her getting killed, or accused of doing something wrong. Even though I was innocent, I had been accused of breaking the law and was a hunted woman. But I couldn’t leave the man I loved so much. I wanted mother to remember me as she had last seen me, a happy girl of twenty-two. Although I was only a few months older than that now, life had changed so fast and so much, it seemed like years since I had been really free.