My Life with Bonnie and Clyde (47 page)

Chapter 8.
Florida

1.
This would have been the night of May 17–18, Wednesday and Thursday, respectively. It is possible that the four fugitives diverted to southern Minnesota at this point in order to stage the Okabena robbery on Friday, May 19, 1933. Considering Blanche’s next statement, “In a few days we were in Florida,” coupled with Clyde Barrow’s penchant for long drives, it is indeed possible that the Okabena robbery was sandwiched between Mississippi and Florida. The robbery of the First State Bank in Okabena, Minnesota, was nearly a carbon copy of the Lucerne incident, except for the old man with a chunk of wood, the pigs, and having to flee with no money. “Machine Gun Bandits Shoot Up Okabena; Rob Bank,” read the headlines of the
Fairmont (Minn.) Daily Sentinel
, May 19, 1933.

2.
Blanche and Buck actually made two trips to Florida, in March 1930 (apparently right after Buck’s escape from the Ferguson prison farm) and again in 1931 on their honeymoon.

3.
There is no city, town, or village named Cumberland along the Atlantic coast of Georgia. There is, however, Cumberland Island, one of several barrier islands between the Georgia mainland and the Atlantic Ocean. It is possible that Blanche is confusing the name of that island with the town she describes. But Cumberland Island, declared a National Seashore in 1972 and a National Wilderness area in 1982, is not connected by bridge to the mainland and never has been. Thus, it is unlikely that the beach described by Blanche was on Cumberland Island. It would appear that the most likely location (between Jacksonville and Brunswick, Georgia, their next destination) would have been Amelia Island, in Florida, just south of the Georgia line. On Amelia Island there are a handful of towns, any one of which might be the place mentioned by Blanche. However, two of the towns, Fernandina Beach and American Beach, are particularly suited to her description; especially Fernandina Beach, seemingly the only Amelia Island community large enough to warrant the presence of a motorcycle patrol. Also, Fernandina Beach, Florida, is just a few miles from the southern tip of Cumberland Island. Cumberland quite possibly was a name in common use by businesses in Fernandina Beach, perhaps accounting for Blanche’s confusion. Carol Ruckdeschel, Cumberland Island Museum, letter to Phillips, January 22, 2002.

4.
The Barrow brothers and two accomplices were once caught in the act of burglarizing a business in Atlanta, Georgia, probably in 1929. Clyde somehow eluded the officers and slipped away unseen. Buck and the two accomplices were trapped inside the business, but Buck managed to squeeze between the engine and firewall of a large delivery truck and pull the hood down over his head before he was spotted. The two accomplices were then arrested and taken to jail. Afterward, Buck emerged from his hiding place and rejoined Clyde. The two burglarized another place and went back to Texas. When Clyde Barrow and Ralph Fults were initially planning the raid on Eastham, Barrow mentioned wanting to free a couple of convicts in Georgia afterward. Fults interview, May 10, 1981. See also Phillips,
Running with Bonnie and Clyde
, 33–92, 101–02, 167–71; Phillips, “Raid on Eastham.”

5.
Blanche once told a story about this trip, perhaps related to this very incident, which illustrated the only known occurrence of Clyde Barrow getting completely disoriented while behind the wheel of a car. It happened after leaving Florida when, as described in the text, a police car began chasing them. Barrow was extremely tired at the time, and in the process of turning again and again and doubling back repeatedly he lost his bearings. After eluding the police car in a maze of roads Barrow then continued driving all night long toward Texas, or so he thought. When Barrow, who would let no one else drive, finally got too tired to drive farther he pulled to a stop in a wooded area. He and the others then stretched out and slept for the rest of the night, thinking they were not far from the Texas line. When the sun rose a few hours later Barrow and his band of fugitives found themselves staring at palm trees and sandy beaches. Instead of Texas, they had ventured to within a few yards of the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast of Florida. Blanche Barrow as quoted in Weiser interview, April 18, 2003.

6.
Clyde took a chance each time he traveled through Alabama. One of his uncles was a lawman in that state, and Barrow had promised his family he would never commit a crime there. Marie Barrow interview, April 29, 1998. There are pictures in Blanche’s scrapbooks from trips taken to Mobile, Alabama; Pensacola, Florida; and East Jacksonville, Florida. During at least one of these trips several friends accompanied her and Buck. In addition, there is photographic evidence of a trip to Nashville, Tennessee, and at least one other trip. The latter journey was in the company of W. D. Jones’s older brother Clyde and his wife. Blanche Barrow scrapbooks.

Chapter 9.
A Visit with My Father

1.
These incidents occurred on June 10 and 23, respectively. For the full story of each event, see Phillips,
Running with Bonnie and Clyde
, 134–39. For a more concise and detailed look at the Arkansas killing, see also Knight, “Incident at Alma,” and Knight and Davis.,
Bonnie and Clyde
, 93–98.

2.
Dallas Daily Times-Herald
, June 7 and 21, 1933.

3.
Mexico (Mo.) Weekly Ledger
, June 15, 1933;
Dallas Daily Times-Herald
, June 5, and 29, 1933;
Dallas Daily Times-Herald
, June 17, 1933.

4.
Dallas Daily Times-Herald
, June 2, 1933. Hamilton’s combined sentence is usually listed as 263 years. However, his brother points out a little known three-year suspended sentence for auto theft that was revoked and added to the total, making it 266 years. See Hamilton,
Public Enemy No. 1
, 18.

5.
Cleveland County (Ark.) Herald
, June 7, 14, and, 21, 1933;
Dallas Daily Times-Herald
, June 9, and 11, 1933. Frank Hardy helped Barrow and Hollis Hale rob a bank at Oronogo, Missouri, on November 30, 1932. His arrest in the Johnson killing prompted Barrow to write a letter declaring Hardy’s innocence. By then, however, W. D. Jones had been arrested and confessed to the crime and the letter became unnecessary. It remained in the Barrow family possessions until it was sold at auction in the 1990s.

6.
Springfield (Mo.) Daily News
, June 30, 1933;
Pleasanton (Kans.) Observer Enterprise
, July 6, 1933;
Dallas Daily Times-Herald
, June 8 and 30, 1933;
The Mexico (Mo.) Intelligencer
, June 15, 1933. Initially it was thought the two crimes were related, but eventually authorities came to suspect they were not linked at all. Also, Pretty Boy Floyd was at first thought to have been one of two men involved in the murders. While the bank robbers appear to have escaped without a trace, two men were convicted of the killings. See
History of Audrain County, Missouri
, 222.

7.
The name of the agency was later changed to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

8.
For the very best account of this incident and its aftermath, see Unger,
Union Station Massacre
. See also
Kansas City Star
, June 17, 1933.

9.
In the extreme southeastern part of the state, near both the Texas and Arkansas lines.

10.
The nephew referred to here is probably Jay Caldwell. By December 1933, Matt Caldwell was no longer living with his brother. Blanche Barrow letter to her mother, December 12, 1933, quoted in Baker,
Blanche Barrow
, 35.

11.
Between Idabel and Durant.

12.
Jones later commented that people frequently helped them, “Not because it was Bonnie and Clyde. People in them days just helped—no questions asked.” Jones, interview by Biffle, June 1969.

Chapter 10.
Wellington

1.
W. D. Jones said that by the time he and Bonnie and Clyde arrived at the meeting place, early on the morning of June 11, Buck and Blanche “had lots of money,” adding that they had robbed a bank while Bonnie and Clyde were picking him up in Dallas. (Jones had met Bonnie and Clyde at the Five Star Dance Hall near Bachman Dam, Dallas. Dallas County Sheriff’s Department, Jones, Voluntary Statement B-71, 12.) Blanche, however, said she and Buck had been visiting relatives in Oklahoma. Blanche Barrow interview, November 18, 1984. On June 6, 1933, the day Blanche writes that she and Buck Barrow were driving “through Texas to Oklahoma” in a stolen “gray Ford V-8 sedan,” the First State Bank of Bokchito, Oklahoma, was robbed of $1,407 at 1:15 p.m. by two bandits who escaped in a Ford V-8.
Dallas Daily
Times-Herald
, June 8, 1933; Allen, “The First State Bank—Bokchito, Oklahoma.” Bokchito is about eighty miles west of Goodwater, where Matt Caldwell, Blanche’s father, was living at the time.

2.
Earlier in the evening of June 10, 1933, Clyde Barrow had been traveling at a high rate of speed seven miles north of Wellington, in the Texas Panhandle southeast of Amarillo. He apparently did not see a sign warning that the bridge across the Salt Fork River had been moved, and he careened into the nearly dry riverbed, reportedly saying, “Hold on to your hats! This is it!” Moon and Huddleston, “Bonnie, Clyde, and Me,” unpublished manuscript, 12. Barrow and Jones were able to climb out of the wreck, but Parker was pinned inside. Within a few moments the car caught fire and before she could be pulled free, Parker was severely burned. A local farmer, Sam Pritchard, helped Barrow and Jones carry Parker to his farmhouse nearby. However, Pritchard became suspicious of the trio. Another man at the Pritchard house slipped away to notify the local authorities. When they arrived, in the person of Collingsworth County Sheriff George Corry and Wellington City Marshal Paul Hardy, Barrow and Jones abducted them both and escaped with Parker in Corry’s car. Barrow was driving Corry’s car when he arrived at the meeting place near Sayre, Oklahoma. For the full account, see Phillips,
Running with Bonnie and Clyde
, 135–37. See also Jones, “Riding with Bonnie and Clyde,” 165; Fortune,
Fugitives
, 172;
Dallas Morning News
, June 12, 1933;
Amarillo (Tex.) Sunday News-Globe
, June 12, 1933.

Gladys Cartwright, the farmer’s daughter, gave her own side of the story in a later interview. According to Cartwright on June 10, 1933, Sam Pritchard, his wife, daughter and son-in-law Gladys and Alonzo Cartwright, and son and daughter-in-law Jack and Irene Pritchard were all sitting on the east porch of their farmhouse in the Texas Panhandle, seven miles north of Wellington. They heard a car approaching at a high rate of speed on the road in front of the house. They heard it long before they saw it. Several moments later a Ford V-8 topped the hill and roared past them. One of the witnesses commented that it seemed the driver was going so fast he would probably miss the detour sign mounted prominently on the road. The sign rerouted motorists onto a new stretch of road leading to the new bridge across the Salt Fork of the Red River. The old road only functioned as a spur and ended at the riverbank. The bridge there had been removed. Just as suspected, the driver missed the sign and proceeded onto the old spur at top speed. Seconds later there was a grinding crash as the car plunged over the embankment and smashed into the dry riverbed. Sam Pritchard and Alonzo Cartwright ran to the wreck, about two hundred yards from the house, just as the car was igniting. They helped two men, Barrow and Jones, free a badly burned woman, Parker, from the car. Sam and Alonzo insisted on taking all three to their house for treatment. Alonzo also suggested driving to Wellington for a doctor. “No,” one of the men said. “We’re hot.” At some point the farm family were made aware of Clyde Barrow, although none of them had ever heard of the Barrow brothers before.
“All I knew was they were hurt and needed help,” said Sam Pritchard. Later they all assumed Jones was Buck. Alonzo Cartwright managed to slip away and alert Collingsworth County Sheriff George Corry. When Corry and Wellington City Marshal Paul Hardy arrived at the Pritchard house they found Bonnie Parker in bed, badly burned. The officers walked through the house and stepped outside where Barrow and Jones were waiting with weapons drawn. They disarmed the officers. Suddenly Parker leaped out of bed and ran outside. Jones, identified as Buck, thought there were other lawmen in the house or that Cladys Cartright was reaching for a gun and opened fire, striking Gladys in the hand. Barrow then shot holes in all the tires of Alonzo Cart-wright’s car, cuffed the officers, and took off in the sheriff’s car along with Parker and Jones. Gladys Pritchard Cartwright, interview by Evelyn Ball King, quoted in King,
Collingsworth County
, 387.

3.
This statement by Clyde Barrow appears to indicate he had no intention of killing Corry and Hardy. Otherwise he would not have been worried about what they might see. This also tends to contradict Blanche’s later assertion that Clyde Barrow was in some sort of a quandary over whether the officers should live or die.

4.
This was confirmed by Jones, who said Parker was “burned so bad none of us thought she was going to live.” Jones also stated that her right leg was burned from the hip to the ankle and that bone was visible in some places. Jones, “Riding with Bonnie and Clyde,” 165. Cumie Barrow described a burn deep in the knee and said that Parker’s leg was “drawn up some,” indicating damage to ligaments. Cumie Barrow, unpublished manuscript.

5.
This more than implies that Clyde was debating whether or not to kill the officers, which may not have been the case. Every other source close to the fugitives indicated that it was Buck, not Clyde who wanted to kill Corry and Hardy. W. D. Jones said later, “Buck was all for killing the two lawmen; but Clyde, thinking how gentle they had been with Bonnie, said no.” Jones, “Riding with Bonnie and Clyde,” 165. Cumie Barrow quoted Buck asking, “[Are we going to] bump them off?” Cumie Barrow, unpublished manuscript. So did Fortune in
Fugitives
, 172. The abducted officers also named Buck as the one who asked, “Are we going to kill these men?” And they reported Clyde’s answer as, “No, I’ve been with them so long I’m beginning to like them.”
Dallas Morning News
, June 12, 1933. Almost two years later, Corry would testify in federal court during the Barrow-Parker harboring case that as he and Hardy were being tied up, Buck said, “Guess you were looking for the Barrow boys.” “Not especially,” Corry replied. “Well you got ‘m anyway,” Buck said.
Dallas Dispatch
, February 24, 1935.