My Life with Bonnie and Clyde (51 page)

40.
Here in the original manuscript Blanche wrote, “jumping up and down, screaming, and holding my hands over my ears like a person gone mad. I know I shouldn’t have done this because Buck may have thought I was shot, but I couldn’t help it. I expected to see him fall dead at my feet any minute. Still I was afraid to grab a gun and start fighting too. I didn’t fire a shot or even have a gun in my hands,” then crossed it all out.

41.
The broken mirror was mentioned in the newspaper. “Inside the cabins bullet holes were everywhere, through doors and windows, some fired from outside, some from inside. Mirrors were shattered. Several bullets went through the Red Crown Tavern.”
The Landmark
, July 21, 1933. The latter statement attests to the power of the Browning automatic rifle.

42.
Deputy George Highfill, the driver, had been wounded by the armor-piercing ammunition of the Browning automatic rifles. The horn had also been hit and was blowing continuously. Deputy James Thorpe, manning a machine gun mounted on the car, fired a few shots before the weapon jammed.
Highfill threw it in reverse and backed away from the cabins, one of his head-lights pointing skyward, apparently struck by gunfire as well. Some think the blowing horn caused the officers to cease fire. Hinton,
Ambush
, 65. Crawford thought the blowing horn meant the driver was dead and slumped across the wheel. The driver survived, however. Crawford interview, April 19, 1983. Another Jackson County deputy had a machine gun. It jammed immediately. Some say Thorpe’s machine gun also jammed immediately and that neither weapon fired a shot.
The Landmark
, July 21, 1933.

43.
Buck was holding the BAR at waist level when he was struck. As his body arced back, he fired the weapon in a sweeping motion in the air. The officers began firing. Then, “Some woman was doing a terrible amount of screaming.” Crawford interview, April 19, 1983. The woman screaming was Blanche. She was calling to Clyde, trying to tell him to open the garage door, that Buck had been hit. She had to scream to be heard over the gunfire. Blanche Barrow interview, November 3, 1984. One report states that Buck fell three times.
Kansas City Star
, July 20, 1933.

44.
Captain Baxter reported hearing someone say, “I’m shot.”
Kansas City Star
, July 20, 1933. This may have been Buck, or Deputy George Highfill, or Sheriff Coffey, though the latter reportedly ignored his wounds and never sought treatment. Hinton,
Ambush
, 65.

45.
One witness remembered a man and two women dragging the wounded Buck Barrow to the car. Crawford interview, April 19, 1983.

46.
In the original manuscript Blanche wrote here, “when Clyde or W. D. didn’t offer to help me even get him [Buck] into the car,” then crossed it out. Elsewhere in the text Blanche has already mentioned Clyde Barrow coming out of the garage, something she confirmed in a later interview. Blanche Barrow interview, November 3, 1984.

47.
This passage certainly indicates that both W. D. and Clyde were still outside of the car when Buck was loaded into the back seat. Presumably, either one or both could have helped carry Buck, just as Crawford stated.

48.
More than one witness reported seeing all members of the gang shooting.
The Landmark
, August 11, 1933.

49.
The “something hard” that struck Blanche above the temple was a bullet fragment that remained embedded in her skull just above the hairline for the rest of her life. Shards of glass lacerated one of her eyes. Blanche Barrow interview, November 3, 1984.

50.
Crawford stated that not a shot was fired after Buck was loaded in the car. Crawford interview, April 19, 1983. When told of the comment, Blanche remarked, “It didn’t seem like anybody stopped shooting to me!” Blanche Barrow interview, November 3, 1984. The wounds she sustained after getting in the car certainly confirm her opinion.

Chapter 13.
Dexfield Park

1.
Clyde Barrow turned down a gravel road called Farmer’s Lane and stopped only a few miles from the Red Crown Cabins. No one in the posse
assembled at the tavern pursued the fugitives. Only one man wanted to, Captain Baxter’s partner, Patrolman L. A. Ellis. Crawford interview, April 19, 1983; Searles interview, April 20, 1983;
The Landmark
, May 21, 1982. Baxter did telephone ahead to have bridges blocked along the Missouri River, Platte River, and Little Platte River, among other places.
Kansas City Star
, July 20, 1933. The officers then searched the cabins. Among the items recovered were a number of weapons, including three Browning automatic rifles, one of which had its barrel and stock cut down as described by Blanche, and a pistol taken from Marshal H. D. Humphrey of Alma, Arkansas.
The Landmark
, May 21, 1982. Some sources indicate the gang possessed as many as six Browning automatic rifles and forty-seven Colt .45 automatic pistols. Cartledge, “Bonnie and Clyde,” 23. The five sandwiches ordered from Slim’s Castle by W. D. Jones were found uneaten, but the soda bottles were all empty. Crawford interview, April 19, 1983.

2.
This may have occurred on the Hoover-Ridgely Road (today Highway B) as Clyde Barrow drove toward the old covered bridge across the Little Platte River. The car was spotted there traveling north at a high rate of speed on three tires and a nearly bare rim. The following day bloody clothes, discarded bandages, and a mutilated tire were found next to a creek near Lutes Cemetery Road (now called Old River Road) on the north side of the Little Platte River. Kimsey, letters to Phillips, October 25, 2002, May 7, 2003.

3.
Indeed they did! In the course of the night the fugitives made at least five stops within miles of the Red Crown Tavern, four in the vicinity of Hoover and Kerrville near the confluence of the Little Platte and Platte Rivers, and one stop on the north bank of the Little Platte near Lutes Cemetery. After backing out of the garage, Clyde Barrow cut the wheels of the bullet-riddled V-8 hard to the north and sped overland a short distance to old Highway 71, plowing through several stalks of drought-withered corn in a dusty cultivated field adjacent to the cabins. Crawford, letter to Phillips with hand-drawn map, December 21, 1982; Searles, letter to Phillips with hand-drawn map, April 21, 1983; Vivien Smitson quoted in Williams, “The Day Bonnie and Clyde Shot It Out with the Law.” Clyde Barrow initially headed northwest on old Highway 71, driving past what was then called Cockriel Road (now North Winan Road), and then turning due north on the gravel road known in those days as Farmer’s Lane (since eliminated south of Highway 92 and now called Bethel Road north of Highway 92). Taulbee, e-mail to Phillips, December 2, 2002; the names “Farmer’s Lane” and “Cockriel Road” come from the memory of Crawford, letter to Phillips, December 21, 1982. It was apparently on Farmer’s Lane that Clyde Barrow first stopped, pulling off the road to examine Buck and fix the flat tire. It was probably here that Barrow discovered that Blanche was wounded. Also, this was near the home of farmer Cleve Burrell from whom two men, probably Clyde Barrow and W. D. Jones, borrowed a pump and a jack.
The Landmark
, July 28, 1933. The fugitives then continued north on Farmer’s Lane (Bethel Road) until they reached Interurban Road. There they turned right and traveled southeast for an eighth of a mile
before stopping again. Clyde Barrow appeared at the front door of Tom and Winnie Chinn’s house on Interurban, saying he’d had an automobile accident and needed bandages. Winnie Chinn gave Barrow some old sheets. After leaving the Chinn house, Barrow continued southeast on Interurban until reaching the village of Kerrville. George and Frances Baber, interview by LaVern Taulbee, quoted in e-mails to Phillips, December 2, 2002, January 15, 2003. Shortly afterward the car was spotted traveling north on the Hoover-Ridgeley Road (Highway “B” today) at a high rate of speed on three tires and a bare rim. The outlaws evidently crossed the Little Platte River near there via a covered bridge built in 1878 and known locally as “Noah’s Ark.” Once across the river they immediately turned left on what was then called Lutes Cemetery Road. They continued along the road as it ascended a hill and disappeared into a grove of trees. In the woods beside a creek on the property of Joe Miller the troupe again stopped, fixing the second flat tire and discarding more bloody bandages and clothes. Afterward Clyde Barrow drove further west along the Lutes Cemetery Road, apparently expecting to find the old Mellon Bridge across the Platte River. The bridge was either washed out or Barrow became uncharacteristically lost because at some point he turned around and backtracked to the covered bridge and crossed once again to the south side of the Little Platte River. In Kerrville the car turned south on Cockriel Road and pulled into a field across from a picturesque red-brick antebellum mansion known locally as “the Swaney Brick.” The two-story structure with its distinctive neoclassic porch and white window casings stands on a slight bluff on the east side of the road overlooking the spot across the way where Clyde Barrow stopped once again. The fugitives evidently spent most of the rest of the night there. Early on the morning of the twentieth they left the field and drove south to Hoover Road (Highway 92) and stopped somewhere near the hamlet of Hoover, discarding yet more bandages and clothes. It may have been in Hoover that they stopped for gas. Shortly thereafter they traveled north from Hoover on what today is called Highway B, back to the covered bridge. There they crossed again to the north side of the Little Platte River. But this time Barrow continued due north, passing through Ridgley then turning west on Mt. Zion Road. Residents there saw the car that morning racing toward the Platte River. In 1933 there was a bridge across the Platte River that took travelers on Mt. Zion Road through the river bottoms to Edgerton Junction on the west bank. From there, more than six hours after the gun battle, the fugitives turned north toward Iowa. Kimsey, letters and e-mails to Phillips, October 25, 2002,
May 6, 2003, May 7, 2003;
The Landmark
, July 28, 1933; Taulbee e-mails to Phillips, December 2, 2002, January 15, 2003; Searles interview, April 20, 1983; Crawford interview, April 19, 1983; Searles letter to Phillips, April 21, 1983; Crawford, letter to Phillips December 21, 1982. Some have suggested the outlaws actually spent most of the night on the north side of the Little Platte River, rather than in the field across from the “Swaney Brick,” then traveled straight through Ridgely the next morning without first heading back south. Kimsey, letters and e-mails to Phillips, October 25, 2002, May 6, 2003, May 7, 2003. None of the three bridges mentioned above exist today. The Mellon Bridge, which was thought to have been washed out at the time, was never replaced and the Lutes Cemetery Road (Old River Road) ends near the east bank of the Platte River. The Mt. Zion Road Bridge washed out in the late 1930s and was never replaced. In 1965 a devastating flood destroyed the Little Platte River’s historic old covered bridge. A new, uncovered bridge stands near the old location.

4.
Nearly every other source, from Fortune to Hinton and beyond, has the Barrow gang far away from Platte City by morning. “By daylight Clyde had covered hundreds of miles.” Fortune,
Fugitives
, 188. “After the incident at the Cleve Burrell farm . . . they took up their drive again until they had crossed into Iowa.” Hinton,
Ambush
, 68. “Clyde Barrow headed north during the early hours of July 20 and crossed into Iowa.” Treherne,
Strange History of Bonnie and Clyde
, 133. “Meanwhile, Clyde continued to race through the night without stopping for sleep or food. By morning, he had covered a great distance.” Milner,
Lives and Times of Bonnie and Clyde
, 92.

5.
The gas station could have been in Hoover, Ridgely, or Edgerton Junction, although the former is closest to Kansas City. Nevertheless, despite Blanche’s concern, no reports of the incident appeared in either the Platte City newspaper or the
Kansas City Star
. By then there was already a substantial amount of finger-pointing among lawmen over the escape of the Barrow brothers. One paper laid blame for the outcome of the gunfight on the Kansas City officers, stating, “We must all confess it looks strange that four people [only Kermit Crawford ever thought there was a fifth person] surrounded in cabins by thirteen officers could get away.”
The Landmark
, July 28, 1933. The fact that the car and its bloodied cargo were able to so easily traverse back and forth for several hours within miles of the Red Crown Tavern was possible perhaps because the flight took place in what was then a very rural area. Most of the residents along the way were farmers without radios and those who owned radios were doing what their less-fortunate neighbors were doing that night, sitting outside on the porches of their farmhouses enjoying the evening air and spectacular full moon. Many, including young Ellis Kimsey, saw the car speeding past their homes but knew nothing of the drama behind the fleeing automobile. The earliest most of them heard of the shoot-out was the following afternoon when the
Kansas City Star
was delivered. Kimsey, letters and e-mails to Phillips, October 25, 2002, May 6 and 7, 2003; Williams, “The Day Bonnie and Clyde Shot It Out.”

6.
This may have been when they stopped near Mt. Ayr, Iowa (some sources say Caledonia, Iowa), where a local man named Fred Marsh saw two men and “a red-headed woman” speeding north in a small car. Marsh then discovered the partially burned remnants of bloody clothing and bandages.
Kansas City Star
, July 21, 1933. Ringgold County Sheriff L. E. Thompson received a call that a suspicious quartet, two men and two women, were parked near Caledonia. Thompson strongly suspected the presence of the Barrow brothers and was no doubt relieved when he learned they had moved on before his
arrival. Thompson said, “the gang is one of the most desperate that has ever operated here.”
Fort Dodge (Iowa) Messenger
, July 21, 1933.

7.
They had indeed left the medical kit, stolen earlier in the month from Doctor Fields in Enid, Oklahoma. Among the many other items found afterward in the cabins was the small chrome case containing a syringe, two needles, a vial labeled “atropine sulphate,” and a vial labeled “twenty hypodermic tablets morphine sulphate.” Williams, “The Day Bonnie and Clyde Shot It Out.”