My Life with Bonnie and Clyde (52 page)

8.
The date was Thursday, July 20, 1933. Actually, the camp was just outside of Dexfield Park, on private property that was being used by the federal Works Progress Administration, one of many agencies established by President Franklin Roosevelt to combat the Great Depression by supplying jobs to the unemployed—in this case, loggers to cut timber. Feller interview, May 5, 1983; Blohm interview, May 5, 1983. Dexfield Park had once been a very popular amusement park located just off of what was then called White Pole Auto Road, between the towns of Dexter and Redfield, not far from Des Moines, Iowa. Operating from April 1915 to April 1933, the park had been equipped with a swimming pool, a dance hall, fairground, and a baseball field where games were held every weekend. There was a popular restaurant, a shooting gallery, and ball-throwing contests where men could win a box of cigars and women could win a box of candy. Apparently some very popular jazz bands played there as well, but by the time the Barrows arrived on July 20, 1933, it was abandoned and starting to look overgrown, a victim of the Great Depression. Weesner,
History of Dexter, Iowa
, 51; Blohm interview, May 5, 1983; Feller interview, May 5, 1983. For a full account of the Dexfield Park episode, see Phillips,
Running with Bonnie and Clyde
, 145–58.

9.
Every day during their stay at Dexfield Park, Clyde drove to Dexter and bought provisions, including a daily block of ice from Blohm’s Grocery, Cafe, and Meat Market, founded in 1888. Blohm interview, May 5, 1983.

10.
Barrow visited a number of businesses in Dexter, including Pohle Drug Store, Stanley Drug Store, and Blohm’s cafe and meat market. Parker always remained in the car. To the clerks at one of the drugstores, Barrow claimed he was a veterinarian. Blohm interview, May 5, 1983;
Dexter (Iowa) Sentinel
, July 25, 1933. Dexter, Iowa, was founded in 1868 and named after a popular nineteenth century racehorse. It was well known for the manufacture of a brand of hand-cranked washing machines marketed as “the Billy-Twister,” as well as hand-made cigars and a piece of farm equipment called the Dexter Hog Oiler. However, in 1933 as they rolled through Dexter’s streets, Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker found a very tiny, very rural town that had only acquired electricity fourteen years earlier. It was the kind of place where everyone knew everyone else, and nearly everyone who saw the strangers was suspicious and fearful of them. Blohm interview, May 5, 1983; Weesner,
History of Dexter, Iowa
, 3, 30, 36, 50–51.

11.
The town was Perry, Iowa, thirty-eight miles north of Dexter. There, a car belonging to Edward Stoner was stolen.
Dexter (Iowa) Sentinel
, July 25, 1933.

12.
While the fugitives were away in Perry, a local man named Ed Penn discovered the Barrow camp while taking a Sunday walk along the narrow dirt access road called Lover’s Lane, near the southeast corner of Dexfield Park. Initially he thought nothing of the scene, then noticed what appeared to be bloody bandages. Penn notified the Dexter town marshal, John Love, who in turn notified the county sheriff and other authorities.
Dexter
(
Iowa
)
Sentinel
, July 25, 1933. Another source, however, states that a man named Henry Nye discovered the camp on
his
property, and that it was Nye who contacted the marshal. Hutzell and Rupp, “Bonnie and Clyde,” 38. Still another source mentions a man named William Brady.
Dexter
(
Iowa
)
Sentinel
, July 25, 1933.

13.
The meals were purchased from Wilma Blohm at Blohm’s cafe and meat market. Barrow had done this every day since his arrival in the area. Blohm’s did not have facilities for take-out, so the first time Barrow ordered five dinners, Wilma Blohm suggested that she put everything in a large bowl. Thinking Barrow was an out-of-towner visiting someone locally, she believed china and silverware would not be needed. “Oh, no,” said Barrow. “I want china and silverware too!” Puzzled, but compliant, Blohm supplied everything Barrow requested. Each day, the china and silverware were returned by Barrow. “I never lost one piece of silverware,” Blohm later remarked. She also described Barrow as, “not overly friendly, but he was very quiet, very courteous, and very nice-looking!” Blohm interview, May 5, 1983.

14.
Jones said he was the only one to sleep outside, on a car seat that had been pulled from the car. Dallas County Sheriff’s Department, Jones, Voluntary Statement B-71, 15.

15.
Initially, before she was able to apply bandages, Blanche was forced to put her finger in the wound to stop the bleeding. Marie Barrow interview, September 25, 1993; Cumie Barrow, unpublished manuscript.

16.
Jones stated that Buck was never delirious at Dexfield Park. Dallas County Sheriff’s Department, Jones, Voluntary Statement B-71, 15. It appears, however, he was not aware of this episode. He was busying himself with the wieners at the time and would soon be wounded and running for his life. Nevertheless, Buck was in such dire condition that Clyde was prepared to drive him all the way back to their mother in Texas. He and Buck had promised Cumie that if either brother was ever mortally wounded or killed, that the other one would bring him home to her, provided he was able to do so. Fortune,
Fugitives
, 191.

17.
The moment Clyde called out, the shooting started. Witnesses recalled that just before the gunfire erupted one of the lawmen announced himself, saying something to the effect, “This is the law, come out here,” and that this was followed immediately by someone in the camp shouting, “Get the hell out of here, you sons of bitches! We’ll kill you!”
Des Moines Register
, January 22, 1968.

Throughout the night of July 23–24, lawmen had been assembling in the vicinity of the camp. A number of armed men were involved, including Marshal Love, Sheriff Clint Knee of Adel, Deputies Evan Burger and Pat Chase, and
several Des Moines police officers. Apparently, there were quite a few hard-drinking local sight-seers gathered in the woods as well, some accounts listing upwards of fifty people milling about. Piper, video interview,
Remembering Bonnie and Clyde
. Burger and a volunteer, E. A. Place, editor of the local paper, the
Dexter Sentinel
, were posted at the bridge across the South Raccoon River leading to the old park’s north entrance. Eight others were stationed along the wagon trail called Lover’s Lane, and a six-man squad lined up in a draw near the camp. The six men included Love, Knee, and two lawmen from Des Moines–Bill Arthur and C.C. “Rags” Riley. According to Love, it was Arthur and Riley that Clyde Barrow and W. D. Jones first saw approaching on the morning of July 24, 1933. The other four had spread out nearby. The time was 5:15
A.M
.
Dexter
(
Iowa
)
Sentinental
, July 25, 1933; Feller interview, May 5, 1983;
Des Moines Register
, January 22, 1968. Throughout the night, the six men waiting in the draw heard many noises emanating from the camp, pounding and other such sounds. At 1
A.M
. a car started, but no one drove away from the camp. Hutzell and Rupp, “Bonnie and Clyde,” p. 39. Jones stated that he worked that evening removing everything from the damaged Platte City car and transferring it to the freshly stolen car. Jones also removed ammunition from a great many pasteboard boxes and stored it in an old inner tube. He then put the ammunition-laden inner tube behind the seat of the new car and broke down all the boxes, presumably for disposal. This, he said, took quite a while. Dallas County Sheriff’s Department, Jones, Voluntary Statement B-71, 15. It appears Clyde Barrow was preparing to take Buck home to West Dallas. Fortune,
Fugitives
, 190.

18.
Jones stated that he did not have time to straighten up from the campfire before bullets started flying. Jones then jumped up and ran to the car where he was struck by a load of buckshot in the face and chest. Then two slugs hit him, one in the calf of the left leg, the other in the upper right chest. Dallas County Sheriff’s Department, Jones, voluntary statement B-71, 15–16.

19.
Clyde Barrow was apparently struck three times that morning, including a ricocheting bullet which struck him in the head, temporarily stunning him. Jones, “Riding with Bonnie and Clyde,” 165. Clyde also took a slug in the leg and was struck in the arm and shoulder by a charge of buckshot after he got behind the wheel of one of the cars. Dallas County Sheriff’s Department, Jones, Voluntary Statement B-71, 15. The shoulder wound would cause Barrow to drive over a stump left by the WPA timber cutters, disabling the car. Blanche Barrow interview, November 3, 1984. Bonnie Parker was shot twice in the abdomen. Feller interview, May 5, 1983.

20.
The fire from the camp was substantial, but not deadly. C. C. “Rags” Riley was creased on the scalp, sustaining the only injury to any of the officers assembled in the posse.
Dexter
(
Iowa
)
Sentinel
, July 25, 1933. Some felt, probably correctly, that Barrow was shooting over the officers’ heads, hoping to scare them away. Chapler, letter to Sanborn, May 3, 1974. That tactic was often used by Barrow. He and Ralph Fults were notably shooting above the heads of their pursuers in Kaufman County, Texas on April 19, 1932. Legg, letter to
Phillips, September 1, 1982. Evidence of the same is supported in the Dexfield Park incident by the fact that tree limbs as thick as two inches were found littering the position of the six men in the draw. Love described branches falling on him during the battle. Feller interview, May 5, 1983. Others, however, have said that topography played a part in the trajectory of the shots coming from the camp. The camp was located in a low spot below the access road called Lover’s Lane and the six lawmen were positioned across the road in a draw that was also below the road. The gunfire erupting from the camp was evidently aimed in such a way as to clear the grade of the road. In doing so, the shots sailed about ten feet over the officers’ heads. Still, the fire sent everyone, including spectator Kirt Piper, “to the ditches”. Piper, video interview,
Remembering Bonnie and Clyde
, 1994.

21.
At some point during their flight on foot, Buck and Blanche became separated from the others. All five initially struck out in a northeasterly direction, then turned north, following a fence line. But Buck and Banche stopped behind a very large tree that had been felled. Bonnie, Clyde, and W. D. continued north, making it all the way to the bank of the South Raccoon River. There Clyde left Bonnie and W. D. in some underbrush while he tried to cross the bridge guarded by Deputy Burger and E. A. Place. Parker and Jones heard gunfire, then waited so long afterward that they came to think Barrow had been killed, Jones even saying as much to Parker. At that point Parker spoke of suicide. She and Clyde had a suicide pact. Moon and Huddleston, “Bonnie, Clyde, and Me,” unpublished manuscript, 20. But according to one source, Jones talked her out of it. Then within a few moments Barrow appeared. Fortune,
Fugitives
, 196. Parker, however, told her sister a much more chilling version of this story. She said when it looked as though Barrow had been killed or captured, at her request Jones raised his pistol to her head. “W. D. already had the gun to my head—cocked and his finger on the trigger,” she said. Then Barrow suddenly arrived and Jones lowered the weapon. Moon and Huddleston, “Bonnie, Clyde, and Me,” unpublished manuscript, 11.

22.
Though separated, all five fugitives were traveling north along a fence row leading from the draw below the camp. In front of them, after first traversing up a steep hill, then down the other side, was a sheer embankment, portions of which stood sixty-five feet high, overlooking the South Raccoon River. The timber on the hill was second growth, but dense. Feller interview, May 5, 1983. John Love remarked about the problem posed in trying to pursue someone through the terrain. “We weren’t very organized when we went after them,” Love said. “They were up the hill from the park and I’d never really been out there. I thought [Sheriff] Clint Knee was in charge ‘til I found out that he turned it over to the [Iowa] state department. After it was all over, the next day, if someone had yelled ‘scat,’ I’d have probably shot them. That was the way I felt.” Hutzell and Rupp, “Bonnie and Clyde: Hideout in Dexter,” 39.

23.
Recall that Buck Barrow earned his nickname as a child because of his speed afoot. Cumie Barrow, Unpublished manuscript.

24.
Many years later, when asked if she thought Clyde felt guilty about leaving her and Buck in Dexfield Park, Blanche replied, “I don’t know if Clyde felt guilty . . ., but he should not have. We were shot up and holding everyone back.” Blanche Barrow interview, November 3, 1984. Apparently, though, Clyde Barrow
did
feel guilty about leaving Buck and Blanche. Marie Barrow interview, September 25, 1993.

25.
Blanche and Buck had found their way into the park. The old baseball field had once been located in the clearing she describes. Feller interview, May 5, 1983;
Dexter
(
Iowa
)
Sentinel
, July 25, 1933.

26.
By then it was midmorning. Bonnie, Clyde, and W. D. had already crossed the river, hijacked a car, and escaped north. For the full story of their escape, see Phillips,
Running with Bonnie and Clyde
, 145–158. The group approaching Blanche and Buck included Sheriffs Clint Knee and Loren Forbes and Dr. Herschell Keller of Des Moines.
Dexter
(
Iowa
)
Sentinel
, October 5, 1967. The posse tracking Buck and Blanche had been organized at the campsite shortly after the gunfight was over and the fugitives had fled on foot. Sheriff Knee said they had better start looking for bodies in the underbrush, that the fugitives had been hit by gunfire and he needed volunteers from the local spectators milling around. More than one group was organized, including one manned by Kirt Piper and about five others. Piper’s crew ascended the steep hill mentioned by Blanche then began descending “a bank of some distance” before reaching a flat open area, about fifty yards wide between the hill and the South Raccoon River. They had been following heel marks dug deep in the earth. Near the clearing was a very large tree that had been cut down, apparently by the WPA loggers. Piper and the others thought it would have been an excellent place to hide so they all started to approach the felled tree. Suddenly Blanche stood up from behind the tree. Piper said she was wearing “riding breeches, a pair of nice boots, and sun glasses, (and) she didn’t look too clean.” Piper, video interview,
Remembering Bonnie and Clyde
.