Renaissance Redneck: Antiheroes — Part III

By DAVID KITTREDGE
By David Kittredge

The infamous bank robbers of the early 1930s Great Depression years were often viewed by the general public as Robin Hood antihero types while these criminals pillaged Midwest America. The populace of rural Middle America had been hit with a double whammy, economic depression and also with the Dust Bowl which started in 1931 and ran through the end of the decade. Their destitution must had led to the way they viewed these miscreants such as John Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd and the Barrow Gang.

I will now continue with the saga of Bonnie and Clyde, the larcenous lovebirds, who had escaped yet another ambush, this time in Iowa, along with sixteen-year-old sidekick, W. D. Jones. The rumored sightings of the Barrow Gang ranged from Colorado to Minnesota and even as far south as Mississippi. But from seemingly out of nowhere, the gang struck the armory in Plattville, Illinois, obtaining the tools of their trade, which included three Browning Automatic Rifles, various handguns, along with oodles of ammunition.

The desperados then returned home to Texas for two reasons, one to have Bonnie’s kinfolk nurse her injured leg back to health, the other to provide Clyde recompense against the Texas penal system. Clyde had vowed five years earlier to engineer a prison break at Eastham Prison Farm, where he had chopped off two of his own toes to avoid a work party. On Jan. 16, 1934, Barrow carried out his five-year dream in the “Eastham Breakout” which embarrassed the state of Texas. As a result, Texas Ranger, Frank Hamer was coaxed out of retirement to hunt the Barrow Gang down.

Frank Hamer was the “Dirty Harry” Callahan of his day. Described as “tall, burley and taciturn.” He bucked against authority, having his own moral code of what he thought as being right. He was credited with 53 kills and had received seventeen wounds in shootouts. Feared by the bad and loved by the good, Hamer was viewed as the quintessential Texas lawman.

Meanwhile, Bonnie and Clyde continued their ruthless crime spree across several states which resulted in the murder of several policemen, including one killed by Bonnie, which was her tragic downfall. She was no longer an esteemed poetic figure in the eyes of the public, she no longer had a chance of clemency under the law, and she now had the proverbial target on her back.

On Feb. 12, 1934, Ranger Frank Hamer started his hunt for the Barrow Gang. Hamer had come to realize that Clyde was a creature of habit in his travels, which Hamer used to his advantage. As the Gang circled the neighboring states of Texas, the lawman kept track of their schedule and movements, which centered on family visits. At one point the tall Texan deduced that the criminals were headed to, recently recruited, Henry Methvin’s parent’s house in Bienville Parish, Louisiana. Methvin’s parental home had been designated as a rendezvous for the gang if they became separated. In a suspicious turn of events, Methvin did become separated from his cohorts in Shreveport. Frank Hamer set up an ambush on the road to the Methvin home where he and his posse waited for two and a half days with Methvin’s father sitting on the side of the road in his truck, as a decoy. Finally, on May 23, they heard Barrow’s Ford V-8, an icon in the hot rod world, rumbling down the road toward them. Clyde slowed when he saw Methvin’s truck when the posse let loose with a hail of bullets that impaled the car, ending the career and lives of Bonnie and Clyde. A total of 130 bullets had struck the car with one third of the rounds striking the bodies. Bonnie’s prophetic poem “The Trails End” had come to full fruition.

Undertaker C. F. “Boots” Bailey claimed that he had trouble embalming the bodies due to the number of bullet holes. Assisting Boots Bailey was undertaker H. D. Darby, whom the Barrow Gang had kidnapped a year before, for protection during a getaway. While Darby was in their custody, Bonnie had laughed when she found out that he was an undertaker, flippantly remarking that perhaps someday he would be working on her. She did have her gifts.

Bonnie and Clyde were initially buried side by side, but the Parker family wouldn’t cotton to that arrangement, and had her moved to another site. Twenty-thousand people attended Bonnie’s funeral, she was surrounded by a sea of flowers, some of which were sent by Pretty Boy Floyd and Public Enemy No. 1, John Dillinger.

A few weeks later, in the summer of 1934, new laws were passed that made kidnapping and bank robbery federal crimes. Also, a novel invention at the time, two-way radios, began to be used in local police cars and by the FBI, making it easier to track criminals as they attempted their getaways. Within the next six months, murderers John Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd, and Babyface Nelson all received their just rewards, by being gunned down by the authorities.