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| May 23, 1934: The bullet-riddled bodies of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow |
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| The bullet-riddled car Bonnie and Clyde were riding in when a posse composed of police officers from Louisiana and Texas, including Texas Ranger Frank Hamer, concealed themselves in bushes along the highway near Sailes, Louisiana. In the early daylight, Bonnie and Clyde appeared in an automobile and when they attempted to drive away, the officers opened fire. Bonnie and Clyde were killed instantly. |
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| 1934 Ford Fordor Deluxe Sedan Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were wanted for the murders of 12 people, including nine law enforcement officers. And they were passing through Topeka, Kansas. It was Sunday, April 29, 1934, and America's deadliest couple drove near the city's eastern edge, seeking to steal a vehicle to replace the beat-up Ford they had been using. They always abandoned their car and stole another when they felt the law was getting too close. Bonnie stood on the running board and looked into cars. She spotted the keys inside a tan 1934 Ford parked in Jesse and Ruth Warren's driveway at 2107 S.E. Gabler. The fast, sleek sedan belonged to the Warrens, but not for long. By the time they got it back, it would have more than 160 bullet holes. |
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| Bonnie and Clyde's identification order The End nears . . . On April 13, 1934, an FBI agent, through investigation in the vicinity of Ruston, Louisiana, obtained information which definitely placed Bonnie and Clyde (in a car stolen in New Orleans) in a remote section southwest of that community. The home of sometime accomplice Henry Methvin and the Methvin was not far away, and the agent learned of visits there by Bonnie and Clyde. Special agents in Texas had learned that Clyde and his companion had been traveling from Texas to Louisiana, occasionally accompanied by Henry Methvin. The FBI and local law enforcement authorities in Louisiana and Texas concentrated on apprehending Bonnie and Clyde, whom they strongly believed to be in the area. To be continued ... |
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| On January 16, 1934, five prisoners, including Raymond Hamilton (who was serving sentences totaling more than 200 years), were liberated from the Eastham State Prison Farm at Waldo, Texas by Clyde Barrow, accompanied by Bonnie Parker. Two guards were shot by the escaping prisoners with automatic pistols, which had been previously concealed in a ditch by Barrow. As the prisoners ran, Barrow covered their retreat with bursts of machine-gun fire. Among the escapees was Henry Methvin of Louisiana whose father, Ivan Methvin, helped arrange Bonnie and Clyde's deaths in 1934 at the hands of a posse headed by Texas lawman Frank Hamer. |
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| On November 22, 1933, a trap was set by the Dallas, Texas, sheriff and his deputies in an attempt to capture Bonnie and Clyde near Grand Prairie, Texas, but the couple escaped the officers' gunfire. They held up an attorney on the highway and took his car, which they abandoned at Miami, Oklahoma. |
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| Red Crown Tavern and Tourist Court Platte County, Missouri Built in 1931 by Parkville, Missouri, banker and developer Emmett Breen at the junction of US 71 and Route 59 (now 1-435), the Red Crown was the site of the July 20, 1933 gun battle between lawmen and outlaws Bonnie and Clyde and three members of their gang. The outlaws made their escape, but would be tracked down and cornered four days later near Dexter, Iowa, and engaged by another posse. Uncharacteristically, Clyde Barrow was looking for a place the gang might hole up for several nights. It was his usual practice to keep moving and never spend more than one night in any given spot, but the previous weeks had been difficult. Bonnie had been badly burned in a car wreck and two gang members had bungled a robbery and killed a town marshal. With the police after them, they needed a place to stay that was out of the way. Unfortunately for the gang, the clerk was suspicious of them from the beginning of their stay, and soon the sheriff and numerous other lawmen descended on the two rooms at the back of the Red Crown. All five members of the gang got away, but not without consequence. Blanche and Buck Barrow got the worst of the shootout: his head wound would prove mortal, and flying glass would leave her blind in her left eye. Buck died in Iowa and Blanche was captured there. As for Bonnie and Clyde and W.D. Jones,they got away again (on foot this time) to rob and fight another day. (The shootout at the Red Crown was depicted in the 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde, though the sign on the motel in the movie reads "Platte City, Iowa," not Missouri.) |
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| On June 10, 1933, Bonnie Parker, Clyde Barrow and W.D. Jones were traveling at a high rate of speed. Seven miles north of Wellington (Texas) Clyde realized too late that the bridge was out and flipped the car into the ravine below. Clyde and W.D. were uninjured and retrieved the weapons from the wreckage. A spark ignited the leaking fuel and started to burn Bonnie, who was pinned underneath the car. W.D. and Clyde heard Bonnie's screams and tried in vain to lift the car up enough to free her. Her face, arms and legs were badly burned before two witnesses to the accident helped lift the car off her. After that Bonnie was always seen being carried around by Clyde.  |
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| Detective Harry L. McGinnis Joplin, Missouri Police Department End of Watch: Thursday, April 13, 1933 Age: 53 Cause of Death: Gunfire Date of Incident: Thursday, April 13, 1933 Weapon Used: Gun; Unknown type Suspect Info: Both shot and killed Detective Harry McGinnis and Newton County Sheriff's Department Constable J. W. Harryman were killed in a gun battle with the notorious outlaw gang led by Bonnie and Clyde. Detective McGinnis, Constable Harryman and several other area officers had gone to their hideout to investigate what they thought were bootleggers. Instead they had stumbled upon Bonnie and Clyde. Both Detective McGinnis and Constable Harryman were shot and killed. |
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| Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker in March 1933, in a photo found by police at the Joplin, Missouri hideout. |
