The Family Story of Bonnie and Clyde

Table of Contents 

Foreword     9

Acknowledgments     13

Chapter 1 – The Barrow Family     21
Chapter 2 – Clyde     27
Chapter 3 – The Outlaw Gang is Formed     33
Chapter 4 – Bonnie Parker Emerges     37
Chapter 5 – Bars Were Not For the Barrows      41
Chapter 6 – Back to Prison     45
Chapter 7 – The Barrow Gang is Formed     50
Chapter 8 – Beyond Texas and Back Again     59
Chapter 9 – Sometimes Falsely Accused     63
Chapter 10 – On the Run     66
Chapter 11 – Back to the Fold     72
Chapter 12 – Family Bonds     87
Chapter 13 – Bad matters Just Got Worse     90
Chapter 14 – A Bit of Time in Arkansas     96
Chapter 15 – On the Road Again     105
Chapter 16 – The U.S. Government Gets Involved     116
Chapter 17 – Henry Methvin joins the Gang     118
Chapter 18 – The Last Journey Home     130
Chapter 19 – The Stage is Set     131
Chapter 20 – And So It Was Finished     133
Chapter 21 – Whatever Happened to Henry?     143
Epilogue -     145

Bibliography –     147

Index –     151

Clyde

            Clyde Chestnut Barrow, the fifth child of Henry B. Barrow and Cumie T. Walker Barrow, was born March 24, 1909, near Teleco, Texas, some thirty miles southeast of Dallas.  He was often left in the care of his sister, Nell, who was five years older.  The Barrow children were unintentionally neglected by their overworked and tired parents, as were millions of other children at that time.

            Marie Barrow Scoma recalled that the only good times they had as children were on the very few occasions they went to the movies in towns near their campgrounds.  Cyde was thrilled by the adventures of cowboy outlaws on screen and would imagine himself to be Jesse James for weeks after seeing a movie featuring such outlaws.

            The family, following crop harvests, moved frequently, making it difficult to keep any of their children in school very long.  The Barrows often found it necessary to divide up their children and leave them with various relatives in Corsicana, Mabank, Kerens, and other locations throughout Texas while following the harvests.  The Barrows finally moved with their children, to a west Dallas campground.

Back to the Fold

            Detective Harry McGinnis had jumped from the rear seat as the car entered the driveway.  McGinnis had his pistol in hand, but one of the Barrows fired a volley of gunshots that almost severed McGinni’s right arm.  He was also hit with four shotgun blasts in the stomach and left side of his face.   Crouching beside the car, Officer DeGraff fired his revolver at the garage windows repeatedly before running to the apartment’s west wall.

            Missouri State Trooper George Kahler had been alerted to the situation and parked on the west side of the apartment when he arrived at the scene.  Trooper Grammer was with him, and immediately left the police car and ran to the west side of the structure.  Kahler was soon out of the car and ran into the garage as one of the Barrows fired several shots at him before retreating into the building.  Trooper Grammer realized the need for reinforcements, and ran to a neighbor’s residence to call the station for more men.  One of the gunmen suddenly ran out and released the brake on the police car, causing it to coast backwards across the street and away from the garage.

            Clyde, sawed off shotgun in hand, grabbed Bonnie and half dragged her down the stairs to the garage and threw her into the car as Buck followed.  Blanche was not screaming hysterically as she ran from the garage and down the sidewalk chasing her dog to the east.  Clyde smashed the V-8 Ford through the half-open door and across the street into the police car, turned east, and sped toward Main Street, stopping only long enough for Buck to run down the screaming Blanche and put her in the car so they could speed away. 

Henry Methvin Joins the Gang

            As Methvin followed Hamilton, the others also followed.  W. H. Bybee came along.  He was serving a life term.  J.B. French, who had been sentenced to twelve years, also followed, as the area exploded with chaotic gunfire from all directions.  Clyde and Mullin were the first to reach the car, followed by fellow inmates who hoped to find room for themselves in the vehicle.  Clyde quickly took over the situation by ordering four of the men – Palmer, Methvin, French, and Bybee – to crowd into the car’s trunk.  Mullin then moved into the right passenger seat next to Bonnie.  Clyde drove while Hamilton sat on Mullins lap.

            The outlaws sped northwest, following backcountry roads to Dallas.  Clyde stopped their car a few miles after starting, opened the trunk, and, explaining the danger of so many together, divided the party.  French and Bybee were now on their own while Methvin, Hamilton, and Palmer continued on with Bonnie and Clyde, hoping for yet a better day and a new life.

            Realizing that probably every lawman in Texas would soon learn of the escape and Bonnie and Clyde’s participation in it, Clyde decided going north would be foolish.  He immediately turned and headed toward Houston, but they only stayed forty-eight hours before once again heading back toward Dallas.  Hamilton remembered he owed Mullin the $1,000 he promised for his help in the escape, so he made plans to rob the bank in Lancaster, Texas, only a short distance south of Dallas so he could pay his debt. 

            Director of Texas Prisons, Lee Simmons, had learned that Bonnie and Clyde, without any question whatsoever, had been involved in the Texas escape planned out by Raymond Hamilton.  Simmons, like so many others, was determined to somehow bring down the couple.