THIS WEEK IN TEXAS
End of Road for Bonnie, Clyde: America's most wanted couple
BY BARTEE HAILE

Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker may still have believed on May 13, 1934 that they could stay on the run forever, but America's most wanted couple had just ten days of life left in them.

The star-crossed lovers began their romance as teenagers in the crime-infested slums of West Dallas. Their families had fled the grinding poverty of rural Texas for the supposedly greener pastures of the big city only to expose their wild offspring to the temptations of the urban cesspool.

Clyde's passion for cars got him into trouble at 17, when he was booked on the first of many counts of auto theft. Four years later, a Waco judge sentenced the repeat offender to 14 years in the state penitentiary. But while awaiting transfer to Huntsville, he escaped with a pistol smuggled by Bonnie into the county jail.

Clyde was caught in Ohio and returned to Texas, where he started his prison term in April 1930. Hating the manual labor demanded of inmates, he coaxed a fellow convict into chopping off a couple of toes with an ax. Although the intentional amputation kept him out of the hot sun, the maiming left him with a painful and permanent limp.

Clyde's timing could not have been worse because two weeks later he was paroled from the overcrowded penal system after serving less than a seventh of his sentence. Still on crutches, he hobbled out of the Eastham unit near Crockett a free man.

Bonnie, Clyde and Raymond Hamilton, a West Dallas bootlegger, teamed up for a sensational crime spree. The trio played hopscotch across northeastern Texas in the spring of 1932 pulling stick-ups in Dallas, Palestine, Grand Prairie and Willis.

A routine robbery in Hillsboro turned into a homicide when Hamilton's pistol discharged, allegedly by accident, killing the proprietor of a gas station. Although their sidekick had fired the fatal shot, Bonnie and Clyde realized that as accomplices they too were subject to the death penalty. Preferring a barrage of bullets to the electric chair, the pair publicly vowed never to be taken alive and lawmen took them at their word.

Gov. Miriam "Ma" Ferguson pardoned Buck Barrow in March 1933. Over the protests of his wife Blanche, the ex-con immediately visited his baby brother, the foremost fugitive in the Southwest with five murders and a long list of hijackings to this credit. The reunion was held in a rented bungalow in Joplin, Missouri.

Spying a cache of weapons being carted into the dwelling, nervous neighbors notified police, who quickly encircled the suspects. But the element of surprise failed to even the odds for officers badly outgunned by the gang's arsenal of automatic rifles recently stolen from a federal armory. The outlaws shot their way out leaving in their wake two dead policemen.

At Platte City, Iowa on Jul. 19, 1933, the Barrows again eluded capture after a pitched battle with authorities. They did not escape unscathed, however, as Buck sustained two serious head wounds.

Four days later, a hundred-man posse surrounded the Depression desperadoes in a roadside park and a bloody battle ensued. Bonnie and Clyde disappeared on foot into nearby woods, but Buck and Blanche were shot and apprehended. The elder Barrow soon succumbed to multiple gunshot wounds dying just four months after his pardon.

Bonnie and Clyde surfaced in Shreveport on the night of May 19, 1934. They were seen dropping off Henry Methvin, whose family lived in the vicinity. Confident the killers would be back for their partner in crime, several Lone Star lawmen - including Dallas deputies Ted Hinton and Bob Alcorn as well famous former Ranger Frank Hamer - staked out the two-lane road leading to the Methvin farm.

To trick their targets into stopping, the truck belonging to Henry Methvin's father was parked on the shoulder with a tire removed to feign a blowout. The uncooperative owner was chained to a tree to keep him from sounding the alarm.

At 9:15 a.m. on Wed., May 23, 1934, the familiar tan Ford rolled down the country lane toward the ambush. Recognizing the disabled truck on the side of the road, Clyde hit the brakes and came almost to a complete stop a mere 20 feet from the concealed firing squad.

A half dozen high-powered rifles roared in unison perforating the vehicle with more than 150 rounds. Clyde never made a sound, but Bonnie's high-pitched scream could be heard over the deafening sound of the gunfire.

By the time their executioners pried open the doors of the bullet-riddled Ford, Bonnie Parker, 23, and Clyde Barrow, 25, were long gone. It was not a pretty sight. Each had been hit by approximately 50 slugs.

The public enemies were brought back to Dallas for burial but not laid to rest next to each other according to their wishes. After an outof control mob of 20,000 showed up for Bonnie's funeral, Clyde was quietly interred in a separate cemetery.

Bartee Haile welcomes your comments, questions and suggestions at haile@pdq.net or P.O. Box 152, Friendswood, TX 77549. And don't forget to visit www.twith.com!