Okla-homey
5/23/2007, 06:04 AM
Bonnie and Clyde die in cop ambush
http://aycu34.webshots.com/image/17873/2001520314278945172_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001520314278945172)
73 years ago on this day in 1934, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow died in a hail of .45 and 30-06 gunfire out in the Louisiana sticks. Bonnie Parker lived in Oklahoma before she met Clyde Barrow and joined him in blazing a path of crime across the Southwest.
http://aycu38.webshots.com/image/15437/2001567621520676378_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001567621520676378)
Bonnie looks at the camera while Clyde counts the loot
And the bandits' last big crime -- the killing of a constable -- was in Commerce OK, where Parker lived before she moved to Dallas and where she met Barrow at a restaurant where she was a waitress. During the next four years, they killed at least 13 people, mostly cops, and spent a lot of time in Oklahoma either robbing or hiding out.
The criminal careers of Barrow, 25, known as the most dangerous of the public enemies of that era, and Parker, 24, ended May 23, 1934, when they were killed by Texas Rangers and Louisiana law enforcers near Arcadia, La., thanks to a tip from Henry Methvin, the killers' partner in many of their crimes, whom they were supposed to meet at his father's house in Arcadia.
Barrow and Parker were each struck by at least 50 bullets, the Tulsa World reported the next day.
http://aycu21.webshots.com/image/15300/2001580340034852228_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001580340034852228)
The exhibit is located in the rotunda between the Primm Valley Resort & Casino and the Fashion Outlet of Las Vegas
When the shooting began, Barrow kicked open the door of the car the two were in and attempted to fire back but died before he could pull the trigger of his gun. Parker, who had been eating a sandwich, had a machine gun on her lap, but she died before she could point it.
http://aycu40.webshots.com/image/16759/2001526057361910797_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001526057361910797)
Bonnie as dead as Julius Caesar
The cops had been hiding in chigger, mosquito and tick-infested bushes and tall grass for more than seven hours as they waited for Barrow and Parker to drive past in a stolen 1934 Ford V-8. Ivan Methvin, the father of Henry Methvin, was pretending to be fixing a flat tire as the killers drove past. They offered to help him, but he waved them off and signaled to the officers.
As the killers' car approached, an officer ordered them to halt. When the order was not heeded, all six officers opened fire, not stopping until their guns were empty. The officers fired at least 167 bullets, a World story said.
"They gave the bandits the same medicine they had meted out to their victims," the story said.
Officers found several firearms and ammunition in the car along with a saxophone and several sheets of music. Barrow apparently played the sax when he wasn't tinkering with his guns. Their arsenal consisted of two riot guns, three submachine guns, eight automatic pistols, a .38-caliber revolver and 2,000 rounds of ammunition. Officers also found two magazines -- one of detective stories; the other romance stories.
http://aycu34.webshots.com/image/17393/2004154214173658663_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004154214173658663)
The road is still just as deserted as when Bonnie & Clyde were shot. Sight seerers still chip at the monument.
http://aycu18.webshots.com/image/16377/2004111597049834968_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004111597049834968)
Parker was born in Caney, Kan., just north of the Oklahoma-Kansas border, and lived in Commerce OK in her early teens, according to a World story published after she was killed. She was married at age 15 to Roy Thornton, who was sentenced to 60 years in prison for robbery.
When she met Barrow, it was infatuation at first sight, and the two became partners in crime. Shortly after they met, Barrow was sentenced to prison for burglary, but he escaped after Parker smuggled in a gun to him. He was recaptured and sent to prison. Paroled in 1932, he rejoined Parker, and their crime career resumed.
Parker apparently was never in trouble with the law when she lived in Commerce, but the two took advantage of her knowledge of the area and her acquaintance with some of its residents -- and frequently hid out there after committing robberies. They once were found hiding in a vacant house in Vinita after the stolen car they had been using was found abandoned at Commerce.
http://aycu07.webshots.com/image/15206/2004173593668902119_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004173593668902119)
Their last crime, about six weeks before they died, was the killing of Constable Cal Campbell at Commerce OK, where they apparently planned to rob the bank.
Campbell and Commerce Police Chief Percy Boyd had gone to investigate "a carload of drunks" stuck in a ditch west of town. Instead of drunks, they discovered Parker, Barrow and Methvin, who opened fire, killing Campbell and wounding Boyd.
The trio took Boyd captive and brought him along on a foray into Kansas. They bandaged his wounded hand and released him in Fort Scott, Kan.
While Boyd was their captive, Parker indignantly told him that she didn't smoke cigars, as had been widely reported. She said the cigar-smoking story started because a photo of her with a cigar in her mouth was on a roll of film that police had developed after they found it at a Joplin, Mo., hideout the killers had used. Parker told Boyd that the cigar was Barrow's and that she just posed with it as a joke.
http://aycu24.webshots.com/image/16663/2001588693936097990_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001588693936097990)
After the two were slain, authorities towed their car into Arcadia LA with Barrow's head hanging out the driver's side window and Parker's head between her legs, just as she had fallen when she died. While headed to the town in a caravan that had grown to about 150 cars, the wrecker stopped at a country school to let the children get a look.
The bodies were laid out in an embalming parlor in the rear of a furniture store but eventually were rolled out to the sidewalk in front to prevent the store's wares from being scratched by people who wanted to see the bodies.
In return for Methvin's assistance in setting the trap for Parker and Barrow, other states agreed to not prosecute him.
Oklahoma, however, wasn't among them.
Methvin was returned to Miami for trial in Ottawa County for killing Campbell. He was convicted and sentenced to die in the electric chair. The sentence was commuted to life in prison, but Gov. Leon C. Phillips later pardoned Methvin, and he was released. He apparently was never in trouble with the law again, but later died when he was hit by a train.
http://aycu19.webshots.com/image/17658/2001588657348043173_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001588657348043173)
Leon Chase "Red" Phillips was a governor of Oklahoma, he was born December 9, 1890, in Worth County, Missouri, Phillips moved to Oklahoma at an early age. While a student at Epworth University in Oklahoma City, he studied for the ministry, but changed to law and received his LL.B. from the University of Oklahoma in 1916. He was admitted to the State Bar in that year and to practice before the United States Supreme Court later. After service in World War I, he returned to Okemah, where he practiced law. He was a member of the State Legislature from 1933 to 1938; Speaker of the House in 1935; Governor from January 9 1939, to January 11 1943. He was a practicing attorney in his home of Okemah until his death on March 27, 1958. He is buried in Weleetka, Oklahoma.
http://aycu40.webshots.com/image/16759/2001576603335760687_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001576603335760687)
Henry Methvin
A movie about the killers won an Academy Award and helped create a legend about them, but it bore little resemblance to the truth.
The ambush ended a crime spree that Parker and Barrow knew could end in only one way: death.
Parker had written a long poem during the outlaws' last days. It ended with this verse:
Someday they'll go down together
They'll bury them side by side
To few it'll be grief
To the law a relief
But it's death for Bonnie and Clyde.
True to that prediction, Barrow and Parker went down together -- but their bodies were buried in separate cemeteries in Dallas.
http://aycu30.webshots.com/image/15709/2001573907606181732_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001573907606181732)
Bonnie Parker is buried in Dallas's Crown Hill Cemetery
http://aycu29.webshots.com/image/17068/2001581046921148039_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001581046921148039)
Clyde and his brother "Buck" Barrow (who was killed while running with Bonnie and Clyde) are buried in Dallas's Western Heights Cemetery
http://aycu25.webshots.com/image/15384/2001589015816343903_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001589015816343903)
http://aycu34.webshots.com/image/17873/2001520314278945172_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001520314278945172)
73 years ago on this day in 1934, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow died in a hail of .45 and 30-06 gunfire out in the Louisiana sticks. Bonnie Parker lived in Oklahoma before she met Clyde Barrow and joined him in blazing a path of crime across the Southwest.
http://aycu38.webshots.com/image/15437/2001567621520676378_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001567621520676378)
Bonnie looks at the camera while Clyde counts the loot
And the bandits' last big crime -- the killing of a constable -- was in Commerce OK, where Parker lived before she moved to Dallas and where she met Barrow at a restaurant where she was a waitress. During the next four years, they killed at least 13 people, mostly cops, and spent a lot of time in Oklahoma either robbing or hiding out.
The criminal careers of Barrow, 25, known as the most dangerous of the public enemies of that era, and Parker, 24, ended May 23, 1934, when they were killed by Texas Rangers and Louisiana law enforcers near Arcadia, La., thanks to a tip from Henry Methvin, the killers' partner in many of their crimes, whom they were supposed to meet at his father's house in Arcadia.
Barrow and Parker were each struck by at least 50 bullets, the Tulsa World reported the next day.
http://aycu21.webshots.com/image/15300/2001580340034852228_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001580340034852228)
The exhibit is located in the rotunda between the Primm Valley Resort & Casino and the Fashion Outlet of Las Vegas
When the shooting began, Barrow kicked open the door of the car the two were in and attempted to fire back but died before he could pull the trigger of his gun. Parker, who had been eating a sandwich, had a machine gun on her lap, but she died before she could point it.
http://aycu40.webshots.com/image/16759/2001526057361910797_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001526057361910797)
Bonnie as dead as Julius Caesar
The cops had been hiding in chigger, mosquito and tick-infested bushes and tall grass for more than seven hours as they waited for Barrow and Parker to drive past in a stolen 1934 Ford V-8. Ivan Methvin, the father of Henry Methvin, was pretending to be fixing a flat tire as the killers drove past. They offered to help him, but he waved them off and signaled to the officers.
As the killers' car approached, an officer ordered them to halt. When the order was not heeded, all six officers opened fire, not stopping until their guns were empty. The officers fired at least 167 bullets, a World story said.
"They gave the bandits the same medicine they had meted out to their victims," the story said.
Officers found several firearms and ammunition in the car along with a saxophone and several sheets of music. Barrow apparently played the sax when he wasn't tinkering with his guns. Their arsenal consisted of two riot guns, three submachine guns, eight automatic pistols, a .38-caliber revolver and 2,000 rounds of ammunition. Officers also found two magazines -- one of detective stories; the other romance stories.
http://aycu34.webshots.com/image/17393/2004154214173658663_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004154214173658663)
The road is still just as deserted as when Bonnie & Clyde were shot. Sight seerers still chip at the monument.
http://aycu18.webshots.com/image/16377/2004111597049834968_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004111597049834968)
Parker was born in Caney, Kan., just north of the Oklahoma-Kansas border, and lived in Commerce OK in her early teens, according to a World story published after she was killed. She was married at age 15 to Roy Thornton, who was sentenced to 60 years in prison for robbery.
When she met Barrow, it was infatuation at first sight, and the two became partners in crime. Shortly after they met, Barrow was sentenced to prison for burglary, but he escaped after Parker smuggled in a gun to him. He was recaptured and sent to prison. Paroled in 1932, he rejoined Parker, and their crime career resumed.
Parker apparently was never in trouble with the law when she lived in Commerce, but the two took advantage of her knowledge of the area and her acquaintance with some of its residents -- and frequently hid out there after committing robberies. They once were found hiding in a vacant house in Vinita after the stolen car they had been using was found abandoned at Commerce.
http://aycu07.webshots.com/image/15206/2004173593668902119_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004173593668902119)
Their last crime, about six weeks before they died, was the killing of Constable Cal Campbell at Commerce OK, where they apparently planned to rob the bank.
Campbell and Commerce Police Chief Percy Boyd had gone to investigate "a carload of drunks" stuck in a ditch west of town. Instead of drunks, they discovered Parker, Barrow and Methvin, who opened fire, killing Campbell and wounding Boyd.
The trio took Boyd captive and brought him along on a foray into Kansas. They bandaged his wounded hand and released him in Fort Scott, Kan.
While Boyd was their captive, Parker indignantly told him that she didn't smoke cigars, as had been widely reported. She said the cigar-smoking story started because a photo of her with a cigar in her mouth was on a roll of film that police had developed after they found it at a Joplin, Mo., hideout the killers had used. Parker told Boyd that the cigar was Barrow's and that she just posed with it as a joke.
http://aycu24.webshots.com/image/16663/2001588693936097990_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001588693936097990)
After the two were slain, authorities towed their car into Arcadia LA with Barrow's head hanging out the driver's side window and Parker's head between her legs, just as she had fallen when she died. While headed to the town in a caravan that had grown to about 150 cars, the wrecker stopped at a country school to let the children get a look.
The bodies were laid out in an embalming parlor in the rear of a furniture store but eventually were rolled out to the sidewalk in front to prevent the store's wares from being scratched by people who wanted to see the bodies.
In return for Methvin's assistance in setting the trap for Parker and Barrow, other states agreed to not prosecute him.
Oklahoma, however, wasn't among them.
Methvin was returned to Miami for trial in Ottawa County for killing Campbell. He was convicted and sentenced to die in the electric chair. The sentence was commuted to life in prison, but Gov. Leon C. Phillips later pardoned Methvin, and he was released. He apparently was never in trouble with the law again, but later died when he was hit by a train.
http://aycu19.webshots.com/image/17658/2001588657348043173_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001588657348043173)
Leon Chase "Red" Phillips was a governor of Oklahoma, he was born December 9, 1890, in Worth County, Missouri, Phillips moved to Oklahoma at an early age. While a student at Epworth University in Oklahoma City, he studied for the ministry, but changed to law and received his LL.B. from the University of Oklahoma in 1916. He was admitted to the State Bar in that year and to practice before the United States Supreme Court later. After service in World War I, he returned to Okemah, where he practiced law. He was a member of the State Legislature from 1933 to 1938; Speaker of the House in 1935; Governor from January 9 1939, to January 11 1943. He was a practicing attorney in his home of Okemah until his death on March 27, 1958. He is buried in Weleetka, Oklahoma.
http://aycu40.webshots.com/image/16759/2001576603335760687_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001576603335760687)
Henry Methvin
A movie about the killers won an Academy Award and helped create a legend about them, but it bore little resemblance to the truth.
The ambush ended a crime spree that Parker and Barrow knew could end in only one way: death.
Parker had written a long poem during the outlaws' last days. It ended with this verse:
Someday they'll go down together
They'll bury them side by side
To few it'll be grief
To the law a relief
But it's death for Bonnie and Clyde.
True to that prediction, Barrow and Parker went down together -- but their bodies were buried in separate cemeteries in Dallas.
http://aycu30.webshots.com/image/15709/2001573907606181732_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001573907606181732)
Bonnie Parker is buried in Dallas's Crown Hill Cemetery
http://aycu29.webshots.com/image/17068/2001581046921148039_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001581046921148039)
Clyde and his brother "Buck" Barrow (who was killed while running with Bonnie and Clyde) are buried in Dallas's Western Heights Cemetery
http://aycu25.webshots.com/image/15384/2001589015816343903_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2001589015816343903)