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Authors: Blanche Caldwell Barrow,John Neal Phillips

My Life with Bonnie and Clyde

BOOK: My Life with Bonnie and Clyde
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M
Y
L
IFE WITH

Bonnie & Clyde

Blanche Caldwell Barrow

E
DITED BY
J
OHN
N
EAL
P
HILLIPS

F
OREWORD BY
E
STHER
L. W
EISER

U
NIVERSITY OF
O
KLAHOMA
P
RESS
: N
ORMAN

2800 Venture Drive

Norman, Oklahoma 73069

www.oupress.com

Copyright © 1939 by Farrar & Rinehart, Inc. Assigned 1954 to the University of Oklahoma Press, Publishing Division of the University, Norman. All rights reserved. Manufactured in the U.S.A. New edition, 1955.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the United States Copyright Act— without the prior permission of the University of Oklahoma Press.

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, University of Oklahoma Press, 2800 Venture Drive, Norman, Oklahoma 73069 or email
[email protected]
.

ISBN 978-0-8061-3715-5 (paperback : alk. paper)

ISBN 978-0-8061-8677-1 (ebook : mobipocket)

ISBN 978-0-8061-8676-4 (ebook : epub)

This eBook was converted from the original source file by a third-party vendor. Readers who notice any formatting, textual, or readability issues are encouraged to contact the publisher at
[email protected]
.

Contents

List of Illustrations

List of Maps

Foreword, by Esther L. Weiser

Editor’s Preface

Editor’s Introduction

Chronology

1. View from a Cell

2. Marriage

3. Buck Makes a Pardon

4. Joplin

5. Ruston

6. Friction

7. Mother’s Day

8. Florida

9. A Visit with My Father

10. Wellington

11. Fort Smith

12. Platte City

13. Dexfield Park

14. Mob

15. Court

Afterword

Editor’s Conclusion

Appendix A: Reproduction of Two Pages from the Original Manuscript

Appendix B: Blanche’s Letter to Her Father, November 11, 1933

Appendix C: Buck’s Letter Home, January 16, 1930

Appendix D: The Barrow Gang’s Victims

Appendix E: Blanche’s Preliminary Parole Report

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Illustrations

Blanche, as a child, 1914

Buck and Blanche, 1931

Bonnie and Clyde, 1933

Blanche in the Missouri State Penitentiary for Women, 1933

Texas State Penitentiary, Huntsville, Texas, prior to remodeling

Eastham Prison Farm, Camp 1

Eastham dormitory, 2001

Cinderella Beauty Shoppe, Denison, Texas, 1932

Bonnie Parker

W. D. Jones, 1933

Raymond Hamilton

Ralph Fults

Blanche with Snow Ball

Clyde Barrow, 1933

3347½ Oak Ridge, Joplin, Missouri, 1933

Blanche drinking from a flask, 1931

Clyde Barrow, 1933

Constable Wes Harryman and family

Detective Harry McGinnis

W. D. Jones, 1933

First State Bank in Okabena, Minnesota, 1933

Rear of the old First State Bank building, Okabena, Minnesota, 2003

Elvin “Jack” Barrow

Nell Barrow Cowan, Clyde Barrow, Artie Barrow Winkler, 1933

Barrow-Parker family visit, 1934

Blanche in Pensacola, Florida, 1931

Blanche and Buck near Nashville, Tennessee, 1930

Blanche in Mobile, Alabama, 1931

Matthew Caldwell, Blanche’s father

Wrecked car near Wellington, Texas, 1933

Twin Cities Tourist Camp, Fort Smith, Arkansas

Billie Parker Mace, 1934

W. D. Jones, 1933

Blanche on top of car

Marshal Henry D. Humphrey, 1933

Red Crown Cabins, 1933

Red Crown Tavern, 1933

Slim’s Castle, 1933

Sheriff Holt Coffey, 1933

Spectators examining bullet holes, Red Crown Cabins, 1933

Clyde Barrow

“Noah’s Ark,” a covered bridge, 1933

Dexfield Park, 1920s

Bonnie and Clyde

Six-man posse at Dexfield Park, 1933

Blanche being arrested, 1933

Buck Barrow lying amid his captors, 1933

Blanche handcuffed, 1933

Weapons recovered in Dexfield Park, 1933

Blanche after fingerprinting, 1933

Blanche being transferred to Missouri, 1933

Buck Barrow in hospital, 1933

Missouri State Penitentiary for Women

Female defendants, “Barrow-Parker harboring trial,” February 22, 1935

Clarence Coffey

Camp 1, Missouri State Penitentiary for Women

Blanche and Edna Murray

Blanche in prison

Handwritten lyrics to
“Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen”

“White dresses on dark girls”

Postcard of the USS
Arizona

Lillian Pond Horton, Blanche Barrow, and Cumie Barrow

Blanche’s half-sister, Lucinda, 1934

A page from one of Blanche’s scrapbooks

Blanche and her father

Eddie Frasure, 1943

“Scarecrow”

Blanche in downtown Dallas

Matt Caldwell logging near Idabel, Oklahoma, 1906

Eddie and Blanche

Buck Barrow, 1931

Advertisement for
Bonnie and Clyde

Mary O’Dare

Artie and Blanche

Blanche riding her favorite horse

Billie Jean Parker Moon, 1968

Blanche and Esther L. Weiser, 1984

W. D. Jones, 1969

Blanche and ukelele

Blanche and Buck Barrow, 1931

Blanche Caldwell Barrow, 1932

Maps

Blanche Barrow in the United States

Joplin, Missouri

Dallas, 1933

Fort Smith and Alma, Arkansas

Red Crown Tavern and Cabins, Platte City, Missouri

Platte County, Missouri

Dexfield Park, Iowa

Foreword

I
T WAS
D
ECEMBER
1951, just before Christmas. I was having lunch with my friend Ferne at the Federal Square Grill in Grand Rapids, Michigan. We were talking about a doctor’s recent recommendation that my four-year-old son, Jon, who suffered from asthma and was quite frail, might benefit from a move to a dry, warm climate. Ferne had lived in Mexico and recommended the Southwest, specifically Dallas. It was large enough to provide employment, had good medical facilities, and was not “big city,” like Chicago.

However, neither one of us knew anyone in Texas, certainly no one who could provide some kind of emergency support system. I wondered what I should do. I realized I would probably have to wing it on my own and simply trust in the good Lord to provide. I felt like I was about to take a so-called leap of faith. However, the good Lord was not about to wait until I arrived in Dallas before intervening.

At that moment the cafe hostess, Tex, came by the table and said in a lovely, soft, Texas drawl, “Honey, couldn’t help but overhear ya’ll talkin’ ’bout Dallas. Didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but that’s ma hometown. Kin I help?”

After we told her what we planned to do and why, Tex took my hand and led me to a phone near the cash register. Then she placed a call.

“Blanchehoney,” she said, making the two words sound as one. “I have a friend here who needs a friend and a place to stay until she kin get settled in Dallas. She doesn’t know a soul thar. She has a little boy with asthma. The doc wants her to try a dryer, warmer climate. What do you think?” Tex listened a moment, then turned to me.

“Honey, this is Blanche,” she said, nodding toward the phone. “Blanche, this is Esther,” she said. Tex handed me the receiver and stepped aside. That was my introduction to Blanche Barrow. I had no idea who the person was on the other end of the line, just somebody with a big heart named Blanche living in Texas.

Blanche gave me her address and phone number and then said, “Get on that Super Chief and head fer Dallas. Just tell the taxi driver I live in Pleasant Grove.”

Jon and I stayed in Grand Rapids until after Christmas and then left for Texas. In Dallas we took a taxi, just as Blanche suggested. However, finding Pleasant Grove was another story. The driver finally stopped and asked for directions. It was way out in the country at that time. Finally, we found a neat, small white house with flowers around the front stoop and a short concrete walk from the dirt road. It was Blanche’s place.

The change proved beneficial for Jon. He gained ten pounds the first month and suddenly had a lot more energy. I soon found a job and was actually planning to move to Texas permanently later in the year. However, such a move would prove unnecessary. Back in Michigan, Jon’s doctor had become aware of a new drug developed for the treatment of asthma as part of a study by the University of Michigan Hospital. Jon was included in that study and his asthma was brought under control. He could finally tolerate Michigan’s changing weather. So we stayed there.

Blanche and I stayed in touch over the years. Then, when economic circumstances brought me back to Dallas in the 1970s, we renewed our friendship. Initially, however, I had a little trouble locating Blanche because she had moved, apparently rather suddenly, from the Dallas area just about the time I arrived there. I kept calling her, but no one ever answered. Finally, one weekend I decided to find Blanche once and for all. With my trusty Mapsco and a listing from the phone book, I took off in search of her. However, all I found was a vacant lot in a mobile home development. I felt like Sam Spade looking for Brigid O’Shaughnessy in
The Maltese Falcon
. Lucky for me, however, the lady next door happened to come out on her porch to shake some rugs. I went over to talk to her, hoping she might be able to help.

“Blanche moved over a month ago,” the lady said. “But I have her phone number. Come in and we’ll call her.” Those words were music to my ears.

The next thing I knew I was talking to dear Blanche and had directions to her new address near the town of Mabank, southeast of Dallas. With that I was “on the road again.” Soon I was hugging Blanche in the flesh. It was a wonderful day. I found out that Bonnie Parker’s niece, Rhea Leen Linder, had moved both Blanche and Bonnie’s sister, Billie Jean, near Mabank so they could be near her and she could watch over them.

BOOK: My Life with Bonnie and Clyde
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