Bonnie and Clyde, Barrow Gang Dallas Police Department Files

Description

Bonnie and Clyde: A Criminal Chronicle

March 24, 1909: Clyde Chestnut Barrow is born.

October 1, 1910: Bonnie Elizabeth Parker is born.

October 13, 1932: An official “wanted report” is sent out from Abilene, Texas, naming Clyde Barrow for robbing a Piggly Wiggly in Waco. This report also mentions other crimes attributed to the Barrow Gang, including robberies, murders, and assaults, and is one of the first official documents to specifically name Bonnie Parker as an accomplice. Raymond Hamilton is also identified as an accomplice.

Christmas Eve 1932: W.D. Jones is coerced into joining the Barrow Gang by Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow.

June 13, 1933: The San Angelo, Texas Constable’s Department sends a letter to the Dallas, Texas Police Department requesting information about Bonnie and Clyde’s exact names and family relations.

July 18, 1933: Ed Portley, Chief of the Joplin, Missouri Police Department, sends a letter to various Texas Police Departments. He emphasizes the importance of inter-departmental cooperation to capture the gang, noting that two of his officers were murdered by the Barrow Gang. He also mentions the gang killed an officer and raped a lady near Van Buren, Arkansas, and expresses a desire to have rewards changed to “dead or alive.”

Early September 1933: W.D. Jones leaves the Barrow Gang after running with them for approximately eight and a half months.

November 22, 1933: A Dallas sheriff sets a trap near Grand Prairie, Texas, in an attempt to apprehend Bonnie and Clyde, but they manage to escape the gunfire.

January 1934: Raymond Hamilton is involved in the Eastham Prison Breakout.

March 1934 (approximate): W.D. Jones is arrested in Houston, two months after leaving the gang. He is charged and convicted of “murder without malice” and sentenced to a 15-year prison term.

May 14, 1934: Clyde Barrow sends a telegram to Dallas District Attorney King, attempting to disassociate himself from Raymond Hamilton following the Eastham Prison Breakout. A fingerprint is included on the telegram to confirm its authenticity.

May 23, 1934: Bonnie Parker (age 23) and Clyde Barrow (age 25) are ambushed and killed by a six-officer posse from Louisiana and Texas, including Texas Ranger Frank Hamer, near Sailes, Louisiana. They are killed before they can fire a shot. Autopsy reports are later conducted by Dr. J.L. Wade.

Post-May 23, 1934: A funeral home employee describes the post-mortem condition of Bonnie Parker’s body.

Six years after conviction: W.D. Jones is paroled from Huntsville Prison in Texas.

Cast of Characters

• Bonnie Elizabeth Parker: (October 1, 1910 – May 23, 1934) A notorious American criminal who, along with Clyde Barrow, led the infamous Barrow Gang during the Great Depression. She was killed in an ambush by law enforcement in Louisiana.
• Clyde Chestnut Barrow: (March 24, 1909 – May 23, 1934) A notorious American criminal and leader of the Barrow Gang. Responsible for numerous robberies, kidnappings, and murders, he was killed alongside Bonnie Parker in an ambush by law enforcement in Louisiana.
• Raymond Hamilton: An accomplice of Clyde Barrow and member of the Barrow Gang. He is mentioned in early wanted reports and was involved in the Eastham Prison Breakout, leading Clyde to try and disassociate from him.
• W.D. Jones: A member of the Barrow Gang who ran with Clyde and Bonnie from Christmas Eve 1932 to early September 1933. He joined them under duress and later provided a confession to Dallas police detailing his time with the gang. He was arrested, convicted of “murder without malice,” and served six years of a 15-year sentence before being paroled.
• Frank Hamer: A Texas Ranger who was part of the six-officer posse that ambushed and killed Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow in Louisiana on May 23, 1934.
• Ed Portley: Chief of the Joplin, Missouri Police Department in 1933. He advocated for greater inter-departmental cooperation among Texas law enforcement to capture the Barrow Gang after two of his officers were murdered by them.
• DA King: The District Attorney of Dallas, Texas, to whom Clyde Barrow sent a telegram on May 14, 1934, disassociating himself from Raymond Hamilton.
• Dr. J.L. Wade: The coroner of Bienville Parish, Arcadia, Louisiana, who conducted the autopsies on Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow following their deaths.

Bonnie and Clyde, Barrow Gang Dallas Police Department Files

173 pages of Dallas Police Department historical records and files created, collected by, or sent to the Department related to Clyde Barrow, Bonnie Parker, and other members of the Barrow Gang.

The material includes photographs, typescript and handwritten documents, wanted posters, fingerprint cards, memoranda about the activities and whereabouts of members of the Clyde Barrow Gang. While the Dallas County Sherriff’s Department headed the search, the Dallas Police Department provided intelligence on the gang’s movements and associates.

Bonnie and Clyde and their gang are believed to have committed 13 murders, including the killing of nine law enforcement officers. Barrow and Parker never stood trial for the murders, kidnappings, burglaries, and other crimes they were accused of committing, because on May 23, 1934, a posse composed of police officers from Louisiana and Texas, including Texas Ranger Frank Hamer, concealed themselves along a highway near Sailes, Louisiana. Six months earlier on November 22, 1933, a Dallas sheriff set a trap near Grand Prairie, Texas in an attempt to overcome Bonnie and Clyde, but they were able to escape the gunfire. This time Texas and Louisiana law enforcement had more firepower that morning.  The two, Parker age 23 and Barrow age 25, fell for a trap and were ambushed by six officers and killed before ever being able to give off a shot.

Highlights in this collection include:

An October 13, 1932, wanted report sent out of Abilene, Texas. It accuses Clyde with robbing a Piggly Wiggly grocery store in Waco. It includes descriptions of other crimes attributed to the Barrow Gang, including other robberies, murders, and assaults. The report identifies Raymond Hamilton as an accomplice. This is one of the first official documents to by name mention Bonnie Parker as an accomplice.

A letter dated June 13, 1933, from San Angelo, Texas Constable’s Department to the Dallas, Texas Police Department requesting information about Bonnie and Clyde’s exact names and family relations.

A letter dated July 18, 1933, from Ed Portley, chief of the Joplin, Missouri Police Department to several Texas Police Departments. Portley had two of his officers murdered by the Barrow Gang and was writing to police chiefs and sheriffs across Texas calling to their attention the importance of working together to capture the gang.

Portley wrote in part, “We would be thankful to receive from you any ideas or suggestions that you may have that would be a means of aiding or assisting in their capture… The Last we heard of them was when they killed an officer near Van Buren, Ark and also raped a lady in that vicinity… it is for this reason that we believe that something special should be done to secure the capture of these murderers. Any program that might be arranged to that end among the parties interested most, will meet with our approval, we have been trying to see if we can get our rewards changed to ‘dead or alive’ but we can’t make the parties who offered the rewards see like we do.”

Copies of confessions given by W.D. Jones, a member of the Barrow Gang, who ran with Clyde and Parker for eight and a half months, from Christmas Eve 1932 to early September 1933. In the confession he gives an account of his beginnings with the Barrow Gang. In his statement to Dallas police Jones said, “[A]bout two o’clock in the afternoon… I was walking along the road intending to go down to the lake and to go to a dance at the Five Point Dancehall that night. Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow drove up from behind me and stopped. They were in a V8 Coupe… They spoke to me and told me to get in the car and I got in. They asked me if I wanted to go with them, and I told them I did not, and Clyde said I was going anyway, and I did.”

Two months after leaving the gang, Jones was arrested in Houston. Charged and convicted at age 19 of “murder without malice,” he was sentenced to a 15-year prison term. He was paroled after spending six years in Huntsville Prison in Texas.

A telegram sent by Clyde Barrow to the Dallas, Texas District Attorney, on May 14, 1934. Clyde’s long and rambling message to DA King, disassociates himself from Raymond Hamilton after the events of the Eastham Prison Breakout. A fingerprint is on the telegram, “just to let you know thjis (SIC) is on the level,” wrote Barrow.

Coroner reports on Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow from the Office of the Coroner of Bienville Parish Arcadia, Louisiana – Ten pages of handwritten accounting of the autopsies of Bonnie Elizabeth Parker (October 1, 1910 – May 23, 1934) and Clyde Chestnut Barrow (March 24, 1909 – May 23, 1934). The reporting is made by Dr. J.L. Wade, the corner of Bienville Parish.

A letter by a funeral home employee describing the post-mortem condition of Bonnie Parker’s body.