My Life with Bonnie and Clyde (3 page)

Spelling is largely phonetic, sentences are lengthy run-ons, paragraphs are virtually non-existent, and while there are a few chapter headings, great long passages remain uncategorized, begging for some manner of separation from the rest of the text. The result is a rambling, at times incoherent record of events written seemingly in a cathartic state by an author wishing to exorcize some manner of demon. Indeed, despite her stated goal of warning others of the pitfalls of her early life, it may be that after writing everything down the author felt she had taken the memoir as far as she needed to and was no longer compelled to publish the work, or to even mention it afterward.

However, in 1984, she was reunited with Ralph Fults after fifty-two years, and finding he was working with me on his own account of Bonnie and Clyde, Blanche dug out her all-but-forgotten memoir and handed it to Esther L. Weiser, asking her to see if anything could be done with it. A short time later, though, the author fell ill and the memoir was once again set aside.

Once the memoir resurfaced and was examined thoroughly, it became evident that a lot of work was needed. To bring the piece to a publishable state would require careful editing. To that end, it was extremely helpful that I had already conducted so much research into the subject and had interviewed Blanche Caldwell Barrow before her death in 1988. This made it so much easier to regularize the text, adding punctuation; creating sentences, paragraphs, and chapters; and generally polishing the original without altering the tone and content of the work. (See Appendix A for a comparison of two original pages with the corresponding finished work.)

Throughout I have annotated the author’s record with notes designed to help the reader understand the context of the events portrayed. Wherever possible, I have given names, dates, and locations in the Notes, along with any other pertinent information.

A number of people and organizations have helped in the development and publication of this important document. I would first like to extend my warmest regards and thanks to Esther L. Weiser, executor of the estate of Blanche Caldwell Barrow, for offering me the chance to work on the manuscript and for believing so wholeheartedly in my ability to do a good job with it. I also thank her for providing the Foreword to this book. I must also thank Lisa Hembry of the Dallas Historical Society who first suggested that I edit and annotate the memoir. I must thank Francis E. Abernethy, Ph.D., legendary Texas Folklore Society editor and all-around piney woods character, for giving me some sage advice with respect to editing this memoir. In addition, I must not forget to mention Kent Biffle of the
Dallas Morning News
, who gave me access to his rare 1969 taped interview with W. D. Jones and an even rarer letter from a former Eastham convict named Sterling Henson. Thanks as well to my longtime friend, author, and archivist parexcellence, Carol Roark of the Dallas Public Library, for helping me sift through the rather substantial holdings of the Texas/Dallas History Archives she oversees at the library’s downtown location. I must also extend a very hearty thanks to James R. Knight for his impeccable new research into the subject of Bonnie and Clyde and for readily sharing it with me. To retired warden Jim Willett, formerly of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Institutional Division, now of the Texas Prison Museum, I wish to express my sincerest thanks for giving me and other historians such unfettered access to the old Walls prison unit, among other places, and for his continuing interest in the truth, whatever it may be. Thanks to L. J. “Boots” Hinton for his wit and friendship and for making his collections available to me. Thanks also to Buddy Barrow for sharing his photo collection and his memories of his stepfather, LC Barrow, and for letting me pick his brain so often about the very detailed research he has done on his family. In addition, to Rhea Leen Linder many thanks for helping me with stories, pictures, and other artifacts related to her aunts, Billie Jean and Bonnie Parker. I should also like to mention my wife, Andre L. Gorzell, and our daughter, Angela Phillips, both of whom have been so supportive of all my projects, including this one. Moreover, I have to offer many thanks, albeit posthumously, to Ralph Fults, who started it all for me; Blanche Caldwell Barrow, who willingly shared her story with me even when it was apparent that doing so was immensely painful; and Marie Barrow, who graciously gave of her time and allowed me unlimited access to family papers, photographs, and other heirlooms, including Cumie Barrow’s unpublished manuscript, in an effort to help resolve the many unanswered questions about her brothers Clyde and Buck Barrow. Also, thanks to John Drayton and Alice Stanton and everyone at the University of Oklahoma Press for their aid and enthusiastic support. Ursula Smith deserves a word of thanks as well, for her excellent copy editing and other suggestions about the manuscript.

Others to acknowledge include: Sergeant Bobby Adams, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Institutional Division, Eastham Unit; Phyllis Adams, Oklahoma Historical Society Newspaper Archives; Frances “Francie” Baber; T. Lindsay Baker; Wilma Blohm; Warden Major David Bone, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Institutional Division, Wynne Unit; Polly Bower, Seneca (Mo.) Branch Library; Charles Brown, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Public Relations Office; Jack L. Burleson, St. John’s (Mo.) Bank and Trust; Linda Childress, Newton County (Mo.) Historical Society; Carolyn Chittendon, Camden County (Mo.) Library; Carolyn Couch, Oklahoma Historical Society Newspaper Archives; Kermit “Curley” Crawford; Christine [
sic
]; Michele DeLeon, Kansas City (Mo.) Public Library; Assistant Warden Joe R. Driskell, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Institutional Division, Eastham Unit; Ola May Earnest, president, Linn County (Kans.) Historical Society Library and Museum; Robert C. Elston; Marvelle Feller; Bob Fischer; Trey Ford; Jimm Foster, Dallas Public Library, Texas/Dallas History Archives Division; Kenneth R. Fults; Ruth Fults; Liz Gaines, the Osborne Association; Michael Glennis, Springfield (Mo.) Library; William Goldman, Hempstead County (Ark.) Genealogical Society; Beverly Grant, Osborne Association; Rob Groman, Amarillo (Tex.) Public Library; Larry Grove; Jeanette Haley, Chandler County (Okla.) Library; Floyd Hamilton; Mildred Hamilton; Sherrie Langston Hardin, Joplin (Mo.) Public Library; Mary Harris, Culver-Union (Ind.) Public Library; Johnny Hayes; Mr. and Mrs. John W. “Preacher” Hays; Betty Hobgood, Swisher County (Tex.) Library; Ken M. Holmes, Jr.; Eloise Horak, Stephenville (Tex.) Public Library; Jim Hounschell, Joplin (Mo.) Historical Society; Janice Hoyt, Pratt (Kans.) Public Library; Mike Hughes; Jack [
sic
]; Lieutenant Lonny Johnson, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Institutional Division, Walls Unit; Sandy Jones; Linda Jorgensen; Norma Kelley, Prague (Okla.) Library; Ellis Kimsey; Shirley Kimsey; Walter M. Legg, Jr.; Charles T. “Tim” Leone; Violet Lierheimer, Audrain County (Mo.) Area Genealogical Society; Warden Charles R. Martin, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Institutional Division, Eastham Unit; James W. “Jim” Martin, clerk of court, Bienville Parish, Louisiana; Brenda Martin-Granstra, Heron Lake (Minn.) Library; Rick Mattix; Cecil Mayes; Pat McConal; Sharol Neely, Local History and Genealogy, Springfield-Greene County (Mo.) Library; Sarah Nyman, Kansas City (Mo.) Public Library; Louise Polly Palmer, Bienville Parish (La.) Library; Dr. Robert Pierce; Teresa Pierce; John Pronk, WFAATV, Dallas; Bruce Quisenberry, Joplin (Mo.) Historical Society; Carroll Rich; James Ritchie,
Celina
(
Tex.
)
Record;
Robert F. Roseborough; Carol Ruckdeschel, Cumberland Island (Ga.) Museum; Robert H. Russell, Jr.; Luke Scoma; William B. Searles; Shauna Smith, History Museum for Springfield-Greene County, Missouri; Renay Stanard; Lieutenant Gene Stewart, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Institutional Division, Walls Unit; Kathleen Stockmier, Irving (Tex.) Community Television Network; LaVerne Taulbee; Carol Taylor, W. Walworth Harrison Public Library, Greenville, Texas; Hilda Terry, Cleveland County (Ark.) Library; Jerry Turner, Texas Prison History Association; Carol Waller,
The Landmark
, Platte City, Iowa; Samantha Warhol, Joplin (Mo.) Public Library; Margaret Waring, Comanche (Tex.) Public Library; Dr. Robert Weesner, Dexter (Iowa) Historical Society; Lee Wilhite, Platte County (Mo.) Historical Society; Alice Withrow, Atoka County (Okla.) Library; and Mike Woltz.

I would also like to thank the following institutions for supplying the many fine photographs and other materials needed to research this subject: Atoka County Library, Atoka, Oklahoma; Barker Texas History Center, Austin, Texas; Barrow Collection; Bienville Parish Courthouse, Arcadia, Louisiana; Bienville Parish Public Library, Arcadia, Louisiana; Bryan County Heritage Association, Calera, Oklahoma;
Celina
(
Tex.
)
Record
Archive; Chickasaw Regional Library, Ardmore, Oklahoma; Crawford Collection; Dallas Historical Society, Dallas, Texas; Dallas Public Library, Texas/Dallas History Archives Division; Denton County Public Library, Denton, Texas;
Des Moines
(
Iowa
)
Register
Photo Archives; Dexter (Iowa) Historical Society; Fairbury (Neb.) Chamber of Commerce; Trey Ford Collection; Fults Collection; Hayes Collection; Hillsboro (Tex.) Public Library; Hinton Collection; Holmes Collection; Houston County Historical Commission, Crockett, Texas; Houston (Tex.) Public Library; Joplin (Mo.) Historical Society; Joplin (Mo.) Public Library; Kaufman County Public Library, Kaufman, Texas; Leone Collection; Lorenzo de Zavalla Library, Austin, Texas; Mayes Collection; McKinney (Tex.) Public Library; Miami (Okla.) Public Library; Missouri Highway Patrol Archives; Moody Ranger Museum, Waco, Texas; Russell Collection; St. Louis County (Mo.) Public Library; Sam Houston State University Library, Huntsville, Texas; Searles Collection; Sherman (Tex.) Public Library; Tarrant County Community College District Library, Northeast Campus, Fort Worth, Texas; Temple (Tex.) Public Library; Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Institutional Division, Eastham Unit, Weldon, Texas; Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Institutional Division, Walls Unit, Huntsville, Texas; Texas Prison History Association; Texas Prison Museum, Huntsville, Texas; U.S. Government Archives, Fort Worth Branch, Fort Worth, Texas; University of North Texas Library, Denton, Texas; W. Walworth Harrison Public Library, Greenville, Texas; Wichita County Public Library, Wichita Falls, Texas.

If I omitted anyone, please forgive me. It was not intentional. I will make it up next time.

Editor’s Introduction

The world was a miserable, wretched place to be in the 1930’s. It was a time when death lurked around every street corner—death which could be as slow as starvation or as quick as a whistling machinegun bullet. . . . [It was a time when] everyone and everything—including the immediate future—was in doubt. . . . While a handful of men were getting rich . . . the average citizen was hard-scrabbling a meager existence [while] the staff of life was being whittled shorter and shorter with every skimpy meal
.

—
Billie Jean Parker Moon, 1975, from “Bonnie, Clyde, and Me”

B
LANCHE
C
ALDWELL
B
ARROW
, the author of the following memoir, came of age during a moment in the history of the United States when a seemingly vital economy suddenly crumbled and in some parts of the country literally disappeared, resulting first in deep recession and ultimately in what is known today as the Great Depression. Her time on the run with the man she is most closely associated with, Buck Barrow, was in part a by-product of the poor economy, but there were other issues as well. Ironically, her weeks as one of the most sought-after fugitives of the 1930s roughly coincided with President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s famous “Hundred Days” that produced a program of legislation designed to bring relief to the average, “hard-scrabbling” citizen described above. Nevertheless, 1933, the year the Barrow brothers shot their way out of police traps from Joplin to Platte City, Missouri, remains one of the most violent of the era. There was a lot of anger. Sometimes it was manifested in hunger protests, bread riots, veterans’ marches, and farm strikes. Sometimes in crime sprees.

Blanche Caldwell, left, age three, pictured with childhood friends Bertha Burr, center, and Vinia Ball, 1914. (Courtesy of Rhea Leen Linder)

Bennie Iva Blanche Caldwell was born New Year’s Day 1911 in Garvin, Oklahoma, between Hugo and Idabel in the far southeastern part of the state. Her father was a forty-year-old farmer and sometime preacher named Matthew Fountain Caldwell. Her mother, Lillian Bell Pond, was sixteen. The only information available about the marriage is that it did not last, that Lillian left, and that Blanche was raised chiefly by her father. And, according to Blanche herself, her father spoiled her.
1

Oklahoma had been a state for less than four years at the time of Blanche Caldwell’s birth, William Howard Taft was president of the United States, and World War I was still three years in the future. In 1911 the very first Chevrolet was manufactured, Standard Oil and American Tobacco were declared monopolies and broken up by the federal government, and Mexican dictator Porfirio Diaz was deposed by revolutionaries. Edith Wharton’s
Ethan Frome
was published that year, baseball great Ty Cobb won his fifth straight batting title, and the very first running of the Indianapolis 500 took place. In addition, in 1911 Marie Curie won an unprecedented second Nobel Prize, European immigration to the United States reached a peak, and the American divorce rate had risen 692 percent in just six years. The latter statistic would directly affect Blanche Caldwell, whose mother divorced and remarried numerous times in her long life, a fact that bothered Blanche more than just a little.
2
On her own, Blanche would part from three husbands, but only one by choice.