Snapshots of History by Mike Avitt
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I found this booklet while looking for something else, as usual, and I haven’t written about Bonnie and Clyde for awhile, so let’s get on it.
Sharon Becker compiled this booklet (about 36 pages) in 2010 and it was published by Paragon Publishing (Mount Ayr Record-News). The complete title is: The Story of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow (and their Ringgold County connection). Before we get to Sharon’s book, let’s see what the Record-News reported in 1933.
The July 27, 1933 Record-News has a front page story giving a few details of the Barrow Gang’s visit to Ringgold County. The Barrow Gang visited Caledonia Thursday morning, July 20. The gang parked one-fourth mile north of Caledonia and getaway driver W. D. Jones made three trips to the store on foot to obtain food, gasoline and medical supplies. Before the gang left, they made an attempt to burn bloody clothing on the Frank Marsh property. Mr. Marsh discovered the site and reported to Ringgold County Sheriff Leslie Thompson. By the time the Record-News article was written, the Barrow Gang had already had their famous shootout at Dexfield Park, a tourist court between Redfield and Dexter. In this shootout, Bonnie, Clyde and W. D. Jones escaped, but Clyde’s brother Marvin “Buck” Barrow and Marvin’s wife Blanche were captured. Marvin had been mortally wounded at a shootout in Platte City, Mo. on July 19 and he died at a hospital in Perry, Iowa on July 29, 1933. Blanche was also wounded but less seriously.
The Redding Herald of July 27 also had a brief description of the Barrow Gang visit at Caledonia and it was this account that tells us the driver purchased food, gas and bandages on his trips to the store. The Redding article gives about the same info as the Record-News.
On August 3, 1933, the Diagonal Reporter reprinted the Record-News article from July 27. That is all I could find about the Barrow Gang in 1933. There were no follow-up articles.
Sharon’s booklet covers the law enforcement officers involved in the pursuit as well as former members of the Barrow Gang. The booklet contains many low-quality photographs.
Soon after Bonnie, Clyde and Jones escaped the Dexfield Park shootout, Jones went his separate ways. Bonnie and Clyde were gunned down on May 23, 1934 in Bienville Parrish, Louisiana by a posse made up of Texas Rangers. Bonnie was about 24 years of age and Clyde was around 25.
There are many fascinating facts about the Bonnie and Clyde crime spree and one of them surrounds the driver, William Daniel Jones. W. D. Jones was arrested in November 1933 at Houston, Texas. He was convicted of one murder and several lesser charges. He was sentenced to 15 years, but was paroled from the Huntsville Penitentiary after serving only six years. It turns out Jones was not yet 18 years old when he was with the Barrow Gang and therefore received a lenient sentence.
On August 20, 1974, in Houston, W. D. Jones was shot and killed during a confrontation with a private citizen.
There have been other historical booklets produced relating to Ringgold County history. I’m thinking of the Raymond Banner produced, “Civil War Letters Written to Nancy Jane Dewitt.” Shirley Nelson House, a descendant of Nancy Jane DeWitt, provided the letters (18 in number I think) and acted as a co-editor. This booklet came out in 2000 and reproduced letters written to Miss DeWitt, a Ringgold County resident, by Ringgold County men serving in the Union Army. Some of the men wrote multiple letters so it was not 18 different men. With the digitized newspapers, some of those men might turn up in the papers. Maybe I will find my copy while I’m looking for something else.
