The year 1934 was not a good one for gangsters who had been terrorizing the country -- particularly the banks.
It was 75 years ago that Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were gunned down in Gibsland, La. in May; John Dillinger was gunned down by federal agents in Chicago in July; Pretty Boy Floyd was gunned down in East Liverpool, Ohio in October; and Baby Face Nelson was gunned down in November outside of Chicago.
All their deaths greatly relieved everyone who had crossed their paths.
It's Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow who were best known in this part of the country. Clyde, known to his family at "Bud," grew up with his tenant farmer parents at Telico in Ellis County, one of seven children. He spent a lot of those years with his uncle Frank Barrow on a farm near Corsicana. His sister, Nell, bragged that their sister, Artie, was Dallas' first woman barber who moved north to Denison, where she married a newspaper man and opened her own beauty shop.
Stories have been told for years about Clyde Barrow having a relative that he often visited in Denison when he was on the run. Seeing his sister Artie's name in a recently acquired book, "Go Down Together" by Jeff Guinn was a surprise. The newspaper man that she married and the location of the beauty shop that she opened here remain a mystery.
Clyde's family was dirt poor and eventually lived in a shack built in a camp in southwest Dallas where his father was a sort of junk collector. One by one, the children moved to Dallas despite the pleas of their mother Cumie, who wanted very badly for her children to get a high school education. That wasn't to happen.
Four years after the family moved to Dallas in 1922, Clyde was arrested for the first time for auto theft. Next came a series of Dallas-area robberies over a four-year period. In 1930 he met Bonnie Parker and escaped from jail using a handgun that she slipped past the guards. A week later he was caught in Ohio and soon after sentenced to 14 years hard labor in Texas. But in February 1932, he was paroled and over the next two years became the infamous head of a gang of armed robbers that included Bonnie.
Bank robberies and shoot-outs with lawmen during which at least 12 were killed, continued for several years until the Barrow Gang was tracked to a farm in Arcadia, La. and Texas Ranger Frank Hamer arranged a roadside ambush at Gibsland where Bonnie and Clyde, who were traveling alone, were killed in a blast of gunfire.
For several years Bonnie and Clyde's escapades were kept alive on the right side of the law by a group called "Reenactments, Etc.," who did reenactments of early 1930s crime. The late Robert C. Elston was president of the group that broke up after his death in 2004. A smaller group of members from the Metroplex area still goes to Gibsland every year to participate in the Authentic Bonnie & Clyde Festival on the Saturday closest to May 23, the date the desperados were killed in a hail of bullets.
The reenactors began performing first in 1994 at the 60th anniversary of Bonnie and Clyde's deaths, then every year from 1997 to 2004 members went to Gibsland, La. as a part of the festival.
Keith White, a member of the group, said recently that in 1999 Reenactments, Etc., recreated the ambush outside of Denison for the History Channel series, "Tales of the Gun." That was one of the most popular of the entire series. White said the series still is available on DVDs through the History Channel.
From 1990 to 1998 Bob Andrews of Cartwright, Okla. owned the "Bonnie & Clyde" movie death car. At one time the car that had been filled with holes for the Bonnie & Clyde movie was in the Dallas Wax Museum. The museum patched up the holes then shot it up to match the authentic death car. It later burned and Bob bought the hulk and restored it. All the holes were reshot and the car was used by the reenactors in their programs.
Then in 1998 Bob sold the car to Ken Holmes of Dallas and it is now in the Real Crime Museum in Washington, D.C. Oh, yes, it was shot up a third time for display there. The original car in which Bonnie and Clyde were traveling, White said, moves around to different casinos.
Reenactments Etc., also performed other Bonnie and Clyde related TV projects including: in 1991, the Fox Network made-for-TV movie, "Bonnie and Clyde, The True Story;" in 1995 the A&E "Biography," profile of Bonnie and Clyde; and in 1996 the Discovery Channel series, "Rivals," Ted Hinton's pursuit of Bonnie and Clyde.
The year 1934 was a fatal year for prominent criminals beginning with Bonnie and Clyde who went down together during the ambush near Gibsland on May 23.
Two months later Gangster John Herbert Dillinger, 33, who at that time was "public enemy number one," a name given him because of a string of violent bank robberies and prison breaks, was gunned down on July 22 by federal agents near Chicago. He was responsible for the death of several police officers and the robbery of at least two dozen banks and four police stations.
Charles Arthur "Pretty Boy" Floyd, at age 30, was shot to death on Oct. 22 at East Liverpool, Ohio, just south of Clarkson when he emerged from a vehicle and drew a .45 caliber pistol leading FBI agents to open fire. Pretty Boy Floyd also lived a life of crime including murder and bank robbery.
Fourth to go was Lester Joseph Gillis, 25, on Nov. 27. He was better known as Baby Face Nelson, a bank robber and murderer. The "Baby Face" name was given to him because of his youthful appearance and small stature. He had partnered with Dillinger, helping him escape from prison with a wooden pistol. He was responsible for the death of at least three people.
Running a little late and missing the year 1934 as the end of their escapades was Ma Barker and her son Fred, who were killed by agents in a gun battle Jan. 16, 1935. With their deaths, the best known gangsters were all eliminated.
DONNA HUNT is a former editor of The Denison Herald. She lives in Denison and can be contacted at d.hunt_903@yahoo.com.