Local historian Rod Stanley brought the 85-year-old legend of Bonnie and Clyde and their bloody crime spree in Dallas County back to life again Saturday in a lecture at the Woodward Public Library.
Stanley, a Dexter native, told about the notorious 1933 shootout at the Dexfield Park north of Dexter and explained how the Barrow gang — Clyde Barrow, Bonnie Parker, Clyde’s older brother Buck Barrow, Buck’s wife Blanche Barrow and the teenaged W. D. Jones — came to spend four or five days camping in the Dexfield Park and making trips in and out of Dexter prior to the gunfight.
The gangsters came to Iowa to lay up and lick their wounds after three of the gang members were hurt in a shoot out in Platte City, Mo., Stanley said. Part of Buck’s skull had been shot away, and his brain was visible. Blanche had glass in her left eye, and Bonnie had third-degree burns from her ankle to her hip, a result of Clyde’s not seeing a Road Closed sign and running off a bridge, which caused the car to catch fire.
Stanley reminded his listeners that the road through Dexter was busy in 1933, and Dexter amazingly had more than 70 businesses along its main street, including a dozen gas stations.
The people of Dexter were used to having lots of strangers in town, although they found it strange that one certain car was always backed into its parking space and always left running.
That car was Clyde’s, Stanley said, and he was in town on a number of errands. He was buying new shirts and other clothing from John Love, who worked as a clerk and shoe-repair person at a local clothing shop. Love was also the town constable.
Clyde was buying aspirin and bandages at the drug store, and he tried to buy morphine by saying he was a veterinarian. He was also buying take-out meals for the gang, blocks of ice and peroxide for Buck’s head wound.
Although notorious nationwide, Clyde went unrecognized among Dexter’s shoppers.
A local farm hand, Henry Nye, came across some bloody bandages and blood-soaked clothing while hunting blackberries near Dexfield Park, but he did not see anyone around. The gang was most likely “car shopping” in Perry at the time — in other words, stealing Ed Stoner’s V-8 Ford — when Nye found the bandages. He called Constable Love, who later spotted the gang through binoculars.
Love then called Dallas County Sheriff Clint Knee, who had already received reports of the Barrow gang in the area. A posse quickly formed.
They suspected it might be the Barrow gang but did not know for sure. The posse approached the campsite at Dexfield Park about 5:30 a.m. and found someone was roasting a hot dog. He or she threw the hot dog into the fire, grabbed a Browning automatic rifle and immediately started shooting above the posse.
A Browning machine gun weighs 18 pounds and has a 20-shot clip that empties in 2-1/2 seconds, Stanley said. It is a military-style weapon that gave the Barrow gang a huge advantage over their pursuers, as did Clyde’s preferred get-away vehicle, a V-8 Ford.
Bonnie, Clyde, Buck and W. D. Jones were all shot that day. Bonnie, Clyde and W.D. escaped through the Feller farm, while Buck and Blanche were captured. Buck was taken to King’s Daughters Hospital in Perry, where he died five days later from pneumonia. Blanche was ultimately sent back to Platte City, Mo., and sentenced to 10 years in prison, serving about five before her release. She later became a beautician and led an honest life.
W.D. Jones stayed with the Barrow Gang for about eight months more. One day Clyde sent him to town to steal a car, but Jones just kept going and never returned.
Legends of the Dexfield Park shootout still circulate locally, and Stanley has collected many of them, such as the story of the Feller farm, when Clyde came to the farm with a .45-caliber pistol and demanded a car.
Bonnie and Jones were already in the back of the Feller’s car, and Clyde took the wheel. Marvelle Feller had to show Clyde how to shift gears. Jones later reported in an interview that Clyde’s pistol was empty.
The Feller car was driven to Polk City and abandoned. Feller had it towed home for $15 and later traded it away in Stuart.
Stanley said Clyde committed his first murder while in prison, killing a man who had molested him. His experiences in prison, with guards who turned a blind eye to such abuses, was what turned Clyde against law enforcement.
Once Clyde left prison and tried to get a job, he was constantly watched and harassed by law enforcement, whom he said would never leave him in peace. He went to Ohio and Michigan to find jobs, but he always missed his family and regularly returned to Texas.
Clyde was fascinated with Jesse James, who was his hero. He didn’t drink or take drugs because he wanted his mind clear. The gang would often steal doctors’ bags out of their cars and treat their own wounds. Clyde lived out of his car and was on the road practically non-stop, travelling from Texas to Canada and from coast to coast.
Both Clyde and his brother L.C. tried to enlist in the U.S. Navy, but the Navy wouldn’t take either of them. Had the Navy admitted them, there might have been no story of Bonnie and Clyde.
