November 19, 2024 • 29 mins
In the Ambush Museum in Gibson, Louisiana, hangs a copy of a poem written by a woman named Blanche Barrow, and it reads: "Across the fields of yesterday / She sometimes calls to me / A little girl just back from play / the girl I used to be / And yet she smiles so wistfully / once she has crept within I wonder if she hopes to see / the woman I might have been." For four months, Blanche found herself a member of the outlaw Barrow gang – along with the famously known, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. The story of Bonnie and Clyde is woven into American lore; but there was more than one criminal in the Barrow family: Clyde's long-time outlaw older brother Marvin 'Buck' Barrow AND his reluctant-criminal ride-or-die wife, Blanche.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership
with iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
In the Ambush Museum located in Gibson, Louisiana, hangs a
copy of a poem written by a woman named Blanche Barrow,
and it reads quote across the fields of yesterday. She
sometimes calls to me, a little girl just back from play,
the girl I used to be. And yet she smiles
so wistfully once she has crept within. I wonder if
(00:33):
she hopes to see the woman I might have been.
For four months, Blanche found herself a member of the
outlaw Barrow Gang, along with a famously known Bonnie Parker
and Clyde Barrow. The story of Bonnie and Clyde is
woven into American lore, but there was more than one
criminal in the Barrow family. We're talking about Clyde's longtime
(00:56):
outlaw older brother, Marvin Buck Barrow and his reluctant criminal
rider die wife Blanche. Welcome to Criminalia. I'm Maria Tremurky.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
And I'm Holly Frye. Bonnie and Clyde were criminals who
terrorized the Midwest and Southwest regions of the United States
for two years and they were suspected of numerous crimes.
They weren't innocent. Bonnie and Clyde didn't work alone, though,
nor were they the only pair of lovers in the
Barrow Gang. The gang was considered to be violent, and
(01:32):
there's no denying that they were. But really they most
frequently targeted small mom and pop stores and service stations
for quick cash, and they also stole cars. In their
early criminal days, brothers Buck and Clyde got in trouble
for stealing chickens, and then they grew up and became
the central figures of one of the most notorious outlaw
(01:55):
gangs of the nineteen thirties, committing burglary, kidnapping, and murder
During the years the gang was active. Between nineteen thirty
two and nineteen thirty four, they were responsible for twelve murders.
Most of the victims were law enforcement officers who were
trying to apprehend them.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
It was in nineteen thirty two when Bonnie and Clyde
began traveling with a third party, a gunman named Raymond Hamilton.
Hamilton was a violent criminal who, by the time he
was twenty years old, had accumulated sentences adding up to
three hundred and sixty two years in prison. Several months later,
a man named William Daniel W. D. Jones, also known
(02:38):
as Jack Sherman, joined as a gunman. Most stories and
photographs would have you think Bonnie and Clyde were a
glamorous pair, and the emphasis there is on pair, But
the Barrow gang was much bigger than a twosome, and
when Texas Governor maw Ferguson unexpectedly pardoned Buck from the
Texas State Prison in Huntsville in nineteen thirty three, where
(03:01):
he was serving time for burglary, he joined his brother,
and he brought along his new wife, Blanche, that brought
their numbers to five at different times. The gang also
included Henry Methfinn, Joe Palmer, Ralph Foltz, as well as
several other convicts and fugitives picked up along the way.
Sometimes Raymond Hamilton's girlfriend Mary o'dair hung around. Plus, they
(03:26):
had the full support of the Barrow family, especially their
mother Pumey, who not only held their money and bought
them very fashionable clothing, but also was often successful pleading
the court for her son's parole.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Clyde Barrow and his so called cigar smoking mole Bonnie,
and sorry we have to pause for a spoiler here.
We really have to mention that was just an act.
She did not smoke or shoot, and the photos that
they took where she was doing so were meant to
be satirical. The papers just did not get that. Anyway.
They started committing crimes probably in nineteen thirty but they
(04:03):
hit the radar of the Federal Bureau of Investigation at
that time. Just called the Bureau of Investigation in December
of nineteen thirty two, and that wasn't because of a
murder or robbery. It was because of stolen cars. The
first of note was a Ford V eight automobile that
had been stolen in Pahuska, Oklahoma, and was found abandoned
(04:24):
near Jackson, Michigan, in September of that year. There was
no hard proof, but agents were pretty sure it had
been them. Again, at Pahusca, law enforcement agents discovered another
abandoned Ford V eight, this one stolen in Illinois. Left
behind in this second car was evidence an empty prescription bottle,
(04:47):
a bottle that led agents to a pharmacy in Nakadoch's, Texas.
There they learned that it was medication that had been
prescribed for Clyde and Buck's aunt. Authorities now had definitive
evidence that they were dealing with the Barrows.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Five months later, the United States Commissioner at Dallas, Texas
issued a warrant against Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker. Specifically,
they were charged with the interstate transportation of the ford
that had been stolen in Illinois. Agents were now officially
hunting the Barrow Gang. Just about the same time, Blanche
and Buck joined up with the famous outlaws at the
(05:27):
end of March of nineteen thirty three. We are going
to take a break here for a word from our sponsors.
When we're back, we will talk about who Blanche was
and why she stayed with the Barrow Gang.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk about the reluctant outlaw
in this gang, Blant, before we talk about some pretty
gruesome gunfights.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Blanche Barrow was born Benny Iva Caldwell on January first,
nineteen eleven, and a small Oklahoma town, the only child
of Matthew Caldwell and Lilian Pond. Her father made his
living as a logger, farmer, and sometime minister. After her
parents separated, while she was still young. Matthew raised his
daughter and resettled them in the early nineteen twenties to
(06:27):
what was an unincorporated, impoverished farming community known as West Dallas, Texas.
Her estranged mother arranged for Blanche, at age seventeen, to
marry a man named John Calloway, who we know three
things about. One he was much much older than Blanche.
Two he had money and promised to pay Lillian in
(06:50):
exchange for Blanche. And three he was an incredibly violent man.
Blanche later stated, but did not elaborate, that his physical
abuse left her unable to bear children. She was hiding
from him in Dallas when just by pure chance, she
met Buck Barrow and the two immediately fell in love.
(07:14):
As soon as Blanche's divorced from Callaway was finalized, she
and Buck married, and she knew what she was getting into.
Buck was an escaped convict with an extensive criminal past
and two former wives.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Blanche is widely described as a person who stood out.
She was stunning to look at, and she dressed very fashionably.
She always paid for the gang's food and lodging in coins. Only.
Standing out, though, is not in one's favor when you're
an outlaw on the run. It means that you're recognizable to,
(07:50):
for instance, the locals in a town you might be
hiding out in, locals who may give up your location
to the authorities.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Though Blanche did not participate in the gang's violence, she
was present for it for sure. One night in April
of nineteen thirty three, not even a month after Blanche
had joined the Barrow Gang, the group was hiding out
in a remote cabin in Joplin, Missouri, when she heard
something that sounded like, as she described, quote, someone had
(08:19):
turned a machine gun on the place. Buck Clyde and W. D.
Jones exchanged gunfire with law enforcement officers that night. Two officers,
Newton County Constable West Harryman and Joplin City Motor Detective
Harry McGinnis, were killed at the scene. As the gang
drove off. Blanche later wrote that she felt as if
(08:39):
quote all my hopes and dreams were tumbling down around me.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
In addition to those hopes and dreams, two physical things
were left behind. As they fled. The gunfire had startled
Blanche's dog, Snowball, who frightened, as you may imagine, ran
away and in the halo gunfire, Blanche couldn't catch him. Frantic,
she was pulled into Clyde's car and forced to leave
(09:06):
her pup behind. But as she was pulled into that car,
Blanche realized that she had also forgotten a folder of
important papers, important because they included the document confirming Buck's
pardon from Huntsville Penitentiary, as well as their marriage certificate.
She had also accidentally left behind several photos that the
(09:29):
group had taken together, so authorities now had snapshots of
the entire gang.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
About two months later, on June twenty third, Buck and W. D.
Jones killed Marshal Henry Humphrey of Alma, Arkansas, during a
gunfight while the gang was hiding out in a tourist
camp in Fort Smith on the road between Alma and Fayetteville.
Humphrey had located them after a tip from a local farmer.
You see what wemain about the problems of standing out
(09:57):
in Arkansas alone. Their criminals exploits included murder, attempted murder, kidnapping, robbery,
and auto theft.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Clyde and Buck relied on heavy firepower, preferring Browning automatic rifles.
When it came to cars, they primarily stole Ford V
Eights because those vehicles had more horsepower than the local
police cars. Law enforcement might find where the Barrows hit out,
but they were frequently outgunned or outrun.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
When Barrow gang leader Clyde wasn't plotting their next move,
he played cards and drank with the others. Blanche later
wrote that the domestic work, the cooking and cleaning, mostly
fell to her. She wrote of that time, quote, we
laughed about a lot of things we should have taken
more seriously. But no matter how serious or dangerous the
situation was, we always found something to laugh about. Later on,
(10:54):
it always seemed better to laugh than to cry. We
had to laugh to keep from crying.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Blanche forgotten paperwork had been a treasure trow for law
enforcement who needed all of the information about the gang
that they could possibly find in order to apprehend and
convict them. Those papers and those photos, plus a tip
about the license plate on Clyde Barrow's current car, surprise
it was stolen, helped authorities locate the Barrow gang outside
(11:23):
of Platte City, Missouri.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
And there another deadly shootout ensued. In fact, it's been
described by historians as a quote mini war On July twentieth,
nineteen thirty three, dozens of law enforcement officials from agencies
including the US Marshall Service, the Bureau of Investigation, local police,
and county sheriff's officials cornered the Barrow gang. Armed with
(11:49):
Tommy guns and a vehicle fortified with steel plates, they
surrounded a cabin at the Red Crown Tourist Court. Now,
in addition to that forgotten paperwork, it had turned out
unfortunate for the Barrows. They had chosen a hideout where
law enforcement liked to stop for a drink after work
and swap stories. All they had to do was look
(12:11):
up from the bar to find their fugitives, who were
staying in the property's cottages. When the sheriff knocked on
their door, blanchelled out, quote just a minute, a simple
code the Barrows used to alert other gang members in
the hideout that law enforcement had found them. Blanche's role
was often mostly domestic, but it also included standing sentry.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Buck was the first of fire, and during the ambush,
he was shot in the head, a wound that's described
as quote through and through, meaning that the bullet entered
one of his temples and exited the other. He shockingly
did not die at the scene, despite having, as described
by a curator at the Ambush Museum quote, brains coming
(12:54):
out of his head. They acquired some medical supplies, hydrogen peroxide, mainly,
which they poured right into his skull. Of course, they
also dug a grave for him, but Buck lived through
the shootout despite the gravity of his wound, and sometimes
he was even conscious and talkative. Blanche, who would not
(13:16):
leave Buck's side when he was shot, was hit by
flying glass, causing a permanent injury to her left eye.
She dragged him into the getaway car, and the gang,
bloodied and lucky to leave with their lives, fled.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Just days later, on July twenty fourth, in an abandoned
amusement park in Dexter, Iowa, Buck, already very close to death,
was shot six times in the back during another exchange
of gunfire with authorities. Bonnie Clyde and W. D. Jones
were all also wounded, but they escaped. Buck and Blanche
(13:53):
were captured. They never saw each other again. So it's
always a bit dicey to describe a photograph, but one
amazing picture from this scene of Blanche's arrest shows her
a petite woman wearing what many descriptions of her both
then and now call quote stylish, knee high boots and
jobpers a look not normally seen in small town, Iowa
(14:17):
in the nineteen thirties, and a pair of dark sunglasses.
Despite those glasses, the terrified look on her face as
law enforcement officers held her by the arms while Buck
lay on the ground just a few feet away is palpable.
Blanche's eye injury was so severe she believed the flash
from the camera was gunfire.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
We're going to take a break for a word from
our sponsors, and when we return, we'll talk about Blanche's
conviction and her time in prison, including memoirs and letters
that still exist today.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk about Blanche Barrow's time
in prison and how Hollywood then came calling.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
The official Bureau of Investigation report on the Platte City
shootout contains a deathbed interview conducted with Buck Barrow, who,
in addition to the wound to his head, was also
reeling from those additional gunshot wounds to his back. The
agent who interviewed him described him as quote cynical, but
(15:32):
that despite being near death, he was quick to laugh
when talking about the gang's criminal escapades. Buck died at
King's daughter's hospital in Perry, Iowa, on July twenty ninth,
nineteen thirty three, before he could be sentenced. Blanche spent
five nights in jail, not knowing if her husband was
(15:52):
dead or alive.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Blanche also spoke with agents and gave a five page
confession on August sixteenth, nineteen thirty three. When she was arrested,
Bonnie and Clyde were still on the run, and because
of that she endured some really intensive interrogation, including questioning
by Bureau of Investigation Director Jay Edgar Hoover, himself a
sheriff who nearly died at their hands. Sheriff Holt Coffee was,
(16:19):
Blanche later wrote, kind and sympathetic to her during questioning,
refusing to give up information or testify against her husband.
She firmly maintained that she was only affiliated with the
Barrow Gang because her husband was Buck Barrow. She had
seen it as a way to be closer to him. Hoover,
in return, was neither kind nor sympathetic. He allegedly threatened
(16:42):
to gouge out her uninjured eye, and we say allegedly,
but the odds that he actually did say that seem
really good.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Despite her lack of participation in any of the shootouts
and other crimes, Blanche pleaded guilty to the charge of
assault with intent to kill the shit griff, who was
present at the Platte City shooting. She was extradited to
Missouri to stand trial, where she was convicted and sentenced
to ten years in prison. She served just about six.
(17:13):
While incarcerated, she spent much of her time in the
prison hospital undergoing treatments and surgeries to help her injured eye.
But she also became a skilled photographer while she was there,
and she spent time scrapbooking, and it's in prison when
she wrote her memoirs, although they were not published until
after her death.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
She also wrote many upwards of fifty or more letters,
most of them handwritten in pencil, during her time at
the Missouri State Penitentiary. Almost all of them were written
to her mother, and we're lucky to have them still today.
One dated October twelfth, nineteen thirty three, reads quote, the
(17:53):
warden just walked through the kitchen here wanted to know
how I liked my pictures. He had bucks pick enlarged
for me. It looks so sweet. I can't hardly keep
from crying when I look at it. I just can't
seem to ever realize he has gone from this world.
But I love him oh so much, and all I
(18:13):
have left now is the few sweet memories of him,
of the few short years we were together. Oh God,
what I would pay just to be with him again.
But I guess I am cruel wanting him back in
this old world of pain and unhappiness.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
In a letter that she penned to her mother on
November one, nineteen thirty three, we learned that her first husband,
John Callaway, had not disappeared from her life. Quote nothing
hurts me anymore as for my past. I am dead too.
I only want to be free someday to make you
and Dad happy. I guess you knew, John, wrote the
(18:52):
sheriff a few days after I was captured. Well you
can tell him to keep his nose out of my business,
as I do not belong to him any more and
have not for over two years, and do not care
to have him writing about me to anyone, or my darling,
who he never knew and who I never met while
I was with him he has caused me enough trouble
(19:13):
and pain.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Another, this one, undated, reads in part quote, Someday, if
I ever get out of here, I hope to make
yours and Dad's life more pleasant. I love you both dearly,
and were it not for you too, I would have
never given up. I would have died with the one
who meant more to me than anyone else, or rather
(19:36):
could ever want. I love poor little mother Barrow too,
because she was my loved one's mother, and I will
always love her for his sake and just because I
want to.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
Even after she was released from prison, Blanche's memories of
her time with the Barrows lived on. She once said, quote,
I talk of those incidents as if I were not
a part of it, like a character in a book
I once read. It's the only way I keep from
going crazy. Those memories also helped bring the story of
(20:06):
Bonnie and Clyde and the Barrow Gang to Hollywood in
nineteen sixty seven. Blanche was one of, if not the only,
person still alive who had been close to the couple
and had been present for their crimes and debauchery. And
Warren Bady, who went on a star in the film
came calling for her advice and to sign off on
a script. Though Blanche's participation is widely credited with turning
(20:31):
that film into a hit, she also stated that she
actually hated the way she was portrayed in it. Her
exact feelings well. In an interview in nineteen eighty four,
she stated quote that movie made me look like a
screaming horse's ass.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
Blanche frequently made it clear she never wanted to live
a life of crime. She just loved Buck. Whereas Bonnie
was all in, Blanche would have preferred to be all out.
Though their Lloyd's might have made it seem like a
lifetime had passed, Blanche spent only four months as a
(21:06):
reluctant partner in crime, from late March nineteen thirty three
until her capture on July twenty fourth that same year.
Many sources then and today sometimes disagree on the specifics
of the Barrio gang's criminal activities. It's believed they never
netted more than fifteen hundred dollars from any one robbery.
It's also believed that the romantic pairs in the gang
(21:29):
made them more interesting to newspapers than if their pursuits
had been executed. Perhaps by a solo male outlaw. The
women had mystique, and reporters, photographers and readers too couldn't
get enough coverage.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
Blanche's memoir concludes, quote, I hope young women and girls
alike will learn from my story and avoid the pitfalls
that can lead to a life of crime. It's a
game you can't win. After her release from prison, Blanche,
I'm not yet thirty years old at that point, remarried
and lived a quiet life in Dallas, a life very
(22:06):
much the opposite of the notorious Bonnie and Clyde story.
Lanch died from cancer, not gunfire, on December twenty fourth,
nineteen eighty eight. Would you like to make it a
double I sure would, Lance breaks my heart.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
There's a lot of things about Blanche.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
You had mentioned. We talked very briefly before we started recording,
this whole idea of like I know you love him,
but like hello, gunfire, we've all been in love. And
here's my thing. I see so clearly how she went
along with this, because here's the thing. Right, she had
a not great start, right, her mother sold her.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Her whole life.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
I mean, she was essentially sex trafficked by her own mother.
To a person who treated her terribly, and I suspect
that Buck is the first person who ever showed her
complete like no holds, barred, no strings, like just adored
(23:07):
her and made her feel safe in his own way,
loved and special. And so I get it, like that's intoxicating,
and I especially you know, we also talk to you
and I about the fact that she was writing letters
to her mom the whole very werson. Yeah, yeah, And
(23:27):
so I was so struck by the poem that you
mentioned at the very beginning of the episode, and so
I actually am calling this drink the woman I might
have been.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
I loved that poem and I wanted it to be
the first thing that we read about her, because I
think it says more than the entire rest of her
story about who Blanche actually is.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
It really does. And I think too, when you consider
that she was this incredibly put together, in stylish woman,
I think she had an image in her head of
the person she wanted to be, and she was trying
to be it in whatever way she could. And so
I thought, for her drink, what I want to do
(24:12):
is come up with something that is exactly the kind
of thing that a fancy lady would drink that would
become like her signature cocktail that she always turned to.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
I think she would have had a cocktail one hundred
percent absolutely, And.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
So what I ended up doing is kind of a
combo of a French seventy five and a French martini,
which has raspberry and pineapple notes. So a French seventy
five is super easy. It's normally just gin, champagne or
other sparkling, lemon juice, and like a teeny bit of
(24:48):
simple syrup. But for ours, here's what we're doing. We're
going to do it an ounce of gin, a half
ounce of shambour or any other raspberry liqueur, a half
ounce of lemon juice, and then three ounces, no not
three two ounces of your sparkling, So two ounces of
champagne or prosecco or kava or whatever sparkling you like
(25:11):
the best. This you just build it in the glass.
You don't have to put it in a shaker or anything.
You're going to start by putting the lemon juice in,
then your liqueur, then your gin, then your champagne, the
gin in liqueur. You could switch either way, but that way,
like the lemon helps dilute the sweetness of the liqueur
(25:33):
so that the rest mixed together. On when you pour
with the bubbles, you don't. You can give it a
quick stir, but you don't have to do any shaky shaky's.
There's too many bubbles. You'd make a mess, right, right,
So it's a very easy and you want your glass
pre chilled, and obviously you want your your bubbles pre
chilled for sure. If you want to pre chill your gin,
you can if you want to give that a quick
(25:54):
shake or whatever, but really the bubbles will usually take
care of it.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
And that is I say, good for someone like Lan
who doesn't have to carry a shaker around with her
or you know, yes.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
Right, she is a woman on the go. She yeahn't
don't glass back. We don't have time to mess around
with a thing. And you can put that in a
champagne flute or if you want, you can put it
in a coop. But honestly, whatever glass you love is
the right glass. There are reasons that different glass shapes
work for different things. The reason that champagne flutes or
(26:25):
coops get used is like the flute has that minimal
amount of surface area, so your bubbles don't escape as quickly,
but some people don't like that because the bubbles go
up your nose when you sip, and thus the coop.
The coop is the opposite solution, where it's like there's
a wide area, so you're not going to be confined
with your nose to the bubbles, but the bubbles can
(26:47):
dissipaint more quickly. Those are the reasons, but really listen,
if you have a sippy cup with smurfs on it,
that's the right one, although I would suggest glass over
plastic because it can't change the flavor. But I'm just saying.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
Whatever Blanche has in the cabin that they're renting.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
Rights smurfs didn't exist yet. But the mocktail for this
one is super yummy and I really love it. You
are going to do the exact same measures, but instead
of gin, you're going to use tonic, and in this
case you don't have to let it go flat or
encourage it to go flat because everything else is bubbles anyway.
(27:23):
You're right, Yeah, So it's going to be an ounce
of tonic, a half ounce of raspberry syrup, your half
ounce of lemon juice, and then your two ounces will
be not Champagne or Perseco, but instead just ginger ale
and like I always say, do a low sugar if
you want to just kind of feel lighter and not
as heavy. And also sugar gives me headaches now because
(27:44):
I'm a woman of a certain age, abs, so that
is the woman I might have been. And I will
forever toast Blanche because I really my heart breaks for her.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
And this is a story that will stick with me
for sure. We were doing it, but I didn't want
to concentrate on Bonnie and Clyde because Blanche was the
standard here.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
Yeah, and she's one of those people that you just
see so obviously if her life had gone a different way,
she could have been, She could have been, she could
have been anything. So Blanche to you, we drink this,
make it a double cocktail. We hope that you have
enjoyed this story and that you enjoy this drink. If
(28:29):
you make it, we will be here again next week
with more stories and more drinks. Criminalia is a production
(28:54):
of Shondaland Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts
from Shondaland Audio, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,
Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership
with iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
In the Ambush Museum located in Gibson, Louisiana, hangs a
copy of a poem written by a woman named Blanche Barrow,
and it reads quote across the fields of yesterday. She
sometimes calls to me, a little girl just back from play,
the girl I used to be. And yet she smiles
so wistfully once she has crept within. I wonder if
(00:33):
she hopes to see the woman I might have been.
For four months, Blanche found herself a member of the
outlaw Barrow Gang, along with a famously known Bonnie Parker
and Clyde Barrow. The story of Bonnie and Clyde is
woven into American lore, but there was more than one
criminal in the Barrow family. We're talking about Clyde's longtime
(00:56):
outlaw older brother, Marvin Buck Barrow and his reluctant criminal
rider die wife Blanche. Welcome to Criminalia. I'm Maria Tremurky.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
And I'm Holly Frye. Bonnie and Clyde were criminals who
terrorized the Midwest and Southwest regions of the United States
for two years and they were suspected of numerous crimes.
They weren't innocent. Bonnie and Clyde didn't work alone, though,
nor were they the only pair of lovers in the
Barrow Gang. The gang was considered to be violent, and
(01:32):
there's no denying that they were. But really they most
frequently targeted small mom and pop stores and service stations
for quick cash, and they also stole cars. In their
early criminal days, brothers Buck and Clyde got in trouble
for stealing chickens, and then they grew up and became
the central figures of one of the most notorious outlaw
(01:55):
gangs of the nineteen thirties, committing burglary, kidnapping, and murder
During the years the gang was active. Between nineteen thirty
two and nineteen thirty four, they were responsible for twelve murders.
Most of the victims were law enforcement officers who were
trying to apprehend them.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
It was in nineteen thirty two when Bonnie and Clyde
began traveling with a third party, a gunman named Raymond Hamilton.
Hamilton was a violent criminal who, by the time he
was twenty years old, had accumulated sentences adding up to
three hundred and sixty two years in prison. Several months later,
a man named William Daniel W. D. Jones, also known
(02:38):
as Jack Sherman, joined as a gunman. Most stories and
photographs would have you think Bonnie and Clyde were a
glamorous pair, and the emphasis there is on pair, But
the Barrow gang was much bigger than a twosome, and
when Texas Governor maw Ferguson unexpectedly pardoned Buck from the
Texas State Prison in Huntsville in nineteen thirty three, where
(03:01):
he was serving time for burglary, he joined his brother,
and he brought along his new wife, Blanche, that brought
their numbers to five at different times. The gang also
included Henry Methfinn, Joe Palmer, Ralph Foltz, as well as
several other convicts and fugitives picked up along the way.
Sometimes Raymond Hamilton's girlfriend Mary o'dair hung around. Plus, they
(03:26):
had the full support of the Barrow family, especially their
mother Pumey, who not only held their money and bought
them very fashionable clothing, but also was often successful pleading
the court for her son's parole.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Clyde Barrow and his so called cigar smoking mole Bonnie,
and sorry we have to pause for a spoiler here.
We really have to mention that was just an act.
She did not smoke or shoot, and the photos that
they took where she was doing so were meant to
be satirical. The papers just did not get that. Anyway.
They started committing crimes probably in nineteen thirty but they
(04:03):
hit the radar of the Federal Bureau of Investigation at
that time. Just called the Bureau of Investigation in December
of nineteen thirty two, and that wasn't because of a
murder or robbery. It was because of stolen cars. The
first of note was a Ford V eight automobile that
had been stolen in Pahuska, Oklahoma, and was found abandoned
(04:24):
near Jackson, Michigan, in September of that year. There was
no hard proof, but agents were pretty sure it had
been them. Again, at Pahusca, law enforcement agents discovered another
abandoned Ford V eight, this one stolen in Illinois. Left
behind in this second car was evidence an empty prescription bottle,
(04:47):
a bottle that led agents to a pharmacy in Nakadoch's, Texas.
There they learned that it was medication that had been
prescribed for Clyde and Buck's aunt. Authorities now had definitive
evidence that they were dealing with the Barrows.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Five months later, the United States Commissioner at Dallas, Texas
issued a warrant against Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker. Specifically,
they were charged with the interstate transportation of the ford
that had been stolen in Illinois. Agents were now officially
hunting the Barrow Gang. Just about the same time, Blanche
and Buck joined up with the famous outlaws at the
(05:27):
end of March of nineteen thirty three. We are going
to take a break here for a word from our sponsors.
When we're back, we will talk about who Blanche was
and why she stayed with the Barrow Gang.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk about the reluctant outlaw
in this gang, Blant, before we talk about some pretty
gruesome gunfights.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Blanche Barrow was born Benny Iva Caldwell on January first,
nineteen eleven, and a small Oklahoma town, the only child
of Matthew Caldwell and Lilian Pond. Her father made his
living as a logger, farmer, and sometime minister. After her
parents separated, while she was still young. Matthew raised his
daughter and resettled them in the early nineteen twenties to
(06:27):
what was an unincorporated, impoverished farming community known as West Dallas, Texas.
Her estranged mother arranged for Blanche, at age seventeen, to
marry a man named John Calloway, who we know three
things about. One he was much much older than Blanche.
Two he had money and promised to pay Lillian in
(06:50):
exchange for Blanche. And three he was an incredibly violent man.
Blanche later stated, but did not elaborate, that his physical
abuse left her unable to bear children. She was hiding
from him in Dallas when just by pure chance, she
met Buck Barrow and the two immediately fell in love.
(07:14):
As soon as Blanche's divorced from Callaway was finalized, she
and Buck married, and she knew what she was getting into.
Buck was an escaped convict with an extensive criminal past
and two former wives.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Blanche is widely described as a person who stood out.
She was stunning to look at, and she dressed very fashionably.
She always paid for the gang's food and lodging in coins. Only.
Standing out, though, is not in one's favor when you're
an outlaw on the run. It means that you're recognizable to,
(07:50):
for instance, the locals in a town you might be
hiding out in, locals who may give up your location
to the authorities.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Though Blanche did not participate in the gang's violence, she
was present for it for sure. One night in April
of nineteen thirty three, not even a month after Blanche
had joined the Barrow Gang, the group was hiding out
in a remote cabin in Joplin, Missouri, when she heard
something that sounded like, as she described, quote, someone had
(08:19):
turned a machine gun on the place. Buck Clyde and W. D.
Jones exchanged gunfire with law enforcement officers that night. Two officers,
Newton County Constable West Harryman and Joplin City Motor Detective
Harry McGinnis, were killed at the scene. As the gang
drove off. Blanche later wrote that she felt as if
(08:39):
quote all my hopes and dreams were tumbling down around me.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
In addition to those hopes and dreams, two physical things
were left behind. As they fled. The gunfire had startled
Blanche's dog, Snowball, who frightened, as you may imagine, ran
away and in the halo gunfire, Blanche couldn't catch him. Frantic,
she was pulled into Clyde's car and forced to leave
(09:06):
her pup behind. But as she was pulled into that car,
Blanche realized that she had also forgotten a folder of
important papers, important because they included the document confirming Buck's
pardon from Huntsville Penitentiary, as well as their marriage certificate.
She had also accidentally left behind several photos that the
(09:29):
group had taken together, so authorities now had snapshots of
the entire gang.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
About two months later, on June twenty third, Buck and W. D.
Jones killed Marshal Henry Humphrey of Alma, Arkansas, during a
gunfight while the gang was hiding out in a tourist
camp in Fort Smith on the road between Alma and Fayetteville.
Humphrey had located them after a tip from a local farmer.
You see what wemain about the problems of standing out
(09:57):
in Arkansas alone. Their criminals exploits included murder, attempted murder, kidnapping, robbery,
and auto theft.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Clyde and Buck relied on heavy firepower, preferring Browning automatic rifles.
When it came to cars, they primarily stole Ford V
Eights because those vehicles had more horsepower than the local
police cars. Law enforcement might find where the Barrows hit out,
but they were frequently outgunned or outrun.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
When Barrow gang leader Clyde wasn't plotting their next move,
he played cards and drank with the others. Blanche later
wrote that the domestic work, the cooking and cleaning, mostly
fell to her. She wrote of that time, quote, we
laughed about a lot of things we should have taken
more seriously. But no matter how serious or dangerous the
situation was, we always found something to laugh about. Later on,
(10:54):
it always seemed better to laugh than to cry. We
had to laugh to keep from crying.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Blanche forgotten paperwork had been a treasure trow for law
enforcement who needed all of the information about the gang
that they could possibly find in order to apprehend and
convict them. Those papers and those photos, plus a tip
about the license plate on Clyde Barrow's current car, surprise
it was stolen, helped authorities locate the Barrow gang outside
(11:23):
of Platte City, Missouri.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
And there another deadly shootout ensued. In fact, it's been
described by historians as a quote mini war On July twentieth,
nineteen thirty three, dozens of law enforcement officials from agencies
including the US Marshall Service, the Bureau of Investigation, local police,
and county sheriff's officials cornered the Barrow gang. Armed with
(11:49):
Tommy guns and a vehicle fortified with steel plates, they
surrounded a cabin at the Red Crown Tourist Court. Now,
in addition to that forgotten paperwork, it had turned out
unfortunate for the Barrows. They had chosen a hideout where
law enforcement liked to stop for a drink after work
and swap stories. All they had to do was look
(12:11):
up from the bar to find their fugitives, who were
staying in the property's cottages. When the sheriff knocked on
their door, blanchelled out, quote just a minute, a simple
code the Barrows used to alert other gang members in
the hideout that law enforcement had found them. Blanche's role
was often mostly domestic, but it also included standing sentry.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Buck was the first of fire, and during the ambush,
he was shot in the head, a wound that's described
as quote through and through, meaning that the bullet entered
one of his temples and exited the other. He shockingly
did not die at the scene, despite having, as described
by a curator at the Ambush Museum quote, brains coming
(12:54):
out of his head. They acquired some medical supplies, hydrogen peroxide, mainly,
which they poured right into his skull. Of course, they
also dug a grave for him, but Buck lived through
the shootout despite the gravity of his wound, and sometimes
he was even conscious and talkative. Blanche, who would not
(13:16):
leave Buck's side when he was shot, was hit by
flying glass, causing a permanent injury to her left eye.
She dragged him into the getaway car, and the gang,
bloodied and lucky to leave with their lives, fled.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Just days later, on July twenty fourth, in an abandoned
amusement park in Dexter, Iowa, Buck, already very close to death,
was shot six times in the back during another exchange
of gunfire with authorities. Bonnie Clyde and W. D. Jones
were all also wounded, but they escaped. Buck and Blanche
(13:53):
were captured. They never saw each other again. So it's
always a bit dicey to describe a photograph, but one
amazing picture from this scene of Blanche's arrest shows her
a petite woman wearing what many descriptions of her both
then and now call quote stylish, knee high boots and
jobpers a look not normally seen in small town, Iowa
(14:17):
in the nineteen thirties, and a pair of dark sunglasses.
Despite those glasses, the terrified look on her face as
law enforcement officers held her by the arms while Buck
lay on the ground just a few feet away is palpable.
Blanche's eye injury was so severe she believed the flash
from the camera was gunfire.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
We're going to take a break for a word from
our sponsors, and when we return, we'll talk about Blanche's
conviction and her time in prison, including memoirs and letters
that still exist today.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk about Blanche Barrow's time
in prison and how Hollywood then came calling.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
The official Bureau of Investigation report on the Platte City
shootout contains a deathbed interview conducted with Buck Barrow, who,
in addition to the wound to his head, was also
reeling from those additional gunshot wounds to his back. The
agent who interviewed him described him as quote cynical, but
(15:32):
that despite being near death, he was quick to laugh
when talking about the gang's criminal escapades. Buck died at
King's daughter's hospital in Perry, Iowa, on July twenty ninth,
nineteen thirty three, before he could be sentenced. Blanche spent
five nights in jail, not knowing if her husband was
(15:52):
dead or alive.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Blanche also spoke with agents and gave a five page
confession on August sixteenth, nineteen thirty three. When she was arrested,
Bonnie and Clyde were still on the run, and because
of that she endured some really intensive interrogation, including questioning
by Bureau of Investigation Director Jay Edgar Hoover, himself a
sheriff who nearly died at their hands. Sheriff Holt Coffee was,
(16:19):
Blanche later wrote, kind and sympathetic to her during questioning,
refusing to give up information or testify against her husband.
She firmly maintained that she was only affiliated with the
Barrow Gang because her husband was Buck Barrow. She had
seen it as a way to be closer to him. Hoover,
in return, was neither kind nor sympathetic. He allegedly threatened
(16:42):
to gouge out her uninjured eye, and we say allegedly,
but the odds that he actually did say that seem
really good.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Despite her lack of participation in any of the shootouts
and other crimes, Blanche pleaded guilty to the charge of
assault with intent to kill the shit griff, who was
present at the Platte City shooting. She was extradited to
Missouri to stand trial, where she was convicted and sentenced
to ten years in prison. She served just about six.
(17:13):
While incarcerated, she spent much of her time in the
prison hospital undergoing treatments and surgeries to help her injured eye.
But she also became a skilled photographer while she was there,
and she spent time scrapbooking, and it's in prison when
she wrote her memoirs, although they were not published until
after her death.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
She also wrote many upwards of fifty or more letters,
most of them handwritten in pencil, during her time at
the Missouri State Penitentiary. Almost all of them were written
to her mother, and we're lucky to have them still today.
One dated October twelfth, nineteen thirty three, reads quote, the
(17:53):
warden just walked through the kitchen here wanted to know
how I liked my pictures. He had bucks pick enlarged
for me. It looks so sweet. I can't hardly keep
from crying when I look at it. I just can't
seem to ever realize he has gone from this world.
But I love him oh so much, and all I
(18:13):
have left now is the few sweet memories of him,
of the few short years we were together. Oh God,
what I would pay just to be with him again.
But I guess I am cruel wanting him back in
this old world of pain and unhappiness.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
In a letter that she penned to her mother on
November one, nineteen thirty three, we learned that her first husband,
John Callaway, had not disappeared from her life. Quote nothing
hurts me anymore as for my past. I am dead too.
I only want to be free someday to make you
and Dad happy. I guess you knew, John, wrote the
(18:52):
sheriff a few days after I was captured. Well you
can tell him to keep his nose out of my business,
as I do not belong to him any more and
have not for over two years, and do not care
to have him writing about me to anyone, or my darling,
who he never knew and who I never met while
I was with him he has caused me enough trouble
(19:13):
and pain.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Another, this one, undated, reads in part quote, Someday, if
I ever get out of here, I hope to make
yours and Dad's life more pleasant. I love you both dearly,
and were it not for you too, I would have
never given up. I would have died with the one
who meant more to me than anyone else, or rather
(19:36):
could ever want. I love poor little mother Barrow too,
because she was my loved one's mother, and I will
always love her for his sake and just because I
want to.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
Even after she was released from prison, Blanche's memories of
her time with the Barrows lived on. She once said, quote,
I talk of those incidents as if I were not
a part of it, like a character in a book
I once read. It's the only way I keep from
going crazy. Those memories also helped bring the story of
(20:06):
Bonnie and Clyde and the Barrow Gang to Hollywood in
nineteen sixty seven. Blanche was one of, if not the only,
person still alive who had been close to the couple
and had been present for their crimes and debauchery. And
Warren Bady, who went on a star in the film
came calling for her advice and to sign off on
a script. Though Blanche's participation is widely credited with turning
(20:31):
that film into a hit, she also stated that she
actually hated the way she was portrayed in it. Her
exact feelings well. In an interview in nineteen eighty four,
she stated quote that movie made me look like a
screaming horse's ass.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
Blanche frequently made it clear she never wanted to live
a life of crime. She just loved Buck. Whereas Bonnie
was all in, Blanche would have preferred to be all out.
Though their Lloyd's might have made it seem like a
lifetime had passed, Blanche spent only four months as a
(21:06):
reluctant partner in crime, from late March nineteen thirty three
until her capture on July twenty fourth that same year.
Many sources then and today sometimes disagree on the specifics
of the Barrio gang's criminal activities. It's believed they never
netted more than fifteen hundred dollars from any one robbery.
It's also believed that the romantic pairs in the gang
(21:29):
made them more interesting to newspapers than if their pursuits
had been executed. Perhaps by a solo male outlaw. The
women had mystique, and reporters, photographers and readers too couldn't
get enough coverage.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
Blanche's memoir concludes, quote, I hope young women and girls
alike will learn from my story and avoid the pitfalls
that can lead to a life of crime. It's a
game you can't win. After her release from prison, Blanche,
I'm not yet thirty years old at that point, remarried
and lived a quiet life in Dallas, a life very
(22:06):
much the opposite of the notorious Bonnie and Clyde story.
Lanch died from cancer, not gunfire, on December twenty fourth,
nineteen eighty eight. Would you like to make it a
double I sure would, Lance breaks my heart.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
There's a lot of things about Blanche.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
You had mentioned. We talked very briefly before we started recording,
this whole idea of like I know you love him,
but like hello, gunfire, we've all been in love. And
here's my thing. I see so clearly how she went
along with this, because here's the thing. Right, she had
a not great start, right, her mother sold her.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Her whole life.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
I mean, she was essentially sex trafficked by her own mother.
To a person who treated her terribly, and I suspect
that Buck is the first person who ever showed her
complete like no holds, barred, no strings, like just adored
(23:07):
her and made her feel safe in his own way,
loved and special. And so I get it, like that's intoxicating,
and I especially you know, we also talk to you
and I about the fact that she was writing letters
to her mom the whole very werson. Yeah, yeah, And
(23:27):
so I was so struck by the poem that you
mentioned at the very beginning of the episode, and so
I actually am calling this drink the woman I might
have been.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
I loved that poem and I wanted it to be
the first thing that we read about her, because I
think it says more than the entire rest of her
story about who Blanche actually is.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
It really does. And I think too, when you consider
that she was this incredibly put together, in stylish woman,
I think she had an image in her head of
the person she wanted to be, and she was trying
to be it in whatever way she could. And so
I thought, for her drink, what I want to do
(24:12):
is come up with something that is exactly the kind
of thing that a fancy lady would drink that would
become like her signature cocktail that she always turned to.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
I think she would have had a cocktail one hundred
percent absolutely, And.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
So what I ended up doing is kind of a
combo of a French seventy five and a French martini,
which has raspberry and pineapple notes. So a French seventy
five is super easy. It's normally just gin, champagne or
other sparkling, lemon juice, and like a teeny bit of
(24:48):
simple syrup. But for ours, here's what we're doing. We're
going to do it an ounce of gin, a half
ounce of shambour or any other raspberry liqueur, a half
ounce of lemon juice, and then three ounces, no not
three two ounces of your sparkling, So two ounces of
champagne or prosecco or kava or whatever sparkling you like
(25:11):
the best. This you just build it in the glass.
You don't have to put it in a shaker or anything.
You're going to start by putting the lemon juice in,
then your liqueur, then your gin, then your champagne, the
gin in liqueur. You could switch either way, but that way,
like the lemon helps dilute the sweetness of the liqueur
(25:33):
so that the rest mixed together. On when you pour
with the bubbles, you don't. You can give it a
quick stir, but you don't have to do any shaky shaky's.
There's too many bubbles. You'd make a mess, right, right,
So it's a very easy and you want your glass
pre chilled, and obviously you want your your bubbles pre
chilled for sure. If you want to pre chill your gin,
you can if you want to give that a quick
(25:54):
shake or whatever, but really the bubbles will usually take
care of it.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
And that is I say, good for someone like Lan
who doesn't have to carry a shaker around with her
or you know, yes.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
Right, she is a woman on the go. She yeahn't
don't glass back. We don't have time to mess around
with a thing. And you can put that in a
champagne flute or if you want, you can put it
in a coop. But honestly, whatever glass you love is
the right glass. There are reasons that different glass shapes
work for different things. The reason that champagne flutes or
(26:25):
coops get used is like the flute has that minimal
amount of surface area, so your bubbles don't escape as quickly,
but some people don't like that because the bubbles go
up your nose when you sip, and thus the coop.
The coop is the opposite solution, where it's like there's
a wide area, so you're not going to be confined
with your nose to the bubbles, but the bubbles can
(26:47):
dissipaint more quickly. Those are the reasons, but really listen,
if you have a sippy cup with smurfs on it,
that's the right one, although I would suggest glass over
plastic because it can't change the flavor. But I'm just saying.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
Whatever Blanche has in the cabin that they're renting.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
Rights smurfs didn't exist yet. But the mocktail for this
one is super yummy and I really love it. You
are going to do the exact same measures, but instead
of gin, you're going to use tonic, and in this
case you don't have to let it go flat or
encourage it to go flat because everything else is bubbles anyway.
(27:23):
You're right, Yeah, So it's going to be an ounce
of tonic, a half ounce of raspberry syrup, your half
ounce of lemon juice, and then your two ounces will
be not Champagne or Perseco, but instead just ginger ale
and like I always say, do a low sugar if
you want to just kind of feel lighter and not
as heavy. And also sugar gives me headaches now because
(27:44):
I'm a woman of a certain age, abs, so that
is the woman I might have been. And I will
forever toast Blanche because I really my heart breaks for her.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
And this is a story that will stick with me
for sure. We were doing it, but I didn't want
to concentrate on Bonnie and Clyde because Blanche was the
standard here.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
Yeah, and she's one of those people that you just
see so obviously if her life had gone a different way,
she could have been, She could have been, she could
have been anything. So Blanche to you, we drink this,
make it a double cocktail. We hope that you have
enjoyed this story and that you enjoy this drink. If
(28:29):
you make it, we will be here again next week
with more stories and more drinks. Criminalia is a production
(28:54):
of Shondaland Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts
from Shondaland Audio, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,
Hosts And Creators
Holly Frey
Maria Trimarchi
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